4 weeks is where I'll start to use the soil. Some things take longer to be fully available. The type of things, or the chemical make-up of things also matters to the actual "usefulness" to the plant.
Example: Type or source of Calcium used. Personally, I prefer to mix my Ca sources for plant availability and to buffer the soil.
I use pulverized egg shell, Oyster shell flour, Garden gypsum, and of course the incidental Ca from various other sources. Each has it's job and each are available to the "job" at differing rates.
I do not add
any type of bottled form of Ca. If you vary the Ca source used. There is NO need to. I have never had a Ca problem in my "super soils".
As to liquid organic nutrients. These are plant ready organic "sourced and chelated" nutrients.
If you move on to organic fertilizers - You can get into a gray area if they are commercially produced. Some of these in liquid form go both ways.....The liquid manure from our farms (My organic co-op farms) is not "chelated." You spread it and it is broken down by the "living" soil. We also use 1000 gallon Vortex AACT brewers, and lay good active bio's to the soil, every spring. There are things that go into the AACT after brewing too. Kelp extract and FUL HUMIX are the important additions.
Many people think that the living bio's are killed by synthetic or liquid organic nutrient's. Not really how that works. In reality, the living bio's are starved by the lack of being fed. Some die and some go dormant. One of the things that die are soil nematodes. Once gone the soil has a hard time being self reliant - so to speak.
Sourcing carbs can be tricky. Many use Molasses, sadly they do it for the wrong reason. Molasses
can be a carb source but, I don't care for the other things it brings to the table. They can build up and cause imbalances. We all know how those can cascade into multiple problems.
I have spent a long time playing with Micro's and the things that "feed" them. I have found things out like:
1: Adding regular AACT to synthetic run grows. Reduces the nutrient "used" levels (or ratios) by 50% and even more! This takes careful attention as whats in that AACT is very important, as they too
can bring other things to the table.
2: "I" prefer organic dark brown sugars or simple organic brown sugar. They deliver less of the things that I don't like molasses for. The best part is they deliver more carbs to the living bio's. I get asked why I use DB sugar in my home made "Sweet Raw and Terpinator/Resinator" formula's. Now you can see why. I have these set to feed the bio heard when in bloom. I have told a few folks around here to use them in veg at 5 ml per feeding to help keep that bio heard active in their synthetic use. It appears to help as I've gotten positive responses.
In relation to that. I tried just adding these carbs to feed mix's. It works but, not as much as I would like, although enuff to reduce the nutrient used again.
Care
must be taken when employing or applying carbs! Too much and you'll create fermentation and that leads to anaerobic soil. I would hope that we all know what that does.
FYI. I don't add any specific myco inoculant to my soil builds. I find I have plenty from the use of Worm castings and my composted cow manure. You betcha I use our home composted manure. The manure adds a whole new spectrum of fungal's and bacteria's to the party.....I wouldn't do any better adding some store bought, over hyped and most likely not exactly fresh bio's.
@Richard Drysift says it pretty well. The only thing I might add to what I've already said, is that the quality of your super soil is only the quality of what you put in it. The more diverse the bio's, the better it will be (He did say this in his way).
AND
Cooking the soil is the door to success with super soils. How long it's "cooked" is the key that unlocks that door. That how long can be dependent on what exactly you use
in that soil. Balancing the release times in the mix's, to be available at the right times. Is the "art" in that room, behind the door.
Did that open some doors for you?
