As I do a living soil grow in pots each summer. I'm always on the lookout for ways to supercharge the life in my soil.
Been reading a few articles on Yeast fertilizer and was wondering if anyone is using it.
That is one of my top two concerns each season the other being the selected genetics to grow, I’ve been growing in living soil (Coots mix) for around 5 years now and have no reason to change as it is really simple. I am also somewhat lazy but want to produce high quality harvests so I rely on homemade compost that I manage, it is a very different product than those in bags or piles in the landscape yard.
The home piles get all the regular materials from the landscape, mowed grass / weeds, rock powders, rice hulls, blood or feather meal to help with decomposition processes & any other quality compostable materials I have available that will enhance the end results.
I do use alfalfa sileage which comes in 50 lb bags both in my composting and as a top dressing because of its quick boost to biological activity, I like this product because it is fermented and provides quick benefits in the compost or as a top dressing because of the visually active biological activity that results within a few days after application. Keep any top dressing you use in the growing season back from the plants trunk by an inch or so & don’t add more than an inch or so deep when top dressing, it will take a week or two for this layer to be consumed if your soils life is really healthy.
I am suddenly seeing the newest horticultural push towards yeast & I have to chuckle as that is a kitchen staple which expires & goes into the compost bucket at least once a year. I’ve not done a good search into this latest got to have (or do I already have it?) miracle but when I did look it was vendor information not research information so for the time being it is probably a miracle I’ll live without spending anymore on than the cost of the yeast packets once a year… it’s the same as purchasing mychorhiza formulations l am already doing that in the composting process and providing living fungal materials vs a bag of dried pelleted materials.
I also grow outdoors in 50 gal bags & have a raised living soil bed which is likely what I will convert to in the next year or two as it takes less watering and native soils generally have benefits for plant growth.
Because I am lazy I don’t do teas as some folks do and my nutrient cycle may drop a bit in the early season so I will do a little boost with Bio Ags Nitro Mino product usually at 1/2 rate, later into bloom I use some Ag Sil as a potassium supplement. I do purchase malted barley grains at the brewery supply and grind it into flour in the blender for top dressing, this is another bio stimulator so 2 to 4 big handfuls watered in.
Any other growers going all in on composting to manage their living soils? What’s your composting process and materials used throughout the season in your living soil projects?
As I do a living soil grow in pots each summer. I'm always on the lookout for ways to supercharge the life in my soil.
Been reading a few articles on Yeast fertilizer and was wondering if anyone is using it.
