An organic soil mix of mine

LD, coax it out of the rice? Explain, please. My first thought is grind (mortar and pestle, coffee grinder) up some good, organic, whole grain, brown rice and soak it for a week or two??What do you think?JaK

 

hey LD I've been playing with the numbers and I'm not seeing how ur makin this stuff for 6 bucks per CF. Just the sunshine mix and the EWC will cost me around 75. Unless it is simply a connect, please share!

 

bump!

 

b-u-m-p

 

naorb

Here's where the rubber hits the road with the indoor garden operations. Sunshine Mix (#1 - #4) cost between $25.00 - $27.00 at wholesale nursery houses if purchased as singles. If you're buying a full pallet then you could expect to see a 8 - 10% price drop.

That's at a wholesale nursery company. By the time this product wanders over to 'We B Growin' Stuff' the f*cking price doubles. I can certainly understand the 'why' because it would be financial suicide to sell you something at a fair price that would allow you to actually mix a soil vs. buying a bag of their dirt. Got it!

You still have options and here are some suggestions............

1. Check with your state's nursery association. They can dial you in on legitimate sources

2. Check at the HomeDepot type operations. Sunshine has a Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss under the brand 'Lakeland' which is the exact same peat moss product used in their premium mixes like Sunshine Mix, Sunshine Organics Growers Mix, et al. Usually a 3.8 c.f. is less than $18.00

3. Check this web site and see if there's any contact near enough to make sense. This is one of the finest Sphagnum peat moss products out of Canada and it comes from Northern Alberta Province. This product should be about $15.00 for their 3.8 c.f. bale and around $11.00 for their 'pony bale' which is 2.2 c.f.

4. Premier Horticulture (the Pro-Mix people) have a great line of base soil mixes i.e. 'blank soils' as they're called in the nursery business. The Pro-Mix Premier Peat is on the same level as the Alaska Peat I mentioned above. These are in 3.8 c.f. bales and should run less than $20.00

5. Check with your local garden clubs for help

6. Check with your state's agriculture school for sources and help

7. Don't give up!

Back to your original query here's how I arrived at the numbers I quoted.

1. Alaska Peat - 3.8 c.f. @ $12.50
2. 1/4" Pumice from the Klamath Falls Basin in Southern Oregon. 1 c.f. @ $4.50
3. Marwest Compost - produced from organic dairy herds, grasses grown on Oregon Tilth certified land, organic spent mushroom logs and organic produce - 1.5 c.f. @ $8.00 [this is really a joke - they just don't understand what they have on their hands - rich Yahoo IPO babies. 300 acre certified organic farm to play compost makers. Whatever!]

So let's add it up - total cost (no sales tax here) is $25.00 and we end up with 6.3 c.f. of potting soil = $3.96 per c.f.

Add to that some minerals - about $.75

Seed meal (which would include both fish meal as well as bone meal) - $.50 per 1 c.f.

A mix of equal parts of kelp meal, neem meal and crustacean meal (shrimp & crab) - BIG MONEY on this one. About $1.00 per 1 c.f.

Anyway that's how I got to the numbers..........

HTH

LD

 

Subd.

 

Hey LD,

When u say "mix 1/2 tsp. of both Dyna-Gro Neem Seed Oil with Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt to 1 quart of water" do you mean 1 gallon of water instead of 1 quart of water?

 

Hey Chunk,

So you're using 1/4 teaspoon of neem and 1/4 teaspoon Pro-TeKt in one gallon of water? Is there a specific reason why you are not using 1/2 teaspoon of neem and 1/2 teaspoon of Pro-TeKt in a quart of water, per the manufacturer's suggestion?

 

lol! Funny guy! Oh, and thank you for the clarification!

One more question. When can one begin adding Pro-TeKt to the watering schedule? After the first two sets of true leaves?

 

Not counselor but rather "Ichiban"

 

Thanks LD!

 

I just subscribed to this thread yesterday. Unfortunatly I already picked up a lot of supplies for this years grow. I'm in reality a newbie when it comes to the organic game.

