What's up fellas and gals, I was curious as to how much do you feed your plants, how often and how do you top dress it? Just layer it over as a dress around the stem and water? Just got my package of alfalfa meal and earthworm castings, will be receiving tomato tone and I'm planing to use them for these clones and maybe a few other runs. The one in the foam cup is in roots organic original potting soil and the other is in kelloggs patio plus. Need some help, thanks in advance
Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners Read that sticky thread and also check out the reading material in the rest of the sticky threads in the organic growing section. I started from seed and my plants are about as big as yours maybe a little bigger. I have been reading the information for weeks its all very informative and helpful. I will give you the soil mix I did that requires no top dressing or added nutrients until you are close to flowering but even then you probably won't need any. At least thats what I have been told I havn't got that far yet. The soil mix I used is the following. 5 gallon bucket was used for measurement. 1 part= 1/2 bucket or 2.5 gallons 1 part Peat 1/2 part Compost 1/2 part Earthworm Castings 1 1/2 part Aeration I did a 3:1 Perlite, Pumice mix but any aeration component will work. 1 cup of dolomite lime (make sure it is the normal long-term release not instant or hydrated) Amendments: For 1 cu feet Easy (what I did): 2.5 cups of Dr. Earths All Purpose Fertilizer .5 cups of Kelp Meal Advanced: (From scratch, what I plan on doing in the future) 2 cups Alfalfa meal .5 cups of lime .5 cups Bone meal .5 cups of kelp meal
Plenty of info in the organics section. Feel free to use the search function or look to the stickies at the top of the threads list. Build your self a good soil.
Thanks for the info and the thread, will be checking it out in a bit. I'll probably mix some of the stuff I ordered along with other stuff I see in the thread when I order some black gold natural and organic soil. Yeah I'll probably check the stickies if I don't find out how to feed them in the thread jollybud addressed me to. Thanks
Be sure to use the advanced search functions to search the current thread you are viewing. Real time saver.
I had some similar questions and this is what I learned. It's from a lecture that's been removed from YouTube. This info is also in Teaming with Microbes in GiMiKs Library in the stickies. You need to learn about the soil food web to understand how this all works and when you read the info here, it all makes sense easier.
This is the quote that helped me a lot. It's from jerry. Get your compost/vermicompost figured out and you won't have many questions that need an answer. What I'm trying to say here is that in an organic garden, first and foremost, before absolutely anything else, the single most important thing which will make or break your garden is the quality; the viability of the compost and/or the vermicompost which you base your soil on. ALL ELSE IS SECONDARY - period. Now, I'm not saying that certain soil amendments aren't important but the recipes we advocate around here are surely not set in stone - not by a long shot. As long as you make sure that you are using good, rich compost and/or worm castings then you are basically assured of success. The rock dusts we use, the kelp, the neem seed meal, the alfalfa - whatever are all great soil amendments but if you were to have really good compost, made sure that your mix drained well and used what "amendment also are local and available to you that as long as you are able to feed your soil microbes good stuff - and I don't care if it's comfrey or dandelions or coffee grounds (composted, please), or shrimp shells from dinner, egg shells from breakfast or spinach from the supermarket (or all of the above) that you WILL do well. There are many, many variables in an organic garden but at the end of the day it ALL comes back to having living compost/castings as the basis of your soil mix. Use what you can! Use what's available to YOU. The soil recipes, the "teas" that you'll see around here are guidelines and nothing more. Now, there's obviously some things you want to stay away from and which I won't get into but I will tell you that I have had many very successful gardens that do not follow any recipes at all but instead are a bunch of junk that I've put together from right here on my own property. Right now and for the last year my indoor garden has been growing very happily and very productive in homemade compost, compost based on autumn leaves, horse manure, kitchen scraps, loads of comfrey and a shitload of lobster shells. There's no peat, no lime, no rock dust, no kelp and no neem with the exception of an occasional top dress of some odds and ends that I just have lying around. Hell, there's no additional worm castings added with the exception of the worms that live naturally in the soil. I haven't even added any aeration because the leaf mold is so naturally fluffy. The soil is alive and healthy and that's what matters - not this or that amendment. Remember, we aren't NPK gardeners, we are natural living soil gardeners. I used to follow recipes closely, measuring this item and that item but I've discovered that this is damn near impossible to screw up lol. It's cool if you're able to source all the stuff in the recipes you'll find around here but there's also always a way to switch this and that so don't be afraid to do so. You can always ask before you do. Make this a fun thing and not a chore because it can be a real blast and so much fun. Sorry to ramble. I think I'm rambling lol. Did I even make any sense whatsoever? J
actually that quote is from CC i believe. Jerry uses it as his sig. great info though ML! and its right your compost is whats feeding the plant mostly.
