This is the post I was referring to: [quote name='"LumperDawgz2"']Mine's devolved to the following: 50% Organic Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (Alaska Peat brand specifically) 25% Organic Parboiled Rice Hulls 25% Homegrown EWC To each 1 c.f. of potting soil I add the following: 4 - 5 cups of Canadian Glacial Rock Dust 1.5 cups of a mix I make up that consists of equal parts of kelp, neem and crab meals Water on most days with a weekly application of some botanical tea - Comfrey, Yarrow or Horsetail or a combination of 2 or all 3. Dat's it. LD[/quote] I also confirmed this recommendation with him and for what ever reason went with 3 cups this round with every intention of changing this mix often, as I learned. His mix looked basic, a good place to start for someone who knew nothing of organics before finding grass city. Boro
[quote name='"AKAoZ"']G'day boro I'm new to all this so I've got a question, why so much rock dust? Oz[/quote] Umm boro, shit I'm sorry man. I just realised this was the second post in your thread, I didn't mean to derail it to a rock dust for dummies thread! So let me try again using what I've learned here, Your soil mix looks great. If I knew what I knew today yesterday, that would have been my answer. Now that I have read all the info hand fed to me (thank you every one) it makes much more sense. Jerry as to not detract from the sincerity by rambling, Thank you, I've just finished the links and you put a lot in around here. Thanks man. Morning everybody ! Oz
[quote name='"AKAoZ"'] Umm boro, shit I'm sorry man. I just realised this was the second post in your thread, I didn't mean to derail it to a rock dust for dummies thread! So let me try again using what I've learned here, Your soil mix looks great. If I knew what I knew today yesterday, that would have been my answer. Now that I have read all the info hand fed to me (thank you every one) it makes much more sense. Jerry as to not detract from the sincerity by rambling, Thank you, I've just finished the links and you put a lot in around here. Thanks man. Morning everybody ! Oz[/quote] No apologies necessary man, obviously I've got a lot of learning to do on Rock dusts. All you did was spur some great conversation. Boro
Ok, the post I was referring to was a discussion we were having on rock dust(s), clays and 'stuff'. What it boiled down to was, use as much as you can without compaction/drainage/aeration problems. Wet
The following paper was published by Dr. Robert Linderman. The paper discusses several of the talking points we've covered in this thread such as rock dust/s, liming and soil tilth. Linderman's work with VAM has been ongoing for decades. HTH, Chunk http://pnva.org/files/files/WorkingwithSoilMicrobiology.pdf
That mix sounds solid as a rock to me Boro.(In a good way)!! I did a 3rd each of spaghnum peat, homeade vermicompost,and a 50/50 blend of perlite and crushed down lava rock as my base this go around. As a mineral amendment, I only added 1 cup per cu.ft equal parts crushed oyster,scallop shells, 2.5%mag dolomite,and pulverized local river rock which is a combo of rocks from the degradation of the Appalachians. Be content you can source the rock dust locally, because I can tell you from exp. that making something similar from scratch is a lot of sledgehammer work and a backache to say the least. I read a lot of putdowns on the use of dolomitic lime, but I think(IMHO) that it all boils down to the source. Locally, the dolomite mine which is less than 30 miles from my home, and only 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico produces a product that is labeled as 94% Calcium carbonate, 2.5% magnesium carbonate, and 3.5% other minor traces in which selenium is only .005% is the total. That being said, I've never known anyone, commercial farmer,backyard warrior, or container grower who has been able to achieve cal. lockout due to excessive MgCO3 through the over-application of this product. Basically all it's comprised of is ancient sea deposits from when the site of the mine was the bottom of the gulf. I've read posts here and yonder where all the dolomitic lime some areas can source from big box stores can be anywhere from 10 to 30% mag, and there I could see a problem. I'm from back in the late 80's, early 90's, when all we had to go by was what Jorge,Ed, and Kyle had to offer in HTmag on soilless mix ratios, and depending on which you chose to believe, dolomite needed to be applied at the rate of 1 to 1 1/2 cups per cu ft. While I have found in my personal grows this is too much, it doesn't necessarily mean dolomite should be banned from organix. You just have to read the label and make your decisions from there. Farmers and home gardeners have long known that the dolomite you spread this year is next year's calcium. That's why in an agricultural area where a sandy loam is the norm and nutes and minerals filter through effortlessly, an annual application of DL is in order. Any other means of Calcium amendments would be far too cost prohibitive. I don't see why using dolomite in an soil mix that is intended to be used year after year it would be any different. Just like everything else in life, moderation and diversification are the keys.HTH, Peace, PBG.
