So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

I think I nailed it though. I gave them a buffered pH 6.4 water around 4 hours ago along with a pure water misting. They're all in full prayer again, the last 2 days they've looked a little less happy so I've been keeping an eye. Just after I fed a tea. So that was at least part of it, the slight yellowing bit on a few leaves at least was pH related. But mostly I think the black spots were thanks to the canola oil being over done a bit. Reason being that they are also on a little plant I am re vegging that had none of the low pH tea. Didn't cook this mix long enough I think, undershot the lime a touch too. So we learn. Would still love to see your pics, will get some up tomorrow of the worst looking leaf, its in a spot where I was going to trim it within the next week or so anyway to open canopy a tad. And I forgot to add that indeed they are flowering plants...

Flowering- ah-. Sounds great what you did there!

Keeping it simple I'm not happy with myself but rather a few troubled leaves than a mite plague... Anyhow I can tell they are happy as hell now but the next few days will be the proof of that. They still look fabulous so hoping I was accurate and quick enough. Most beautiful greens mate. Still not looking back to the hydro days lol... Even though I just might do a few hempys just to finish all these nutes I have around.

OK so after actually getting a leaf out from under the HID this one became a lot easier. It just didn't look even close under the HPS. Ca def for sure.
I totally forgot to mention I did give them some CaMg+ already along with their water, water first then the CaMg+ (I like to water before teas or any other feeds to make sure it's not all going to sit in one pocket).
Second prong of attack on the problem is going to be a little molasses come Wednesday/Thursday when they need some water again. Should kick it right in the balls.

This pic is of the worst leaf I could find. Only two leaves on this plant were anywhere close to this state. They were small ones but still older, from the middle of the bush. Only minor signs of it everywhere else. My thumb is in the pic for scale, apologies for the state of my nails but I literally just had my hands in dirt lol... Caught it right in time, booom.

So you're thinking you under-mineralized when the soil was started?

Yeah, it goes to show that less is sometimes, well, less LOL. It's cool though, like Gandalf said if it all just goes smoothly every time it would become boring. I really don't mind under-shooting here and there, one thing is for sure: MOAR is not BETTER. Long as drainage and structure is good, everything else can be managed. I guess my hydro thinking is still extending to LOS in a few ways.
I also feel the Rosemary helped show this early on by colouring the weak spots. I've noticed it does that, wherever there is damage the rosemary will darken the leaf a bit. Like all the faded bits from a Mg def on a coco plant a while ago, same story, dyed the yellow bits a little brown-ey. Pretty cool warning system.

Cool lesson for us all. Thanks for sharing!

Hey gang. I'm in my third week of cooking my super soil. It's a bit cool in my basement so its going to probably take a little longer than a month. I found a great local source for worm castings at a great price. So now I want to give mixing my own base soil a shot. I want to reuse the soil after use and I have read about problems with peat moss becoming more acidic over time. Any thoughts about that? Should I use coco coir in the base instead?

In mixing the super soil I have a bunch of stuff left over along with some other stuff I picked up because I saw it in a lot of organic soil threads.
Here's my list:
-Earthworm castings
-Big chunky perlite
-Kelp meal
-Epsom salts
-Humic acid
-Green bat guano 2-12-2
-Rock phosphate
-Dolomite lime (bag says it has calcium and magnesium - not sure if that means more is added)
-Happy frog fruit and flower 5-8-4 (Ingredients: Feather Meal, Bone Meal, Hydrolyzed Fish, Fish Meal, Fish Bone Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Sulfate of Potash Magnesia, Blood Meal, Bat Guano, Rock Phosphate, Kelp Meal and Gypsum)
-Blood meal
-Steamed bone meal 3-15-0
-Azomite

Couple more questions. In some of the mixtures I see ratios used. I'm going to assume that they are using volume and not weight right?
The base soil mixture will need to cook too?
Thanks for the help. I love this thread and can't stop reading about organics. The plants I have in veg look great but I'm very nervous about screwing it up and burning them

Heres what i have going right now, the ones in front are a cush from seeds, the back are fruity b indica.
These are our first run at any type of growing, sorry about the sideways pics

Rrog said:

Man that sounds awesome. I love the concept of fine tuning what's available locally. Everything's there.

I'd like to see about incorporating more leaf mulch, less peat. Looking for ideas for other materials that won't suck the N from the soil but have more gross texture. The springiness of peat is great. Pure (coarse) leaf mulch would seem to still need some added structure...

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How about chopped straw?

Well it just occurred to me that I could just cut my supersoil with promix or coco to make a base soil right?

im gonna use sunshine 4 advanced mix as a base cause i got a bale laying around. not the most cost effective but effective none the less.

chuckduck said:

Well it just occurred to me that I could just cut my supersoil with promix or coco to make a base soil right?

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Yeah if it is actually super soil it is probably pretty hot I would probably do 40% used supersoil, 40% Peat, coco or promix, 20% worm castings. And yes we usually use ratios rather then weight.

^ gotcha, thats more what he meant. same idea with the sunshine 4 tho. im making a "super soil" out of it. a very very light one.

i got a question? ive heard the term "Super soil" used a lot for alot of different reasons. is it generally a certain recipe that people call super soil? or is it more of an idea?

It started off as a recipe, a very hot recipe at that but it's becoming more of an idea.

word. well i just mixed up a batch, now to let it cook for a few weeks.

what do you guys think of my mix?

1 bale of sunshine advanced 4, 21 gallons of soil (give or take a hair)
2 cups green sand
2 cups granulated humix
2 cups bone char 0-16-0
3 1/4 cups dolomite lime
1 3/4 cup feather meal
1 cup bone meal
2 cups alfalfa meal
1 cup kelp meal
1 cup glacial rock powder
2 cups compost starter
1/2 cup earth syrup powder
1/2 bag sunshine hydro mix (more perlite basically)
1/4 bag chunky perlite.

im pretty sure thats all. sorry i dont know ratios its only my 2nd batch ive ever cooked up solo. lemme know if i need to add anything. im thinking of tossing in some wormy poop but idk. is it necessary?

I must say Organic is best.
We use Easy Bake from reindeersnatural.ca this works fine it's organic blend of plant foods that supply all the nutrients needed from start to finish if you want more growth use their water soluble fish bone the same analysis is bat guano readily available to the plants great for fast growth they make the best worm castings it's all organic.
The growers that are using synthetic products as, Avid, Copper sulphate, these products do not leave the plant, the poor people that are using this stuff for there illness. Are only getting more poison from the materials used to grow the weed in the first place.
Worm castings if you are using them make sure they are not sterilized most of organic soils on the market are the end product produced from bio waste the city garbage. They say it's organic but far from it.
We use Coco Peat for our soil it takes a bit to get use to grow with it but when you use reindeers plant foods you can reuse it all the time it gets better with age. processed from coco nuts. Organic growers have better product it's better for you
Bugs. Use Diatomaceous Earth can be made into a liquid and sprayed on the plant are wet the plant and dust it on this will control bugs, fungas gnats let the soil dry out this will get rid of them.
Thanks S

After having tried Diatomaceous Earth, I wouldn't use it again. Made the soil too tight, and there are other amendments that do the trick. (Neem, Crab Shell, BTI, Nematodes, etc.

HGK- Worm castings would be the first thing I'd add. Not sure how that would change your ratios, but 1/3 aeration, 1/3 Filler like peat, 1/3 worm castings. Then add amendments. My opinion only.

u ever hear of these guys? http://detroitnutrientcompany.com/our_products

local from what i can see. im gonna go grab a bag and add it to the mix tonight i think