To the brothers and sisters of the hafling's leaf: Vic's Super Soil was recommended to me graciously by Rumplef. Just a few notes for those newbies, such as myself. 1. This is powerful stuff. Wear gloves. Preferably nitrile, not latex. It will burn your hands when mixing. 2. The recipe calls for a large volume and I placed everything into a large trash can, sealed with duct tape, and rolled it down my back yard. Not very delicate, but 40 pounds of soil mix cannot exactly be shaken by hand. 3. This is powerful stuff. It nute burned all of my bubble gum clones very quickly. I flushed a good bit, but the promix soil is not very conducive to flushing. Perhaps it is my strain, but I did (foolishly) wander a bit from the recipe. I replaced the dolomitic limestone with hydrated lime as that was what was available (the latter is much stronger). Also, I used half compost/manure and half worm castings, rather than the full worm castings. I do not recommend the compost/manure as a substitute. The bags stank to high hell in my garage. We thought something died out there. I later read that it might be the mixing of the manure with the lime, as the bags of manure do not smell at all. Also, the promix out there nowadays has Mycorrizal fungi in it. I don't know if the original recipe took this into account, but within two weeks it was fungus city. The promix bag says to NOT wet the mixture until ready for use. Not certain whether to follow the recipe or promix on that one. But remember, this is strong stuff. When I transplant I will probably use what I have left and 50% organic soil to prevent overnuting. (When I ate the top of a dead, overdone clone, it actually burned my throat going down. Likely the result of an uneven mix of nutrients? How in the world do you truly mix 40 pounds of mixture? Good luck, Tony
Tony, I'm sorry it went bad for you. I had it stink up on me one time as well. I made sure it was able to vent (hole in the lid). As far as nute burn and heat; I used to plant my sprouts right in that stuff. It should be very mild. Mixing well is key. Letting it sit for two weeks to allow for the reaction is good advice as well. Venting will get rid of the mold. The stuff you added should not hurt anything. Open the lid for a few days, the stink will go away and the heat will turn to cool rich grow gold. I use my bare hands with that stuff and it does not burn. It smells like earth, even when I smell it close. I am planting a new clone into into Vic's super soil today. I bought a new strain and want a new mom plant to make clones for my hydro grow. The clone I'm planting is also BubbleGum. R.
Mycorrizal fungi are extremely beneficial to a plant's root development. They live in a symbiotic relationship with plants so shouldn't have overgrown, sorry to hear that hapened.
I remain certain that this mix is black gold, if prepared properly. Just look at the ingredients. Likely, it was the substitution of Hydrated lime for Dolomitic lime (its apparently stronger), the substitution of cow manure, in part, for the worm castings, or it was not mixed thoroughly enough creating pockets of dense nutrients (or a bad combination of the three). Rump. how have you best found to mix all this into a bale of promix? That is an awful lot of mixing by hand. By the way, I am very glad that you have BubbleGum for your op. now. Someday I hope to graduate to your methods and watching how your BubbleG works in your bubble buckets will be a great benefit. Unfortunately my clones were outside and allowed to flower, now there under 400 MH 24/0 to reveg/rejuvinate. I plan on cloning them to mother for clones as well under Vic's. As they are in flower, when you brush against them they indeed smell just like Hubba Bubba gum. I would'nt have believed it until I experienced it.
I first mixed the powered ingredients into the worm-castings. I added my bail to a rubbermaid storage container (a real big one). I used a shovel and started turning the soil and adding scoops of the mixed castings. It was not simple. Took me an hour or so. As I mixed I added some water from the hose. I left the lid cracked for two weeks, stirring it a few times when I could remember. It smelled good when done. Like clean earth. One time I forgot to crack the lid, it was the worst smell I have ever smelt in my whole life. Mold all over. I cracked the lid and let it sit for a week or so and the smell went away. I hated making that mix. But it works so damn good. I switched to hydro because I was too lazy to mix it again.
Thanks Rump. That seems like a fairly good approach. To clarify, it was the nutrients that were added during their addition that burns your hands (esp. the lime), not the final product itself. It seems like a good idea to test the Ph as well. Mine reads a neutral 7, though my understanding is that I should shoot for for 6.3. Not fully sure how to lower it effectively. Have a great weekend. Heading to the dog track and girlie bars tonight with the boys. I'll have one for ya (a drink that is). Take care. Tony