Critique my Mix

Hey guys. I've been collecting amendments for a few months now and I've just mixed up my first batch of soil. Here is what's in it:
Base Soil: 1/4 Peat/Pine bark, 1/4 Perlite, 1/4 EWC, 1/4 Composted Cow Manure
Amendments: Fish Meal, Crab Meal, Kelp Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Neem Seed Meal, Oyster Shell Flour, Langbeinite, Insect Frass, Nitrogen Bat Guano, Glacial Rock Dust, Rock Phosphate, Garden Gypsum, Oatmeal, Biochar
Everything Amended @ 1/2 Cup per Cubic foot.
Biochar Amended @ 7 Cups per Cubic foot.

What do you guys think?

If I were making it, I would have personally done it different. Your "amendment" list is pretty long (overkill), I don't like more than 10% of my compost mix to be animal manures/guanos, I prefer coir over peat/pine....the main reason for this is I reuse my soil almost indefinately and I have seen peat cause major pH fluctuations as it decomposes. And, lastly, I personally like expanded shale over perlite......it's a bit heavier, so it doesn't tend to float out of the mix over time like perlite can.

This is me nit picking.....please don't throw it out. My recommendation to you would be to cook the soil very well in a breathable container (keep it slightly moist) and give it a shot. If it is too hot, mix up a simple base soil......say 1/3 coir, 1/3 shale, 1/3 compost (think cheaper like mushroom compost.....EWC is $$).......then play with what percent of each mix works best for you and the plants you like to grow. For instance, my seedlings go into a very light soil (probably 80-90% coir & shale).....so I don't burn them. Also, typically indicas can handle a lot more nutrients in the soil than sativas can.

Having said that, I often grow my outdoor veggies in nothing but heavily decomposed compost and a few handfuls of Azomite (rock dust). Leaf mold is a gardeners best friend.

i would ditch the N bat guano. if it's the very fine particle sized stuff, it won't last very long at all in the soil, and you have plenty of other nitrogen sources. your recipe is very similar to mine. Also, you need at least 35% of the mix to be perlite. any less and your mix will hold too much water, and not let enough air to get to the roots. i run 40-45% drainage material (pumice instead of perlite) and saw dramatic improvements in soil aeration and plant growth when i bumped it up from the 35% that i was using from the get go. 25% is not going to cut it. other than that i think you have a very solid mix. Good luck.

ShLUbY said:

i would ditch the N bat guano. if it's the very fine particle sized stuff, it won't last very long at all in the soil, and you have plenty of other nitrogen sources. your recipe is very similar to mine. Also, you need at least 35% of the mix to be perlite. any less and your mix will hold too much water, and not let enough air to get to the roots. i run 40-45% drainage material (pumice instead of perlite) and saw dramatic improvements in soil aeration and plant growth when i bumped it up from the 35% that i was using from the get go. 25% is not going to cut it. other than that i think you have a very solid mix. Good luck.

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I mixed 20 gallons. I may stick in another 5 gallons of Perlite. Thanks for the feedback. Only reason I put the guano in is I have 10 lbs of it. Otherwise I wouldn't have lol.

I just mixed in another 5 gallons of Perlite. Soil looks a bit better and it stretched out the base mix by 5 gallons.
10 Gallons Perlite, 5 Gallons Peat, 5 Gallons EWC and 5 Gallons Composted Cow Manure.
Now the mix is 40% Perlite and 20% each of the others.
Thanks @ShLUbY

Are you planning on starting a worm bin? Better yet, if you've already started.

If not, you need to Seriously consider it. For sure, one of the most significent things you can do for organic growing.

Wetdog said:

Are you planning on starting a worm bin? Better yet, if you've already started.

If not, you need to Seriously consider it. For sure, one of the most significent things you can do for organic growing.

Click to expand...

I've really considered it. Just haven't looked to much into it yet. EWC is expensive! $27 Canadian for 5 gallons.

GrowGorilla said:

Hey guys. I've been collecting amendments for a few months now and I've just mixed up my first batch of soil. Here is what's in it:
Base Soil: 1/4 Peat/Pine bark, 1/4 Perlite, 1/4 EWC, 1/4 Composted Cow Manure
Amendments: Fish Meal, Crab Meal, Kelp Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Neem Seed Meal, Oyster Shell Flour, Langbeinite, Insect Frass, Nitrogen Bat Guano, Glacial Rock Dust, Rock Phosphate, Garden Gypsum, Oatmeal, Biochar
Everything Amended @ 1/2 Cup per Cubic foot.
Biochar Amended @ 7 Cups per Cubic foot.

