Thank you! I’ll check into it for sure.
Your welcome Drew,I have been schooled that no fertilizer is as good as really good organic soil, and you must work your soil every year with good amendments to get better tilth. As kids our garden went from semi hard to rich sandy loam from adding a lot of above mentioned amendments. I do realize that you will probably be using potting soil but its hard to beat natural amendments, better for everyone!
Drew
Very interesting project on a significant scale which could help a lot of folks.
Most organic growers in my area rely on the addition of large amounts of organic matter through cover cropping and feather meal for N that is slow release.
I expect the combination of your fertigation and on site compost generation will take care of most nutritional needs. Looks like you will require a lot of growing media. Have you decided on what to use? Will you buy it by the truckload and move it to the planter box with a loader, or shovel it by hand? Also, you may want to consider your rotation system. Organic growers often use 5 year or longer rotations in my area.
Maybe making your own potting soil using as much local (Texas, anyway) ingredients as possible would be good PR and even practical. If the lightness of perlite isn’t required, sand is much cheaper and I bet there is a source nearby. I don’t know if there is any pulp wood industry in coastal Texas where they create pine bark. Your compost would be part of the mix, of course. It would be great to create your own mix that also provided most needed nutrients.
There is a good local company that is supplying me with bulk potting soil that is made of composted pine bark and expanded shale(among other things). We use a front end loader to fill the boxes because we have 500 of the things and a wheel barrow just don’t cut it any more! The boxes are then placed by forklift. It’s quite the dance. We should have them finished by the end of Monday. I will amend with compost and organic material at every planting for sure. Thank you for the tips!
It would be great on all levels to make our own soil and I am definitely looking to move in that direction as we move forward. I am hoping we can create enough compost on our own to keep up with our demands.
Forgot to ask can the Dr. Earth products effectively be applied over the top during the growing season or are they only good to be mixed into the soil pre - plant? Thank you sir.
I really underestimated the scale of your project. Did I understand properly that you have 500 planters?
Yes 500 planter boxes, tomatoes growing in a greenhouse, and we are fixing to add a hydroponic tank to my greenhouse as well. It’s starting to look and feel more like agriculture for sure.