First try at a no dig soil mix

[billygoat]

I've been inspired by DoNothingGarden's thread to make my own potting mix for next year's crop.

 

I have 4 worm cafes (from Bunnings) and 2 X 100litre compost bins so no shortage of worm castings or compost.

 

Over the last few days I have ordered:

 

Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss

5mm Scoria

Rice Hulls

Malted Barley Grain

Regenerate Blend

Aloe Powder

Kelp Meal

Neam Meal

Crustacean Meal

Rock Phosphate

Gypsum

Mycogold Beneficial Fungi

Biochar

Fulvic Acid Powder

 

Have I forgotten anything?

 

When I've made the soil up and let it cook I currently plan to plant a green manure crop until I am ready to start the new crop.

 

I'll buy some of DNG's 95 litre fabric pots when they are back in stock unless someone has a better idea.

 

I have a while until I need to make the mix (assuming fresh is best) so I'll be trawling the net to see how others do it.

I'm hoping that the members who make their own will be offering suggestions as I don't know what I'm doing at the moment

Hi mate, if you wouldn’t mind sharing the ratios you decide on to mix up and also (castings and compost excluded) a cost per litre of finished soil ?

[itchybromusic]

I've been inspired by DoNothingGarden's thread to make my own potting mix for next year's crop.

 

I have 4 worm cafes (from Bunnings) and 2 X 100litre compost bins so no shortage of worm castings or compost.

 

Over the last few days I have ordered:

 

Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss

5mm Scoria

Rice Hulls

Malted Barley Grain

Regenerate Blend

Aloe Powder

Kelp Meal

Neam Meal

Crustacean Meal

Rock Phosphate

Gypsum

Mycogold Beneficial Fungi

Biochar

Fulvic Acid Powder

 

Have I forgotten anything?

 

When I've made the soil up and let it cook I currently plan to plant a green manure crop until I am ready to start the new crop.

 

I'll buy some of DNG's 95 litre fabric pots when they are back in stock unless someone has a better idea.

 

I have a while until I need to make the mix (assuming fresh is best) so I'll be trawling the net to see how others do it.

I'm hoping that the members who make their own will be offering suggestions as I don't know what I'm doing at the moment

hey oz

the boys have given you some good advice 

here's my added 2 cents 

 

when watering , add water slowly , lill bits at a time 

i have used a pump sprayer to water pots but i take the spray nozzle off 

turning the sprayer into a extension wand with a steady stream of water out the end 

 

a lill at a time then move to the next pot , keep going till all pots are all done then start again 

the less water weight means the water won't travel down that fast & will sit in spots for longer 

helping to re-hydrate the soil mix , also now you have aloe use it , the saponins in aloe or soap nuts 

will help to keep the soil hydrated  

 

in general i always water pots reasonably slowly , think of how rain waters the ground = takes allot 

of drops of rain to get deep in the soil 

 

as far as your mulch layer go's , how far did you fill the pot with soil & how much space did you leave 

for a mulch layer , is the pot full to the top with mulch = might be why the birds are in there 

 

you put worms in the pot , were they compost worms , might be another reason for the birds

compost worms like to hover round the top soil surface , unlike earth worms which like to go a bit deeper 

having both kinds of worms is good but not a "must have" , one kind of worm is fine 

 

don't get caught up on exotic amendments best to use local resources as much poss , making it easier 

to source the same amendment each time for a reasonable price , you can def use soft coral lime but 

dolomite is easier to find , could also use oyster shell , often sold as oyster shell grit for birds but as i said

dolomite = cal mag is pretty easy to find & can use it in the compost bins , pretty sure the worm conditioner 

sold for your worm farm is just a can of dolomite 

 

is the bio-char activated ?

