permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

From ATTRA:

The following four recipes are credited to Eliot Coleman. The first
was published in the Winter 1994 issue of NOFA-NJ Organic News, in an
article by Emily Brown-Rosen. The remaining three are adapted from
Coleman's book The New Organic Grower (see Appendix 2).

Organic potting mix

    1 part sphagnum peat
    1 part peat humus (short fiber)
    1 part compost
    1 part sharp sand (builder's)

To every 80 quarts of this add:

    1 cup greensand
    1 cup colloidal phosphate
    1 1/2 to 2 cups crab meal, or blood meal
    1/2 cup lime

Blocking mix recipe

    3 buckets (standard 10-quart bucket) brown peat
    1/2 cup lime (mix well)
    2 buckets coarse sand or perlite
    3 cups base fertilizer (blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and
greensand mixed together in equal parts)
    1 bucket soil
    2 buckets compost

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Coleman does not sterilize
potting soils; he believes that damp-off and similar seedling problems
are the result of overwatering, lack of air movement, not enough sun,
over-fertilization, and other cultural mistakes.

Blocking mix recipe for larger quantities

    30 units brown peat
    1/8 unit lime
    20 units coarse sand or perlite
    3/4 unit base fertilizer (blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and
greensand mixed together in equal parts)
    10 units soil
    20 units compost

Mini-block recipe

    16 parts brown peat
    1/4 part colloidal phosphate
    1/4 part greensand
    4 parts compost (well decomposed)

Note: If greensand is unavailable, leave it out. Do not substitute a
dried seaweed product in this mix.