Soil Receipt Advice?!

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
what about using soilless media as the base instead of the soil?
then you'd be growing hydroponically it's not the same, unless you are suggesting just amending a soiless mix with organic amendments, but I fail to see the advantage of that? Not talking shit either, I don't know why you would want that, the idea of organics is to as closely as possible, replicate mother nature, am I wrong?
would it be all in coco, or rockwool?
 

radicaldank42

Well-Known Member
coco definitely, but I was thinking like throwing in a a bag of soil into the mix to make it more soily but have like two bag of soiless and one bag soil, like vermifire or auroras potting mix. and yes ill be using sub colls mix with my own little tweaks. im just asking for opinions I haven't done it yet but I like soilless mixes better trhen soil, but its always coco
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
coco definitely, but I was thinking like throwing in a a bag of soil into the mix to make it more soily but have like two bag of soiless and one bag soil, like vermifire or auroras potting mix. and yes ill be using sub colls mix with my own little tweaks. im just asking for opinions I haven't done it yet but I like soilless mixes better trhen soil, but its always coco
ahh, well that's a lil different, I misunderstood you, that's just a basic soil recipe only you are using coco instead of peat, that's an age-old discussion.
you can do it, the CEC of the coco isn't as good as the peat, but it's more enviro friendly.
some people buy big ole bags of promix as the peat and aeration mix, that's technically soiless, as long as you add the EWC or compost, you can do it.
vermifire is some good soil, the best ready made, in my opinion. I love the volcanic rock, I used a bunch as a base for my ROLS. Works perfect
 

radicaldank42

Well-Known Member
well like I said I tweaked it, instead of high phosphate guanos I use soft rock phosphate which it doesn't leach out of the soil it stays int hat one spot. I also make my own worm compost and add my own bacteria and shit too it to make it more alive, and I strictly feed them leafs from previous grows, fruits, n veggies, I also use biogas humic and fulvic acids which the humic already has carbonhydrates or something like that id have to read the bag again, I also throw I their cyto blast which is 0-0-7.5 and has the seven micronutrients in it plus humic acid and seaweed. im looking to switch from blood meal to something els idk yet, but also alfalfa kelp meal etc. and volcanic rock, I want to find it but im moving close to yellow stone and I mite go and collect it myself.
 

radicaldank42

Well-Known Member
theirs different soil bases to use. if im saying this rite I use coco coir with perlite and lots and lots of EWC and humic acids with seaweed and micronutrients and other ingredients to the concoction and make youre own soil, 100% organic and you nmake it strong enough for you just add water and that's it and make a bloom soil when you transplant just add lkots of fungi and bacteria and whamo bamo gotts beastly nuggets!
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
from what i see in your recipe bud, you need to tone back a lot on the nutrients as well. you should only need .5 cups of each different amendment/nutrient per cuft. of soil. so oyster shell, alfalfa meal (cubes are a BAD idea), vermiculite, kelp meal, gypsum, bone and blood meal (which are unnecessary but it's your mix!) all of those things should be measured at .5cups per cuft of base. you most importantly need close to equal parts earth worm castings, peat, and drainage for a good base.

so if your promix has perlite mixed into it already, it's probably around 25-30% perlite. ok yes i just looked it up and this is accurate. SO, to achieve the proper ratio of peat to perlite, for every 3 parts of promix, you must add 1 part of drainage to your mix. so for example, if you take three 5 gal buckets full of promix and dump them in your mixing bin, add 1 bucket of perlite, and you have close to equal parts peat to perlite (or whatever drainage you want to use). then you need to get the worm castings in there. and a lot more of them. again equal parts of all three in the base.

now add your amendments .5cup of each per cuft. the rock dusts can be applied at 2 cups per cuft. i would stay away from adding anything fresh like fresh manures or fresh grasses in the mix. these items should be composted first. use the rye straw as a mulch rather than mixing it into the soil. you won't need the charcoal ash IMO.

good luck with your mix, bud!
 

cannakis

Well-Known Member
from what i see in your recipe bud, you need to tone back a lot on the nutrients as well. you should only need .5 cups of each different amendment/nutrient per cuft. of soil. so oyster shell, alfalfa meal (cubes are a BAD idea), vermiculite, kelp meal, gypsum, bone and blood meal (which are unnecessary but it's your mix!) all of those things should be measured at .5cups per cuft of base. you most importantly need close to equal parts earth worm castings, peat, and drainage for a good base.

