Don't do it. It will make an impenetrable layer in the bottom of the pot. That will defeat the main purpose of a potting mix - good drainage.

In general, do not use soil in your pots. Use a potting mix. In-ground and in-pot environments are very different. What works well in one does not necessarily work well in the other.

If you can't spend the money for commercial mixes, you might consider making your own. Check the Container forum, or search here, for discussion of "5-1-1" or "gritty mix".

Dennis

P.S. Composting is a good idea, but you won't produce a usable compost in a winter, or even in a year. But might as well get started.

I have to second DMForcier, no soil in pots.

I also DITOO what Dennis said.
Other thing is, it is not a wise thing to fill up pots at this time.
Third thing (my opinion) 15 gallon of soil for any pepper is just wasteful. @ $13 per 1.5 cu-ft of your favorite potting soil, it would hardly fill a 15 gallon pot.
The 15 gall. pots might be good for a tomato plant (on the up side) but not necessary for a single pepper plant. I would plant 3 in each of those pots.

Seysonn

Well, you like little pots. Some peppers like really big pots.

But you have a point. For many peppers and in northern climate zones, 15 gal pots may be just too big.

Dennis

Thanks for the input.
I looked up making a potting mix and I'm not sure I'd save much money there.
I usually mix several things together anyway.

I don't plan to fill the pots now if the soil/leaves thing won't work.

I tried putting 4 plants in a 25 gal. pot this year and they seemed a bit crowded.
I was thinking maybe 2 plants in each 15 gal. pot, although one of my in ground plants got around 5 feet tall this year and another one got about 4'X3'.

I've been on the same task as far as making my own potting soil. I've been having everyone in the home saving coffee grains, tea bags, and eggshells for my Red Wiggler bin (that bin is now 2 that can actually be 4). As well as leftover greens that worms love. A few months ago I found out that bananas are a great addition too. But what I've been doing is drying them out in the oven. Then grinding them down as fine as possible. I do the same with the eggshells (oven too, can't have any of the flesh in there). The eggshells cause them to lay lots of eggs (every handful I pick up, there is an egg). I started with 60 Red Wigglers... Believe me, in 6 months time - you can end up with well over a thousand worms.
From there I got to thinking that these same ingredients should work in a mix. The first search I did showed that spent Tea Bags, Coffee Grains, Banana Peels (take the hard part of it off), eggshells (calcium) and even oats showed up on a number of lists giving their NPK values. The Coffee grounds (used up) Tea Bags (used up) I put in the oven too. When all are good and dried I put them in a big Mason jar with their values written on painters blue tape. I do put wet Coffee Grains and the Broken up Wet Tea bags in the worm bins, but the dried grains are for my own soil. That mixed with Sphagnum Peat Moss. I do see that adding Coarse Vermiculite plus some sand will help in that mixture (especially for bigger pots). But for transferring sprouts that have germinated seems to be working very well. Yeah, you guessed it - I can't wait any longer, lol. I began germinating Pepper seeds already. I started most of them on the 19th of November. I guess I should start a Grow Thread with some pics :)
Something else I've been seriously considering is getting some wabbits, Haha. I've read that Rabbit poop is instant fertilizer too. If you get the right kind of rabbit (value wise), you can breed them and make a little money to go towards garden stuff to bring the expenses down some. Well, they're great composting machines.

A few links...

Homemade Fertilizer Recipes:
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/doityourself/tp/Homemade_Fertilizer.htm

NPK of Organic Materials:
http://aroundtheyard.com/home/faqs/51-npk-of-organic-materials.html

But you have a point. For many peppers and in northern climate zones, 15 gal pots may be just too big.

Dennis
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You are right about that. Climate is a big consideration.
I grow peppers as annuals. I Plant out mid May and the season is practically is over by mid October. That is 5 months. But if your season is long in the south, SoCal .. probably a bigger pot can be necessary. It also has to do with HEAT ZONE. Here, our summer highs RARELY exceed 87F (in average 2 days). But if your heat zone is 10(like in W.TX, FL), again a bigger pot can be a plus.

I believe most spacing consideration is to accommodate the top growth rather than roots. So then three 5 gallon containers is better than one 15 gall for 3 plants. This way you can give each one more elbow room.

Seysonn

In Texas you should have no problem with 1 plant in a 15 gal. pot.
I never liked the results from putting 2 or more plants in a single pot.
My best in container production was in 15 gal. pots last year and in NJ the roots did fill the pot and the plants got 5ft tall.
I started the seed mid March, plants were 5ft by the end of Aug.
In 3 and 5 gal. pots my plants were much smaller and production was much less. 5-1-1 soil is as excellent mix and do recommend it. I use ProMix in the place of peat in mine and it works great, Peat is cheaper though and probably works just as well.

