So I thought I had my mix down; apparently not. Was psyched to finally buy everything and mix it today. Sadly my worm bins aren't ready, nor was my compost. D: So I did a little shopping: I bought 4 CF loose miracle grow "enriched sphagnum peat moss". <-- didn't end up using. Picked up 2 bales 2.2 CF compressed "Alaskan inc" peat moss. Picked up 2 CF "supersoil enriched planting compost". Picked up 2 CF earthworm castings. Grabbed a "sul-po-mag" 0-0-22. Grabbed some greensand. Grabbed "decorative" red lava rock. Meals of : Bone, Blood, Kelp, and Alfalfa. Grabbed granular (no powdered...) dolomatic lime. Got a bag of gypsum. So when I got home, I dumped out my first bale of the compressed peat moss - basically took up a whole trash can. Knew I was in trouble right then and there. Ended up mixing just one of my 2.2 CF compressed bales of peat with: 1-1.5 CF red lava rock (used 4 1/2 CF bags, but I took out the largest stones) 0.1 CF perlite 1 cup powdered-dust perlite 0.5 CF recycled fox farm The 2 CF of EWC and 2 CF of "supersoil enriched planting compost" A small handful of yellowish crystals of the sul-po-mag. 2 cups greensand 4 cups bone meal 3 cups blood meal 2 cups kelp meal 3 cups alfalfa meal 3 cups granular dolomatic lime half cup endo+ecto mycos Now, this mix was initially going to be with at least both bales of the compressed peat, but just the one already took up the whole trash can. Ended up buying 2 more trash cans and using a ton of pots to mix this. The final mix takes up 2.5 32 gallon trash cans (approx 80 gallons soil mix). Thinking about going back through and amending with azomite (couldn't find any in todays shopping) and epsom salts (just didn't throw them in...). When I do that I can probably re-mix with the other bale after picking up a few more trash cans. Is my current mix too 'hot' to transplant into, considering my amount of inert soil filler was cut in half? Or can I keep it the way it is (I really don't need the amount I have now, and adding the other bale would give me an overkill amount of soil) Also, the red lava rock seems, on paper, to be low in proportion to everything else, but in the soil I can feel the stones themselves pretty prominently. And the rocks are pretty big (as compared to the small sized perlite in FFOF or that is available for sale). I dunno where I'd find smaller lava rock(this 'larger' size is for decorative purposes), and I can't really crush this myself. But I do have large sized perlite I can crush down to the small pebble size if needed. Would it be advisable to add more aeration in the soil? Thanks for any advice you guys could throw my way
[quote name='"1sttimegrower"']So I thought I had my mix down; apparently not. Was psyched to finally buy everything and mix it today. Sadly my worm bins aren't ready, nor was my compost. D: So I did a little shopping: I bought 4 CF loose miracle grow "enriched sphagnum peat moss". <-- didn't end up using. Picked up 2 bales 2.2 CF compressed "Alaskan inc" peat moss. Picked up 2 CF "supersoil enriched planting compost". Picked up 2 CF earthworm castings. Grabbed a "sul-po-mag" 0-0-22. Grabbed some greensand. Grabbed "decorative" red lava rock. Meals of : Bone, Blood, Kelp, and Alfalfa. Grabbed granular (no powdered...) dolomatic lime. Got a bag of gypsum. So when I got home, I dumped out my first bale of the compressed peat moss - basically took up a whole trash can. Knew I was in trouble right then and there. Ended up mixing just one of my 2.2 CF compressed bales of peat with: 1-1.5 CF red lava rock (used 4 1/2 CF bags, but I took out the largest stones) 0.1 CF perlite 1 cup powdered-dust perlite 0.5 CF recycled fox farm The 2 CF of EWC and 2 CF of "supersoil enriched planting compost" A small handful of yellowish crystals of the sul-po-mag. 2 cups greensand 4 cups bone meal 3 cups blood meal 2 cups kelp meal 3 cups alfalfa meal 3 cups granular dolomatic lime half cup endo+ecto mycos Now, this mix was initially going to be with at least both bales of the compressed peat, but just the one already took up the whole trash can. Ended up buying 2 more trash cans and using a ton of pots to mix this. The final mix takes up 2.5 32 gallon trash cans (approx 80 gallons soil mix). Thinking about going back through and amending with azomite (couldn't find any in todays shopping) and epsom salts (just didn't throw them in...). When I do that I can probably re-mix with the other bale after picking up a few more trash cans. Is my current mix too 'hot' to transplant into, considering my amount of inert soil filler was cut in half? Or can I keep it the way it is (I really don't need the amount I have now, and adding the other bale would give me an overkill amount of soil) Also, the red lava rock seems, on paper, to be low in proportion to everything else, but in the soil I can feel the stones themselves pretty prominently. And the rocks are pretty big (as compared to the small sized perlite in FFOF or that is available for sale). I dunno where I'd find smaller lava rock(this 'larger' size is for decorative purposes), and I can't really crush this myself. But I do have large sized perlite I can crush down to the small pebble size if needed. Would it be advisable to add more aeration in the soil? Thanks for any advice you guys could throw my way[/quote] Piece of cloth. Hammer. Driveway. Smaller Lava Rock. Shit breaks very easy. You want the pieces about tye size of a dime.
