New recipe, what do you think
I am worried I might have a bit too much mg in my mix compared to the calcium...heard the ratio is supposed to be about 5 : 1 Ca:Mg, mine seems to be about 3.5 : 1. going to pick up some crab meal today maybe some oyster shell flour too but then again I don't want to add it if it will make the soil proportionally too much Ca. Is this a concern with my recipe??? Some other recipes I have read seem to call for much more dolomite for example, but then again I have other supplements with high Ca to compensate for that...okay enough concerned babbling here is the recipe:
10 bags Roots soil (15 cu. ft)
40lbs EWC (roughly 1 cu. ft)
5lbs blood meal 12-0-0
3.5lbs guano 0-9-0
5lbs fish bone meal 3-18-0
1.5lbs alfalfa meal 2-1-2
2.5lbs kelp meal 0-001.5
4 cups neem seed meal 4-.5-.5
3/4 cup langbeinite 0-0-22 (also has epsomite -
MgSO4·7H2O which provides 22% S and 10% Mg)
4 cups glacial rock dust 0-0-0 but contains 1.4% Ca, .5% Mg, 4% Fe, .09% Mn, and 1.2% Na (sodium??? isnt this bad? but I've read recipes with 4 cups of rock dust for each cuft of soil...)
1/2 cup azomite 0-0-.2 with 1.8% Ca, .1% Cl, .1% Na
1/2 cup Roots Elemental .25-.01-1 with 20% Ca, 2% Mg, 1% S, and .2% Fe
1 cup dolomite lime 0-0-0 but 22% Ca, 11% Mg
1/2 cup gypsum 0-0-0 but 20% Ca, 16% S (can you have too much S? getting a bit worried about that one as well...)
3/4 cup epsom salt 0-0-0 composed 100% of MgSO4·7H20, so 22% S, 11% Mg (wish I could've left this out altogether but its one of the first things I added befor I knew about langbeinite etc)
4 cups diatomaceous earth 0-0-0 but has good long term silicon
4 cups organic basmati rice (not sure of NPK but is good food for fungi and provides silica as well)
3 tbs humic acid powder
So what do you guys think....did I overdo it with the Mg, or the S? Can I safely add a cup or two of crab meal? 2-3-0 and has something like 30% Ca. Would be great to know if I did cause I can always cut the mix with more soil and add more amendments of other sorts to try and balance things out.
been reading Teaming with Microbes and it's improving my knowledge of soil science 100-fold. Definitely a must read if you are going to tweak subs recipe..which IMO can definitely be tweaked for more biological diversity as well as recycling capacity. The availability of nutrients is definitely a key to understanding soil science, with some reaching only 50% availability after months and months...important if you want a long term source of nutrients for recycling.
So what do y'all think? kushking if you're out there i'd love to hear your 2 cents