Hey man, EWC ( Earth worm castings ) will work perfectly fine as a Compost replacement in the soil mix. There are a good deal of people who can't get a hold of good compost ( or have the time to make it ) and they find EWC works just great as a Compost. I would also recommend starting a Worm Farm if you have the finances/room and ability. You don't necessarily have to buy a worm farm they can be easily made from stuff you have around the house and then all you have to do is buy some worms and you have some of the Richest EWC you have ever seen for Topdressing and re-amending. If you can get Sphagnum Peat and EWC your better off making your own soil. It will be better than any bagged you can buy ( by far ) and it will be more economical. Plus you can re-use and re-amend every grow creating a richer and richer medium with every Cycle. Either of these soil mixes used with EWC will work great. Also, if you only using a 315 W grow light I would't have more than two plants. Unless your adding more lights during Flower. Just my opinion. Hope that helps. Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners No-Till Gardening: Revisited
Ah sweet I didn't even know about them! I just found one on ebay with a 10-year warranty, it says it makes the water a weak alkaline. is neutral better,or does it not really matter? Portable RO Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System USA Membrane Remove Fluoride | eBay
Is there any alternatives to peat moss? I've been told it's not good for the environment that so much of it is being used, even heard something about the UK wanting to ban the use of it for hobbyist horticulturalists by 2020 and commercially by 2030. So I guess I'll just avoid it if I can Also thanks for the advice about the EWC and starting a worm farm, I'll look into the worm farm but I'm not sure where I'd h as be the space to put it, also how much EWC do they actually produce? Shops sell it in huge bags, I probably wouldn't want to bother with a worm farm bigger than 30cmx30cmx10cm. I'll look into getting the highest quality EWC I can find
Ok so... Sphagnum vs Coco is a common topic here on Grasscity. Here is a thread in which the topic got brought up. First time organic Read through the first page and you will get some opinions from different people on that. Here is a study saying in summary that Peat beats Coco in grow experiments. GiMiKs Library of Organic Gardening PDF Files ^( Go down the the Materials and Amendments section of the thread and it is the 15th link down called " A comparison of Coconut and Sphagnum Peat " ( and there are many more ) pretty much saying that Peat outperforms Coco. So you will find most of the Veteran members ( 5 years + ) Moderators using/and recommending Sphagnum over Coco. That being said Coco will work just fine if you are adamant about not using Sphagnum. The worm farm does not have to be big at all. I have one that is 2x2x3 and I get a 5-10lb bag of EWC every month ( with about 200-250 worms ) . Also, you should know homemade EWC is far superior to any you will buy bagged, but bagged will work just fine for your beginning mix. Plus you can tweak exactly what the worms are digesting and breaking down into the castings for your plants. Here is a great thread on that: Vermicomposting (Make your own Worm Castings) Here are some more great threads you should look into: It also wouldn't be a bad idea to follow all the Creators of these Threads All Organic Recipes and Notes Compilation Scooby's Compilation GiMiKs Library of Organic Gardening PDF Files ( Motherload of Info ) Vermicomposting (Make your own Worm Castings) Vermicompost ( EWC ) Organic Growers Sticky Library Chunks Compilation Backyard Composting No-Till Gardening: Revisited Organic Higher Learning Resources Organic Vegetable Gardening Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners
Ah I see, I was always curious why most people prefer sphagnum. I'm not totally against using peat, but I probably would've just used something else if it performed the same as other aeration amendments. I'll definitely just go with sphagnum since it's a bit better Also the worm farm sounds intriguing! Are those dimensions (2x2x3) in feet? And do you store it indoors or outdoors? I'll read more into that thread sounds really interesting and you're right it'd be great to know exactly what youre feeding the worms and putting into the EWC! I'll be sure to read through and follow all those threads you linked while I'm waiting on my seed order too, thanks so much for all your help dude
No problem, yes they are in feet. It's two x two feet and three feet deep. Yes, you keep it inside. They produce/break down matter faster in room temp. Give the threads a look over and see what you think. Good luck with everything brother.
30%-40% of your soil volume should be perlite or small pumice makes a huge difference in the amount of air in your soil. a 3 cubic ft bag of perlite is $15 here. I have no idea how much pumice is for that same amount.
