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building bulk soil pre mixed vs self assembled

H

HIMALAYAN GANJA

Member
St. Phatty said:
I suggest taking a class in Hot Composting at the community college, or reading a book about it.

Basically to learn to formulate your own KILLER soil.

The first part is to learn to mix nitrogen (manure) & carbon (wood chips) rich feedstocks.

It helps if they are steaming to begin with.

It doesn't have to be hot - it just de-composes a lot faster, into plant food, 10 weeks instead of 3 years.


I also got some great soil this year by digging up a winter creek-bed that had a madrone tree or 3 embedded in it.

The land was logged, they left some madrone trees at the bottom of a crevice, etc.

I used a 6 foot crow bar and broke up the rotten tree. Got about 2 cubic yards of what smells like earthworm castings but I think it's more like termite castings. Still I can tell it's very good dirt.


My guess is, you have some fantastic forest humus built up in places in the woods near your garden. 1 or 2 feet thick.

In my case I was doing a geological survey and also some wildfire control, found some rich veins of natural forest super soil.

Which seems to accumulate in crevices in the mountain-side.
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i completely agree. at first i was not going to post an opinion here since the original poster is growing medical standards and probably has rules to follow. but i can attest to the fact that by searching in the woods one can find excellent soil which seems to be a compost of all the vegetative matter thats out there plus its full of good microbes and one can even see strand of white mycelium growing in this ind of forest topsoil, which is the soil fungus that grows in coordination with roots
 
J

jidoka

Active member
slownickel said:
Just recently saw a sample. Not impressive. Huge amount of K and Na, Fe and Al. Very low P and Ca. Disaster....
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Saw the soil test today. Slow is correct...Fe off the charts. The more I see the less I like basalt...fine line between paramagnetic and magnetic. Fe is unfixable in this mix
 
h.h.

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
jidoka said:
Saw the soil test today. Slow is correct...Fe off the charts. The more I see the less I like basalt...fine line between paramagnetic and magnetic. Fe is unfixable in this mix
Click to expand...
A week ago, it was good. Now it has too much iron. If it worked a week ago, test figures don't change anything.
What am I missing?:biggrin:
 
G

Guest

Well I was hoping for some follow up from the posters who said they could provide more info on the Coast of Maine soil analysis.
 
FunkBomb

FunkBomb

Power Armor rules
Veteran
The stonington blend is great soil but expensive at $24/1.5 cft. The world record holder for giant pumpkins uses Coast of Maine lobster compost.

-Funk
 
G

Guest

FunkBomb said:
The stonington blend is great soil but expensive at $24/1.5 cft. The world record holder for giant pumpkins uses Coast of Maine lobster compost.

-Funk
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Thanks. There is a nursery in the area who supposedly carries it. Im going to grab a bag and try it for my patio tomato plants this summer. Just one plant and see how it compares to my current soil I use as a side by side comparison. If it works well I may be out of the soil mixing business. If I can buy a bagged product that will work well instead of having to mix and care for my own. Living in the burbs can make mixing soil a pain and potential flag to the nosy neighbors.
 
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