Ok, I am working my way through all 589 pages of the no till thread. I live in "no wheresville" in northern Canada. I am an experienced outdoor vegetable grower but have never done an indoor veg grow//or grown mj. Sooo....what I have: 1/3 each: Coco coir Perlite/vermiculite/lava rocks Compost (mainly my own vermicompost/castings; some seaweed compost for variety Amended with: Kelp granules (2C/cf) Egg shells (I have chickens) 1C/cf Crab shells, baked, pulverized 1C/cf Aalfalfa meal (2C/cf) I'm having a hard time finding neem or rock dust locally, and the internet is looking verrrry expensive with shipping. Will this be ok or should I suck it up and buy it anyways? I also have bone & blood meal available but I am cautious of them. I can also get epsom salts? I have some old fish in the freezer? Not sure what to be doing here; thanks for everything. Im also a home brewwer so I have ready access to malted grains, airstones for teas etc. Should I find some kind of charcoal? Bio-char is also extremely expensive to have shipped here. I will have a clover living mulch. 20G smart pots. I just mixed up most of it to cycle for a month but can still add things. Also using this to grow tomatoes as the so called fresh ones I buy at Safeway are total garbage. Thanks!!!! Jayce
Rock dust is very important for the bacteria and fungi and minerals... And I've heard you can get rock dust for cheap locally if you can find a tile company or someone making granite counters or anyone cutting granite... they will have "slurry" dust leftover from cutting they usually throw away, so you might even be able to get it for free. Otherwise I'd pay for the shipping... but maybe not on the neem since you have alfalfa and kelp. Then you can just use liquid neem for pests. Bio char seems like more of a bonus... but it is flaky and relatively light weight... But of course remember whatever you gotta order online... you might not ever have to order again.
Oh and maybe too late but why not use peat moss instead of coco? All that stuff is from Canada anyway.
two things i would pay to ship (and have) are neem meal and kelp. alfalfa does not replace neem. rock dust as PB said, find a stone cutter or what i did i found a basalt quarry a couple hours drive and they let me take as much dust as i wanted. bio char: its great but you can make it yourself. you can make a biochar oven or what i did was just take some whole wood barbecue charcoal (you dont want bricks) and then i used a 5gallon bucket and a 2x2 to smash it all up. then you would need to charge it by soaking it in compost for a couple of weeks.
I mixed some neem oil with Dr Bonner and spray everyday until flowering Sent from my SM-N900P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Using coir as it is sustainable. Do I need to additionally amend with something for calcium or sulphur? Findinf some confusing info.
coir doesn't have near the cation exchange capacity as sphagnum peat moss and not as ecofriendly as some believe. you would have to figure out some sort of special mix to deal with coirs weird calcium requirements. peat is very user friendly and there is quite a bit left. if you're doing no till, most think of it as a one time purchase. personally, if you can't find neem meal or rock dust locally, i wouldn't pay the shipping. i would for kep or crab meal but i've used the recipe without neem for my first round and it was just fine and i don't notice that much of a difference. i helped a guy out in canada try to locate stuff and i can't believe how hard it is and the cost involved to grow organically. when in a situation like this, i think wants and needs are different. what we pay for shipping on a big bag of neem is close to $50 but international shipping is quite a bit more. i think it cost the guy i helped close to $200 to get the mineral and nutrient pack from BAS. he couldn't locate neem meal so maybe you're in the same situation and we may take that for granted.
You might want to add some oyster shell flour to it. Its calcium and used for liming. I've also opted out of paying for shipping when i ran out of neem meal and just used alfalfa. Neem meal is great but alfalfa and neem oil does the job for me. Its mainly the nitrogen in the neem you are replacing when using alfalfa. If I could I would stick to neem meal though.
are there no agricultural supply stores around you? These may be items you can have special ordered--thrown on a pallet that's already destined for your local shop. Here in Maine we have an awesome spot called FEDCO. Not sure your location, but you may have something similar. Maybe calling your states organic certification organization would provide leads for organic amendments. Our local organization is usually helpful when called upon. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum mobile app