Hey all Love all the info flying around here. Great to see people trying new things and being successful as well. I'm looking for information on a 100% Organic Soil mix that's sort of a general purpose mix for medical MJ. Preferably from someone who's created an easy mix that they've now 'tweaked' to their liking and remember what worked for what. I'm looking for that basic ingredient and amounts list for what you started with for now. I'm working to get a good start and have something I can consistently mix the same so the results don't get skewed. This is primarily for SCRoG setups (though it should work just about anywhere as MJ is pretty much MJ) so it might want to be a bit light on the calcium at first. Possibly an amendment that takes a month to break down so the branches firm up during flower? (this helps keep the branches flexible and limber for training... you can do some amazing things with noodle branches ) Once I have a general mix I'll be using it in a new type of 100% Organic Soil & Hydroponic grow combination that I'm calling "HydroGanic" So far it looks like the ultimate way to not only merge the best of Organic Soil nutrition with Hydroponics... it also horribly simplifies everything and allows a range of flexibility that's never been possible before. I look forward to posting results and research findings in the next few months.
Fox Farm Ocean Forest seems to be pretty popular around here, or Promix, I've never even grown but from what I've read on Grasscity you can't go wrong with either choice.
Here is your soil mix. It's called Vic's Super Soil: 1 Bale sunshine mix #2 or promix (3.8 cu ft) 8 cups Bone Meal - phosphorus source 4 cups Blood Meal - nitrogen source 1 1/3 cups Epsom salts - magnesium source 3-4 cups dolomite lime -calcium source & pH buffering 4 cups kelp meal. 9kg (25 lbs) bag pure worm castings - Mix thoroughly, moisten, and let sit (uncovered) 1-2 weeks before use.
Looks like great combo, but finding stores that carry all these is a problem around here, but does look like some first class soil mix. Thanks for the info man.
I had issues finding the Sunshine or ProMix. I found that AceHardware had Promix (check their website). They had to order a bag for me. I found Sunshine Mix #2 at a "farm supply" store. All the other stuff is at Walmart/Lowes/Homedepot. Real easy to find.
I don't really get how you plan on making an organic soil-hydro set up, but here is my soil reciepe: -Large bag of Roses Top Soil, it's a black sandy mix of composted horse, chicken and cow manure -Large bag of MG Organic, in the brown bag not the time release shite -2 cups of garden lime -4 small bags of perlite -2 small bags of Shults peet moss ---Here I make my 10 starter cups--- Then add: -1 gallon of worm castings -1 cup of bone meal -1 cup of blood meal I purposly root bind the plants (about 10-14 days) in cups and transplant to 1 gallon pots for about 4 weeks. After sexing I transplant females into 4 gallon pots and mix 1 cup of 1/8/5 bat guano to each pot. This reciepe is mixed in a 22 gallon tub, watered and allowed to evaporate at least three times before planting and will service 10 one gallon pots and up-pot 6 four gallon pots. Everything except the guano can be bought at wal-mart for about 40 bucks.
Thank you for the input and mixes I appreciate it greatly. Anyone have any *Ooops* moments with mixing organics up that I should avoid? I'm very good at assimilating different sources of the same info and picking out the most effective bits. As my name implies I'm currently working on merging Organic Soil with Hydro. The hardest part is waiting until I have verifiable results before I start posting the method up here. Heheheheh. 2Green2 mentioned something about a bucket with hydro in one side and organic nutes on the other... Interesting but not exactly what I had in mind for my own setup. Theoretically it's possible to set up a soil + hydroponic system that, once everything is set for a grow, you only have to water occasionally. We're talking excellent, probably wicked results even with my poor organic capability. Someone who really knows their strain and nutrient requriements will definitely be able to pull some very impressive grows. OR... it could all tank out into dog farts LOL That's the beauty of research Please keep the mixes coming as the more information that ends up here, the better off everyone will be in the long run Thanks again all!
three pounds of human feces. crap in a bag for a week, get your buddies to crap in that bag, just keep pooping until you hit the accumulative weight of 3 lbs of feces, it's gotta be good feces. not that brick shit that comes out of your butt when you've eaten too many cheeseburgers. soft silky poo. cook that goodness in your oven for an hour at 350. make sure it's steralized, and walah, you got gods intended organic feces...ahem fert...err soil?
fox farm makes great soil. Very easy for beginners because there's no mixing involved. It's PH adjusted and has a nice amount of perlite so it drains well.
No I really don't understand why you'd wanna make things really complex with a hydroponic/soil mix. Hydro is designed to provide the exact nutrients the plant needs to be able to grow as much bud as genetically possible. That's why it works so well. Somehow adding soil to the system would do nothing, other than make it less efficient. If you want organic hydroponics, just get organic nutrients... That's all my pessimistic opinion though. I've never tried it or heard of anyone trying it but I'm all for research and development. So if HydroGanic is willing to make the sacrifice, I'm not gonna complain.