Garretds7, I save and add some of the same things to my soil.
Tea bags, egg shells, banana peels and some other stuff. I used to save my coffee grounds, but we use k-cups now and I usually just throw those away.
I've never tried drying them in the oven. That's a good idea as it takes a long time for them to air dry.

pepperdave, good to know the 15 gal. was a good size for pepper.
I have lots of pots in different sizes, but I don't like leaving anything in the smaller pots once it gets really hot.
We have a lot of days with temps over a 100 and they just dry out too fast.

Found this thread, may be of some help. Many things you can use to fill the bottom of the container eg. soda cans, milk bottles, packing peanuts. Have never tried it myself.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/frugal/msg0315203311981.html?31

Whoa! Hold on there!

This practice of "filling the bottom of the container" is actually damaging to the plant. If you go to the Container forum and read the latest Water Retention (?) thread (now in about the 25th iteration) you will learn about the Perched Water Table (PWT) that occurs in pots (not in-ground). PWT kills roots. It drowns them.

A PWT forms from the bottom of the medium (dirt). Raise the bottom of the medium with filler and the PWT forms that much higher, killing that many more roots. DO NOT put junk in the bottom of your container to take up space or to "aid drainage". It does no such thing.

As for the the garbage, egg shells are a potential source of calcium, but they take well over a year to break down and so provide no usable calcium to the plant.

Drying bananas is silly. The banana will re-hydrate and then rot, just like it would have had you not dried it.

Rather, get over the idea that a growing container is a compost heap. Don't put un-composted stuff in it. Start a real compost heap or worm bed for that.

Plants grow in dirt, not in garbage.

.soapbox off

Dennis

I agree on the using filler of any kind in a container, also on not using kitchen compost, or any soil in a container as well. Many have learned the hard way. Success stories otherwise are greatly out numbered by the tales of my plants looked so great for a couple of weeks, or a month or so then just went down so quickly.

I started making my own potting mix from reading post here, and some research of the web. I was able to cut the cost for filling my large containers greatly.

If you are worried about mix coming out of the drain holes then place some window screen over the hole. It will work just fine.

For the mix I got 3 of the 5 things I use for it at the local Home Depot.

My mix was:

5 Parts pine bark fines. (Sold as Mother Earth Soil Conditioner.) It contains minor traces of manure, and super fine sand. I had no ill results from using it. I am sure most of that ran out though the drain holes, and screen when I watered a few times. (Price is just under $3.50 for 2 cubic feet.)

1 Part MG Peat moss (Home Depot again. Roughly $10 for 2 cubic feet.)

1 Part Perlite (Home Depot does carry it. Though at roughly $5 for 16 dry quarts it can add up. I bought 2 cubic feet in a large bulk bag from the local feed store for $22.50. That is enough to make over 12 cubic feet of potting mix. I bought 2 bags.

The last part is Hydrated Lime AKA "Horticultural Lime." A small $5 bag made a lot of mix. I still have some left over after making over 20 cubic feet of mix. It is to counter the acid level of the peat. I used roughly one table spoon per dry gallon of mix.

I mixed small bits at a time to make the mixing easier on me. One of the containers I filled is 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 18 inches tall. Two others are 2 feet square by 18 inches deep. One large washtub, a half wine barrel, 5 other containers that range from 5 to 15 dry gallons. Also probably 12 other one gallon containers as well.

If I had been buying bagged potting mix price would have been by my rough math at the time over $400. Making it myself was just over $125 after all tax.

I use a fleet of 10-15 gal containers and make my own mix. Aside from the above suggestions, I use charcoal I've sifted out from the residue of my wood stove (not the ash) styrofoam packing peanuts, and larger pieces of pine bark I strip off beetle-killed firewood.

The pine lowers the pH, which the peppers like. Charcoal, or the above mentioned lime, can buffer the acidity. But not something I lose sleep over.

Just keep in mind: good drainage so the air can get to the roots.

I use the same soil again and again, 5 - 6 years now.

I do like the idea of charcoal added. I've read and seen a few video's about how wood can be charred (super heated) and used in gardens. Good stuff!
When I dry out the banana peels in the oven. It's not like drying out a pepper where you have the color in tack. The banana peels are black and the fruit side dark brown when they're done. Not like the banana chips you get at the store. Just the peels. I don't use the fleshy part of it - that's in my stomach Haha! So their actually charred like a piece of wood - burnt.
And for the eggshells, when you grind them down... I'm not talking about with crunching them down with your hands. I use a Bullet grinder. It's very very fine powder when I'm done with it. I do believe fine powder breaks down at a quicker rate. Sure, it's slow, but in powder form (more release) - to last throughout the next 6 months or longer. I don't think that's a bad thing. I just read somewhere that it works like lime - though I'm not sure if it's as good as lime.
If I had a deep pocket, I'd probably not have to go through so much trouble to make things work.

