Thanks for any advice guys! I been thru the forum and others to looking at other ppls soil mixes. I like the soil mix for beginners on her as well. I was just wondering your thoughts and if u would change anything in here what would it be? Its also for a outdoor grow. So i bought 1 of those bales (not promix) but its just peat moss perlite and a wetting agent by sungro and it also has lime. Now i used 6 5 gal. Bucks of this which is basically half peat and half perlite then added 3 buckets of compost ( 1 bucket was my own from compost pile mixed with ewc and 2 buckets coast of maine compost) but i have the following amendments Alfalfa meal Kelp meal Crab meal Rock phosphate Green sand Humic acid Cascade minerals (basalt) Bone meal Dol lime Insect frass And epsoma tomatoe tone and dr. Earth flower girl fert and also Dr. Earth life fert the 5-5-5 Now what im thinking im going to do is 1 cup per cf of my amendments, 2 cups per cf of my cascade and mayne some kind of fert mix between those i have that equal 1 cup per cf? Just for alittle diversity ? What do you guya think? Oh and also maybe 1/2 cup of lime since that bale has some in it and im also using the crab shell meal? Thanks again my friends!! Happy growing!
@stanky1234 I'm not familiar with the Sungro product that you've mentioned, but if it's SPM to perlite ratio is anything like Pro-mix, you will definitely need to add more perlite/aeration, and compost. I've never counted the perlite in Pro-mix as part of the soil "recipe" (or the lime). I don't think anyone does. Best way to tell if you have enough perlite in the mix is to soak some down really good, and tightly squeeze a handful in your fist. It's moist enough for this test when a few drops of water leak out when squeezed. After squeezing, if you have added enough aeration to the mix, the ball should fall apart quite easily when poked with a finger. All things considered, you have 6 parts SPM, 3 parts compost, and NO perlite in your base mix. Get that part figured out. Your soil may fall apart as described just now, but your ratios are still off (certainly not enough compost). In fact, over the years, many of us have opted for a higher percentage of perlite/aeration amendment, closer to 40%-45%. Home made and COM composts are super dense materials... I would eliminate the rock phosphate, insect frass, and humic acid (this especially). The minerals and added benefits that these materials provide to the soil are more than covered with the bone meal, crab meal, and compost. So get the correct volume of your "base mix" figured, and get a rough estimate of how many cups of "amendments" that you'll need. Mix them together equally, and use 3c/cu.ft.. As it's an outdoor grow, adding an extra 1/2c/cu.ft. of the fert' mix "mix" probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Adding 1/2c/cu.ft. of the dolo' lime would be a good idea as well. Crab shell contains calcium and the carbonate necessary to buffer soil acidity, but very little magnesium. Be prepared to administer well timed top dressings. Outdoor plants get HUGE compared to what we grow indoors... Don't forget to cycle your soil and keep it appropriately moistened before planting in it!
Thanks soo much! Yea that was basically what i got mixed before the ran came lol im adding more compost from my compost pile and ill take a pic of this sungro bale i got. It looks like its somewherer around 30 percent perlite it doesnt give a certain percentage of perlite to peat moss but says half i believe but it looks like atleast 30 percent but i also added about a quarter bucket or so of medium grade vermiculite and a quarter bucket or so of lava rock as well but your saying just do equal parts of my amendments (besides lime do 1/2 c per cf and rock dust) and do 3 c per xfcf of that mix and mix all those ferts in equal parts then do a cup maybe like a cup and a quarter of the fert mix? And also why no humic acid and insect frass? Ita my 1st time useing them but heard good things? And why nit rock phosphate? I was thinking of just adding 1/2 cup or maybe 1/4 cup per cf but whats your thoughts behind all that? Thanks again! And i know lol last year my 1 reached just over 7 ft had some issues but pretty good overall lol
I took a picture of the bag and the ingredients list and the 2 other pics are the pics of what i mixed already at the ratios i said before. Its alittle to wet lol i got it moist then it started to pour and couldnt get the tarp over it before it got raimed on but have some drainage holes in bottom and im going to mix it up and keep tarp off to let it dry out a bit but yea i was really thinking of adding 1/2 cup each amendment and 1 cup kelp and 2 cups rock dust per cf and 1 cup of my fert mix but u really think id be better off mixing them all and doing 3 cups of the mix per cf and 1 cup fert mix per cf? And im interested why that is just curious and love learning and why u would leave out those amendments u stated and after theae pics i added 1 5 gallon bucket of perlite as well
