A local shop just started carrying Lady Bug Vortex Potting Soil... I was wondering if anyone had any opinions or experience with it? Vortexâ„¢ Potting Soil from Lady Bug Natural Brand Wanted to use once i transplant from seedlings for veg... Also, would you mix this with Perlite or go straight with the soil mix? Thanks for your advice.
No experience, but you can tell a lot by asking who the source is. There are a few sources but many rebranding (usually accompanied by price jacking) in the compost and in other businesses. Contact the company directly (email is usually good) or ask the nursery that is selling it. I would skip on the perilite and use volcanic pumice, but not a lot. A large couple of handfuls per cf. You don't really need to increase drainage with good bagged compost. But the porous surfaces (of either perilite or pumice) add much to the soil make up. It gives microscopic critters a home (a good thing) and adds to ion exchange of nutrients (I'm sort of winging it here, something about cation exchange).
Thanks for that WeeDroid... I have a tendancy to nute burn my plants when i work from soils with no nutes (something I have been trying to overcome with myself), and Id like a good soil where I just dont have to nute much - if at all... Ill certainly follow up with the company directly (it certainly beats another shop's price on Happy Frog Potting Soil by about half for the same volume)... Thanks!
There are a few topics here on water only organic grows. Start reading. Your first step in that direction should be starting a worm farm. You also want to consider building a thermophlic compost pile as well as looking into boshaki composting.
Howdy HerbOfWarX, First of all, a warm welcome to Grasscity and our organics forum. I think that this potting soil could/would be a good choice for an off the shelf mix to get you growing. As Weedroid said, an email to the company to get the percentages of the components would be time well spent. A lot of us make our own soils from scratch and we try to stay close to this ratio: 2 parts substrate (sphagnum peat/coco coir or a blend of the two) 1 part either compost or EWC or a combination of the two 1 part aeration component (perlite, pumice, lava rock, rice hulls, or a blend of these) This is the base soil mix. Knowing the basic %ages of the Ladybug product will allow you to decide how to further amend the SOIL mix. You will probably want to read up on the various amendments folks are adding as food for the plants. Most of us are using various seed/marine meals and there are some that use guanos. This thread is a good place to start to get some ideas on a fertilizer blend, as well as to get an understanding of the reasons we use it. Lastly, I'd like to invite you to visit the Organic Grow Journal section to read some of the grower's threads. You can follow some of the experienced organic grower's threads and get an idea what is working for them. This is really time well spent IMO in that you can see first hand the techniques that are used to grow good medicine. All the best, chunk
Thanks all, THis is my first time trying to really dial in my grow... prior grows have been quite haphazard (or just downright clumbsy)... Right now, as I learn, I was searching for something off the shelf I could use thats not as random and clumbsy as how i was working it before... But now, I have a great growspace and am looking forward to perfecting the technique... actually, my wife has expressed interest in a composting unit for our outdoor garden, so doing that might be a great idea... Will be reading more and asking more... thanks again for the pointers...