After reading about the various advantages to organic no-till gardening over the last few months, I have finally decided to make the switch. I have been using GH nutes and growing in 12-inch deep raised beds (4ft x 12ft) filled with a base of promix hp for a few years and have been reusing my soil by adding only coco, worms, GH rare earth silica, dolomite lime and triple o2 to oxygenate the soil. I have not had any problems but would like to switch to organic for various reasons (quality, $ spent on nutes, not wanting to turn over the soil any more, etc). I have about 100 cubic feet of existing soil. I was thinking about removing about 1/2 of the soil and replacing it with the following: 25 cubic feet of organic garden blend soil with mushroom manure & compost 15 cu.ft of worm castings 10 cu.ft of rabbit poop compost 5 cu.ft of vermiculite 10 cu.ft of 1/8-1/2" lava rock or pumice 50 lbs of turface or napa 8822 floor dry or dry stall (fine particles removed) 50 lbs of rice hulls 50 lbs of diatomaceous earth 25 lbs of bentonite clay 100 cups of lime mix (1 part dolomite, 1 part gypsum, 2 parts oyster shell) 250 cups of espoma tomato tone organic fertilizer (or dr. earth) 400 cups of glacial rock dust I was then going to add 3 cups per cu.ft of the following amendments to the soil: 2 parts kelp meal 1 part neem meal 1 part karanja meal 1 part crab meal 1 part fish bone meal 1 part alfalfa meal Going to let this cure/cook for 3-4 weeks while keeping it moist at all times with water and aerated compost teas. I've got a few questions: 1 - Does it look like I have too much or too little aeration amendment? 2 - Does it look like I have too much or too little organic fertilizer? 3 - With this mix should I be able to feed water only, with the addition of some teas every couple of weeks? If anyone sees anything else that should be changed please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help. It is really appreciated.
Curious - what is "Triple O2"? I bet you're fine with your plan. I'd leave room to top dress here and there with vermicompost/compost and mulch from Accumulator plants like comfrey and nettles, yarrow et al. Some might say you should remove or switch all the soil instead of half and I wonder the same thing but I would think over time that the organic would "take over" any chemical fertilizer salts remaining in the beds. Good luck. J
Also its 4 cups of glacial rock dust per cubic foot. It is separate from the 3cups/cu.ft of other ammendments
Quite true about the rock dust being separate from the other amendments. It is much more 'long term' and a somewhat different function. The only thing *I've* noticed is that 4 cups/cf makes my mix entirely too dense for container use and drainage suffered. I've since cut back to 2cups/cf and that works quite well for me. Like I said, this is in containers and the added density might not make a bit of difference in a raised bed. Probably not, since my raised beds contain a lot of red clay that gets brought up when I dig below the surface mix. and this gets spread around on/in the mix. Wet
Thanks Jerry. I was planning on rinsing the remaining dirt that I am going to reuse to help remove any salt buildup but I also have been contemplating removing everything and starting fresh. Just trying to avoid the extra cost and labor of removing it all. Does anyone know if rinsing the dirt would help remove some of the salt? - Triple O2 is a product made by nutrilife that does the following: A source of oxygen for soil and soilless mixtures.An oxygen source for water - Preserves fresh cut flowers or cuttings - can be used for cleaning reservoirs, and lines & drippers - Part of a well balanced nutrient solution Thanks a lot CO. I have adjusted my recipe. Thanks wetdog. I hope that the 4 cups/cf will be okay if I have all the aeration amendments that I listed. Anyone have an opinion on the aeration I am planning on using? I might try to use pumice instead of lava rock if I can but not sure if it will make a big difference. Any thoughts on my other couple of questions: Does it look like I have too much or too little organic fertilizer? With this mix should I be able to feed water only, with the addition of some teas every couple of weeks, and some foliar sprays? I really want to do this right the first time because I am planning on letting it sit undisturbed for years. Thanks a lot for your input everyone.