i've had a huge bag of chicken compost and a smaller one of mushroom compost lying around a couple years now waiting for me to finally get to the transplanting stage i never have yet. just recently, i also bought a bottle of liquid kelp, vegan all purpose fertilizer & a small bag of worm castings. the garden center worker suggested i use 2 tablespoons per gallon each of the worm castings & general purpose (3-2-2) fertilizer. i'd be inclined to use a lot more of the worm castings at least as i still seem to remember that you can't really burn plants with it and that the only issue with overdoing it would be to get soggy soil if you tried 100% worm castings. i want a seriously nutrient rich mix without burning roots. i also know that with steer compost at least, you can't burn plants either as it's something like 1-1-1 and some of the best leaf trim came from my 1st attempt at growing with something like a 50% manure blend that wasn't even composted, but my vague memories of cervantes' & rosenthal's grow guides say that chicken shit is hotter like guano and should be used in moderation. i recall mushroom compost being pretty neutral too. i also know that my plants in 16oz cups lasted something like a month longer in a manure/soil mix before stressing out from being pruned than in fucking bark fines. all of my plants died right out the gate once too in bark fines because i stored it too moist & it developed fungus. i plan on using a decent west coast style bark fines soil mix with typical amendments and would like to hear what everyone thinks a good (maximum) ratio for the chicken shit etc. would be. personally, i fucking despise bark fines soil because it dries out so fucking fast, but you just can't get soil with actual fucking REAL soil (read "dirt") in it on the west coast. if i could, i'd rather just get $2 bags of hyponex top soil at k-mart etc. like i did when i started growing & mix it with manure, peat, pearlite & vermiculite. not only does real soil hold water better, but it's easier to gauge when to water because if the surface is dry and doesn't accept water easily, your plants are thirsty while if water seeps right in, take it easy while that bark shit can be dry as a bone on the surface with your plants drowning at the bottom. i fucking hate that kind of soil, but that's all i can get without spending $50 in shipping. i'm thinking that i could get away with up to 30% chicken shit and 10-20% mushroom compost (unless i can find more) with the other half of the soil being that wretched bark fines & vermiculite shit and dumping closer to a CUP of worm castings per gallon into that. that sound about right? should i maybe add a handful per gallon of vermiculite to make the two composts drain better maybe? i tell you, it's almost hard to fuck up growing with real soil if you just toss a handful each of pearlite & vermiculite in it and then use up to 50% manure. i'm not a big fan of stinky ferts like fish meal & guano and have some other all purpose fertilizer i won't use because of that fucking hideous blood meal i KNOW will make anything you grow taste disgusting no matter how little you use. i already knew that blood meal was nasty before i bought it, but it never occurred to me anyone would use that taste of rotten death in an actual fertilizer! i thought it was just used to keep pests away outdoors.
Uhh, blood meal isn't going to change the taste of a cannabis crop in any significant way. It's all in your head, bro, lol. However, I would agree that there are much better alternatives, especially if your vegan fertilizers look anything like LDs seed meal mixes. There's some awesome results around here from Seed meals, they've even got me looking at switching next time I've got money to burn. That being said, I would think lower than 30% chicken manure (especially if you're growing those picky Sativas we were talking about), but I don't use it my self, so others may better advise you. The key to using hot ingredients is preperation. When using chicken shit, blood meal, and certain guanos (and anything else, really), it will really benefit you to wet everything down (always with non chlorinated water) a couple of weeks before hand, and let it cook for a bit. You can read around here about AACTs and BIM methods in these forums, those will also give everything a kick start, and help to even out your soil. With a good, healthy microbial herd, your shitty potting mix will look like some dank ass forest soil after a few cycles. It will also gain all the benefits (as you said, hard to fuckup. Woot for a good CEC.)
sorry, but you are absolutely wrong on that. i almost said full of something, but that's not a good way to start a conversation. ANY time i've used blood meal or that fucking hideous organic mix with it for plants, they have a seriously disgusting taste of death that makes leaf 100% unsmokable. it's fucking BEYOND disgusting what it does to weed. either you've never actually used it in soil, or maybe you're one of those people with pissweak taste buds that likes bland foods and that couldn't taste the nasty iron taste beef took on in the 80s like the rest of my family when farmers started feeding cows leftover cow. it was only a few years later that i found out why i couldn't stomach beef anymore. you are what you eat and when weed eats blood meal, it IS fucking disgusting! don't make me call you a liar because i KNOW what the fuck i tasted both the first time i used blood meal by itself as well as when it surprised me after i used that fucking box of EB organics bullshit. as soon as i tasted that vulgar disgusting shit, i knew the mix had blood meal. if you can't taste it, blame your parents for giving you weak tastebuds. i'm a supertaster and can't stand bland foods. people with more taste buds crave spicier foods. i can taste blood meal a mile away. it just might be the most disgusting flavor in the world. i think even limburger cheese is preferable and that shit is NASTY. so, does anyone have anyone have an actual answer to my question about chicken & mushroom compost ratios?
