I've got a bunch of monkey puzzler
trees coming up in 1 liter plastic bottles with their tops cut off and holes punched in the side. I have a huge collection of twice used (first for soda (from a friend-- I don't drink it!) or mineral
water, then
milk from the automat) 1.5 and 2 liter bottles that I want to use for starting oaks, apples (forgot the variety name, but it is that polish one that grows true from
seed),
hickory, and some other trees from seed.
The materials I have available are: clay soil from the
garden (this is actually blackish), clay subsoil from elsewhere (brown-orange, heavy, nearly pure clay), perlite, and peat moss. The monkey puzzler trees are coming up in potting block mix, which is clay garden soil, perlite and peat moss, just by default of having extra when I planted them last summer.
I wonder if there is any advantage to leaving out the clay soil and just having peat moss and perlite (with some crushed lime stone added to neutralize the peat moss)?
I need to get my act together and plant the seeds this week, before things freeze again, then I'll leave them in an improvised cold frame outside for the winter.