I'm in the process of building my soil for next year's grow. The beds already have cover crops of crimson clover and common Vetch establishing in them. They also have a nice population of earthworms. Amending the soil correctly is my current task. I have a shopping cart right now that contains quite a few down to earth products. - Neemseed meal - Langbeinite - Rock Phosphate - Bat Guano - Oyster Shell - Humic Acid - Azomite - Insect Frass - Bokashi My question is can all of the above be top dressed into to the soil? I realize in a perfect word I would have mixed all this in the soil to begin with. That really wasn't an option because the beds were previous years vegetable beds that I just covered in compost and left everything undisturbed. When the cover was planted I top dressed cottonseed meal, blood meal, fish meal and kelp meal. Sent from my SM-N920V using Grasscity Forum mobile app
These are 8 x 8 beds 10 inches deep no bottom. Does anyone know good top dress amounts to start with? I am leaning towards simply sprinkling completely over the beds. not enough to cake it but enough to be a heavy dusting over the entire surface of beds. How far apart should I spread apart for the soil to be good in time for next season? I have: langbeinite azomite rock phosphorus crab shell meal oyster shell meal bokashi insect frass Humic Acid fish bone meal bat guano neem seed meal I've already heavy dusted a top dressing of alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, Kelp meal, and fish meal. I have an establishing cover crop of clover and Vetch. Just planning on watering the amendments in after I top dress. Kind of waiting on top dressing with my worm castings till after the first top dress of amendments has been doing it's thing in the soil for about a week. By then My cover will be MUCH more established and will love them.
I added alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, blood meal, and kelp meal as well. I will post my amounts added for each top dress later. Basically I just throw all the amendments in a bucket, mix thoroughly and cover the entire surface of the beds with a good dusting. I've been repeating this every month since this post. I did get a late start on some of my cover so learn from my mistake. Once the colder 30ish degree weather comes cover takes a very long time to establish. Next year I will plant cover immediately after harvest. Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
What county in socal are you in bro ? What was the soil like when you first started prepping Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Im in NW Washington. The soil was primarily organic bag soil except for the raised beds which is native Washington soil with a couple years worth of manure added from the past several seasons of growing vegies in them. I broke that soil up with a half yard of course sand turned in to both beds