Your organic soil mixes

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by biome8, Nov 13, 2015.

  1. #1 biome8, Nov 13, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 13, 2015
    Hello ladies and gents, first off this will be my first post so HELLO!

    Ok down to business, I'm currently preparing a mix of soil for my auto barneys farm LSD seeds. So far I have about 1 part of my soil that came out of my old chicken run (super nutritious stuff) 1 part top soil and 1/2 part cow manure. Now what I'm wanting to know is what have you used before that has given good results with auto flowers and what do you think I should add to my mix, here is a pic of it so far

    Cheers

    [​IMG]




     
  2. Search for organic recipes on this site and you will find what you need.

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  3. Thank you my friend


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  4. You can use all that good stuff you are making/harvesting at home. Add plenty of aeration. Make sure manures/composts are cooked and have cooled off. Play around with what you have. Cannabis in containers does like good drainage. Some additions to what you have such as maybe kelp meal for one may help.


    Have you heard of the clackamas cootz soil mix? It's recommended by many respected members in the organics section here. I use it. It's great.


    Don't be afraid to use things you have around like compost and manure.


    Do you have old manure piles?


    You are on the path to the herb you seek to produce! Read! Learn! Don't be afraid to play around with free local inputs.
     
  5. Hello worm guy! I plan on buying some perlite to help with the drainage and airation, how would you suggest to cook the manures? And no I have not heard of clackamas cootz soil, do you have a link to it?
    Also I forgot to mention but I am located in Australia so our laws are a little different, I am legally allowed to grow only 1 plant and it has to be outside with no help from artificial light so it makes it a little harder for me.
    The only manure I have is from where my chickens used to be, over 5 years worth of chicken manure at my disposal I grew some tomatoes with that soil not long ago and they grew into some pretty big monsters, so I know the soil is good. Thank you for your input worm guy very much appreciated!


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  6. #6 SkyHighWormGuy, Nov 14, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 14, 2015
    cooking manures, well I could have said composting manures. That's what I meant. There are different ways to compost. The preferred method is "hot" composting or thermophilic composting. http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Thermophilic_com...When hot composting manures, you can rest assured that weed seeds and pathogens are destroyed. I use the Berkeley method for hot composting. It's effective, very fast and also labor intensive. http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/compost_rapidcompost.p...
    To calculate how much of what to use in a compost pile I use this tool: http://www.klickitatcounty.org/solidwaste/fileshtm...
    Here is the CC soil mix that many of us have been using. I'll stress that you don't have to source all this stuff and substitutions of local inputs are the way to go whenever possible. The biggest part of this soil recipe to grasp is the equal parts of Spm (peat):humus:drainage, that's the base and it works very well. Read about it here, so I don't have to type so much. [​IMG] http://buildasoil.com/blogs/news/17627464-build-a-...
    The biggest factor is whether or not you have quality humus. Something from a bag, purchased, will be a much lower quality that something you can make yourself. Here's what I do for my humus component of my soil mixes. I make hot compost as outlined above. (I use lots of horse manure because it's free and easy to come by, and also has a near ideal c:n ratio right outta the gate). When the hot compost has cooled I feed it to my redworms. The worms eat the finished compost and produce very high quality vermicompost in a fairly short amount of time. This vermicompost is exactly what I use as the "1/3 humus" in my soil mixes. It works extremely well.
    Drainage or aeration 1/3 of soil mix:
    You can use perlite, or pumice or what I prefer little lava rocks sold as "scoria", others use rice hulls. Use something!
    SPM 1/3 of soil mix:
    Use sphagnum peat moss from a big compressed bag if you want to buy some, it's inexpensive and available everywhere and works well at holding nutrients in the soil.
    I'd recommend though subbing leaf mold or very well aged horse manure (several seasons at least) in place of the SPM. What's leaf mold? Easy really, it's just a big pile of leaves left alone, a slow fungal decomposition resulting in a very nice, fluffy brown/black compost product. Read more here if u want: http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/leaf-mold/8614.htm...
    Happy to help
     
  7. I use the BAS living organic soil. Fantastic product. Well rounded and really consistent. I sprinkle in my own goodies here and there. And voilà
     
  8. Thanks for the information guys, I'll keep you posted on what happens


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  9. #10 MudslideSlim, Nov 20, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 20, 2015
    I am all about that greensand, it's super choc full of micronutrients and potassium, I feel like people are all hyped up on phosphorus and nitrogen, don't forget all the baller ass micro nutrients and potassium! It is super critical to plant resilience and turgidity. Greensand and You should definitely get some oyster shell flour and also perlite perlite perlite. Also in my opinion, and this is just my opinion from my own expereince, I would prefer coco over SPM, if thouroughly rinsed, its more neutral than the SPM from what I have read SPM can more easily lead to low PH where as coco seems to be more stable, but it has to be rinsed right otherwise it will be full of salts.
     
