CleverPiggy’s TLO Mix

Canadian87

New Member
For some reason I have no PM function on rollitup.org... hoping to get some insight from the original poster of this TLO recipe (CleverPiggy):

1 3.8 cf bag of Pro Mix BX or HP
1 cf of compost (earth worm castings, thermo compost)
.5 cf of perlite, coco shells, pumice or rice hulls
6 cups of Espoma brand bio tone starter plus
3 cups alfalfa meal
3 cups kelp meal
3 cups crab meal (Neptune harvest)
2 cups of a 50/50 mix of Neem cake and Karanja cake (neemsource.com) This stuff is amazing but expensive.
Minerals as follows 1 cups of soft rock phosphate (or brown rock), 1 cup of crushed oyster shells, 1 cup gypsum 3/4 cup of sul po mag, 1 cup of azomite
Mix it thoroughly on a large tarp or cement mixer.”

Question: Is the recipe above for a super soil that can only be placed in the bottom 1/3-1/2 of each container? Or is it a mix that can be transplanted directly into? I mixed a double batch and have had it cooking a few weeks. The reason I chose this mix is because I’d like to avoid animal products that can attract scavengers (there are tons of bears in my area). I removed the crab meal and epsoma biotone starter (has bone/blood meals) and increased amount of alfalfa and kelp. Will also be supplementing insect frass for chitin. CleverPiggy, can you please clarify?

thanks!
 

kratos015

Well-Known Member
You can plant straight into that mix. Ingredients in that mix are all very light so you won't encounter any burn. Especially if you've had it cooking for a few weeks already.

One catch of using lighter ingredients is you'll need to top dress more often than you would with hotter ingredients like blood/bone meals.

I strongly prefer that approach, personally.

You can plant straight into the mix, not need to dilute. And insect frass can be substituted, I do so myself.
 

Canadian87

New Member
So - I made up a double batch of this mixture and it looks great. Actually just transplanted some seedlings into it yesterday and they’re recovering nicely.

For part of the remaining TLO soil I’ve already mixed, I’d like to add more of each amendment to use it as a super soil. So the plan will be to put 1/3 to 1/2 of the super soil at the bottom of some outdoor holes, then fill the rest of the way with the TLO mix and plant directly in it. Does anyone have recommendations for increasing the ingredients above to turn it into super soil?

thanks
 
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