Building a healthy organic soil

[Faced1]

The task of building an organic soil is an art form. It can be a stick figure drawing, or you can go Monet with it.

Building soils for NPK values is one thing, but it is only part of what makes a plant healthy. A balance of proper hormones, fatty acids, slow/fast decaying materials, and fluffiness can really juice up your mix. I break the necessities (IMO) up into several categories. Food, minerals, microbe mix, aeration.

Food stuffs are things like-
bone meal
blood meal
all purpose organic ferts
rock phosphate
alfalfa

mineral sources are things like-
diatomaceous earth pool sand
gypsum
green sand
kelp
lime
azomite
rock dusts
shredded coconut
flax or other seed meals

microbe mixes are things like-
composted peat moss
compost (diy or store bought)
earthworm castings
animal manures
leaf mold
mushroom compost

aeration items can be-
coco coir
vermiculite
rice or other grain hulls
perlite
pumice
chunky diatomaceous earth

per 25 gallon tote-
5 bricks eco earth brand coco (12-13 gallons)
1.5 cu ft compost (bagged variety)
1/2 gallon fine vermiculite
3 cups kelp meal
3 cups bone meal
2 cups alfalfa meal
2 cups espoma bio tone starter plus
2 cups espoma garden tone
2 cups espoma plant tone
2 cups greensand
2 cups rock phosphate
2 cups composted peat moss
2 cups diatomaceous earth
2 cups diatomaceous earth pool sand
1/2 cup gypsum
1/2 cup espoma tomato tone
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup flax seed meal

the coir was hydrated with tap water (135 ppm, tested with hannah 9813-6) then allowed to sit in the rain and be flushed of all excess salts. after a week exposed to the elements the coir began to turn black and show some evidence of composting/bacterial breakdown. when bacterial decomposition had begun, additives were mixed in and allowed to sit for a week before transplanting.

this mixture is tailored around a high CEC (cation exchange capacity), air filled porosity, bacterial diversity, a large amount of ingredients with auxins/cytokinenins/gibberlins in addition to npk values, and a balance of short/long breakdown materials. I am going to dump the totes at the end of the season and add back more alfalfa, kelp, coconut meat, and flax before it composts over the winter.

i brew compost teas as well, my recipe is (per 13 gallons)-
1 cup compost
1 cup alfalfa
1 cup kelp
1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
3 mL liquid humic additive

i use a long sock to hold the dry tea ingredients, and before i begin brewing, i submerge the sock and squeeze it several times to moisten the ingredients and get the microscopic particulate into the water to be colonized by bacteria. this tea is watered down 1:3, so a batch makes a little over 50 gallons. after brewing, the once dry tea ingredients are used as top dressing for the plants.

here you can see the mychorrhizal fungi colonizing the soil.
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a basil plant's root ball during transplant
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a couple tomatoes when they got transplanted from two gallon containers into 18 gallon totes (2 weeks ago)

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same basil plant, 3 weeks later
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