It still takes shovel work, but it's not hard to get the peat wet if you do it by the numbers. You simply haven't been taught the correct way to do it.
If you have, or can source the same components I use, I could walk you through enough mix for 2 of those 8gal pots and get a taste of how a solid base mix performs.
You would need:
5 gallons of expanded peat moss with nothing added, just pure peat moss
5 to 6 gallons of regular perlite
one bag of pine bark mulch (a 2cf bag is ~$2.50 at HD or Lowes)
dolomite lime A small bag will do, but is usually more expensive than the 40# bag (~$4.50)
Your own fresh VC
That's it for the base mix. Pretty simple, eh?
For the N-P-K
I use bone meal for the P
Kelp meal for K
The N varies. neem, alfalfa, soy meal, etc. Can be a single ingredient or a blend of several. The N source is the only thing that gets changed around, The bone meal and kelp meal stay the same.
For rock dust, 2 cups would be enough for the entire batch
That's pretty much it. You want to avoid greensand, that's Ok, the rock dust will suffice.
The other stuff is a must, simply because I know how it will perform and I'm not going to try and guess with an ingredient I have no experience with. You can see for yourself how that works out.
Let me know if you're interested.
Wet
