Just got off the phone with rock dust local. They have a pretty good deal if you can't source it locally at like $46 a 40# bag (shipping included). they don't package small bags of granite at the moment, but they referred me to a company called fedco who does. After that he gave me a 10 min lesson on differences between them and then suggested brix blend. Love it when people know their business and want you to be honestly informed. They sell their products on b.a.s as well.
View attachment 1429079 Today I mixed my Approx. 24 C.F of soil holy cow is all I have to say about that. But I got help from my youngest son. Put piece of carpet on my pole barn floor then a extra heavy blanket then my tarp to mix on to keep it off my cold floor. After I got it mixed I took saw horses and 2x4s covered it with some plastic put a heater in for the still ccooll temperatures Of Northern Michigan. Here what I used for my soil. 3 bales of pro mix 4 Cf W.C Dairydoo 4 cf compost Also dairydoo Per cf 2x Kelp 2x neem seed meal 1x alfalfa 1x fishbone meal 1/2 cup crab shell meal 1/2 cup oyster shell flour 4 cups Glacial rock Dust I aerated 2 5 gl. buckets of lake water that heated so just not freezing cold with 1 C. of castings each over night for wetting. Also added 5 gallons just water. I have a question about my rock dust I ran short by a lot Im gonna order somemore tonight but Im not gonna use the soil till first part of June. It would be fine to add the rest when I get it? It was on the dry side of damp figured can always add My sons and my accomplishment for the day hopfuly I can get em both my computer skills suck also. My tent
I'd wait a bit on adding more rock dust, you just might be fine with what is in there now. See how the drainage/density is before you add more. You don't want the mix too heavy and as mentioned, you can add more at any time. I would bump the oyster shell flour up to 1cup/cf though. 1/2cup may or may not be enough. Just what are you adding for aeration? I don't see anything added. Perlite, rice hulls, lava rock???? A quick way to test drainage is take some of the mix and put it in a container that you are going to use. I use 5 gal buckets with drainage holes. Water like there's a plant in there and see how it drains. You can cycle it in the container, or dump it back in the main pile. Wet
I used perlite because I had it from last year added about 3/4 of 5 gl bucket. I will add more oyster shell flour for sure then. Will do the 5 gal. bucket this morning before Grandkids get here.. When I picked up my pro-mix form the local nursery in talking with the owner he mentioned when I get it moistened I want it the same consistency as when my pro-mix was dry and fluffed so that's what I did. He also said little to much aeration is better than not enough. He just reassured what I already read from here. My wife was watching me and I believe I heard the words "Your being asinine LOL". Also I said crab shell meal but it was crab shell when I looked for crabb shell meal the crab shell was all that I found so I bought thinking it was the same (maybe it is not sure) when it came it had fairly big pieces of shell so I ground it up a little finer and used it. This is fine? Thanks for the input wetdog much appreciated. PS Can I ask you wetdog or anyone else for that matter why the increase in O.S.F just trying to get a better understanding
im about to transplant some into my mix soon, right now they are in 1g pots of roots organic, and they will be going into 3g smart pots which IMO hold a little more than 3g. Will that sustain them through flower? or should i do a top dressing about a month in?
WWW- I use 25-33% aeration in my mix. I really don't think you have anywhere near enough in your mix. Just my 2 cents.
