What are you looking for, specifically? Are you trying to build a soil like those that offered here in the GCO forum?
I built ITG beginner mix which is in use. However now i am looking to build the mix on this forum with bio char ect. Having said that i am an apartment dweller so 50lbs bags are too much for me to keep. Im mostly looking for malted barley and some mulch sorces the rest i can amazon . I dont have a car to do all the leg work finding stuff. But i can get work around that if i know where to go for the correct stuff, people tell me what i want to here untill i get there and its not the correct thing and im pissed and leave with nothing I was looking also for a good local compost untill my pile starts spitting out Completed compost. Ewc i make on my own amended to how i want. Any help would be great just hoping some local members would share there resorces in the valley of the sun
Well, I'm surprised that @3Deez hasn't replied. Maybe he's out of town. I'm pretty sure that he is an Az resident, but I'm unsure as to whether or not he resides in the Phoenix area. I'll try to help with a few of your items... In a pinch you can by any "hardwood charcoal" used for smoking meat (NOT like Kingsford charcoal briquettes), and use that as your bio-char. You can probably find it at any local box store like Lowe's/Home Depo. It's pretty much the same stuff, and probably cheaper than the commercial brands being sold on the market. You will need to crush it (the smaller the better), and soak it with some organic materials in order to "pre-charge" it so that it doesn't adsorb soluble nutrients from the soil solution. If you don't pre-charge the bio-char, the adsorbing it will do will make nutrients unavailable to plants for awhile. I don't think I've ever seen small bags of the stuff, unfortunately... Malted barley should be able to be sourced at any home brew store. Amazon, too. Call ahead and ask for 2-row or 6-row malted barley. There really is not much difference in the range of enzymes produced, so go with whatever is cheapest. Quality compost? Can't really help you there other than to say that Craig's list might be your best bet as far as sourcing goes. Make sure to find out whether or not the animals that produced the manure for such were fed hay/whatever that was sprayed with "persistent herbicides". It's use is rather common here in Colorado, and the stuff doesn't break down during the thermophilic composting process. If the person selling the compost can't tell you one way or another, then pass on it, unless they can show you their own personal gardens where the stuff has been used. Nothing will ruin your garden faster than this shit, and if you built soil with it, it's unusable for several years. HTH. Good luck.
Thx Waktoo I appreciate your taking the time to write up all that info for me. I will definitely look deeper in to making bio char that was great info. Compost is scary to me like a grenade with no pin... you just hope it wont blow up in your face Ill just get a bag of malibu cpmpost for now like 25 bucks shipped from walmart 1 cu ft Would you suggest bukashi compost? or just feed it the worm bin? Any plus to adding bokashi bran to your siol mix Your thoughts. Thx in advance i have seen your advise on other threads and will value your opinion greatly
We did bokashi composting here at home for awhile. Then we got chickens... Unless you're producing a lot of non-meat/fatty food waste, I'd just feed it to the worms. You can zip-lock quantity, freeze it, and then add it to your worm bins after thawing and warming a bit. This helps bin microbes process the material faster, thereby making it easier for the worms to feed. Sprinkling some of that MBP that you're going to get on top of the food scraps added to the bin will help move the degradation process along as well. Neem and kelp are also great worm bin additives for sprinkling over food waste when you feed the bin. They both contain important phytochemicals like growth hormones and compounds that stimulate SAR (systemic acquired resistance, for battling bugs) that are destroyed in the thermophilic composting process, but are preserved in the "cold composting" environment that is the worm bin. If you ARE going to do the bokashi composting, use the stuff sparingly in your worm bin when it's ready. It's an anaerobic process, and the finished material produced is rather acidic. Worms don't like acidic environments. It's best to put some of the finished bokashi in a corner of your bin, rather than spreading it around evenly throughout. This gives the aerobic microbes in your bin time to "take over" the material, and the worms can migrate into it at their leisure as the pH becomes more worm friendly. I my humble estimation, I don't think it would be worth your time or expense to add bokashi bran to your soil mix. As already mentioned, the microbes present are facultative anaerobes, and will not fair well in an aerobic environment. Also, if you're planning on using the Malibu compost, I would suggest increasing the percentage aeration amendment used. The stuff is really dense. Start by adding an extra 10% by volume, and add more if necessary. When your mix is good and moist, crush a handful in your fist. When you release the pressure on the soil ball, it should fall apart easily. If it sticks together, add more aeration accordingly.