So everyone has heard of the miraculous and wonderful ocean forest potting soil. unfortunatly with the high microbial counts in FFOF it has a tendancy to become infested with fungus gnats either at the factory during shipping or while sitting at your suppliers location. whose fault it is depends on who you talk to but it doesn't really matter. so as an alternative to bringing these pests into my envirnment i have come up with a simple solution that is also advantageous to new growers. the simplified ingredients in FFOF are peat, earthworm castings, microryhzae, and 1/4 in perlite. so for my mix i buy one bale of Pro-mix HP a ten pound bag of earthworm castings one half bottle of rooters mircrorhyzae and half of a small bag of big and chunky perlite also by Fox Farms. i mix the ingredients in a kiddie pool with a small shovel it is important to "wet" the media while mixing or it becomes difficult to get the media to hold moisture later on. after mixing cover with a tarp and allow it to sit for 3-5 days mixing once daily this will allow all of the microbes to mate with the soil and allow the process of breaking down to happen this will make nutrients immediatly available to your young plants. we wait 3-5 days because this reaction causes heat that can damage seedlings or clones. it's enough to fill about 20 5 gallon containers with a little to fill in after watering in. often your local supplier will be willing to negotiate for portions of bags of materials if you are nice so for smaller grows this can work well too. now for the part thats new for beginners at about 40% of the price for a comprable amount of FFOF it takes some of the price out of organic soil (not 100% true organic but it is natural). It also is a nice light light mix that allows you to water more often. this may seem like a bad thing but it allows you to feed more often and with a lighter nutrient mix which will get the plants the same amount of chems but with less chance of burning. only feed with every other watering. hope this gives you guys some food for thought. my intention with this is not to say that ocean forest isn't a good product and i don't want to offend anyone that swears by it i also think it is a great media. hope this helps some people out and happy growing.
I got turned onto pro mix bx by my hydro guy and it made all the difference in the world saved my crop for sure. this is my first grow so i used the pro mix and a bunch of humboldt nutes, but on my next grow i wanna go all organic, and your mix looks like a winner, good info
I like this...I hate how people think fox farm nutes and soil are the know all and end all of growing dope, always good to see new approaches...I use pro mix hp with mycorise and mix it 60 40 with perlite...provides superb drainage and wetting agents make watering way easier...not to mention the mycorise which is a beneficial fungus they incorporate into the media
I used to make my own potting mix out of peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, worm castings, and guano using an electric cement mixer in my garage.
For years I've been using and touting this simple formula: 4 parts organic potting soil (no nutes added) 3 parts sphagnum moss (no nutes added) 2 parts worm castings 1 or more parts perlite (no nutes added) 1 or more parts clean sand Very similar to what you've come up with. Over time I came to call it Faux Farms. I use myco too but don't usually list it in the soil recipe.
I just got a good organically composted soil that was Ph balanced. I used Orchid ferts for veg (24/19/18) and 1st stage of flowering (19/30/18). Then I hit it with some beastie bloomz for a few weeks and I think I will finish with plain water and molassas. The orchid food has pretty high concentrations and its $5 for the same amount you would but of the FF nutes for $30.