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Post your Organic Soil Mix

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Post your Organic Soil Mix

justiceman 1,082 Replies 446,357 Views
Page 28 of 55 · Replies 541–560 of 1,083
#541
caveman4.20 said:
That's a great thread! Is the side by side soil thread updated? I lost all my watched threads list
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I didn't do a smoke report as all the product seemed the same, and I have trouble testing things that seem different.
My take away memory of the results are:
Soil 2, a Subcool supersoil with ProMix as the base works well.
Prilled rock phosphate can replace high P bat guano.
Blood meal levels are not too high.
None of my refurbed soils performed to expectations.
Light / plant position is a big contributor, and needs more investigation in my small space.

Link to thread is in signature line.
 
#542
Myco said:
Very similar to my recipe, I dig it, aside from I think you're a little N-heavy with the blood meal... if you don't mind a slight bit of critique, I'd drop the super soluble blood meal in exchange for the neem cake, mix that shit in! Actually when I look at your recipe, it's almost identical to mine, and I've never had any -N indicators, despite recycling and re-amending very lightly.

But hey, if you've been using that mix for a bit and you're good to go, don't let my words stop you from doin' yo' thang!

As for the neem cake though, and this goes for everybody, order from neemresource.com... Get the 44lb bag, you'll end up paying slightly over $2/lb for the highest known quality neem cake on the market. My 44lb bag has lasted me forever...
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thanks man. and you think a half cup per cf blood meal is too much?? i know its dangerous and i always go light on the blood meal compared to other amendments.. even when i do the cups, i make em small cups.. always been scared to go above the 1/2 cup.. how much do you recommend? like a quarter cup per cf? you ever think of trying to add a little more and see how it works out?

i prefer the blood meal over the guano.. if i have a bag of guano ill always sprinkle some in like a cup or 2 to 7 cf just to add more goodies but never been big on it cuz blood and bone meal is better imo.

and for the neem do they hit you over the head with the shipping of a 44 lb bag or is it reasonable? i know i should get the 44 lb bag to save money in the future but its kind of a lot.. ill prolly just end up getting something small for now and then get the big bag later on when i have more money for stuff and start doing bigger soil batches. cuz eventually im gonna have to make around 50 cf of it and then just recycle that once i get enough. im slowly turning this grow im working for a friend to all organic.

is the neem cake from neemresource pretty much the same thing as down to earths neem seed meal? thats the only one ive used and it was awesome.

does anyone know anything about the insect frass or have an opinion about it? my brother actually knows the people that make it and ive used very small amounts a few times cuz i did get a free bag from the store when it first started coming out.. seems interesting i just havent heard much about it.
 
#543
Insect frass is expensive as shit in colorado. I haven't searched that hard for it but it's ridiculous at the grow shops like mycobeasty expensive.

I would learn it and use it if it's a hook up but if its.expensive for you I would skip it
 
#544
caveman4.20 said:
Insect frass is expensive as shit in colorado. I haven't searched that hard for it but it's ridiculous at the grow shops like mycobeasty expensive.

I would learn it and use it if it's a hook up but if its.expensive for you I would skip it
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Why? I've got it practically coming out of my ears (so I sent some in to Cap for the POTM prizes). The bugs are stupid easy to rear, the frass is stupid easy to sift out, it's all fucking stupid easy. Maybe I've got a new business model...
 
#545
You know that small sun leaves bag of guano looks like about three huge handfulls.....one place has a bag that Size going for about 50 or more I couldn't believe it and to be honest I gave up looking for it but
Seamaiden said:
Why? I've got it practically coming out of my ears (so I sent some in to Cap for the POTM prizes). The bugs are stupid easy to rear, the frass is stupid easy to sift out, it's all fucking stupid easy. Maybe I've got a new business model...
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How should one use it and how much could each frass very from source to source.....I'm clueless on use but I get a vibe from others testimonials that frass is more effective then worm castings ?
 
#546
You can use it mixed in the soil, or in teas. It's not soluble, so it needs to be contained or something if you plan on putting the tea through drippers, or if you want to use it in hydroponics-styles of growing.

It's from mealworms. They go into any container that doesn't leak and allows a wee bit of air to flow. I use our old gecko's tank because it's already got a nice screen top that slides into place, thus ensuring no thieves when it's outside. The mealworms are fed 'dry' vegetables--carrots, potatoes, broccoli stems, etc. Purely vegetarian, though they may cannibalize each other if they're not fed. They're bedded in wheat bran, or oatmeal, anything that they can burrow under and that keeps dry. I like wheat bran because I have two methods of sifting out the frass, and one involves putting the whole mess o' bugs into a big concrete mixing tray and setting it where my chickens can feast. I'm left with frass and a bit o' chicken poo, which is easily cleaned out. I prefer this method over having to hand sift, but hand sifting ain't so bad either. It's just dusty and can cause lung irritation.

They don't fly, they're slow moving, the grubs make fantastic food for other critters, their poops (aka polillos) are discrete little rolly-pollies that are dry as a bone and super easy to contain. It's all just so easy it's stupid. Not to mention FAR more sustainable than any guano! $20 bought me my first thousand worms. I let them hang for a couple of months until I got all stages of life, and my birds got small treats while waiting for that stage. Now they get almost as much as they want (gotta be careful, they'll gorge on the worms) because I've got a nice, thick, healthy population that was STUPID EASY to get going.

2 hour brew time is all that's needed for a basic tea. A tablespoon or so per gallon pot for top-dressing, or more if you like because at 2-2-2 it won't burn. Ever. It's also an AMAZING source of microbes. And chitin.

Maybe I should start selling my frass online. Better'n sellin' it on the street!
 
#547
thats awesome you make your own. didn't know it was that easy. you should probably sell it online, if the company thats selling it is charging ridiculous prices you can come and hook it up for cheap. i think I'm gonna keep using it and look into making it.

and as far as soil recipes go i just made about 40 cf of soil last week and i got it cooking right now, so much soil i love it!

it was fun to make and since it was so much i wanted to try to add a variety in the compost dept so i used..

4 bales that are 3.8 cf of peat moss (they come out to about 5 or 6 cf once broken up)
2 cf EWC
1 cf regular compost
1 cf humus
1 cf oak leaf mold
6 cf pumice

30 lbs of azomite
5 lbs agrowinn glacial rock dust
3 lbs elemite

1 cup per cf each of fish bone meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, oyster shells and a blooming fertilizer cuz I'm using it for flowering.
1/2 cup per cf of blood meal
1/4 cup per cf of humic acid ore

i like this one and i think the plants are gonna love it. I'm gonna transplant them into it right when they go into flower. curious to see if the variety with the ewc, compost, humus and leaf mold does well.
 
#549
base mix
2 gallon organic soil mix
2 gallons coco coir
2 gallons of perilite
2 gallons of earthworm castings

amendments
4 cups cattle manure
1/2 cup of kelp meal
11/2 cups organic 5-5-5 fertilizer
1/2 cup greensand
3/4 cup oyster flower
1 cup ground oyster shells
1/2 cup powdered dolomite lime
1 3/4 cup prilled dolomite lime
1/4 cup blood meal ( non bovine)
1/4 cup bat guano ( high nitrogen )
1/2 cup feather meal
1 cup fish bone meal
1/4 cup soft rock phos.
1/2 cup gypsum
1/2 cup azomite
1 cup alfalfa meal
1/2 cup rock phos ( granular)
1 cup organic rice

I water with 0 ppm water and liquid humic acid. 1 tblsp per gallon
Then cook soil for 30-45 days
 
#550
organix4207 said:
base mix
2 gallon organic soil mix
2 gallons coco coir
2 gallons of perilite
2 gallons of earthworm castings

amendments
4 cups cattle manure
1/2 cup of kelp meal
11/2 cups organic 5-5-5 fertilizer
1/2 cup greensand
3/4 cup oyster flower
1 cup ground oyster shells
1/2 cup powdered dolomite lime
1 3/4 cup prilled dolomite lime
1/4 cup blood meal ( non bovine)
1/4 cup bat guano ( high nitrogen )
1/2 cup feather meal
1 cup fish bone meal
1/4 cup soft rock phos.
1/2 cup gypsum
1/2 cup azomite
1 cup alfalfa meal
1/2 cup rock phos ( granular)
1 cup organic rice

I water with 0 ppm water and liquid humic acid. 1 tblsp per gallon
Then cook soil for 30-45 days
Click to expand...

sounds a lot like one of revs old recipes...good luck

D
 
#552
40% Promix
40% Perlite
20% Earthworm Castings
2 Tbsp/gallon Dolo lime

Find yourself a worm farmer and get EWC a lot cheaper than retail prices.
 
