Organic soil mix. Flushing and pH

Good questions. I'll be watching, I'm also growing in soil

im so high! mcl

 

see inserts^^^^

 

Hope that helped. Browse through this thread for a wealth of information on getting started in organic gardening.

http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1116550-easy-organic-soil-mix-beginners.html

Welcome to our Organic corner of the net.

J

 

You don't NEED to feed teas if you have a water only super soil, but it is beneficial to make a simple compost tea once or twice throughout the grow. Nothing costly or time intensive though.

If you are starting out with a plain prebagged soil without any added amendments, you will need to feed kelp and alfalfa teas. You can add more ingredients if you chose, but those two are crucial IMO.

If you have decent tap water that will do just fine. I use tap water. It's best to fill a bucket and let it sit out overnight before using it to allow the chlorine to evaporate off. Other than that you should be good to go. If you have horrible water you may want to look into a reverse osmosis system also known as RO water.

You shouldn't have to worry about PH or PH meters. The soil will regulate your PH and I believe a good grower can easily read the signs on the plant when there is a problem.

There is no need to flush in organics, but you don't need to actively add a lot of nutrients the last two weeks either because that should already be in your soil. Organic amendments take time to break down so it would be silly to add a lot the last two weeks. So basically you don't NEED to flush, but we sort of end up doing it anyway. Although there would be no problem with feeding right up till the day of harvest.

As for good grow journals, they are all over the place! Just look around. Jerry and ITG are awesome. Richard is a good friend of mine that rocks the organics. I've been getting more and more knowledgable about it as well. Good luck...

 

1-2 inches, water in.

 

Yup, that's what I meant

 

Short answer:

I'm using an 1/3 ocean forest 1/3 coco coir pearlite aeration mix 1/3 happy frog mix with Root's Organic liquid nutrient/supplements and my plants are happy as can be. So I think your soil mix should be a fine start and you may not need squat else....but i couldn't leave well enough alone.

What I got going on:

I inoculated my soil mix with Root's Organics Oregonism XL as per the schedule and watered it in with a light nutrient mix also from Root's and let it sit for a few weeks and kept it moist. I transferred my oldest plant into a 10 gal fabric pot of it about 2 weeks ago and she is loving it...turning out to be quite the shrub. I have 6 more about to go into their big girl pots rocking the same mix.

When I switch to bloom I plan on feeding them another light Root's P-K bloom formula mixed into some NO3/PO4 rich aquarium water and leaving it to a water only (and Root's supplements Trinity/Ancient Amber foliar feeds) schedule after that unless the plants tell me otherwise. Maybe one other mid/late bloom...? idk I will have to see how they look when I get to that point.

Anyhow in my humble opinion it's a quality organic nutrient line with good variety/combo of a system at a fair price more than capable of picking up any slack your potting mix might not cover.

Roots Organics - Trinity

 

If you took the 50/50 ff, added coast of Maine ewc, lobster compost (if you can), alfalfa (rabbit food for alfalfa pellets) just grind them up and get some kelp meal it'd be a pretty good soil mix, i personally use pro mix, compost i bought on craigslist 350$ for 15 cubic yards delivered, ewc (had to get coast of Maine cow manure) they were outta ewc kelp meal, alfalfa meal, and espoma flower or plant tone. Alot cheaper then the ff mix

 

Well said Mama and thanks I try to rock it as best I can and learn so much from Jerry and others in the Organic forum. After all I too am just a student and dont claim to be an expert just good at reseraching and applyingknowledge. Flushingand Ph is something that is left to a hydro setup or a soilless mix usingbottled nutes. Its really something that gets leftover from peoples synthetic mindset after they make the switch toorganics you have to realize wehave been duped and mother nature knows bestbout our plants health.

 

I don't see any of the organic tomes, like ITG suggests. Espoma tomato tome, garden tome or one of those, dry organic fertilizer.

Per her thread:

"How to use additional nutritional amendments:
If you are using multiple nutritional amendments, it's easiest to make a blend of equal parts of all your nutritional amendments (except kelp meal, use double the amount of kelp meal), then add this amendment mix to the base soil. Apply 2-3 cups of the amendment mix per cubic foot (7.5 gallons) of soil.

For example, if you want to use kelp meal, a dry organic fertilizer (like tomato tone), neem meal, alfalfa meal, and crab meal as amendments, here's what you do: (I am going to say 1 cup=1 part for illustrative purposes. If you need more or less, just have 1 part equal to more or less than one cup.) (any leftover amendment mix can be stored in a ziploc or tupperware container)

-Amendment mix: 1 cup dry organic fertilizer, 1 cup neem meal, 1 cup alfalfa meal, 1 cup crab meal, 2 cups kelp meal.
-Now add 2-3 cups of this amendment mix per cubic foot of soil. Store the rest for later use in making more soil or as a top-dressing. "

You do want to mix the soil and keep it damp for the entire time it is cooking.

 

But you do not need the blended organic dry fertilizers such as Epsoma or Down to Earth make if you are planning on using the other items in your list - kelp, alfalfa, crab, karanja and fish bone meals.

Take these items and mix them into roughly even amounts and mix them all together. Nobody will blame you if you have a little more kelp than the other items. Take this mix and add several cups of it to each CF (7.5 gallons) of soil you're making; wet thoroughly and forget about it for a month - or two, if you have the time.

Plant, keep moist, harvest, enjoy.

J

 

Thanks Jerry, I thought they were sort of mandatory...........learned more today lol

 

In any self contained eco system such as your plant's pot or an aquarium for example.....diversity is key in almost every aspect no matter what methods you use to maintain. Dry ferts, bottled liquid bat/bird/fish shit, ect. the more diversity you provide the better off/more stable your little artificial environment will be.

So in your case I would only add 1/2 the dolomite you were planning and fill in with a couple cups of oyster shell/aragonite as another source of CaCO3/MgO.

I would only mix/agitate the soil if it were being held in anaerobic conditions like being in a big plastic bin without drain/aeration holes to prevent facultative aerobes from resorting to sulfur respiration/ methanogenesis and obligate anerobes from populating the mix resulting in SO4 and CH4 build up because it's stinky like woah.

Otherwise regular drain/air holes/cloth pots are sufficiently aerated but I see no reason why tossing/aerating would hurt.

Don't water unless it starts getting dry...keep moist but not soaked...dechlorinate. I use the same stuff on my plant's water as I do my aquariums.



couple drops and no worries about chlorine/chloramine, or you can put an airstone/power head in your water bucket for a day and wait.

Hope my 2c helps.