Essentially a high draining medium built with typical guanos, meals, etc and amended with compost and worm castings will be taken over by the plant which governs the microbes. The plant tells the microbes what to bring in and when, and it rewards the microbes with food (root exudate).
My point is that maybe not to worry so much about NPK calcs. That's not part of the vocabulary of a living soil farmer.
yes but building your medium first and then nurturing the nematodes and other beneficial bacteria thru teas and other things---
'MY' point is everything you put into your container as far as amendments to feed the active live beneficial bacteria ihas an NPK value that can be manipulated--it is good to learn and understand this equation-
this guy the rev that wrote true living organics used to come around to a place I worked...and I have gotten into mucho conversation in regards to specific NPK and which organic forms provide which amount of NPK when it comes to container gardens and NpK numbers specifically relating to plant growth cycle etc..
plus if you research best NPK ratios for herb many posts talking about 10-5-5 or 20-10-10 or 30-20-20 or even buying or mixing products with an even NPK for plants whole cycle
it is an annual and reacts the same as any other annual
these are all achieved by mixing super soil mixes or similar
even if as you say the NPK is not in a TLO vocabulary---it is still considered when building your medium--if you do it mindfully and conciously
that being said I play with the numbers available and keep learning all the time different results from building different mix--
the real definition of TLO IMO is when the symbiosis between the plant and the medium is achieved and the closed Eco system you creat becomes a miniature type of perma culture--everything working together for the whole..it can be called many things...bio-dynamic..TLO...micro permaculture....do you piss on your plants and do you know the NPK value in that or the permaculture side? uric acid can be used by the plant--veganomics is what a lot of pholks are experimenting and learning with now---if you ate meat yet grew your herb veganomically(no animal products all plant based) and pissed on your plants using perma culture designs would your herb be vegonomically grown? many variables involved with growing herb organically as far as what you put in the containers--and what NPK value you will achieve ----if you use compost with meat scraps it is not considered organic--and meat takes along time to break down and contaminates the compost
breaking down the natural food becomes an essential part of the plants ability to uptake what it needs when it needs it---and as much as it wants or can handle----this is the job of the microbes---mycillium will take the food to the plant every time instead of the plant searching for the food--live working microbes there is a great book on the benefits of mycillium by Paul stamos....mycillium rising...mushrooms and fungus amoung us
l
its like yogurt cultures or making sour dough cultures--creating breeding thriving growing colonies of live beneficial bacteria--that live off of breaking down the nutrients in the soil and feeding it to the plants--how much nutrients do you provide in the soil??(NPK) and at what quantity? how do you quantify it? size of container plant etc
sounds complicated but not---micro/macro
molasses is the favorite catalyst
do you or have ever done cover crop to enrich your soil?
most senior growers are aware of the benefits of true organically grown herb....taste ...high(especially to me) smell quality etc
it commands more value
when that rev guy was touting the benefits of TLO he was really just trying to get people to understand the benefits on the herb by using all organic --which comes from your NPK rich medium you build in your container
you can achieve good results by using nothing but just water and some dirt--most any dirt...you will still get somthing
it still boils down to the NPK you have built into your medium---IMO and experience...there are number values that you deal with
i have always felt that allowing my containers to have the optimal and high NPK values gives me a better run and bigger results with smaller effort
here is a nice little thread about what you are talking about--I guess the learning curve here is still pretty vertical but it is leveling
thanks to sub cool and his super soil mix recipe that so many are trying.....His mix is close to a 15-10-10
http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/563579-true-living-organic-soil-la-rolanterroy.html
that was a couple years ago-
i am not sure but I get the impression that dirtbagger pholks here do not understand the numbers thing yet--or the advantages of good NPK rich soil medium--so many using bottled nutes.....I would think hydro growers could understand a lot of the numbers game
just thought I might attract some mixers here that share NPK recipes-
and here is somewhere you can find skunk magazines latest effort--the rev should be there---along with the rest of the TLO tribe....
highly recommended if you can make it---some of the best TLO grown herb in the US IMO ---
I guess you can close this thread-
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Emerald-Cup/132354766809406v
and sorry brevity is not one of my attributes-
peace
