Hey everyone. Been thinking a lot about my second grow and i definitely want to go soil/organic. My goal is to use as little effort as i can to get a half decent harvest. Currently I'm still in my first grow in dwc. I have learned my lesson. Hydro seems way more expensive and too much control. I want to sit back and water my plants as they grow, not check ppms, ph, res temps, ect... Here is what i plan to use: - 1 Bag FoxFarm Ocean Forest - 1/4 Bag FoxFarm Light Warrior - 5 Cups Vermiculite - 10 Cups Perlite - 4 Cups worm castings - All organic - Water only from start to finish. I got this from Stoner Chicks thread. 1. With this mix, would i need to cook it prior to transplant? 2. If I'm using clones, would i be able to stick it in the soil immediately? 3. If starting from seed, could i plant it in this mix to germ in? This is an unrelated question: If my rh jumps to 70%+ during the dark time in 12/12, but stays at a constant 35-40% when lights are on, well i need to worry about mold? Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Grasscity Forum mobile app
u don't need to cook it, its already been in the bags ur buying for who knows how long. with clones i think you would be ok but i think its to strong for seedlings. 70rh dark time (wouldnt worry about mold)..ur good. its a good mix but i dont think thats a water only mix, u will need to feed later
I agree with you on that hydro stuff.. easy to grow and all but expensive and not all of us have that much time! http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1116550-easy-organic-soil-mix-beginners.html If you take a look at my thread im actually just starting organic as well, i was pointed that way by Jerry and im glad he did. Just give that a read and it should give you some good info. I am goin to add my own amendments (that the link explains) as i think will work best, cook it, and just use water only i havent read into Tea's yet so i couldnt help you there, but im sure someone will
I don't think he needs to cook it, its foxfarm OF & LW with a little ewc, if he adds more organic ferts (kelp, alfalfa, neem, Bat or seabird guana, fish meal, blood or bone meal, Crab or shrimp, list goes on & on..lol than yes id cook it. but foxfarm's ready to go..for water only, yes..for awhile than u need to feed if u go with that mix u are useing i've grown outdoor for years..& now im doing indoors..Thanks to Jerry & Chuck..they are amazing guys with alot of nolege (Can't spell..lol) they have guided me threw my whole grow, Thanks again J & C, I got some pics if u wanna see them 6006 I made my own mix( works great)
Thanks for all the responses. So if this mix won't get me from start to finish with water only, what can i add to it that will help me get there. Or, is there a simpler recipe that i can use? I'll have a look at the link, at work atm though. Yeah, I've read Jerry's thread on no bottle nutes. Its what turned me on to organics. If i were to do 6 plants in a 3x3x6, how big do you think my pots will need to be? I kind of want to avoid transplanting all together but if i start in plastic or foam cups then transplant shouldn't be too difficult eh? Maybe 6 3gal pots? Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Simple. Coot's Soil Mix 50% sphagnum peat moss 25% EWC 25% aeration - rice hulls, buckwheat hulls, et al For each 1 cubic foot (7.5 gallons) of mix the following is added: 1/2 cup neem meal 1/2 cup kelp meal 1/2 cup crab shell meal 4 cups mineral mix consisting of: 4x glacial rock dust 1x bentonite 1x oyster shell flour 1x basalt This is a professional soil mix - keep in mind that this mix can be used over and over again with very little effort made to rejuvenate here and there. Regarding the "mineral mix", for your first time you could simply use either basalt dust or glacial rock dust and oyster shell flour. The other items are minimal: you shouldn't have a hard time finding them. Follow this advice; take it to heart and your garden will always be good to you - "Here's the best advice I can come up with: the recipe for a soil is moot, if the humus isn't right, i.e. you cannot amend your way to a viable soil. Get the compost/EWC dialed in and you won't have many questions that need an answer." Lumperdawgz. Your humus - (worm castings/compost) is THE single most important ingredient in any organic garden. Going down to your local Hydro Store and buying yourself a bag of their Wiggle Worm or whatever they're selling this week castings just isn't going to cut it. This doesn't need to be hard - look on your local Craigslist for worm castings, start your own worm bin, use a quality company such as Worm Power, start a compost heap, find high quality local compost, talk to a few local farmers and dig around in their 20 year old horse manure - that's what I mean by viable compost/vermicompost. It doesn't need to be hard or expensive - what your humus needs to be is exploding with microbes ie: bacteria/fungus. Once you get this part of your garden figured out the rest will fall into place - and that's when you will see massive, vibrant, healthy growth that can and will blow away even the best "hydro garden". "if the humus isn't right, i.e. you cannot amend your way to a viable soil." - Sage advice indeed. Get your compost/vermicompost source figured first and foremost. J
Alright so i found a store i can buy some castings at. Is called lyngso. Local bay area feed/gardening store. would you guys recommend i buy everything from this store? I really don't know what in doing here lol (other than buying all the ingredients). What do i use to mix everything up? A giant spoon? I was going to buy a giant bin to dunno everything in and then just mix it, cook it, then divide up the soil into each individual pot. I plan to start in either plastic "college cups" or styrofoam cups. As soon as they show signs of overgrowing the cups I'll transplant to the cooked soil. All of this will be started in about a month or so. When i cook the soil, do i need to keep it in a dark area? And can i keep a lid on it? I live in an apartment so i don't a lot of space to put a bin of soil lol. Also have a roommate.
