Comfreyquery is LD's guest pseudonym. Soooo many great and helpful people here in Organicland, Grass City. Very inspiring, always buzzing with good vibes. You can set sail with knowing only the very basics (such as the concepts in ITG's thread, "Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners"--which is the culmination of a TON of info all pleasantly presented to you with a woman's touch.) After getting the mixtures and amendments down, you can move on to some more "technical" aspects of the organic garden. "Mycorrhizal Fungi: myths and truths" from Microbeman, "Organic Higher Learning with Lumperdawgz" are other excellent compendiums. Once you scratch the surface, you will become aware of how deep the knowledge vein flows. And, as you can already see, there is a whole community of cannabis enthusiasts who are willing to aide you in your intellectual digestion and understanding. Gardening Books FTW - Full of PDF's about Gardening More links to gardening books, no stoner science allowed! Enjoy your stay, -Trik
Rock dust and aeration amendments are two totally different things, dusts being foot holes for fungi, not adding in it's overall aeration. I suggest checking the Rock Dust stickie for a better understanding, it's laid out perfectly. As far as sand goes I am not sure of it's CEC so I can't say how it compares but I do know it's a lot heavier. If money isn't an issue, LD used a mixture of Pumice, Vermiculite and Perlite, diversity once again I guess. Other cool options are the Quick Dry silica pellets from Napa Auto Parts, or Organic Rice/Barley/Wheat hulls, Cocoa Shells. My advice would be to focus many on your Compost source, this is where those extra bucks really matter in the long run. If your looking for some reading material my Gardening Books thread is loaded. GL and welcome to GC Organic.
[quote name='"jerry111165"']My advice would be to focus on your Compost source Ayuh. J[/quote] Im subbed ben on the hydro train for 2 years and hear lots reguarding the organic methods of growing so id love to see a side by side comparison
The compost is "Sea Soil" which is produced near where I live and was highly recommended by one of our local nurseries for use in this process (over all other composts they sell) About SEA SOIL
Check this out! It's a very easy to follow guide for making your own organic mix, in homage to InTheGarden's thread.
When you get em going, I would love to see the side by side comparison, if you don't mind posting pics.
Almost forgot to mention, you have some liquid silica right? If not, look into getting some; I use Dyna Gro Pro Tekt brand, but get whatever is cheapest for you to source. Silica does quite a bit for the plants in regards to pest defense, water retention and sturdiness of the stems. It's also hard to overdo it, as I use it in every watering/foliar application throughout the grow.
Thanks for info...I will look for it. On another note....I added Dolomite lime to the recipe...but have realized since that Pro Mix already has lime added as a PH adjuster....Is this going to cause problems??
Instead of lime you could substitute crab shell meal; both have quite a bit of calcium carbonate in them, which is what affects the acidity of the soil. Either or both, though keep around the same ratio when adding them (1 cup per c.f., give or take a little) Look into getting an airpump for an ACT. I got a 20 watt diaphragm pump for my 5 gallon bucket, and I'm quite happy I bought it. Check out the Botanical Teas thread here, it's wonderful stuff.
I believe dolomite contains magnesium? If so, adding it to pre-balanced pro-mix will have ill effects, I would recommend leaving it out of the picture and going for crab or oyster shell. Also, i agree, liquid silicate is the shit. you and your plants will love it. there is a huge difference between the constitution of plants that do or don't have it in their diet. the leaves will be come thick, leather like appendages that laugh in the face of mites and fungi. i remember reading that fungal hyphae actually buckle at the cellular level when a plant is high in silica, as it reinforces the cell wall. a rough image--it becomes as if they're trying to push a noodle through cardboard. also, it wears the "teeth" or jaws of the mites down, causing them to expire or head for new havens.
also a must, a $20-36 must, but still a definite necessity--Neem meal. Neem resource . com has excellent quality stuff, I applied it to 8/10 of my plants, the bugs were exclusively on the 2 plants that did not have any in their soil. So I applied a top dressing of neem to the 2, along with a dusting of diatomaceous earth from auto-zone, and 3 days later my crop was 100% mite and thrip free. neem cake / neem meal, same stuff.
If I wanted to start with an easy mix, seeing as you seem intently on using pro-mix, I would suggest using the pro-mix that is just a neutral base over anything amended. Then use your own amendments. These can easily be found at a nursery or a larger store like Fred Meyer ect. They all have easy to follow instructions on how to mix per cf of your pro-mix. The mix will be cheaper and the soil will be richer. I used to use Sun Gro Sunshine Mix as a base. As far as amendments go. Dr. Earth 704P organic 5 Tone Mix is a great mix for beginning organic soils. Ingredients: fish bone meal, feather meal, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, soft rock phosphate, fish meal, mined potassium sulfate, humic acid, seaweed extract All top notch ingredients. As trikfinite said, I would add neem meal to the soil as well. Also to your soil mix I would add another 20% pumice. Pumice is the best aeration for organics hands down. It gives the beneficial bacteria and fungi a place to hide/grow and this is the goal of a good organic soil. Pumice can be bought cheap and found easily at a nursery or a chain store as noted earlier. Next big ingredient EWC. Add an additional 20% of this to your base soil mix. This is why we add additional aeration as well. You can substitute EWC for another organic compost but earthworm castings are the bread and butter of organic soils. Also while online or at a nursery pick up a bottle of Dyna-Grow Protekt. With the neem seed meal you can make a great oil to be combined with protekt. Info on this can be found here. One bag of azomite. That's all you need to get off to a great start in organic. I would urge you to read Teaming with Microbes and all the knowledge from legendary Lumperdawgz. To get the true potential of an organic soil mix you need to use AACT.
FYI for anybody that doesn't use or hasn't used ProMix, it's just an inert base with no starter charges of nutrients. Regular Pro Mix (360, I believe) is a blank slate, almost. Peat moss + a tiny bit of perlite (maybe 10% of the volume, rough guess) and a little bit of a wetting agent. The BX and HP both have some calcitic and dolomitic limestone listed in it, but I dk how much, until they respond to my email. I use the Pro Mix BX as a base, only difference between the HP and BX is the HP has more perlite and no vermiculite. Sources: BX and HP
Calcitic limestone: 3-5 lbs/ cu yd Dolomitic limestone: 1-3 lbs/ cu yd This is what their rep told me they apply when I inquired about their BX and HP. I wouldn't add any lime, just the crab shell meal.
I used the Pro Mix HP as my base but added 2 cups of dolomite lime to each 7 to 8 gallons of moistened Pro Mix. I wonder if I increased the PH too much by doing this? I did add neem meal as one of the amendments. I happen to have some PyroClay on hand. Would this work for adding silica do you think? Nutrilife Products > PyroClay On another note....should the soil mix heat up as it "cooks" (the way compost piles heat up)?
You might want to add 2 cups/cf of gypsum to try and off-set your lime issue. As far as cooking, it really depends on what you add, certain things containing more N like Alfalfa will heat your mix up pretty high, where as Crab Shell Meal is going to do much. No experience with those Clays no sorry on that one.