so if your promix has perlite mixed into it already, it's probably around 25-30% perlite. ok yes i just looked it up and this is accurate. SO, to achieve the proper ratio of peat to perlite, for every 3 parts of promix, you must add 1 part of drainage to your mix. so for example, if you take three 5 gal buckets full of promix and dump them in your mixing bin, add 1 bucket of perlite, and you have close to equal parts peat to perlite (or whatever drainage you want to use). then you need to get the worm castings in there. and a lot more of them. again equal parts of all three in the base.

now add your amendments .5cup of each per cuft. the rock dusts can be applied at 2 cups per cuft. i would stay away from adding anything fresh like fresh manures or fresh grasses in the mix. these items should be composted first. use the rye straw as a mulch rather than mixing it into the soil. you won't need the charcoal ash IMO.

good luck with your mix, bud!
Hahaha oh yeah that recipe is pretty much tossed aside I was trying to find Exactly what I did... I have written down somewhere I'll post later... Hahaha "unnecessary but your mix" haha!!!

And thanks for your help and advice great information! I'll post back here soon of what I actually did and what I'm thinking...
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Hahaha oh yeah that recipe is pretty much tossed aside I was trying to find Exactly what I did... I have written down somewhere I'll post later... Hahaha "unnecessary but your mix" haha!!!

And thanks for your help and advice great information! I'll post back here soon of what I actually did and what I'm thinking...
no problem cannakis. anytime.

i just say they're unnecessary because they aren't the cleanest of organic inputs. the bone and blood meals, and guanos can not only make you sick if mishandled, but they can also harbor diseases to your plants. take the fossilized seabird guano causing the potato blight in europe for example. the shit was working awesome, literally!! but then disease took over and millions of people starved. but lots of people use those products with great success (subcool super soil recipe for example) and i'm not saying that those products will carry disease to your plants, but they can be hazardous to health if that's a concern to you. but like i said its your garden, put the things in it that make you feel like you're doing the best for your girls. it's just a personal preference for me.
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
That was some great information! Thanks!

Getting ready to build another batch of soil here soon... Trying to study up and get it Right this time last time took Way too long to cook and get ready and I Still had to add sulfur and cottonseed meal to get the potential hydrogen down...
what?
add sulfur and cottonseed to get the hydrogen down?
what the bejesus are you talking about man?
Annnd ya know I love ya man, but if we give you a recipe, are you going to FOLLOW it...
you damn tinkerer, you...
 

cannakis

Well-Known Member
no problem cannakis. anytime.

i just say they're unnecessary because they aren't the cleanest of organic inputs. the bone and blood meals, and guanos can not only make you sick if mishandled, but they can also harbor diseases to your plants. take the fossilized seabird guano causing the potato blight in europe for example. the shit was working awesome, literally!! but then disease took over and millions of people starved. but lots of people use those products with great success (subcool super soil recipe for example) and i'm not saying that those products will carry disease to your plants, but they can be hazardous to health if that's a concern to you. but like i said its your garden, put the things in it that make you feel like you're doing the best for your girls. it's just a personal preference for me.
I understood the great Potato Famine of Ireland which led to a massive immigration to the uS was because of Monoculture and they grew One type of potato instead of different varieties and so then disease hit and destroyed everything because there were no alternative varieties...!
what?
add sulfur and cottonseed to get the hydrogen down?
what the bejesus are you talking about man?
Annnd ya know I love ya man, but if we give you a recipe, are you going to FOLLOW it...
you damn tinkerer, you...
Hahaha oh yeah I will! And did! Haha completely forgot to look at that journal back at the house...
But what I was talking about is my pH (potential hydrogen)... My soil after sitting for even like 6 months it was still Alkaline as fuck so I had to add Sulfur and Cottonseed meal to make the soil more Acidic..

I do always remember from a year ago someone told me on here... "Innovation without experience leads to failure."! Isn't that The Truth for Everything!!!
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
I understood the great Potato Famine of Ireland which led to a massive immigration to the uS was because of Monoculture and they grew One type of potato instead of different varieties and so then disease hit and destroyed everything because there were no alternative varieties...!
yeah but they brought the disease from mining fossilized seabird guano from the eastern south american coastlines! you are right though, monoculture combined with this disease wiped out the potatoes.
 
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