First super soil run how did I do?

Hey y’all, finally mixed my first attempt at a super soil. What do you guys think? What did I do wrong here? Any changes you see that could be made?

Recipe:

Hmmm, hard to say cause I don’t have tons of time to do math but you have a lot of ingredients, potentially causing slot of unknowns

I personally like a simple mix with these ratios

base mix 1/3 peat 1/3 aeration 1/3 castings

2-4 cups NPK amendments per CF total

4 cups minerals ( rock dust, azomite, basalt et)

1cup ouster
1cup gypsum
1 cup brown rice

all per cubic foot

I like simple as well. That’s got a lot of ingredients and may be wonderful if mixed properly. If you followed a trusted recipe it should be fine, if you randomly mixed up stuff you had on hand, you may want to grab a calculator.

green_machine_two9er said:

Hmmm, hard to say cause I don’t have tons of time to do math but you have a lot of ingredients, potentially causing slot of unknowns

I personally like a simple mix with these ratios

base mix 1/3 peat 1/3 aeration 1/3 castings

2-4 cups NPK amendments per CF total

4 cups minerals ( rock dust, azomite, basalt et)

1cup ouster
1cup gypsum
1 cup brown rice

all per cubic foot

Click to expand...

Rock dust? I use volcanic ash

Hook Daddy said:

I like simple as well. That’s got a lot of ingredients and may be wonderful if mixed properly. If you followed a trusted recipe it should be fine, if you randomly mixed up stuff you had on hand, you may want to grab a calculator.

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I tried to cover all my bases, I made the mistake of purchasing things when I had the money one or two amendments at a time. And before I knew it I had WAY more than I anticipated. This is a learning experience for me so even if I make mistakes than atleast I can learn from them. But I’ve done a fair amount of research. About the only thing I couldn’t get a grip of was exact numbers. Any kind of help regarding how I can use a calculator to better understand what’s in my soil helps.

green_machine_two9er said:

Hmmm, hard to say cause I don’t have tons of time to do math but you have a lot of ingredients, potentially causing slot of unknowns

I personally like a simple mix with these ratios

base mix 1/3 peat 1/3 aeration 1/3 castings

2-4 cups NPK amendments per CF total

4 cups minerals ( rock dust, azomite, basalt et)

1cup ouster
1cup gypsum
1 cup brown rice

all per cubic foot

Click to expand...

Finding the hard numbers to get an NPK number wasn’t very thorough and I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t conflicting with other things I had seen or read. Any tips on using math to help get the answers I’m looking for helps. I did however get some ballpark numbers from other recipes and used those to make my final decisions when mixing

_EQ said:

I tried to cover all my bases, I made the mistake of purchasing things when I had the money one or two amendments at a time. And before I knew it I had WAY more than I anticipated. This is a learning experience for me so even if I make mistakes than atleast I can learn from them. But I’ve done a fair amount of research. About the only thing I couldn’t get a grip of was exact numbers. Any kind of help regarding how I can use a calculator to better understand what’s in my soil helps.

Click to expand...

You would have to research some, most items you should be able to find info on google or your favorite engine. For instance I have never used feather meal, so looked that up and it’s generally 12-0-0 with not much else, so lots of nitrogen, and you have 2 lbs in there. Does it need that much more nitrogen? I don’t know, but it would be easy to over do the nitrogen if you put all 2 lbs in there. The npk ratio is by weight, so fairly easy to figure once you know the individual ingredients npk. if you have a 16-28-22 fertilizer it is 16% nitrogen, 28% phosphorus and 22% potassium.

Or you can use Albo Peppers npk calculator. I have never used it, but I used his original design for my sips and they are awesome, so I bet his calculator works as well.

Hook Daddy said:

You would have to research some, most items you should be able to find info on google or your favorite engine. For instance I have never used feather meal, so looked that up and it’s generally 12-0-0 with not much else, so lots of nitrogen, and you have 2 lbs in there. Does it need that much more nitrogen? I don’t know, but it would be easy to over do the nitrogen if you put all 2 lbs in there. The npk ratio is by weight, so fairly easy to figure once you know the individual ingredients npk. if you have a 16-28-22 fertilizer it is 16% nitrogen, 28% phosphorus and 22% potassium.

