In April of this year, I sought and received my Washington State Medical Cannabis Recommendation. Since then, I have undergone a bit of a personal renaissance. If you told me two years ago today that I would begin mixing my first load of soil to grow an organic crop of medical marijuana, I would have looked at you like you were crazy. But that is exactly what I did this morning… with my father! In the last month or so I began doing some research into cannabis cultivation. I had the plan all set, Fox Farm Soil, bottled nutes, blah blah blah. I stumbled upon this thread: http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-m...door-gardening-without-bottled-nutrients.html Jerry opened my eyes to the world of organic weed growing. He got me started down the right path and I am grateful to him and many others in that thread for giving me a nudge when I needed it and a good place to ask questions. If you ever considered going organic, start in that thread. It converted me. Let me get down to the nitty-gritty! Here are my ingredients! Pro-Mix HP w/Mycorrhizae: 2 CF Fine sifted vermicompost 1/8-inch: 1.5 CF Leaf/vegetable/manure compost: 1 CF Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust: 16 cups Kelp Meal: 8 cups Alfalfa Meal: 8 cups Neem Meal: 8 cups Gypsum: 8 cups Oyster Shell Flour: 8 cups Jobe's Organic Vegetable & Tomato Fertilizer: 4.5 cups Above: you can see the white clover (Trifolium repens) forms a halo around my 50-gallon tote that will house my soil mix. And not all ingredients made it in the picture. And some that didn't go in are pictured. I'm looking at you, rice hulls! It was decided it was not necessary for aeration due to all the vermiculite in the Pro-Mix. Above: we added half of all of the ingredients first and mixed that. Then we added the other half of the ingredients and mixed again. And again. And again. Above: after the dry mix was pretty well homogenized. Above: my first aerating compost tea to go with my first soil. This was a pretty simple tea. Five gallons of dechlorinated water, some vermicompost, kelp meal, and black strap molasses. I bought an aquarium air pump from Petco and some aerating stones, this supplied a lot of bubbles for the tea. The pump is good for a 100 gallon tank and it was in a 5 gallon bucket so it got plenty of air. I know this isn't much compared to some brewers I have seen, but it will work for now. Credit to these instructions: Aerated compost tea, including recipes - Sow There! Above: freshly moistened soil. I wish I had made ten gallons of tea, but I only made five. I used ten gallons to moisten the soil and it could probably use a little more but I don't have any more good water. Buuut, that's why I have 22 more gallons dechlorinating right now. I know that is way more than I need for tomorrow, but whatever. The soil got a good stir after adding the water strategically. The Pro-Mix is super dry and needing some serious water to get remotely moist. As a side note: the first time I dechlorinated just 10 gallons of water in my utility room that is about 10x15 and ten-foot ceilings (1500 CF) it smelled like a swimming pool! We drink that shit?! Ugh! That must be it for now, though I am sure you have grown weary of my ramblings. Please please please I invite your comments, questions, constructive criticisms! Did I already fuck up? Thank you, everyone!
Lookin great man! For a first grow you are REALLY on the right track, wish I had known about this place before I did my first grow. Your gonna be a pro in no time! Boro
Good shit KH, I second what Boro said you are fortunate to have it all this fine tuned this early on! Soil works and this method is almost fool proof. This is much better than the other route you were going to take, check out the "sick plants" section and see how well adding bottled chemical nutes to the soil works for most beginners. Watering habits are the key to getting good results after the soil is dialed in. Also before you even pot those cuttings I recommend a few things: getting good airflow in the grow room, buy neem oil, a spinosad concentrate like Deadbug Brew, and Dyna-gro Pro tekt to emulsify the oil and strengthen the cell walls of the plants. These will serve their purpose as preventative measures against most bugs that may find their way to your grow area. Prevention is the key here, you don't want to be battling bugs or you could potentially lose crops. That's why I also recommend growing more than 1 strain so if anything goes south, you have varieties that are resistant to problems that the other plants face like mold and the like. So if anything really fucks up you can always have the other plants to fall back on come harvest time. Pulling up a front chair seat to what looks like its going to be an interesting journal.
