Oh shit, so you do use mycorrhizal fungi, cool I didn't think anyone was trying it yet. Awesome, ile follow your grow. edit: well I guess you haven't been around for a while. Dang, I was looking forward to seeing it lol.
So you are using 1 cup of the seed meal mix and 1 cup of the fish bone meal here correct? I am a bit confused sorry. Also, I have tracked down alfalfa and cottonseed meals but where can I get the canola and flaxseed? Are there alternatives that I could use that would maintain the balanace?
1 cup of the overall mix - not 1 cup of each. It wasn't very clear on my part. Nothing is absolute in that if you can't find it then it's no big deal. What you're looking for is the widest diversity of organic plant seed meals that you can find. The key word here is 'organic' because some of these meals are hit with a ton of chemicals - especially cottonseed meal. Back to the other part of your question - another name for flaxseed meal would be linseed meal - depending on what part of the world you live in. The name that most of the world knows canola seed would be rape seed. So look for rape seed meal perhaps. Soybean meal (de-fatted) is a good thing to use and if you can find it, sunflower meal is also very good. HTH LD
Hey L.D. what do u think about down to earth coco and coco bark. We are thinking of blending a all coco base NO PEAT! I was thinking 60% coco pirth 20% coco husk chips and 20% perlite for the base. We want a soil that we can realy reuse again and again. From my resarch coco last much longer than peat. Do you think its a bad idea to go with no peat ? Is peat some how more benefecial than I belive it to be?
can we get this stickied? i know that we could argue for stickying every single one of ld's posts but this is one of the best, most informative guides for building your own soil that i've ever come across. cost effective, complete, balanced, and bonehead simple. i've recently switched from buying expensive, premixed organic potting soils to following a very similar model to ld's, and i'm seeing much better results than i'd ever got before for a fraction of the price. i add ewc from my home vermi bin and i also top dress with bat and peruvian seabird guano from time to time. my current ladies couldn't be happier and i'll definitely never go back to lining the pockets of some doucher scam artist in a lab-coat selling me molasses and kelp extract for $80 a liter. if more growers, new and old were made aware of the effectiveness and ease of use of a mix like this, there'd be a whole lot more of da kind for everyone. not to mention the fact that companies who have been ripping people off for years would be forced to shape up or fall by the wayside. my only regret is that i didn't learn about something like this 10+ years ago, oh well better late than never. my vote's cast...
Air O I have 2 plants in a similar mix that you're asking about and I'm more than a little impressed. I picked-up the 2 c.f. bale of organic coir packed by Teufel Nurseries (a commercial nursery that's been in business for over 120 years here in Oregon. They are big enough that they mix their own potting soils). This specific product is the short-length coir product which from what I understand is the better choice for horticulture. That's my understanding - it's not a fact that I'm aware of - LOL At any rate, I mixed 2 c.f. of the coir product with 1 c.f. of pumice (from Klamath Falls basin in Southern Oregon). I'm a big advocate of pumice vs. perlite for a number of reasons not the least of which would be security. Mixing these 2 items together I now had a 'base' to which I added 1 part organic matter (a combo of compost, EWC and Alaska humus in equal parts) to 3 parts of the coir/pumice base. The rest of the potting soil mix is my usual deal - minerals, seed meal and fish mix, kelp, neem seed meal, et al. Results: I'm impressed enough to recommend it to anyone doing a hardcore organic terrorist grow like I do - Benefits: The ability to re-use several times. For those folks who are really, really hung-up on the PH reading in a soil, coir is far more neutral than peat. Especially the #2 and #3 peat moss products used in commercial soils like FFOF, Roots Organic, Botanicare (sp?), et al. The other benefit is that going this route vs. buying professional potting soil bases (like Sunshine, ProMix, etc.) is that I saved 1/3. Organic coir is $7.50 for 2. c.f. and the pumice is $4.50 for 1 c.f. = $12.00 for 3 c.f. of potting soil base. Sunshine Professional Organic Growers Mix - $19.00 for 3 c.f. of potting soil base That's a more than a 33% savings right off the bat. $12.00 of base and $6.00 of organic material = $18.00 for 4 c.f. of potting soil that you could never match if you bought and went through 10 pallets of any product sold at an indoor garden center. Just on the quality of the coir alone would justify the time and effort - not to mention the ability to control the quality of the organic material. One other thing to consider - coir is a kick-ass replacement for peat moss at the commercial level in the horticulture industry so you have a number of online resources to get a wide range of opinions as well as peer-reviewed information. Another product that you may want to look at sourcing for testing with would be to try neem tree coir. It can last up to 8 years of recycling but that's probably a story for another day, eh? Best wishes - you're on the right track, IMHO Cheers! LD
That's gratifying to read. Helping someone save money at the same time gaining control on the products used to grow their medicine is what it's all about. And to provoke, hopefully, a quest to learn more about growing plants because plants are the base of all life on this planet. You couldn't have a food chain without plants. We're only scratching the surface. The work with AACT processes is less than 15 years old for example. The research into the use of mycorrhizae fungi in restoring former timber lands as well as their agriculture applications is in its infancy. Same with the use and application of humic vs fulvic acids <snerk> as well as remineralizing agriculture areas to increase food production levels. From a great Oregonian: LD
Thanks L.D. good info like usual. I would give love but G.C. is forceing me to spread it around. We will go for the coco base and look into the pumice over perlite. Ill have to find a place to get it in bulk nearbye. Soon we will post a thread for our grow. I would be intrested in your thoughts and any criticism. We run a mmj dispensary and because of guys like you and some of the other organic vets on hear we have fell head over heals for organic I am not looking to promote my company and will not post the name or any info on this site! I simply seek to beter my organic knowledge to grow healthy affordable crops for myself and my community.
