SoulSoil(roots alternative) homemade and less than $15 a bag

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Soulman4466

Well-Known Member
Hey yall,
Been a while... about to get back in it, and blown away by how much roots cost. Over $23 per 1.5Cf on the east coast and I can’t find something I like for less... This time of year I can find fox farms for around $16 but I bet we can do better.
So here is my SoulSoil, this is the mix I’ll be using as my potting soil as well as my base for super soil...
This recipe will be enough for a half batch of super soil alittle over 6CF
I like to start with COCO Coir... make sure yours is HortiGrade as coco fiber is known to have salt in it.
This year I used HydroFarm organic coco planting mix. These bales make approx. 2.5 CF once you add 7 US GAL of water.
So I get out the Rubbermaid wheelbarrow that holds 7.5CF and add a bale and 7GAL H2O and wait about 30 min. I like to break it up with my hands and make sure there are no lumps,then I add 2 CF of perlite... mixing again folowed by approx 1CF peat moss. Now you have a pretty nice base mix devoid of nutes with a PH in the 5's..... This is similar to the Cornell mix (famous soilless mix) then I add about .5CF lobster compost, .75CF composted manure, and 5 lbs. EWC. To this I mix about 4cups of crushed oyster shells, 6 cups of vermiculite, 8 cups garden lime, 4cups diatomatious earth, 4LBS espoma garden tone, 1/4 cup azomite, 2 Tab epsomsalt, and humic acid. I like to "cook" this at least 2 weeks. This is mixed up in a kiddy pool, seriously folks this, a shovel and some muck boots makes this EZ work. (Espoma Garden Tone is organic and has lots of good stuff in it + Myco.)
2.5CF coco $12 or less
2CF perlite $13
1CF peat moss $3
.5CF lobster compost $8
.75 composted manure Free( find a local farm remember cows eat grass not grain!)
.125CF EWC (noble worm organics $16CF)
4 cups crushed oyster shells $2
6 cups verm $1
8 cups Garden lime $1 (this is crushed limestone not hydrated or quick lime)
4 cups diatoms $1
4 LBS garden tone $5
azomite, epsom salt, humic acid, $4
Now when I want super soil I mix this up plus

25 LBS EWC, 2.5 Fish bone meal, blood meal, bat guano
+ 1 Tab Humic acid, 1/2 cup lime, 1/3 cup epsom 1/4 cupazomite

And this cooks 2 months....OR.....60 days...OR....1,440hours!!!!!!!!

Now this is my house potting soil and I make it for less than $8CF... Please feel free to ask any questions, Ill throw up some pics of happy plants as I take them.
 
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Soulman4466

Well-Known Member
Thanks for stopping by farmer Joe, please feel free to give your mix.... I just hope we can get people growing Dank for a little less!
 
Endur0xX

Endur0xX

Well-Known Member
thanks for sharing, I won't have to use this recipe as long as I can get promix for less than 30$ for 3.8cu.ft. unless someone tells me good reasons to stop using it... so far I am liking it
 
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evanb

Member
Endur0xX said:
thanks for sharing, I won't have to use this recipe as long as I can get promix for less than 30$ for 3.8cu.ft. unless someone tells me good reasons to stop using it... so far I am liking it
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Are you using the promix as your base and in making Super Soil? Which promix did you settle on? Thanks.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Many would love mixing their own. But living in apartment or rent houses puts the damper on that. So FF and MG and others have a huge market and thankfully they are there.
 
farmerjoe420

farmerjoe420

Well-Known Member
farmerjoe420 said:
that mix seems solid. i mix my own too and i will never go back to buying high dollar commercial soil.
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i use lc's base to start using a 3qt bowl for parts and i use the following per cubic foot

5 parts peat moss
3 parts perlite
2 parts shrimp compost
1 cup of lime
1/2 cup azomite
1 cup blood meal
1 cup bone meal
1/2 cup kelp
3 cups espoma bio tone

its not much different than the original recipe just added bio tone, azomite and a little more bloodmeal. nothing fancy at all. i can make this real cheap and it works very well.
 
farmerjoe420

farmerjoe420

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
Many would love mixing their own. But living in apartment or rent houses puts the damper on that. So FF and MG and others have a huge market and thankfully they are there.
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i live in a rental now and still mix my own. you can mix smaller batches in totes and store it in the same container.
 
