What do you guys think? 25% peat 25% organic compost 25% composted cow manure 25% native soil (the soil is a mostly sandy soil with some organic content, dead roots, grass, etc)
Is this for an indoor or an outdoor grow? If it is indoors, you can mix the compost and dairy manure for a total of 25%, but it's advisable to get some form of an aeration component in the mix. Perlite, pumice, vermiculite and even rice hulls are considered to add aeration. If it is an outdoor grow, the drainage of the native soil will determine whether or not you need to amend for aeration. chunk
lol my bad its an outdoor, i thought the native soil would have hinted that but my fault for the lack of info ill probably go out tommorrow and dig some holes to test for drainage Originally i was going to use vermiculite instead of native soil but i cant find it, not even perlite. all i have around here is a walmart, home depot, and lowes, so my amendment selection is pretty limited.
That is an excellent plan man. If you can perform this task easily enough (security wise) it will dictate to you what you need to do next. Depending on the soil structure it will determine how deep and how wide you should dig your holes and it will also determine if you need to do anything to improve drainage at the bottom of the hole. Both HD and Lowes carry a product called Sta-Green vermiculite. They also carry miracle grow perlite. I'm not endorsing either product just letting you know they have those products. Either source should also carry Espoma or a similar dry organic complete fertilizer. I will endorse Espoma because it's good quality. Don't forget to mulch the top of your soil. It will help tremendously with water retention and you will want that regardless if your G-growing or growing in your backyard. Mulch 2" - 3" is mandatory for outside. I use fresh cut yard clippings as mulch - about 6" thick. As it dies off it breaks down and provides small amounts of nutirents. In fact, unless I'm going for "a look" I'll choose fresh grass clipping as a mulch over cypress or hardwood all day long.