O.S.F.=CaCO[SUB]3[/SUB] Calcium is not only a very important nutrient to have in large amounts in your soil, it also serves to buffer pH on the cation exchange capacity of the soil. It's a liming agent used to keep the acidic nature of peat moss (and other organic materials) in check as it breaks down over time, and when H<sup>+ </sup>ions are produced by plants and microbes in exchange for nutrient ions. You're using it instead of dolomite lime. A little reading for you when you find the time... http://www.soilminerals.com/Cation_Exchange_Simplified.htm
When I went out this morning to add my 1/2 cup per cf of OSF like wetdog suggested . It was dry also so I added about 15 gals more water and about 12 more gals of aeration. I Think it still needs more but I used what I had up. Going down state for the day to see my mother in-law and thought I might try and find some rice hulls or buck wheat hulls. I don't think it would hurt change aeration now. Or should I stick with perlite? My first thing I learned from my hands on is when you all say pro mix hold lots of water up I was amazed. But I think I got it now . Thanks waktoo I will read that in the morning . Edit: I read and re read Im not a biology guy buy a long shot but that was a very good read knew some of it cause I remember reading that somewhere else but never took the time to fully understand it this morning I took the time and to understand a lot more of it. Again thank you waktoo wetdog: I only have like 1 C PCF of Rock dust in my soil right now Ive read where I want 3-4 cups . Has that changed? Also I think I will order some more OSF seen where you said maybe more how much more could I add already added extra cup. I know I don't want to have to much but I dont want to skimp either. My friends that grow one in particular are watch me to see how this works for me. They grow bottle organic with and mix bale of pro-Mix with a bag of just right and away they go successfully I might add I want to be different and after reading hear for awhile and now having hands on and asking question Im glad I went this route. Never thought I would say this but Man I love this stuff.
WWW, fwiw, I love me my buckwheat hulls. If you can find them I think you will like them much, much more than perlite. I'm a perlite hater, but that's just me. I don't think it acts or looks natural in an organic soil. J
Since aeration will not affect my cycling( least I don't think) I will wait till i find buckwheat hulls. We've seen Jerrys grows LOL. This would be fine? So I really only aerating 8 cubic feet of castings already added 3 five gallon buckets so if I did the math right I think I need approx. 11/2 more 5 gal. buckets to get to 30% assuming buckwheat hulls would act the same as perlite. Hope this makes sense. Thanks Jerry.
It won't effect your cycling, but one advantage to mixing in while cycling does give the microbes additional area to colonize. Think condos during a population explosion. This is such a minor point though. Just make sure your humus is solid.
#1 with the oyster @1cup/cf is as a liming agent. Peat is very acidic and a cup/cf is pretty much a standard with lime in a peat based mix. It's hard to over apply, but you can certainly under apply it. 2nd, the added calcium is more than useful and the plants will appreciate it. MJ seems to run a close second to tomatoes AFA sucking up Ca. I wouldn't order more OSF until you check locally for calcitic lime or dolomite lime. Calcitic lime is pretty interchangeable with OSF and bot cost about the same ($15/40 lb bag @ HD), but without the shipping charges. Dolomite is ~$4.50/40# bag, also at HD. I made a mix with a bit less than 5cups/cf of rock dust and it was entirely too dense. I fixed that by making more mix with no RD and combining the 2. Now, I only use 2cups/cf and it works fine without being too heavy/dense. 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket is less than what I use mixing up a wheelbarrow full, ~2cf. The owner was more than correct about a bit too much is better than not enough. I use ~40% perlite and my mantra is, "If it looks like there's too much, it's just right. As a practical matter, I use just under a 4cf bag of perlite/bale of peat moss. Hope you have a local source for the 4cf bags, you're going to need 2 or 3. AFA the buckwheat or rice hulls, just be aware that they do break down after a year or so and have to be replaced. Perlite doesn't. I'm going to get some rice hulls for my worm bins just because of this. I reuse my mix for 3 years or so and don't want the cost or effort of replenishing aeration. With the worm bins, I want it to break down. No experience with the buckwheat hulls, just the rice hulls, so I might be off on those. Jerry would know about that better than I do. In any event, it looks like you need ~10cf of something to get that mix light enough. HTH Wet
I have a bag of dolomite lime. I need that much aeration with whats already in my pro-mix ? I figured I was basically aerating my 4cf of castings and 4cf of compost. But I defiantly need more. I would like to here Jerrys opinion on this. I really want to try some buckwheat hulls I have no good reason why but I do understand what your saying. Im gonna do some reading on buckwheat hulls. Got to find some first. and I will Must be a run on them 2 places were sold out have some tomorrow but are 120 miles away. One place closer didn't carry them but that wasn't a surprise but there was a slight chance.