i am going to keep the original mix as it worked very well for me. not trying to fix anything just thought about chitin. post #26 is the mix we talked about. i like it and trust it so much now i'm doing this mix in 200 g next season. i was just curious what it looked like if i wanted to add for chitin

[dank.frank]

Originally Posted by dank.frank

I try to feed the soil some "nutrition" from what I view as the three main areas the earth (soil) recycles and provides for itself - 1. animal matter, 2. earth matter, 3. plant matter. I think these things are all relatively obvious - but for quick examples: 1. blood, bone, manures, guanos, etc. 2. rock dusts, minerals, clays, etc. 3. alfalfa meal, kelp meal, neem meal, comfrey, yarrow, etc.

I have stuck with this general principle any time I've made a mix public. I've tried straight guano, straight blood and bone, straight "vegan" and pretty much every combination of anything in between.

I know people insist that nitrogen is nitrogen and a plant doesn't care from what source it receives it...by why does the meat from a grass fed cow taste different than the meat from a corn fed cow? Why do wild animals such as deer, rabbit, duck, turkey - taste completely different (game-y) than farm raised animals?

Maybe not a fair comparison, but in my own personal experience, I've noticed significant differences in flavor from plants grown with different soil inputs.

My concern for removing alfalfa completely and replacing it with another animal based product, would be an alteration in the flavor profile.

I include alfalfa in the basic amendment recipe because over the years in different trial mixes I recorded significant growth rate increases with the inclusion of it compared to a control.

Since you already have the shrimp meal, in thinking about things, try mixing a couple test batches as follows:

1/2c blood
1/2c bone
2c shrimp

All you can do is try and see what you get. You have enough time to run a quick indoor clone run on some test plants to see what you think before going bigger.



dank.Frank