I'm on a tight budget this year.

farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
I will be growing six plants outdoor this season. White Widow and Master Mind.

I will be using 3ft. x 3ft. planter boxes. I plant to each box.

I am on a tight budget. So I was considering the option of making my own soil mix. If that would be a cheaper option.

I usally use Fox Farm Ocean Forest. Where I live a 1.5 cubic ft. bag of Ocean Forest. is over $15 a bag and I need a total of 108 cu. ft. of material.

I did some research online and a 3.8 cu. ft. bale of peat moss is about $15. A 4 cu. ft bag of perlite maybe around $16.

I was also considering worm castings. Haven't looked that up online yet. Some of the native sand where I live 1/2 cup a gallon. dolomite lime. Seabird guano and epsom salt.

Would this be a cheaper route then the Fox Farm? Does any body know of a better way?

Fertilizers aren't an issue right now. I stocked up on fertilizers at the end of last season.:eyesmoke:
 
MixedMelodyMindBender

MixedMelodyMindBender

Active Member
If your all stocked up on nutrients I would recommend a soilless medium of some assortments. Like Pro-Mix its peat based and has a small starter charge of micro's and nutrients. It will be more cost effective on the pocket brotha to go with a 3.8 at 35$ than a 1.5 cu ft. at 18-25$ for ocean forest....BESIDES....Fox Farms has been shipping out gnats like a mofo so I would go with a bale of soilless.

My outdoors I utilize pro-mix and feed with complete fox farms lineup, sucanat ( or molasses), superthrive, and cal mag.

Good Luck...need any help just swing a pm or post

Green Karma
 
farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
MixedMelodyMindBender said:
If your all stocked up on nutrients I would recommend a soilless medium of some assortments. Like Pro-Mix its peat based and has a small starter charge of micro's and nutrients. It will be more cost effective on the pocket brotha to go with a 3.8 at 35$ than a 1.5 cu ft. at 18-25$ for ocean forest....BESIDES....Fox Farms has been shipping out gnats like a mofo so I would go with a bale of soilless.

My outdoors I utilize pro-mix and feed with complete fox farms lineup, sucanat ( or molasses), superthrive, and cal mag.

Good Luck...need any help just swing a pm or post

Green Karma
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I'm not sure if there is any Pro-mix where I'm at. I checked the local hydro-shop and it wasn't listed on their website. I will have to call them. I use all the Nutrients that you just listed and am stocked up on them. I use the Hi-Brix Molasses by Earth Juice. I have the complete Fox Farm line up except for their new products. If they don't have the pro-mix where I'm at, then what???
 
G

growone

Well-Known Member
mixing might be cheaper, but for such a small(relatively) op, i don't think you'll save much, if any
there are various bargain soils, which could provide quality at a good price
i use MG Organic Garden - not suggesting it, just what i use - it takes some tweaks to get it to a 'MJ friendly' state, but it does work well for me
 
farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
growone said:
mixing might be cheaper, but for such a small(relatively) op, i don't think you'll save much, if any
there are various bargain soils, which could provide quality at a good price
i use MG Organic Garden - not suggesting it, just what i use - it takes some tweaks to get it to a 'MJ friendly' state, but it does work well for me
Click to expand...
I'm not so crazy about the Mg Organic Garden, mainly because it has time release nutes. what were the tweaks that you did?
 
G

growone

Well-Known Member
farm dawg said:
I'm not so crazy about the Mg Organic Garden, mainly because it has time release nutes. what were the tweaks that you did?
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this one of the problems with MG soils, there are so many it gets confusing what's what
the Organic Garden doesn't contain time release, or at least it didn't
the current bag i have lists the ingredients as composted wood product, composted chicken litter, and peat moss
quite acidic, which is what you get with the composted wood
biggest problem(for indoor grows) was fungus gnats, so i pasteurize at 180 degrees for an hour - that's one tweak
1 tbsp of dolomite per gallon of soil for the acidity(and the cal mag)
1 tbsp of MG Organic Bone Meal(6-9-0) per gallon of soil for slow release feeding
i have seen some mg garden soil advertised as feeding for 6 months, i'm not sure what that is, or if they've changed the formulation
 
farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
growone said:
this one of the problems with MG soils, there are so many it gets confusing what's what
the Organic Garden doesn't contain time release, or at least it didn't
the current bag i have lists the ingredients as composted wood product, composted chicken litter, and peat moss
quite acidic, which is what you get with the composted wood
biggest problem(for indoor grows) was fungus gnats, so i pasteurize at 180 degrees for an hour - that's one tweak
1 tbsp of dolomite per gallon of soil for the acidity(and the cal mag)
1 tbsp of MG Organic Bone Meal(6-9-0) per gallon of soil for slow release feeding
i have seen some mg garden soil advertised as feeding for 6 months, i'm not sure what that is, or if they've changed the formulation
Click to expand...
Thanks growone I am going to check out the MG organic online.
 
snapdragon

snapdragon

Active Member
If you're on an absolute barebones budget, just use good topsoil (either from your yard, or plain bagged topsoil from Lowes or Home Depot) and enough peat moss to keep it light and aerated. You can fill a 3x3 box for about $10 if you buy the dirt on sale, or even cheaper if you have some usable topsoil somewhere nearby.The pH will be right (peat is slightly acidic), you'll have a great environment for your roots, and all you'll have to worry about is adding some cheap fertilizer when the leaves start to yellow. Feel free to buy a planting mix, but you can go really cheap and still end up with great results.
 
