How to Make Potting Mix for Vegetables – a recipe by Whistling Wolf Farm

Last week was the first official photo session for our documentary project about Helen Chandler of Whistling Wolf Farm. Although snow still covers the ground (in fact, it’s snowing hard outside my window as I write this), Helen is already planting for the new season. Last week she whipped up batch after batch of her potting mix and, together with her helper, planted hundreds and hundreds of seeds.

If you’d like to know how to make soilless potting mix, here’s Helen’s recipe:

1. Fill a large container (such as a cooler box, as shown here) with one large bucket of compost. Break up any clumps.

2. Add one large bucket peat moss.

3. Add one large bucket perlite.

4. Now it’s time to add more nutrients. Add one jar of bone char, then a jar of blood meal, and finally a jar of lime to the measuring bucket.

6. Add the blood meal, bone char, and lime to the peat moss/perlite/compost mix.

7. Add a bucket of water.

8. Stir together thoroughly (you can do it by hand, like Helen does, or you can use a shovel or other implement).

9. Now fill your seed flats with the potting mix and you are ready to plant!

Stay tuned for our next blog post about the Whistling Wolf project, when we’ll show you what Helen planted.