So I am about to start an indoor tent grow, I am looking to growing 10 plants in 3 gallon pots. Moving up a gallon each month. I need to mix up 80 gallons of mix and planed on using 26 gallons of peat, soil, and homemade EWC and horse compost Airations will be rice hulls and pertilie I plan on using kelp meal, bone meal, blood meal, guano, espoma plant tone, alfalfa meal, agricultural lime, rock dust, and rock phosphate. I just dont know how many cups per cubic foot of each of these to use. I remember reading somewhere you add 3 cups of supplement mix to each cubic foot. But how many cups of each thing do I mix? I know you are supposed to use more kelp meal than guano's because the strengths are alot different. Can anyone help me out or tell me if I think I should add anymore. Also should I make one soil mix for veg/bloom or should I serperate the mixes for each stage. I have a tea brewer that I use for teas as well.
So I was thinking I would do is this base soil 20 gallons of peat 20 gallons of happy frog 15 gallons of EWC 5 gallons of horse compost 20 gallons of pertilite Then I was going to add these 2 cups Bone meal 2 cups Bat gunaos (50/50 mix of N high and P high) 2 cups Blood meal 2 cups Alfalfa meal 2 cups Espoma plant tone 2 cups neem/karanja meal 4 cups kelp meal Also have silca powder, BioAG tm7, fulvic and humic acids Then adding 4 cups of rock dust to each cubic foot, 1 cup of lime per cubic foot and its good?
You'll find that there are many recipes for soil mixes floating around the Internet and that most of them work fine so you'll need to use your best judgement as far as which one to use; however, you'll find that here in the GC Organics forum that we mostly make our mixes from scratch, vs trying to amend/alter store bought bagged soils (Happy Frog). IMO if you haven't bought it already then don't. One piece of advice that I will offer - a successful organic soil relies on the quality (viability) of its compost/vermicompost components and not as much it's amendments. I'm sure others will chime in - good luck! J
Yeah I wouldnt add the HF if you already have it on hand...it's just screened and sifted peat with a small touch of fertilizer. Personally I just simplified my process with amendments, just kelp, crab shell and neem for me. I have alot of materials on hand to play with but I still rely on those 3 to do 99% of the work, provided I supply a viable source of "humus" to work with. For your mix I would just use 2 cups kelp, 1 cup neem, 1/2 cup bone meal and 1/2 cup plant tone per c.f., along with the liming agent and rock dust. This is assuming you already have it on hand...if not go for one or the other and adjust the ratio applied.
Sounds good guys I will probably drop some of then amendments then. Really want to try guanos this season to see if I like them. I will cut out the bone and blood meals. As well as dropping the happy frog. Thanks guys I think I have an idea of what I need to get. Thankfully dont have to buy much as I thought!
Iv been using pretty much a 50/50 mix of ProMix and Ocean forest.. Iv had great results with that. Paging Dr. Green Thumb
Promix and OF are both subpar peat sources. I source Premier brand peat bales for around $10-13 per 4 c.f. Premier is the parent company that actually harvests and distributes peat to the smaller companies like Roots Organic, Fox Farm etc. as well as having their own product line apart from the base material. Perhaps CC would elucidate a bit more about the way peat is treated and handled by the time it gets into the bags at the grow store with the fancy labels and increased price tag. As for that particular mix idea, if that is all you have in your media your "soil" is lacking a viable source of 'humus' at the minimum.