Preparing live soil

[SparcOne1]

Hi, I’ve had a few bags of mediocre potting soil lying around the house the reason I haven’t been using them is because the quality isn’t aerated enough for my liking so recently I put out some black plastic under a tree and emptied all the soil there raked out in an even approx 12inch thick pile and since I’ve been adding worm casting compost tea and the Korean Natural Farming(KNF) microorganism solution(JMS) to the pile so in other words I’ve been adding benificial microorganisms back in to the soil. The pile is receiving some rain too so everything I add is being run through the soil with rain. The plan is to finally amend a soil mix with added worm castings, compost, limestone, cured chicken manure and perlite. My question is ‘is it possible to turn the quality of an average potting mix in to a rich quality soil teaming with microbes’? I know if your adding microbes to land where the quality of the soil is bad it will over time change the soil web so I’m basically wondering if the soil web in potting soil can be stimulated and ‘fed’ the same way that it’s possible in the ground. Obviously in the ground there’s a more complex layering that runs deeper in to the earth so there is major differences. So far I’ve already noticed(I think) the soil to be more fluffy and of darker texture, or I could be imagining this. All my compost and worm castings are made by me so there’s no outside products coming in. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

[Weird]

yes earthworm casting and casting tea works well

there are some stickies in the soil forums keep a sharp eye for microbeman's contributions

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=110620

 

[h.h.]

With mediocre soil you can make mediocre improvements.
With good soil you can make good improvements.

 

[h.h.]

What do you call mediocre?

 

[troutman]

Yes it can be done with some efforts. Like all things it gets better with time so don't rush
it and go slowly. A few drops of molasses and some carbon rich material like plant straw for
the bacteria,etc. to feed on will help. Get yourself a bacteria/myco product to boost your
live microorganism levels.

 

[Frosty Nuggets]

Try some Great White for beneficial bacteria and fungi.