Testing 5 Different Fertilizers For Growing Peppers - Pepper Geek
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- In this video, we tested 5 different fertilizers to grow jalapeño peppers from seed to harvest. While this can't be considered a true scientific experiment, the results were pretty interesting!
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Fertilizers tested (affiliate links):
Fox Farm Trio:
amzn.to/3ACPW8G
Miracle Gro Performance Organics:
amzn.to/3QXhScB
Miracle Gro Plant Food:
amzn.to/3QHGHcS
Dr. Earth Organic:
amzn.to/3QHohcr
Espoma Garden Tone:
amzn.to/3QHor3x
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:13 The fertilizers
0:56 The soil
1:26 Transplanting the jalapeños
2:30 The first fertilizing
2:51 3 week update
3:40 Moving outdoors
4:04 Early June update
4:32 Fertilizing again
5:16 Early July update
6:07 Harvest time comparison
6:54 Weighing the jalapeños
9:09 The results
13:00 Which fertilizer would we choose?
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Thanks for watching Pepper Geek!
#gardening #peppers #growing #jalapenos - Навчання та стиль
The problem with using granular organic fertilizers (as opposed to the liquid ones) is it takes time for the micros to break them down to usable forms for the plants. That's why it's recommended to fertilizer your soil in the fall and kept adding them every 10 days or so in the spring and summer; sort of like successive fertilizing, feeding the plants down the road.
It's also recommended to use organic liquid fertilizers, such as fish emulsion, a few times in a growing season to supplement the granular organic fertilizers, giving plants some fast food to eat.
would have been interesting to see a "no fertilizer" plant.
It's, those where wer bio fertilizer))
That would be 100% down to how you make your soil, whether you use castings, do you compost, do you top dress, etc.
It died
how exactly would a plant grow without any nutrients....?
That’s what I’m currently doing and it’s the best looking plant. Just transplanted abt 8 week old jalapeño
The fertilizer has what plants need, but Brawndo has what plants crave.
Next year you should try to clone one plant and experiment on the five clones that you made as they should give you a more accurate result due to the fact that they are geneticly the same.
Great idea!
I'd never have thought of this! That's a fantastic idea!
@Pepper Geek great idea indeed.
That was my very first thought. Sample size is the biggest flaw of this experiment. With clones you will dramatically reduce the largest variable, even so I would still do multiple plants with each fertilizer to further strengthen the relyability of the results. As it stands, this is not very scientific at all
Would cool to see a plant with no fertilizer added as well to compare.
I did an “experiment “ between miracle grow organics and worm compost tea the miracle grow grew bigger greener plants but the worm tea produced more, larger peppers.
That sounds like there was more nitrogen in the MGO but more other nutrients in the worm compost tea. Do you think that matches up? Generally more nitrogen gives you a larger plant wth more leaves, but too much impairs the plant's focus on fruiting.
The issue is, you could do nothing to those plants and have just 2 plants, and one will always grow better, it could be that the one that grew better was always going to regardless? It's just an idea
How did you make your worm tea. I have started composting with worms this year and have alot to learn.
@@stevehayes8500 don’t worry about drowning them first of all. Having said that don’t let them sit in ground that is saturated either. I have my worms in a large tote and that tote is inside of another larger tote and it has a spigot at one end to drain the “tea”. The worm bin has a large hole in it with 1/4” rat wire in the bottom covering the hole so the worm dirt won’t go into the other tote. Take a couple gallons of rain water and pour it into the tote with the worms in it slowly until it is wet. 1/2 of the water will run through the worm compost fairly quickly in 10 minutes or so. You will need to tip up the totes to drain the bottom one, after you drain the bottom tote go through the worms and “ fluff them up “ so there is air in the soil and not a giant mud pie. If it is too wet you can add something like pet moss or coconut coir to absorb the excess water. Over the next couple hours more water will collect in the bottom tote and you can drain that when ever.
