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

**Soulman4466** · 08-31-2012, 04:41 PM

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.

**farmerjoe420** · 08-31-2012, 07:21 PM

that mix seems solid. i mix my own too and i will never go back to buying high dollar commercial soil.

**Soulman4466** · 08-31-2012, 08:06 PM

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** · 08-31-2012, 09:23 PM

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

**evanb** · 08-31-2012, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by Endur0xX

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

Are you using the promix as your base and in making Super Soil? Which promix did you settle on? Thanks.

**hotrodharley** · 08-31-2012, 09:40 PM

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** · 08-31-2012, 10:39 PM

Originally Posted by farmerjoe420

that mix seems solid. i mix my own too and i will never go back to buying high dollar commercial soil.

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** · 08-31-2012, 10:43 PM

Originally Posted by hotrodharley

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.

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.

**stak** · 09-01-2012, 06:20 AM

Originally Posted by hotrodharley

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.

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** · 09-01-2012, 07:58 AM

Originally Posted by evanb

Are you using the promix as your base and in making Super Soil? Which promix did you settle on? Thanks.

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

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

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