I know im doin this arse about face as ive already bought the topsoil ,

but i realised , i dont know wot the difference is between topsoil and compost ?

so i was hopin 1 of you smart ppl would pop in and enlighten me

is there anythin i need to look out for in particular , any peculiarities i should know about?

cheers in advance

its jab loam based topsoil btw , an i will be mixin with coir as i usually do .

mus say it seems a nice fine mix so far , similar consistency to no1 compost .

if this is a silly question , please feel free to have a good giggle

also if this is in the wrong area , sry , im tryin to be as organic as my knowledge allows .

sorry bud... wrong choice... top soil is basically good quality mud like you'd find in your garden. compost is rotted vegetation which acts as a sort of soil replacement. you'd be better off ditching the top soil and getting some good quality compost. be aware though that compost because of what it is contains nutrients in one form or another depending on what you buy. if you are planting seeds/young plants you need a compost for that as too strong will damage or even kill your plants. have a look in the compost section in the grow FAQ...
good luck mate....

i thought loam was topsoil i mix compost loam and coco all togethr and its a top mix the plants seem to love it

Potting compost is an artificial mix of various components that should provide a good medium to grow plants in, ordinary compost is rotted vegetable matter that has an almost soil like composition but is not used for growing plants in directly.

Top soil is basically loam that could be used for indoor growing but is generally thought of as being too heavy for use in pots.

ok thanks for your replys

right so topsoil isnt nutrient rich and tends to settle in pots .

so i might need to use more in the way of nutes to keep plants fed .

and do ya think the coir im using will lighten up the mix enuff ?

1 last thing , ive been using plant magic granules ,

is the top soil/ coir mix gona provide em with the right enviroment for the fungus to work ?

suppose the last q is somethin i should ask on the plant magic section

cheers for the input

Topsoil/loam can be rich or poor in nutrients, it all depends on what's been added and where the original loam came from. As for it being suitable to use with PM's granules, you'll have no problems there. Loam is an ideal medium for them, it's peat based composts they don't like

If push comes to shove: Is there any point at all in using Granules in peat based compost? I've added a wee bit of coco to my organic compost, which consists of 90% peat, 5% composted bark and 5% sand, as well as some chicken manure and dolomite lime and limestone. I've given it a watering (and spray) with some brewed Essence to try to boost the microflora. If there's no point in using Granules in peat compost, me and others like me might as well stop fussing about with it, if peat based compost is all there is to be found. Maybe a coco/worm castings/pre-mix/rock dust mix might be worth a try somewhere down the road, if not just for comparision.

That's a very hard question to answer, I'd guess that it is worthwhile adding them as there are unlikely to be the normal soil microbes in a peat based compost and Granules are specifically formulated to contain a full range of soil bacteria along with Mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma. My assumption would be that in a loam based compost the microorganisms would propagate and spread through the entire rhizosphere whereas in a peat based compost it could be useful to top up the population every time you pot on.

Experimentation is definitely the way forward

Does this imply that growers using inorganic peat compost with BioBizz nutes really don't get the full benefit of the organic liquid nutes? Seing as there's little or no microflora in the compost, my assumption would be that only the parts of the nutes that are immediately available to plants would be used by the plant. I'm just thinking out loud here, so bear with me on this one. I know that this is not an unusual combination (inorganic peat compost with Biobizz nutes) in my part of the world, so it does indeed work. I just started to wonder why it works if there's little or no microflora in the compost. Just curious is all Curiosity may have killed the cat, but in my case it may lead to better bud, so I'm all for it. If experimentation is the name of the game then I'll play it anytime

That's an interesting question boblydan. I asked something similar here: MP Compost, Biobizz and Microherd.... OT1's replies are as usual qute enlightening

I currently use peat based MP with added JI (which should support a good microherd), but have previously grown in a higher peat medium with biobizz nutes and inncoulants with no obvious difficulties.

You'll still get a bacterial population building up, after all very few environments stay sterile for long so within a short space of time you would have a viable population ready to go to work and there will be bacteria and fungi living on the roots of a plant that will spread out into the growing medium, whatever that may be. Given how adaptable nature is it's no surprise that a viable bacterial community will build up even in an environment that is not their natural home, ie a peat based medium.

I'm less of the opinion that peat is totally inimical to a good bacterial population but more thinking it is lacking in essential elements and minerals that they more easily find in loam and the overall chemistry does hinder them to a certain degree. Peat based composts that have some loam added do seem to perform better than their vanilla equivalents, not radically so but I've observed lower rates of infection when using loam.

Good stuff, BluePixie and Felix I've been wondering about this issue for a while, you see, so it's nice with some enlightenment, courtesy of the good folk of UK420