Soil Mixes

[The Hemp Goddess]

Great info ozzy--thanks. Things like this are invaluable to someone like me just starting out with organics.

 

[ozzydiodude]

Thanks I try to pass on info when i find it. The hard part is remembering where you have read things while :stoned:

 

[ray jay]

I use Vics with alittle extra goodies. Great finds Ozzy.

 

[Wetdog]

I use Vics with alittle extra goodies. Great finds Ozzy.

:yeahthat:

Pretty much the same here.

Wet

 

[drfting07]

enlighten me on Vics guys. Thx!

 

[Wetdog]

Go to page 1 of this thread and keep scrolling down. It's there.

Wet

 

[drfting07]

I go with LC's method, with some added goodies.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showpost.php?p=782042&postcount=311

 

[ozzydiodude]

Mountain Mix organic soil
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?p=782007#post782007

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13 cf (99 gallons) of good organic soil
2 cf of rice hulls
50 lbs worm castings
12 cups soybean meal
18 cups alfalfa meal
9 lbs bone meal
5 lbs fish meal
18 cups pulverized agricultural limestone (lime)
3 lbs epsom salts
5 lbs rock phosphate
6 lbs azomite
2.5 oz's humic acid concentrate
6 lbs kelp meal
10 lbs green sand
8 lbs Epsoma plant-tone (bio-tone)
2 lbs seabird guano
2 cups potash
1/2 cup Mycorrhiza
1/2 cup micro nutrients (trace elements)
1 cup molasses
15 gallons ph'd water

 

[ozzydiodude]

TLO Mix 2011 Supernatural Version 2.1 BY: THE REV

Master Soil-Mix Recipe

BASE MIX

2 gal Quality Organic Soil-mix (or good organic recycled soil mix)
2 gal Thoroughly Rinsed Coir (coconut fiber)
2 gal Perlite (small nugget size)
2 gal Earthworm Castings (fresh earthworm castings, and/or fresh compost works too)

AMENDMENTS

1½ cup Grow or Bloom ‘Pure’ by Organicare (or 1 cup 5-5-5)
½ cup Greensand
¾ cup Ground Oyster Shells (1 cup if no crushed oyster shells)
1½ cup Crushed Oyster Shells (optional)
½ cup Dolomite Lime (powdered)
1 cup Prilled (pelletized) Fast Acting Dolomite Lime
¼ cup Blood Meal (and/or High N Bird/Bat Guano 12-8-2 N-P-K if flowering 1/8 cup of each)
¼ cup (heaping) Feather Meal
1 cup un-steamed (granular) Bone Meal (like Whitney Farms brand)
½ cup Bulb Food (3-8-8 as one good N-P-K example)
¼ cup Soft Rock Phosphate (powdered)
½ cup (heaping) Gypsum (powdered)
½ cup Kelp Meal
4 cups (heaping) Composted Steer Manure (this inoculates your mix with specialized bacteria and primo organic matter)

½ cup Azomite granular (add an additional ¼ cup greensand if no Azomite)
1 cup Humic Acid Ore granular (like from Down to Earth brand)
1 cup Alfalfa Meal (or 2 cups pellets – make sure pellets are all organic no additives)
½ cup Rock Phosphate Granular (optional)
1 cup (heaping) organic rice (important for the good fungi in this soil-mix)

This mix should be moistened (Do not get it soaking wet!) with chlorine free water, and turned over every few days, for about 15 days before use. This is what I call “cooking” your soil, and letting it get pretty dry before use, is fine. The nutrients don’t evaporate or anything, so no worries there, per storage over time. If this soil-mix turns out to be too hot (powerful) for some reason, just cut it with good bagged organic soil until you get the strength your environment and genetics demands.

I find cooking mine for about 30 days works the best for me, but I have often used it sooner, like at 2 weeks, and just remember the warmer it is outside wherever the soil-mix is at, the faster the cooking processes will happen. You can use a pH meter (soil pH meter) to tell when it is done cooking too. I wait until it is in the 6.2 – 6.8 range, which normally takes about 2 weeks, because as it kicks off cooking the pH will often be very low, like around 4.9 isn’t uncommon when it first starts to cook.

ONLY FOR USE WITH PURE WATER SOURCES, LIKE REVERSE OSMOSIS, RAIN, OR DISTILLED WATER. DO NOT USE WELL, TAP, OR SPRING WATER WITH THIS RECIPE.

This soil-mix is meant to be used along with the spike and layer TLO dynamic, and while it is quite capable of standing alone, it works supernaturally when you add the spike and layering dynamics.

Killer Spike Blends...

Spike #1 vegg
½ cup blood
½ cup steamed bone meal
½ cup high N bat/bird guano
½ cup feather meal
½ cup kelp meal
1 tablespoon ground oyster shell (optional)

Spike #2 all-purpose/flowering
½ cup feather meal
¼ cup bulb food 3-8-8
¼ cup soft rock phosphate
½ cup steamed bone meal
½ cup high P bat/bird guano
½ cup kelp meal
1 tablespoon ground oyster shell (optional)


Revski


So for the spikes you simply take a dowel or a bamboo pole and stick it into the soil and spin it so it makes a nice hole, then mix like a teaspoon of one of the above recipes with some buffer like castings or soil, and fill the hole. the microlife will colonize these zones before the roots do so when the roots find them they will be like high octane fuel!!



Layering is making different layers of soil, nutes, etc.

Example: I use a mix 1 part of the above soil and 1 part steer manure 1 part casting, 1 part coir and 1 part small perlite all mixed together for my bottom layer, then some of the soil mix gets put on top of that only about a quarter of your pot should be filled, then a small layer of of just plain recycled soil, none of the amendments from the list, your plant will sit on top of that, plain soil up to the top of the root ball then I top off with 2.1 mix and finally mulch.


Also you can use dry nutes in layers, one I use on the very bottom and rite under the mulch layer at 1 tablespoon is,
2 parts blood meal
2 parts high n bird/ bat guano
1 part ground oyster shells

TLO growing takes a lot of N because of the micro farmers, they need N to live, if not enough available N in the soil they will steal it from the plant!

 

[drfting07]

New "KISS" Method im trying. This is basically a Revised LC's Method, with the use of Dr. Earth All Purpose Dry Fertilizer, as apposed to Bone meal and Blood Meal. Seems to get me a little further.

2.2 cf bag (4cf) Compressed Premier Peat Moss
1.5 cf Perlite
1.5 cf EWC or Mushroom Compost
5.5 cups Dolomite Lime
3 cups Greensand
3 cups Kelp Meal
6 cups Dr. Earth Life: All Purpose Fertilizer 5-5-5

Wet and allow to "cook" for two weeks before using.

Use Teas as needed, fish emulsion for veg and Bat Guano for Flower, and lots of molasses. I use my teas ay 1/2 strength in early veg and flower, and full strength in late veg and flower. No need for a flush and i feed til chop.

 

[TwoFeathers]

I've been devouring everything in this tread and I have to say thank you all soooo much for taking the time to write all this.

I think I may have a little something to add to the conversation that many will find useful.

When I first started making "super soil" I read all sorts of info about how each "master" (no disrespect intended) creates their own blend of what is basically the same list of ingredients. But the immediate problem was... how much of each ingredient do you need to buy to make _____ 10 gallon pots? After hashing it out for a while I decided to put it all together in an Excel spreadsheet so that I could change the recipe any way I wanted and it would tell me how much of each ingredient I needed to buy to make a certain number of pots.

Basically, you put in a pot size, the number of pots you want to make, and then you can set up your ratio of each ingredient and it tells you how much to buy.

http://www.naturesmeds.us/docs/SuperSoilCalculator.xlsx

You will have to have Microsoft Excel before it will work.

Here's a sample pic of what it looks like...

You change the amounts in the Gallons or Cups column and it tells you how much you need to purchase in three different forms... Gallons, cubic feet, and pounds.

Let me know what you think....

 

[Theconstantgardener]

my method

50% coco coir 50% foxfarm ocean forest.
Feed composted manure tea after the nutrients in the soil have gone(4-5 weeks)

 

[ozzydiodude]

Link to more recipes http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66567

 

[ston-loc]

Anyone got info on "fritted trace elements". Link to purchase. Searches for purchase are leading to certain specific ones not labeled that.

 

[Rosebud]

wonder if that is a type..fritted?

 

[ston-loc]

What I was looking at Rose. "1tsp fritted trace elements"

Vic's Method:

Super Soil recipes & notes

Super Soil Mix Original Recipe, as it was given to me:
1 Bale sunshine mix #2 or promix
2 L Bone Meal - phosphorus source
1 L Blood Meal - nitrogen source
1 1/3 cups Epsom salts - magnesium source
3-4 cups dolmite lime -calcium source & pH buffering
1 tsp fritted trace elements
1/2 - 1 bag chicken manure (steer, mushroom, etc) - nitrogen & trace elements

Mix thoroughly, moisten, and let sit 1-2 weeks before use.