Ok, KH, tell me if I'm wrong here - but I'm thinking you're going to need to "cut" this mix - its hot as all hell. I'm looking at around 4.5 cubic feet of soil - correct? Generally we're looking for around 4-5 cups of rock dust per CF of soil - I think you're ok there. The gypsum and oyster shell. You've got 8 cups of each here. I'm thinking that this is at least twice, probably more than twice what you need. These are used as pH balances - kinda, plus some Ca and other good stuff from both. I would probably have used a cup of each? Per CF of soil... Your "nutritional" amendments are bothering me - great stuff, but WAY too much. These should be added at around 2-3 cups TOTAL per CF - in other words, your kelp/alfalfa/neem/jobes organic all purpose should be, together, totalling the 2-3 cups per CF of soil - as in, a little over a half a cup of each to TOTAL the 2-3 cups...you have like 28 cups of food amendments in 4:5 CF of mix... All is not lost, but you are going to need to do the math, and add more ProMix and Castings to buffer this down quite a bit... PM me if you need help please. J
what jerry done wrote. check this thread out, a plant only needs some kelp meal to grow nicely... http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-...nks-organics-other-random-shenanigans-19.html ... page eleven for some nice organic porn
KingsHawaiian, Welcome to the party and congrats on getting in on the ground floor of the organics deal. You're in good hands here and don't be shy about keeping us up to date in your journal (says the journal lagger himself). Good luck and welcome! Chunk
Awesome. I'll tag along. You know what strains your gonna grow yet? What lighting? Jerry is right, your gonna have to cut it, but that just means you got extra soil for your next grow. On my first grow I mixed just enough soil for what I needed. Next thing you know, Ive got veg plants that need transplanting so im back to mixing soil. I'd mix twice as much to start and let it cook just to save you from doing again so soon. Chunk, Dont you think this thread ought to be a sticky. It has converted so many to the organic way right in the middle of the indoor growing section? There are a million microbes in a teaspoon of compost tea. Diluting it is not a problem.
You're off to a great start, and brother jerry is pointing you in the right direction. Welcome to the organic family.
Thanks for the encouragement, guys! What a goofy mixup. This is what happens when you don't take your time. I was mad at myself at first, then felt stupid, then felt frustrated, now I am laughing at myself. It's been a fun bonding experience doing this with my dad, I'm 27 and he's 61. Anyway, he was remarking about the differences between my brother and me. We were talking about how I view things more quantitatively and my brother views them more qualitatively. I was really all about getting the materials together, measuring out meticulously, being organized, having everything together. I should have spent more time looking at the qualities of the amendments and not focus on the quantities. But that is a left brain person for you. It was a bonehead mistake, but I need to keep in perspective that you guys have developed these recipes over years of doing this and dozens of harvests for some. A couple weeks ago, I had never even considered organic weed. I was about ready to start RIGHT THEN using bottled nutes and instead delayed when I saw the light with organics. Because I was so hot to trot, I didn't take all the time I should have. Even when I was mixing I thought, good Lord this is a lot. That was my right brain trying to scream out at me So, I think from here, I am going to dump the soil on a tarp and try to "dilute" it with more Pro-Mix. A lot more. Part of me wants to start from scratch and I still might. I'll try and "fix" this dirt so I have it when I need it, but will make a new batch that will be... unsullied. Fortunately, even after wasting that many amendments, I still have plenty left over... especially when I use the right quantities... Anyway, Blades... I am at work so I better get back to it. Thanks for the input again. I will keep you advised of my progress. Ohhh mistakes... bittersweet learning process...
hey man looks like you have your bases covered and as long as you havent planted in it yet... then no harm no foul! Pro-Mix HP w/Mycorrhizae: 2 CF Fine sifted vermicompost 1/8-inch: 1.5 CF Leaf/vegetable/manure compost: 1 CF Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust: 16 cups Kelp Meal: 8 cups Alfalfa Meal: 8 cups Neem Meal: 8 cups Gypsum: 8 cups Oyster Shell Flour: 8 cups Jobe's Organic Vegetable & Tomato Fertilizer: 4.5 cups ~4.5 cubic feet +~.5 Cf amendment does seem a bit steep. however! I would guess that if you add another CF compost, perlite, and a few cf of coco/peat you'll be in the clear! I'd wait for jerry's view on the matter. Even so, I am sure the cannabis will grow, and it will improve from use to re-use... edit- by the way- pro - mix with mycorrhizae is the same exact thing as any other bale of sphagnum peat moss- alaskan brand for example runs $ 12 a bale and has been tested with high levels of microbes. The only difference with pro mix is a fancy bag, higher price tag, and dashes of perlite, humus, and dolomite's.