For clarity and ease of interpretation, it would help me (and any others that may want to help you in the future) if you could take just a little bit more time composing your questions/thoughts. Proper punctuation and use of paragraphs on your part goes a long way in helping me to figure out what you're trying to convey. I'm not giving you a hard time, just sayin'.. Yes to text highlighted in red. No to text highlighted in blue. Use 1/2c/cu.ft of your "fert'" mix/mixes. Any one, or a combination. Doesn't matter. As I stated in my first post, the HA, frass, and rock phosphate are not needed because they are redundant materials. Humic acid is plenty abundant in compost. It serves not only to chelate nutrient ions (keeping them soluble and plant available), but also helps to transport said soluble nutrient ions across the root cell membrane. Too much of it in the soil solution leads to some really weird plant growth brought on by "over-fertilization". IMO, it shouldn't be used in potted containers or outdoor gardens where plenty of organic material is already present. It's really easy to over-apply, and you can't flush/leach it out. Insect frass? Pfffft. You don't need it either. Despite any "NPK" value, it's most desirable compound is the chitin that it contains. Chitin stimulates a plants auto-immune response, helping it to naturally fight off pathogenic attack. Chitin is abundant in all crustacean shells. You have that covered with the crab shell meal. As far as phosphate is concerned, there's plenty in compost and bone meal. Bovine bone meal contains ~15% phosphate by weight, fish bone meal closer to 20%. I would suggest utilizing some sort of microbial inoculant that contains the mycorrhizal species Glomus intraradices and Glomus mosseae. To my understanding, these are the mycorrhizal species symbiotic to cannabis, and are inherently responsible for the creation of solubilized phosphate from the organic compounds that contain such. Dust your root ball with the inoculant at transplant. You don't need rock phosphate...
Yea sorry about that. I was never really good with typing like that lol. I just kind of keep it going . what did you think about the pics of the sungro bale i have? I added a 5 gallon bucket of perlight and another quarter bucket of lava rock as well. It really looked like a pretty good amount of perlite in the bale to me anyways lol. Ok so im going to add 2 cups of each of these amendments into a container. Kelp meal Neem seed meal Crab shell meal Bone meal Alfalfa meal Then add 3 cups per cf of this mix. Then i will mix my fert mix in another container which will be 3 cups tomatoe tone, 3 cups flower girl ( which has some other microbes in it) and i will mix this into my mix at 1/2 cup per cf. I will also just add my rock dust at 2 cups per cf. How does that sound my friend? Thanks again for all your help and passing on your knowledge!
Awesome! Lol thanks again my friend! If you or anyone else has any more tips/advice please lay it on me! i hope u have a great grow season as well!! What is your soil mix/recipe by the way? Lol
This is the final mix lol. I did 5 cups each of those amendments and mixed it in a bucket with a lid to store extra. I also am doing 1/2 cup lime per cf ( 3 cups total). 2 cups per cf of rock dust alittle more (13 cups total). 3 cups total of greensand. I did my fert mix 1 cup dr. Earth flower girl, 1 cup tomato tone and 1 cup dr. Earth 5-5-5. Which i will be adding 3 maybe 3 1/2 cups total ( 1/2 cup per cf) and also will be adding a 3 gallon bucket thats half perlite and half cocoa shell mulch for some more aeration. Sound like a solid mix? Ill be sprinkling the mycrohize in as well. About 3 cups grinded malted barley to ( i forgot to mention that). Maybe since i have it i know i dont need it like you stated but maybe 1 or 2 cups of rock phosphate just cause i have it but that would be about 1/4 cup per cf if i did lol
Seems to me that youre overcomplicating things as well as possibly throwing off ratios a bit by premixing your ammendments. In addition youre going to find that those leftover dry ammendments you mixed are going to start heating up and probably turn into a molded, crusty puck if you just leave them as is (Id recommend mixing some compost into that for storage and to break it down into some great topdress material). For future reference heres some tips on mixing. 1. I like to mix no more than 30 gallon batches but ill do a few at a time if I need to. 30g is 4 cubic feet which makes the math easy and I find mixing more than that at a time makes the mixing work too heavy. Also a 30g batch fits perfectly into 2 of the standard plastic bins I have. 2. I start by mixing up the ammendments for each 30g batch in a seperate bin to ensure even blending and proper ratios. Add a few gallons of compost to mix stuff into and keep the dust down. Now get your dust mask on and measure out ammendments one at a time. I measure each ammendment individually into a small container before then dumping that into the bins so that if I lose count i can start over. Keep a checklist and mark off what youve already added as you go. Once everything is in give it a good mix to evenly blend everything into the small volume of compost you started with. 3. I usually do that first part a bit before I plan to finish the mix as it allows extra time for everything to break down, takes up less space that a full batch and breaks the job up into a couple much easier days. So at this point I just top off each bin with mostly compost but also a couple gallons each of the peat and aeration materials. I make a note of whats been added, mix well, add water and let it all sit till im ready to finish the mix. In the meantime ill often leisurely gather and measure out the remaining materials into the second storage bins to make the main mixing day even easier and to premoisten the peat a bit. However if youre finishing the whole batch in one day you can just blend the mixed ammendments/compost into the rest of your compost/peat/aeration components now. I recommend blending the ammendments well into maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of your remaining materials before adding in the rest to again ensure even mixing. Look at it like making a roux or emulsifying oils, a bit at a time. 4. If youve done it my way whenever youre ready to finish just dump the two bins onto a tarp, mix, put back into bins and water. I recommend using the backside of a flat rake to push and pull the soil around and the corners of the tarp to fold the soil into the middle.
