Haha yea, hay can be great! But, if you cover your land with hay as mulch it needs to be thick enough to starve out itself from growing. I know this because last year i turned my garlic field into a very dense lawn… The grass seeds really loved that fresh soil and took off like nobody’s business The garlic on the other hand suffocated under the mulch layer. I think the lesson is, mulch out, then cut holes in the hay carpet and plant in those holes. Don’t just cover your crops…

Yea, i get cow manure from my neighbour but i am very paranoid about bringing in slugs, an abundant pest in most of the country but absent here. Which is why I’m so stubborn on making soil from only local ingredients. I have my own gravel pit so thats no issue, and an abundance of trees. Rotted birch has been good but finding and hauling it in any quantity becomes too much work.

Yesterday was a very frustrating day as every blend I made just turned to poorly draining muck in my pots. Even though my last mix has been perfect for my seedlings. So posted here to get inspiration for soil additives to help with that. I think i will up the quantity of wood chips and try again. Good advice tho, for those leas scared of slugs!

Sounds close to what in doing, but with cow manure. Im very paranoid about bringing spanish killer slugs which are abundant all over Sweden, but we are one of the few areas that don’t have any. So the only external material is from my neighbour, who also don’t have slugs.

But my problem with the manure is drainage, which is what prompted this question. On the no dig garden its fine when mixed with whatever, but for things that live in pots it just turns to muck and takes hours to drain. Based on your information i will try a significant increase in wood chips tho.

Thanks for chiming in!

To my understanding, high nutrient soils can burn baby seedlings. This is especially true for blends of peat moss with artificial fertiliser but also uncomposted/poorly composted manures.

I usually go for last years, ie depleted, soil. For small seeds i just pulverise it with my hands for the top centimeter. This year I used soil made of composted manure mixed with sand/fine gravel, crushed terracotta, charcoal and woodpulp i took from some decomposing tree in the forest.

Tomatoes, kale, cauliflower, oregano, sunflower, paprika and chili all took off no problem. No signs of life from my cucumbers and artichoke, tho I think at least the cucumber got eaten by mycelium that spread from the composted manure.

I’m intensively staring at the compost to make it go faster, alas, it’s not ready yet :( And since I don’t yet have killer slugs I’m very hesitant to buying even local organic matter.

Pumice, perlite and leca are all mined products which I don’t want to spend money on. Looking for naturally occurring analogs. Unfortunately i haven’t found any clay on the property or I would try making my own.

Im sure their environmental impact varies but regardless I find it so silly that whatever’s already growing doesn’t care but when we go to plant stuff these things become necessary.

Im considering charcoal as i have an abundance of wood. Make a fire and just extinguish it mid blaze. The potash should help with acidity too, no?

And I forgot to mention that I’ve been crushing up old terracotta tile trying to emulate terra preta, which appears to remains fertile for a very very long time.

Hydroponics are super cool but get expensive fast and I have several hectares of useable land.

Yea the pile is cooking but spring is here so seeds got to get planted! I’m very hesitant to buying external anything since I don’t have killer slugs here (yet) and i really really don’t want them.

Leaves and sticks are the uncomposted (plant)foods I’m thinking of, not so much food scraps.

Fabric pots sound cool, will look into diy options for that, but yea, that takes time too.

Thanks for chiming in!

I have watched video after video trying to get my teflon brain to hold onto anything relevant. Multiple videos claim you cut down the first set of shoots because they’re always bull shoots. And that the disease hides in the old shoots. So if this is all bullshit, I am in disbelief and grateful for your correction! Who would go on the internet and just lie! Thanks, mulch appreciated!

For now, I will just not cut anything yet.

Im so glad i finally started asking people here (after two years…!) Thank you for the answer! I think that perfectly satisfies my wonderings. Its only been in this location for about a year, making this its first spring not being in a pot.

Well, its not like i can cut them to see if they’re hollow. I added some pictures i failed to upload in the OP. I planted them here last year on top of a good chunk of compost so they should have plenty of that.

I also heard a claim that diseases will hide in the early sprouts, or was it in the old growth? Do you know if this plays any role?

I actually only cut last years stems down earlier this year as last year didn’t have any harvest anyway. Perhaps I should have cut them deeper down?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, hope its okay.

Just realised the other pictures didn’t get included!