HustleRussell
Seedling
Good evening all, first post here!
Inspired by YouTube videos, I’m having a crack at a low tech planted bowl.
I’m I think the soil in my area should be quite suitable and I fancy the idea of it so I’m approaching it as a bit of an experiment (but one which I hope will have a reasonable chance of success).
I am going to cap it with Tropica soil powder. I realise this is designed to be a stand-alone substrate but what I am hoping is that garden soil used in moderation will make my bowl nutrient rich from the start and will reduce the emphasis on supplementary fertilisation (which I want to reduce as far as possible).
I have washed a batch of topsoil in aquarium water, screening out large organics, and left the soil out to ‘dry’. Originally this was stage 1 of the ‘mineralisation’ process which I read on Aquarium Plant Central, but UK March weather is not conducive to several cycles of wetting and drying so I am thinking of leaving it at that- more of a ‘clean’ and ‘coarse screen’.
My query is that the resulting mud, before drying, was a silty slurry with a very close texture, and while plant roots will probably love it, I am concerned that;
-without organics or a ‘filler’ material it may be too close for the circulation of metabolic products
and
-the tiny particle size may make excessive clouding a big problem despite a 20-30mm cap?
I will set up a journal to show everybody how I get on but before I actually put it together I’d like to welcome opinions on the above?
cheers
Inspired by YouTube videos, I’m having a crack at a low tech planted bowl.
I’m I think the soil in my area should be quite suitable and I fancy the idea of it so I’m approaching it as a bit of an experiment (but one which I hope will have a reasonable chance of success).
I am going to cap it with Tropica soil powder. I realise this is designed to be a stand-alone substrate but what I am hoping is that garden soil used in moderation will make my bowl nutrient rich from the start and will reduce the emphasis on supplementary fertilisation (which I want to reduce as far as possible).
I have washed a batch of topsoil in aquarium water, screening out large organics, and left the soil out to ‘dry’. Originally this was stage 1 of the ‘mineralisation’ process which I read on Aquarium Plant Central, but UK March weather is not conducive to several cycles of wetting and drying so I am thinking of leaving it at that- more of a ‘clean’ and ‘coarse screen’.
My query is that the resulting mud, before drying, was a silty slurry with a very close texture, and while plant roots will probably love it, I am concerned that;
-without organics or a ‘filler’ material it may be too close for the circulation of metabolic products
and
-the tiny particle size may make excessive clouding a big problem despite a 20-30mm cap?
I will set up a journal to show everybody how I get on but before I actually put it together I’d like to welcome opinions on the above?
cheers