using coco instead of peat at the begining?

[al-k-mist]

being laid up post-op has its advantages, as I have accomplished a lot

However, one tends to overthink things.
If one does everything else the same, but substitutes coco coir for about half of the peat, would things work out?

the ammended recipe would read as follows
4 yards pumice
4 yards of organic compost and vermicompost(ratio to be determined)
1 pallet(30 bales) premier peat. 28 is 4 yards. ( plans were 2 pallets)
4 yards of rinsed coco
1600 lb of basalt, azomite, and glacial rock dusts
180 lb crab meal, crustacean meal, and organic fishbone meal
200 lb feed-grade thorvin kelp
132 lb neem seed meal, not DTE stuff
10 oz of BioAg Humisolve

And, I am open to (asking for ) suggestions for additions or changes. financial reasons were the reasons i was considering the change, in addition to the fact that coco seems to hold water better longer...id use coco totally, in place of peat, if it werent for the microbial content of the peat(which i confess to barely, if at all, understand, on a scientific level)

So thank you for any help or criticism you may have.
Joseph

 

[W89]

if you go back into my thread you will see I used coco for quite a large part of my mix... and the plants aint too bad either

 

[SeaMaiden]

being laid up post-op has its advantages, as I have accomplished a lot

However, one tends to overthink things.
If one does everything else the same, but substitutes coco coir for about half of the peat, would things work out?

the ammended recipe would read as follows
4 yards pumice
4 yards of organic compost and vermicompost(ratio to be determined)
1 pallet(30 bales) premier peat. 28 is 4 yards. ( plans were 2 pallets)
4 yards of rinsed coco
1600 lb of basalt, azomite, and glacial rock dusts
180 lb crab meal, crustacean meal, and organic fishbone meal
200 lb feed-grade thorvin kelp
132 lb neem seed meal, not DTE stuff
10 oz of BioAg Humisolve

And, I am open to (asking for ) suggestions for additions or changes. financial reasons were the reasons i was considering the change, in addition to the fact that coco seems to hold water better longer...id use coco totally, in place of peat, if it werent for the microbial content of the peat(which i confess to barely, if at all, understand, on a scientific level)

So thank you for any help or criticism you may have.
Joseph

Sorry to hear you're laid up, I went through it last year myself with an ACL replacement. You're doing this on quite some scale, I'm curious about local availability and quality of topsoil in your area. I prefer to use the product a local guy mixes up, and I get that 10yds at a time. As I build up our local earth into something more resembling soil, I'll have less need for it, and it's been two years since I've had to purchase the topsoil.

The only thing I have a question on is the pumice and what it's there for. Otherwise it appears that you're accounting for major and minor elements.

 

[al-k-mist]

Dank you, W89. i did, and am feeling better alreadt

pumice is instead of perlite, for aereation, and, i think, for places for the microbes to hang out and stuff.
the area im in is one of the best for organic growing in the world, the willamette valley. but out little portion is a lot of clay. (and we have found a large shale deposite..the rocky area will be perfect for graoes)
12 yards will be for 24 raised beds, 3x3x1.5. (like 95gallons). the rest will be for the garden area, one of them.
It has finally happened, that we have a place with no rules about what we can or cant do, as ANYTHING will increase value. making a 20X 60 greenhouse, and this soil mixing, is taking the last cent in the jar.
So, thanks for the input about the local topsoil. can i bend your ear(or eye), since you DO know science>??>
If going on percentages of the base mix, what percentage of topsoil, and why that percentage? i would send you a sample of the soil, but...
anyways, it is rocky, and clay-ish..some parts are darker, but clay under. all of the land was trees, but some cocksucker clearcut a lot of it and ran. but it was 2nd growth fir/cedar/madrone(they are still everywhere, so lovely). so that has something to do with soil content, im sure, acidic form the conifers(there are tons of springs
So is there anything im forgetting? any suggestions? and thanks for the tip about the local stuff, so obvious, but im scared of not peak performance.
Thank you both for your input
Namaste

 

[SeaMaiden]

Can you make biochar and add that to the mix?

