Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by InTheGarden, Oct 2, 2012.

  1. I often recommend BioLive for those interested in living organic soil on a tight budget. It has MOST but not all the goodies
     
  2. Thanks for the info.


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  3. NEED HELP!
    Hey guys just popped my seeds in some rapid rooters, still in the very early stages of my outdoor organic grow.
    Still not sure about my soil recipe and amendments, I’ve been reading the thread but it seems to vary completely.
    PLEASE let me know if I should add or take away anything from my recipe, also a bit unsure about measurements. I got three 15 gal pots.

    Soil Mix
    - Peat moss
    - Compost (locally sourced)
    - ECW
    - FF Ocean Forest
    - Pumice

    Amendments
    - kelp meal
    - Alfalfa meal
    - Rock Dust
    - Oyster Shell
    - Crab & Lobster meal
    - Gympsum
    ————-
    Is Rock Phosphate more than enough or do I need a Guano?
    Also Silca for Sulfur is that necessary?

    I composed this list from the 6 main minerals plants need. Magnesium/Potassium/Nitrogen/Phosphorus/Calcium/Sulfur

    Lastly can these amendments transition into a compost tea recipe or do I need to jig ingredients slightly.

    Thank you in advance !!
     
  4. The crab and lobster meal, as well as the oyster shell are liming agents, add them at half cup per cubic for of the Peat only. Otherwise you may end up with soil that has too high a ph, ask me how I know.... Lol.

    Looks good. I have used a similar mix and it worked excellent, aside from the high ph.

    Good luck
     
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  5. Reread your post again.
    I would add neem meal, and go extra light on the alfalfa for now, you can make a tea later if you want to.
    You're going to need to grow in this right away, so go easy on the ammendments.

    I would use 5 gallon buckets, and a tarp.
    Break up 3 buckets of Peat real well, add 3 buckets of the compost and ewc in equal parts if you have enough, same goes for the perlite. That will give you 45 gallons of soil, add your ammendments at 1/2 cup per cubic foot of soil (30 gallons is 4 cubic feet, don't ammemd the perlite) so 2 cups of the kelp, I'd do 1 cup of alfalfa, 1 cup of your liming agents for each of these batches.

    Mix it all up, there is one pots worth.

    I don't know what you have for raw material, so if not enough, you can mix all three batches at one on a tarp, and them mix in enough of the bagged soil to make up the difference.
    Depending on the temperature you deal with in your area, you can run quite a bit less airation, if it rains often and stays fairly humid, stick with the recipe of 1/3 perlite.
    It gets hot and Uber dry where I live, so I don't run but 25% airation, however half my airation is pine bark, it holds water well.

    Get neem meal if you can, it's great shit. So is fish bone meal, I would add both if those to your mix @ 1 cup per cubic foot as well.

    Hope that wasn't even more confusing.
     
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  6. Aye!!! Thank you boss, just mixed in my soil and lowered the lime amount as you guys suggested.

    what’s the best way to test the PH level of my soil?
     
  7. Legendddd,
    Nah it made sense, somehow didn’t have a 5gal bucket so I freestyled with 15 gal tubs, if I did the math right we should be good.

    CANT FIND Neem meal anywhere up in Canada, been to 4 shops and they all look at me funny when I ask lol.

    I got some Diatomaceous Earth though, will that work as a replacement ?
     
  8. COOKING - my newly mixed soil for 15 gal Fabric pots // Outdoor grow.

    QUESTION: how long should I leave the soil in the tub for ?
    Do i leave it covered the entire time, is there a watering schedule for the soil?

    Appreciate Y’all !
     
  9. It will not work as a replacement. Doesn't work when wet.

    I'd keep the soil slightly moist, cook for 3-4 weeks eh
     
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  10. NeemResource.com-Pure Neem Oil and Karanja Oil
    DE is not a replacement.
     
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  11. Blackswallow Soil in Canada has neem and karana don't know how much their shipping will be check it out

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  12. No, but DE is a good silica source, so feel free to add it if you have it.
    Mail order for the neem.
    As for cooking, treat it like there is a plant in it. Keep it watered. As for covering or not, I don't cover mine. I drop a bunch of herb seeds in it, then chop them back when I plant. Or just plant right along with them.
     
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  13. I now do a slurry test, equal parts of my very, very well mixed soil and distilled water. Stir it up, let it sit a half hour or so, then I test it with a ph pen.
    My results were the exact same as what Logan labs came up with in their test. 7.4
    Again, because I used too much lime is my best guess.

    My two soils I mixed since then are much lower. 6.2 and 6.4 respectively.
     
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  14. How important is the pH of the soil? I thought in organic the microbes do the pH fixing for you

    Would it be possible to amend your water source with some pH down in order to accommodate the extra liming agents


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  15. Not really, no.
    I tried. It didn't do anything good for the soil.
    1/2c per cuft of Peat seems to be the right spot.
    I can't say what your compost or ewc ph is, so you may need more for that.

    Fwiw, I mixed up my soil, potted it all up and watered it in. After a couple weeks, I pulled a sample from the middle and tested the ph. If it had been too low, I was prepared to dump it all, add more lime, remix, and repot. I know that too hihj a ph AND having 30% of organic material in my soil caused issues in flower with nute availability. I was not going to repeat that mistake again. A little extra time up front can save your ass later.
     
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  16. Black swallow has it all this is a god send. Driving out there Tuesday ! looks like I’ll be adding some new amendments to my soil.

    Does anyone have thoughts on how light or heavy I should go on the new below amendments?
    (Three 15 gal tubs mixed with my recipe above )

    - Charged Biochar
    - Humic Acid
    - Neem Meal
    - Fish Bone Meal


    I went pretty light on the Rock Dust cause I’m low. Is it safe to buy some more and add top bins with rock dust/azomite ?
     
  17. you should have plenty of humid acid from EWC and compost. I did one gallon Biochar (charged myself in Lactobacillus, sprouted alfalfa seed, kelp and compost tea) per 15 gallon pot (probably only filled with 13 gallons). I mix each pot separately since I’m so weak. It’s hard to do the physical stuff anymore.

    Neem and fish bone meal I did 1/2 cup per cf. They’re in my nutrient mix that I used to use as top dressing. Now I just use BioLive. It’s easier
     
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  18. Nice and simple. I dig on it

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  19. Can I bump in and ask a couple of questions?
    What is the best way to “charge” the biochar? And when getting compost, what am I looking for exactly? I have chicken compost from a neighbor and ewc from my worm bin. I just need to supplement w another compost but I’m confused to what I should be adding. I’ve got a compost bin going but it is still young and not nearly ready. Should I use an animal based or just add an organic soil?
    Any help would b great



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  20. see how I charged Biochar above. You can toss it in with your compost and wait a couple months too. I just needed it quicker. It seems to have worked well for me. I poured the tea in with the char. About a gallon of each, Biochar and tea per 15 gallon pot. Then let it cook for a week or so. It got hot with the feather meal as my source of N and stunted the growth for a few weeks but then the plants took off
     
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