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I have these ingredients... What ratios should I use?

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by Reuben, Oct 3, 2022.

  1. Hi all,
    I've decided to try organics for the first time and super keen to see what I can make of it!
    I don't want to spend loads of money and already have some good ingredients to get started.

    Here is what I have:
    Coco
    Perlite
    Homemade worm compost (pH 8.4)
    Dolomite lime
    Epson salt
    Glacial rock dust
    Mycorizae

    I'm wanting to know how many parts of each to mix up?

    Things to note:
    It's for an outdoor grow in pots.
    I'm planning to start the seeds in a simple potting mix for first few weeks, then transplant into my homemade mix.
    I can buy other amendments if it'll be helpful.

    Thanks for any advice :)
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
  2. #2 Vee, Oct 3, 2022
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2022
    you will need to get the Ph of the compost down to an easy 6.5 to 6.1,

    apply the lime until the slurry reveals the ideal 6.5Ph, some rock dust, perlite and the coco will also be an aid

    time to experiment like baking a cake, it may take some effort, so keep notes

    see the link for more info Grow Weed Easy - Learn How to Grow Cannabis with Simple Tutorials

    good luck
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
  3. #3 MickFoster, Oct 3, 2022
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2022
    Why did you use coco for your base?
    Coco is a soilless medium.
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
  4. why grow in pots outdoors! :0
     
    • Informative Informative x 1

  5. Thanks for the tips mate! Will get the pH down with lime
     
    • Like Like x 1
  6. Because I can't plant in the ground (space issue).
    And because I can't grow indoors (heat issue)
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
  7. Good luck is right!
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  8. The first you should buffer your Coco ! Are you trying to do a Coco Grow or do you ad Soil?
     
  9. #9 Laucass83, Oct 5, 2022
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2022
    Obviously, OP is trying to build some form of living soil here, nothing to do with hydro, and no need to buffer coco here. However, coco always benefits a good rinse to remove natural salts and goey coco peat.
    Coco is an organic alternative to unsubstainable peat moss, as a base for a soil recipe.
    You can follow the Easy Organic Soil Mix sticky thread. A well proven formula. It includes lime. But just as any compost, EWC unlocked NPK value will vary a lot depending on what was composted - fed to worms....
    What are you growing? (I am a wild Sativa grower, and have very specific needs for my soil...) are you growing modern hybrid and Indicas, or landrace Sativas? Can your plant tolerated or need rich soil?
    .... I would recomend to go easy on dry amendments, for the first run. Following the recipe, I would start with 1 cup of dry amendments per cf. Keep a close eye on comming deficiency, then top dress with more dry amendments and worm tea.
     
  10. The coco is from an old hydro bottled salt based grow. I'm reusing it. It's already been buffered. Thanks
     
  11. Hi Laucass83, thanks for the well thought out response.
    The coco is from an old hydro grow so yeah, I will rinse out to make sure there's no salt build up in there.
    I just had a look at the easy Organic mix and it's a great read for me since it goes along the same lines as what I'm trying to do.
    I'm doing 7 seeds, all hydribs leaning slightly sativa or indica.
    Thanks to the easy organic mix link you provided I've got an idea of how I will mix up these ingredients :) so I'm thinking once they are into veg stage I transplant into pots with my potting mix and add a base potting mix to any of the more sativa leaning strains.
    I will do some work teas and see how that goes! But when flowering comes do you think some sort of dry amendment mix would be good?
    I'm thinking of doing 7 gallon pots too.
    How does that sound? Cheers :toke:
     
    • Like Like x 2
  12. Very nice plan! And top dressing with dry amendments before bloom is the best thing to do. I am using Gaia Green Power bloom, lack a little bit of K in the long term use, but still a very good mix.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  13. The important thing to remember with top dressing dry amendments is there is a lag time between application and nutrient availability. It’s also important to know that the amendments need to work with the soil life before they become available. The manner in which you apply them will dictate the lag time.
    For instance just sprinkling amendments on top may take a month or more for nutrients to become available. If you ‘scratch’ it into the surface, the nutrients can become available a week or two sooner. Apply some good live compost or vermicompost/casting on top of scratched in amendments and you save another week. This is a real generic timeline for something like bonemeal, but the concept applies to almost all dry organic amendments.
    I’ll let other folks help ya with what to add and when and how much, but fish bone meal and malted barley powder are my favorite tools applied with homemade vermicompost.
    Cheers
    Os
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Winner Winner x 1
  14. Well, it doesn't say anywhere that he is mixing his shit up. It just says he got Coco and all other ingredients. That looks to me like a plain coco grow. No where is it mentioned of recycling or what's or ever. In any chase, I would wash and re Prebuffer. If you read up on Coco you will understand. It might not be 100% necessary, but for sure it will not hurt the plant. It will make the grow just better and easier.
     
  15. So you can bring them indoors when their finishing in the humid fall.
     
  16. Mate I was not gonna reply, no need to be offensed, but when you say *If you read up on coco you will understantd*, this imply that you think me or OP don't know about coco. (...) ok. well if you know about coco, buffering or pre-charging it with Cal Mag is for cation exhange, and because otherwise coco will ballance itself using Cal Mag from your regular feeding, creating deficiencies. But once the coco have been pre-charge, rinsing it won't change the cation exchange.
    When I kindly suggested he don't need to pre-charge is coco, it's because he plans to use lime (Cal) and epsom salts (Mag) as part of the medium. It will be mix with more dry amendments and EWC, also containing Cal and Mag. OP is switching to organic growing, it already imply investment, and buying organic Cal Mag seems like a waste of money considering he will blend in is soil mix enough Cal Mag already.
     
  17. Some great tips there thanks mate. I still haven't decided if I'll go with a dry amendment product or simply use something like bat guano for flowering. But definitely will think ahead of time and try the scratching in technique with castings. Cheers
     
    • Like Like x 1
  18. What your saying makes a lot of sense to me and my knowledge on it as well. I'm not quite sure what THC God is saying, I did state in OP that I'm mixing it all up, he must've missed that part. And I don't see any need to prebuffer when from what I understand, organics should sort itself out without bottles needed.
    Yesterday I did rinse the coco out in case there was excess salts in there but I see no need to prebuffer.

    This is what I've mixed up so far but may adjust as it does look a bit muddy.

    Soil Mix (60l/15.8 gallons)
    35 L Coco/Perlite 70/30
    21 L Compost castings
    Blood and bone meal 800g
    Dolomite lime 12 tbsp
    Glacial rock dust 15 tbsp
    Mycorizae : 1/2 cup myco and 1 heaped tbsp Great white.
    Epson salt 3/4 cup

    I never know if I'm on the right track, there's too many decisions to make haha
     
  19. I wish you the best for your Grow .
     
    • Like Like x 1
  20. I always forget about guanos. They become available very quickly as they have already been naturally processed and mineralized. I suspect that with the world fertilizer shortages, that bat guano, especially high P bat guano is going to become extremely expensive and hard to come by. Bonemeal or fish bonemeal are a good alternative but are slower to become available. When you look at using dry amendments, many have more benefits than just NPK, so take your time, do some research, ask plenty of questions. It’s always nice when starting out to keep the shopping list simple too.
    Cheers
    Os
     
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