Hi guys! I'm still pretty new to growing but I am already tired of buying bottled nutrients. I want to move to growing in a water only scenario. I suppose I wouldn't be apposed to having to supplement once in awhile; kinda thinking of earth juice and neptunes harvest for organic supplements. I also made my first amended soil mix. I grow small so its not a big batch of soil. About 4 gallons of used happy frog soil I can't remember the exact amounts for the additives but... ~24 ounces soil mender ewc (hopefully they are high quality) ~3 oz steamed bone meal 3-15-0 ~3 oz high p bat guano 0-5-0 ~2 oz blood meal 12-0-0 ~1 oz high n bat guano 10-1-1 ~1 oz cottonseed meal 6-1-1 ~2 oz kelp meal 1-0-2 ~1.75 ounces rock phosphate ~2 tsp epsom ~2 tsp dolomite ~2 tsp soil mender minerals plus ~1 cup lava sand some broken up botanicare coco added@probably .5:4 wet it down with about a quart of water. ro/tap @ 3:1. It's been sitting for a couple of weeks so far; smells like goooood soil to me. Let me know what you think! I appreciate any feedback.
Hey stealth. Glad you're doing the organic thing my friend! Just make sure to let that soil cycle for a good while. Because (based on the amounts you've got posted, I know they might vary slightly) you've got about 1.6-1.8 cups of amendments added to 4 gallons of soil that had already been amended. So just make sure to give it plenty of time to break down and get happy before you plant in it. Just make sure that there's plenty of aeration. If the soil looks a little heavy or muddy, throw in some extra aeration amendment (extra aeration will never hurt). I mix everything by eyeballing it, so I like to grab a handful of moist soil and make it into a ball, then poke my fingers in it, etc, then reform it and drop it to see how easily it breaks apart. If you can't poke it apart or break it by dropping pretty easily, toss in some more aeration. Also, just a tip for next time, trade in that blood meal for some alfalfa meal. Alfalfa is an excellent source of N, but it also contains P, K, lots of micronutrients like Ca, 16 amino acids, and many beneficial plant compounds like triacontanol, which stimulates growth and branching. Blood meal has.....N. Plus, alfalfa meal is even cheaper than blood meal. Win-win-win.
Hard to tell on your amendment amounts by weight - we generally go by percentages and volume - ie: 2 to 3 cups total (nutritional) amendments per cubic foot of base soil (7.5 gallons) As far as your amendments themselves, overall you look good but let me say this - Your earthworm castings/humus/compost component is ALWAYS the most important ingredients. These items are The Heart of your garden, and where all of your soil life originates from. Remember just how important they are when making a soil mix. We usually run 25% to 35% of these (total) ingredients. I'm not really sure what yours works out to as a percentage. Did I mention just how important these ingredients are? Cottonseed meal. I've used it myself before, and it didn't "hurt" me (I don't believe), but I have since learned that cottonseed is probably THE single most sprayed plant out there - pesticides/insecticides/fungicides. It is almost impossible to find organic cottonseed. Just keep this in mind, that's all. You'll do just fine. Just remember how significantly important your soil life is. Soaking it down with an ACT tea wouldn't hurt. J
hey inthegarden and jerry! I think about 2-3 cups dry volume is probably close to the amount of amendments I added to the soil. So it sounds like this may make the soil a bit on the hot side? From what jerry said about the ratio I may need to add a couple more gallons of soil to this mix to cool it down a bit. inthegarden, thank you very much for the info about replacing blood meal with alfalfa meal! Jerry, thank you for the info about cottonseed; I had no idea! Is it possible for me to add too much ewc? Currently, the soil seems to be quite aerated. If I take some moist soil and test it like inthegarden suggested the ball breaks apart at the first poke. Any thoughts on soil mender products? I am using their ewc for lack of other choices. I have a 25lb bag of their ewc so I can add more to the soil. Right now I think I have maybe 4 cups of ewc that I added originally (so like nothing really). i'm thinking maybe add another 1 gallon/16 cups ewc? if I add lets say 3 more gallons of soil to cool the ammendments down I suppose I would add 1 additional gallon of ewc. Am i on the right track here? Thanks again for the help!!!!
No, you really can't add too much ewc. The only thing to watch for is aeration and drainage. Too much ewc can negatively affect aeration, so just add some extra aeration amendment. Make the ewc about 25-30% of the total soil. If you add enough extra soil to get you to about 8 gallons, add at least 2-3 gallons of ewc. You may need to add a little extra aeration amendment. Remember too, that even though you are within the 2-3 cup ratio, your original soil (Happy Frog) already had amendments added. The 2-3 cups per cubic foot is for plain base soil with no amendments. It will be fine, just make sure to give it plenty of time to cycle ("cook") before planting (at least 4 weeks, the longer the better). edit: I'm not familiar with soil mender products, sorry. Do some googling and see what you come up with.