ThinkSayMakeDo

ThinkSayMakeDo

Well-Known Member
Home Depot and Lowes carry large bags of Premier Sphagnum Peat Moss. Premier is the company who makes Pro-mix. Many native soils, depending on where you live, have enough compost in their topsoil, and enough clay and sand under that to give you a nice diverse soil. 3.5 Cubic Foot bags of this peat moss are about $10. Each bail can fill up to 3 holes, or 3-5 planters, depending on the size, I wouldn't try to spread it out much more. You can add perlite, which is inexpensive, and blood and bone meal, also very inexpensive. Things like dolomite lime and epsom salts are only necessary if your pH is out of whack. Guanos are great if you can get them. Seaweed and kelp are also great additives. But really all you need is Peat Moss, Native Soil, a source of Nitrogen (Blood Meal) and a source of Phosphorus (Bone Meal). I've found there to be no lack in potassium in my mixes, but this year I'm gettin' all guanos, which each have some potassium as far as I know.
Don't support Scott's or MG. Your purchase is your opinion, and a consensus is based off of that...hence why you can't find good soils at your average garden supply. Oh, and MG Organic Choice is essentially woodchips infested with small gnat-type bugs. Go for Premier.
 
farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
snapdragon said:
If you're on an absolute barebones budget, just use good topsoil (either from your yard, or plain bagged topsoil from Lowes or Home Depot) and enough peat moss to keep it light and aerated. You can fill a 3x3 box for about $10 if you buy the dirt on sale, or even cheaper if you have some usable topsoil somewhere nearby.The pH will be right (peat is slightly acidic), you'll have a great environment for your roots, and all you'll have to worry about is adding some cheap fertilizer when the leaves start to yellow. Feel free to buy a planting mix, but you can go really cheap and still end up with great results.
Click to expand...
My native soil is sand. All that grows in it is sage brush and rabbit brush. From what I understand it acidic. I figure I will probably use 1/2 cup of the native sand per 5 gallon. I already have fertilizers. That, not an issue. What kind of top soil from lowes or home depot? any kind or what???
 
G

growone

Well-Known Member
farm dawg said:
My native soil is sand. All that grows in it is sage brush and rabbit brush. From what I understand it acidic. I figure I will probably use 1/2 cup of the native sand per 5 gallon. I already have fertilizers. That, not an issue. What kind of top soil from lowes or home depot? any kind or what???
Click to expand...
this often varies from location to location - you'll probably need to check out what's actually at the local stores
 
farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
ThinkSayMakeDo said:
Home Depot and Lowes carry large bags of Premier Sphagnum Peat Moss. Premier is the company who makes Pro-mix. Many native soils, depending on where you live, have enough compost in their topsoil, and enough clay and sand under that to give you a nice diverse soil. 3.5 Cubic Foot bags of this peat moss are about $10. Each bail can fill up to 3 holes, or 3-5 planters, depending on the size, I wouldn't try to spread it out much more. You can add perlite, which is inexpensive, and blood and bone meal, also very inexpensive. Things like dolomite lime and epsom salts are only necessary if your pH is out of whack. Guanos are great if you can get them. Seaweed and kelp are also great additives. But really all you need is Peat Moss, Native Soil, a source of Nitrogen (Blood Meal) and a source of Phosphorus (Bone Meal). I've found there to be no lack in potassium in my mixes, but this year I'm gettin' all guanos, which each have some potassium as far as I know.
Don't support Scott's or MG. Your purchase is your opinion, and a consensus is based off of that...hence why you can't find good soils at your average garden supply. Oh, and MG Organic Choice is essentially woodchips infested with small gnat-type bugs. Go for Premier.
Click to expand...
I was pretty much leaning towards the Premier Peat moss. It costs less than half what I would pay for Ocean Forest. The planter boxes I am using will be 3ft. x 3ft. I wlll be filling them with 2ft. of soil. It comes out to 108 cu. ft. of material. It was suggested by someone that I use top soil. What do you think. I already have fertilizer stocked up. The native soil where I live is sand. Acidic. but I want to mix in a small amount of that to my soil mix.
 
ThinkSayMakeDo

ThinkSayMakeDo

Well-Known Member
Peat Moss and sand is good. If you have the money for the topsoil, definitely get it, I just don't think it will be necessary
 
farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
ThinkSayMakeDo said:
Peat Moss and sand is good. If you have the money for the topsoil, definitely get it, I just don't think it will be necessary
Click to expand...
I just looked in one of my grow books by Jorge Cervantes. there was one mix that is 90% peat moss and 10% perlite. What do you think about this? If I add sand to the mix how much? and should I add dolmit lime I hear the Peat Moss is acidic. Or should I just go with the peat and perlite mix. I have complete line nutes for my plants including CAL/Mag.
 
U

UGA

Active Member
I am using jungle growth from lowes. Working great so far. 6$ for a big bag. I think 3 cubic feet per bag? I don't remember but I know they are 40 lb bags.

I agree fox farms is the best but for 20$ for a small bag they can suck my dick.

This is my first time using the jungle growth stuff but it seems to be working great so far. It has amendments but I added extra perlite vermiculite blood meal bone meal manure and peat moss.
I got enough for 10 holes for 50$. And like I said all the plants are doing great growing nice and bushy.
 
farm dawg

farm dawg

Member
UGA said:
I am using jungle growth from lowes. Working great so far. 6$ for a big bag. I think 3 cubic feet per bag? I don't remember but I know they are 40 lb bags.

I agree fox farms is the best but for 20$ for a small bag they can suck my dick.

This is my first time using the jungle growth stuff but it seems to be working great so far. It has amendments but I added extra perlite vermiculite blood meal bone meal manure and peat moss.
I got enough for 10 holes for 50$. And like I said all the plants are doing great growing nice and bushy.
Click to expand...
What size holes did you plant in?
 
U

UGA

Active Member
Probably 6 gallon holes. You could easily put a 5 gallon bucket in and have some wiggle room in width and depth.
 
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