Last year we got 4” of rain in a little over an hour and it filled both totes and the worm were under water for several hours before I got home. I ended up drawing about 8 gallons of water from it added several large handfuls of peet to it and stirred it up really good and all the worms are still thriving in my basement. My lawn was beyond dead from months of no rain I poured the tea all over my brown crispy dead grass, within two weeks it was thicker and greener than ever. It stayed green until December. I live in northeastern Massachusetts
@@rungeon83 I did 5 plants with MGO and 5 plants just worm tea all 10 plants grown in the same peet/ compost based medium Al 10 were in grow bags or large containers.
I think one of the biggest pros of Fox Farms is that the fertilizer mix adjusts to what stage the plant is in. Early on, it's for growing the plant, and then it shifts to help produce more flowers, and then healthy fruit. I would think that shift in the macros probably had at least something to do with the smaller plant size for the Fox Farms plant, as well as the larger and healthier fruit yield
I came down to say this. It's a bit unfair comparison. If a test was done that isolated either the vegetative or blooming stages then it'd be a nice comparison. Like one year only variable the veg fert and then pick the winner and the next year use that while varying the bloom fert.
This is really helpful! Even though you said it wasn’t “scientific” it was still very practical! Thanks for trying all of these out for us. 👍
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the test :)
Been using Alaska Fish Fertilizer (5-1-1) and Morbloom (0-10-10) on my bog-standard orange habanero this year and it's been working pretty well. I got the seedling from Home Depot so I didn't start it, but what I did after bringing it home and transplanting to a container with some regular Miracle Gro potting soil was only use the Fish Fertilizer (1 Tbsp in 1 gal water) for the first month and a half every two weeks, then I added the Morbloom in combination at the same rate (so 1 Tbsp of both in 1 gal water every two weeks). I was also pinching off blossoms until I started the Morbloom to encourage green growth. I'm up to 131 usable peppers harvested off this single plant with more still on it in various stages of development. I did sort of baby the plant, though, and this is my first attempt at growing produce in trying to turn my black thumb green (I've killed bamboo before ¬_¬). I look forward to expanding next year!
The ration / amount of the big three nutrients (NPK) and any micronutrients in each fertilizer would be interesting to compare.
Thanks for taking the time to share this. I started using MI Garden’s Trifecta last year with great results throughout my garden.
Too bad Trifecta isn't in the big box store.
I love Trifecta. I use it for my heavy feeders. Because they are good for a year, I can focus on fertilizing other plants and flowers. Saves me time. I just monitor, prune and add worm tea every few weeks to my heavy feeders. throughout the growing season.
Basically you set it up so that the inorganics could work a little better. True organic fertilizers work best in a living soil where the microbes within the soil aid the microbes that come with fertilizer to break down and see the plants proper way. By not setting up a living soil you gave the inorganics a pretty decent Head start and better finish. This may be a taboo topic but I recommend checking out living soil cannabis growers as they really have it dialed in
While not purely scientific, it’s still an excellent experiment AND great effort
Thank you for that ☺️
I used the Miracle-Gro Organic plant food. It was a good year.
I'd go with the regular Miracle Gro, since it's the least expensive, but still performs well.
Yep, sure enough. But I always add some bone meal and langbeinite to soil. Works like a charm. Whether using other dry notes or liquid form.
I always use Miracle Gro Tomato food and will throw in some Happy Frog Tomato and Herb fertilizer every other week during the season. Combined I get very good results.
Nice job and a good application of the scientific method.
Wow.. Thank you so much for this video. These types of diligent long term study videos are rare and far between because its so hard to keep all other variables controlled but bravo!
Fascinating results! (Total garden nerd here, so yes, I'm fascinated.) I'd love to see another video like this. New line up suggestions: a hyped compost like Bu's Blend or Land and Sea, Neptune's Harvest. NH released a tomato formula that would be a perfect candidate, but is suggested to switch to the flowering formula when plant starts to flower-ive been using these this year and cannot believe the amount of massive fruit I have on my padrons and jalapeños and still have flowers everywhere! Also, I know the compost isn't a "fertilizer", but think the results would be very interesting to compare with the targeted ammendments. Thanks for the great content.
