Building my soil today and I’ve got a question.

I do not wet it first. I break it up into a 5 gallon bucket.
It's OK to guesstimate at your amounts in the bucket.
The 33/33/33 is just a guideline, so if you end up with an extra quart of this or that compared to something else, it's fine.
Pots never hold exactly what they are rated at anyway. That 25 gallon pot may only hold 20gallons of soil.
It will also compact down. I will fill my pots to the edge, then I water them in over a couple of hours using a drip tray untill they are fully saturated. For you that's going to be 4-6 gallons of water. After a few days, you will be a couple inches down from the top of the pot, perfect for mulch.

 

I always mixed my Organic soils dry but them I'm old and broken and not up for shoveling a shit load of wet soil over and over and over again. Dry is enough of a pain.

Now if it's compressed block of peat like from Lowes then Yes toss the bale into a trashcan and fill with water and leave it overnight to soften and suck up some water.

My 2 cents. Everybody does it a little different.
No right or wrong.
BNW

 

I use compressed peat from Lowes and do break it up and wet it first. I seem to get more consistent measurements that way. It will work either way.

 

I probably wouldn't use grass clippings, but I have personally used dry leaves/leaf litter as mulch myself. Currently using shredded redwood bark because it was on sale and I needed quite a lot.

 

I too shred my chopped, dried leaves, back into the soils, then let them convert back to humus. I wouldn’t use grass.


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You just have to keep your eyes open and if you see anything that looks good for adding in subsequent grows, it’s nice to grab of you have the chance.

Humus sources aren’t uncommon.


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Promix HP already has around 33% perlite, so I would add 1 part perlite for every 2 parts of compost. More importantly is how to adjust or omit liming agents since the Promix has this already too.

Absolutely! This entire No Till cannabis game is merely an adaptation of Ruth Stouts methodology, in which she uses nothing but grass hay to sustain her plants.
RD

 

I don’t use ProMix so it’s hard to say. In my mix I use 1/2cup per cf of each:
Neem
Kelp
Crab
Oyster
1 cup per cf of rock dust

That’s it. You can always add more topdressing or by mixing after your harvest. You cannot take away anything once it’s been added. I would probably omit the dolomite and use the 1.5 cups of crab you listed, assuming it’s ground fairly small. You may want to check with other ProMix guys. I really don’t know anyone that uses it because it’s 3x as expensive as a bale of peat moss.
RD

 

Hey Trip,
Can’t help with your questions; sorry. Writing to say thanks for alerting me to the lime in ProMix. I keep having pH issues and I think you just solved the mystery. Fixing to mix me up some dirt too.
Good growing! Kwince

 

I would let it sit for a few weeks before introducing a few worms. You will want to be sure everything has a chance to integrate and get a more uniformed moisture. Then the worms will work well with the mycs and such.

I wouldn’t put a load of worms in, but I can buy a dozen worms that they have locally for bait. The worms should self regulate as they run low on humus, but that will see your Nitrogen soar as many worms die off. I wouldn’t want to plant an MJ plant with earthworms being too well populated and hungry.

I’ve got some citrus trees coming as well as adding some good soil for growing veggies.

I will be adding some bio char to the tubs.


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Same here, but finally had to break down and get a cement mixer, that I've yet to use.

I mix everything I can, dry, but add the perlite and the water to moisten last.. I always do batches of just over 2cf, ~17 gallons. It takes ~7gallons of water to thoroughly moisten the mix, adding some of the perlite and enough water to keep the dust at bay. Mix and repeat till the perlite is all mixed in and the entire mix completely moistened.

Like you said, it's heavy enough dry, but adding all that water just makes it too much for this 71YO. Shovel work just hurts too much now.

Wet

 

That ^^^

I make my mixes from scratch like RD and have found myself going to the smaller inputs when making mixes, like 1/2 to 1cup/cf rather than the larger amounts many dump into new mixes.

You don't need a lot to get things going and it's easy enough to top dress more when everything is firing on all 8 cylinders.

Wet

 

Compost your grass clippings.

But LEAVES!!

Start collecting a mountain of them - and I say mountain because when you have a monstrous gigantic or humongous heap - they’ll break down into around a tenth or maybe even less than what you originally started with.

Mow them first if you can - a bunch. Chop em up. If you cant its fine but it speeds things up.

Wet the heap. Keep it moist. Let them break down. Turn the heap occasionally - and keep collecting MORE. Make your neighbors give you theirs.

Look up “Leaf Mold” - or sometimes referred to as “Black Leaf Mold”.

Leaf mold is one of the very best things you can incorporate into an organic garden - and also makes most excellent mulch.

Make ALOT - because you can use this in lieu of Sphagnum Peat...

Look it up - and start collecting.

Then start reading about and start thinking about planting Comfrey...



GL

j