Dude, you really need to work on your tone. Maybe the reason nobody takes you seriously, whether here, or back at OG, is because you come off sounding like a petulant little child. It's funny, because you ask good questions, but nobody bothers to answer them because all they get is brow beating, at least until you get an answer you want to hear. Seriously, look at the tone of posts in the Organic section. They're pleasant. You'd do well to emulate them, or you won't be seeing much help here. I'm not going to sit here and argue the merits of blood meal, because I feel that it has comparatively few of them, along with all of the other slaughter/chicken factory by-products. But if you could taste it, then you used it incorrectly in the first place. I'm done. I hope that you find what you are looking for with your Mekong, and hope that you can actually pull her through a full cycle with good results. Peace out, and good luck with your grow.
blood meal can be stinky. so can poultry manure. Has it been composted already? if not, I wouldn't use it. You could mix your soil with the manure a month in advance and that might be okay...but no where near 30% by volume....maybe 10% for your base you'd be better off with 2-3 cups EWC per gallon of media, the bark can be alright but it doesn't have a very high CeC...sphagnum peat moss would suit better. you should have add enough perlite/vermiculite/pumice to get close to 30%, maybe a little more, overall volume of each container also, bone meal has no smell. Miracle Gro Organic bone meal has an NPK rating of 6-9-0. that, along with worm castings, should give you a great base of nutrients. also, look up kelp meal and alfalfa meal...those two can go a long way 10-20% mushroom compost sounds very reasonable
I've got a feeling that he is a vegan and bone meal is probably not on his list of ferts to use. So this is for you Skunk, I think you were going to post this anyhow. Hope this helps pokernaut. Alfalfa Hay: 2.45/05/2.1 Apple Fruit: 0.05/0.02/0.1 Apple Leaves: 1.0/0.15/0.4 Apple Pomace: 0.2/0.02/0.15 Apple skins(ash) : 0/3.0/11/74 Banana Residues (ash): 1.75/0.75/0.5 Barley (grain): 0/0/0.5 Barley (straw): 0/0/1.0 Basalt Rock: 0/0/1.5 Bat Guano: 5.0-8.0/4.0-5.0/1.0 Beans, garden(seed and hull): 0.25/0.08/03 Beet Wastes: 0.4/0.4/0.7-4.1 Blood meal: 15.0/0/0 Bone Black: 1.5/0/0 Bonemeal (raw): 3.3-4.1/21.0/0.2 Bonemeal (steamed): 1.6-2.5/21.0/0.2 Brewery Wastes (wet): 1.0/0.5/0.05 Buckwheat straw: 0/0/2.0 Cantaloupe Rinds (ash): 0/9.77/12.0 Castor pomace: 4.0-6.6/1.0-2.0/1.0-2.0 Cattail reeds and water lily stems: 2.0/0.8/3.4 Cattail Seed: 0.98/0.25/0.1 Cattle