Thanks for those suggestions - I think it'd be fun to test some more natural options as well. Maybe there is even a simple soil recipe that can alleviate the need for such frequent feeding (and maybe even watering?). Cheers!
@@PepperGeek That's a great idea! Idk how, but maybe get a soil test involved. Re watering, I've never tried the trick of stopping water to improve flavor, but know it's a thing with tomatoes and peppers. 🤔 Huzzah to non-scientific science!
@@wimberley707 I had heard about that too with tomatoes but maybe I went overboard last year because I got a lot of blossom end rot. When I realized what was happening, I watered more and it helped some, but the tomatoes still had problems. I grow mostly heirloom.
@Dreamingrightnow Interesting. If it helps at all, I set up a schedule for feeding which helped keep me from fertilizing too often. Since I was using liquid, I did once a week and did my fruiting plants one day, root and leaf veg another and herbaceous flowers another. I buy a cheap wall calendar and keep it in the shed by my fertilizers. Also, I struggled for many years w/ heirloom paste tomatoes getting BER. Only thing that ever really helped was setting up irrigation, but still my paste tomatoes suffered. Gave up and got a hybrid seed for those and got massive amounts of healthy pastes last year. Thinking happy thoughts for all our gardens this year! 😊
Pretty cool comparison. Thanks for all the hard work
Awesome video! Incredible to see the variation in quality and quantity. A few ideas for future tests:
1. I noticed the fertilisers have very different nutrient ratios. If you have the time, calculate the exact amount of each nutrient (macro and micro) that is going into each pot. Once you have all the data its easier to identify ideal nutrient blends.
2. The top soil would contain nutrients and change the availability and balance. For example, one of the fertilisers might have had the perfect balance and load of nutrients for peppers, but when mixed with the top soil it actually made it underperform. Maybe try swapping it for something with minimal nutrients like coco coir or composted pine bark.
3. The size of the pot is important for organic fertilisers. Soil biology multiplies in large pots faster due to the more stable conditions eg less dramatic heating and cooling. The faster the biology multiplies, the more nutrients become available to the plants. I think you would see the organic ferts perform much better in larger pots, or as you said in raised beds or in the ground.
4. Test everything. A few pH tests along the way. Soil/leaf tests if you are super keen. Brix meters are very cool.
Thanks for sharing! Big ups from down under!
I have the Miracle Grow Plant Food in liquid form. From the chart it shows the best production other than weight so i'm sitting good. I'm new to all of this and I always see people using crazy fertilizers and wild names and it gets overwhelming. I found a couple bottles of miracle grow at my moms and went with those. Glad I found this video to see what I'm working with. I've been finding your videos helpful the last 24 hours. Thanks!
Great video. Congrats on 100K!! Keep going!
I had surprise jalapenos pop up this year. Like everything I grow, I just dig lots of homemade compost into the soil. Maybe a little local chicken manure and some dried leaves too when I have it. I also bury fish/seafood scraps from the kitchen if I have them the season before to break down and my soil is pretty rich. As far as fertilizer, I don't have to do much, even with tomatoes (which were also a surprise this year and last). Just some inexpensive, diluted fish emulsion or kelp a couple times during the season. My beds & soil seem fertile enough that I don't need to feed much & I barely have to plant seeds anymore I get gardens that pop up everywhere. This year I have multiple butternut squash plants, potatoes, 3 types of tomatoes & jalapenos grow - I didn't plant any of them and they all produced awesome! Sometimes a more laid back approach and allowing nature to do it's thing works great!
Thank you for all the effort that goes into this type of content We've all seen channels that start something and can't finish, (for good reasons sometimes). I feel like the granular stuff usually needs a couple of weeks to even months to get working, you touched on that slightly, Gary's Best mentioned that in a video once. So perhaps avoid it for potted stuff unless you can start a culture in pot medium before planting. Just an idea.
