Choose a good quality potting mix for your self-watering buckets to produce the highest quality produce. I have added some blood and bone, volcanic rock dust, pearlite and vermiculite.
Where ever you live, just try to find the best quality ingredients to make the best possible potting soil that you can. I have probably gone a bit overboard with this lot, but the results were really good.
It provided the sweetest tasting vegetables that I could have hoped for. As I have said before, just get the best mix you can and enjoy growing your own chemical free food.
If you are using garden soil for your containers, there could be some problems with drainage and aeration. Make sure that you have heaps of organic matter or compost. The container garden soil must be light and fluffy.
Trace Elements
Trace elements are essential for good health. Food commercially grown today is totally lacking in trace elements due to applying only NPK commercial fertilisers.
This volcanic rock contains magnesium, iron, zinc,calcium, manganese, sulphur,copper and more. It also contains the nitrogen, phosphate and potassium.
Best to make sure that your fertilisers are sourced from natural areas. Nature supplies the best nutrients to put into the potting mix for our self-watering buckets.
Blood and bone is a natural by product from meat production and best to make sure that it is sourced from organic grass fed animals as there will be no chemical residues.
This is a slow release fertiliser with similar elements to the volcanic rock dust.
The organic phosphorus and natural potash give extra strength and colour to your plants
These plant boosters give your plants that ongoing supply of nutrients over a period of time.
The premium potting mix for our self-watering buckets that I use contains organic compost, peat and zeolite. It also contains trace elements for a rapid response.
The initial bag also is able to provide a controlled release of nutrients.
I find it necessary to also add perlite and vermiculite to increase aeration and to have the ability to hold more moisture throughout the growing season.
Make sure you reuse the potting mix by emptying it out onto a sheet of plastic and adding more nutrients.
Vermiculite is great for retaining moisture and nutrients. It is a mineral that is mined from rocks and is a great addition to your potting mix.
Perlite is the more porous and tends to allow water to drain much more readily than vermiculite.
Perlite has many cells that hold moisture and makes it available to the plant roots.
My Best Liquid Fertiliser For The Self-Watering Buckets
Seasol is Australia’s top selling liquid seaweed fertiliser.
It is my only liquid fertiliser that I use during the growing season.
AS you can see in the image to the right, it is a super concentrated solution and 500ml makes up 225 litres.
I use it for all my plants. It can be absorbed through the leaves or taken up by the roots. It is loaded with most of the necessary nutrients needed for optimal growth.
My plants just love it!