Revised Recipe, after several failures due to bad manure sources, I now use the following recipe. Results have been excellent and the clones seem to take off right away instead of having a slow growing settling in period:
1 Bale sunshine mix #2 or promix (3.8 cu ft)
8 cups Bone Meal - phosphorus source
4 cups Blood Meal - nitrogen source
1 1/3 cups Epsom salts - magnesium source 3-4 cups dolomite lime -calcium source & pH buffering
1 tsp fritted trace elements
4 cups kelp meal.
9kg (25 lbs) bag pure worm castings

Mix thoroughly, moisten, and let sit 1-2 weeks before use.

Substitutions - The original recipe was a success, but I simply needed to experiment. In addition, sometimes not all ingredients were always available. Therefore, here are some possible additions and/or substitutions:
Blood & Bone Meal - when trying to cut costs Kelp Meal - contains over 62 trace minerals. Good supplement for reducing the manure content to speed availability of soil.
Worm castings - excellent source of micro nutrients.
Bat guano - excellent for top dressing a week into flowering.
Seabird guano Bugs On a couple of occasions, I've ended up with fungus gnats with this soil mix. They are more of an irritation than anything but may harm weak or young plants. Some have said that putting a layer of sand on top of the soil in the pots stops the gnats from reproducing. Others can get rid of them by doing a soil drench with gnatrol or vectobac (BTI). Personally, I prefer to simply introduce fungus gnat predators (Hypoaspis miles). Once established, they not only control fungus gnats, but also thrips and mites. When there is no insect food available, they survive on dead plant material, so remain even after pests are gone to prevent future infestations. Actually, since they have been introduced, I've had no pest problems in over a year and I don't filter my intake.
Recycling Soil Used soil - Reusing soil has a few downsides such as it makes it easier for diseases, viruses, and pathogens from entering your garden. Also peat based soils break down and become acidic. If you fertilize with chemicals you'll end up with salt buildups that will slow growth. Unless you like to take chances, have a good eye, and a good horticultural understanding, you may be better off with staying with fresh new soils.
That said; I grow strictly organic and I've always reused my soil. I don't sterilize the soil between plantings as my soil is full of microbes and predatory bugs that keep the bad bugs under control.
After each crop, I chop up the soil and root balls with the leaves, stalks, etc and let compost for about 3 months. I then mix it up and add about (for every 50 gallons composted soil)

2 - 3 cups of lime.
1/2 cup epsom salts,
2 liters bone meal,
1 liter blood meal,
1 liter kelp meal,
1 tsp trace elements,
and enough perlite to regain the porosity of the original soil.

I used to add a bag of manure, but I was getting fertilizer burn and so have stopped now. As I've been fine tuning this, the plants just keep getting healthier and I haven't had any real pest problems for quite a while. I know this is a controversial approach and maybe even risky, but it allows me to keep my garden pretty much self contained. I don't attract attention by buying bales of soil every 3 - 4 months year around, or in the disposal of leaves and soil after each crop. It's definitely not for those who want sterile crops and those that use pesticides and chemical ferts. I believe in working with nature, not against it. After several generations, a nutrient imbalance developed which was only solved by leaching the soil thoroughly. My hunch is that one of the micro-nutrients was building to toxic levels. I guess farmers don't get this problem because they have the winter rains to each excess nutrients from their fields.

 

[Wetdog]

wonder if that is a type..fritted?

Yes, it is a type, like prilled, but I can't tell you just why. The term is not used much anymore.

Anyone got info on "fritted trace elements". Link to purchase. Searches for purchase are leading to certain specific ones not labeled that.

The simplest thing would be to snag some Azomite, it has everything! 1cup/cf of mix is plenty and a 5lb bag is enough for several cf of mix.

Its name describes it. A to Z Of Minerals Including Trace Elements

Wet

 

[ston-loc]

Right on thanks guys!

 

[Soiltest]

Nice Post. Thanks for taking the time to discuss on the topic, I feel strongly glad to read more on this topic. If possible, such as gain knowledge, would you mind updating your blog with some additional information? Soil Testing Laboratory

 

[Soiltest]

Nice Post. Thanks for taking the time to discuss on the topic, I feel strongly glad to read more on this topic. If possible, such as gain knowledge, would you mind updating your blog with some additional information? Soil Testing Laboratory