My favorite is miracle grow. I use it all the time and pleased with the results.
This was awesome! Thank you 🎉
Very informative video! It would be interesting to see a flavor comparison as well.
Love your videos! This was my first year growing jalapeños and I used your recipe for pickled jalapeños. Delicious recipe! I planted my plants with Dr. Earth and got both a great yield and huge plants. One of mine grew bigger than my Roma tomato plants that were in similar sized pots. I fertilized at the time of potting and then again 1 month later. I then covered the soil with mulch to retain moisture. Very interesting video.
great test, so much to learn!
My only recommendation would be to do more than 1 plant for each fertilizer. There could be genetic variation and just random chance at play when just testing 1 plant. These results could be within normal margin of error. The more plants you use, the less genetic/random variation will have an effect.
2:43 Also, if you water too much here, there could be cross contamination.
Exactly! If they do this again, they could grow one or two plants and take clones of them, that way they could get the "same" plant in different soils. Hell, if they had the initiative, they could take clones from 5 different plants, possibly even different strains of peppers (maybe from sweet to super hot). Something else I might suggest they do is inoculate the soil with a hearty does of beneficial bacteria and fungus. Something else they could do is overwinter there plants and see how they do the next year.
I've used MG performance organics with unsulfured blackstrap molasses (1-2TBS gal), and seaweed extract (as directed) in combination as a fertilizer twice a month with wonderful results since MG launched their organic line. I also use garden tone at planting either in pots, or ground.
Thank you for this video!
Thanks! I always wanted to see a survey like this. I use Trifecta + and Fish Emulsion. So interesting, I have heard nothing but good things of Fox Farm
Your website is great. I'm a subscriber here.
Great video and a very informative test
Thank you :)
Congratulations on 100k!!!
Thanks for this!
Thanks for the great and very useful info - Cheers!
Very welcome, cheers!
Great little test dude! I am on the opposite side of the world so it is just about time to get my peppers going. I will try a few experiments with different fertilizers also. Love your vids.
very cool video thanks for doing this!
Thanks for making the video. I was looking forward to it, as you hinted to it in an earlier video. I went with the miracle grow performance organics. Only one of the fox farms trio is labeled OMRI, so I would probably stick with the miracle grow
This is great! It was exactly what I needed to see because I was debating going from regular granular miracle gro to the organic kind this year. I wondered if paying a little more would be worth it. Now that I have seen this I think I will go with the organic miracle gro for an organic garden. Thanks for this experiment!
For the last 2 yrs I fertilize the method used by Hollis and Nancy. Water in blood and bone meal. Then add some more bone and blood meal to base of planting, mixing in with dirt. Water planting again and forget about it rest of the year, no additional fertilizer. You could scatter additional bone meal in halfway through the summer for a boost. Great plants and harvest. Although all my peppers are sweet, hungarian, cascadura, shishito, cherry etc.
They use a lot of cow manure too.
Great video. For a potting mix it makes sense. The soluble ferts are immediately available. The dry amendments need to be broken down before they can be used by the plant.
I'd love to see a side by side in real soil. Or in a potting mix that's been inoculated with a diverse soil food web. The microbial life will break down the amendment faster. Too much soluble fert on soil could harm microbes.
Thanks for sharing your results! I would like to see next year you use a better potting mix and then the same fertilizer comparison. What would be interesting for the end of the plants, would be to see the root structures of the plants as a follow up.
It's tough, as the potting mixes we like using often grow the plants well for at least 2-3 months without _any_ fertilizer. However, we would probably throw in some compost if we were to try this test again, just to give the granular stuff a more fair chance
Thank you
I'm mid Ohio and of 24 bell peppers plants passed 110 before 8-20 .that's early for zone 6 I only add worm casting and micorizomes after first leafs and not any end rote all season believe my reason because such healthy seedlings and I planted the beginning of the last week of May. So our temperatures were hopefully above 60s but belive they did dropped into the low 50s but seemed to not slow these down.
