Plant tone and roots organic

We prefer to roll our own. When I grew using 707 everything went tits up 4 weeks in. Now I roll my own using promix, various composts, some ammendments, and aireation. Keep the microbes happy and the plant will take care of itself. Homemade compost/vermipost is wayyyyyyy better than store bought.

 

The roots organic soil is already amended with EWC, guano, etc. Since we don't know exactly how much of each amendment is already in the mix, it's hard to know how much you should add (this is why so many of us build our own soils from the ground up). You said you had 2 bags of soil so I will assume you have 3 cubic feet of soil total. The following ratios are based on you having 3 cubic feet (two 1.5 cubic feet bags) of roots soil. Here's what I would do.

-Add some extra aeration amendment (your perlite) to the roots soil-extra drainage and aeration is always a good thing. Maybe 3-5 gallons of extra aeration amendment.
-add some of your peat moss. roots uses a coco coir base so there's no peat in the mix. maybe add 4 or 5 gallons of peat
-add some extra EWC (maybe 3-4 gallons, then top dress your pots with the leftover EWC)
- 3 cups kelp meal
- 1 & 1/2 cups alfalfa meal
- 1 & 1/2 cups plant tone
- 3 to 5 cups azomite (or however much you have)
- 1 cup garden lime (I'm assuming this is limestone)

Skip the blood meal and bone meal, they are slaughterhouse by-products and do carry a risk of mad cow disease . Plus there are better nutrient sources (like alfalfa meal). Also, in the future, please try to avoid purchasing MG products. They are owned by Monsanto , and we need to do everything we can to keep our money out of their pockets. HTH

Also, when we talk about "cooking" our soil, we are referring to the nutrient cycling process that occurs as the microbes in the soil break down the amendments. Certain amendments like alfalfa meal do get "hot" in the sense that they contain a lot of N and can burn delicate plant roots if they have not been through the nutrient cycle (the "cook").

Take some of your EWC and make a tea with it- if you have an aquarium pump to aerate it, all the better. If not, put your EWC in an old pitcher or bucket, add some chlorine-free water (let your water sit out overnight), add about 1/2 tsp of molasses (if you have it, if not don't worry about it), and stir vigorously several times a day or as much as possible. An old kitchen whisk is great for stirring worm tea if you don't have a pump. The point is to get as much oxygen into the tea as possible. Then water your soil mix with this tea and let it sit. The microbes in the worm tea will help kick-start the nutrient cycling process.

And just so you know, you can "cook" soil in the middle of winter, heat is not necessary, but soils do tend to cook a bit faster in warmer weather since it keeps the microbes happy. And happy microbes is what organics is all about . Hope this helps, you can PM me if you have any more questions.

 

coombaya, You should head over to the stickies. Especially the higher learning thread. If you plan on using this soil for a long time I would suggest that you read and roll your own then you know whats in the mix. Not second guessing what was in the roots product. If you can get promix and ewc your already ahead of the game. Alfalfa, neem cake/meal, kelp meal, shellfish meal, rock dust, and quality compost are some of the most vaulable resources you can ever have.

 

coombaya, it sounds like you are on the right track. That mix will serve you well my friend and you will be growing some dank . Like SF said, you should definitely read the stickies, I have read them all the way through more than once, and I learn so many new things every time that I revisit them. It sounds like you have a good handle on what should go in your mix. A basic measurement that I go by (for unamended base soil like plain pro-mix) is a total of roughly 2-3 cups of all my amendments (kelp + alfalfa +plant tone, etc) per 1 cubic foot of soil. Then 2 cups rock dust per cubic foot of soil. Organic is the way to go! Best of luck

 

Keep in mind if you get or got the pro mix, the stuff I buy is 1 cu ft bag but it's compressed when you fluff it up it supposedly expands to 3 or 4 cu ft can't remember which right now... Remember that when you add ammendments cause you don't wanna add ammendments for 1 cu ft of soil when you should of added enough for 3 or 4

 

[quote name='"jPinkham"']Keep in mind if you get or got the pro mix, the stuff I buy is 1 cu ft bag but it's compressed when you fluff it up it supposedly expands to 3 or 4 cu ft can't remember which right now... Remember that when you add ammendments cause you don't wanna add ammendments for 1 cu ft of soil when you should of added enough for 3 or 4[/quote]

3.8cf per bale