Critique my super soil recipe

[phenotyper]

Hi everyone! I am really stoked to begin a fully organic round of ladies. I wanted to share my recipe that I came up with after talking a lot to Mr Bong and UP (who I hope chime in here!)

This mix was designed to be similar to Subcool's supersoil. I plan on using AACTs, and molasses, but mostly pure water with this mix.


I'll be running my Green Crack cut first, because I know she is hardy and a heavy feeder. I plan on filling about 1/2 of a 3 gallon smartpot with this mix, and using FFoF/LW (2:1) as the base which the plant gets transplanted into.

She just got a done of tea (8 cups in 2 gallons) of water consisting of 4tbsp EWC, 2tsp molasses, 2 tsp Bone Meal which was put into 2 gallons of water, with some chloramine destroying stuff and bubbled for 48 hours with two airstones and a pump to keep it all circulating.

Anyhow:

Phenotyper's Mix

1.5 Cubic Feet FFoF
20 Cups Super Poop Organic EWC
1/2 Bag Light Warrior
2 cups Dolomite Lime
4 tbsp Humic Acid
3/4 Cup Seabird Guano (1-10-0)
6/4 Cup Green Sand (0-0-3)
1 Cup Alfalfa Meal (2.5-1-1)
9/4 Cup Kelp Meal (1-.1-2)
1/4 Cup Azomite

All of this got mixed up thoroughly and put into an 18 gallon roughneck. I plan on letting it sit for a week, tossing it around a bit, then watering with more poop tea.

Can anyone make any suggestions or recommendations for this mix? Three things I am concerned about 1) Did I use too much lime? 2) Did I use too much humic acid? 3) This is supposed to be hot, but it is too hot?

Thanks everyone! Really excited to pump out some fully organic flowers.

 

[HolyMunchies]

Ingredients look fine but the measurements seem off to me. Personally I dont see enough base soil for that much amendments. FFoF is commonly too hot anyways. I'm not saying it will or wont work for you but I would recheck the math.

Compare your lime and humic acid your using more than him and he is using
6x-8x the soil.

Im sure you already are adding perlite but I would throw a hefty amount in whenever using Fox Farm products.

Subcool's OLD RECIPE

6 Bags Roots soil or equivalent high quality supped up grow soil
25 pounds Pure Worm Castings
½ cup Azomite trace minerals
2/3 Cup Sweet Lime IE Dolomite
1 Kilo Bone meal / IE 5 Pounds
1 Kilo Blood meal ( I use a bit more bone than Blood in this recipe)
1 Kilo Bat Guano bloom formula preferably Fruit bats
3/4 cup Epson Salts
The Perlite and Coco I happen to have and it will make a better mix but it is not necessary


REVISED RECIPE

-8 large bags of high quality organic potting soil w/coco fibers & mycorrhizare(sp?)
-25-50 lbs. of organic wormcastings
5 lbs. steamed bonemeal
5 lbs. bloombat guano
5 lbs. bloodmeal
3 lbs. rock phosphate
3/4 cu. epsom salt
1/2 cu. sweet lime (dolomite)
1/2 cu. azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp. powdered humic acid

NEWEST RECIPE

8 large bags of high quality organic potting soil with coco and Mycorrhizae
25-50 lbs. of organic worm castings
5 lbs. of Blood meal 12-0-0
5 lbs. Bat guano 0-5-0
5 lbs. Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0
¾ cup Epsom salt
1 cup Sweet lime (Dolomite)
½ cup Azomite ( Trace element)
2 Tbs. powdered Humic acid

 

[phenotyper]

Hrmm,yeah, unfortunately I think I was going by the cup of lime per cubic foot and I may have gone overboard. Since I just made a ton of this soil, is there any way to amend this or will my ph always be on the high end?

As far as the humic acid, I was following what the instructions were on the Down to Earth box. I figured that I didn't know what percentage humic acid he used, so that seemed like the better idea.

 

[ibTheMan]

Sunshine Advanced#4, 10% extra coco, 30% coarse Perlite, its will be better then all that^, and consistent

 

[mittenmedgrow]

Better for what?

 

[bigcheese510]

i think thats gonna be to hot bro. id add some more light warrior and maybe even some coco to dull it down a bit. im using subcools super soil now and its hot. definantly dont put a small plant in it.

 

[GreenThumbBill]

Subcool variations are usually too hot. Too much stuff. They throw in the kitchen sink.

Have you checked out blaze one up's KISS recipe over at icmag? I've been running a modified version of it for the last year or so and love it.

