Hello GSO, thanks for taking the time to read my thread! I am planning my next grow and will be mixing up my soil in the next 4-7 days but wanted to run a few things by you folks before I got started. My plan was to use the recipe listed in the sticky posted by InTheGarden: Base: 1) Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (1/3) 2) Perlite (1/3) 3) Humus (1/3) Nutritional Amendements: @ a rate of 2-3 cups/c.f. 4) Espoma tomato tone 5) Kelp meal 6) Neem meal 7) Alfalfa meal 8) Crab meal Mineral Amendments: Lime (1 cup/c.f.) Rock Dust (4 cups/c.f.) I have heard great things come from a mix like this assuming you have a high quality Humus. I have also heard this is a base to be built upon. I have several, probably useful, additional nutritional amendments lying around from other grows, here is a list of what I have: 1) Granular Azomite 2) Granular Humic Acids 3) Fish bone meal 4) Blood meal 5) Rock Phosphate 6) Bat Guano 7) Epsom Salt 8) "organic powdered cal/mag plus" from kelp4less.com I will be growing in a 4x4x7 tent with 1,000w mh/hps lights via the scrog method using R/O water. I have to use R/O water because my area's tap water is horrid. Previous runs were done using 7 gal smart pots but i am open to suggestions. I will also be incorporating AACT's, here is my recipe for that: 1) 4 gal R/O water 2) 4 cups compost (2 ewc 2 horse manure) 3) 1/4 cup sulfur free blackstrap molasses 4) 1tbsp maxicrop liquid seaweed 5) 2tbsp maxicrop liquid fish So I guess my questions are as follows: 1) What brands would you recommend for the items listed? can you link me to actual products? 2) From my list of addition nutritional amendments, what would you incorporate? 3) What size pots would you use or how would you set up a 4x4x7 space? 4) Since I use R/O water, do I have to worry about adding cal/mag somehow? 5) Is there anything wrong with my AACT recipe? 6) From the information listed is there any advice you could give me or questions I can elaborate on?
ITGs thread is a good starting point but keep in mind not to get all anal trying to fill the list of some of the harder and more pricy items to track down.. buildasoil.com has a good selection of mineral packs pre made so you can save some leg work there and order the amount needed.. Compost.. Home depot sells a passable one EcoScraps.. Do poke a hole and have a look as the quality seems to change at times but usually is quite high.. about 4 bucks a bag Peat.. Lowes and HD both sell Promix in the compressed bale.. Gardeners Composted Chicken Manure.. Lowes.. 4 or 5 clams Perlite.. Home Depot sells it in 2 cubic foot bags you just have to find it in the store.. Don't mistake the vermiculite for it either.. Check with your local hydro store as they often sell the extra large chunky stuff for a competitive price.. 16 bucks Alfalfa pellets.. I get mine from the feed and tack store in 50 pound sacks of horse chow for about 15 dollars.. Some of the things to either skip outright or at least read up on before adding to your mix under the ( ohh no I added the _____ already) listing.. Azomite.. Something about the Humic or fulvic acid freeing up the aluminum.. Blood and bone meals.. consider the high hormone and antibiotics load in the source and most pass on it.. Besides outside it draws diggers.. Rock Phosphate.. this ones escapes me at the moment but it's another unnecessary one if I remember.. Some do some don't.. Epsom salt Cal-mag A well built soil shouldn't need many if any ACT-AACTs Black Strap Molasses Some of this is my own take and some I've gleaned from reading Coots posts.. I use city tap water with an 8.5 PH and stinking like chlorine and in soil it's not an issue.. Go easy on the EWC and the rock dust as it'll make your mix like mud and you'll have to add double or triple the perlite to bring it back to life.. Smart pots on perlite beds in mortar pans isn't a bad way to go.. A fool proof semi SIP system..
your base looks good but id pass on everything in the list of additional nutritional amendments starting from azomite down to cal/mag. edit: oh and your regular amendments i think 1 cup per cf is enough, and if you add alfalfa make sure to let it cycle.
wow so this stuff really is like 99% about the compost you use, huh? so 1 cup nutritional amendments per c.f.? ill probably meet you in the middle @ 1 1/2 cups. I think the soil will be able to sit for about 2 months, that should be time enough right? So what do people do to their soils from here? can you tell me what you personally use or is that a secret?
from here? not sure what you mean...i put plants in mine my mix is no secret its on the first page of my journal (link in my sig), same mix as in the no-till thread.
well the way this mix was presented was in a manner that suggested it was to be built upon. What I was asking was what other ingredients people use to enhance their living organic grow. I just feel like I could be doing more. I will be using an AACT about 3-4 times total throughout my next grow and water with kelp/liquid fish every other watering. outside of that I will likely be using R/O water. during veg I would like to do some foliar feeding but I haven't done anything outside of plain r/o water in the past so I was thinking about doing a foliar application of an AACT mix, likely the recipe listed above (although I really want advice as to an ingredient I could add that could cover my humic/fulvic acids), about once a week. I just feel like there is another step to be taken, but im new. edit: can you say some words on biochar? never heard of this. also that blumat digital looks interesting, how much is one of those? would you say they are perfect for letting you know when your plants need water and when they dont? Can i use them effectively in 7gal smart pots? hmmm so no till, i assume, is using one BIG containing device for your plants? i saw, in your journal, a 100 gal (i think) container. That looks interesting, would you recommend i start going in this direction? I am also confused as to which things I can and cant add that would destroy my microorganisms i have been growing in my soil. I want to use a product for my humic/fulvic acids in my AACT's and i got a sample of Oily Cann by Earth Juice. it is a cal/mag supplemented humic acid product with 0 nitrogen. its an organic/natural fertilizer for indoor/outdoor/soil/hydro/foliar. would this be ok to use? one more thing, random side note... I was wondering if when I top dress with composted horse manure will I have to worry about it affecting my pH during my watering days?
