Just to add to thread,
barley is a great amendment also and in organics we looking to enhance the bio mass and create a living soil full of microbes and beneficial enzymes, which in turn break down organic matter making available to plants, barley is chocka with these beneficial enzymes ( one thing i wish i had of added in this run) next run 100% going with some barkey aswell as some rice hulls to lighten the mix and have more airy. Some of the enzymes barley contains are phosphatase, chitinase, urease, protease and amylase, these all help plants finish faster compare to those that dont have it added, chitinase is good’n also as i’m pretty sure this common in a lot of those organic type flowering boosters, i’m also going to add as a top dressing on the next run a load of crushed sea shells, pretty sure chitinase is found in crustaceans also one reason i like using the charge product, was amazed at how quick it brought back the plants i have in my current run, they was literally at deaths door and i had planned on binning, but topped heavely, and trained them and ws amazed at the progress so the 4 plants went in the 4x4.
a little reading up on enzymes, organics in general and allotment type gardening helps under stand all the nuances and what you actually feeding and trying to replicate in pots ( replicate as in the forest floor and how it regenerates with falling organic matter decaying back in to the earth )
all this was the turning point for me, the main thing and biggest is getting them enzymes, microbes and all that biology working in harmony in the pot breaking down the organic matter and getting those nutrients available to plants.
I’m not at the point of total organic where i’m just watering but i like it this way and still feel in control and know the pots pretty active and in a good place so like to have charge on hand aswell as biosys, some of my teas consisted of just biosys aswell as molasses and i also used some coconut water, which contains cytokins and is akin to sythentic plant steroids found in those boosters but its organic can also be used as a rooting hormone, plus the sugars act as a feed for enzymes keeping the microbial activity stimulated and fed.
lose the microbial activityl or enzymes and then the plants suffer and it’l show in leafs and other areas of plant, maintain the microbial activity with teas right amendments and organic matter continues to be broken down and is then nutients available to plants. Too much of the lime or gypsum, rock dust can create too much alkaline knocking things right out ph wise and too high of a ph then creating lockout in plants and imbalance in enviroment,
Half the reason i didnt use in this run as i know the calcium is in the charge aswell as magnesium, and it’l be available from just the mix being a bagged light mix.
All about balance, ying and yang and all that, the one thing our main eco system is starting to lose due to enviroment, agriculture, pesticides and climate change and so on.