  10. Greensand is great, but you dont need as much potassium as you think. Neem, kelp and crab meal along with good compost/vermicompost has all the potassium and micronutrients you'd need. Its what most here use and amend with, it works great.


     
  11. You're using tapatalk from an iPhone in austrailia. Nice! You have all the light you need.


     
  12. No doubt, I'm just giving my expereince, I wouldn't substitute greensand for wormcastings, I use both, but for me I definitely notice a difference without the greensand. Definitely agree with the kelp meal and worm castings. I have never used the Neem before, but I see it up in here alot. Is it like a good way to get nutrients and stave off mights at the same time, or is it just a straight up soil ammendment? Potassium is not needed in the quantity that N and P are, but it is still important not to overlook. I foliar spray with a banana peel tea and my plants go "bananas". It's sort of like my new thing right now. In your opinion then mclover, is crabmeal better than oyster shells for calcium or is it just what you can get easily in your part of the world? Love nerding out with fellow green thumbs. Respect.
     
  13. Yes I use neem as a source of nitrogen but it does a lot more. Its great for preventing and getting rid of many types of pests. The neem I have is 6-1-2. I use both oyster shell flour and crab meal. Oyster shell for liming mostly but it does contain Ca and I use it for the first initial mix only. It breaks down fairly quickly and should stable PH if you used peat in your soil mix. Crab meal I have is 2-3-0 I'm not exactly sure but its great for Ca and chitin as well. I use a lot of rock dusts also and some gypsum but have stopped using that. Most kelp is around 1-0-2 so that has lots of micronutrients and potassium. Diversity is always good though. I can get almost anything here, except mars rock dust [​IMG]. I'm in the United States where its legal for medical patients. I've never heard about the banana peel foliar, how does that work?


     
  14. #15 MudslideSlim, Nov 20, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 20, 2015
    good stuff Mclover. By "liming" do you mean raising the ph? I have read that gypsum has a reputation for enhancing the flavors in the end. The banana peels are a super chronic nitrogen free foliar, I use it as like a vitamin supplement for my ladies. One great thing that is doesn't smell like dirty butt like most other teas I brew. All I do is take 2 banana peels boiled in 2 cups of water for just a few minutes, then I cover it (not sure if this does anything or if I am just weird) and let it cool off. Once cool I add whats left to 2 liters of water and usually the ppm is about 550 or so and my ph is around 6. Simple as that. Here is an article explaining all the awesomeness that is banana and why all growers should be making their own banana blaster recipes! That's what I call it, my banana blaster : )


    http://homeguides.sfgate.com/nutritional-values-ba...
     
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  15. are organic bananas important to use in the tea? Reason I ask is that I've read bananas are sprayed with some really nasty fungicides. I'd hate to concentrate those and apply to my soil.
     
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  16. #17 mclover, Nov 21, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2015
    Yes liming raises PH. Ca is supposed to help buffer ph as well. I'm not aware about gypsum enhancing flavors. I doubt it but maybe someone else can chime in. This forum has lots of good info thats invaluable, I've probably read the no-till thread a dozen times. Give a man a bag of weed he'll smoke for a day, show a man how to grow weed he'll smoke for a lifetime. My new quote.


     
  17. That's tight, yeah I am perpetually tinkering and updating my technique. Gonna definitely look into the neem cakes? Is that the right thing to call it? neem cake? sounds weird. Yeah the gypsum thing is out of the TLO book by the REV it's like referred to as sort of unquestioned belief up with the growers in arcata/ humboldt area. TLO has sorta been my bible for tha past year. Can you help me out on a couple forum terms?


    In the posts people keep saying they have "sub-ed" other people posts, not sure what that means, also what is no till mean exactly, does it mean that you dont have to rework your used soil because you are continually feeding it? That last line, so true. My motto is the same, "I would rather smoke my own shitty weed (not that it is but just on principle) than buy the best. I like to learn, and honestly learning about organic gardening is a highly valuable skill that has translated into positive changes in just about every aspect of my own life, from what I eat, to how I treat others to the things I prioritize as important.

     
  18. They just call it cake in different countries I believe. Here we call it neem meal. I'm not really jiggy with all the terms either. Sub'ed means that the person is following the thread or is watching it. Read the No Till thread and you will get a good idea of what no till means. You're always feeding in no till and yes you never "rework" your soil, only feed, amend, and what not.
     
  19. Sulfur has a lot to do with plant flavors which is where this must be coming from.


    Gypsum = Calcium Sulfate


    J


     

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