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Well, a pinch of epsom salts, top dressed, or a tsp dissolved in 1/2 gallon of water +/- will tell you in a few days if it's a mag issue or not. No experience with ProMix per se, but I make my own mix using the same Co's peat moss and end up with pretty much the same thing. I always lime the...

Burnz is correct about the first month, but wet paper, stale bread and dried leaves is barely worm food, more like bedding material except for the bread. You need stuff that will rot and rot fast. Worms don't *eat* anything. No teeth, jaws and a tiny mouth. What they do is sorta slurp up the...

That's about all I use it for also and then mainly for the soil gardens or to give a freshly made mix a jump start. It has been literally years since it's been added to growing plants or mix that has had anything grown in it. Yeah, it doesn't seem to get mentioned much that excess K will lock...

If it works well for you and your worms, that's the #1 priority. Being free is icing on the cake. I really don't know if partially composted leaves need pH buffering or not. When I add lime to the raised beds, it's for the clay soil underneith, but the leaves get hit also. If they don't need...

Your Oyster Shell Flour would work perfect to raise and buffer the pH. 1cup of OSF/cf of bedding will do ya. I did read something about too much crab shell meal negatively affecting worms, so you might want to check into it before using it for pH buffering. Something to do with chitanese IIRC...

Naw, the lime is mostly for pH in the peat based mix, along with the pine bark fines. The Ca and Mg are noted, but like you, the comfrey and VC are my main cal/mag sources. Gypsum if even more is needed. Lime is added in the initial mix and perhaps on the 2nd or 3rd re-amend, but not every...

IDK, because my 'leaf mold compost' is mainly a thick mulch layer on top of my raised beds and lime does get added, though not just for the leaves. I have noticed not many worms in the fresher, less broken down leaves, but many in the more broken down 2YO stuff near the bottom. I've never tried...

I only wish OSF and crab meal were available locally, but the calcitic lime is pretty much the same as OSF. Both are 90%+ pure calcium carbonate and good stuff. Nothing local at all to sub for the crab meal. Bummer! Now, I'm just using dolo in virgin mixes also and Ag lime for everything else...

Well, I disagree a bit, as gypsum has little to no effect on pH, being Ca sulfate rather than Ca carbonate like dolo, calcitic lime, or the equal, oyster shell flour. No experience with crab shell. The gypsum usually gets added mid grow to tomatoes and peppers as they really seem to chew up the...

I've been using a peat based bedding for over 5 years with great results. However, it MUST be limed because of the acidity. In some bins, the bedding is 4 or 5 months old. Mostly, I use calcitic lime in the worm bedding, but sometimes dolo. Depends on what's closest to hand. To make ~10 gals of...

Have zero experience with any bagged soils since I've always made from scratch, but lime is the second ingredient after the peat moss. It is pretty much a must have in any peat based mix as the FF mixes are. Don't know if any is added to HF, but observations from users of FFOF where lime is...

Kelp meal provides, if not all, then the vast majority of minerals and trace you need. Might be all, it's been a few years since I've really read into it. Kelp is really amazing stuff and a "must have" for me. Wet

Pretty much all I use anyway. Three are purchased and two are homegrown. They are: 1) Homegrown vermicompost from my bins. 2) Homegrown comfrey. Mostly fed to the worms, but some gets topdressed or added to re-amends. 3) Kelp meal, bought in 50lb bags. 4) Neem cake/meal, bought in 44lb bags. 5)...

I've always used peat moss. The mix I learned, trading sweat labor (shovel work), for what the mix should look and feel like (no measurements, all eyeballing it), was peatmoss, perlite, pine bark fines, and sheep manure. Still pretty much the same, except now it's homemade vermicompost instead...

Pine bark fines has been part of my mix from day 1 (over 40 years), and has been no problem. The normal lime that you would add (1cup/cf), is more than sufficent to counter any acidity. Bark is good stuff, don't compare it to pine needles or heartwood, it's a totally different animal. In any...

You could still do the soapy water with a watering can, or even a hose end sprayer. Once you break the surface tension of the peat you're GTG from there out. Also works well for when a good top dress of EWC dries out a bit too much, turns to concrete and doesn't want to accept water. Both...

The most important part of that "in organics, pH doesn't matter" is almost ALWAYS missing. That is the qualifier, "well buffered". Just like GMM mentioned, if the soil isn't limed, or not in the proper pH range from the get go, problems will usually follow. I make everything from scratch and...

Yes, you should, at least the lime. Azomite, if you have it, but lime is pretty necessary. Wet

I doubt that we differ at all AFA kelp effectiveness. It is one of the 2 things bought in bulk, online, the other being neem meal. I used exracts/liquids before I got that first 50# bag of meal. Having that much, compared to the 5# bags, led to a lot more using the meal in top dressings and...

Go to HD or Lowes, in the garden section, 40lb bags are right ~$4.50. Do not order online, the shipping is easily 3x+ what the product cost. Also, don't ruin your grinder trying to grind rocks. The pellitized lime IS flour, shaped into pellets and held together with a fast dissolving clay...