I have a question about the cooking of living soil. Per owner requirements, all of my inputs must be OMRI certified or CDFA. We were using a local living soil with great results supplemented with a good liquid nutrient. Everything was going good until the man making it moved out of state (I am in Alaska so changing products isn’t always an option).
So I now have three options, I can go liquid, which costs a substantial amount of money as our good friend Ethan Keys would say, we are paying to have water shipped. I can have premade living soil shipped up here, which shipping costs as much as the product itself and comes out to about the same price as a liquid program. Or I can make my own soil using locally sourced compost, worm castings and peat. The problem with this is we don’t have the space and to rent space is $1.20 a sqft at best. However, I do have a space big enough to meet half of our needs, hence the question; can I cook the compost, worm castings and mineral imputs alone or do i need to have the peat and perlite in the mix too? Since the compost, worm castings make up a third of final mix I would have the space to cook for 2-4 weeks then add peat and perlite before the potting. If not then can I do the compost/castings, minerals and peat, then cook then add the perlite. this takes 2/3’s of the space of the final product and I’m not sure i have the space to do this (depends if cooking is 2 weeks or 4 weeks)
There may be another option but I’m not versed or familiar with the in’s and out’s
That would be simply using peat and perlite then adding my minerals therefore having no microbes to break down my minerals. I’m fairly certain I can source single mineral powdered/flour type inputs that are OMRI certified and water soluble, therefore not needing the microbes to break down but have no idea about the amounts to use ect. Does anyone have good proven recipes on this mineral soil technique? Honestly this would be my prefered option after reading The Ideal Soil v2.0: A Handbook for the New Agriculture. The problem is the book is above my knowledge and educational level, it is written for those with degrees in the field.
Thanks y’all - Lee