Thats probably fine. I use about 3 cups of dry amendments per cubic foot. 1 cft = 7.5 Gal so 1 to 1.5 cups is probably still fine. Not sure to how much the table spoons add up to
It looks fine to me. 4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup. I'm not sure about your castor bean pie though. I'm not familiar with that product. Castor bean pie seems like a product that can easily be over applied. I believe I read under 12 grams per plant. I'm also curious as to what you mean by washing your soil?
I’ve had great results with this soil so far! I have been making additional batches of it in preparation for the spring, but it has been raining a lot in my area lately, so I decided to buy a 30 gallon storage tote and put all of the completed soil in there to cook so that the tote’s lid would stop it from getting ruined in the rain. But I just read on a thread that I posted about something different than this soil that when you are making your own soil, covering it can actually be a bad idea because access to oxygen is important when soil is cooking. Did I ruin all of the soil that I made by covering it? I checked on it a few days ago and it had some white mold growing on the surface, so that was scooped out and discarded. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t store any more soil in a covered tote from now on.
Your soil may go anaerobic if you have it in a sealed container. Anaerobic bacteria will take over as you kill off the aerobic ones by depleting the oxygen in your sealed container. Once you uncover your container and mix the soil a bit the anaerobic bacteria will slowly die off and be replaced once again by aerobic bacteria. I've made this mistake myself when I first started growing indoors using organic living soil. Oh, and don't throw away that fungal hyphae. It is a part of your soil food web.
You didn’t ruin it by any means. That white mold is actually called Santa’s Beard or old Mans Beard. It’s beneficial fungi cycling your nutrients, and it’s what you want. I certainly didn’t mean to imply in the other thread that covering your tote would ruin your soil. Just that air exchange would be the very best for all soil life and provide the best nutrient cycling. I think you used the word ‘sealed’ originally, leading me to think air tight. Cheers Os
I'm going to put in a new plant and see what happens. About washing the soil, I read that it is interesting after mixing, wash the soil and let it rest. What do you think? How long do you think the soil needs to rest? About the castor bean pie: Application: Rich Soil Blend: 50g to 2.6gal Soil;
Interesting to know that molds are beneficial. If it were me, I would probably throw it away. Thanks for the tip.
I going to guess you mean that you moisten the soil first and then let your soil microbes cycle it for 4-6 weeks prior to using it. Is that what you mean?
What is your source of lighting? LED, HID or fluorescent bulbs? Also,what size pots are you growing in. In living soil most of us use 10 gallon/45 liter pots as a minimum size.
usually use a 2 gallon pot, but the plants in the photos I sent, it's not organic soil. I'm taking them only with earthworm humos, perlite and sphagnum peat + fertilizer. I usually use a 2 gallon pot. For the organic soil I'm putting together (hence the concern, I've never used organic soil), I plan to use 3-gallon pots. I can increase it, but I thought it would be enough. about light, I use this LED panel: Qbf1000 pro ir UV (110w) -225 pcs: Spectrum: 3000k + 5000k + 660nm + 730nm + 380nm 3000k: warm white (102 pcs) 5000k: cold white (105 pcs) 660nm: red (31 pcs) 730nm: infrared (1 pcs) 380nm: uv (1 pcs) Size: 310*310*10mm
How have your harvests been under that light? Light manufactures sometimes embellish their lights performance in their descriptions. Your light draws 110 watts. I didn't notice actual coverage at a given height. The description just states 800 watts and 5'x5' coverage for vegetables or bloom. I have a similar light that draws 135 watts. It will flower/bloom a 2'x2' footprint with the light 16" above the canopy of the plant and not much more. Hope that helps.
Thanks, this information will be helpful. I'm going to read at least 100 pages to learn more. Thank you for the way you treated me here.
I concur with you. His ingredients equal 25 tbs. 25 tbs equals 1.563 cups, so he is slightly over your recommended maximum of 1.5 cups, but slightly under Ganja Girl’s popular Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners. kurttzzks 1.56 cups of additives equate to: 2 parts dolomitic calcium 3 parts chicken manure 2 parts castor bean pie 2 parts bone meal 4 parts seaweed flour 4 parts oyster meal 4 parts biochar 3 parts bokashi 1 part diatomaceous earth Let us know how your plants grow in your soil build.
Hey Tessie Stell, I saw you just joined GC forums. Welcome To the community. Thanks for reminding us what that first post of this thread says…… it’s a very fine write up.
hey, what's up? I don't know if I understood very well what you said, II understand a bit of English but sometimes I get lost and have to resort to google translator. Do you think the solo is good and do you want me to update the topic as time goes by using it?
Several of us believe the soil is good and it agrees with other soil formulas in this thread. Soil is good, good job. Yes, please update the topic as you use your new soil, that would be great. You could test your new soil with flower seeds or beans (beans are seed too) from your kitchen food closet, before you try any expensive seeds. Or, you could plant some low cost seeds beside your expensive seeds. Good luck with your soil!