Sup dude I would maybe mix together the basalt, greensand, azomite, and glacial rock dust as those constitute trace element inputs. OSF and garden lime I would consider your liming agents--only use these if you actually need to raise the media pH. Gypsum I would just treat as a pH-neutral Ca and S amendment.
Ahhh... good points thanks! I'm working with a hypothetical recipe at the moment so I'm not sure if it would need ph buffering or not
Random thought of the day, anybody play around with adding clay to a soil mix to increase the CEC? I heard clay heavy soil have great cec, but I haven't really seen anyone add it to a soil mix. I assume it would throw off the tilth and drainage?
I believe Coot did back around 2014. I can't remember what the results were. But, it's not in the soil mix on the no-till gardening revisited thread. I do add a few shovels full to each compost pile I build though. I have heavy gray clay here.
I use a couple shovels full of my native sand/clay in my soil mix. I replace the rock dust portion with it. I add the same to my worm bin. I usually have to break it up when I screen my castings. Is it worth the effort? I have no idea.
Interesting that you replace the mineral mix portion with your native clay/sand. Makes sense as I've occasionally came across articles calling azomite a form of clay... though I can't recall it's context though unfortunately. I assume a rock dust that's micronized small enough would essentially be clay anyway... but in the end I'm probably splitting hairs tbh
I'm truly not sold on all this rock dust craze. I think we all way over complicate the soil we use to grow a damn weed. I'm not buying ground up rocks and paying to ship it when I live on a giant granite boulder. I have plenty of mocronized rocks all over my land from the glaciers that receded 10k years ago. That being said, shit I do buy.... Alfalfa (omri feed grade) Neem meal Rice hulls Fish bone meal Kelp meal 6 row malt Peat Much of that stuff I'll never have to buy again mind you, but I have spent plenty on shit to add to soil to grow a weed
In an outdoor in-ground bed on a property naturally rich in minerals I'd definitely agree, but with a from-scratch no-till potting mix I'd venture a guess that rock dusts play a part in the long term viability of the soil
Is this soil mix appropriate for seedlings or is it too hot? Read the first 20 pages and I apologize if I missed the answer to my question. Thanks!
No, many here use old recycled no-till mix or this recipe that GiMiKs posted a while back. Seed starting mix 9 parts (18 cups) Spagnum Peat Moss 1 part (2 cups) VC. 2 parts (4 cups) Perlite light 1/4 cup kelp meal 1/4 cup dolomite lime Go easy on the castings if they are fresh.
Will this simple recipe sustain the entire life of the plant? Also, thank you for a simple/ beginner friendly way to continue organic growing!
A while back we were discussing soil mixing and worm bedding protocols (by hand, cement mixers ect). Just wanted to point out I found a fairly inexpensive way to save some backpains.. get a cheap used "tumbling/spinning" type of compost bin and mix your soil/bedding in that. I picked up a little tumbler off of Craigslist, and I'm pretty happy I don't have to hand mix my recipes anymore. Bonus points that it was significant cheaper than a new cement mixer
For larger batches of soil I use an oversized tarp. Place all the dry amendments at one end and then pull the tarp so that the materials roll over each other as they move to the other end. Then roll it back the other way.
>2-3 cups total of all your nutritional amendments per cubic foot (7.5 gallons) How many cups total of my nutritional amendments do I add to my soil mix if it's 5 gallons? I'm just growing in a 5 gallon pot Sent from my SM-G970U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Interesting, so let's say I have coco 15 gallons of coco mixed with perlite and vermicompost I produces with my worm bin, if 1 cubic foot of soil is 7.5 and for organic dry amendments I'm supposed to add 2-3 cups of the total amount of dry organic nutrients per cubic foot of soil, would it be safe to add 4-5 cups of organic dry amendments containing higher amounts of phosphorus (such as chicken manure or rock dust) and potassium (such as kelp meal)? I presume worm castings and compost already contain a good enough amount if nitrogen to push the autoflower into veg, but would adding chicken manure (or rock dust) and kelp meal help? Sent from my SM-G970U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Great idea I usually just mix it on my concrete slab and then get cursed out by my wife LOL Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk