GanjaGardener
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GGs Soil Mix Stage I
There are two fundamental approaches that growers, in search of an organic soil mix, can take. The direct and time-saving route is to copy or emulate the recipe and procedures of an experienced grower whose work you know and trust. Once you've had a couple grows w/ the new mix and gain confidence, there's plenty of time to embellish and add your signature if you wish. I have a seasoned grower to draw on and would've gone that route if, only, I was wired that way.
The second, more energy and time consuming route, the one that I took, is to drill down your custom base mix by experimenting w/ different systems, materials, and nute ratios until you stabilize and land on the mix or mixes that you're going to roll with which, if you are like me, frees you up to experiment w/ something else that is deemed to need experimenting on. As fate would have it, the soil mix that I discovered, is essentially the same mix my seasoned growing confidant had laid out for me two years earlier.
I use 2 different recipes- one for veg cycle and one for flowering. I use the veg recipe for seedlings, but at a lower nute concentration. Because a seed provides all of the nutrition that a plant will need for the first days of it's life, I create a thumb sized hole in the 3" container I plant them in and after dusting in endomycos I fill it w/ a 3-1 coir : seedling mix before planting and watering in. The roots need travel only 1/2" to contact endos and the custom soil mix that was prepared especially for them.
Coir- midrange textures- large chunks and powder are not your friends. Sea salt can be an issue. If so, I flush until I get an ec reading in the 100-200 range, (not true ec- ec reading as volumetric tool.) 100-200 is an arbitrary range- lower could be more optimum, or 100 could be overkill. If someone has a better handle on sodium chloride/sea salt and it's effects on plant growth than I, please speak up. In either case, I can tell you that the 100-200 ec range works. Ideally, you will have a trustworthy, consistent source and flushing will be a moot point.
Rice Hulls- As far as perlite is concerned, I'm a bigot. Used to love the stuff- built a system around it. Today, I have a strong distaste for perlite chunks and because I add soil from my high performing containers as I've made each new mix, I never can seem to get rid of the stuff.
I'm not going to lay the virtues of rice hulls on you, other than to say that they are environmentally friendly, sustainable, don't require a learning curve to use, don't pose the potential security probs that perlite (and pumice to a lesser extent) poses, they are less expensive than perlite and they make your soil a lot prettier to look at. A 1:1 rice hull (rh) : water flush may not be necessary, but that's my procedure.
Soaks/Cooking-
After the rh has been drained and the water has been squeezed out of the coir to give it a nice, spongy dry consistency, I process them. I'll fill you in on the quantities, %'s and ratios in a follow up post, but for now, I'll stick to the procedures and ingredients I use and my rationale for using them.
Note: although coir has a trace amt of nutritional value, I don't count it in w/ my formulas.
Coir- 24 hour soak in solution using the same water soluble minerals that I use in my soil and foliar feeds. Because I already have H2O soluble minerals in my arsenal, why not let them infuse and spread out evenly throughout my base soil components while I'm moistening them up? I'll add the dry nutrients and addies that aren't water soluble to my mix later.
-- H2O soluble silica and 50+ trace elements (Nutri-Min)- re: Silica is the most abundant element in the Earth's soil and coir is essentially devoid of it. Same applies to trace minerals. I'll break it down later, but the mined mineral that I use comes from a colloidial clay deposit which, in addition to a high quality humus source, provides excellent TEC, (total exchange capacity), which virtually frees me of any concerns of a poor cation-anion exchange substrate in my container. We'll probably talk some more about TEC downstream.
-- Sulfate of Potash, (Potassium Sulfate) *extra fines* re: 100% soluble K and sulfur source.
Rice Hulls-
-- strain a 2x solution of FPE- a DIY 'fermented plant extract' or "plant juice', save the drain off- it is usable.
re: Filters out latent solids from FPE and embeds catalysts, amino acids, and other good things into the rh. Ancient Organics and EJ are two of the more familiar labels that carry fermented nutes and I suggest using them instead of DIY ferments which are a tricky to brew and, therefore, risky. I place DIY ferments in the experimental category.
-- ACTs - their benefits have been well documented.
-- Cold Pressed Liquid Kelp- optional
re: cold pressed to get the full pallet of available active agents, hormonal stimulants and optional because, depending upon your ACT, it may be redundant and unnecessary.
Processed in a black 5 gal bucket/s- loosely covered (I use burlap), put on a heating pad and/or under a light in the grow room, give it an occasional turn for heat distribution (not critical), and let the mixture 'cook' for 24 hours.
That's Stage I. You can run w/ it from there or just jump past it. I'm good either way. I'm about to get busy.
On my "things I haven't seen propped for awhile" list:
Most of the folks I know that are into organic growing are already subscribers. But for those who aren't and are a serious about cutting edge organics, you should not be w/o an Acres Magazine subscription.
