Post your Soil(less) mix!

Kalyx

Kalyx

Active Member
Good call on the nematodes, they should find a healthy food source and get a good population going fast. Predatory nematodes are my go to choice for gnat control. I make sure to treat every soil ball in my home at least once a year and live a relatively gnat free life surrounded by many nice houseplants and medicinals.

Big ups for the soil reuse details. I do something similar. My cook times vary greatly and all my plants are great. One thing I do different is I make a serious effort to remove as many of the roots from the old rootball as I can. I find its best to take them apart within 3 days of harvest so the roots are still strong and flexible. Its another harvest time chore but I find it totally worth the extra effort in offsetting medium purchases for my greenhouse, outdoor, and soon indoor crops. Have you considered adding 50/50 coir/perlite to your tumbler instead of just perlite (or some more coconot)? It may help to give a fresh start with long coco fibers again to enhance the structure in a way that perlite can't mimic. If it ain't broke don't fix it tho, just a thought.
 
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blueJ

Active Member
^^^^ I'm looking for ways to ditch perlite alltogether, if not simply for the sickening amount of dust it makes. I need to buy pure coco, i was using roots organic mix to get my coco, and my shop won't sell me coconot anymore except by the pallet which at this point would last me a lifetime lol. I need to find a feedshop around here that sells rice hulls.

Anyone in socal, specifically the IE know of a good feed shop?

No matter what i've grown in, high perlite content has always been key, and it's cheap and readily available, and lightweight lol, so it's easy to just keep on keepin' on with the damn perlite....
 
Kalyx

Kalyx

Active Member
Where I live a compressed bale (about 20 gallons expanded) or coir is 10-15 (GH offers and OMRI bale). Also the coconut croutons might be awesome for what you are doing. I hear you on the perlite being hard to let go of. I have not been adding any since switching to veganics and wonder if its that or the nutes themselves which are causing my plants to yield a bit less. Perlite is organic based but it is not natural and it contains formaldehyde and other nasties because its a man made kiln product, and yeah the dust is dangerous to inhale on a regular basis. I think hydrofarm ditched the cocoNOT so it will be harder to get at hydrofarm supplied shops. I got my last bags on the cheap as part of their ditching it sale I think.
 
drolove

drolove

Well-Known Member
i use half beach sand from down by the water so it has lots of salt in it and mix it with lots of broken glass and sea shells. i top feed with dog poo. just water in some poo when it stops stinking and your good to go
 
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blueJ

Active Member
Finally find some rice hulls (locally)! All it took was actually taking 5 minutes to search online and i found a home brewing website that has a storefront in riverside ca, rice hulls for less than $2/lb oh yeah, probably cheaper @ feed stores, i'm checking out a couple of those tomorrow also. Hopefully all grows well and i can edit my soil recipe to REMOVE the dusty ass perlite.

Wanted to add some minerals to my mix also so i picked up some gypsum and sul-po-mag (langbeinite I believe) to throw into my next batch i'll be whipping up tomorrow. I wanted more potassium in the mix and the sulpomag @ 0-0-20 will cover that, as well as provide magnesium, so i can take epsom salt out of the recipe.
 
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DrGreener

New Member
Ok this is my mixture which works really well i also add nutrients every feeding anyways

15.2 cubic feet of pro-mix BX mycorise
3 bags of sheep manure <--- very good Slow release
3 bags of sea compost shrimp/ seaweed etc
3 bags of top soil
3 bags of organic soil
1 bag of perlite
2 bags of Sand
lime
and some peatmoss
4 cups of actual living worms
 

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DrGreener

New Member
any Rona or home depot should have a line of sheep manure i use night crawlers i go to a fishing store and pick up some there refrigerated and alive lol also look for worms in back garden after rain
 
drolove

drolove

Well-Known Member
DrGreener said:
any Rona or home depot should have a line of sheep manure i use night crawlers i go to a fishing store and pick up some there refrigerated and alive lol also look for worms in back garden after rain
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do you have to feed the worms?? or do they eat something already in the soil?
 
