My First No-Till Soil -- Feedback - Advice Pls

Hello Everyone,

This is my first time and a few people have given me guidance and I have done some reading and I should have what I need for a water only garden in which I can start 7 days after mixing roughly -- here we go:

20 gallons perlite
20 gallon peat moss
10 gallons EWC
10 gallons Compost -- still need to find a good one (in Canada)

then 4 cups of each:
- organic neem / karanja
- kelp meal
- alfalfa Meal
- crab Meal

32 cups of Rock dust:
-------- 22 cups of glacier rock
--------5 cups of bentonite ------is there anything else I can replace this with - told it would clump
------- 5 cups of oyster shell

Or I could go with this blend for Rock Dust - 32 cups but more expensive:

Rock blend – Basalt, Carbontite, Oyster, Soft rock and Woolastonite $51/ 10 lbs

Please give me feedback as I want to ensure I am on the right track.
I was told to wet this and mix it and let it sit for a week and then top with 2" of EWC and good to go.

Feedback please

I'd add dolomite lime, peat is a touch acidic
I'm a fan of fish bone meal also.
If you let it sit even longer than a week before use, all the better. Either way you'll be fine though.

I guess I have a question too, 5 cups of bentonite, is that too much? I'm not sure, but I'm always cautious when using it. I think it's fairly strong. Something to look into, I don't know for sure.

I use this recipe pretty much, thr base ingredients are exactly what i use, with a few extras such as cottonseed meal, humid acid in small amounts, and few that I may be forgetting. I don't use bone or blood meal, nor any guanos, but just my preference. I think your on a very good track. I use this soil on cannabis and tons of other types of plants, it does really well.

I would add some redworms.

Hopefully they will find something to eat and their castings will help your plants.

Im no expert but from what I've been reading, you don't want to use perlite in no-till because eventually it will break down and allow compaction.

I use the same mix but sub the betonite for gypsum. I add worms like st phatty recommended and mulch with a 2-3 inch layer of various botanicals, compost, alfalfa straw and barley straw(the majority of the mulch is barley straw). Also use lava rocks or pumice instead of perlite, perlite works but can rise to the top over time.

thejact55 said:

I'd add dolomite lime, peat is a touch acidic

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The oyster shell balances out the peat just the same with a much better calcium/mag ratio

raw bentonit is better than fine...when fear for clumping

surfguitar said:

... Also use lava rocks or pumice instead of perlite, perlite works but can rise to the top over time...

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+1

I can't stand perlite.