Hello Everyone! Working on creating my next round of soil and really wanting to be 'one of those people' and go with an organic mix that does not include any direct animal byproducts ( no blood meal and no bone meal ). Looking for some help on numbers of how much to add. Math is not my strong point haha! Promix BX with Mycorrhizae ( large compressed bag, 3.8 cuf I think ) Medium Grain Perlite Humic Acid ( Pure Earth ) Alfalfa Meal Kelp Meal Bat Guano ( Jamaican, Mexican ) Peruvian Sea Bird Guano EWC Rock Phosphate Azomite Dolomite Thank you for any/all help!! Hornchen Edit: If there are any amendments I am missing, please let me know!
Score a bag of Pine Bark Mulch at HD or Lowes. It's less than $3 for a 2cf bag. This will be the smallest/finest of the different grades of mulch they have there, about the size of the end of your pinky. Get that and I'll give you a quick easy mix that yields a bit over 2cf (~18 gallons or so), with everything you have on hand. Wet
Thank you . Does anyone have ideas on ratios though? Looking for help with how much of each to add. Wetdog - what is the purpose of the mulch? I am using 3.8 cf of promix as the base - does the pine mulch add any amendments, water retention or any benefits? Marvajuana - do you prefer rock dust or azomite? I have the understanding that azomite was designed to slow release and rock dust was a quickly water soluble item that has to keep being topdressed. I am not having any pest issues but neem meal never hurts! I use it as a foliar feeding item once in a while - will look into adding it as an amendment. Thanks again everyone -but if anyone is familiar with ratios ( how many cups of item X ) that is this posts main focus. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
i though pine bark would be very acidic ,you dont see many plants growing in a pine forrest ,,but i could be wrong ,,,mac
I use similar formula.... I use 1 bail pro B, 3 bags ffof, 1 10 lb bag of ewc, 1 bag large perlite, 1 bag of black gold compost. Then I add 5 cups kelp meal, the 2/3 cups of the following alfalfa meal, rock dust, bone meal, happy frog guano,dolomite lime, crab meal, neem meal, There might be something im forgetting, im writing in a hurry. But I dont know if thats right or low, but I have good results. I make teas as I go along to assist in flowering later on or fix any issues if they come up. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
The pine bark mulch adds a bit of aeration, a bit of humus and a bit of 'chunky' that just helps. It doesn't do any one thing dramatically, but you sure notice when it's missing. I did anyway. Yes, it's acidic, so is peat moss, that's why we use lime, it buffers both. I use both Azomite and rock dust. Neither are fast release anything. Wet
Base mix (rough) Use 5 gallon buckets ProMix 1 1/2 buckets (7.5 gallons) Perhaps a bit more since there is some perlite in there Perlite 1 bucket (5 gallons) Probably a bit less for the perlite in the PM EWC a light 1/2 bucket (2 gallons) Pine Bark Mulch a heavy 1/2 bucket (3 gallons) The last 1/2 bucket is either EWC, Perlite, or the Bark mulch depending on what the mix looks like to you. It's an 'eyeball' thing. Or, if it all looks good, don't add anything. I make everything from scratch, so I don't know about the perlite that's in the PM. When finished, it should look like there's too much. That will be just right. Use the humic later, if at all. EWC contains plenty. You have multiple N and P sources and trouble if you try and cram all of them in there. Use the guano's, or the alfalfa and rock phosphate, but not both. The Azomite and Dolomite are fine, 1cup of each/cf. If you get rock dust, keep it to 2cups/cf or so for the first mix. 2 is all you need and more just might make the mix too dense and heavy. This is a good complete mix and nothing else is needed. There are a shit ton of other amendments that can be added, but don't add them now. There will be time to start experimenting once you get a good basic mix working for you. HTH Wet