The soil recipe on this page; http://www.drugs-forum.com/growfaq/428.htm I dont know anything about soil recipe's and all i do is get a bag of yates potting mix and use that. My question is, with soil recipes like that, does that mean you do not need to fertilize or feed the plants since it has all that stuff in there already? On a random note, does anyone know any pages where they have lists of soil/soilless mix recipe's? What do you use?
We were discussing this recently, I think. You gotta remember, the whole concept of Organic growing is that you feed the soil. Yes, the soil will have everything a plant needs, once it's been allowed to mature for a few weeks, and the bacterial and fungal colonies are active. But then the plant will use up some of the available resources. Some elements are used quickly, some more slowly. The secret to successful soil (apart from making it very much alive) is knowing how to feed the soil, and when. Some substances release slowly, some quickly, some last a very long time. Search around for info on individual feeds, and how quickly they are released. Some useful lists exist. For instance, most Lime comes with a variety of particle sizes all mixed together. The small particles will break down first, followed by the slightly larger ones, and so on. The largest particles might take a year or more to fully break down. A flowering plant will deplete the calcium and magnesium from the Lime fairly quickly, and if there isn't enough available, the grower will need to add something to compensate. You need to watch your plants. If you do it right, your plants will always have exactly what they need, when they need it. And while still learning (aren't we all), you can apply "quick" feeds, foliar sprays, compost teas, etc. to keep the plant happy while your soil ammendments kick-in. You can keep applying these things for ever, of course, especially compost teas, which will reduce the amount of "feeding" required. As to soil recipe examples, the overgrow FAQ (the one you linked to) has some good info about soil, about what soil is, and there's more here at GC. Once you know what you are trying to achieve, you can mix up all sorts and get great results (not Liquorice Allsorts!) Here's that same article, expanded from the original BC Growers archive, with addition recipes and info... http://www.onlinepot.org/grow/goodsoil.htm -mu ps. a couple of recent soil threads.. http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/121535-soil-hmmmm-post1281300.html http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/122198-soil-growers-only-topic-post1288994.html