The only thing I can imagine is either a drip system, not hydro though, or using soil as a medium for dwc or something but pointless and messy. Please fill us in hydroganic lol
Ok... Let's see if I can put this in a nutshell so everyone can stop scratching their heads and go, HOLY SHIT like I did Question 1: Why do plants 'Burn' when the nutrient mix in hydro is too strong? Answer: The plant is sucking up the amount of water that it needs and the nutrients are drawn up with it. If the nutrients are more than the plant can handle it will burn because it cannot separate the nutes from the water. The fact is though... plants have nutrient roots and they have water roots. I was surfing around about 2 weeks ago and I ran across a website page where someone had done a fairly unique E&F table. Using pots with an organic soil mix they had set the pots onto raised platforms on the table. This allowed just the roots coming out of the bottom of the pot enter the water of the table. The reservoir was filled with plain tap-water and float valve maintained. Essentially they mixed their organic soil mix as per normal and just kept the soil damp every 2-3 days being careful not to overfill the pot and drain dirt-water into the reservoir water. Every 2 weeks they drain their system and re-fill the tap-water. My first thought was to repeat the setup using a Bio-Bucket system a-la hurtback and Big-Toke a-la overgrow bio-bucket method only with plain water and modified planters. What happens is that the plant puts out nutrient uptake roots in the dirt and water uptake roots in the water. Your plants don't get burned sucking up the water they need. Using organic soil mixes means not having to deal with pH much there either. The Bio-Bucket system should work just fine without nutrients in it though I"m thinking a touch of molasses may be needed every few gallons for the beneficial bacteria to feed on but that's about it. The main res will have to hold the lava rock in a sock or something. Alternative would be to have a sock with lava rock in each bucket, not sure yet. The plants themselves will sit in modified planters on top of the buckets, not down in. At this point the research I'm doing is focused on what root mass sizes will be produced in the organic soil, along with methods to reduce the amount of soil that contaminates the res water below. Whats the advantage to merging soil with hydro? What other hydroponic system can you set up that works just by getting the soil damp every few days? Throw away your pH pen Stop throwing away nutrients with res changeouts Get the optimum growth of both organics AND hydro in the same grow The only downside I see right now is that my clones came in rockwool and I'm working on growing a taproot on them before I transplant them into their pots. Seedlings will work nicely with this method since dropping the rockwool cube on the top of the ring I have siliconed to the bottom of the flower pot. Theoretically, using the Bio-Bucket design, keeping the reservoir inside a temp-controlled shed and using insulated buckets and hoses, I should be able to set up a 4 or 6 bucket system that will be capable of housing a complete and compact organic soil garden with multiple plants using the same buckets but with their own organic soil mixes and all using the same plain water system for hydration. The heating/cooling costs will be less expensive because the res is full of water and the temps will be at 85F constantly. Roots grow faster and the Bio-Bucket design doesn't have disease issues at those temps. Snow people can have a killer compact greenhouse (less space to heat means cheaper)\ Desert people can have the same as a small greenhouse is easy to keep at the optimum temp inexpensively. Ok... I'm rambling now but I think some of you should now be able to see what I do. The more I analyze what's going on here the more things I find that will be simpler and easier. HydroGanics is going to truly level the playing field for all types of personal and family growing. I'm VERY interested in what everyone else thinks about this.
this was copied and pasted from a thread made by mysta177 on ICmag (all credit goes to him!) I was wondering if anyone of you were growing with this super mix. It was in HighTimes '05 and the amazing thing about this rich mix is that you needed to do nothing the entire life of the plant except put ph water. * I added some info here so some of you begginers can see its real easy to work with...you wont be discouraged. please read the thread and filter moonshineman if you want....overgrow the world! Here is a quote from MSMan..... "Lookin good....the mix is super simple...you can use it from seed to flower it just doesnt need the dry ferts (peace of mind) early on.....Watering is the Key to this mix...overwater and youll see all sorts of weird "nute def" poppin up....let it dry completely and the probs disappear......the Current mix goes a lil sumthin like this... (bag of each) Ocean Forest Planting Mix (guano/castings) Light Warrior Black Gold Coco Brick(small brick) 1 cup peace of mind (for flower) 2- 5 gal buckets worth of perilite.... And the LARGE Chunky Perilite...RULES....small perilite packs down over time ...the large perilite creates huge air pockets for the roots to grow through....over the last 3 yrs anytime I have gone back to the small diameter perilite my plants SUFFER and yeilds diminish.....You have to try the stuff to understand and even then you may not comprehend (like me) the benefits the large core peri makes.....great stuff.... Romulator has been usin my mix for a couple of yrs now and he is like me always tinkering and tweakin the mix...but in the end its the core 3 bag fox farm mix that makes this shit work.... my only "additives" Id tell anyone to try would be "Fish Mix" from biobizz for a lil boost in veg and Advanced Nutes "Moter Earth Super Tea" for a lil boost on day 25-30 for LARGE plants ......But honestly the mix dont need nuthin.... Keep up the good work....." Moonshine All MoonShine grown.....just water
This is the type of mix I'm looking for. Only downside I can see would be not being able to get some of the same brands. I did have a question though.... Why pH'd water? Isn't this an organic soil grow?
You still have to ensure good water ph no matter what, you dont want to be feeding you're plants the ph equivelant to vinegar, likewise that of soap as this will alter soil ph. I think. LOL
I'll be running a combination of RO and tap-water through my systems. Unless your tap-water is super hard or super acidic or something you shouldn't have to adjust pH at all since organics takes care of that. When was the last time you saw someone pH'ng their garden hose water before they watered their tomatoes? HydroGanics basically simplifies EVERYTHING... Hrmm... I guess I should start a thread on this in advanced techs? As soon as I have the first prototype setup going I'll shoot some pics and post it GROW ON!
I'm wondering though...If it has water, and nute roots, then wouldn't it just use the correct one for water and the correct one for nute, or is it that they are too mixed up to do that so its just gotta be regulated, and buy being able to separate the roots the plant gets more efficient, in the manner that you said. Tell me if that isnt something that would poke a hole in it, because I'm actually very ready to do this, I'v got a set up ready to go, I'v just been waiting and trying to see which style of hyro that i want to go grow. But I know that it will be in organic fashion