Thanks my friend!! Yea i tend to over complicate tons of shit! Lol but for example would u have taken that premixed peat and perlite bale, perlite and compost each at 1/3 of my base mix. Then add 1 cup of each amendment pee cf or 1/2 cup and mix? Im just wondering from my situation and what things i have how u would of made this mix (measurements wise) also if u dont mind would you tell me your mix you like to use? Amendments and measurements i mean? Lol thanks again!!
Yes I do measure out each amendment individually for each batch. It ensures each batch gets equal ammounts of everything. No, I do not recommend mixing the amendments straight into the full volume of your base soil (peat, compost, aeration). What I was trying to explain is that you want to mix the amendments very well into a smaller part of the base and then blend that mix into the remaining base. This way you help ensure proper mixing. Obviously the roux comparison didnt hit so have you ever done any baking? Its sorta like mixing the dry ingredients together before adding in the wet stuff so you dont get clumps of baking powder, salt etc in your food. My mix is a slightly modified version of the recipe on the "no till revisited" thread. I up the aeration to 40%, add liming and reduce the rock dust. I also lightly premoisten my peat with a wetting agent a little while before use. My recipe is as follows: 30% Compost/Ewc (about 80/20 split) 30% Peat 40% Aeration 3/4 c. Kelp meal 3/4 c. Neem meal 3/4 c. Crab meal 3/4 c. Malted barley (ground) 1/2 c. Gypsum 1 c. Oyster flour (or Dolomite lime) 4 c. Basalt (or glacial rock dust) 6 c. Biochar (optional)
Ohhh yea i see what u were trying to explain. That makes alot of sense! Thanks for the tip! That looks like a good mix. Ill be keeping it real simple my next mix thats for sure lol I also added another 5 gallon bucket of perlite just to be alittle safe. I see u don't use any kind of organic fert i see? And also do you like using teas?
Whats already in the recipe covers everything I'd get from a blended fert mix. I do rarely use a light neem/kelp tea that I just stir occasionally over a day. I mostly just topdress now instead as I find it easier and just as effective if a little slower.
Ohh nice i was looking as some top dressing recipes to. I topped dress with just some compost and kelp/neam meal in it. I breawed a few teas as well. Top dressing im sure helps out using all kinds of amendments lol what do you top dress with?
Mostly just compost and/or ewc mixed with some rice hulls for aeration/silica. A couple times per cycle ill mix in some neem and kelp. Also a few times with ground malted barley mixed in.
Nice. Im still looking for the best prices on rice hulls but so far only found them on buildasoil.com. finally found some pumice locally but ita 41 bucks for a cf. I might get it tho just wanted to look around for best prices. I put 3 of my ladies in flower 2 days ago. There all outdoors and only 2 are in the ground. so i just bring them outside in the morning and put them back in a all black poly tent in the evenings. My blue dreams are doing the best out of all of them im hopeing to get a # each from those 2. These are the blue dreams so far and still got some growing to do. Lol
Nice looking plant! Rice hulls and malted barley should come from a local homebrew store. If you have to ship em just pass and use perlite. Honestly you dont even need to add any aeration to your topdressed compost. Thats just my habit as I feel it cuts down on crusting.