Soil......hmmmm ??

[Shimen]

Alright so i have been searching the post for about 2 hours now and cant find an answer to my question. So i planted my seeds today 10 of them in plastic dixie cups with jiffy mix seed starter mix. Mis of perlite, peat, and lime... Ph is around 6.8-7.... Any way was thinking that i could just use the perlite, peat mix for growing after transplant. I know i have read that peat messes with PH but that is what PH adjusters are for right. My question here is would it be good idea and if yes would it be good to mix it with anything like chicken poo (organic fert) worm castings or something like that. And also should the ratio of perlite be really high.. I think it would allow for great drainage not to mention really loose soil. And good explanation of soils and such would be great. Thanks for the help.

[-mu]

This is a MASSIVE question, with no hard and fast answer.

At one end of the scale you have hydroponics, where the growing medium itself is completely inert, and you provide all the nutrition in liquid form, and at the other end, you have biogenic organic type farming where you feed the soil, and the soil provides the nutrition to the plant on-demand.

And then there's everything in between; someone, somewhere will tell you that it's okay to grow in (insert whatever substance you like, from sand, through peanut shells, pure perlite, whatever) but it all depends on how you plan to maintain your plant's health. It sounds like you are going to be just throwing nutes at your plants, so why bother with soil at all? Have you considered hydroponics? Perhaps a small bubbler setup.

You might also want to consider "coir", or "coco", as it's sometimes known; basically coconut shell fibres. Being inert, you'll need to provide all the nutrition yourself, but you should be able to coax some life out of it. Coupled with its excellent water/air retention characteristics, it may be a good introduction to "soilless" soil growing, and it's very cheap.

Soil, real soil, is alive, comprised of tens of thousands of different things, from minerals, sand, silt, clay, etc, to bacteria and larger organisms, like worms. Ideally it will provide everything the growing plant requires; space, warmth, oxygen, nutrition, drainage, support, etc, etc, and be composed of a well thought out blend of substances. Google for "what is soil", or something like that, for some detailed research material.

If you intend on having a real living soil, and want to mix your own, you need to carefully consider its composition (or borrow someone else's recipe), and ensure you provide adequite drainage, surface area for bacterial growth, the bacteria themselves, organic matter, etc, etc. You can even just go out and dig a few litres from some local productive garden (with permission, of course), though most would recommend you at least sterilize that, and perhaps add some perlite for drainage (cannabis likes good drainage).

Organic matter is very important in real soil. This is where most of the truly amazing components come from; bacteria, fungi, humus, etc. Compost is a great source; incredible stuff (and making it is a fine way to reduce your garbage by a HUGE amount, and keep your trash odour-free), and worm compost (aka. "wormcast") is pure manna for flowering plants (worms are very easy to keep, and can be fed in a variety of ways to produce different formulae of wormcast for different phases of the plant's growth, i.e. high nitrogen for veg, high phosphorus/potassium for flowering - tip: worms love bananas).

Peat is organic matter, too, and breaks down gradually in the soil, becoming more and more acidic in the process ("messing with pH", as you say). Growers will balance this out over time by adding Lime (or wood-ash, whatever).

Most environmentally conscious growers are moving away from peat, because of the devestation its harvesting causes. There are eco-friendly versions and alternatives, though.

I'd search around for "marijuana soil mix"* or something, and get a few ideas to play with. You can buy soil off-the-shelf, stuff like "pro-mix", or "bat mix" has pretty much everything you need right out of the bag, but isn't nearly so much fun as making your own, nor as cheap.

Sheesh! I must be in the mood for typing, I really meant to just say Google for "marijuana soil mix"!

-mu

* by the way, I HATE the word "marijuana", but sadly it gets results on Google because so many people ignorantly use it when referring to cannabis. Oh well.

[Shimen]

Dude that was freaking awesome.. Thanks alot that is what i needed. Now as far as bat mix and and soil mixes like that... I work at lowes in the mid-west USA we have all of your basic soils and An organic from MG.... But nothing with bat poo or any other poo in it... so yeah but anyways thanks alot for the info... I have been thinking about starting my own compost pile in my backyard... Ive heard alot about compost and heard that any fruiting or flowering plants love compost..... Im gonna go google soil mixes thanks VERY VERY much..

[-mu]

heh, no problem! I'm just finishing off a tasty male with a tendancy to induce long periods of furious activity; I've done a shit-load of typing this week, amongst other things. Hours pass...

As for poo, it's easy enough to add these things later on. Vintage Bat Guano, for instance, makes an excellent tea (Soma, and many others, swear by it), as do a few other varieties of poo. Most manures will need to be composted before use. I'm particularly fond of rabbit droppings (yum!), and can often be seen pocketing handfuls of them on my travels (so long as they aren't anywhere near busy roads, of course, heavy metals and all that)

Google for 3LB guano guide, "3LB" is "Three Little Birds", an experienced gang of hippie growers who, literally, "know their shit". There are other 3LB guides kicking around the net that are equally useful; seek out their molasses manual while you are at it, and find out how to make some top notch "carbo-boost" for a fraction of the cost of that store-bought junk.

By the way, if you're really happy with the response, you can click that rep+ thing. I'm fairly new here, and not entirely sure how it works, but I'm keen to find out!

-mu

ps.. scroll down this page for some nice NPK data on guanos, manures, and other organic substances.