As you I compose in fall and at planting time.
I'm a stuff peppers person 5 days a week and pepper jelly fan.
Glad someone like yourselves are treating peppers as big importance. If I had to give up tomatoes or peppers tomatoes might be going out.
Thanks for the teaching Sir and Lady
I love videos like this!
I'm cheep. I buy as little as possible. Great experiments. Your conclusion was spot on. Thank you. I picked my first red pepper today. Thank you for the save seeds video.
Zone 6, 6A. Peppers are Bell especially for container plants. The only plants available.
Had only one container so 2 went into the garden. The one in the container out doing the ones in the garden. Garden soil and geen compost kitchen scrapes etc and leaf mold is what I used. Compost and leaf mold to top dress during growing season
Growing Jalaps in-gound in clay-heavy soil with organic matter mixed inover the last 7 years. Last year, using Fish Emulsion 5-1-1 only to fertilize when potted up and then for the first 2-3 weeks after transplanted in ground Espoma Garden Tone used at planting and once in mid-late July, my data shows 48.75 avg total usable harvest per plant, 903.39g total usable weight per plant harvest and 18.53g avg per pepper.
I think it would be interesting to repeat this same experiment next year with a different variety
Loved your video👍
Could you initially use one of the granular and then water now and then with Fox farms?
Definitely can switch fertilizers mid-season if you're not having luck with what you are currently using. Liquid fertilizers are usually more fast acting in our experience, especially if you see signs of a nutrient deficiency
I was using granular but wanted to water here and there with miracle gro ( i have it already)
Great comparison!
Glad you think so!
Thanks for this. Gonna give Fox Farms a try. I've been using Greenway Biotech Pepper & Herb Fertilizer 11-11-40 and it's been good to me.
Foxfarm got a literal 10 out of 10 result.
Vermicompost is always my first choice for all my plants
I only use organic fertilizer with all my plants. I mostly use Neptune's Harvest water soluble fertilizer.
Great content! Thank you!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed!
very interesting! I use three of the five. I put Dr Earth/Espoma into the planting hole and give it a Miracle Grow hit once heavy fruiting hits. Might have to play around. Thanks!
Good video.
I've been using chilli focus from GROWTH TECHNOLOGY in my hydro and going to try it in my poted plants this season.
I've been using FF Happy Frog Jump Start at planting/potting, then AgroThrive liquid throughout the season. An unusually cold and wet Spring then 6 weeks of 100+ degrees with no rain made this a terrible season, but my peppers are finally setting flowers and fruit with a little cooler weather now.
Ive been using the miracle grow big bloom soil mixture and the fox farm liquid fertilizer this year. I've noticed how much faster the plant grows after being transplanted.
thanks
Good stuff. Next test should be in ground plants. I recommend Neptune’s Harvest; it has been my go to for some time.
Good video. It would be nice to know at what stages did you change the Fox farms trio. Also, can or did you save the extra liquid fertilizer for the next feeding?
I used Fox Farm granular and liquid throughout my garden and I don't think I will use any other from now on. I really love the results.
Right, fox farm definitely delivers what the plants need. Just have to be careful not to overfeed!
Brawndo has what plants need.. Fox Farm too. Yes, it was hydro. Very knowledgeable.
I love FF soil and fertz. A little pricey but well worth it
The organic granule plants did not receive sufficient water, hence the edema we saw early on and the bottom end rot during fruit production. Bottom end rot is typically associated with calcium deficiency due to inconsistent watering
Really interesting video! I'm curious, did you PH the nutrient solution of the water soluble fertilizers? If not, I think it would be interesting to do an experiment where you have plants with the same fertilizer, but slightly different PH values being applied to the water/soil.
This was very helpful as I grow Jedi jalapeños this year. I didn’t really fertilize them and most where smaller then they should be. So I will be using some fertilizer next year.