I put my seedlings into solo cups. I transplant when the leaves are as wide as the cup. I then go to 1 or 3 gal and then to the final pot. Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk
Organic gardening doesn't need specific set rules although there are some important factors - You MUST use quality viable compost &/or vermicompost. Your soil mix should contain an assortment of "nutritional" amendments. It MUST drain well. Kelp meal should be available worldwide. Chicken manure pellets Work wonderful for me. Rock dusts help supply important minerals and homes for microbes. Fish meal, fish bone meal are others. Lime should also be available world wide. It's nice to use a set, time proven recipe but not the end of the world if you can't find specific ingredients. J
Sorry for the late update everyone, my phone fell and broke the other night and I don't have a working PC at the moment either. I've managed to find most of the things I need to mix up my organic soil, I'll attach screenshots below of everything I've gotten so far. If I just mix all of this together and add a small handful of compost worms will this be enough to let the soil cook? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, do I actually need to add the neem cake and other missing ingredients before I can mix all this together? Or are the remaining amendments things that I can add later on without a problem?
I wish I saw this before i wrote my last reply to this thread, so I guess you just answered my question and everything I've shown will be fine to mix together Also I had trouble finding crab meal here but thanks for the information, I'll have a look for Fish meal and Fish bone meal, think I'd have better luck with them definitely Is it better to add compost worms at the beginning or is this more of an optional step as well?
Hey Dank, making progress Brother. Looking good. As far as the mixing goes. The main thing is to make sure the EWC, Sphagnum and Pumice are all mixed equally. So use a bucket to measure or whatever you have laying around to ensure they are all mixed in equal parts. I would recommend soaking your Sphagnum Peat in water for a day or so to let it re-hydrate before adding it to the mix. Also, it would be a good idea to use an Emulsifier ( Fresh Aloe Vera plant blended, Aloe Vera Powder, Soap Nuts or an Organic Dish soap ) to assist the re-hydration. Lastly, make sure you are doing your measuring after the Sphagnum has re-hydrated. It will measure differently dry vs wet. As far as your Amendments go you want to mix each one at around 1/2-1 cup per Cubic Ft of soil of each amendment ( Kelp Meal, Crab Meal, Alfalfa Meal etc..). For your Volcanic Rock Dust it will be 3-4 cups per Cubic Ft of soil .Your Bio-char will be mixed at the same rate as the VRD at 3-4 cups per Cu. ft. The Dolomite Lime will be mixed at 1 cup per Cu. ft of soil. If you can't find ( fish meal, fish bone meal or crab ) I wouldn't sweat it. Unless your adamant about adding it. The mix you have right now will do just fine. As far as adding the Worms that is done once everything is mixed and put into the pots. All depends on how big you pots are, but for instance a 20 Gallon ( 75 Liter ) will get about 4-5 worms. You want to let the mix " cook " for about 3-4 weeks to let the microbes break down the amendments. This can be done inside and doesn't need to be extra hot like a compost pile. If you can't get Neem Cake or Karanja for the soil mix ( no big deal if you can't ). I would suggest getting a Cold Pressed Neem Oil for Foliar Sprays during Veg and beginning of Flower. Neem Oil Foliars will do the same thing for you as the Meals in the soil mix and will be your best friend as far as IPM ( integrated pest management ) goes. Hope that helps.
Yo Samurai thanks for your reply bro, lots of useful information in there for me! Those tips for re-hydrating the peat moss will help out heaps, I wasn't entirely sure how to go about it. Will 20L of dry peat moss weigh up to more or less once it's been re-hydrated? I've only got 20L of worm castings so I guess I'll have to make 60L of base soil I'm not sure on this either but I think the 25kg of pumice will be roughly 25L, please correct me if I'm wrong though. Any extra ingredients and amendments I have left over will probably get used to make extra soil for a veggie garden too. Also I'll forget about the fish bone meal since the mix I have so far is good enough, but I will get onto the neem cake for the soil mix, these are the two I've found so far and I'm thinking of choosing the 2kg pellet one.
The neem powder will get here quicker, so if I could use that for my soil it'd be preferable. I'm unsure as to wether the powder is for soil or just a kind of health product. Feel free to hit me up through PM Samurai and thanks again for the help!
No problem. That is a good question. I can't give you a definitive answer on that. There are far more knowledgeable members in this thread that should be able to give you a ballpark on what you will have when hydrated. So I will pass that question on. I just measure my soil mixes using 5 gallon buckets when weighing my sphagnum after its hydrated and just do a 1:1:1 ratio with Compost and Aeration. Yes, 25kg of Pumice is roughly 25L. Nice, you can't go wrong with a personal veggie garden. I would suggest keeping the Seaweed Meal for topdressing throughout the grow, but that's your call. Yea, I would go with the Neem cake Pellets. The powder looks like some type of Herbal supplement.
