12.5 cubic feet of base soil
2 bags RO 707 - 6 cubic feet
2 bags FFOF - 3 cubic feet <-Only non-coir based
1 bag Happy Frog - 2.0 cubic feet
I bag RO Potting Soil - 1.5 cubic feet
<-I'd say that you do need to add lime since your base is a majority coir.
The pH of coir isn't as stable as the pH of a humus based soil.
I don't know that from personal experience, just from what I've learned.
And I feel like if you're gonna amend the soil as you are, you should def. lime to be safe rather than sorry!
And all the %'s that you see, they're all much lower on the bag in % than they'll end up being in the soil.
Castings & composted manure
75-85 # of castings
4-5 cubic feet of composted manure
Additives
Tomato tone - 10 cups
Organic 8 - 10 cups
N guano - 5 cups
P guano - 5 cups
Powdered Lime - 3 cups
Epsom Salts - 2 cups
Kelp Meal - 7 cups
Powdered Humic Acid - 2 cups
Azomite - 2 cups
Crab Meal - 2 cups
Glacial Rock Dust - 2 cups
Food grade diatomaceous earth - 4 cups
Chunky perlite to get my desired consistency. Can, mix and inoculate.
*Everything in red that's bolded, I'd use for sure. The red non bold wouln't hurt, and the black I don't see necessary.
The two two amendents(Tomato Tone and Organic
work across the board as all around ferts, so they've already go crab meal in them.
The N in the soil can come from your EWC content alone, with the help from the two all purpose ferts, so I feel like that Hi-N Bat Guano would be more throwing it in there jut because.
Aslo feel that way about the powder humic acid. Don't think you need it as nutrient levels in the soil will balloon in numbers with time anyways!
But I just feel like less is better as is involvs a bit more control over everything...
And If I got by fine using half the stuff on the list I feel like you could too.
Using teas might throw things off if you're soil is too nutrient rich, as every time you water, your plant will be nourished.
So I feel like simple and less is better when you can stretch them across the board and cover all the nutes including micros ya know?!
What do you think boss?
What's you logic in adding so much?
And what are the differences between this mix and your last one?
Good afternoon! Its a gorgeous sunny and warm Michigan day, finally!
The mix is done and here is what I decided on.
12.5 cubic feet of base soil
2 bags RO 707 - 6 cubic feet
2 bags FFOF - 3 cubic feet
1 bag Happy Frog - 2.0 cubic feet
I bag RO Potting Soil - 1.5 cubic feet
Castings & composted manure
75-85 # of castings
2 cubic feet of composted manure
Additives
Tomato tone - 12 cups
Organic 8 - 12 cups
N guano - 5 cups
P guano - 5 cups
Powdered Lime -
0 cups
Epsom Salts - 2 cups
Kelp Meal - 7 cups
Powdered Humic Acid - 2 cups
Azomite - 2.5 cups
Crab Meal - 1 cups
Glacial Rock Dust - 2 cups
Powdered Rock Phostphate - 1 cup
Food grade diatomaceous earth -
0 cups
About 2-2.5 cubic feet of perlite in two sizes
Then I watered each 32 gallon container with 1 gallon of mycos and inoculants with 2 tsp of powdered molasses. BTW that stuff is great! The water smelled of molasses even with the stinky shits in there.
I don't know how much more diverse I could get until next time lol.
Compared to my past mixes - Here is sub's mix
8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs Bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
½ cup azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp powdered humic acid
The new mix is much more diverse with the meals, gypsum, greensand etc in the TT and Dr. Earth.... But I don't think its all that much more rich, nor is it more dense given the peat base, even with extra castings and manure. I don't usually add any N guano but I also am not using blood meal for the first time. It probably wasn't necessary but I did it anyways.
My logic in adding so much is to stick with the super soil concept. Fungal teas with carbs every 2 weeks or so. Large trained plants that require space to spread their roots and will never get root bound. I'll run it indoors for my ganji and use it in the garden when I'm done with it as I expect there will be plenty of stuff left for veggies and what not.
On the base soil.... Roots 707 is peat/coco/hummus in that order, which is the main reason I chose it.
FFOF is Hummus/Peat.
Happy frog is mostly hummus.
Roots Regular Potting soil is the only coir dominant bag.
There is no crab meal in either the Tomato Tone or the Dr. Earth 745 Organic 8. Definitely in the FFOF though. I just added one cup of crab meal for if nothing less a nice calcium boost (about 20%). I figured between the TT (5% Ca), Dr. Earth (7% Ca), crab meal (20%) and whatever else that calcium should be covered. Without the lime I chose to use the 2 cups of epsom salt for mag.
If its light anywhere it seems to be cal or mag. And with a top dressing of TT in flower I hope it will do well! Other than that my concern is PH, and I also hope that with a peat dominant mixed with hummus will keep the mix in a more acidic range which seems to suit me. I've never made a mix with anything other that regular roots.
When it comes down to it, the base mix is ALOT of soil. I figure this will flower about 25 plants in 8 gallon containers (filled halfway) and I wouldn't hesitate amending each flowering plant with the amount of additives broken down. It should be aggressive but I also think it should work well. I don't doubt that some strains will need the mix cut with pro-mix, and I have no problem with that. The SLH will definitely be on of those strains!
Big thanks to S420 and all other organic nerds who made suggestions, its help me find a mix that I'm excited about and can't wait to use!
Did you post your mix that's cooking S420? I need to go back through and look. If not, please share what's cookin!