So.. I need to know if this would be a good idea, and if so.. How much should I use per gallon of soil as a topdressing? Is it okay if junk mail was burnt with the wood? Pretty much all I need to know. <3
So what would be a good organic source of p/k? At the moment my soil has no actual pk amendments. It's pretty much ewc, a little chicken manure, and promix. I've just been watering with ewc nutes leeched into water.
Kelp meal tea will give you every macro and micro nutrient (83 total) along with chelation agents (Alginic acid, mannitol, fucoidan, et al.) 200 enzymes, etc. 1/4 cup of kelp meal to 5 gallons of water. Let that 'brew' for about 24 hours and if you have an air pump it would help to use that to keep the kelp meal particles bouncing around which will release as much as possible. When you strain & drain apply the 'muck' on top of your potting soil and apply the tea full-strength. HTH
That's a good suggestion. I do plan on getting a source of kelp meal in the near future. Until such a time, is there something that might be commonly available on a farmland with chickens, cattle, horses, etc? I mean.. I know manure of course, but something else?
I'll look into that. Until then I'll just amend with EWCxManure. I've got some 20 year-old manure from a barn that ought to help out a bit.
Do a search on biodynamic accumulator plants, botanical teas, fermented plant extracts. That should turn up something for ya. All of which can be found here or out there on the web.
Alfalfa is good like said above but that mostly contains nitrogen a more potassium rich source would be wood ash like u said , banana peels , asparagus/spinach (for composting) or granite dust ! Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Be careful with aged UNcomposted bovine manure and esp so if its coming out of a dry barn. Your adversary in this case will be sodium. Always compost manure of any type before using it in a container plant. I'd be willing to bet that you will see evidence of sodium on this old manure because it will appeat white and crystal-ly. If it were outside for 20 years probably no problem with sodium but also probably of any useful utility except for composting. Since you have a barn by chance do you have access to rabbit scat (poop)? If so, and the rabbits have been fed alfalfa pellets, the rabbit scat is arguably on the 'best' list of all better/best things an organic grower can use in yhe soil and soaked up as a tea. Wonderful, wonderful stuff!
Really work on snagging the kelp meal. K is about the hardest thing to get in organics and just about all manures have little to none. Wood ash will work, but it needs to be 'hardwood' ash and is usually worked in, in the fall for the following spring. It is way, way easy to over do and should generally be avoided unless you really know what you're doing. Get some kelp meal. Wet
I have access to rabbit manure at times. Right now is not a time I do. Sadly, our dog killed them all this spring. We're working on getting a pen set up for more.