Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Avoidusinglime(ofanykind)inspikes.Ihaveconsistentlyexperiencedbadresultswhenaddingdolo-
mite lime to spikes. I prefer to use ground oyster shell, and things like bulb food and steamed bone meal
to balance the pH of my spikes to some degree, keeping them from experiencing a drop in pH from things
like guanos, blood meal, and any raw organic matter like kelp or alfalfa meal.
Layers take on two basic meanings in TLO growing. You can layer with either an actual, specially
mixed soil mix used at some level of the container, like the custom steer manure bottom layer mix, or you
can create a layer of pure nutrients. Both of these can be very beneficial to your TLO grow. Any time I
am filling a container larger than ½ gallon I will use layers out of habit. The steer manure layer on the
bottom is standard TLO practice for me, and I will also very often mix in extra earthworm castings for the
top couple of inches of the soil mix—just under the bark mulch layer on the very top. However, layering
with pure nutrients is something I also do regularly. I really love the two granular dry nutrients for usage
here by Botanicare called “Pure,” and they come in both grow and bloom versions. I will often use a ta-
blespoon of these nutrients at various levels as I am filling my containers during a transplant, and on the
“floor” of the containers before I ever add a soil mix of any kind. Typically in, say, a 1-gallon container,
in the vegetative state, I would use something like blood meal, or bird/bat guano (high-nitrogen type) on
the floor along with the Botanicare Pure, before adding the soil mix. If I didn't have any Botanicare Pure,
I would use another good, all-purpose style dry nutrient in its place, with fairly even N-P-K numbers, such
as 5-5-5. I would then use the Pure or all purpose again at least once at some level, as I filled the container
up, after I had placed the root ball in. This would give a horizontal plane in the container surrounding the
root ball with an extra tablespoon worth of all-purpose dry nutrients of some type. This concentrates the
nutrientssotherootscanchoosetoavoiditordiveiniftheywish.Thisavoidsfryingyourplants,byusing
spikes and layers, rather than just goosing up the nutrient additions globally in the whole mix, which will
frequently kill or stunt your plants.
Youcangetcarriedawaywiththepracticeoflayering,sostartouteasyandtuneitupslowlyasneeded.
There are areas in your container that need some special attention, especially when it comes to nitrogen.
The massive populations of microlife near the drain holes on the bottom and just under the bark mulch up
top are super nitrogen hungry, so it is always advantageous to layer in some extra nitrogen at these loca-
tions.
