let me know what you end up using for amendments. I have a bunch of recipes written down in my notebook, but I think a typical cootz mix has 3 cups of amendments and maybe 4 cups of rock dusts. 7 cups of amendments seemed really high to me, especially all the magnesium he used, but you can't argue with his results, it was a beautiful grow. One thing that probably had an impact was that he composted the mix for a full 2 months.
I'll have to check out his grow, but that's exactly what draws me to organics. I'll always use coots recipe as a "base" but every time I mix up some soil it's always a little different since I have some other things on hand. I'm curious to see how some of my newly mixed soil does with some outside plants this year. Only alfalfa/kelp/dusts added to the peat, compost and hulls. I think it all really boils down to compost quality used though first and foremost, everything else plays off of that (more so the early stages of the soil mix probably).
I love alfalfa too, it's the main amendment for my outdoor beds. I get bags of alfalfa pellets for horses from the feed store every year and scatter a good layer on top of my outdoor beds after I harvest everything in the fall, then just till them in a little. By spring time they are part of the bed and no longer hot, but the seedlings go nuts every year. I think the main reason they don't use it in Cootz mix is because it's meant to be able to be used right away, wheras alfalfa needs time to compost into the blend. It's awesome stuff though, basically the kelp of the land, it's so nutritious.I'll have to check out his grow, but that's exactly what draws me to organics. I'll always use coots recipe as a "base" but every time I mix up some soil it's always a little different since I have some other things on hand. I'm curious to see how some of my newly mixed soil does with some outside plants this year. Only alfalfa/kelp/dusts added to the peat, compost and hulls. I think it all really boils down to compost quality used though first and foremost, everything else plays off of that (more so the early stages of the soil mix probably).
I love alfalfa though. I use it in soil mixes, in the worm bins and a nute tea from time to time. I know I've read mixed feelings on alfalfa, but I'm not experienced enough to weigh in on all that. I know the worms like it, the soil microbes get started on it quickly (fast mycellium growth when sprinkled on top) and the plants pray when watered with a simple alfalfa/kelp/neem type tea.
Sorry for the rambling though, just my two cents on some random things..
Probably should know the answer to this question by now, but what makes alfalfa "hotter" than something like neem? Does it all have to do with how fast it breaks down? I just read the 2.5-1-2.5 alfalfa as being more balanced than the 6-1-2 of neem ( pulled these out of my ass so sorry if they're off). Just curious on your take before I dive into Google later tonight to get more versed in the technicalities.
that's a really good question. I have no idea why alfalfa is a "hotter" amendment than neem despite a lower N rating-hopefully someone here does!
Just mixed up 7cuft soil a few weeks ago, used bokashi bran I made, as well as ground malted barley and malted rye (has slightly higher phosphorus % compared to barley). That’s in addition to about 2 cups amendments per cuft with and overall balanced n-p-k ratio (Gaia all purp, frass, guano, alfalfa, kelp, fish bone, shrimp meal, rock phosphate). 4 cups rock dust per cuft and about 8 cups in total of cal/mg amendments (powdered eggshells, dolomite, gypsum) which is pretty light compared to most mixes. Base is 1:1:1 - peat : compost/ewc : perlite/rice hulls/lava rock.
I think you'll do awesome with that! I'm pretty hyped to try out biochar after reading about that legendary terra preta soil in the amazon that's super fertile after hundreds of years. I'm also going slightly "off book" with amendments-adding some alfalfa, fish bone meal too. Cootz always left out bone meals, but one thing I've learned in my outdoor grows is that fish bone meal especially produces extremely dank buds. Not sure why exactly, it might just be the fish proteins because I get the same effect from fish compost and fish hydrolysate. I see no reason to leave out the phosphorus rich bone meals because the research I've read shows that these organic sources of P don't suppress the microbiome like high P mineral salts do. I've been totally unable to locate either pumic or lava rocks locally and the 5 cubic feet I would need would cost me $200+ from BAS. The really irritating thing is I could buy a pallet of like 57 bags of 3/8" lava rock from a distributor 40 min away from me for...you guessed it, $200.... but I'd need to get someone to deliver it. So I'm just going to use perlite, which I already have, lol. Good luck with your grow, looking forward to seeing all these new projects people have been working on bear fruit!
Ill give it to the worms. yum yum yum
What size mix did you order from buildasoil? I havea similar size batch i need to make
You got me on the rice hulls I believe. Not sure if I should get all the ingredients separate or buy a mix. Everyone has coots mix different. I contacted KIS Organics on their mix and it was really off on quantities.
