My First (Organic) Journal

Discussion in 'Organic Grow Journals' started by Adotjdot0123, Apr 22, 2020.

  1. #1 Adotjdot0123, Apr 22, 2020
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2020
    Greetings fellow Blades:smoke:,
    Thank you for visiting my first ever journal. I've been a long time lurker, usually soaking in wisdom from others. All of you in the organic section have greatly impacted my journey through organics so thank you all for all of your contributions! I stumbled upon Grasscity about 2 years ago and it changed my life. Since then I have learned about building my own compost pile, planting comfrey and other dynamic accumulators, vegetable gardening, mulching, top dressing, vermicomposting, implementing an IPM, sourcing quality amendments, and even companion planting. All of this has really changed my life for the better, but there is still much more for me to learn as you will see! lol

    This round will be the first cycle in soil that I created using the No-Till guidelines with some extras:
    (UNFORTUNATELY THIS FIRST STEP IS WHERE I MESSED UP!!) :cry:
    My Soil Mix Consists of:
    - 1 Part CSPM
    - 1 Part Bu's Compost
    - 1 Part Perlite​
    To This I Added (Per Cu. Ft.):
    - 1/4 Cu. Ft. Black Owl Biochar
    - 1 cup Alfalfa Meal
    - 1 cup Comfrey Meal
    - 2 cups Fish Bone Meal Flour
    - 2 cups Kelp Meal
    - 2 cups Crab Meal
    - 2 cups Neem/Karanja Mix
    - 2 cups Oyster Shell Flour
    - 1 cup Gypsum Pellets
    - 5 cups Rock Dust (Basalt + St. George's Black)
    - 5 cups Organic Rice Hulls
    - 1/4 cup Peanut Meal (had it in my garage, so why not?)
    - 1/4 cup Shrimp Meal (had it in my garage, so why not?)
    - 1/4 cup Azomite (had it in my garage, so why not?)​

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    After mixing this soil in my garage I would occasionally water the pile while it sat on a tarp to do it's nutrient cycling for three weeks. I was aiming for 350 gallons of soil, enough to fill my bed as well as some extra for my houseplants and seedlings. After three weeks I brought some of the soil inside and place it in my 4' x 8' Grassroots fabric pot and then seeded the bed with a cover crop of Red Clover, Fenugreek, and some Lemon Balm.

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    I then ground up Malted Barley Grain and top-dressed this (10 cups over the entire bed) before I watered the entire bed with Ful-Power @ 10 mL/gal. I then purchased 2 pounds of Red Wrigglers from Alan at Blue Ridge Nautrals and placed 1 1/2 pounds in my 4' x 8' bed and the remaining half in my newly prepared earthworm farm. I also used some organic straw to mulch my bed. Minus the fungus gnats, things have been going great. BUT I HAVE CONCERNS...

    When mixing my soil I forgot to wet my CSPM and for some reason I didn't think about the CSPM expanding. So instead of 14 cu. ft. of CSPM like I intended, I used FIVE(5) bags of compressed 3 cu. ft. CSPM that later expanded to way more than 14 cu. ft. worth. My guess is that I ended up with closer to 25 cu. ft. of CSPM!! I have filled up my 4' x 8' bed and still have approximately 140 gallons, or 18 cu. ft. of soil remaining.
    :hide:
    I honestly don't know what I was thinking, clearly I wasn't really thinking. Currently the seedlings that have in there look decent but they lack a "deep green" color. I'm concerned that I will run into major problems once I make it to flower. But now my question for anyone/everyone is if I should remix my soil and add the proper amount of amendments and add more compost to correct my mistake. OR should I top-dress some of the amendments in hopes of having a decent harvest? I think I know the answer but I would like to hear another opinion.

    Here is my 4' x 8' bed as it sits now. It's been about 5 weeks since I initially mixed my soil....

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    And here is a close up of the plants that I thought didn't look to have that "deep green" color


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    Come as you please and drop a comment, a picture, and/or your opinion if you'd like. This is a welcoming place for everyone to enjoy.
     
  2. Don't worry too much about the Sphagnum Peat Moss, she doesn't expand too crazily. Things are looking good! I have a similar mix going, I'll post my ingredients on my next post, I let it sit for 4 weeks and have a great amount of fungi growing.

    Plants sure seem to love it!
     

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