with all the stuff you're planning on doing, you're going to kill them with kindness. you will not need calmag, RO water, humic and fulvic in a AACT will not help, and a ton of different stuff you're mentioning. believe it or not, I use 1/2 cup per cubic foot of neem, kelp, and crab with the 1 cup per cubic foot or rock minerals. it doesn't need to cook 2 months either. I can't believe theres a powdered organic calmag plus made by kelp for less. soil recipe 1/3 each Canadian sphagnum peat moss, pumice, compost 1/2 cup each per cuft neem meal, kelp meal, crab or crustacean meal 1 cup oyster shell flour or calcium carbonate lime, 1 cup gypsum, 1 cup basalt, 1 cup glacial rock dusts feed SST every other week with fulvic acid from BioAg using malted barley flour you can make from malted barley grain bought at a brew supply store for making beer. super simple and better than ACT. take a 1/4 of ground grains per gallon of tap water, then add 10 ml fulvic, 1 teaspoon protect, 1/4 aloe pureed OR get the 200x aloe powder at buildasoil like mentioned above. then put that in your brewer and bubble it. on the opposite week give them coconut water at 1/4 cup per gallon fresh Kirkland brand or Harmless Harvest or use the coconut water powder from buildasoil. add fulvic and silica and aloe. this rotates back and forth weekly. water in between teas and that is all you need.
ok next run ill try my tap water. can you link me to an SST recipe or a guide on how to make it that you like? I'll find one myself also. where is a good place to get neem/kelp/crab/alfalfa/gypsum/basalt/glacial rock dust etc? buildasoil good for all my amendment needs? what is protect? you call for "1 teaspoon protect" no foliar feeding? how would you set up a 4x4x7 tent? pot size/count?
SST link http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1245650-SST---Sprouted-Seed-Tea I went to an agricultural amendment store or you can go to a livestock feed store. Sourcing stuff locally often can get you a better price. Buildasoil works too if you can't find something locally. They have a blog you should check out. Protekt is potassium silicate and used a lot so you can buy that but the stuff BAS sells is cheaper. Lots of foliars if you want but mainly one neem oil per week. You can make kelp paste for kelp tea to water in the soil or strain it then foliar spray with aloe and silica.
scoob can u come back to this please I'll be using ph'd tap water next run also looking for advice on incorporating myco's. I've heard its most effective when done at transplant? any products u can recommend? ladyluckybean, and GSO in general, can you recommend/list some foliar feeding recipes?
We can recommend some stuff. For a weekly IPM use this or get neem oil. Neem Kelp Tea: IPM1/2 cup neem seem meal with 1/4 cup kelp meal bubbled in 5 gal water for 24hrsI keep the cloth bags worms are shipped in and use those to put whatever I'm bubbling in so it stays contained.To this finished tea before watering I'll add powdered aloe at 1/4tsp per gal and fulpower fulvic acid at 10ml per gal.For new soils or soils that are lacking this can and should be used at half to full strength and as often as once weekly, maybe alternating with an alfalfa/kelp tea at the same amount.  Essential Oil and neem spray for infestations 1 oz neem oil 1 oz silica 1 oz dr bronners 1-2 ml rosemary oil 1-2 ml lavender oil 1-2 eucalyptus oil 1 ml clove oil 1/4 aloe puréed Mix neem and silica till yellow milky color appears, then add room temp/ mildly warm water and other ingredients. Spray every three days till 4-6 applications have been completed. Hydrated Kelp PasteTake some kelp meal and make sure it is finely ground. Then fill a jar about 1â„3 full, then fill up about 3â„4 of the jar with water and stir. Put lid on jar and put in the coldest spot in your fridge. Use 1Â2 tablespoons per gallon for a soil or foliar spray. This is an instant tea they say but I like to let mine soak for a half hour or more before giving it to them. be sure to strain if foliar feeding with a spray bottle or nonÂChapin wand sprayer. Use 10 ml fulpower 1 teaspoon protekt silica and a 1/4 cup aloe puréed at the end.
what is IPM thanks but there are a lot fo questions there for scoob that have nothing to do with addition ammendments. biochar? mycos? no till? etc
IPM = Integrated Pest Managment. if you are just starting out you should check the easy soil recipe for beginners thread. they explain pretty much everything you need to know to start making your own soi. also you should read the first 100pages or so of the no-till sticky. they answer most of your questions there. if you have the space for a 100gallon sure id go for it biochar, basically its charred biomass. we add it to the soil to provide bacteria a place to colonize. not sure exactly what all the benefits are but its all the rage now i think bioag make a good mycos product. edit: oh and what is PH?
whats up with the sarcasm scoob? its too bad organic growers are so much more inclined to condescend.
u edited in "oh and what is ph" with an eye roll after it... so yeah... I kinda feel like that guy from the commercial who gets a fish thrown at him and the culprit is surprised he is "the bad guy"