 

amendment amounts is a bit of a guess based on what others have done & had tested 

i use neem , kelp , gypsum & crab shell ( or dolomite ) @ 1/4 cup per 1/2 cubic foot of the base mix 

also to 1/2 cubic foot i add 1/2 cup of malted barley powder , 2.5 cups of basalt rock dust & 3 cups of

activated bio-char 

i use crab sell to lime & for the chitin it has but again dolomite is fine , you can use the crustacean meal you have 

 

buy a cheap coffee grinder to use to make powder out of the malted barley , i also use it to make crushed oyster shells

into oyster shell flour 

 

also buy a cheap tarp , i use one to mix soil on by picking up the sides & corners & rolling the soil mix to the opposite

side or corner & repeating  until it's rolled round enough to be considered mixed 

 

good luck with it mate 

[ozraptorismine]

Hi mate, if you wouldn’t mind sharing the ratios you decide on to mix up and also (castings and compost excluded) a cost per litre of finished soil ?

 

I am still researching so I'm not decided what and what proportions yet, but I can tell you what it bought from where:

 

From Active Vista

NTS fluvic acid powder

 

 

From DNG

Regenerate blend

Aloe powder

Kelp meal

Neem meal

 

 

From Nuleaf

TE Em Sphagnum peat moss (235 litres)

 

 

From Organic Garden Solutions

Oyster shell flower

Rice hulls

Malted barley grain

Soft rock phosphate

Palagonite

Gypsum

Crustacean meal

Coffee grounds

Bokashi 1

 

 

Diggers

Mycogold

Rockdust

Biochar

 

I will do a costing for you when I'm done but at this stage DNG's bulk price is looking like good value.

 

I obviously have some duplications, the Bokashi/Mycogold and the rockdust/soft rock phosphate for example.

[ozraptorismine]

hey oz

the boys have given you some good advice 

here's my added 2 cents 

 

when watering , add water slowly , lill bits at a time 

i have used a pump sprayer to water pots but i take the spray nozzle off 

turning the sprayer into a extension wand with a steady stream of water out the end 

 

a lill at a time then move to the next pot , keep going till all pots are all done then start again 

the less water weight means the water won't travel down that fast & will sit in spots for longer 

helping to re-hydrate the soil mix , also now you have aloe use it , the saponins in aloe or soap nuts 

will help to keep the soil hydrated  

 

in general i always water pots reasonably slowly , think of how rain waters the ground = takes allot 

of drops of rain to get deep in the soil 

 

as far as your mulch layer go's , how far did you fill the pot with soil & how much space did you leave 

for a mulch layer , is the pot full to the top with mulch = might be why the birds are in there 

 

you put worms in the pot , were they compost worms , might be another reason for the birds

compost worms like to hover round the top soil surface , unlike earth worms which like to go a bit deeper 

having both kinds of worms is good but not a "must have" , one kind of worm is fine 

 

don't get caught up on exotic amendments best to use local resources as much poss , making it easier 

to source the same amendment each time for a reasonable price , you can def use soft coral lime but 

dolomite is easier to find , could also use oyster shell , often sold as oyster shell grit for birds but as i said

dolomite = cal mag is pretty easy to find & can use it in the compost bins , pretty sure the worm conditioner 

sold for your worm farm is just a can of dolomite 

 

is the bio-char activated ?

 

amendment amounts is a bit of a guess based on what others have done & had tested 

i use neem , kelp , gypsum & crab shell ( or dolomite ) @ 1/4 cup per 1/2 cubic foot of the base mix 

also to 1/2 cubic foot i add 1/2 cup of malted barley powder , 2.5 cups of basalt rock dust & 3 cups of

activated bio-char 

i use crab sell to lime & for the chitin it has but again dolomite is fine , you can use the crustacean meal you have 

 

buy a cheap coffee grinder to use to make powder out of the malted barley , i also use it to make crushed oyster shells

into oyster shell flour 

 

also buy a cheap tarp , i use one to mix soil on by picking up the sides & corners & rolling the soil mix to the opposite

side or corner & repeating  until it's rolled round enough to be considered mixed 

 

good luck with it mate 

Thanks for your post, lots of good advice there.

 

I am watering as slowly as I can now to try to limit leaching of nutrients.

 

Yeah I was late mulching and didn't really leave enough space.

 

Is the Biochar activated? I don't know, Diggers say "Nutrient bonded fixed carbon soil conditioner" so I'll have to find out or get some elsewhere.

