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That mix will be unuseable for months at least till that manure composts some. You don't have to toss it, but you certainly can't use it as is. Even the 'well' idea won't work, roots will hit the hot stuff in a matter of days and get burnt. Wet

Good God! ..... YES!!! At least that's been my experience with my raised bed gardens and rotted straw mulch. Now, there is a large amount of leaves added, but before I started with the leaves it was just straw. If in bins of some sort just be mindful of aeration so it doesn't become too...

Must the Roots have additional aeration? IDK, I have never bought any bagged soil, but have always made from scratch. BTW, it costs me just under $45 to make ~10 CF of base mix, peat, perlite, humus. It's a good thing to learn aside from not spending big bucks buying pre made stuff like Roots...

A top dress with the lime of your choice will fix that. 2tbl/gal of mix. Scratched in if you can, but your regular waterings will work it in also. Whatever you can source locally will work fine. Don't pay to ship rocks, unless you like wasting $$$. Lowes or HD will have what you need. Just...

What is the question? I quit using vermiculite over 30 years ago. It's good in seed starting mixes and little else IMO. Hydrotron is a hydro medium, not an aeration amendment. Red lava rock sounds cool, but most don't crunch it up to small enough and worse, don't use enough. *Chunky* perlite...

A sticky keyboard made my reply short. Speeending (<-) more time deleting multiple whatever is a PITA besides derailing my train of thought. I did say *mainly* with the dolo, but left out the rest of the story. I also use calcitic lime (no Mg), for reasons you mentioned. This is available...

Ahhhh ... Enlightenment Instead of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset, a good bit of advice on MJ forums tend to, "If it ain't broke, give me a minute":wall: Wet

Yeah, 'buffering/buffered' is adding the liming agent and its effects. If the mix gets out of wack from no buffering, a top dress will work in time. Just sprinkle 2tbl/gallon of mix on the surface (scratch it in some if you can), and regular waterings will do the rest. Adding it to the mix...

Sigh .... I'll say this once and you can research it if you like ... or ... listen to the *experts* who couldn't find their ass with both hands and a flashlight. Water, no matter the pH, will only affect the soil for a very limited amount of time. Like, as it's passing through to drain. The...

Hmmmm ... When I want both Ca and Mg Dolomite lime comes to mind. Especially when I'm liming for tomatoes and to a lesser degree peppers. I do use more than one liming agent and several Ca sources. But dolo is a good twofer when you want both. Wet

Your math is good, 13 cups + a scootch for 100 gal. Add it when you make the mix and you'll be GTG. Wet

Heh. I was thinking about starting a thread asking who was moving away from smartpots. It seems more than a few after using them for a number of years are going back to the 'old school' containers. I tried them once, years ago, but they proved to be a PITA to move around (no handles then), and...

No, it will still trend down. FFOF is a peat based mix and is naturally acidic and gets more so as time goes on and it breaks down, chem nutes or organic. *Most* nutes, chems or organic, also tend to be acidic. I've made my own peat based mix for a bit over 43 years now with only the last 6...

A Master Gardener on another forum does just that, pretty much just leaf mold, comfrey and VC for everything. Coot got him started with the leaf mold close to 6 years ago though. I didn't listen till a couple years ago, but it's coming. Him, having a manure machine (his wife's horse), and...

I grow garlic in containers for several reasons. Mainly because I love it and usually do 12 - 18, 5 gal buckets worth. The second reason is to condition and inoculate fresh mix for the following season. It's a 8 month growing season and myco's and alliums really love each other. The trimmed...

Horizon Herbs usually has a special on the Bocking 14 in the spring when they can dig it out. Something like 6 crown cuttings for $10, IIRC. Bought mine in 2010, so ???????? If you have a low soggy spot on the property, that would be perfect. Next to impossible to over water. Make sure you get...

I just gotta call BS on the too much dolo, unless you're like 3cups+/cf of mix. It's fucking ground up rock for christsakes! An ACCT every 2 weeks!? I think it's been about three years since I've used any sort of tea. Between the comfrey and my own VC there just hasn't been any need. I'm...

It all depends on "mesh size", how finely it is ground up. CaCO3 = CaCO3 = CaCO3, be it eggshell. oyster shell, or calcitic limestone. I've found 'hand crushed' egg shells 3 years later in my worm bins, oyster shell mounds that are several K years old and limestone blocks used for building...

No, the "Cowboy" or Lump charcoal is not treated. Def do NOT want briquettes, but it is easy to tell the diff. The same size bag of lump charcoal will weigh ~1/4 of what the briquettes will. They have a high % of sand in them. Plus, the lump still looks like what it was, chunks of chopped up...

Same here with the lump charcoal, but I also use it in my smokers and usually have a bag or three on hand. No weight plates, but a 26YO truck works well for crunching. Also have not noticed any difference in growth with or without and mainly use it for aeration. I'm sure the microbes are...