Or you can use Albo Peppers npk calculator. I have never used it, but I used his original design for my sips and they are awesome, so I bet his calculator works as well.

Fertilizer Blend NPK Calculator -AlboPepper.com

This calculator enables you to determine the NPK of a custom fertilizer blend. You simply need the weigh of each fertilizer and its NPK value.

albopepper.com

Click to expand...

Right so I have the end totals of the NPKs of all my amendments. It was finding how much of each I should use that I wasn’t finding much hard information on.

Hook Daddy said:

You would have to research some, most items you should be able to find info on google or your favorite engine. For instance I have never used feather meal, so looked that up and it’s generally 12-0-0 with not much else, so lots of nitrogen, and you have 2 lbs in there. Does it need that much more nitrogen? I don’t know, but it would be easy to over do the nitrogen if you put all 2 lbs in there. The npk ratio is by weight, so fairly easy to figure once you know the individual ingredients npk. if you have a 16-28-22 fertilizer it is 16% nitrogen, 28% phosphorus and 22% potassium.

Or you can use Albo Peppers npk calculator. I have never used it, but I used his original design for my sips and they are awesome, so I bet his calculator works as well.

Fertilizer Blend NPK Calculator -AlboPepper.com

This calculator enables you to determine the NPK of a custom fertilizer blend. You simply need the weigh of each fertilizer and its NPK value.

albopepper.com

Click to expand...

From my research it’s pretty common to see most recipes overdo the nitrogen so I’m pretty sure I over did it in mine as well. My problem or confusion mainly is this. If I have feather meal 12-0-0 and than crab meal 4-3-0 would I be adding the numbers and than taking an average as my end NPK? And than at that rate how much of each do I apply per gallon or CF.

_EQ said:

From my research it’s pretty common to see most recipes overdo the nitrogen so I’m pretty sure I over did it in mine as well. My problem or confusion mainly is this. If I have feather meal 12-0-0 and than crab meal 4-3-0 would I be adding the numbers and than taking an average as my end NPK? And than at that rate how much of each do I apply per gallon or CF.

Click to expand...

If you looked at the calculator I pointed you to above, you enter your weight of each amendment and npk value, or any other values, you can use calcium, magnesium and iron, and it will give you the final ratio once mixed. You have to know what you want at the end before you start. You can up and down the weights of each until you reach your desired mix.

You need to run a grow with it and see what it does. I'd imagine it would with the directions following the box. But the real data comes from an actual grow. Let's do this!

_EQ said:

Finding the hard numbers to get an NPK number wasn’t very thorough and I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t conflicting with other things I had seen or read. Any tips on using math to help get the answers I’m looking for helps. I did however get some ballpark numbers from other recipes and used those to make my final decisions when mixing

Click to expand...

Here’s a simple one that grows dankest weed and can recycle your soil for better results each round

1 cup alfalfa
1 cup neam
1 cup crab
1 cup kelp

1 cup oyster
1 cup gypsum

4 cups mineral ( basalt, rock dust, azomite)

You can use 4 cups basalt
Or to diversify micros use 1.3 cups each of 3 types of minerals

per 1 cf (7.5 gallons)

Don’t skimp on base materials either
High quality spagnum peat, highest quality perlite and best earth worm castings your can source

also when mixing base it’s important to get ratios correct for example most peat bales come with 30% perlite ( promix HP, sunshine mix). So your base would look something like this

2.5 gallons castings
1.75 gallons perlite
3.25gallon promix This way your rations of peat/ perlite/ castings are in the the correct
33% ballpark

this recipe works takes limited time to cook because the NPK is balanced and nothing has high level like most animal products( feather blood bone meals ) you don’t need those high numbers

bone meal for example with 3-15-0 can months to years for the P to truly break down and be plant available, definitely not in 2 months of Cannibus lifecycle. Bone meal is water INsoluable so really relies on fungal networks and biology to break down. The catch 22 is high phosphorus content inhibits mycorrhiza growths this stalling out plant feeding!

