I wanted some opinions from people who have had experience with organic gardening to give me advice on items to purchase. During this summer I plan to go all organic outdoors by making my own soil mixes and aerated compost teas. So far I have a 35 watt air pump for making my teas, some ocean forest, happy frog, and earthworm castings. I was thinking I should get some alfalfa meal, bat guano, kelp meal, and maybe some bone/blood meal. But I really wanna get whatever is most important and useful for the money. Suggestions?
Read the stickies here before you spend any more money. Only you can know what is best for your own personal situation. If you read the stickies, you'll be on the path of being able to decide for yourself what you should buy.
if you haven't cracked open that ocean forest go return it and find some legit. compost and nutrient. FFOF isn't even organic and it's way over rated. IMO if the bag is open go return it any way. What area of the Us do you live in? The alfalfa and kelp are good but you could ditch most the other amendments and build your own compost that will be superior ( because plant composts contain bacteria and compounds your bone, blood and guano don't) by just going foraging if you live in equatorial/ southern US region
This link will tell you.. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/650139-organic-higher-learning-lumperdawgz.html
However I will make these suggestions. Good container soil mix. Really good quality ewc's. Well aged, freshly made compost. Maybe check out Smart Pots or some other air pruning potting system. Learn how to make fpe's as they are nearly free and quite handy. Alfalfa meal! Kelp meal! Neem and crab meal if you can afford it. Do a LOT of reading here. DOH! Just now noticed you're growing outdoors. I'll just shut the fuck up.
BotanistCam, Welcome to Grasscity. If you're going to start preparing now for next season's grow,this thread could point you in the right direction for your soil prep. This guy is continually pulling off huge grows outdoors (and indoors) with organic water only soils. The beginning of the thread is an overview of the various soil amendments/additives and their importance and use in an organic soil. It's a lot of reading but I feel will be quite educational. And the plants speak for themselves. chunk
BotanistCam, here is a thread i started a while back on inexpensive organic soil growing that you may find helpfull....And welcome aboard!! MIW http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/867186-lets-get-cheap.html
Definitely check out that thread by MI on some DIY cheap gardening methods, it helped me out a lot. I would just move away from the fox farms if you can, but besides that just research and read as much as you can! Welcome to Grasscity. You definitely came to the right place if you were looking for a forum of friendly and knowledgable organic gardeners that are more than willing to help you out! Good luck!
Thanks everyone for the responses! Yea I've been lurking here for awhile but am just starting to learn about organic gardening. Looks like I've got lots of reading to do.
Research into break down rates of different amendments, break down rates play a HUGE roll in when your plants receive what nutrients and when, for example steamed and unsteemed bone meal have completely different break down rates, one breaks down in 30 days, the other takes 45-3 months to break down by beneficial microbes and turned into plant usable form. Look up "The Rev"(cultivation editor for skunk magazines) True Living Organics soil mix.
What do you mean it is not even organic? As in not sustainable? Or not enviornmentally friendly (bat guano)? Or does not allow microbial life in the soil to thrive.
I'm gonna give it a crack with the budget. 2.2 cubic foot bale premier peat (should be available at a box hardware store) $8 4 of the 12 qt. bags of Bu's Blend Compost (ordered direct from the manufacturer with shipping) $70 3 of the .5 cubic foot bags of lava rock (anywhere with landscaping supplies) $12 That's your base and it leaves you with $110 for amendments. I would suggest finding the nearest feed store and attempting to spend most of that there (I'm not doing all of your homework). Perhaps you could pop over to the hydro store and pick up some fish hydrolysate and DynaGro ProTeKt while your out shopping. That will leave you with nearly 45 gallons or so of soil that will require no nutes from seed to harvest (in fact, nutes will probably be detrimental). That's enough soil that you should be able to implement a simple no till rotation and never need to buy potting soil again. After every plant is chopped, set the pot aside and continue to keep it moist for a few months. After that, the roots should have been consumed by the microbes present in your soil, and with a little top dressing the pot is ready for a new plant. It gets better with every run. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Fox Farms.
A lot of that Bu's Blend could and should be substituted with worm castings, but they need to be of a higher quality than the grow store Wiggle Worm stuff. Check your local Craigslist and you may be able to save a lot of money. EDIT: I just noticed the outdoors part. Coco coir is not as great as peat, but its' brick form is fantastic for the backpacking guerrilla grower. Also, steer clear of any amendments that are animal based as they will attract undesirables to your site, but please don't read that as an endorsement for veganics LOL. And forget that no till indoor talk. Some aged horse manure and one of these bad boys http://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=917 can more than handle the job for 5% of your budget if you find some unfucked-with land. Hit the stickies, homie.