The topsoil my guy mixes up starts with an organic compost (which he also sells), and then he adds in rock dusts, some sand, I can't remember what else. I go with him for a few reasons, not the least of which are a lack of the sort of equipment to make my own mixes on that scale, and levelness of land. I found him by doing two things--looking to see whose gardens were doing well (veggie) and calling around. We used his mix for our raised bed veggie gardens that we amended with some rock dusts, Harvest Supreme and the Dr. Earth veggie mix and had neighbors stopping by all the time to ask what we were doing. We have consistently had issues with blossom end rot on tomatoes and squashes (strangely, not *all* cucurbits) in this mix, though. Since I haven't had it tested so can't say where it's at right now.

The conditions you describe are much like where I am--clay+rocky 'soil', mostly conifers but some madrone & oak, and LOTS of Indian manzanita. The soil, being generous calling it that, is best under the manzanitas, but they drop a lot of leaf litter so it makes sense. Only a few spare inches down and we're on that clay again, though.

On top of the clay, do biochar and mix that with good compost and rock dusts (I like what you have outlined above, I do use more gypsum on my clay as the source of Ca than anything else, but have added some oyster shell flour and some other dusts that also offer CaCO3, but have ramped back on those because my water is very high in carbonates) and then, in conjunction with cover-cropping, I think you'll see what I'm beginning to see at the start of the third season building up my soil in some areas. I do use tilling, but not frequently.

This year we got a weed-flamer... or is it a flame-weeder? In any event, it uses fire to kill, and I'm going to use that in conjunction with more judicious turning (can't broadfork this shit, it's till, lightly shovel or nothing) of the cover crops to prevent stratification as my means of green manuring with aforementioned cover crops. When I harvest my veggies, etc, I also try to get as much of the original plant material back into the place where it was grown as I possibly can, so that I am hopefully returning as much mineral wealth as they grew. Does that sentence even make sense? I hope so.

You are so gonna have you some fun now!

 

[OrganicOzarks]

Peat, and rice hulls for the win.

 

[al-k-mist]

Fun, Ma'am?
Oh yeah, drag brush piles to the area, burn them, and then add to the mix

Which is what i plan to do, damn you...
so a few hours ago, stuck in here, i snuck to the growroom(first time since surgery)...1 bulb shot(new bulbs) and powdery mildew. changed the bulb and clipped the offensive plant parts, but got to thinking
The greenhouse will be mandatory, the first of many. and the numbers must stay at 24 flowering girls, so the thought was to build more soil and just build big beds
but been thinking today of halving the amount of soil, in order to do it right
but now
I didnt understand biochar, just read people mentioning it here and there, just read this article... http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx ... and now understand it fully, as well as its origins
jamaicans use a ganja growing tek known as slash and burn, then ashes/char fertilize some for next year

the new goals MIGHT be this
8 yards of soil, built as previously mentioned, w maybe biochar.(that work will definitely not be approved by my better half). 6 cu ft pots(42 gal...should bee plenty). 24 of them.
AND
work on buiding up a lot of the soil, using biochar, compost, and rock dusts, for our gardens, which are going to be how we make a living.

Thank you so fucking much, i cant explain the ideas that flowed from one idea, people laugh at them(ideas) anyways.

 

[SeaMaiden]

I've been looking for the demonstration page & video for making rice hull biochar, and I just can't find it. The technique is a lot simpler than building a pyrolizer, though, so it's the technique I'm going to use myself. (Besides, did those Amazonians have pyrolizers? I didn't think so.)

You've got your rice hulls on hand, I buy mine (when I can source them) in bulk bales, as sold for animal bedding. It's usually something like 6'cu/bale.

Start a small fire, then bury it with rice hulls. Wait for a vent to open up, cover it with rice hulls. Whenever a vent opens up, you cover it with hulls, until all the hulls are used up. Then you begin turning, so as to ensure all hulls are charred but not burnt up to ash. Then, stop the burn by spreading out and hosing down. Et voila. Biochar without a pyrolizer.