Soil mix

Are you doing all organic or are you using a chemical nutrient line? Here is a write up I have saved that gives excellent soil recipes.

LC's Soiless Mix #1:

5 parts Canadian Sphagnum Peat or Coir or Pro-Moss
3 parts perlite
2 parts worm castings or mushroom compost or home made compost
Powdered (NOT PELLETED) dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of the soiless mix.
...Wal-Mart now sells worm castings.

Or, if you use Pro Mix, Sunshine Mix or Fox Farm mixes...

LC's Soiless Mix #2:

6 parts Pro Mix BX or HP / Sunshine Mix (any flavor from #1 up) / Fox Farm Ocean Forest or Light Warrior
2 parts perlite
2 parts earthworm castings
Powdered (NOT PELLETED) dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of the soiless mix.
If you use a 3 qt. saucepan as “parts” in the amounts given above, it equals about 1 cu. ft. of soiless mix and you can just dump in a cup of powdered dolomite lime. The dolomite lime is for Ca. and Mg. not just to adjust the PH of the soil.

But, a "part" can be anything from a tablespoon to a five gallon bucket. Just use the same item for all of the "parts".

Now for the plants organic food source

Choose one of these organic plant food recipes to add to LC's Soiless Mix.

RECIPE #1

If you want to use organic nutrients like Blood meal, Bone meal and Kelp meal...
Dry Fertilizers:

1 tablespoon Blood meal per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
2 tablespoons Bone meal per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
1-tablespoon kelp meal per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
or Maxicrop 1-0-4 powdered kelp extract as directed
(OPTIONAL) 1 tablespoon per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of Jersey Greensand to supplement the K (potasium) in the Kelp Meal and seaweed extract.

Mix all the dry nutrients into the soiless mix well and wet it, but don't soak it. Use Liquid Karma and water @ 1 tbs./gal. Stir and mix it a few times a week for a week or two so the bacteria can get oxygen and break down the nutrients and make it available. And don't let the mix dry out, keep it moist and add water as needed. It'll also have time to get the humic acids in the Liquid Karma going and the dolomite lime will be better able to adjust the pH of a peat based mixture too.

With this recipe, all you need to do is add plain water until harvest.

When I'm working with seeds, I punch a hole in the bottom of 16 ounce cups and fill them with plain LC's Mix. Lightly wet the mix in the cups and germinate one seed in each cup. At the same time I mix enough LC's mix along with the blood/bone/kelp to fill all the 3 gallon flower pots I'm going to use for the grow. After about two weeks, the seedlings and the blood/bone/kelp mix are ready. I transplant the seedlings into the 3 gallon pots and just add water until harvest.
When you go to flower and pull up the males, save the mix in the pots. It is ready to be used again immediately. Just remove the root ball and transplant another seedling into it.

RECIPE #2

If you want to use guano in your soil mix...
Bongaloid's Guano Mix.
Use all these items combined with one gallon of soil mix.

1/3C hi N Guano Mexican Bat Guano or Peruvian Seabird Guano (PSG)
1/2C hi P Guano (Jamaican or Indonesian Bat Guano)
1TBS Kelp Meal
(OPTIONAL) 1TBS Jersey Greensand

RECIPE #3 (My favorite)
If you want to use guano tea and kelp...

Guano Tea and Kelp:

Seedlings less than 1 month old nutrient tea mix-

Mix 1 cup earthworm castings into 5 gallons of water to make the tea. You can also just use a Handful in 1 gallon of water if your needs are less. Add 5 tsp. Black Strap Molasses. You can use a fish tank aerator with a diffuser and bubble it for 24 hours @ 70 degrees.
Use it to water your seedlings with every 2nd or 3rd watering.

Veg mix-

1/3 cup Peruvian Seabird Guano (PSG)
or
1/3 cup High N Bat Guano (Mexican)
1/3 cup Earth Worm Castings (EWC)
5 tsp. Maxicrop 1-0-4 powdered kelp extract or Acadian Kelp extract.
(That makes the "dry mix". You can make all you want and save it to use later.)
Mix with water @ 1 cup of dry mix into 5 gallons of water to make the tea.
To that 5 gallons of tea add:
5 tbs. Liquid Karma or a good Humic or Fulvic acid
5 tsp. Black Strap Molasses

Use it to water with every 3rd watering.

Flowering nute tea mix:
2/3 cup Peruvian Seabird Guano
2/3 cup Earth Worm Castings
2/3 cup High P Guano (Indonesian or Jamaican)
5 tsp. Acadian powdered kelp extract
(That makes the "dry mix". You can make all you want and save it to use later.)
Mix with water @ 2 cups of dry mix into 5 gallons of water to make the tea.

To that 5 gallons of tea add:
5 tbs. Liquid Karma or a good Humic or Fulvic acid
5 tsp. Black Strap Molasses
Use it to water with EVERY watering.

You can use queen size knee high nylon stockings for tea bags. 3 pair for a dollar at the dollar store. Tell 'em you use them for paint strainers. Put the recommended tea in the stocking, tie a loop knot in it and hang it in your tea bucket. The tea should look like a mud puddle. Agitate the bag in the water vigorously. An aquarium pump and air stone will dissolve oxygen into the solution and keep the good bacteria (microherd) alive and thriving. Let it bubble a day or two before you use it. If you find you are making too much tea and having to throw it out, use 2 1/2 gallons of water and cut the nute amount by half.


RECIPE #4
Three Little Birds Method
40 gallons used soil
4 cups alfalfa meal
4 cups bone meal
4 cups kelp meal
4 cups powdered dolomite lime
30 pound bag of earthworm castings . . .
That's the basic recipe . . .
However we also like to use
4 cups of Greensand
4 cups of Rock Phosphate
4 cups of diatomaceous earth


RECIPE #5
Fish and Seaweed (This is sooo easy)
1 capful is 1 TB or 15 ml.

For veg growth…
1 capful 5-1-1 Fish Emulsion
1 capful Neptune's Harvest 0-0-1 Seaweed or Maxicrop liquid
1 gallon H2O

For early flowering…
1 tbs. Neptune's Harvest 2-3-1 Fish/Seaweed
1 gallon H2O

For mid to late flowering…
1 tbs. Neptune's Harvest 2-4-1 Fish
1 gallon H2O

 

[quote name='"DoublebakeDD"']Im not sure yet probably chemical nutes. Thanks a lot, I just grabbed some powdered lime and am sticking with the first recipe for now.[/quote]

If your going to get chemical nutes why not just get an entire bag of soiless mix and use that.

I have a mostly advanced nutrient lineup. I used to make mix with foxfarm and perilite and it caused problems doing half organic and half chemical

Now I do only soiless mix and ive had tremendous success

 

[quote name='"DoublebakeDD"']

Damn, I did not know that. Hmm I already bought and mixed the peatmoss, perlite, lime, and worm castings.. What should I do this time around for nutes that would be most appropriate for what I have? Thank you for the info though, next time around I'll be sure to stick to a soiless mix.[/quote]

I think you should still be ok. Peat moss and perilite is fairly neutral. What kind of mix did you get? If it is coco then you are good to go. I think lime is good for cal-mag so it's a good additive. I'm not sure what worm castings are for but it's a common additive

Basically if the mix isn't a hot mix (look at the NPK on the mix bag) then the mix should still be ok and you're probably safe to use it with your nutes. I used fox farm soil with chemicals and fox farm comes loaded so that was my mistake

 

Here's a simple recipe I've used with great success:

4 parts organic potting soil that has no added nutes
3 parts sphagnum moss
2 parts worm castings
1 or more parts perlite (I usually do 2 parts)
1 or more parts clean sand

For the potting soil base I use a forest floor mix, so take this and add a little bat guano, maybe a little fish emulsion or kelp, and you're pretty darn close to FFOF.

 

There are many ways to skin a cat...

 

You got the basics now don't over complicate things, finish your mix with recipe #1 then you should only need to water till harvest unless growing long flowering sativas then late bloom feeding can be done using one of the tea recipes.

Also SG1 has a really good thread you may want to subscribe to http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-marijuana-growing/972868-old-school-grow-advice-member-cheap-old-basterd-club.html

Hope this is helping, remember don't stress it to much have fun and be safe!

 

What you have mixed is your soiless mix. Compare this to having gone to your hydro shop and getting bags of soil now you decide how to feed.

If you want to amend your mix so all you have to do is water till harvest then you need to get the following ingredients :

1 tablespoon Blood meal per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
2 tablespoons Bone meal per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
1-tablespoon kelp meal per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
or Maxicrop 1-0-4 powdered kelp extract as directed
(OPTIONAL) 1 tablespoon per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of Jersey Greensand to supplement the K (potasium) in the Kelp Meal and seaweed extract.

Mix all the dry nutrients into the soiless mix well and wet it, but don't soak it. Use Liquid Karma and water @ 1 tbs./gal. Stir and mix it a few times a week for a week or two so the bacteria can get oxygen and break down the nutrients and make it available. And don't let the mix dry out, keep it moist and add water as needed. It'll also have time to get the humic acids in the Liquid Karma going and the dolomite lime will be better able to adjust the pH of a peat based mixture too.

Once you've done this , all you need to do is add plain water until harvest.

Hope this clears it up some

 

Or you can use what you have and use organic nutes like botanicare, roots organic, biobizz, ect

 

Yeah that too it just seems like he's interested in just watering idea tho

If you want to use Botanicare you can go here for a free sample kit.

 

Sweet information this is the simplest organic into/overview that iv read, by that I mean "ahhhh, I get it now!". Do very appreciated spacejerk and friends. Sorry if I missed this but do you have a journal doubleB? Or upcoming