jstone1633
Well-Known Member
How long will a homemade soil mixture maintain its nutrient effectiveness if kept in a rubbermaid tub?
Soil life
- Thread starter jstone1633
- Start date
canefan
Well-Known Member
First of all Welcome to RIU, hope you enjoy your stay. In nature fallow soil will improve while not in use and the same will or should be true for containers. I would suggest that you either leave the top off of the rubbermaid or make many many holes in the top so the soil and all the microbes and other creatures in the soil web can breathe. You will want to maintain a healthy moisture level in the soil also so that the soil can continue to breakdown the organic matter in the soil. You also might want to think about when adding water to the mix to add a little molasses 1tbs per gallon, this will help to feed and add microbes to your soil.
You don't say exactly what type of mix you are using so much of this is guess work on my part to help build your soil. Personally I have 3 piles of soil/compost. The first is all the green and brown manures from the plants and trees around my farm, they breakdown seperately and then are added to the second pile. The second pile is the last grows' soil allowed to rest and with the fresh compost added, this usually sits for several months before use, also where I make the final adjustments to the soil before reuse. I might add, abono compost, tierra negra (central american made soil/biochar and don't know what else they add to it, seceret), groundup eggshells and put all of the coffee grounds from the house, or whatever else I might feel the soil lacks after the past grow.
If you are going to be storing this soil for awhile you might read up on worms in the soil and adding them. They will make your wormcastings for you and enrich your soil in countless ways. If you tend to your soil correctly and reuse what you have adding compost and additives as needed you can build a better soil with each use. The more organic you become the more your soil will improve even with repeated use.
Hope this gives you something to think about and maybe read up on. If I can be of further help my PM is always open. Cane
You don't say exactly what type of mix you are using so much of this is guess work on my part to help build your soil. Personally I have 3 piles of soil/compost. The first is all the green and brown manures from the plants and trees around my farm, they breakdown seperately and then are added to the second pile. The second pile is the last grows' soil allowed to rest and with the fresh compost added, this usually sits for several months before use, also where I make the final adjustments to the soil before reuse. I might add, abono compost, tierra negra (central american made soil/biochar and don't know what else they add to it, seceret), groundup eggshells and put all of the coffee grounds from the house, or whatever else I might feel the soil lacks after the past grow.
If you are going to be storing this soil for awhile you might read up on worms in the soil and adding them. They will make your wormcastings for you and enrich your soil in countless ways. If you tend to your soil correctly and reuse what you have adding compost and additives as needed you can build a better soil with each use. The more organic you become the more your soil will improve even with repeated use.
Hope this gives you something to think about and maybe read up on. If I can be of further help my PM is always open. Cane
jstone1633
Well-Known Member
If I knew how to PM I would lol.
Thanks a lot. I havent even started my grow but Im trying to get all of my ducks in a row. What I want is a few mothers, a few clones, and a few in flowering. Just enough for me. I want to go as organic as possible. I found this recipe and was going to tweak it as I researched.
[FONT="]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 dolmite lime -calcium source & pH buffering
1 tsp fritted trace elements
4 cups kelp meal.
9kg (25 lbs) bag pure worm castings [/FONT]
Im going to be vegging very short and thought this should feed up through part of flowering along with some botanicare organic nutes as I see deficiencies. I was planning on bonzai moms so I thought I could use this soil for them as well when I prune the roots. The clones will get something a little more mild with less nutes. Any advice is really appreciated and thanks for the hospitality.
That should work quite well.
Just remember that that 3.8cf bale is compressed and when expanded comes out to 7cf or so and the amounts of the amendments are good for that amount (7cf).
I would bump the lime up to 7 cups though (1cup/cf). That's the only thing that looks a little light.
Wet
Just remember that that 3.8cf bale is compressed and when expanded comes out to 7cf or so and the amounts of the amendments are good for that amount (7cf).
I would bump the lime up to 7 cups though (1cup/cf). That's the only thing that looks a little light.
Wet