What SuperSoil Amendment Do You Always Try to Include? Why?

Unconventional carb sources besides molasses. The flavor can be steered by what bacteria strains you attract and what you feed them. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/406155/brewing-new-fruit-flavors-in-bacteria/


Poo of rabbit whom I fed my skunk diet to (rabbits have anal glands too ya know).

I haven’t been mixing organic soil for too long, but like most have said, EWC is a must. But other than that, the soil seems to have a better effect on the plants the more different amendments you add...proportionally of course. My guess is each amendment is taken up thru the plant in its own special way, so more bases are covered. Again though, my opinion isn’t worth guano really. Only been mixing my own medium for a year or so.

h.h. said:

Reading into this a bit...
Generally, if you dig a hole and fill it with amendments, you basically have a potted plant. The roots have little incentive to move out of the hole. Some amendments get too hot when buried or they will decompose at a different rate. Depending on the compaction of the surrounding soil, you're hole may also hold excess moisture.
It's the top couple of inches that has the most oxygen. That's where you want most of your amendments.
If the soil has been freshly dug, work them in a couple of inches. If it hasn't been dug up or tilled, topdress with a little mulch as not to disturb what's there.

Click to expand...

i have already Straw as mulch
the surrounding soil is hard red-clay
so just sprinkle some Oatmeal and cover again with mulch ?

recently i am worried about the compaction of the mix, bcz all the coco-coir was consumed by the time...now i am wondering : how to make a lighter mix without to dig ?? if possibile

few weeks ago i added on top some dried comfrey leaves and 250gr of my hair

any suggestion ?
thx so much

Vaporizando192 said:

i have already Straw as mulch
the surrounding soil is hard red-clay
so just sprinkle some Oatmeal and cover again with mulch ?

recently i am worried about the compaction of the mix, bcz all the coco-coir was consumed by the time...now i am wondering : how to make a lighter mix without to dig ?? if possibile

few weeks ago i added on top some dried comfrey leaves and 250gr of my hair

any suggestion ?
thx so much

Click to expand...

After my mulch is down, I usually just add to the top and moisten it.

Your hole may be holding water. There's no sub drainage.

Possibly...
Prod with rebar, pipe or maybe even something going as far to pull a few out plugs and fill the holes with some sort of wick material.

Dig alongside and provide drainage.

Let it dry out a bit, only keeping the top moist.

Do nothing and fix it next run...

Use raised beds.

Dig a bigger hole next time.

All of the above.

None of the above.

h.h. said:

Possibly...
Prod with rebar, pipe or maybe even something going as far to pull a few out plugs and fill the holes with some sort of wick material.

Dig alongside and provide drainage.

Let it dry out a bit, only keeping the top moist.

Do nothing and fix it next run...

Use raised beds.

Dig a bigger hole next time.

All of the above.

None of the above.

Click to expand...

Have a similar issue currently, lack of drainage of my organic soil mix due to decomposing buckwheat hulls.
The only idea I had to fix it during the current run was to put the smart pots on some grid or a wooden pallet or something the like ("use raised beds").

But the idea to drill some holes in the soil mix with a pipe and fill it with a wicking agent (perlite would work, right?) sounds intriguing.
I might give that a go. Because most of the plants (not all) look really sad right about now. They haven't been watered for 9 days straight in 5 gallon smart pots and they still have moisture at the core ...

You can also up pot them.

I'm wondering if you all are using gypsum.
I've found with fabric pots, that they act as a filter where gypsum and other salts will collect.
While I don't use a lot of water every time , I do on occasion flood just to push all that stuff on through. Still without formal drainage holes, it's going to stop at the fabric, eventually defeating it's purpose.
Not necessarily a problem.
Fabric pots can be loaded a bit heavier with nutrients making a heavier soil. The denser the soil, the more we depend on the pots to take up the slack. When they start to fail the balance is thrown off.
Mind you, all guesswork here except for what isn't. No advice, only things to ponder. I have no way of knowing things over the internet.

Nah no gypsum.

Used oystershell flower and dolomite lime in that regard.

My problem is likely the buckwheat hulls I took in place of perlite. They decompose faster than I thought (although others warned me of it before) and both leech N from the soil mix in doing so and compacting the soil further. I have no other ingredient to help with drainage and have also topdressed considerable amounts of EWC to combat the N-deficiency. So the soil is just draining very poorly now.

My hope is that they won't take a week without water too hard now and just water them less frequently. Also I will give them a tea today (they were without water for 9 days now ..) and defoliate them. Hope they will bounce back then.

If not, I will try the trick with drilling holes in the soil and filling them with perlite. And maybe to put a metal grid below them, if I can find one.

Otherwise I ride it out and hope when I mix some perlite into the soil mix after the harvest, things will be alright going forward.

If all this fails I will either ditch organic soil altogether or mix another, new batch of soil, yet again...

my organic mix with base of perlite and coco needed some clay type in it, it was too loose.

So for the last few runs I've been putting in a few kg of diatomaceous earth in my mix.

Its been great! It adds silica once broken down and it helps against drying out by adding a clay type effect.

h.h. said:

After my mulch is down, I usually just add to the top and moisten it.

Your hole may be holding water. There's no sub drainage.
on the bottom of the hole there are 10-15 cm of broken ceramic dishes and cups

Possibly...
Prod with rebar, pipe or maybe even something going as far to pull a few out plugs and fill the holes with some sort of wick material.

Dig alongside and provide drainage.
could be my solution, thx for the suggestion

Let it dry out a bit, only keeping the top moist.

Do nothing and fix it next run...
there is no plant there at the moment, jut wondering how to solve without to disturb the nature's work...for the next run

Use raised beds.
ok i will do it in another garden, sounds much better
any good read here (or somewherelse) about that topic ?
wondering how many cm should i dig before to place the soil-mix on the top...and...no bottom-drainage in Raised Beds ?

Dig a bigger hole next time.
u inspire me with the Raised ones

All of the above.

None of the above.

Click to expand...

thx

oldbootz said:

my organic mix with base of perlite and coco needed some clay type in it, it was too loose.

So for the last few runs I've been putting in a few kg of diatomaceous earth in my mix.

Its been great! It adds silica once broken down and it helps against drying out by adding a clay type effect.

Click to expand...

DE is good. I've also used plain dirt. Stir it up in your water so that the silt is in suspension, then use the dirty water.