Organic Dry Amendments

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I have been using this recipe for years it's the cheapest alfalfa around for my outside plants....


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@Heisenbeans - this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. You still buy "nutes" but it's all basically worm-food. You can get it at the local feed store instead of from Scotts. But if you have the arable land you can plant little plots of alfalfa, or barley or whatever and be completely off-grid. For me it's not about some organic religion - it's just easier, cheaper, and I think better. And also about keeping da man out of my business.
 

Wick

New Member
@Heisenbeans - this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. You still buy "nutes" but it's all basically worm-food. You can get it at the local feed store instead of from Scotts. But if you have the arable land you can plant little plots of alfalfa, or barley or whatever and be completely off-grid. For me it's not about some organic religion - it's just easier, cheaper, and I think better. And also about keeping da man out of my business.
I use the same alfalfa pellets I use for my horses. It is all pressed, no binders. I buy it at my local feed store. It is now like $17.00 for a 50# bag.
It used to be $9.00 before the US became a shit hole again.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I played with the alfalfa mix last year and it worked great. Instead of the compost I used worm castings. This year I will have to try adding molasses.
Something I picked up from Duke Diamond on a podcast is that alfalfa and kelp are better kept to veg. Something about the triacontanols and other stuff that really pumps the vegetative growth. Natural PGR's. But in flower they can cause the plants to foxtail more, not wanting to finish etc. I just use those two in teas during veg now instead of amending the soil or top-dressing. I think the stuff that was already in my soil is getting used up because I am seeing a lot fewer late pistils. I'm also running two worm bins using the same theory gearing one towards veg and the other flower.

I like listening to some stuff about KNF to get ideas, and Clackamas coot, and now duke diamond since they all seem to have some useful info that meshes with my laid back kind of living soil growing. But getting some bacteria water from rice and milk and doing a few ferments with brown sugar is as far down the KNF rabbit hole as I'll go. For outdoor gardening now that I know it's good if I want mycelium I'll run a mower over an area under a fat old tree and dump the sack on my garden. No playing scientist with cultures and crap.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I had a wonderful plan on what to plant where in my garden because I have two cables strung overhead to string the big tomatoes from. Then some other areas for stuff that didn't need support or just a cage. A regular to late frost in mid-March killed about half of what I started from seed. The other half was recovering so I planted the back-ups and I bought a few Bonnie plants to fill in some gaps.

Then there was a late frost first week of April 🤬 I said fuck it and gave it a few weeks then started snipping away dead stuff. I now have some respectable plants but all are more shrubby for now because it's all re-veg. Did an inventory and 6 out of 9 tomatoes are an assortment of cherry tomatoes. only 3 that should get bigger than a quarter.

I may start all of my old seeds and have some space-fillers ready to go. Maybe just guerilla-grow wild tomatoes all over my property and see where they'll take. I don't have any seeds I couldn't buy another pack of new for next year, and anything special I can save seeds from. I think that's a chore for after I get the CLHP sea of green potted. Wouldn't be a chore if I didn't need to make labels 😁

I love popping beans - even if they're tomato beans :cool:
 
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