Starting My Organic Soil Mix

Well I'm glad you are readin' LD posts. I know that the only amendments he uses these days are kelp, neem, crab and rock dust. That's it! and that is all ya need. There isn't any magical combination of 'meals' that will make your soil "perfect". The important part is the compost/ewc and by the sound of it, you should be set there.

I can guarantee you that you don't need the fish meal or fish bone meal. Those two items are 100% unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, you can use them, but you don't need them. I personally would return them and save yourself a few dollars.

You definitely don't need the all-purpose stuff. What is on the ingredients list anyway? My guess would be something like soybean meal, alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, blood meal, bone meal, poultry manure and maybe some beneficial microbes or something.... anyway, totally unnecessary.

Like I said before, LD only uses kelp, crab, neem and rock dust. If I could start over, I would have never bought fish bone meal or greensand because I don't need em! The difference between a soil mix with 5 ingredients and one with 50 ingredients is that the latter probably costs more. Does it grow better plants just because it has fish bone meal? Doubtful.

Here is a quote from 'ol Jerry:

"'Get the Compost/EWC dialed in and you won't have many questions that need an answer. Lumperdawgz'

Simplicity and not overthinking - and following the above advice given to us all and we cannot go wrong. It always and forever comes back to the humus thing - everything else is secondary and only matters a little bit in the grand scheme of things. While our kelp, our neem, rock dust - whatever, are important, none of it means anything without the good humus. IMO amendments are interchangeable. NPK means little. These items are food for the all important helpers. Massive amounts of microbes, the whole "terrarium"/living soil is all that matters...

I'm just thinking out loud here... Lol

J"

If you want to use those other meals, then go right ahead. It is your soil after all and you have to grow with it. If you want my two pennies, I'd stick to the basic ingredients and call it gravy. No need to spend the extra $20+ on meals that may or may not be of benefit to your garden.

 

Great post TJ. I agree with you, to a large extent.
 
Certain materials have specific effects upon the soil life, both plants and microbiology. The kelp, crab and neem are great sources of secondary benefits (PGR's, Pest control, chelation, water retention, etc) along with having high nutrition value, which is why I think there are varied benefits to utilizing other materials.
 
But that's just a small degree of differentiation, outside of the base nutritional context. 

 

Nice mix - I'm sure you'll be quite happy with your results. FYI - neem seed meal is the same as "cake"; they are just different names for the same thing but I'm glad you're going with the Ahimsa product - it is a beautiful thing.

Make sure when you're done mixing that the soil drains well. You shod be able to squeeze a handful tightly and have it still crumble apart easily. Moisten thoroughly and set it aside for 3-4 plus weeks and you'll be good to go.

This is the best choice you'll ever make in your gardening career. Congratulations!

J