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

Your Biochar amount is 5.88% of total mix, you could up that up to 10 or 20 if possible

Your meals are well represented, although kelp could be pushed up to 6x that amount quite easily, not that I would cause you have so much EWC and so much poop already

Your rock dusts / minerals, at 1/2 cup per foot, you have 2.5 cups per foot if you consider your oyster a rock dust. So that is actually looking low to me, I would go to a good 4 cups per

for future reference, you can save money on castings and use just 15% of total volume. we found some impressive studies showing the law of dimishing returns when using more than that.

If you have space, soil, time, etc, I would make another batch and compare it head to head to the one you made.

20 gallon Base:

45% air:
2 gal biochar (10%)
7 gal Aeration- pumice, lava rock, sand, hulls, pine, leaf compost etc (35%)

55% remainder:
3 gal castings (15%)
2 gal manure (10%)
3 gal coco fibre (15%)
3 gal Vigoro brand' high-humus black earth (15%)

To the above I would add, per cubic foot:

Mix 1 (meals; 1 part fish, 1 part crab, 3 part kelp, 2 part neem, 1 part frass)

Apply at 1 to 2 cups per foot

Mix 2 (minerals; 4 parts glacial rock dust, 1 part gypsum)

Apply above at 4 cups per cu ft

Oatmeal, grind to flour, sprinkle on top after mixing.
Sprinkle weekly, fold in weekly for few weeks prior to use.

in short, I would try Omit: Rock phosphate, alfalfa meal, langbeinite, bat guano, and oatmeal from the mix

would love to see these two go head to head !

DonTesla said:

Your Biochar amount is 5.88% of total mix, you could up that up to 10 or 20 if possible

Your meals are well represented, although kelp could be pushed up to 6x that amount quite easily, not that I would cause you have so much EWC and so much poop already

Your rock dusts / minerals, at 1/2 cup per foot, you have 2.5 cups per foot if you consider your oyster a rock dust. So that is actually looking low to me, I would go to a good 4 cups per

for future reference, you can save money on castings and use just 15% of total volume. we found some impressive studies showing the law of dimishing returns when using more than that.

If you have space, soil, time, etc, I would make another batch and compare it head to head to the one you made.

20 gallon Base:

45% air:
2 gal biochar (10%)
7 gal Aeration- pumice, lava rock, sand, hulls, pine, leaf compost etc (35%)

55% remainder:
3 gal castings (15%)
2 gal manure (10%)
3 gal coco fibre (15%)
3 gal Vigoro brand' high-humus black earth (15%)

To the above I would add, per cubic foot:

Mix 1 (meals; 1 part fish, 1 part crab, 3 part kelp, 2 part neem, 1 part frass)

Apply at 1 to 2 cups per foot

Mix 2 (minerals; 4 parts glacial rock dust, 1 part gypsum)

Apply above at 4 cups per cu ft

Oatmeal, grind to flour, sprinkle on top after mixing.
Sprinkle weekly, fold in weekly for few weeks prior to use.

in short, I would try Omit: Rock phosphate, alfalfa meal, langbeinite, bat guano, and oatmeal from the mix

would love to see these two go head to head !

Click to expand...

Thanks for the in depth reply Don. I appreciate it. In the future, I may try out your mix!

@DonTesla Maybe when I run clones, I'll do a side by side of the two mixes. I'm running seeds right now with Tangie. Hoping to find a nice keeper for a mother. Your mix definitely looks good. You're probably right about the biochar % and the mineral % being low.
On a side note, should I add in Azomite? I've read conflicting reviews on this stuff.

GrowGorilla said:

Thanks for the in depth reply Don. I appreciate it. In the future, I may try out your mix!

Click to expand...

My pleasure..
I hope you do..

GrowGorilla said:

@DonTesla Maybe when I run clones, I'll do a side by side of the two mixes. I'm running seeds right now with Tangie. Hoping to find a nice keeper for a mother. Your mix definitely looks good. You're probably right about the biochar % and the mineral % being low.
On a side note, should I add in Azomite? I've read conflicting reviews on this stuff.

Click to expand...

You could double both, but the good thing is, is that you can scratch them both (biochar and glacial rock dust, for example) into the topsoil at any time really..

both are extremely useful in the top few inches although normally they get mixed right in.

As for the azomite, it was literally named that because it has everything from a to z, including some things I wouldn't mind avoiding, but that being said, sometimes its not as bad as it looks. For example, silicate helps aluminum not be leached out, so when you see heavy and low quality metals in something, it may not be very bio available .. That said, I'm still a no on it, personally. Way too many good things out there to use, at least imo.