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stak

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
Many would love mixing their own. But living in apartment or rent houses puts the damper on that. So FF and MG and others have a huge market and thankfully they are there.
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It's possible to mix up your own soil no matter where you live. I rent a studio apartment and use custom soil that I mix up here. There's about 45-50 gallons sitting here aging right now. I use 20 gallon rubbermaid bins to bring in any large bag items into the apartment like the coco, worm castings and perlite. Then I use the same type of bins to mix the soil by mixing them up in ten gallon batches and then combining two batches to store in one 20 gallon bin. Hell I started mixing my own soil in the last place I lived which was just a rented room in a house.
 
Endur0xX

Endur0xX

Well-Known Member
evanb said:
Are you using the promix as your base and in making Super Soil? Which promix did you settle on? Thanks.
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Most often I buy high porosity promix HP with myco's . the bag is white/black/orange

I use it to mix my super soil and I use it for seedlings and to transplant my plants in the SS
 
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Soulman4466

Well-Known Member
yes mixing up soil or substrate is easily done just about anywere, rigt on STAK, thanks for stopping by. love the covert tek.

Enduro I have nothing against the pro mix, I just found it to be a little devoid of nutes, do you amend it at all, even before you use it to make super soil.
 
Endur0xX

Endur0xX

Well-Known Member
no I dont, maybe I should. but for a little while I have been doing 12-12 from seed and they have a slow start anyway, but as soon as the roots hit the diluted supersoil (the mid section...) they explode with growth and I only burn my plants when I do stupid things afterward. I simply start my seeds a while before I will need them so the slow start doesnt bother me as long as they are growing healthy.
 
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Soulman4466

Well-Known Member
hey nugs, do you think 8 cups of garden lime is to much for 6CF of soil. most peat has a ph in the 4's and coco in the 5's. what are your thoughts or concerns. thanks for stopping by.
 
farmerjoe420

farmerjoe420

Well-Known Member
Soulman4466 said:
hey nugs, do you think 8 cups of garden lime is to much for 6CF of soil. most peat has a ph in the 4's and coco in the 5's. what are your thoughts or concerns. thanks for stopping by.
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it might be a little much. i think you would be safe with 6 cups. i use 1 cup per cubic foot and i never had any negative effects from having too much lime. alot of people say 1 cup per cuft is too much but it works great for me. i never have to ph adjust water or nutrient solutions since the lime buffers everything.
 
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evanb

Member
farmerjoe420 said:
it might be a little much. i think you would be safe with 6 cups. i use 1 cup per cubic foot and i never had any negative effects from having too much lime. alot of people say 1 cup per cuft is too much but it works great for me. i never have to ph adjust water or nutrient solutions since the lime buffers everything.
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Hey farmerjoe420 so if my water is about 8 for pH or 5 for another example the lime will get it to the proper pH? That is fricking cool if that is how I'm understanding it.
Thanks.
 
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Soulman4466

Well-Known Member
evan B, if your asking will lime buffer down the answer is no. i believe what farmer is saying is that typicaly his medium is a bit acid (because of peat) so at 1 cup per CF it buffers up to the right place. alot of soil growers dont PH figuring if the water is in a decent range the organisms living in the soil will take care of it, and I believe this is true. but drasticly wrong PH can be a bitch. My well throws out water with 179TDS and a PH at 8. at first I phd and filtered but I didnt notice a difference, so I just use it as is.

I did a run off test today and it was 8, so in my case maybe a little les lime would have brougt me to neutral.
 
farmerjoe420

farmerjoe420

Well-Known Member
evanb said:
Hey farmerjoe420 so if my water is about 8 for pH or 5 for another example the lime will get it to the proper pH? That is fricking cool if that is how I'm understanding it.
Thanks.
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by adding the lime it keeps everything at a neutral level and the microbes take care of the rest. my water out of the tap is around 7.6 - 8. i use alot of fish products which tend to be very acidic. i checked the ph of my solution a few times and it was around 4 - 4.5. it seems if the ph is high or low it doesnt have a negative affect either way. i havent used a ph meter in over a year and never had a ph problem since then either. ive also tested this on a coco based mix like soulmans and it works just the same. i was excited when i first learned this as well and it does work, try it.
 
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evanb

Member
farmerjoe420 said:
by adding the lime it keeps everything at a neutral level and the microbes take care of the rest. my water out of the tap is around 7.6 - 8. i use alot of fish products which tend to be very acidic. i checked the ph of my solution a few times and it was around 4 - 4.5. it seems if the ph is high or low it doesnt have a negative affect either way. i havent used a ph meter in over a year and never had a ph problem since then either. ive also tested this on a coco based mix like soulmans and it works just the same. i was excited when i first learned this as well and it does work, try it.
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That is so cool. To have a 4 - 4.5 and it still levels it out is fantastic.
Thank You.
 
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