It's all good - hey, we all had our first time at one time or another and we've all made mIstakes - it's how we learn. Ok - about "cutting" your hot mix...you need to cut this with not just Pro-Mix, but you need your humus components too; the compost and ewc's. Remember how important those two items are. Your "base soil" is your peat, compost and castings, at around a third compost/castings and 2/3 peat/ProMix. Some folks go 25% aeration-25% cOmpost/castings & 50% peat. These recipes are not set in stone, but don't forget to cut with compost & castings as well as your ProMix! Those 2 items are the motor in your car, the heart of your garden - J Ps - it you have questions - ask! it's what we're here for. Cya!
Some of these items I used eight times too much though... which means I'd have a mountain of dirt by the time I diluted it with enough Pro-Mix, EWC, and compost. Right? Now, let me try these on you for soil amendment measurements. Again, assuming around 4-5CF of finished mix: 16 cups of Glacial Rock Dust 2 cups each of: kelp, alfalfa, neem, Jobe's 1 cup each of: gypsum, oyster shell. So, 4-5 CF with 16 cups GRD, 8 cups TOTAL of the kelp/alfalfa/neem/fert, and 2 cups total of oyster shell and gypsum to regulate pH. I am gathering that that should work. Let me know and I will, I am sure, keep asking questions and keep reading through Jerry's Organic Obsession and other threads I'll get there. You'll see.
KH - this sounds perfect. I can't help feeling at least partly responsible for this - perhaps I should have been clearer when we started discussing your mix. I apologize if I wasn't clear enough on the rates. Think about it this way - you can always take a quarter of your mix and fix that much at a time. You don't need to do it all at once. Soil will never ever go bad on you. Think about it this way as well - as you continue to keep on reading and discussing organics here on the forum, you may decide to add "this or that" in the future for different grows. Now you have the opportunity to do so. Another thing to keep in mind - I have made soil mixes myself using double the recommended rates with my amendments. I kind of screwed up too. In the beginning this soil was much too hot and it did burn my plants. I ended up adding quite a bit of my homemade compost to this mix to help cut it down along with some ProMix. Body media adding quality compost to my mix , and also wetting it down with aerated compost tea the soil life did it's job of "nutrient cycling" this hot soil; after several months of the soil sitting there and cooking, I am now using this soil and it is working out perfectly - no more burning plants. Cut your soil down. Remember that you don't have to do it all at once. Make sure that you at some good compost and earthworm castings in it. Trust me - this is going to end up working out perfectly fine for you. Please keep us posted as to your progress. J
Jerry, The only thing I'll let you take blame for is getting me started on this awesome venture. You're 100% right I'm sure, I'll cut out a quarter of it and build on that with Pro-Mix, compost, and EWC. The only pain in the arse is the two hour drive (roundtrip) for the EWC, but I can deal with that. Everything else I've got good to go. I'll have to label this 50 gallon tote my patent pending King's Hawaiian 4X Super-Concentrated Mega Soil... Guaranteed to cause spontaneous combustion of your plants! To store the other 3/4, just keep it as is in the tote and keep watering and turning it? Thanks for the help!
I *could* be wrong here but if you save the portion that you "cut out" you could use it for topdressing/re-ammending your next round. Just a thought. Waste not, want not. Right? Boro
I definitely agree. I am going to get out the 1/4 I need and add Pro/EWC/compost and get it mixing. Can't do it today, but tomorrow for sure. Work again tonight, ARGH Can't a man get paid to just sit and vape and read about organic growing and then mix soil and grow amazing plants? Here is a great update: Freak Brothers,Free Wheelin' Franklin, Poster,Dope & Money,Gilbert Shelton,$25 | eBay Just bought that to put in my grow room. Seems appropriate.
dude don't worry about your hot mix. I did nearly the exact same thing first try. Now I have a LOT of soil to use. I actually am still cutting it as I put it into pots, usually a little regular soil with my hot mix. Seems to be working in my outdoor veg garden and my new indoor garden.
Good to hear! Thanks for your input, +rep How do you store your hot mix? Leave it outdoors cooking, keep it damp, turn occasionally? Thanks again