Hi I want to start doing organic no till grows. Can someone direct me to a good mix? Most of the ones I've seen are basically 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost, 1/3 aeration and amendments after that. Im not sure which to use, in what combinations and what they do. I want to stick to a mix thats good and will give me a good yield my first run. Thanks.
Here's my current mix. 1/3 spaghnum peat moss 1/3 compost (coast of main) 1/3 aeration ( lava rock and pea gravel) Then it's just the usual per c.f. 1/2 cup of kelp 1/2 cup of neem or karanja 1/2 cup of crab meal 1/2 cup of aragonite flour 1/2 cup of gypsum About 3 cups of glacial rock dust 1 cup chickity doo doo 1 cup malted barley flour Solo
Once you have the cycles going with this mix, will you ever need to add rock dust, gypsum or aragonite flour or amend with anything other than compost and ewc?
Nope. I water with enzyme teas, alfalfa and kelp teas, occasional top dress of either compost or vermicompost amended with the kelp, crab, and neem. Comfrey top dresses when I got it. But that's it. Mine get plain water mostly and I have some pots with 5+ cycles harvested. Solo
We have a Stickied thread on this exact subject & for exactly these questions. You'll find all you need in there - and then some. Good choice of gardening methods. j
Thanks for the input jerry and solo. I see the stickied thread but theres too many pages to read, I kinda just skimmed through it. I read the beginning few pages where the recipe is posted, I'm not sure if anyone or the OP changed anything since he first started or if he found another amendment to better the original recipe. I'm very new to all of this, but I'm starting to get the drift of how soil biology works.
Ill be the first to admit that I dont understand everything going on in my soil. I read post after post every day and im just now starting to wrap my head around it. You will really benefit from reading through the No-til sticky and Gimiks sticky of pdf's. Also, the search feature here is great. Put phrases in quotes to search exact phrases. Any soil component or amendment you have questions about just search it and filter using the following usernames LumperDawgz LumperDawgz2 Clackamas Coot Gimik Chunk jerry111165 That's a good start Now with all that said, aragonite (can substitute oyster shell flour or agriculture lime) and gypsum are both calcium sources and the gypsum brings sulfur with it. Solo
I'm in the process of reading the no till sticky actually. Theres lot of good info here, if only I remembered there is a search function for each thread. Thanks for your advice.
Hand in there. It's a lot of information and can be overwhelming. It looks like your off to a good start. Here is what is most important, "There are many ways to amend or "work" soil." You don't have to get it perfect. This is a learning process. You will most likely make mistakes and that's OK. When working with organic ingredients, there is plenty of room for error. Once you start the life cycle, you can add or adjust as you see fit. You might have rich soil that only needs a little bit of care.. E
I've been trying to figure out for awhile now with no answer to why people dont bother to reamend gypsum, oyster shell flour and crustacean meal in their no till soils but they added them in the first mix. I'm using kelp, neem seed meal, crustacean meal, oyster shell flour, gypsum, rock dust in my mix. When gypsum, oyster shell flour, and crustacean meal breaks down and nothing is left of it, why aren't no till gardeners amending them? Yes you can get the same nutrients from other sources like ewc, alfalfa and kelp, so why use them in the first place? I need to know if I am going to need to keep some of those amendments on hand for future use or if one time is all I need.
I'll use my car analogy again. Figure the kelp, neem, alfalfa, whatnot, the 'gas' in the car and the OSF, gypsum, crustacean meal as the 'oil'. You will fill the tank several times before you need to add/change the oil, but you will need oil. I have only one 'no till' container (20+ gallons), but a boat load of 5gal buckets that get reamended. The only "one time" amendment IMO is rock dust. That never gets replaced. The liming agent and gypsum gets replaced @~ 3/4 of the original mix amount. The liming agent always, for sure. Just me, FWIW Wet