Growitpondifarm ... Here goes. This is for a bit over 2cf, ~18 gallons of mix/wheelbarrow full.
5gal homer buckets for rough measurements + eyeballing it.
6 to 7 gallons of expanded peat moss, not quite a cf. I run an entire bale through a 1/2" screen to expand the peat and git rid of lumps. Just makes it easier to work with and store in a 32gal garbage can.
Full to the brim bucket of perlite (5gals). Regular/horticultural grade, no 'extra large' or silly shit like that. This is the last thing added to the mix along with water.
3 gallons of pine bark fines/mulch. I like the Evergreen brand from Lowes with the smaller flakes, about fingernail size. But the mulch from HD is good also. No 'nuggets', or even mini nuggets. Used to use "fines", but can no longer locate them. The mulch is pretty close though.
2 gallons +/- of fresh, homemade vermicompost, added a bit later in the mixing.
I put the peat moss and pine bark in the wheelbarrow, dry and add 3 cups of pulverized dolomite lime (1 1/2cups/cf), and 1/2 to 1 cup of Greensand and dry mix till everything is dusted. It will turn a grayish color from the lime/greensand.
I always do this first to make sure the lime and greensand is well distributed before adding more ingredients. A 4 tined cultivator works well for the dry mixing.
I then add:
2cups Kelp meal
2+ cups Bone meal
1 cup neem/karanja meal
1 cup alfalfa meal
1 cup soy meal .... or 2 cups of either one, if you only have one available or some other N source.
1 cup gypsum
1 cup crustacean meal (or similar if you have it. If not, just skip it)
The 2 gallons of VC at any point here.
I'll dry mix all this till it looks well mixed, then the fun part, adding the perlite and getting the mix moistened.
A watering can comes in real handy along with a wetting agent like Ivory liquid or aloe juice and hot tap water. For this amount of mix it takes between 6 to 7 gallons of water to throughly wet it. I use a short handled square point shovel for this part. Make a depression in the mix, pour in some perlite and water it to cut down the dust and start mixing. Repeat until you've added all the perlite, adding more if necessary and water till the mix is thoroughly wet, but not soggy.
Transfer to something with drainage and let it cook. Turn it some every now and then if you feel like it. I don't but some do. For me, anything after 2 weeks is GTG, but I usually let it sit a bit longer. Whatever works best for you.
Wet