I think you have too much compost. Something along the lines of 20% ewc 10% compost. Would make a better base. Never used the promix organik. What’s the perlite % it should say on the bag??
This guy posted another thread, his wife has been gardening for a while and has quality compost that comes from doing it yourself. She's also got her plants in the ground (If I recall right?), and not in pots. If their native soil has enough sand/clay in it, the "stagnant water" and other water related issues common in container growing will not apply when it comes to plants in the ground.
Most common water related issues are overwatering, drowning the roots and then creating stagnant water pooling at the bottom of pots. Then, root rot, pests, and a host of other problems arise. This is why container pots need so much drainage/aeration. However, those problems don't exist with plants that are buried in the ground where your native dirt has sufficient drainage. It is very rare for water to "pool up" with plants that are in the ground, as the water will always follow the path of least resistance and find itself away from the roots. Wicking action will then draw water from this "underground pool" and take care of things. That same wicking action will fuck you in containers, especially if your pots aren't sitting on top of something and the pots are allowed to sit in their own runoff.
Of course, this assumes everyone's native dirt has sufficient sand/drainage by itself. Containers, I always go with 40% aeration inputs. In the ground though, it's been closer to 10% input. That 10% perlite, combined with the sand/dirt that is native to where I (and OP) lives, provides all the drainage we need. Since the drainage is sufficient, the roots aren't "suffocating" at any point.
My outdoor plants and beds use little to no perlite. However, I can't stress enough that this is only due to the sand content in my soil seeing as I live in the desert. It is very rare to actually see water pool up, and if you do see water pooling up, its gone just as quick as you look away.
Monsoons out here can cause enough rainfail to literally turn streets into rivers, rapidly flowing rivers. Never seen anything like it. Rain starts, and within a half hour there's a river that's over 1ft tall and the water flows so quickly that it can effortlessly sweep a car away. I've seen cars get swept away in these monsoon rivers, and end up in the middle of a "lake" because there is just so much water. Then, once the rain stops, all of that water is legit gone within a day as it quickly drains in the sand/rocks (excluding washes).
His wife uses a 50/50 mix of Promix and Compost, and it's worked great for her for a while now. The only way she could get away with a 50/50 ratio is if her compost was (and is) perfect, and if her native dirt in the ground has sufficient enough drainage on its own. One doesn't just grow 150 tomato plants and not know what they're doing, so there's a lot one can infer from the fact she's growing 150 plants successfully in a 50/50 mix. Her Promix and native dirt provide all the drainage needed, and her compost is likely amazing.
The OP confirmed my suspicions that her compost is just as I imagined, and is of high quality.
As with many other things in life, there is a
huge different between something store-bought and something homemade. Homemade will almost always have greater care, and attention to detail, than a consumer product because the motivation just isn't the same.
For those unaware, the important of homemade compost cannot be stressed enough.
In fact, having your own properly made compost is one of the most important things to success with a living soil.
I normally agree that having more than 20-30% compost in a mix is way too much, however that's container gardening. Soil texture/compaction, and watering all change when the soil/plants are in the ground and no in a pot. Only thing I'd do different from OPs wife is run 60/40 Promix:Compost instead, allowing me another year or so of growing before I have to dig it up and remix with new ProMix/Peat moss.
I picked up 10L of perlite today (hard to find!) that I'll mix in.
Perlite has been a nightmare to find for the last 6 months now. I've talked with various garden centers and growers within a 100 miles radius, perlite is impossible to find. The stores keep ordering it, but it is always out of stock. On top of that, many of these stores aren't getting as many trucks as they used to. My local hardware store used to get a truck once every 2 weeks, now it's once every 4 weeks and they're lucky to see 50% of the inventory they ordered.
If you don't mind, ask your spouse why they use the 50/50 mix. I'd like to hear your spouse's response, and it will confirm more of my suspicions.
Is there a reason you went ahead and added the K-Mag and Ca? Your spouse sounds more experienced than I am, did she recommend that? And if so, why? That K-Mag is very likely to bite you in the ass come flower, however it is very possible your wife knows something that I do not know. Assuming she recommended mixing the K-Mag in the soil, of course. The extra Ca also doesn't make sense to me. If you check your 4-4-4 Gaia Green mix, it has multiple Ca inputs in it already.
Your soil is overloaded with Calcium and Potassium straight from the get go. This WILL cause problems in the future; ironically, adding that much excess Ca and K is going to result in lockouts of Ca, K, and Mg.
I'd have gone with 50% pure compost too. Sure, store EWC are better than no castings.
But homemade compost will always be better than store bought EWC.
One of the big trip ups with growing in a living soil is that people tend to add shit without actually thinking about
why they add it, often for no other reason besides "they read to do it". Brewing banana teas when they have no K deficiency, or using tons of Calcium inputs when they already have enough in their soil mix, and so forth.
Going forward, use 50% of your homemade compost next time. Don't mess with EWC unless you start making it yourself, the homemade compost you have access to is vastly superior to anything you will find at a store.
Do NOT make this your final mix. Use the 50/50 ratio and don't add all that extra stuff to it. Your plants are still small, and you're not in flower, so you can easily mix a better soil and transplant the small plants into larger pots with
corrected soil.
Failure to do so will result in both mediocre yields and quality.
All the best.
Then see.
We're also working with an agronomist who does soil samples etc and he was the one suggesting topdressing (the tomatoes) with K-mag because we're log in potassium.
My best advice would be to grow nice simple/normal stuff like tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce mix, micro greens, carrots, beets, kale, herbs and that kind of stuff. Stuff that sells. I hate to say it, but at the end of the day, a crop has to be able to make $ in order for us to want to produce it. There is just too little time to grow a bunch of "fun" stuff that only appeals to 5% of your customer base. I hope that sounds reasonable and not too cynical. Facebook is a great marketing tool and see if you can get in with a farmers market local to you. We tried having an unmanned road side stand years ago and it sucked. Dont to that, lol.