Suggestions on how to amend old soil from last year?

[Vintage1969]

Hi there, so I'm taking over a buddies outdoor spot, there's large pots filled with soil from last year, budgetary constraints means I may not be able to fill them with new soil, I was wondering what I could do to beef up the soil that was present from last year. They are at least 100 gallon pots. I'm not exactly sure the size, but pretty large, 3' wide by 2' tall.

I was thinking of mixing in compost, guano, alfalfa meal, planting a quick cover crop with alfalfa to fix nitrogen, and then plant out my seasonings in two months. Any suggestions?

 

[Vintage1969]

Uhh..anybody have suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

[razzcazz4200]

sounds like your on the right path with amending and cover cropping. A little late but you could probably get some alfalfa to pop for a month til june and put your cuts out. Personally id dump all the bags, amend soil with stuff youve mentioned,maybe mix in some fine yard clippings and some aeration and rock and roll. I think youd benefit more from getting plants in the ground than growing a cover crop at this point. Hit it weekly with teas and they should be fine. what is the base soil?

 

[Buddah Watcha]

Its hard to know for sure whats missing on the soil, but the ingredients you mention are a good start!

I'd add some Kelp Meal to that as well!

Best of luck

 

[FunkBomb]

I'd add compost and a fertilizer blend from Espoma or Down To Earth that has all the amendments and endo/ecto mycos.

-Funk

 

[Vintage1969]

sounds like your on the right path with amending and cover cropping. A little late but you could probably get some alfalfa to pop for a month til june and put your cuts out. Personally id dump all the bags, amend soil with stuff youve mentioned,maybe mix in some fine yard clippings and some aeration and rock and roll. I think youd benefit more from getting plants in the ground than growing a cover crop at this point. Hit it weekly with teas and they should be fine. what is the base soil?

Hi, thank you for the replies. The base soil is Fox farm Ocean Forest.

What are good Teas to use in flowering?

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

The general gardening standard is to have at least 5% organic matter in your soil like plant based compost.

Anyways 2-3 inches on top of container of hot compost and EWC, incorporated 6-8 inches deep into the top of the 100 gallon smart pot. should give you .2 lb nitrogen per 100 sq ft of area.

Its generally not suggested to use manure products due to salinity problems. EWC should give you plenty of easily available P and K. Without having to use manures. If you want constant flow of "manure" add some Red Wiggler worms to the container, they help with aeration, and compaction and add to soil tilth.

Its more or less assumed that the soil in the pots already have good soil tilth, but the only issue with the pots is the problem of soil compaction.

 

[razzcazz4200]

I use 50 gallons water, 4 lbs compost, 4 lbs super soil, 250ml molasses with the 3000 cfm airpump and an 8'' air stone. bubble for 2 days. I use the same tea from start to finish. #fuckit

 

[CoastalKind]

All that is good. I think the cover crop is unnecessary especially if you are buying nitrogen. Cover crops make more sense in big fields when you plan on tilling the plant matter back in to add carbon to soil as well. I would just mix it all up with a lot of compost. You can feed it as necessary with water soluble nutrients as the season goes along. I use teas and amend my soil heavily but i find it just doesn't take care of everything. Don't be afraid to use water soluble nutrients to fill in the gaps as they present themselves. Fish meal, chicken manure, cow manure, guanos, alfalfa meal are all good. I use guano, kelp, and molasses in 30 gallon trash can with a bubbler in it for my tea. I let is seep for 3 days, by that time it is clearly very active with yeast and aerobic bacteria. Still though not all the nutrients in the guano are water soluble so also use fish emulsions and water soluble micro nutrients that aren't OMRI to round out my plants diet. Chemical nutrients shouldn't have an adverse affect on your soil if used correctly. All nutrients in organic fertilizers must be broken down by the microbes or "mineralized" before they plant can uptake them. Once they are mineralized they are in the same form as the chemical nutrients you can buy that are water soluble. Even in these forms some microbes can still change Urea to nitrite and nitrites to nitrates. This action can actually change the ph of your soil and is the something to look out for but isn't exclusive to chemical fertilizers. On another note I have found that alfalfa pellets for livestock feed are cheaper than alfalfa sold as a fertilizer.