Hi 6006. Big congratulations are in order here. Do you have a wheelbarrow or garden cart? I'm thinking you may not since you're in an apartment? Re: giant spoon; yep - they call them shovels... Lol j/k... A fine way to do this in your situation might be to lay out a nice little tarp and just start dumping and mixing. A good unit of measure would be to come up with a 5 gallon pail - one and a half of these is close enough to 1 cubic foot of soil. If you use, lets say 3 five gallon pails of your base you will know hay you need to add amendments for 2 CF of soil - etc. Keep in mind that this isn't rocket science - a little bit more or less of this and that is just fine either way. THE most single important thing to remember, THE items that will make or break your garden, THE items that will give you vibrant, super healthy plants is your compost/vermicompost/castings. Please - take your time with this. Amendments come second but your "humus" - the source of life for your garden is a make-or-break thing. Anyhow. So get a tarp maybe. If you have someone help you it's really easy; each of you grab 2 corners and one person lifts one end of the tarp - this flips it over and over. When you and your partner do this back and forth in just a minute or two your soil is really well mixed - this method works so good. With the right sized nice tarp you can even do this indoors without making a mess if you're careful. When you're all done mixing pick up a handful and squeeze it as hard as you can; it should still crumble apart and not stick together. Do this again once you've wet it down thoroughly too. If it sticks together at all just add a little more aeration. You want/need your soil, no matter what, to be well drained. You want to be able to (not that you will) pour pail after pail of water through it and have it all drain right out no matter how much water you add. This ensures a proper balance of oxygen and water in your soil/"rhizosphere". Don't get overwhelmed or overthink this at all. This is really a very simple process that's just about impossible to screw up providing you use quality ingredients. Remember - you'll be using this soil over and over again so do it right the first time, by which I mean get all your ingredients together and then mix - it's hard to add once you're planted. After mixing moisten the whole batch thoroughly and then put it all in big totes or something similar. Yes - you can put the lid on, just keep it loose. You need to have some air getting to it. Let it sit and Nutrient Cycle (god I hate the term "cooking" and have no idea who came up with it) for as long as you can. If you don't know, this allows the soil microbes to spread out/colonize your soil and start breaking it down into usable elements and organic compounds. While I've seen some soil be fine to use with no or little cycling time I've seen others really screw things up. Soil pH takes time to buffer and stabilize, amendments need to break down and become gentle. The same exact soil (my own) that my plants didn't like very much was perfectly fine the next time around; it just came down to me not allowing the pH to stabilize and amendments time to break down. Live and learn. Best of luck. You're going to enjoy this - a properly made organic soil is by far the easiest and most effective method of gardening, whether its your flower beds, your vegetable gardens or your cannabis. Enjoy. J
Jerry, thanks so much for all your help, and everyone else on here. The tarp idea sounds great, especially since my tent came with a water proof floor that isn't attached so i could just use that. As for humus, the store i found only seeks 40lbs bags. The hydro store sells things more my size. They do have your favorite, wiggle worm lol. I actually might start a compost bin. Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Grasscity Forum mobile app