[quote name='"wetdog"'] Ok, the post I was referring to was a discussion we were having on rock dust(s), clays and 'stuff'. What it boiled down to was, use as much as you can without compaction/drainage/aeration problems. Wet[/quote] Great, and your point about topdressing and making a "crust" on your soil surface makes a ton of sense. The plants I was referring to have been getting topdressed with EWC I would say fairly liberally for a couple months now. I apologize again for the confusion. LD only had say maybe a thousand rock dust related posts! Thanks man Boro
This turned out to be a great post. Thanks for all the info guys, and definitely thank you Boro for getting it going. Have a great week you all! Hagbone
Trust me, Borophyl, there's MANY of us that had no idea what we were doing organically before we found these halls, took the initiative, started reading and then applying our newfound knowledge to our gardens - and still are. I like to think that by hanging here I'm still learning all the time - it's a good vibe pal. Many thanks to all of you. J
AWESOME!!! My sponge (brain) was starting to get dry. I can't thank you guys enough for finally getting a spark in my head to REALLY sit down and start going 100% organic. I've been wanting to but just mostly have been choosing chems as it's easier to start out with imo. I decided to start growing one day, and by night day fall, cab, pots, soil, seeds were mixed together and voila. Bout to harvest the first one too Thank you! And some future thanks to you guys for the lack of sleep I'll be getting over the next few months. I tend to sleep 2-4 hrs a night when I get the spark inside to learn.
Any more opinions here? Will be starting my next mix this weekend, last chance to weigh in! I'm thinking this mix will be good, but further input would great! Boro
Yep - one last opinion and advice - Don't over think it...*lol* you've got quality products, a quality mindset and quality information - I have no doubt yer gonna kick organic ass pal. J
ive been running a mix based off of a lot of other mixes and similar to most peoples mixes on this forum following most of LD's advice and the other geniuses here too. the only thing i never did was use that much rock dust and no neem meal or crab meal cuz i didnt wanna order it cuz its impossible to source around here. well i had some money in my account and decided to finally order the glacial rock dust, neem seed meal and crab shell meal and it came so now my mix is really close to the norm around here but with a few extras cuz i love variety. i did... 4 cf peat moss 2 cf coco 1.5 cf compost 1.5 cf agrowynn EWC 2 cf pumice 1 cf perlite 14 cups gaia green glacial rock dust 6 cups agrowynn rock dust 5 cups gypsum 2 cups azomite 2 cups soft rock phosphate 10 cups humic acid ore 6 cups organicare pure fertilizer 5-5-5 6 cups organicare bloom fertilizer 10 cups fish bone meal 10 cups alfalfa meal 7 cups kelp meal 7 cups feather meal 6 cups blood meal 6 cups diatomaceous earth 4 cups bulb food 2 cups mexican guano its a hot one but havent had a problem with burning yet. with small plants i cut it, but when i transplant larger plants in a gallon pot or bigger i dont cut and they love it up. i always try to have a lot of variety, even if its a little of something. so now that ive added a lot more glacial rock dust, im curious to see how it comes out. im hoping this one will be the best yet. curious to see how others do using that much rock dust too. obviously its been done by a lot of seasoned gardeners with success so im confident. i was always scared it was too much but i just had to try it after reading how important it was. i also cut out dolomite lime and other limes hoping the crab shell meal will have enough calcium.. in the future i gotta get some oyster shell flour and maybe some of that regular garden lime from epsoma. great discussion here as ive been going over a lot of these questions myself lately. thanks to all that participated.
Slauson - best of luck with your mix, but I doubt you'll need luck. It looks really nice - you should be able to use it for years and years. Btw - you could almost double your amount of rock dust. Epsoma "garden lime" IS dolomite. Again - good luck; your mix looks really nice! J
[quote name='"DoodleBug"']Still bitter. Tsk, tsk. [/quote] Bitter about what? I do all my reading on the shit portal.