DIY Potting Soil
For Angel Trumpets
Brugmansia Potting Soil Mix Made Easy with Use of Cement Mixer
Making a special potting soil mix for brugmansia is even easier if you have a stand up model cement mixer. I've saved my back many a time by employing one of these machines to do all the mixing for me, keeping me from the tedious, and back breaking, shoveling. Below are photos of the step by step process.
These are the 5 main things you will need in order to proceed with making a potting soil mix for brugmansia. Not pictured are additives such as sand, bone meal, alfalfa meal, rock dust, lime, cornmeal, rabbit droppings or worm castings, kelp meal, and blood meal. A Feed Store will have these items. The other items can be found at Lowes or Home Depot. I buy the large bag of Osmocote because I make so many mixes, it's cheaper for me.
You really won't have to add sand if your compost already contains it. When opening the compost, grab a handful and run it between your fingers. If you feel the grit of sand, don't add any more.
Next, get a 3 and a half yard capacity electric cement mixer wheeled over to your working area. You will also need a 30 gallon plastic container, used to hold the soil mix when you are finished. Shovel in about 5 heaping shovelfuls of peat. Now add about 2 to 3 shovelfuls of compost, 3 or 4 shovelfuls of perlite, and 6 or 7 heaping tablespoons of Osmocote. Shovel in 2 or 3 scoops of the Pine bark nuggets. Into the drum goes 1 cup bone meal, 1/2 cup of blood meal. Now add 8 cups of rock dust, 2 cups of kelp meal, 2 cups alfalfa meal, and as much worm castings or rabbit droppings as you want, up to 2 gallons.
After you have everything loaded in the Cement mixer, tilt it back upwards so that nothing will spill out. Turn it on, and let it spin. Slowly tilt it downwards until the mixture begins to hit the two mixing blades. Make sure the plastic container is under the mixer, so that anything that might spill out gets caught. You can set your garden hose nozzle to 'Shower' and squirt a little bit of water into the spinning drum to help hold down the dust the peat is going to create. Don't over water it, no more than a half gallon's worth of water will be fine. Stand back, as the peat is dry and can easily get up your nose as the mixture is being dumped. Let the Cement Mixer spin for about 2 minutes before dumping it into the plastic container.
If you really want a fantastic mix, try adding loam to it, at the rate of about 3 gallons to above mix. Humus is also great to add, but hard to find. Add a gallon of that is you have access to it.
That's pretty much it. Now you have a premium brugmansia soil mixture that you can cap up, and place under a large potting table until you are ready to use. The above mix will make about 20 gallons, give or take depending upon how much and how many of the ingredients you had.
I love making my mixes this way. I have an adjustable chair that I place near the plastic container and just scoop out what I need for the smaller pots, or dig into it with a shovel standing over it for the bigger pots.
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