Manure (fresh): 0.29/0.25/0.1 Cherry Leaves: 0.6/0/0.7 Chicken Manure (fresh): 1.6/1.0-1.5/0.6-1.0 Clover: 2/0/0/0 (also contains calcium) Cocoa Shell Dust: 1.0/1.5/1.7 Coffee Grounds: 2.0/0.36/0.67 Corn (grain): 1.65/0.65/0.4 Corn (green forage): 0.4/0.13/0.33 Corn cobs: 0/0/2.0 Corn Silage: 0.42/0/0 Cornstalks: 0.75/0/0.8 Cottonseed hulls (ash): 0/8.7/23.9 Cottonseed Meal: 7.0/2.0-3.0/1.8 Cotton Wastes (factory): 1.32/0.45/0.36 Cowpea Hay: 3.0/0/2.3 Cowpeas (green forage): 0.45/0.12/0.45 Cowpeas (seed): 3.1/1.0/1.2 Crabgrass (green): 0.66/0.19/0.71 Crabs (dried, ground): 10.0/0/0 Crabs (fresh): 5.0/3.6/0.2 Cucumber Skins (ash): 0/11.28/27.2 Dried Blood: 10.0-14.0/1.0-5.0/0 Duck Manure (fresh): 1.12/1.44/0.6 Eggs: 2.25/0.4/0.15 Eggshells: 1.19/0.38/0.14 Feathers: 15.3/0/0 Felt Wastes: 14.0/0/1.0 Field Beans (seed): 4.0/1.2/1.3 Feild Beans (shells): 1.7/0.3/1.3 Fish (dried, ground): 8.0/7.0/0 Fish Scraps (fresh): 6.5/3.75/0 Gluten Meal: 6.4/0/0 Granite Dust: 0/0/3.0-5.5 Grapefruit Skins (ash): 0/3.6/30.6 Grape Leaves: 0.45/0.1/0.4 Grape Pomace: 1.0/0.07/0.3 Grass (imature): 1.0/0/1.2 Greensand: 0/1.5/7.0 Hair: 14/0/0/0 Hoof and Horn Meal: 12.5/2.0/0 Horse Manure (fresh): 0.44/0.35/0.3 Incinerator Ash: 0.24/5.15/2.33 Jellyfish (dried): 4.6/0/0 Kentucky Bluegrass (green): 0.66/0.19/0.71 Kentucky Bluegrass (hay): 1.2/0.4/2.0 Leather Dust: 11.0/0/0 Lemon Culls: 0.15/0.06/0.26 Lemon Skins (ash): 06.33/1.0 Lobster Refuse: 4.5/3.5/0 Milk: 0.5/0.3/0.18 Millet Hay: 1.2/0/3.2 Molasses Residue (From alcohol manufacture): 0.7/0/5.32 Molasses Waste (From Sugar refining): 0/0/3.0-4.0 Mud (fresh water): 1.37/0.26/0.22 Mud (harbour): 0.99/0.77/0.05 Mud (salt): 0.4.0/0 Mussels: 1.0/0.12/0.13 Nutshells: 2.5/0/0 Oak Leaves: 0.8/0.35/0.2 Oats (grain): 2.0/0.8/0.6 Oats (green fodder): 0.49/0/0 Oat straw: 0/0/1.5 Olive Pomace: 1.15/0.78/1.3 Orange Culls: 0.2/0.13/0.21 Orange Skins: 0/3.0/27.0 Oyster Shells: 0.36/0/0 Peach Leaves: 0.9/0.15/0.6 Pea forage: 1.5-2.5/0/1.4 Peanuts (seed/kernals): 3.6/0.7/0.45 Peanut Shells: 3.6/0.15/0.5 Pea Pods (ash): 0/3.0/9.0 Pea (vines): 0.25/0/0.7 Pear Leaves: 0.7/0/0.4 Pigeon manure (fresh): 4.19/2.24/1.0 Pigweed (rough): 0.6/0.1/0 Pine Needles: 0.5/0.12/0.03 Potato Skins (ash): 0/5.18/27.5 Potaote Tubers: 0.35/0.15/2.5 Potatoe Vines (dried): 0.6/0.16/1.6 Prune Refuse: 0.18/0.07/0.31 Pumpkins (fresh): 0.16/0.07/0.26 Rabbitbrush (ash): 0/0/13.04 Rabbit Manure: 2.4/1.4/0.6 Ragweed: 0.76/0.26/0 Rapeseed meal: 0/1.0=2.0/1.0=3.0 Raspberry leaves: 1.45/0/0.6 Red clover hay: 2.1/0.6/2.1 Redrop Hay: 1.2/0.35/1.0 Rock and Mussel Deposits From Ocean: 0.22/0.09/1.78 Roses (flowers): 0.3/0.1/0.4 