I'm also wondering if the 20L advertised amount of peat moss I bought is the dried compressed volume or if they are referring to the expanded, he-hydrated volume. I guess I'll find out for sure soon enough! I'll definitely use my 5 gallon smart pots to measure up the 1:1:1 ratio of my base soil too, that's a great tip. I recieved the biochar and seaweed meal today and surprisingly I got sent 2kg of seaweed meal, instead of the advertised 500grams I paid $21AUD for. So I'm thinking I got a great deal here, since I got it at $10.50/kg, or is this just standard pricing for seaweed meal? At least I'll have lots left over for topdressing like you said, maybe I can spare a bit for my veggie patch too. Lastly, my biochar came with a free sample of 'eco seaweed' (super concentrated seaweed)which it says I can add to the biochar... Should I use it? It looks great but I'm thinking I might not need it because I already have the seaweed meal.
I also got about 5kg of free granite dust from a stone cutting place around the corner from me. It's a bit clumpy and wet though, so I'm trying to dry it out on top of my heater at the moment. Will it be good to use some of this along with the volcanic rock dust I bought?
Hey Dank, the 20L advertised bale size is the compressed amount in L. I have been looking around and from what everyone is saying you will get twice the amount when uncompressed so 40L. Now just about every site I am looking at are gardening sites ( not specifically Cannabis except one ) and most do not hydrate their Sphagnum before doing the mix. So I think it will be less than 40L, but more than 20L you will end up getting, but that is a ballpark. I would be able to tell based off my soil mixes, but usually I am usually pretty stoned when I am doing my soil mixes... haha. I Just do the 1:1:1 ratio until I run out of ingredients. One of my sources for that Build A Soil From Scratch in 2 Simple Steps ( Cannabis Gardening, but do not mention re-hydrating before the mix) "( 1) 3.8 Cubic Foot Bale of Sphagnum Peat moss will expand to about 6 cubic feet when opened up. That means that you could make about 15-18 cubic feet of soil with one 3.8 cubic foot bale of peatmoss depending on your final percentages. I like to break up the peat moss into a flat thick layer on the tarp and then dump the castings on top of that. Then dump all the minerals and fertilizers on top of that followed by your aeration amendments and mix thoroughly. Every once in awhile I take the edge of the tarp and flip the soil back to the middle and keep mixing.... sometimes I move the soil from the left side of the tarp over to the right side of the tarp and then back to the middle just to make sure it’s all mixed well. All in all, don’t get to freaked out about things being mixed exact because it’s all organic and very forgiving. " I think you got a pretty good deal for your Seaweed Meal. Here is a site I often get products from and they have there's at 15.00 ( 19.10 Aussie ) per 1.36 Kilo's ( 3lb ) . Kelp Meal - Organic I would go ahead and use the Seaweed extract, but follow the instructions. Here is there site: eco-seaweed - eco-organic garden by OCP I think it is used as an innoculant to pre-charge your bio-charr. Wont't do any harm. If you have any left over you can use it for Foliar Sprays or with waterings ( or for your Veggie Garden ) ( The Seaweed Meal can be used the same way when mixed with water or as a dry topdress). Future reference ( I know it was a sample ), but the Meal's will be all you really need for the future once the Liquid Extract is gone. The Volcanic Rock Dust should be all you need as far as Minerals go. Not that others wouldn't be beneficial, but that Chunk's comment makes it seem like using it would be rolling the dice. As far as the Granite is concerned here is a reply from Chunk ( Moderator/Cultivator/Stone Fabricator ) when asked the same question. I think his answer should help you out, but you will have to make the final call. Marble and Granite ( Forum where question is asked )
Hey Samurai, that's awesome to know I'll have some left over peat moss, will definitely put it to good use. Appreciate you looking into that for me bro, thanks heaps! My dad is the one who picked up the granite dust and he said they were just cutting it with water only, using a wet stone-cutting machine... I'm not 100% sure if it'd still have contaminants, but my dad said only the motor of the tool gets oiled, not the blade. Also the place he got it from only cuts Granite for kitchen benchtops, so my dad said because of that they probably aren't allowed to contaminate it? We are not entirely sure though, if I'm still running a risk by using it then I just won't bother. I can always go back to the same place, get a small chunk of un-cut granite and break it up with a chisel myself. That eco seaweed in the biochar too sounds like it might make it work a bit better! I'll put it in there now so it can sit for up to two weeks. I just realised I forgot to buy Gypsum and Malted Barley Powder, are these important? I can't find the Malted barley powder online but I think found I found gypsum I can use for fairly cheap on eBay, if it's worth getting I'll just order it now.