Maybe somebody here can help me out. This is what I got so far.

I have 10 3cu. ft. bales of Master Nursery Black Forest premium Organic compost soil conditioner. The ingredients are: Forest Humus compost, wormcastings, chicken manure, bat guano, kelp meal, oyster shell and dolomite lime, mycorrhizae.

I also have 5 4cu. ft. bags of perlite.

I have a bag of commercial mycorrhizae.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing something, maybe peat moss??? Not sure. Any thoughts on this. Should I pick up some more supplys? and if so What??? and how should I mix it?

Thanks yall, appreciate any help I get. Don't mean to hijack the thread. Just need a little help. I want my grows this year to go well.

 

Farm Dawg

I looked at this product at Portland's oldest nursery several weeks back and I seriously considered using it in some raised beds. I went a different direction but that decision had nothing to do with the viability of this base.

I wouldn't use it as a soil base necessarily but it's doable. The best option would be to get their "Gardeners Gold Organic Potting Soil" and do something like this:

1x Soil Conditioner
1x Potting Soil
1x Perlite

Don't f*ck with it. You've got enough of everything to make it work. If you were to get some worm castings - real ones - and brew an AACT you could really dial this in.

And if you can't find a seller of worms to buy a cup or two of castings then hit up some of the fishing worm guys. They're pretty nutty about what they feed their worms (European Nightcrawlers most often) so you'll have solid humus for your compost tea.

If you buy a bag of worm castings at the grow store you're wasting your time and money. All you need is a cup or two of the real deal and you can dynamically charge your soil mix with trillions and trillions of microbes.

IMHO that's the path to extract as much as possible out of your soil mix to achieve plant health, vigor and enable the plant to express its DNA fully.

HTH

LD2

 

Thanks LumperDawgs2'

I am just now learning about the AACT's right now it's a challenge, so many new terms, and so much to learn. I'm ordering the book Teeming with Microbes asap. I plan on applying myself dilligently so I should be getting this down sometime in the near future.

Thanks so much for the useful info. I am excited to start this new adventure into the world of organics.

 

Farm Dawg

1. While a good book overall it would be the LAST source I would use to guide me as far as equipment. The homemade set-up that appeared in the 1st edition and was still there in the 2nd edition is a joke and I'm being extremely kind in that observation.

2. AACT (Active Aerated Compost Teas) are not necessary to have a successful garden. What they can do is to bump up the microbial activity in a mediocre soil. In a soil (indoor or outdoor) that has been built and worked for several months or years applying these teas is pretty pointless. The whole process of applying these teas is to inoculate a poor soil with the necessary microbe colonies to digest the agents in the soil

If you're not comfortable with getting into brewing teas you can do this and it'll get you to the same place. Maybe not on you first run but you'll definitely be ready for the following cycles.

Take 1 cup of alfalfa meal/pellets and add 1/2 cup of kelp meal to 5 gallons of water. You don't have to use an air pump with an airstone absolutely. You can simply take a stick and mix it every time you think about it or when you walk by it. An inexpensive air pump and air stone (< $20.00) can pull this off. Let it brew for a couple of days. Don't let it sit for more than 8 hours without doing something to get the meals mixed and moving.

DO NOT ADD FISH HYDROLYSATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apply to a mound of your mix and turn it often to make sure that this tea is being applied as thoroughly as possible. Let this sit for as many weeks as you can and keep it at a consistent hydration level. After 4 or 5 weeks your soil mix will be alive with microbial activity.

That's gotta be easy enough, eh?

LD2

 

This might be a wierd question but somebody was sayin something about using used bath water when I was in Humbold county last year. Not sure why. It would have a lot of bacteria in it no. Anybody got any input on that?

 

It would be interesting to catalog all of the silliness coming out of Humboldt County so I'll refrain from entering such a target-rich environment.

But I will proffer this question: "Have you ever been to Fortuna, California?"

I'd rather spend a weekend in El Monte or even Van Nuys.

LD2

 

Nah my stomping ground was pretty much Willow Creek and Hawkins Bar.