There are two fundamental approaches that growers, in search of an organic soil mix, can take. The direct and time-saving route is to copy or emulate the recipe and procedures of an experienced grower whose work you know and trust. Once you've had a couple grows w/ the new mix and gain confidence, there's plenty of time to embellish and add your signature if you wish. I have a seasoned grower to draw on and would've gone that route if, only, I was wired that way.
The second, more energy and time consuming route, the one that I took, is to drill down your custom base mix by experimenting w/ different systems, materials, and nute ratios until you stabilize and land on the mix or mixes that you're going to roll with which, if you are like me, frees you up to experiment w/ something else that is deemed to need experimenting on. As fate would have it, the soil mix that I discovered, is essentially the same mix my seasoned growing confidant had laid out for me two years earlier.
I use 2 different recipes- one for veg cycle and one for flowering. I use the veg recipe for seedlings, but at a lower nute concentration. Because a seed provides all of the nutrition that a plant will need for the first days of it's life, I create a thumb sized hole in the 3" container I plant them in and after dusting in endomycos I fill it w/ a 3-1 coir : seedling mix before planting and watering in. The roots need travel only 1/2" to contact endos and the custom soil mix that was prepared especially for them.
Coir- midrange textures- large chunks and powder are not your friends. Sea salt can be an issue. If so, I flush until I get an ec reading in the 100-200 range, (not true ec- ec reading as volumetric tool.) 100-200 is an arbitrary range- lower could be more optimum, or 100 could be overkill. If someone has a better handle on sodium chloride/sea salt and it's effects on plant growth than I, please speak up. In either case, I can tell you that the 100-200 ec range works. Ideally, you will have a trustworthy, consistent source and flushing will be a moot point.
Rice Hulls- As far as perlite is concerned, I'm a bigot. Used to love the stuff- built a system around it. Today, I have a strong distaste for perlite chunks and because I add soil from my high performing containers as I've made each new mix, I never can seem to get rid of the stuff.
I'm not going to lay the virtues of rice hulls on you, other than to say that they are environmentally friendly, sustainable, don't require a learning curve to use, don't pose the potential security probs that perlite (and pumice to a lesser extent) poses, they are less expensive than perlite and they make your soil a lot prettier to look at. A 1:1 rice hull (rh) : water flush may not be necessary, but that's my procedure.
Soaks/Cooking-
After the rh has been drained and the water has been squeezed out of the coir to give it a nice, spongy dry consistency, I process them. I'll fill you in on the quantities, %'s and ratios in a follow up post, but for now, I'll stick to the procedures and ingredients I use and my rationale for using them.
Note: although coir has a trace amt of nutritional value, I don't count it in w/ my formulas.
Coir- 24 hour soak in solution using the same water soluble minerals that I use in my soil and foliar feeds. Because I already have H2O soluble minerals in my arsenal, why not let them infuse and spread out evenly throughout my base soil components while I'm moistening them up? I'll add the dry nutrients and addies that aren't water soluble to my mix later.
-- H2O soluble silica and 50+ trace elements (Nutri-Min)- re: Silica is the most abundant element in the Earth's soil and coir is essentially devoid of it. Same applies to trace minerals. I'll break it down later, but the mined mineral that I use comes from a colloidial clay deposit which, in addition to a high quality humus source, provides excellent TEC, (total exchange capacity), which virtually frees me of any concerns of a poor cation-anion exchange substrate in my container. We'll probably talk some more about TEC downstream.
-- Sulfate of Potash, (Potassium Sulfate) *extra fines* re: 100% soluble K and sulfur source.
Rice Hulls-
-- strain a 2x solution of FPE- a DIY 'fermented plant extract' or "plant juice', save the drain off- it is usable.
re: Filters out latent solids from FPE and embeds catalysts, amino acids, and other good things into the rh. Ancient Organics and EJ are two of the more familiar labels that carry fermented nutes and I suggest using them instead of DIY ferments which are a tricky to brew and, therefore, risky. I place DIY ferments in the experimental category.
-- ACTs - their benefits have been well documented.
-- Cold Pressed Liquid Kelp- optional
re: cold pressed to get the full pallet of available active agents, hormonal stimulants and optional because, depending upon your ACT, it may be redundant and unnecessary.
Processed in a black 5 gal bucket/s- loosely covered (I use burlap), put on a heating pad and/or under a light in the grow room, give it an occasional turn for heat distribution (not critical), and let the mixture 'cook' for 24 hours.
That's Stage I. You can run w/ it from there or just jump past it. I'm good either way. I'm about to get busy.
On my "things I haven't seen propped for awhile" list:
Most of the folks I know that are into organic growing are already subscribers. But for those who aren't and are a serious about cutting edge organics, you should not be w/o an Acres Magazine subscription.
