Over the weekend I dealt with the Bokashi Amended soil. It had been 4 weeks since I mixed it with the food scraps so it was time to mix it all together with some aeration and a few other dry amendments this time.
I’ll be honest. The food scraps weren’t as broken down this time around as the first time I did this in May. I’m honestly not too sure how to take that. Also, the smell of the soil was a lot stronger. Not putrid, but reminded me a lot of manure. People use manure to grow all kinds of stuff so this didn’t necessarily scare me but does have me a bit concerned that this run might be a fun learning experience. On the other hand, this might turn out amazingly! So I’m willing to see it through to the end. It’s just a few seeds and this will be a fun little experiment.
To the soil I added 1 part each of Alfalfa meal, Crab meal, Insect Frass and Kelp flour to 2 parts Rock Dust. For the rock dust I did a 50/50 split of Basalt - Huplaso and Soft Rock Phosphate. I got this ratio from a guide I saw online. They topped dressed with that ratio because they were growing no till style but I mixed mine into the soil. I also added rice hulls, pumice and about 4-5 cups of earth worm castings to the soil and thoroughly mixed everything by hand.
Once the pots were filled with the soil I sprinkled some inoculant on my cover crop seeds and sprinkled them on top of the soil and watered everything in. To the water I added 2ml per gal of EM1 (essential microbes) from Stepwell Super Soil. I also covered everything with hay and have been keeping the top of the soil moist the last few days to make sure everything germinates.
The new autos going in have been growing well and have been getting hardened off outside since Friday. I will transplant them in the next few days. Once the cover crop gets a few inches in height I’ll terminate the cover crop and top dress with my “Craft Blend” mix, earth worm castings and then water everything in with a compost tea. The tea will be made from EM1, castings, kelp flour, humic acid, alfalfa meal, insect frass and liquid fish fertilizer. I’m basically hitting this soil with ALL the beneficial microorganisms I have in my arsenal for the most diversification possible. If there are some bad organisms in the soil this will give the good guys their best shot of fighting them back and taking over.