Gnats/Cooking SuperSoil

neem and crab meal, with diatamaceous earth mixed into your soil mix, for the win! wonder how much azamax i would need to drench the 75+ yards being delivered today, ha! ... practical sustainable farming

KushKing, how are you?

Hehe, practical sustainable farming is a complete oxymoron atm huh? But that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for it. Agricultural version of cold fusion - although with the current population increase cold fusions is more likely.

good bro, could have used your chemistry expertise yesterday, trying to determine two different soil analysis in different scales. lbs/af vs ppm. optimum saturation of cations... my brain hurts.

nematodes knock out gnats fast...but so does not overwatering once everything is potted...put potatoes in your soil and every few days dig them out and toss whatever is in them away..the larvae will go to any sources of organic material in your soil...not just roots...hell if I notice I have watered and it not dried soon and I get them then I just stick some leaves down in the soil and leave everything to dry...the leaves so they will eat that as opposed to the roots --- no basis in fact, just seems to make sense to me, and gnats have never caused me issue, even though I have had them a few times...but MJ likes to go dry, but gnats hate it...so just let everything dry out...or add sand on top of the soil and some sticky glue trap things on top of the sand and you should grab them all in no time...sand drains and dries exceptionally fast, and gnats go to moisture to lay their eggs...if your soil is dry they go look for a leaky tap, or wet towel somewhere...lol. Most gnats seen in houses, but not on fruit are fungus gnats..they don't like things that are dry...so if you catch the adults or jsut kill them, and take away their nice wet egg receptacle (the soil) then they will be gone, as they have no way to reproduce in your area with your plants...

1 gallon of azamax makes 256 gallons of soil drench solution. At 1 pint per gallon of soil as recommended, you would need 7.3g of Azamax to treat 75 yards of soil.

How many dump trucks is 75 yards?

Kush, sounds like you need a blunt. Are you trying to increase the CEC, or just calculate it? Like are you modifying humus / clay levels or such?

75 yards is a semi full of dirt or 2025 cubic feet

rrog: i want to amend whats being delivered so that its comparable to buttes analysis

Might want to black out the personal information.

I'll have to check out Butte's Journal.

no personal info there. thats correspondence between lab and soil company

Wish I was there to lend a hand, Kush

are you able to convert these two scales? owner told me buttes mix had about 10x the N.

His ratios are as follows - 5:1:16 NPK with the K 2:1 insoluble:soluble
Your current ratio -
?:1:13 insoluble
2:0:3 soluble

I would recommend adding 2 parts soluble N, 4 parts insoluble K, 2 parts soluble K, .5-1 part P. I would also recommend adding some insoluble N but no idea what to recommend as it's not really defined in your test. Generally safe to go with a large amount of alfalfa meal for this. Helps with aeration, slow release so you won't fuck it up (too much N late in flower), and it has several natural growth regulators.

His levels are MUCH higher so you would need to add quite a bit at around that ratio.

heres what i ordered to amend with

1500# rock phosphate 0-3-0
100# azomite
250# bat guano 0-7-0
250# feather meal 12-0-0
250# blood 12-0-0
100# humic acid
1500 # oyster shell
750# gypsum
625# alfalfa 2.5-1-1
200# magnesium sulfate
750# fish bone meal 3-16-0
250# crab meal 4-3-0

edit: 15 yards of castings also being delivered

That looks good to me but I might not add all of the magnesium sulfate. You already have a bit of Mg and you're sulfate levels are a tad high. Can always supplement with a liquid Mg if necessary.

Do you have a link to his journal? I'm curious as to his results with a mix like he's using. Those tests of his were pre amending or post?

I love the scale off all of this

I'll second that ^

Makes me nervous about giving any advice though. To be honest, aside from my personal grows, super highly amended potting soil is not really what I study.

You seem to have a perfectly good handle on it to me, GT.

I started with highly amended Super Soil, and am now top dressing with compost from a very diverse base of vegetation. I'll continue on with this same soil as a No-Till, amending with composts as I go.

Kush, what's the plan with this soil after you grow a round in it? Amend and continue?