Rye Straw: 0/0/1.0 Salt March Hay: 1.1/0.25/0.75 Sardine Scrap: 8.0/7.1/0 Seaweed (dried): 1.1-1.5/0.75/4.9 (Seaweed is loaded with micronutrients including: Boron, Iodine, Magnesium and so on.) Seaweed (fresh): 0.2-0.4/0/0 Sheep and Goat Manure (fresh): 0.55/0.6/0.3 Shoddy and Felt: 8.0/0/0 Shrimp Heads (dried): 7.8/4.2/0 Shrimp Wastes: 2.9/10.0/0 Siftings From Oyster Shell Mounds: 0.36/10.38/0.09 Silk Mill Wastes: 8.0/1.14/1.0 Silkworm Cocoons:10.0/1.82/1.08 Sludge: 2.0/1.9/0.3 Sludge (activated): 5.0/2.5-4.0/0.6 Smokehouse/Firepit Ash:0/0/4.96 Sorghum Straw:0/0/1.0 Soybean Hay: 1.5-3.0/0/1.2-2.3 Starfish: 1.8/0.2/0.25 String Beans (strings and stems, ash): 0/4.99/18.0 Sugar Wastes (raw): 2.0/8.0/0 Sweet Potatoes: 0.25/0.1/0.5 Swine Manure (fresh): 0.6/0.45/0.5 Tanbark Ash: 0/0.34/3.8 Tanbark Ash (spent): 0/1.75/2.0 Tankage: 3.0-11.0/2.0-5.0/0 Tea Grounds: 4.15/0.62/0.4 Timothy Hay: 1.2/0.55/1.4 Tobacco Leaves: 4.0/0.5/6.0 Tobacco Stems: 2.5-3.7/0.6-0.9/4.5-7.0 Tomatoe Fruit: 0.2/0.07/0.35 Tomatoe Leaves: 0.35/0.1/0.4 Tomatoe Stalks: 0.35/0.1/0.5 Tung Oil Pumace: 6.1/0/0 Vetch Hay: 2.8/0/2.3 Waste Silt: 9.5/0/0 Wheat Bran: 2.4/2.9/1.6 Wheat (grain): 2.0/0.85/0.5 Wheat Straw: 0.5/0.15/0.8 White Clover (Green): 0.5/0.2/0.3 Winter Rye Hay: 0/0/1.0 Wood Ash: 0/1.0-2.0/6.0-10.0 Wool Wastes: 3.5-6.0/2.0-4.0/1.0-3.5 Plant - Based Alfalfa meal 3-0.5-3 Ca 8 Mg0.3 S 0.1 Corn gluten 9-0-0 ca 0 Mg 0 s 0 Cottenseed meal 7-2.5-1.5-1.5 ca 0.5 mg 1 s 0.2 Soybean meal 7-1.2-1.5-0.4 Ca 0.4 mg 0.3 s 0.2 Seaweed 0.7-0.8-5 Ca 0.2 Mg 0.1 S 0 Wood Ash 0-2-6 Ca 20 Mg 1 S 0 Kelp Meal 1-0-2 potash 0-0-30 Animal Based Blood meal 15-3-0 Ca 0.3 Mg 0 S 0 some are 12-0-0 Bonemeal 3.5-22-0 Ca 22 MG 0.6 S 0.2 Feathermeal 15-0-0 Ca 0 MG 0 S 0 Fish Products 10-6-0 Ca 6 Mg 0.2 S 0.2 Bonechar 0-16-0 Alask fish fert 5-1-1 Neptunes harvest 2-3-1 Mined Minerals Granite dust 0-0-4 Ca 0 MG 0 S 0 Greensand 0-1-8 Ca 0.5 Mg 3 S 0.1 Gypsum 0-0-0.5 Ca 22 Mg 0.4 S 17 Langbeinite 0-0-22 Ca 0 Mg 18 S 27 Dolomitic Lime 0-0-0 Ca 25 MG 9 S 0.3 Calcitic Lime 0-0-0.3 Ca 32 MG 3 S 0.1 Rock Phosphate 0-25-0 Ca 0 Mg 0 S 10 Zeolite 0-0-3.2 Ca 2.5 Ca 2.5 S 0 Azomite 70 trace minerals from A-Z Recycled Materials Coffee grounds 2-.3-.3 Ca .1 Mg .1 S 0 Grass clipings 4-1-3 Ca 8 Mg 3 S .5 Leaves .8-.4-.2 Ca 0 Mg 0 S 0 Sawdust .2-0-.2 CA 0 Mg 0 S 0 Compost 1-0.5-1 Ca 0.3 MG 0.2 S 0.3 Manures Chicken 2-1.5-.5 Ca 2 Mg .2 S .1 Cow .5-.2-.5 Ca .2 Mg .1 S .1 Horse .6-.2-.5 Ca .5 Mg .1 S.1 Sheep 1-.3-1 Ca 1 Mg .1 S .05 Jamaican bat guano 1-10-0.2 Mexican Bat Guano 10-2-1 Peruvian seabird guano 10-10-2 Indonesion Bat guano .5-12-2 Fossilized sea bird guano 1-10-1