First Time Organic Super Soil Advice Needed

[Nosellortell]

First time post, so I guess I'll give a little background info. A few years ago I ran a grow room for someone. We grew in soil and used fox farm products with some success. So I guess that makes me a novice.
I have become very interested in organic soil now that I've decided to grow a couple plants for myself outdoors in pots. I've looked around on the web a bit for recipes for super soil. My budget is somewhat limited, so I am trying to use what I already have and I have ordered a few products that I saw mentioned in many recipes. This is what I have come up with so far.

30 gal compost/ perlite/ vermiculite/200g coco coir inoculated with Great White
1/2 lb bone meal
1/4 lb bat guano
1/4 lb blood meal
2 tbsp Epson salts
2 tbsp sweet lime
2 tbsp azomite
2 tbsp 40% powdered humic acid mix w micro nutrients

The compost, vermiculite, and perlite are already mixed. I am making a pretty small batch compared to the recipes and I found online. So I'm worried that my calculations may be off. I will be purchasing a bag of worm castings to add to the soil mix. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am sure that I have left out some key ingredients in my list. As mentioned before my budget is limited and my grow is small scale.

 

[3N1GM4]

I would take the bone meal down to 1/4 lb and add a few ounces of rock phosphate, but I have no experience and I am just going by subcools recipe
8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs Bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
¾ cup epson salts
½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
½ cup azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp powdered humic acid


I also think that your limes and epsom salt proportions might be off.

 

[Nosellortell]

Thanks for the replies. Lots of great info already. And nice pictures.

I will certainly leave out the Epsom salt/lime and take advice on the lower amounts of bone meal. I have seen Rock phosphate mentioned many times, and I may get some if I make another order .

My compost mix is very rich with worms already in it. I added 6 pounds of worm castings into it today and mixed it through. I'm introducing the ingredients slowly and keeping it turned over in a very large tree pot. I keep it moist with rainwater that I collected from the storm drain.

I really like that the live soil does not require maintaining the pH. That was always a big pain in the ass in my small grow room.

 

[3N1GM4]

Thanks for the replies. Lots of great info already. And nice pictures.

I will certainly leave out the Epsom salt/lime and take advice on the lower amounts of bone meal. I have seen Rock phosphate mentioned many times, and I may get some if I make another order .

My compost mix is very rich with worms already in it. I added 6 pounds of worm castings into it today and mixed it through. I'm introducing the ingredients slowly and keeping it turned over in a very large tree pot. I keep it moist with rainwater that I collected from the storm drain.

I really like that the live soil does not require maintaining the pH. That was always a big pain in the ass in my small grow room.

Worms love black and white newspaper, no funnies, if you lay some on top of your soil you will start to see pieces go missing, the worms come up and eat it off the top.

 

[Nosellortell]

Organics is simple its the stoners that make it difficult in all seriousness. by adding amendments blindly goal is keeping green ratio and browns at decent levels use amendments from your neck of the woods make your own fertilizer only thing i would suggest truthfully speaking and if you already have them Great,, get a ppm meter i am making a vegan dry organic blend fertilizer testing it out in green house this year and waiting for lab test results to come back then after documented grow this year its marketing time ..
But my liquid fetts i make after few days an reach level of over 2000 ppm works out to 1 cup of my juice to 4 cups of water giving me 700 ppm perfect for feeding all stages here is my home made organic liquid food and vegan organic line i will market eventually if it all pans out
With the organic craze it might be a hit who knows

Once I get this soil thing down, I certainly want to look into making my own tea.

Great advice on sourcing locally and keeping it simple. That has always been my philosophy. I do some gardening and have a small scale Nursery in the back of my property going at all times. I began composting months ago. Then a friend of mine found a couple seeds in a bag of GSC. The seeds sprouted on 4/20. It's been 4 years since I've sprouted some beans. I look forward to giving full attention to just a couple plants. It will be nice to be just growing for myself instead of maintaining a profit driven grow room.

 

[Nosellortell]

Thought I would post an update to get some opinions. I have been working this batch of soil and adding to it a little bit at a time. I have not been able to find my NPK soil test kit yet but will get to that soon.
Shortly after my last post I was given a batch of 6 inch tall seedlings from someone who wound up with too many. These were grown out to 3 gallon size in my soil mix. 4 out of 7 turned out to be male. The remaining three I am certain are different strains with one showing pre flowers already and another looking like a strong growing sativa. The third is a runt and I'm not too sure it's going to have much potential. However all seven of the plants did quite well in my soil mix especially considering they were grown in partial shade. The three females were recently adopted by a friend of mine with a large amount of property and a greenhouse. I kept only the seedling from a seed found in a bag of GSC.

The original recipe has undergone some adjustments.

6 lbs worm castings, 40 gal compost/ perlite/ vermiculite mix 11 lbs coco coir

Great White Mycorrhizal Inoculants
1/2 lb bone meal
1/4 lb bat guano
1/2 lb blood meal
1/2 cup azomite
1 cup 40% powdered humic acid mix with micro nutrients.

Amended with Bamboo Leaf Drop and composted live oak leaves to correct low ph.

Beneficial nematodes added to combat pests introduced from compost pile. Fungus gnats in particular.

Split mix into two batches using a little more blood meal for the vegetation batch and a little more bone meal in the flower batch.

I'm trying to keep this simple and not spend too much money since it's such a small grow. But I'm sure this mix could benefit from some additional ingredients. All input and advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Kygiacomo]

i would highly suggest that u add kelp meal. its the one amendment i would never grow without it. kelp offers macro & micronutrients,amino acids,Pgrs,better water absorbation and many other things, and its a feast for the microbes. i use azomite but i also throw in gypsum,oyster shell flour and basalt rock dust,but u dont have to put all i listed for the minerals if i had to choose 1 of these i would just use basalt... if its possible i would also suggest crab meal as well. it has chitin which does wonderful things for the plant such as disease and pest resistance,activates Systemic acquired response,high in calcium and nitrogen.

 

[Nosellortell]

Kelp meal and basalt will certainly be added.

I already have some rock phosphate but have not added it yet. I would like to reuse my soil adding it to a fresh batch after each use. In this case would it be recommended to use Rock phosphate?

 

[Nosellortell]

Given the recipe shown that I've used so far, how much kelp meal and basalt would you recommend?

 

[Kygiacomo]

Given the recipe shown that I've used so far, how much kelp meal and basalt would you recommend?

i use 2 cups of basalt per cubic foot and 1/2 cup per cubic foot of kelp meal.

 

[Nosellortell]

Will post updates & pics in the near future. Thanks for all the great advice so far.