Here is what I have found to work for myself:

1.5 cu ft ffof OR 707
4 cu ft sunshine#4 (organic) OR pro mix hp (organic)
1/3 bag ff chunky perlite
1.5 cup sparetime organics blood meal
1.5 cup sparetime organics bone meal
1.5 cup sparetime organics kelp meal
1.5 cup sparetime organics trace minerals
1 cup sunleaves soil sweetener dolomite lime

Mix and use, no baking. Would never let my soil sit outside, fuck that.

I put fresh rooted clones into plain FFOF or 707 and then transfer them into this mix after 3 weeks of veg, veg another week and then flip. All my strains go 63 days of flower. I feed nothing but plain water the entire grow from cut to harvest. Easy-peasy-japanesey!

Oh yeah, if you haven't already, check out this cat's grows. He is legend.http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=59380

 

[mittenmedgrow]

That's what I'm talkin bout. You ph that water? Tap I assume. I'm looking to try something like that.

 

[GreenThumbBill]

That's what I'm talkin bout. You ph that water? Tap I assume. I'm looking to try something like that.

No, I don't PH the water. Dolomite lime buffers sufficiently. I check the runoff to make sure ph is in check and top dress with more dolomite as needed to keep everything at 6.5 (very rarely needed). I use Denver city water filtered through a tallboy with chlorine/chloramine filter (non stock had to buy separate). I connect a garden hose to the tallboy and hand water each plant with a 36" wand. Couldn't get any easier. Clone in rapid rooters, 3g smart pots for veg, 5g smart pots for flower. 3oz per plant average.

 

[HolyMunchies]

And it wont need anything but water from start to finish? Advanced #4? Obviously different from Regular SS #4?

I just grabbed a bag 28.95 for compressed 2.2cu ft expands to 4.4cu ft. I threw some lowryders in it for a test run.

It's basically Sunshine's answer to FFoF and Roots based all in one wonder soils. I don't believe it will be able to last longer than 4-6 weeks before feeding is needed but I think it will be a perfect starter soil.

 

[GreenThumbBill]

I just grabbed a bag 28.95 for compressed 2.2cu ft expands to 4.4cu ft. I threw some lowryders in it for a test run.

It's basically Sunshine's answer to FFoF and Roots based all in one wonder soils. I don't believe it will be able to last longer than 4-6 weeks before feeding is needed but I think it will be a perfect starter soil.

Not positive but I don't think the sunshine advanced line is organic. Pretty sure they use the old wetting agent.

 

[GreenThumbBill]

Hrmm,yeah, unfortunately I think I was going by the cup of lime per cubic foot and I may have gone overboard. Since I just made a ton of this soil, is there any way to amend this or will my ph always be on the high end?

Whoa. You used about 500% more dolomite lime than you needed. How many cups total did you use? How much ffof?

 

[mrbong73]

Pheno
1 cup per cubic foot lime is the recommended rate that I have seen. I don't think you will have any problems.
If you're worried about it you could get some Spagnum Peat Moss to add in which will lower the pH of the mix.
You could also add more EWC to help buffer.
Cutting it with peat, ewc and pumice/perlite will help if you think it is too hot.

I don't see much in the way of N in there. Are you relying on the ffof and alfalfa?
Good luck
mrb
edit: you could go 1 cup per cf on the Azomite

 

[phenotyper]

Mr Bong, yeah I am relying on FFoF, alfalfa and the 3x kelp meal, should put the ratio just over 5.5. Think it will run out through flower? I could always top dress, or add something that is more slow release nitrogen.

 

[GreenThumbBill]

I don't think anyone needs that much lime unless their water ph is really low to start with (like texas or other places where water quality is terrible). I always get high ph runoff and lockout issues if I go more than 1/4 that much. Do what works for you I guess.

 

[mrbong73]

It's more for long term stability in a peat based mix. As the peat breaks down it will lower pH and as the lime breaks down it will raise pH and provide calcium and magnesium. (dolomite)
If you're not reusing your soil then it probably won't really matter that much.

 

[GreenThumbBill]

It's more for long term stability in a peat based mix. As the peat breaks down it will lower pH and as the lime breaks down it will raise pH and provide calcium and magnesium. (dolomite)
If you're not reusing your soil then it probably won't really matter that much.

A big part of my soil recipe is SS#4 organic which is peat based. (see pg 1). But I only add 1 cup DL for the entire recipe (approx 7 cu ft). Never really had any problems. A couple times here and there the runoff tested low, so I top dressed DL, but overall I find I don't need much. And no, I never reuse soil.

But this is not my thread and I'm not having issues, so I'll stfu, lol.

 

[HolyMunchies]

Not positive but I don't think the sunshine advanced line is organic. Pretty sure they use the old wetting agent.

When I talked with my local store they said it is indeed considered fully organic the wetting agent was the problem they have been messing with it for over 2 years trying to get it right. The wetting agent is a Yucca extract which is supposed to be organic. I am no scientist and have not dug into this for verification just passing on what was discussed.