PepperDave, the Promix sounds like good stuff. I was checking into it and the 2 cu ft bags are actually 4 when opened up. I might ask for some for Christmas. No joke.

I also mix/make my own potting mix. I learned it last winter , over "Container Gardening " Forum. It is called "Al's 5-1-1".

It consists of the following items :

-- 5 parts pine bark . The size of pieces should be 1/16" up to under 1/2". A small percentage of 1/2" pieces is ok.

-- 1 part Sphagnum peat moss

-- 1 part coarse perlite.

Now this is a "soil lee" mix and has no nutrients. So you have to supplement it. Recommended fertilizer is granular slow release, with a composition of 2-1-3 ratios ( 12-6-18 etc). MG Shake N Feed is one option. Add about 1 Table spoon per gallon of mix.
You are also told to add 1 Tb spoon of Dolomitic Lime per gallon of mix.
I make like one barrel at a time. You dump all the ingredients on a tarp , lightly sprinkle then add fertilizer and the lime and mix it. You might add the latter 2 items when you are about to pot.
My cost runs about $0.50 per gallon , everything included. But it requires some shopping around and work. But I think it is better than the best and most expensive potting mix you can find.

Seysonn.

I've reused Miracle-Groî Potting Mix in my 5 gal. pails for over 10 years (Spreading out the initial cost.) using the following method:

1. Drill a bunch of 1/4" holes in the bottom of the pail.
2. Put about an inch of small stones (Pea gravel) in pail (This step optional.).
3. Line the pail with garden fabric.
4. Put a 8" layer of potting soil in pail.
5. Next is a 1/2 to 1" layer of fresh cut grass (Non-Fertilized!) clippings.
6. 4" of potting soil.
7. 1/2" shredded brown leaves.
8. 4" potting soil.
9. 1/4" to 1/2" worm poop.
10.Top off pail with potting mix.

In the spring it is easy to lift the potting soil out of the pail pulling out the garden fabric to rebuild the stack with fresh fertilizing materials. Obviously you can layer in anything you want, coffee grinds, egg shells, bonemeal, composted manure, etc., or mix the material through the entire potting soil. If you layer in the materials you will notice that most of the material has self composted in the potting soil over the growing season.

A couple of hints.... I use the stones because I "water" my pails from the bottom, putting the pails in a larger container that has been compost tea laced. It helps sink the pails and keeps an air gap for the nutrient laced water to flow in. After you transplant push a bamboo stick into the soil and tie the pail handle to it allowing the plant to grow up around it, giving you access to lift it. If you don't, after the plant has grown & bushed out, the handle won't stand up without pushing the plant to one side disturbing it.

And don't forget, experiment & keep notes! What worked, what didn't, what nutrient increased blossom set, did adding micronutrients help when added before or during the season, organic or chemical NPK worked best when added weekly or bi-weekly, etc.

On PWT (Perch Water Table), I have a different take:

First: It depend on the medium. For example, a peat moss based soil has a high PWT, where as gritty mix or 5-1-1 will have low pwt.

Second: PWT is applicable if the bottom of container is sitting in water. So there will be a PWT above the water level on which the pot is sitting.
To put it simply, IN ORDER TO HAVE A pwt THERE HAS TO BE A WATER TABLE to begin with in order to form pwt.

So basically, I think that PWT concept is a player when a pot is sitting in a tray with some water (like most house plants).
Then there is a "Saturated Condition" which might exist far above the pwt by capillary action.

Seysonn

I've read many posts here about the 5:1:1 mix that Al is a proponent of and is on the 20th thread about. In reading about container media and perched water table (PWT) in pots I have a question, how do we determine the PWT in pots using different media? For all we know my method may have a lower PWT than 5:1:1. And the OP's 15 gal. pot will have more media above the PWT line than my 5 gal. pail by volume, correct?

So in reading through the info available above the bottom line is, as long as there is enough media above the PWT for proper plant/root growth, no mater the media, you should be successful, no?

My containers are almost ready for next spring. The big containers are for fig's up-potting and the small smartpots are 5 gls for peppers. The peppers in smartpots are grown with saucers to keep run-off from draining in their spots in the garden then after the plants are about 2 feet tall i bury the pots about 2 inches or so in the same location.Two inches is all you need for the roots to grow out of the bottom into the soil for the rest of the year then in the fall you pull the pot out of the ground and in my workshop for next spring and then i pull them out of the pot and grow them for the second year.

This is my pots for the coming season,the pots are 3/4 filled with compost and then finished-off with perlite and some oildry in the spring and a dose of fish/kelp first.