Haha, cycled through an old shirt and triple layers of old socks before I started smashing the rocks over a metal plate - Thanks for the tip! Gonna break the rest of the larger rocks as soon as the sun pops out Anyone know if I have to "dilute" the soil? I was planning on transplanting month old plants into it, and I know its hard to burn with organics, but I've never actually ran a mix of my own so I don't know what the threshold is for burns.
[quote name='"1sttimegrower"']Haha, cycled through an old shirt and triple layers of old socks before I started smashing the rocks over a metal plate - Thanks for the tip! Gonna break the rest of the larger rocks as soon as the sun pops out Anyone know if I have to "dilute" the soil? I was planning on transplanting month old plants into it, and I know its hard to burn with organics, but I've never actually ran a mix of my own so I don't know what the threshold is for burns.[/quote] I personally make a starter mix which is 50/50 peat moss and perlite. I add 1/4 cup of Espona All perp. If I was you I would use a 1/4 of hot mix to some peat and add some extra lava. Should ne decent, just go by feel not by numbers.
I'll offer my opinion if you make a very easy to read list of your ingredients used and the amounts of each. As we say in the professional talkers circuit, that a very busy powerpoint slide you have going on there. I'm too stoned to want to sift through all of the data in your first post, to figure out exactly what you have done. If you make it easy for us to help you, more folks will offer to help.
^ Thanks - wrote the post high and just...wrote. haha; below is the list 2.2 CF compressed bale of sphagnum peat with: 1 CF red lava rock (lower-bound estimation because I fudged with this; size of rocks too large) 0.1 CF perlite 1 cup powdered-dust perlite 0.5 CF recycled fox farm 2 CF of EWC 2 CF of "supersoil enriched planting compost" A small handful of yellowish crystals of the sul-po-mag. 4 cups bone meal 3 cups blood meal 2 cups kelp meal 3 cups alfalfa meal 2 cups greensand 3 cups granular dolomatic lime half cup endo+ecto mycos = 80 gallons mix
It looks pretty good. I would add about 30-40 cups of rock dust (azomite or glacial dust). The green sand is not too useful unless you plan on reusing your soil for more than one cycle. Ecto mycos are for trees, not annual grasses like cannabis. I know it's hard to get mycos without both though. Thanks for retyping!
I'm baked as well, but it doesn't sound too awful hot to me. Question: Did you dampen the mix after mixing? If so, you can run your arm down in the mix in a few days to check the cook. I'm not much of a measure person, but as cave mannish as it sounds, it's the best way I've ever found to determine the status of a soil. When it settles down to a comfortable warmth in the middle, it's usually good to go. If it were me I'd still cut it down with a soilless mix before transplanting to be on the safe side. You can always topdress later if needed.
^ Originally I was going to use 6-7 CF of the peat so I was just afraid this would outright kill my plants. I think I'll just do as you and Haggard suggest and cut it when I transplant; I was going to add in some more smaller lava rocks then anyway. I havn't wet it yet because I still wanted to add in the rock dust and some epsom salts and mix it. I also didn't want to do it before I made some containers for the soil (drilling holes in the sides and covering with mesh netting in the trash cans). Or can I just let the soil sit in the trash cans as is? I didn't want it to get anaerobic @WeeDroid I was planning on at least mulching some fruit trees with it if not using the soil in another mix.
[quote name='"1sttimegrower"']^ Originally I was going to use 6-7 CF of the peat so I was just afraid this would outright kill my plants. I think I'll just do as you and Haggard suggest and cut it when I transplant; I was going to add in some more smaller lava rocks then anyway. I havn't wet it yet because I still wanted to add in the rock dust and some epsom salts and mix it. I also didn't want to do it before I made some containers for the soil (drilling holes in the sides and covering with mesh netting in the trash cans). Or can I just let the soil sit in the trash cans as is? I didn't want it to get anaerobic @WeeDroid I was planning on at least mulching some fruit trees with it if not using the soil in another mix.[/quote] Trashcans arent great. If you do use it cut some large holes in the sides and mesh then. Your going to want a lid that will fasten on very well. Because yiy will be rolling the can around to mix your soil. Air - Water are your friends just keep that in mind.