#553
Love revs 2.1 but a pain in the ass getting all the nutes.
If you can make it from day 1 to harvest on just water the taste is hard to beat.
I usually water with PBP veg first 2v weeks and PBP Bloom light feeding . Depends on the strain.
 
#554
VERMONTSKUNKS said:
Try to source your peat from the bog directly or The peatmoss bale is that they are straight from the bog with life still inside instead of chopped and dehydrated and blended and then re-wetted like the ProMix or bagged soil. Also another recommendation I would give is to not buy bagged worm castings if you can afford your own worm bin, home sourced castings BLOW AWAY any other form of castings in my experience theres no comparison. I use biochar as the bottom base of each of my potting sites now. Gonnna do one tent no-till buckets with companion plants that fix n-p-k into the soil and another tent with the basic peat bale recipe I have here.
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I found a reference on Tim Wilson's microbeorganics.com website about Premier's Peat Moss. He did a random test on some, added some water and molasses as i remember and then checked it under a scope and was surprised at the activity he observed. I found some of the Premiere locally and I think it's pretty damn good. I am using it with just Hydrolite from Botanicare, perlitd and EWC as a seed starter and am very satisfied. Also using it for potting up clones and seedlings the same way with some DTE Biofish, Dolomite and Oyster flour,Insect Frass, more EWC, Azomite, and Kelp, then topdress with Alf Meal and working great.
 
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#555
Simple and easy, cheap too.
1/3 sphagnum peat
1/3 compost
1/3 perlite
You'll need to add lime to that mix.

I like the following recipe,

1 3.8 cu. ft. bale of sphagnum
1 4 cu. ft. bag of perlite
8 packed FULL 5 gal. buckets of compost, you'll want 4 cu. ft.
(bags of compost from a box store 'should' work in a pinch, I'm sure EWC would be great, although a little pricey)
5 lbs of Dolomite lime

that will yield close to 12 cu. ft. or 90 gallons of soil

you can use 'as is' with any nutrient line
OR
go organic(this is where you'll start adding costs ;)) this what I like to add
5-7 lbs bone meal
5-7 lbs alfalfa meal
4-5 lbs greensand
4-5 lbs kelp meal
4-5 lbs oyster shell flour
4-5 lbs gypsum
4-5 lbs all purpose organic fertilizer, espoma, sustane, etc..
2 cups of azomite(rock dust)
 
#556
@rubthe nub hey in your recipe if I were to switch out the lime for oyster shell (crushed), would I use the same amount or would that change to a lower amount?
 
#557
@Lazerus00 No, the dolomite lime is a pH buffer and source of Mg. Dolomitic lime can sometimes be a little tougher to locate. If you can't find crushed/powdered dolomite lime from garden center,hydro shop, feed store, etc... an alternate source is a product called athletic field marker. Make sure you do some investigation before using it though. Typically it is just powdered dolomitic lime. Ace hardware and similar places will either have it or can get it for you. It should only be 10-15 for a 50 lb bag.
You don't want hydrated lime. It can be used but it can also burn plants very easy. Take the time to find the dolomite;)
 
#558
@rubthe nub -- you're right, dolomite lime will provide Mg because it's MgCaCO3. Oyster shell is CaCO3. Due to that CO3 molecule, the oyster shell can act as a buffer the same way as the DL. It won't provide the Mg. That could be provided via Sul-Po-Mag, though (watch out for adding too much K if using it!).
 
#559
I know what lime does and according to @Tnelz crushed oyster shell does something similar, it adds calcium and acts as a ph buffer so you don't or rarely have to ph your nutrients. T also says lime tends to tighten up the soil unlike crushed oyster shell...
 
#560
Seamaiden said:
@rubthe nub -- you're right, dolomite lime will provide Mg because it's MgCaCO3. Oyster shell is CaCO3. Due to that CO3 molecule, the oyster shell can act as a buffer the same way as the DL. It won't provide the Mg. That could be provided via Sul-Po-Mag, though (watch out for adding too much K if using it!).
Click to expand...
you beat me to it...lol Although you of course had to drop that knowledge and I just repeated what someone told me...lol..Thanks for the info @Seamaiden
 
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