Hello all, It's my first attempt an all organic grow; I feel I know enough to get me by, but never enough stop learning! Anyways I'm looking for some advice or maybe some suggestions on my 'Just Add Water' organic soil mix. I plan to cook it in the sun for about 30 days prior to use. -- ~50 Gallons Organic Base Soil -- 5 Gallons EWC -- 10 - 15 Gallons Perlite -- 5 Cups Greensand -- 5 Cups Alfalfa Meal -- 7 Cups Fish Bone Meal -- 7 Cups Blood Meal -- 10 Cups Kelp Meal -- 5 Cups Soft Rock Phosphate -- 3 Cups Azomite -- 7 Cups Indonesian Bat Guano -- 7 Cups Peruvian Seabird Guano -- 5 Cups Mycorrizae -- (I'll be adding molases ever other watering) I'm not too sure how to distribute the ammendments though.... Well this is what I've come up with so far, hoping someone can lead me from here.
What is the 'organic base soil' consist of? This is what I would do, not knowing what the 'organic base mix' is. Initially, I would add more EWC/compost!! I usually try for a 40/30/30 blend of peat/compost/aeration. More aeration in addition to the compost/EWC, unless the 'base mix' contains some. I would say your amendments are kinda 'lean'. You might want to add a little more, but maybe try this mix first, then adjust if necessary. I've never used guanos, either, so I'm not sure how those would do in the mix. I would leave out the myco, and just inoculate seedlings/clones as you put them in. I would also not water with molasses, but I know that is a powder keg in a smoking bar.......
You distribute with a shovel and sweat. LOL That mix is way too hot as is with all those N sources and those amounts. You want ~1-1 1/2 cups/10 gallons, not of each, but combined. You have like 26+ cups of 'hot' where something like 10 or so is called for. It's easy to add more, but a real bitch to try and remove too much. Wet
Herb - For the base soil I initially decided on Fox Farm; 4.5cf FFOF, 2cf FF Happy Frog. But it's pricey and I'd have to order it. My local nuseries carry sunshine and other soiless mixes; also composted manure and leaves. Some Home Depot actually started carrying coco coir, they call it Mega Mulch..Not mine though. I don't make my own compost, at least I haven't started, that's why I intended to start with an organic base soil.. How does... - 23 gallons FFOF - 15 gallons Coco Coir or 15 gallons peat moss - 10 - 15 gallons perlite - 5 - 10 EWC ....... Sound to everyone as a base soil? wetdog - Ha yeah, I meant how to distribute the ammendments out evenly or effciently enough to hold my 'JAW' standards. Appreciate your input man, really opens up some doors; how do you feel about the base soil?
Get the sunshine#4 if it's local. Adding the amendments you've listed will bump it far beyond FFOF. Wet
WetD - Would it make a difference adding peat moss to the sunshine since it is mostly made of peat moss? Should I just up the perlite and EWC, maybe add some of that leaf humus? About the Myco. Wouldn't there be a greater effect if I innoculated the entire soil mix vs just transplants or clones? Bring the entire mix to life?
I make my own mix of peat moss, perlite and EWC. Have never bought a bagged mix, so ??? Myco's grow on the roots. Adding it other than at transplant is just sorta wasting it. I would do some more reading in the stickys on soil mixes and such. Wet
Sunshine #4 is essentially peat moss and perlite. I would forgo the FF and just buy sunshine #4 and compost then mix your own base soil and doctor it up. Or simply buy bales of peat moss, bags of perlite and compost/EWC/leaf mold. You have all the stuff to make a better soil than FF can and does, much cheaper. If you are mixing 50 gallons of soil I would recommend not leaning out your amendments too much. I know everyone's opinions is diffent, but .... Here's what I just used to make a little less than 30 gallons of soil : 2x compost 2x peat 1.5x lava rock (aeration-substitute for perlite) .5x dirt/clay from my yard 12 cups of glacial rock dust 9 cups kelp 7 cups alfalfa meal 9 cups crab shell (variety of sized pieces from dust to quarter-sized) 7 cups fish bone 5 cups neem 5 cupa karanja I let this cook for about 3 or 4 weeks. I have 12 day old seedlings in this mix now.... They are loving life, 'praying', and show no signs of being in too hot a mix. I grow a blueberry strain that I've heard is 'finicky' about feeding as well. Myco needs roots to live. It cannot live outside of a symbiotic relationship with a root hair. Mixing 5 cups throughout your soil mix would not be the most effective way. Much cheaper and probably more effective to inoculate individual plants when re-potting.