well said my friend, hell from what i've been taught in my ongoing college career, we are plants, evolved. i've fallen in love with growing all kinds of plants, mostly my own fruits, vegetables, and such but it was all started with my initial mj grow 12+ years ago. since then it's been one constant mission to absorb as much useful information as i can get my head around. it's been my therapy, in more ways than one i know that i speak for plenty of us when i say thank you lumper. the bits of info that i've picked up from you over the past few months have been like solid gold and have really helped me revolutionize the way i do things in my gardens. this one's for you my friend, many thanks!
Air O Landscape companies are always a good source for any number of garden and landscape projects. With the economy in the proverbial tank like it is no one is going to deny you a sale because you're not 'in the trade' like in years past. Companies are hungry for money from any source. There is a fairly large pumice operation on the east slope of the Cascades in Southern Oregon, i.e. the Klamath Basin which is one of he largest pumice deposits in the western states. A 'yard' (i.e. 27 c.f. in a tote) was about $55.00 last spring for some new raised beds we were putting in. About $2.00 per c.f. and that was delivered by a wholesale company along with other items so I can't give you the break-down as there is always a bit of co-mingling of monies in a purchase and delivery deal as you can imagine. How much did the 5# box of sulphur cost for delivery? That kind of thing. Regardless - pumice should be cheap, cheap, cheap - though you might have to do some digging it's worth it for the integrity of your potting soil. No question about that. Let me know if you need any help on locating some pumice mining operations to find their distributors if you hit a dead-end. LD
I have to whole-heartedly second that. Lump has been an inspiration for me to learn more about what is I try to do in the organic world and in the process I am learning some new things about myself. Thanks LD.
L.D. you da man...Ive learned alot from all your posts on organic soil mixes.keep on giving that knowledge on organic growing...thanks and aloha from hawaii..Rippa
Hey LD, In need of your wisdom... I was wondering how this mix would do for tomatoes? Would I need to change any percentages in the mix? Or leave as is? Will this mix work for all plants as is?
melkor, If I may......LD's mix would work great for tomatoes, or any other vegetable for that matter. LD runs an organic farm/nursery in Oregon and uses the fundamentals of his mix in his businesses as well. If you haven't already, try to read as many of LD's posts as you can. He covers a multitude of growing/gardening topics and you can learn a bunch from him. As a side note......MJ and tomatoes have almost identical needs. chunk
Chunk, Thanks a bunch! I kind of figured that, but wanted to check it with you guys first. And yeah, I bookmarked the "find all posts" function on LD's profile. Working down the list. I'm a slow reader though, and I always read the entire threads he posts in. Just to make sure I get a good grasp of the information. Thanks again, and have a good night brother!
This needs to be at the top. I'm having a hard time sourcing a few of the ingredients but I am excited to give this a run. Get everything growing in this.
Word. This should definitely be stickied... If you need any help locating specific items, let me know. I'm in CA, so I've searched extensively for the best prices with shipping factored in to CA. Funny though, I actually jsut found a feed and seed that's about an hour away from me. I could've mixed most of the ingredients there myself, and saved even more money. With that I would've only had to order 4 or 5 items. Good luck!
why do you snerk at fulvic acids? ?? I started using age old humic 12 which contains %12 humic, and %3.5 fulvic acids, as well as 30% carbon. is there a down side to using fulvic acids? please inform me of it ! !! thank you !! edit- another thing i searched for and wanted to ask is: would you reccomend thrichoderma?? I'm looking at those endo micorrhiza & trichoderma powders. thanks!!