I have my compost bin that I started this past fall to provide me with the base of what I need for this upcoming Spring. However, I have some younglings that will need to be transplanted into bigger vessels. So I purchased FFOF and added the following: EWC Perlite Pete Moss Blood & Bone meal Greensand Kelp meal Humus (soil form) Epsoma Plant tone & Garden lime Wet it and let it sit for a few days. Squeeze test is good, compresses then fluffs out again. I went about a 1/2 cup to a cup on all of these other that the perlite. The question is how the hell do I cook it with it being balls cold outside? Do you need to have it out in the sun or is "cooking" a term for letting that shit breakdown? How long do I need to let it break down?
Cooking = letting the soil microbes break the soil additives down to compounds usable by the plant roots. I'd moisten mix to that of rung out sponge and cover. Should be fine then. I'm not sure about all the additives with FFOF, as I have read FFOF can be hot on its own as is. Haven't used myself though, just my 2 cents.
Sorry, forgot to mention to cook for 3-4 weeks at least. I'd also read InTheGardens thread on an easy organic soil mix.
I read her threads, she is a great source for info along with others on here. When you become a GC junkie as I have, far too often there is information overload.
Danktank, outside this time of year (I'm not sure where u are) might not be a good thing. Can you put the thoroughly moistened soil in your cellar, at least? Soil microbes (bacteria) need at least some kind of warmth or they will go dormant and not do their job - which, in your case right now is to break down your soil amendments into usable plant food. Your amendments, if they are not broken down stand a very good chance of burning your plants. I'm not sure what you were referring to in your ingredients list as humus? I do not see, besides this, any compost or worm castings, which is uber important, so get some and add some if you haven't already - maybe 20% of your mix. If it doesn't go wet/heavy then go 30%. This is where all of your soil microbes will be coming from. You need them - you want them. Without them you stand a good chance of not doing very well. Btw - "cooking" refers to the time frame needed for your soil microbes to break down your amendments to a safe level where it can be used as plant food. Without this you just have amendments and no food. It is also commonly referred to as Nutrient Cycling -!which I like better than "cooking". J
Thnx J It's in the basement at the time. I turned it yesterday when I added the greensand. It smells earthy and it was warm, warmer than the temp of my basement.
Just a tip, i put a couple of layers of bubble wrap around my drums, when a cold weather hits my location even when they are in my garage, stuffs cheap and keeps everything snug inside.
I just took a look at your "Ohio Mulch Landscape Humus" and while it does appear to be organic and is probably just fine in your soil, I do not believe that it can or should replace either thermal compost or worm castings. If this were me, I would source and mix in either compost or castings, or both into your mix. Don't forget how very, very important those two items are in an organic garden. With our style of gardening we rely on those items to provide high levels of microbes to work together with our plants, nutrient cycling the organic matter in our soil and helping to balance and stabilize your soils pH, among other things. Without them, or rather, without high numbers of them that come with compost and castings plants will grow, but nowhere near as vigorously or as healthy as when we get our soil balanced with these colonies. I just came across this description of a living soil, take a moment and read it. I thought it was very cool how the author described it - Soil Microbes and their importance You could potentially just top dress with some castings or compost later, but it's simply not the same as having them mixed right into your soil. You can use a good soil over and over - get these items, or at the very least, one or the other, added to your mix at the rate of 20% to 35%. That is what I would do. J