Lots of ways to skin the cat. Again, I'm a firm believer that organic soil mix starts with your compost...either make it yourself from food scraps or find a premium supplier. You don't want the cheap bagged stuff from the stores. Whether you do a super soil mix that you have to cook, or a coots mix that will never burn your plants, compost is probably the most important. IMHO. Compost, learn about it.
Lots of ways to skin the cat. Here is a little blurb from Clackamas Coots, just to get the wheels spinning. Did you read the Build-a-Soil link in my last post?
"This is the compost that I started with
1 c.y. organic barley straw 12 lbs. basalt rock dust 2 c.f. roughly chopped Comfrey as the Nitrogen source 5 c.f. pumice (1/4" size)
When the material ramped back down to 100F or so I added the following:
3 lbs. kelp meal 3 lbs. a neem / karanja meal mix that I had made because I was bored - obviously 1 lb. organic alfalfa meal 1 c.f. roughly chopped Comfrey leaves 1 c.f. roughly chopped mint mix - Peppermint, Spearmint, Thyme, Cilantro, Holy Basil (Tulsi) and chopped Rosemary 3 lbs. organic fish meal 3 lbs. crustacean meal
I loaded this into #150 SmartPot and dumped about 3 gallons of worms that I harvested from other set-ups also using SmartPots. Basically 3 gallons is somewhere around 10 - 11 lbs. of worms. I covered this with barley straw to reduce evaporation in the bedding material.
A year later I harvested over 28 lbs. of worms, thousands and thousands of cocoons (using a 1/8" screen which will capture the cocoons) and this specific batch of vermicompost is what I'm currently using.
It's all about patience - it takes time to create premium humus.
Dat's it!
CC"
Then just mix it up as such:
1/3 Humus 1/3 SPM or Leaf Mold 1/3 Aeration (Rice hulls/Pumice/Lava Rock)
A bit of time and effort is required at the front end for sure. After that's done, just add water.