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DrGreener

New Member
thats a good question worms eat bacteria,and a variety of organic material as well as dirt that is why i add organic soil , and top soil sparingly to my mixture i have even gone to the extreme of adding from my liquid fert making container the potato skins ,orange peels, lettuce etc stuff i used to make my plant food with , is more or less a mulch now i strained and also mixed into soils worms will eat off that as well
 
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l8lDANKl8l

Active Member
Kalyx said:
My bad, I thought this was a post your soil mix thread in the Organic forum. So I wanted to point out two products that do NOT fit in here. This is from a tomato growing site posted 4/2011:



For those of us who do define organics as 100% organic (OMRI will list products which are 96% I believe) OMRI is a good starting point, but each item and its source ingredients ARE scrutinized in my style of higher organics. The alaska emulsion gets the majority of its N from synth nitrogen forms. I was just pointing this out. Neptune's harvest fish hydrolysate is OMRI listed and way more full spectrum nutrition than any emulsion product, listed or not. Anyone else got any good ORGANIC mixes? Post em up and don't put synths in them IMO if you are gonna toss the O-word around.

It only seems religious to ones who may not be as dedicated/educated about the importance of reviving a living organic mindset as opposed to a petrochemicals are all around so who cares mindset. Growing is a journey, we are all on it and have our own personal preferences. Me personally, 100% organic or as close as I can get to my knowledge is the only way I care to do it. Obviously, not everyone who can click on the word organics on RUI shares this strict of a definition, IMO the closer you get to true living organics the better your medicine will be. Oh yeah and organic is more of a lifestyle decision, it will make you greener and healthier in more than just the cannabis you consume.:leaf:
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agreed. It comes down to self respect. Do you care if you kill or harm yourself? lol Do you want synthetics some guy, that you dont know nor ever will, made in your blood, lungs, brain etc? The only effect it has on that person is their financial stability. Your health doesnt matter to them. So its left up to the consumer,YOU, to make that decision..do you prefer something thats been here surviving for millions of years or lab chems inside of you.
 
drolove

drolove

Well-Known Member
DrGreener said:
thats a good question worms eat bacteria,and a variety of organic material as well as dirt that is why i add organic soil , and top soil sparingly to my mixture i have even gone to the extreme of adding from my liquid fert making container the potato skins ,orange peels, lettuce etc stuff i used to make my plant food with , is more or less a mulch now i strained and also mixed into soils worms will eat off that as well
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ah ok cool. think worms would be good in something like regular fox farm soil or should something else be added for them to snack on. i know the ocean forest soil has all kinds of bits and ends im sure they could munch on.
 
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BuffaloBanjo

Member
Drolove, WORMS ARE GOOD. Period. And the FF will provide plenty of food for the worms. There are entire books written on vermiculture, so I can't begin to explain all the benefits of worms but for a short list. They keep the soil loose by crawling around in it. They help keep bacteria, fungus in check. They help with transforming raw nutes into forms that can be used by the plant ( ie worm castings)

And they are the kings of compost
 
drolove

drolove

Well-Known Member
BuffaloBanjo said:
Drolove, WORMS ARE GOOD. Period. And the FF will provide plenty of food for the worms. There are entire books written on vermiculture, so I can't begin to explain all the benefits of worms but for a short list. They keep the soil loose by crawling around in it. They help keep bacteria, fungus in check. They help with transforming raw nutes into forms that can be used by the plant ( ie worm castings)

And they are the kings of compost
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cool hell ya guys thanks for the worm info. gonna go get some :p
 
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BuffaloBanjo

Member
Good deal. You can also find plans for a vermicompost bin you can keep inside if need be..they really are simple,cheep, and easy. I know you guys think I probably have like a naked worm poster above my bed, but these little guys are amazing. A neighbor made my first bin for me and I was skeptical to say the least. He gave it to me filled with 2 lbs of red worms and shredded up newspaper for bedding. I put about a pound of food scraps in and really forgot it for like a month I expected to find nasty rotting shit and dead worms but instead I got the OG Kush of soil additives. Also you can catch any moisture dripping from the box dilute with fresh water and you've got vermicompost tea which can be used as foliar spay, root drench,and it is the only thing besides water I will put on a seedling or young clone. If you have any more questions just mesg me. I like the soiless mix thread idea and I'm cluttering it with worm shit.
 
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blueJ

Active Member
^^^^ hahah it's alll good man! We couldn't ever talk enough about worms in this thread, easily the single most important ingredient in a soil mix & is the only bulk nutritional item that is added when i re-amend a batch of used soil (coupled in equal amounts with a drainage/aeration ingredient i.e. rice hulls / perlite)
 
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blueJ

Active Member
I'm about to transplant in an, already, updated mix with added mineral ingredients, after positive results are insured I will update the ingredient list on my mix. Possibly a water only mix (water & teas that is) since a few plants have gone in the mix that is already posted with only maybe 10% of there waterings being bottled ferts, the rest teas or straight water and growth is exceptional. I do expect to be able to drop bottled ferts all together with this new mix, just compost teas, botanical teas & water :D And pulling better harvests than before :D
 
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