Alright guys, thanks for the slap on the wrist. After looking around further, both at local stores and stickies; I've decided to take a different route. I'm gonna cut the bagged soil and start from scratch versus amping bagged soil up with a variety of ammendments. It's more reliable and cheaper. - Base soil - - 6cf (~45 gal.) Peat Moss - 4cf (~30 gal.) Compost - 2cf (~15 gal.) Organic Soil Conditioner - 10-20 gal. EWC - ~30 gal. Perlite / lava rock . . . -- Ammendments -- -- 10 cups Greensand -- 12 cups Alfalfa Meal -- 14 cups Fish Bone Meal -- 8 cups Blood Meal -- 10 cups Kelp Meal -- 10 cups Soft Rock Phosphate -- ~8 cups Azomite -- 7 cups Indo. Bat Guano -- 6 cups Peru. Seabird Guano -- And lots of love! Any objections, comments, or suggestions? Still too hot? Pretty much just doubled your revisement, wetd.
ya man.. you already mentioned everything without needing the bag soil.. you'll have a much better soil from scratch i promise. there are A LOT of threads just like this one with people posting their mix, some are really good and you will learn a lot, try to read as much as you can. everyone does it a little different, no perfect way but there are the must have amendments like peat, ewc, compost, perlite/pumice, kelp meal, glacial rock dust, alfalfa meal, bone meal and blood meal and oyster shells or dolomite lime if its all you can get.. and most people around here strongly suggest neem seed meal and crab shell meal so i would have to say those are some important additions. i just added them for the first time to my new soil and expect great things. just those amendments listed will get you a very awesome soil.. anything else adds variety and will probably make it a little better but not mandatory.. like azomite and soft rock phosphate unless you dont have a rock dust then these would be needed but the glacial rock dust is superior, feather meal, greensand, guanos, fish meal, granular humic acid, diatomaceous earth, etc etc.. i add an all purpose fertilizer to mine also, one with a 5-5-5 npk or 6-6-6, anything like that and any brand like dte, dr earth, eb stone, epsoma, fox farm, all pretty much the same. so start with the basics here, read what most people use as ratios per cubic foot or whatever and go from there, as long as you follow these threads you will have an awesome soil you can keep tweaking and trying new things with. you wont regret it.
Still too hot. Try this: Mix equal amounts, by volume of the Alfalfa, blood, both guanos. I use party cups or a good size measuring cup. Doesn't matter as long as all are measured with the same thing. Mix all this up well. THEN: Add 1 1/2 cups of this mixture to each cf that you are mixing up. You will get the correct amount in total and the proper proportion of each individual amendment. You are trying to add full amounts of four different N sources instead of 1/4 the amount of each to equal one full amount. Am I making sense here? Wet
Ok, well the Indo. guano is 0.5-12-0.2, but I got what you're trying to say; I think . I posted something similar a while back and was advised to go with ~1/4 cup per ammendment per 15 gallons of soil. Would you say that's safe? 100 gal. of base soil, that's about 1 1/2 cups per ammendment. I thought that would be too weak?? Or is that spot on? I've considered trying Subcool's supersoil as well, that may be why I'm thinking more is better. He only fills 25%-50% of the container with the SS, the other half gets the base soil. That's basicaly my only problem. I don't know how to divide the ammendments evenly. I'm gettin' there though.....Slowly...