I've been using fox farm for 3 years now in a raised bed. I use the trio plus the Wholly Mackeral and Kelp me Kelp you (helps with growing in north carolina I was told). My assessment is that is it very "hot" in the first month with some fertilizer burn. But when plants are established I found them to be super prolific.
I love jalepeno science!
I literally use all almost everything listed but I use them together and I have great results
This a good experiment!
Thanks :)
Compost tea works great for all my hot pepper plants.
New Sub, that video was actually really fun to watch! I'm trying to grow some tomatoes and peppers in Florida, but God have mercy, the sun killed my plants even though I watered them. I just received a bunch of replacements, and I'm growing them in my garage with the window open. They have sun but not direct sun or else they would burn. They are very young plants. I will save this video for when I have to fertilize them.
I grow my peppers with Down To Earth organics with fantastic results big healthy peppers
We have some of their products, definitely quality. On the pricier side for sure, and a bit more complicated in terms of application. Do they make an all purpose? Or do you just use the bat guano?
@@PepperGeek I start with the 5-4-2 biolive mix then the 4-4-4 all purpose, switch to 4-8-4 for flower and fruiting it’s a once a month top dress application
I must say that your experiment is absolutely fantastic, congratulations!
Don't take it wrong, but the only thing I would say that is missing is the fertilizers component
At least here in Brazil, is required the suppliers to describe the NPK and micronutrients percentages
This was really interesting! I was looking into getting some Fox Farm stuff, but it seemed like it would be crazy expensive to keep up with their recommended schedule so I ended up just getting some regular old Miracle Gro. Your results are making me feel better about that choice 😅
I'm sure the underperformance of the granular fertilizers was due to those fresh pots not having pre-established bacterial colonies. It'd be super interesting if next year you did a follow-up experiment with the same contenders, but in a bed that has been around for a few years to see how much difference soil microbes make!
Interesting test. Thanks so much for going through the trouble. Personally, I went with Miracle Grow Performance Organics this year. Some of my plants are overproducing to the point where i have to try to give peppers away (Long Red Cheyenne) and some of my other plants have only produced a small handful of peppers (Italian Roaster). I'm thinking of switching it up a bit for the rest of this season. The next time I would sprinkle some Miracle Grow on my plants, I might use this bottle of liquid plant food (fish based) that I have in storage.
I grow in containers on my patio. I mix my own potting soil of peat moss, perlite, and topsoil. I use bone meal, organic granular tomato fertilizer to set up the pots, then water in with Alaska fish fertilizer at transplanting. When blooming starts, I switch to Alaska Mor Bloom on 2 week feedings. Once a month add a little fish for the nitrogen. I’ve had my most successful year growing large, fleshy pods of the 5 types I have! Not a bit of BER. I think this combination will be my routine going forward. Thanks for the comparison experiment, very interesting. 👍🏼 I’m in zone 5b.
Peppergeek: *summarizing his really helpful experiment and compared the strengths and weaknesses of 5 popular fertilizers showing the different results obtained by using orgainic vs. inorganic fertilizers, water-soluble vs. non-soluable, liquid vs solid*
Peppergeek's neighbor: YOOOOOOOOOO PEPPERGEEK, LOOK AT THIS FREAKIN SWEET NEW EXCAVATOR I GOT!
😂 Yep the timing wasn't ideal...someone else said it looked like a dinosaur roaming through our yard
@@PepperGeek I hope we can get a video showcasing your neighbors badass excavator :D
And all plants I would’ve added, some sort of microbiology, such as compost, and some sort of fungal compost. I would’ve also had cow mag. Calcium magnesium supplement, with a most likely stop the blossom and rot.
Use worm castings and compost tea seems to be the best choices 👍✌️
Very interested and the organic fertilizers thanks for doing this. Great at growing peppers maybe not so great at house plants 😂🤣
My FoxFarm did the same (small plants with nice heavy fruits)
I started the season using Miracle-Gro organic general purpose for the extra nitrogen to get the plants big and leafy. I switched to tiger bloom in late June early July. I have a good number of pods but they are not too big before they start to ripen. I might switch to a heavier feeding of tiger bloom next year and see if that produces bigger pods.