This leads to next point. Biology is just as important as your inputs into soil. Focus on soil health first, plant health and potential will follow.
feeding the soil can look like a simple top dress or alfalfa meal and castings every couple weeks. Also proper moisture is key for this living container to take off. More water is typically better than less when dealing with living organisms. 5-10% water by soil volume daily! Really making sure to have minimal runoff.

Runoff instantly when watering means under watered…… increase slightly. This typically is due to peat becoming hydrophobic and making pathways for water to travel fast through the medium- usually if this is the case the runoff will be sucked up within 30 minutes or so

runoff in tray day after but not instantly when applying water. This is typically overwater soil

Key is right in the middle Goldilocks zone, find the perfect medium area that works for you and your environment, warmer obviously will mean more water, cooler temps will equal less on average,

hope this helps I’m not on as often as I used to be but I’m happy to try to help people get on the right tracks with organic soils. Let me know any other ideas or questions
Or want to chat about recycling, that’s where the real magic happens

Jeffislovinlife said:

Rock dust? I use volcanic ash

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Rock dust or mineral dust are honestly the most important factor in living soil. Increase Cation exchange and provides micro nutrients for YEARs or decades even. A single price of rocks dust never really goes away or “melts” into soil It stays the same forever and more or less exchanges single ions pulled in the the plant system with the help of fungi and bacteria. Don’t skimp of rock dusts,

not sure about volcanic ash? I know I use a lot of volcanic rocks dust though maybe the same thing?
Gaia green glacial rock dust
Basalt rock dust


There is a ton of different mineral products out there I always prefer diversity cause when I make a soil, I plan on keeping it forever. Why skimp on one product when you can have diversity for a lifetime of soil use

Sorry to ask this, not meaning to hijack the thread. But are you telling me you all dry amend soil with nutes for the whole grow from the get go??? I always imagined having all that PK in there before flower would for sure cause nute burn

bignugs68 said:

Sorry to ask this, not meaning to hijack the thread. But are you telling me you all dry amend a soul with nutes for the whole grow from the get go??? I always imagined having all that PK in there before flower would for sure cause nute burn

Click to expand...

I personally amend my soil before each grow, recycling the soil. I don’t use enough to last the entire grow, I will top dress as well throughout the grow. I’m not sure if anyone is trying to make a soil go an entire grow, with small plants it’s very possible I suppose. I read the above as a solid starting point, how the plant reacts throughout the grow will determine what else you put in as the plant matures.

bignugs68 said:

Sorry to ask this, not meaning to hijack the thread. But are you telling me you all dry amend soil with nutes for the whole grow from the get go??? I always imagined having all that PK in there before flower would for sure cause nute burn

Click to expand...

Don’t think of dry amendments as “nutes” these things are apples to oranges.
A well balanced soil can have amendments added with no regard to N for veg, or PK for flower because in living organic soils the plant itself dictates when and how it uptakes nutrients. Based off its needs at that particular time…. The plant will also adjust ph of the medium all by itself! Amazing!
As she reaches Maturity and has a greater demand for P for example, it will produce tiny substances that draw certain microorganisms which in turn, lower soil ph. Thus naturally stoping uptake of N ! I’ve documented this natural swing many times and it’s truly a miracle how nature arranges and takes care of itself… all the organic farmer has to do is set the stage… make life easy on the micro herd, keep environment set and sit back and be truly amazed!

Hook Daddy said:

I personally amend my soil before each grow, recycling the soil. I don’t use enough to last the entire grow, I will top dress as well throughout the grow. I’m not sure if anyone is trying to make a soil go an entire grow, with small plants it’s very possible I suppose. I read the above as a solid starting point, how the plant reacts throughout the grow will determine what else you put in as the plant matures.

