Allotments 4 All

I know there's a current thread on whether or not to put citrus fruit into compost but this may be a rather different aspect. Bearing in mind how hugely expensive bought compost for citrus plants is, how should one go about creating one's own?

I have Kaffir Lime, Lime, Orange and Lemon bushes / trees to repot. Also a Kiwi fruit but not sure if that 's a citrus compost lover.

The mix used by the university of California is considered to be one of the best citrus composts around.
Basically it is 50% peat+50% fine sand with added nutrients and trace elements. Variations replace some of the peat with redwood shavings, perlite or vermiculite.
Have a look at this slideshow for the specifics.
http://ecoport.org/ep?SearchType=slideshowView&slideshowId=82&checkRequired=Y

Thanks for that BaccyMan, very useful.

As it happens I have a very large bag of peat that I've been wondering how to use. It was given to me by a market gardening friend and although I don't really approve I wasn't going to let it go to waste :)

I am somewhat stymied by the macro and micro nutrients.

The three Macro ingredients are Super Phosphate,  MgCO₃ and CaCO₃ - are the latter two Magnesium and Calcium Carbonates?

The are loads of Micro nutrients - would they all be found in normal plant food?

Yes they are Magnesium and Calcium Carbonates but dolomite lime would be a close enough blend of the 2 & easier/cheaper to get hold of so I would be inclined to use that instead.

For the micro nutrients  you have 2 choices either a trace element mix, not cheap but a little goes a long way.

'Chempak Trace Element Mix' looks a good option it contains Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Copper, unchelated Boron and Molybdenum in the following proportions;
Iron 3.35%
Copper 1.7%
Manganese 1.7%
Boron 0.88%
Zinc 0.88%
Molybdenum 0.023%

Alternately you could use rockdust to provide the trace elements, there is a table listing a partial composition of rockdust here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_dust
It looks like it should be suitable & works out cheaper but I suspect the composition is subject to variation as it is not tested like the trace element mixes are.


So you would need super phosphate, dolomite lime & a trace element mix or rockdust to provide the nutrients in the compost.

I know N A Kays sell all of these if you struggle to find any of them.

http://www.kaysdiscountgarden.co.uk/cgi-bin/site-editor.pl/14/-ecommerce?action=item;item=KSINSULPH3;eid=1307431

http://www.kaysdiscountgarden.co.uk/cgi-bin/site-editor.pl/14/-ecommerce?action=item;item=KAYSDOLMITELIME3;eid=1307431

http://www.kaysdiscountgarden.co.uk/cgi-bin/site-editor.pl/14/-ecommerce?action=item;item=TEMIX500;eid=556273

http://www.kaysdiscountgarden.co.uk/cgi-bin/site-editor.pl/14/-ecommerce?action=item;item=ROCK3KG;eid=572922;pid=71743

Thanks again BaccyMan,  that's saved me a hell of a lot of research - I didn;t even know what Dolomite was :)

My lemon tree likes coffee grounds, though it only cost 99p so I was not very worried about it.  Now I have had it more than a year it is about five times the size in the packet, and I am becoming rather attached to it.  When I first got it I did not do enough research and put it in some ordinary compost, so I added some coffee grounds to acid things up a bit, and the little bush took off.

Thanks all for the reminder I put it out in the rain yesterday and now it is getting very cold,