A test with homemade (natural) fertilizers would be interesting to see. With stuff like Nettle Manure, Cow/Horse-manure/pellets, Primary rock flour, compost and maybe banana/onion tea.
Maybe pot the plants with some organic garden soil and see if that helps them utilize the organic granular fertilizer.
Yep, this would probably help kick things off. Maybe just a top dressing of compost too
I think a bigger sample would be great. Maybe 10 plants to each fertilizer instead of just one... Probably a more conclusive test. This is a great start though.. I've laid awake at night wondering about these things. ;)
My theory is that you fallowed the instructions on the fox farm meaning by the time you got to fruiting, they had more phosphorus and potassium making the fruit bigger. Just a guess though.
That’s exactly what I do. My plants get only Grow Big and Big Bloom while in the vegetative stage, then I switch to only Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom for the flowering/fruiting stage. My results are worth the price of the product.
Hi, great video. I have a question about fox farm, do you mix them all then dilute or do you use them separately depending on the stage of growth?
Should include the cost per gram for each
I would also first add blood and bone meal as well
Thanks well done.
I would have liked to see the plant productivity in another month too
I do container gardening up north in zone 5A and have been making my own homemade potting mix for 11 years that performs amazingly well in the short grow season here.
I start by using clay dug from my backyard I let it dry in the sun on my driveway then I crush it into a fine powder then sweep it up.
I used to use the topsoil as part of my base ingredients instead of clay, but found that the clay has way more minerals than the native topsoil in my backyard.
Basically I mix the (1)clay, (2)compost, (3)worm castings, (4)coconut coir, plus "inoculants" and "amendments" together by hand.
Per 10 cubic foot heavy duty wheelbarrow (1 batch):
Two 5gal buckets total of 10 gallons, Coconut Coir
10 gallons of crushed powdered clay
10 gallons of locally-sourced earth worm castings
10 gallons of my homemade super compost
This is the soil base mix.
Then I add these inoculants and amendments to the base mix listed above.
(1)Bat Guano
(2)Bone meal
(3) blood meal
(4) rock dust
(5) alfalfa meal
(6) kelp meal
(7) seaweed meal
(8) chicken manure
(9) green sand "mineral deposits from the ocean floor"
(10) feather meal
(11) mycorrhiza "a type of fungus"
(12) microorganism mix "multiple different types of microorganism bacteria"
(13) course garden perlite
(14) red wiggler worms about one dozen per flower pot depending on the pot size
(15) Neem Cake meal
My soil looks like a complete tangled web of millions of white spider webs throughout the soil mixture.
This is the holy grail of the home gardener, it's known as "soil hyphae" mycelium a type of mycorrhiza fungus network that has a "beneficial" symbiotic relationship with the vegetable plants.
If you're able to achieve this hyphae network magical things happen like absolute ridiculous yields from one plant 👍.
I basically make a living soil and let the soil feed the plants (happy soil microbes happy plants)😁.
I do use Alaskan Fish emulsion but only for the first 4 to 6 weeks, after that the soil amendments and inoculants carry it the rest of the season.
Feel free to copy my epic recipe👍, I promise you won't be disappointed😁.
Mycelium or bust!!!!! 🤷✌️
Wow that’s a ton of amendments. I’m finding the decomposing leaves/branches below my soil in my raised beds has a similar hyphae.
I wonder how many of the amendments you buy can be accomplished with a good leaf compost?
Love this! However, I’d like to see the MG switched to veggie blend once they start to bloom.
I used to grow some nice plants with the Fox farm products 🙄😬😎
Interesting!♥️
I’ve been using Garden Tone because it’s just so much easier using a granular when you have a lot of plants as a medium hobbyist and you’re not growing for volume.
Also, with daily downpours in South Florida, I don’t see liquids as an option. It would all get washed away.
I guess it’s all a matter of compromise.