Hey guys! Been reading through the organics section here on GC for the past several months and am now finally in the right position to start my first organic grow. I have two previous grows with soil and bottled nutes ( I have a journal of the last one I did) and just recently moved to a new state and am starting a bigger grow. I will be needing to start with about 120 gallons of soil this run, I've done some research and sourced out a few prices for everything I just would like opinions and advice to make sure my mix is going in the right direction. It is as follows: Base 40 Gallons of Peat Moss 40 Gallons of Earth Worm Castings 40 Gallons of Perlite Amendments 16 Cups of Kelp Meal 8 Cups of Neem meal 8 Cups Crustacean meal (Crab and shrimp) 8 cups of Alfa Alfa meal Total 40 cups - 2.5 cups per C.F of soil (7.5 gallons) Minerals 16 cups of Oyster Shell Flower 32 cups of Rock dust (Not sure which yet, maybe a mix of a couple) Total 48 cups - 3cups per C.F of soil Will this be a good water only mix with some teas? Anything you would add or take away? Are the ratios ok? Any input is appreciated, would like to mix this soil up soon but just want to be sure before I purchase all of the ingredients ! Thank you.
Nice mix buddy. It will work fine like that, just make sure you let it cycle a bit before planting since you are using the alfalfa. I don't mix alfalfa in mine, but use it in teas and top dresses. Neem meal and neem cake are the same thing. And your math is off somewhere on the minerals...I see 48 cups, not 40. If I were to do anything different in that area I would cut the oyster shell in half and add gypsum at the same rate. Gypsum is a calcium source but it also brings Sulfur to your mix. You could possibly add more rock dust, but that's debatable. I've seen up to 5 cups/cf recommended, but I stick to around 3. Something I've been doing as well is adding malted barley flour at around a cup/cf. This should be fine as with mainly water and a few teas. Save some kelp, alfalfa, and neem for teas. I would also really look into the malted barley for teas as well. Its really cheap and very beneficial. BioAg Ful-Power, aloe vera powder, AgSil 16H, and some coconut water and you're set. Grab some neem oil for IPM and you're done. Solo Edit: Is this for (1) big pot or multiple smaller ones? If its going into 10+ gallon pots you could consider a different aeration. I like lava rock for big containers and perlite or rice hulls for smaller containers. Its really about personal preference and availability though. And whats the source for the ewc? If they're bagged you might consider some compost as well.
Hey Solo, thanks for the reply. Yes I was going to let it cook for 4 weeks before transplanting into it. Why do you prefer to use Alfa Alfa in teas instead of in your mix? The 40 cups was for the amendments sorry if I may have formatted it confusingly! I will definitely look into the gypsum, thank you. Yeah I've seen anywhere from 2-5 cups of rock dust per c/f and was playing it safe with 3 cups (if you include the oyster). Why have you been using malted barley flour ? How have the results been? Probably going to be in 7 gallon bags (maybe 10 gallons at some point but for now think it will be 7 gallons). The EWC I found locally through someone on craigslist that make their own.
I'll answer your questions as best as I can. I really just follow the advice of a few veterans around here and everything has been pretty smooth. I don't have a real definitive answer for the alfalfa. It was the advice given to me by Clackamas Coot a couple years ago when I first started mixing my own soil. He has yet to give me bad advice. The malted barley comes from Clackamas Coot as well (god I miss him). It started as sprouted seed teas, or SST. When a seed sprouts it creates or releases, I'm not sure which, massive amounts of enzymes. These enzymes, if I'm correct, basically help break down everything in the soil. Different enzymes break down different things, chitinese specifically breaks down chitin for example. This happens when sprouting any seed. Malted barley is just the cheapest and most easily available because of the brewing industry. I also have malted corn that I use in the same manner. The gypsum was once again from that crazy old Coot. I believe the sulfur helps in disease suppression as well as enhancing taste and aromas, but don't hold me to that. Any idea what the worm guy uses for food and bedding? Either way I'm sure you're way better off than any bagged product. Look into getting the malted barley, BioAg Ful-Power, aloe vera powder from ingredientstodiefor.com, agsil 16h from custom hyro nutes (Google that one), and ahimsa neem or karanja oil (neem and karanja are the same thing) from neemsource.com. Solo
Neem seed (meal) is the very same thing as neem "cake". Both are the ground up neem seeds once oil has been pressed from the seed. Same deal different names. J
Thanks for all your help, I added gypsum into my order after reading into it a bit more Also got some Ful-Power, agsil 16h and some neem oil and will be looking into local sources for the ingredients for the SST! I should be mixing everything up by the end of this week!
into your order? Are you paying shipping? I buy gypsum at just about any local nursery, farm and feed store, hydro store, or even walmart. Kelp and alfalfa can usually be found local as well. Look for farm and feed stores. If you're paying shipping on the OSF you can look for Ag Lime or aragonite locally as well. Serves the same purpose. I think home depot or Lowes carries the Ag Lime. I get my rock dust at a local hydro shop but I think rockdustlocal.com has the best prices online. The only thing I pay shipping on anymore is neem. Forget the SST. You can use ANY seed for that, but save yourself some time and work and just buy some malted barley from a home brew store. These guys KNOW what they're doing and you will have more consistency relying on their years of expertise. And it's pretty damn cheap for what you'll see in results. You just want a base malt...nothing roasted, nothing crystal, nothing chocolate, just plain base malt. Then get a cheap coffee grinder. You want as close to flour consistency as you can get. Use it in your soil, in your water, sprinkle on top of your soil, worm bins...this stuff is great all over in many ways. Not foliars though. Solo
I ordered everything from Build A Soil and the shipping was only $20 for everything, simpler than sourcing everything out individually(and most things were competitively priced from what I was finding locally too), I like the way they source their ingredients everything seems like high quality stuff, and I like the way they run their business so thought it would be nice to support them . I'll definitely checkout some breweries and brew stores for the malt, thank you!
That soil mix will be rocking. Very close to what I use with great results and minimal effort. An AACT at the very beginning, multiple enzyme teas because they're great and I get bored, a botanical tea here and there basically for fun as well. Plants would do fine it that mix with water only and do real well with water only in large containers. 100% water only would drive me to death with boredom. You're on the path to great success! Readers are leaders.
Thank you for your kind words . I am feeling very confident, the soil is all mixed and has been sitting in 7 and 10 gallon fabric pots. I saw some nice "santas beard" on the surface of most pots last week which made me happy I have an AACT brewing right now that I am going to run through the pots and then transplant into them next week hopefully ! I've been doing a lot of reading on foilars and teas its so damn interesting. I just need to grab some aloe and barley and I'm pretty golden, also something to mulch with! Can't wait till the plants hit that soil because they are already looking so happy and green
I have a lot of fun with mulch. Perhaps too much. My current mulch layer includes horsetail, aspen leaf, moose/elk/deer/ bear droppings, whole malted barley, cannabis leaf and stem, living Dutch white clover and vermicompost. Dynamic accumulator plants in the mulch make lots of sense. I like to take a fresh soil mix and put it in the pots and nearly immediately sow Dutch white clover seeds in the pots. The clover will let you know if your mix is too "hot" still for your cannabis. It shouldn't be, but watch or skip that alfalfa in the soil mix maybe in the future. I've had no issue with planting seed directly into a clackamas coot style soil mix. It grows just fine without any "cooking" IMO.
I'll probably start out pretty simple on the mulch haha, just throw some straw on there or something and go from there as I learn more. I'll be sure to get some white clover for my next mix thanks for that !