No Till Starter Mix

smokeybeard

Well-Known Member
Looking for some input on what and how much to use. I have on hand:

(I have my peat, aeration and worm castings)

Blood Meal
Bone Meal (Happy frog with beneficial fungi and what not)
Alfalfa Meal
Crab Meal
Neem Seed Meal
Bio Meal
Oyster Shell Powder
Azomite
Soft Rock Phosphorus
Dolemite Lime

I'll be making around 3 cubic feet.
 

Wetdog

Well-Known Member
You are missing kelp meal and that is simply a must have for no till, or any organic mix for that matter. Not liquid, extract, or concentrate, just plain ordinary kelp meal. For ~3cf a 5# bag will be enough to get started.

What are you using for aeration?

Wet
 

smokeybeard

Well-Known Member
You are missing kelp meal and that is simply a must have for no till, or any organic mix for that matter. Not liquid, extract, or concentrate, just plain ordinary kelp meal. For ~3cf a 5# bag will be enough to get started.

What are you using for aeration?

Wet

I will pick up some kelp meal for sure.

I plan on using pumice for my aeration.
 

kratos015

Well-Known Member
You are missing kelp meal and that is simply a must have for no till, or any organic mix for that matter. Not liquid, extract, or concentrate, just plain ordinary kelp meal. For ~3cf a 5# bag will be enough to get started.

What are you using for aeration?

Wet
This. Wetdog knows what's up and that's putting it lightly.

You can get away with nothing but Neem/Crab/Kelp meals for nutes and OSF/Gypsum/Basalt for minerals. Everything else is pretty much superfluous.

I'd even recommend omitting the Dolomite Lime entirely. The Crab Meal and OSF are already providing you with plenty of Calcium, and on top of that the OSF buffers your pH just like Lime will.

HTH
 

smokeybeard

Well-Known Member
I’ll hold the lime out. I’ll be sourcing some local worm casting as well.

I forgot that I do have a bag of glacial rock dust as well. Also forgot that I have some powdered humic acid powder.

Any idea on how much of each would ideal for starting the mix?
 

Wetdog

Well-Known Member
Sourcing stuff locally should be a very high priority. Not only in money saved in shipping (A LOT!), but just being able to scoot down to the local HD, Lowes, or Feed & Seed store instead of the week or so lag time involved in ordering online is a huge plus over a grow season.

Like @kratos015 mentioned, a lot of stuff is either redundant or, superfluous and there are very few items where nothing else will really do. Kelp meal is one of those, Neem meal/cake is another. But, for most needs like N-P-K, minerals, etc., there could be 5 or more different sources and the local one will work just fine. Sadly, the local products are usually not very glamorous or esoteric and the inexperienced will spend 5x, or more, for say, high N guano from the purple tailed, goggle eyed Hindu Kush bat (I made that up), rather than plain old blood meal from the local store because some internet guru gave the bat a shout out and nevermind that both are functionally equal. The bat sounds cool, the blood does not.

Is the pumice local to you? I ask because the sources for it are 2k+ miles from me and very expensive here. I'm in the foothills of the Smokey Mtns and we simply never had the 'right' type of volcanos. Perlite however is very cheap and it's all I've ever used. It's ~1/5th the cost of pumice.

I use dolomite lime for fresh mixes and later reamends with Ag (calcitic), lime. I had Mg deficiencys using just Ag lime that did not occur with the dolo. Ag lime is the functional equivalent of OSF and is much cheaper and easier to source locally. Not as common as dolo, but still, easy enough to find. The Mg in the dolo lasts a long time, longer than the Ca, so, just using it when first making a mix takes care of the Mg for several years.

BTW, glacial rock dust is Ok, 1cup/cf is fine. Leave the powdered humic where it is, the fresh worm castings will provide all the humic acid the soil requires. Adding more just causes problems. Treat stuff like that like steroids, very, VERY little is needed for results.

Wet
 

smokeybeard

Well-Known Member
Started my mix tonight.

Alfalfa meal
Kelp Meal
Neem Seed Meal
Oyster Shell Flour
Crab Meal
Glacial Rock Dust
Paramagnetic Rock Dust
EWC
Greensand
Perlite
Peat Moss and local good, clean dirt.
Bit of humic acid, azomite, and some local "organic" composted cow manure. Hopefully won't have to use that again.

I have all my info written down, will report with how it works.
 

smokeybeard

Well-Known Member
I myself am not a big fan of perlite.
Makes moving dirt easier, but I find pumice allows for better water dynamics
I didn’t want to use it but I did, the shipping on the pumice would have been a bit much for me. Whenever I reammend I plan on adding pumice as I can afford it.
 

mista sativa

Well-Known Member
Throw some proper compost in that mix. Maybe some bio char... also just plain Jain lava rock works great in no till for aeration
 
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smokeybeard

Well-Known Member
Throw some proper compost in that mix. Maybe some bio char... also just plain Jain lava rock works great in no till for aeration
Any recommendations on the bio char? I’d like to find some of the chunky stuff instead of the powder for aeration and having it in my soil.
 
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