Organic Soil Mixes And Discrepancies

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shemshemet

shemshemet

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Going over some of the more popular mixes I found some huge discrepancies.

Cootz mix vs LC Mix 2 (blood bone and kelp)

The phosphorus on LC mix is a couple magnitudes higher than Cootz mix. Can anybody tell me what gives? Is 2 tablespoons bone meal 1 tablespoon nitrogen correct?

I am seeing closer NPK numbers to the cootz mix using 1tbsp blood .5 tbsp bone 2 tbsp kelp.
 
shemshemet

shemshemet

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Bump for some knowledgable heads

@Seamaiden @SeaF0ur @Bulldog11

I'm sure there's more gurus out there...sorry if I missed ya
 
Bulldog11

Bulldog11

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I am not familiar with LC mix 2. However, the soil results I got back from my Coots mix is now the numbers I try to hit with any soil here on out. In my experience, it's very close to perfect.
 
shemshemet

shemshemet

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LC Mix 2 is basically peat-perlite-castings/compost similar to cootz mix. The bulk NPK is supplied through:

1 Tbsp Blood Meal
2 Tbsp Bone Meal
1 Tbsp Kelp Meal
 
leadsled

leadsled

GrowRU
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shemshemet said:
Going over some of the more popular mixes I found some huge discrepancies.

Cootz mix vs LC Mix 2 (blood bone and kelp)

The phosphorus on LC mix is a couple magnitudes higher than Cootz mix. Can anybody tell me what gives? Is 2 tablespoons bone meal 1 tablespoon nitrogen correct?

I am seeing closer NPK numbers to the cootz mix using 1tbsp blood .5 tbsp bone 2 tbsp kelp.
Click to expand...
Many mixes are not balanced. Most every time mixes are also lacking trace elements.
Each mix is different.

If you look at the whole sum of ingredients,.
Those two mixes are not all that similar. Except the base of the mix.
Are you calculating the %% based on weights of off a soil test?
Coots has multiple sources of Phosphous.
peat, compost, kelp meal, crusteacean meal, neem cake to name a few of the inputs.
 
shemshemet

shemshemet

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Right, so I am taking N-P-K percentages, not exact. Not chemical weight. But just getting in the ballpark of similar NPK numbers.

Not sure how people can grow healthy plants with two different soils, one of which has a massive amount of phosphorus added.

I am thinking in LC mix, the 2 tbsp of bone meal is unnecessary. I did a similar mix with much less blood and bone and it seems to be doing really well. Going to up the blood and bone just a bit to fine tune.
 
leadsled

leadsled

GrowRU
2,145
263
shemshemet said:
Right, so I am taking N-P-K percentages, not exact. Not chemical weight. But just getting in the ballpark of similar NPK numbers.

Not sure how people can grow healthy plants with two different soils, one of which has a massive amount of phosphorus added.

I am thinking in LC mix, the 2 tbsp of bone meal is unnecessary. I did a similar mix with much less blood and bone and it seems to be doing really well. Going to up the blood and bone just a bit to fine tune.
Click to expand...
Very true. If you have excessive N will cause the plants to grow fast but then be weak and sick.
Large cells with thin walls and lots of water.
There is more than NPK. The balance is Key.
I prefer feather meal is a good alternative to blood meal. A more long term sustained release of N. That way can encourage the microbes to process some N and not entirely overload the mix.

Lots of people try to overdrive plants with soil high in N and K.
Healthiest plants will be in the soil that has balance.

The soil with excessive P will have problems with trace elements.

Best bet is to test the soil and the determine the N inputs.
For each 1% of organic matter there is 50-100lbs of N to be released.

This chart shows the different amendments and the %. Then can use math to calculate the amendments needed.

Screen shot 2015 12 08 at 93623 AM


Hope that helps
 
shemshemet

shemshemet

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Thanks a lot! Definitely helps!

One issue is that I already have a supply of blood meal and bone char. I'd like to use them, and have been getting pretty good results. I know I can improve though, and so when I went to do more research on mixes, I found the huge discrepancy.

I think a soil test is in order.
 
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