Click to expand...

I do whole grows no additions often, large pots are key. With small containers constant top dressing is usually needed for most strains

green_machine_two9er said:

Don’t think of dry amendments as “nutes” these things are apples to oranges.
A well balanced soil can have amendments added with no regard to N for veg, or PK for flower because in living organic soils the plant itself dictates when and how it uptakes nutrients. Based off its needs at that particular time…. The plant will also adjust ph of the medium all by itself! Amazing!
As she reaches Maturity and has a greater demand for P for example, it will produce tiny substances that draw certain microorganisms which in turn, lower soil ph. Thus naturally stoping uptake of N ! I’ve documented this natural swing many times and it’s truly a miracle how nature arranges and takes care of itself… all the organic farmer has to do is set the stage… make life easy on the micro herd, keep environment set and sit back and be truly amazed!

Click to expand...

Ah so this ties into the thing I heard Dr. Bugbee say. Organic amendments need the microbes to make the NPK usable. That usable form is what synthetic nutes already are when bought. But I never thought(sadly) for a second that dry amendments would be way less likely to burn at a certain NPK than a matching synthetic. And I'd read briefly how microbes release stuffs to raise or lower pH to allow nutrients to uptake even if the soil is slightly off.

I want to get to all organic, but being only on my third grow, synthetics allow me to fix a mistake now, whereas if I messed up my amendment I imagine that'd be hard to fix. Lots of flushing or dare I say you'd have to report, gingerly cleaning the roots?

bignugs68 said:

Sorry to ask this, not meaning to hijack the thread. But are you telling me you all dry amend soil with nutes for the whole grow from the get go??? I always imagined having all that PK in there before flower would for sure cause nute burn

Click to expand...

Yup water-only grows are definitely a thing. As said above, the trick is using a big enough pot to provide enough "food" for the plants' lifetime, without the mix being too strong. Think about a plant out in nature, the soil composition doesn't change with the seasons, the plants just use what they need when they need it.

bignugs68 said:

Ah so this ties into the thing I heard Dr. Bugbee say. Organic amendments need the microbes to make the NPK usable. That usable form is what synthetic nutes already are when bought. But I never thought(sadly) for a second that dry amendments would be way less likely to burn at a certain NPK than a matching synthetic. And I'd read briefly how microbes release stuffs to raise or lower pH to allow nutrients to uptake even if the soil is slightly off.

I want to get to all organic, but being only on my third grow, synthetics allow me to fix a mistake now, whereas if I messed up my amendment I imagine that'd be hard to fix. Lots of flushing or dare I say you'd have to report, gingerly cleaning the roots?

Click to expand...

Oooo there is still plenty of room to burn a plant with amendments. It just takes longer.
Also steering clear of slaughterhouse inputs will help.

N amendments like blood meal, feather meal, guanos can fry chicken a plant faster and more horribly than synthetic. And your right recovery from something like that is fuxking near impossible. You try something like the recipe I listed above and you can go wrong, pinky promise ….
Or to be even more safe use 1/2 cup of each amendment during the soil build. So total of 2 cups NPK amendments. 4 cups minerals still( can’t burn with those) and 1 cup gypsum/oyster

edit: if going with less initial inputs, just simply top dress more often through cycle And in reality it doesn’t have to be VEG of FLOWER mix. Just use the same amendment ratio as the soil build, and use about 1 teas/ gallon of soil every 7-14 days depending on strain/ needs of plant/ pot size. Sprinkle and then top the amendments with 1/4-1/2 inch castings Each time you apply
Also for a first timer you can add 1 cup of organic brown rice to the mixing process for a jumpstart carbohydrate source for microherd. Your cooking soil will get a layer ( hopefully) of white healthy mycelium. And the soil itself becomes chunky and holds its form when you pick up a big piece. This is the mycelium “glue” ( non scientific). This networks can go the the moon and back if your measure the length of fungal networks. That’s the key Fungal dominant with healthy amount of bacteria as well.