Hey all, first post here. Been reading this thread, phew is there a lot of good stuff here. But WOW 384 pages, I am only on page 40! I still have a lot to catch up on. But I decided to jump to the end and ask a quick question before I get to far ahead of myself.
I recently bought a yard of Empire Builder mix by sanctuary soils out here in CA. Heres a link to see their page if anyone's interested.
http://sanctuarysoil.com/empire-builder/
The ingredients are as follows:
coco coir, sphagnum peat moss, composted forest product, worm castings, coco chips, lava rock, pumice, perlite, gypsum, langbeinite, sea bird and bat guano, fish bonemeal, feather meal, bonemeal, limestone, greensand, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, glacial rock dust, azomite, soybean meal, and rice bran.
Unfortunately after I bought it all kinds off shit hit the fan and I had to deal with losing a garden to fire ants. (Lost like 50 plants, still swallowing that pill). Anyway, while I was dealing with the ant issue I never made it around to using the Empire soil, and it dried up in the 110 degree central california heat. So fastforward 3 months. I have read the revs book, overcomplicated the shit out of organics, and then started reading some stuff from buildasoil.com specifically this article here
http://buildasoil.com/blogs/news/9885098-why-tlo-dissecting-the-rev-mix-line-by-line. At the same time my buddy was turning me on to composted soil. And it got me rethinking my whole deal. So I was like, Eureka! I have this soil that is very heavily ammended thats just dry might as well bring it indoors, add some stuff and a month later use it for my notill indoor.
So to a half yard of soil I added:
15 cups of alfalfa meal
15 cups of oyster shell
15 cups of Down To Earth all purpose mix
About 5 cups of Rock Phosphate
About 10 cups of wiggle worm worm castings
5 gallons of perlite.
My plan was to wait a month, fill some 15 gals and plant down. Then I found this nice thread. And I realize now that I may have severely overdone it. I think I have tried to make a no till mix from super soil and from what I gather thats asking for trouble? Should I just scrap it all for outdoors and start fresh or give it a shot?
My plan so far from what I have read of this tread (up to page 40 - but who knows whats changed or improved in the 340+ pages after) is that I am going to get aloe powder, coconut water powder, TM-7, diastatic malt powder, some clover cover crop seed, and agsil. And follow the suggested ratios and usages as I have seen here.
Sorry for the long winded post. Thanks so much for all the info and time and love everyone!!