SOIL MIXING:Doc Bud's High Brix Kit
I came home today to find two packages, one containing 15# of worm castings and the other a 60# bale of Promix HP. We live on the third floor, 40 steps up. Thankfully I am a 61 year old woman smart enough to be a practitioner of Callanetics, so my core is strong baby! I rolled that bale up to the third floor, end over end, stuck it onto my mini dolly and rolled it into the living room. Then I dashed across the street to buy a large tote to mix this batch of soil in. I have one large tote, but I'm mixing LOS tomorrow. WooHoo!!! Soil mixing two days in a row!!
Let's get started.
I studied Doc's instructions on his lab thread and did my best to stick to them.
In The Lab
Doc was very patient with my exuberance and answered posted questions quickly. I'd warned him ahead of time and I appreciate the tolerance of my bubbly excitement.
I mixed up half a batch. I'll be starting with one 7 gallon pot, but we all know I'm going to want to expand, and the soil stores well with proper care, so half a batch it is!
Watch how easy this was to do.
I'm going to need a supply of water. It's rained every day this month and the tub I use for collecting water is full, so we'll use that.
During the winter I thought it had split from the pressures of ice formation, but I was wrong.
Next I need to measure out half of the amendments. I weighed out the entire bag.
Then I split that in half. The rest goes into storage for the next batch.
Now, I only need 1/2 of the bale of Promix. I measured the height, marked it at halfway and set to work dumping it into the tote.
The rest of the bale will be sealed with tape and stored on the balcony with the other bale of peat moss.
Dump the amendments into the Promix HP.
Add the EWC.
Begin mixing. This is one of my favorite steps. In my opinion, soil mixing is best done by hand.
All the way up to the elbows.
You need to get right down to the bottom and dredge it up over and over and over again. This stage is where I make sure everything is broken up and evenly distributed. I keep going until I no longer come up with patches of earth worm castings. Then I continue dredging and tumbling for a while longer, until I'm satisfied that the energy I'm feeling is one of balance. It's a Mother Earth thing I think.
Now that it's all mixed evenly .....
..... it's time to add some water. According to the directions, for a half batch I would need 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 gallons of water. The Chapin sprayer holds 2. I went with that. I took my time and sprayed it on, letting it soak in.
I let it sit for as long as it took to load in all of the pictures up to this point. Then I went back and mixed it again.
I'll let you in on a secret. This is my favorite part. Only the top layer of the mix has any water in it. You have to begin churning this all together to break up the moist level and blend it into the dry areas. See the difference in this picture?
You want those dry areas to be nonexistent by the time you're done. I choose these large totes because they're large enough to hold the volume I'm mixing and shallow enough that I can plunge my arms into the soil right up to my elbows. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE mixing soil?
My technique is to sit on a stool at one end of the tote, plunge my hands in to either side right down to the bottom outside, then scoop under to the middle and dredging the bottom layer up through the center, gently bouncing as I went. When I was satisfied that that end if the tote to the center was mixed completely (no dry peat moss at all) I turned it around to the other end and repeated that process. I was up past my elbows. Almost had to shower when I was done.
It was a glorious time. Mixing soil is a spiritual experience for me. As I'm mixing the components into a homogenous matrix I'm imbuing it with love and positive energy and thinking of the healthy and vigorous plants that will eventually dazzle us in this new batch of living soil.
After a time it's obvious that it's well mixed and it's time to stop. I usually linger a while longer. My skin likes the feel of healthy dirt.
The top goes on and the soil cooks for the next month.
How easy was that? One down, one to go.
Tomorrow night - Living Organic Soil. A different approach to soil building entirely.
