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Suggestions and critique please

D

Dreambig

Member
I'm trying to get my 300 gallon pot ready for this upcoming season. It will be a greenhouse here in colorado. Last year I planted the first week of May this year I'll prolly wait till mid may. The original recipe included;
Fish bone meal, soybean meal, neem seed meal, kelp meal, crab meal, alfalfa meal, and I think I used feather meal also. As far as the minerals mix I used azomite and glacial rock dust. Lime mix was 2 parts oyster shell flour to 1 part gypsum and 1 part dolomite lime. Every few weeks I hit it with a compost tea which I also plan on doing again this year..
Everything turned out real good the only problem I ran into was a small magnesium deficiency which was easily corrected by folier feeding with Epsom salt twice.
I forgot to ad the medium breakdown which was mostly peat, one bag of coco, rice hulls, compost, ewc, and lava rock with straw on top as a mulch.

This year I'm thinkin about just adding neem seed cake, kelp, ewc, alfalfa meal,compost, glacial rock dust and azomite. Then topping it off with more straw and maybe some crimson clover, or other living mulch.
Some people say the straw is a bad idea because it takes some nitrogen. But I think it's good because it keeps the moist. What do you guys think?
Here's a lab report of the soil, I know I'm low in micronutrients and that's my main focus. Any suggestions, input or critique will be much appreciated. The column to look at is the far right one labeled greenhouse.

Thanks.
 

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D

Dreambig

Member
The main reason for my posting is because I'm not sure if my micros will be in range with what I plan on adding and I'm thinkin the best way to get them will through cover crops/living mulch. Or maybe I would be better off with just adding chopped up nettle, comfrey, etc...
 
M

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
Sounds like you know more about soil than me, but I was thinking ACT. Make a big batch in a 55 gal container and feed that to em. You'll big air pump tho and make sure the end of the stone stays on the bottom.
 
G

Granger2

Active member
Veteran
Straw will use some N, but that can easily be compensated. I'd use ACT more often than every few weeks. Every other week would be good. If health, quality, and production were good then I'd say your doing pretty well.Two foliars w/epsom is not bad if everything else was OK. I think I'd use an additional source of trace. A product that I'm seriously impressed with the results of is Sea Crop, concentrated sea water with 95% of the NaCl removed. Use it about monthly. Good luck. -granger
P.S.-I add it to my ACT at the beginning of brew with MO or some other sugar source.
 
S

soil margin

Active member
Veteran
All of these recommendations are coming from my soil growers guide so don't get mad if you disagree. Your calcium:magnesium ratio should be close to 6:1 ideally. You have over a 10:1 ratio right now. You want to amend more magnesium into the soil despite that test saying it's above the ideal range. A little light on potassium as well.

You have less than half of the suggested minimum for boron. Boron levels of .8 ppm is the minimum, 1.5 ppm is ideal and 2 ppm is the maximum.

Your manganese is low as well. Manganese is needed at a minimum of 20 ppm, 40 ppm is ideal.

Copper is low as well, copper is needed in the soil at 1.5 ppm minimum and over 4 ppm is excessive.

Zinc is a touch low as well, Zinc is needed at a minimum of 4 ppm; 6 to 8 ppm is ideal and above 10 ppm is excessive.


If I was you I would make my first priority to add magnesium and then to find a quality amendment source for these trace elements you are lacking in. GL.
 
D

Dreambig

Member
Ya I know I'm low in those micros that's why I posted because I'm shaving a hard time coming up with what amenments will help me get to where I wanna be.
-alfalfa meal will help with iron, manganese, potassium, and magnesium.
Also I have some langbeinite laying around which I'll prolly use, which also has magnesium in it.
 
Y

yeeee510

New member
hey soil margin where did you get a soil growers guide? i am looking to learn more about organic soil and make a mix
 
D

Dreambig

Member
I should add that the amended column in the second report is the from the same bin labeled used bin from the first picture/ report. I had 35-40 gallons of used indoor soil, I added 4 cups of each; kelp meal, glacial rock dust, and azomite. I will also be mixing that at about a 5:1 or 4:1 ratio with ewc or compost, maybe half and half. I was thinking about adding 3 cups each of neem meal, crab meal and fish bone meal...

The compost that's on the second report will be combined to the greenhouse beds column from the first report. At the rough rate of 25 gallons to the already 200 in the pots. So about a 1:8 ratio. As for dry amendments I'm going to go with azomite, glacial rock dust, neem meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and greensand. I've got lama beans/ manure that I'll throw in their as well. There's cow and horse manure laying around that I'll top dress later down the road maybe.
Soil margin where do we find the soil growers guide that you speak of? Google won't tell me.haha
 
MrTea

MrTea

some guy
Veteran
Check out BIOAG TM-7. Humic acid with readily available micronutrients water soluble. Will solve all your problems.
 
L

Luther Burbank

The trick next cycle through of compost make sure you're adding those trace minerals, either through rock dust into your bins or BioAGs TM-7.

Ca:Mg ratio depends on how heavy or light your soil is. Ca loosens soil and Mg binds, generally speaking. More Ca if you're on heavy clay, more Mg if you're on sand and need to bind things a little.
 
spook719

spook719

Member
so is that guide based on what pumpkins need or plants in general? I though different plants use more or less of certain nutrients depending on the variety.
 
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