Mixing soils to save moolah

[beckerjeremey29]

Soils are getting super expensive nowadays and I was looking for a way to save money on soil. My friend suggested that I only purchase a couple of bags of the premium soil like FFOF and mix it in with a cheaper big box store soil that has no nutes. What do you guys think about this. If it is a possible solution, what would you recommend as a decent cheap brand of soil to work with? Also, what ratio would you mix both soils together. I was thinking 50/50.

 

[Bdubs]

That is the ticket. Pick a soil that has a good moisture holding property (like a top soil) and the other one that drains well (usually a basic soil). Some line the outside with the top soil and the center be the regular soil. To prevent premature drying out (typically if you are using cloth bags, it is smart to it this way) it also promotes roots to grow outward and not straight down into a ball with more moisture content at the edges where you lined with top soil.

 

[hilbert]

My process is weird when it comes to medium. First off, I have a hybrid soil/perlite where I use 40% perlite and I grow in 5 gallon containers.

At the end of each run, I toss the root balls into a tub and break them up really good and extracts as much of the root mass as possible while saving as much of the soil/perlite as possible. Once I have that all sorted out, I'll use a 75% "old media" and 25% "new media" for my next grow.

So if I have, say, 3 planters worth of "old media", I'll add 1 planter worth of "new media" to the mix. In this example, I would add 2 gallons of new perlite and 3 gallons of new soil. Mix it all together and use that to fill my 4 new plants.

Now, I fertigate every single time I water. There are no "water only" waterings for my plants, since my media has so little nutrients actually IN it. Except at the end when I do a 2 week flush. Has been working very well for me.

Here is some Gorilla Zkittlez from my last run.

 

[RhastaBlasta]

One way to go indeed. I sometimes do my own composting, not that hard but takes time. I just take some vegetables that are spoiled, add some potato skins and the grass I remove from my garden then put it all into the box and let it lie there, add some stuff to it, and it's basically a good mix for the good soil

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

@beckerjeremey29 - How much soil do you need? I ask because one bag of FFHF might be enough after you mix in perlite (highly recommended) and perhaps other amendments, like earthworm castings (which is also an excellent amendment).

 

[Natep]

Soils are getting super expensive nowadays and I was looking for a way to save money on soil. My friend suggested that I only purchase a couple of bags of the premium soil like FFOF and mix it in with a cheaper big box store soil that has no nutes. What do you guys think about this. If it is a possible solution, what would you recommend as a decent cheap brand of soil to work with? Also, what ratio would you mix both soils together. I was thinking 50/50.

I think that is the most expensive way. Mix peat moss compost and pumice. Dry amend with craft blend and pre charged bio char and basalt. You can re amend and keep using the same dirt for multiple grows. No need for synthetic nutrients or ph or flushing.