Re: compost secrets

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1998.05.28 at 21:48:17(2205) Dear Robert, Welcome to the group. Re: your querry, there was an article published ( or maybe several!) in the back issues of Aroideana on various "soil" mixes used by Aroid growers. Do you have access to these articles? There should be a complete set at Kew, if not, let me know and I will do a search for you in my set. A question--why is peat (of any and all kinds?) now persona non grata at Kew??? Good growing. Cheers, Julius +More ju-bo@msn.com >Dear All As a new member to Aroid-L newsgroup I thought I'd better introduce myself. My name is Robert Woodman and I work at the Royal Botanic Gardens ,Kew, London in the Tropical Nursery. I am responsible for growing many different plant collections in the nursery but my main responsibility is the development of the Aroid collection. I've been working in this section for a little over a year and a half and have slowly found my feet when it comes to tropical plants. My previous experences have been with hardy plants of the UK and 3 years in the Alpine nursery also at Kew. So as you can imagine it's a whole new ball game for me. This is one of the reasons I'm writing, I'm hoping to find out what compost mixes have worked for you and any cultivation techniques used so that we can improve on what we are already doing. We have played around with different mixes for sometime but due to a conservation policy banning the use of peat products at Kew the alternatives haven't produced the same results as before. If anyone out there is willing to part with their secrets of compost mixes it will be greatfully appreciated. Happy growing. Robert Woodman< Higher Botanical Horticulturist, Tropical Nurseries Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew R.Woodman@lion.rbgkew.org.uk<

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