Well I'm going to be starting a 4'x4'x6.5' tent grow with a 1000w equivalent CFL hood. I am also going to be doing a ScrOG grow. My plans so far are having four plants in total (2 Barney's Critical Kush, 2 Barney's Vanilla Kush) in 5 gallon pots each. Well anyways the only thing I am on the fence about is my soil, and liquid nutrient choices. At first I was planning on FF Happy Frog 60%, FF Ocean Forest 20%, and Perlite 20% with the FF trio for nutes. Since I've seen how well organic soil grows have gone I decided to go to my local garden store to see what organic products they have. Here is the list of all the items that I am able to buy. Dr. Earth Organic 7 (12 Lbs) Perlite (8 Quarts) Bone Meal (4 Lbs) Blood Meal (3.5 Lbs) Alfalfa (3 Lbs) Bat Guano (1.5 Lbs) Cottenseed Meal (Didn't write down quantity) Soft Rock Phosphate (4 Lbs) Earth Worm Castings (1 Qt) Lime (6.75 Lbs) Liquid Fish Fertilizer (1 Gal) Compost Maker (4 Lbs) Also there were other soil bases like Black Gold soil, and they had stuff like peat, so I could buy more base if I need it. My Questions: 1. How could I configure this list into 20 Gallons of viable soil? What would the recipe be? 2. Would this soil mix be better than using FF soil, and the FF Trio? 3. Could this list have potential to be able just to run water through it, and no extra liquid nutrients? 4. What are the other items I would need to make organic tea with? Also what's a good recipe? Thank You.
Well I stopped being lazy, and put together a soil mix. My question still stands will this soil mix be better than using FF soil, and the FF trio? I still plan on using Tiger Bloom though while flowering. Flowering Soil Mix (per 5 gal pot) Base Mix: Peat - .20 cubic feet Gavin's Compost - .20 cubic feet Perlite - .20 cubic feet Lime - 4/5 cup Mix Seperate Bone Meal - 3/4 cup Blood Meal - 1 cup Alfalfa - 1 cup Bat Guano - 3/4 cup Kelp Meal - 1 3/4 cup Total of 4.8 gallons. Starter Soil Mix (per 5 gal pot) Base Mix: Peat - .22 cubic feet Gavin's Compost - .22 cubic feet Perlite - .22 cubic feet Lime - 4/5 cup Total of 4.9 gallons. Feedback would be very appreciated.
Recipes are figures in CF and not gallons for the most part...A CF of soil = 7.5 gallons. Soil for 4-5gal pots is 20 gallons. 3 CF=22.5 gallons..Close enough... You will have the best mix if you ditch the bottles and build a water only soil mix. You can water with a seaweed(kelp) liquid concentrate at most and some ProTek silicone if you want. Your base mix will consist of: 1 cf canadian peat moss 1 cf perlite 1 cf compost..EWC and or,a 50/50 mix of ewc and compost from leaf/vegatable matter. All ewc work great. Compost is most important and has everything to do with maintaining proper ph etc and growing healthy plants. You can save some of this base mix for starting seeds and the rest will be amended and let cook for 3-4 weeks and will be ready when you transplant. Amendments per CF: 1 cup Dr Earth or, Espoma tomato fertilizer with beneficial microbes. 1 cup bone meal 1 cup blood meal 1 cup alfalfa meal 1 cup bat guano 1-2 cups kelp meal..Not on your list but, you need kelp meal 1 cup cottonseed meal 1 cup dolomite, or agriculture lime 4-5 cups granite dust. Azomite if you can't source granite dust... A good soil texture is when you squeeze some moist soil in the hand and it crumbles when you open the hand...ewc can cause soil to become muddy. If this happens you can add some more peat and perlite for soil texture. Some growers won't use blood and bone meal because of the claim it has heavy metels and the way it is processed from a slaughter house. I have used it and noticed no problem. If it bothers you, you can find a replacement such as fish meal and fish bone meal. You could get by with out them but more meals etc make a diverse soil mix for the plants if and when they need a particular nutrient...Same with the cottonseed meal and rock phosphate.... There are two types of tea...A act and a nutrient tea. An act is aeriated and used mainly to populate microbes in the soil..A nutrient tea is not aeriated and as it says for the nutrient benefits. An act consists of compost, molasses and water and is not uncommon to add a small amount of kelp meal and let aerate for 24-36 hours...This type tea would be used for inoculating the soil with beneficial microbes when you transplant but can be used just about anytime during the grow. An nutrient tea consists of compost and water(no molasses) and small amounts of meals if desired. Kelp being the best. Nutrient teas are made in a bucket stirring frequent for 2-3 days and feeding....
So when I make the ACT tea I have to place it into a container with a air pump? Do I stir it up or just let it do its own thing? Any specific heat I should keep the nutrient tea at? Also when I mix all the amendments together do I place it all in the base mix, or only use a certain amount?
For 4 plants you can make 1-2 gallons of act using an aquarium pump and feed equal amounts. Larger amounts will require a larger air pump to supply a proper amount of D02(oxygen) to populate and for microbes to survive. If making an act just let the pump do the work. It dose not make a difference if you stir and your choice. The nutrient tea needs to be stirred frequent...As for temps, the higher the temp the faster it will brew. Now after saying that, cooler water holds more oxygen and so around 72* would be fine. Mix the base(peat,compost and perlite)then remove the xtra gallon and a half for seed starting and amend the rest with all your amendments and mix very well and place in a container to(decompose)cook. Keep the amended soil moist(not wet) and turn a couple times a week.... This is a good read for act etc: http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/976433-mycorrhizal-fungi;-myths-truths.html Also if you want to use Mycorrhize you can sprinkle on the roots and in the transplant hole at time of transplant, Some Mycorrhize you can mix with water and water in....
Okay thank you very much colafarmer. This has helped me a lot because most of the tea recipes on here don't have instructions on how to mix them. Do you have any tea recipes that work well for you?
There are tons in the tea recipe sticky in this forum... http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/333940-post-your-organic-tea-recipe.html Everyone has their own concoction and they all probably work but, you don't need an elaborate recipe. Quality compost is the main ingredient....Most of my teas are 1 cup ewc and a tbls of kelp meal. I use this in an act, nutrient tea and a slurry. I think Microbeman has the most logical tea recipe.. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1110985-act-aerated-compost-tea.html post # 15