 

I have a couple of cheap plastic tarps but I think I'd prefer to do it in the cheap Bunnings 160 litre container I posted earlier. I'm happy to be up to my elbows mixing it all up.

 

I still need to buy fabric bags for next year's grow; I was surprised when OGS recommended that a 5 gallon bag would be sufficient. That is 5 US gallons or less than 18 litres. I had been thinking a 95 litre bag for outdoors but maybe a 7 gallon (26.5 litres) would be possible. OGS have square bags with tabs so that I could stake the bag to keep it stable in strong winds. Alternatively I could look at DNG's 56 litre bag as OGS's biggest bag is the 7 gallon.

 

Any opinions?

[billygoat]

I potted my plants up quite late this year.

 

And using Easy As Organics soil in one 50L pot has worked fine.  with maybe 7-8 weeks to go, i reckon it will get her through without anything bar water.. 

 

I would love to see it tested with a 10 foot plant. 

[itchybromusic]

Thanks for your post, lots of good advice there.

 

I am watering as slowly as I can now to try to limit leaching of nutrients.

 

Yeah I was late mulching and didn't really leave enough space.

 

Is the Biochar activated? I don't know, Diggers say "Nutrient bonded fixed carbon soil conditioner" so I'll have to find out or get some elsewhere.

 

I have a couple of cheap plastic tarps but I think I'd prefer to do it in the cheap Bunnings 160 litre container I posted earlier. I'm happy to be up to my elbows mixing it all up.

 

I still need to buy fabric bags for next year's grow; I was surprised when OGS recommended that a 5 gallon bag would be sufficient. That is 5 US gallons or less than 18 litres. I had been thinking a 95 litre bag for outdoors but maybe a 7 gallon (26.5 litres) would be possible. OGS have square bags with tabs so that I could stake the bag to keep it stable in strong winds. Alternatively I could look at DNG's 56 litre bag as OGS's biggest bag is the 7 gallon.

 

Any opinions?

think about the pot your growing in as a worm farm that you need  to keep feeding 

you need to leave a bit of room at the top of the pot to do that , keeping in mind 

the size of your pot , if you were planning 95lts then get a pot bigger to leave plenty of 

space to add to the mulch layer 

 

you can activate bio-char yourself pretty simply so no worries there , sounds like it might 

be activated already with the statement " Nutrient Bonded " 

 

no worries mixing soil is a pain in the backside , however you feel it works for you is good

just musk up if your gunna get elbows deep 

 

living soils work so much better in larger volumes , stick with your thinking , 

in this case bigger really is better  , you do have to keep in mind plant size 

when using larger volumes of soil , some strain planted early can get big

 

no pots here under 50lts in my garden & anything down at 50lts gets a plant real late in the season

 

i reckon 50lts is the bare minimum size , 75lts would be better as a minimum  

[ozraptorismine]

Thanks for the replies guys, you have reinforced my opinion that 50 litres is the minimum size I want. The bags that DNG has would be possible but the dimensions he has listed don't work. His 95 litre bag is supposed to be 53cm X  40cm  X 10(?)cm. That equals .0212 cubic metres or 21.2 litres. I think it should be 53cm X 40cm X 45cm. That would give 95.4 litres and I could live with 53 cm maximum height of the bag.

 

I'm hoping that DNG will contribute to this thread and give his viewpoint.

[kloud9]

I potted my plants up quite late this year.

 

And using Easy As Organics soil in one 50L pot has worked fine. with maybe 7-8 weeks to go, i reckon it will get her through without anything bar water..

 

I would love to see it tested with a 10 foot plant.

Yeah me to, I'm thinking on where I can run one ..

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[ozraptorismine]

 

 

I would love to see it tested with a 10 foot plant. 

 

It will have to be someone else; 2 metres + 50cm for the pot is as tall as I can keep concealed from the neighbours.

Edited March 6, 2019 by ozraptorismine

[kloud9]

It will have to be someone else; 2 metres + 50cm for the pot is as tall as I can keep concealed from the neighbours.

Ok in the organic living soil ? Pics please

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app