All-in-one organic soils

sp sativa u got me nailed on that soil progression statement. i graduated to one of the revs soil mixes. made some mistakes and killed a few seeds. on the flip side the 3 plants r flourishing-all autos. thnx for the info on soils. esp the new stuff comin out

I couldn't agree more Spicy. There is nothing better than producing your own soil. I believe this thread got started off a bit wrong but now heading where the author was intending.

The company that produces Red's also has a machine that produces the Biochar. The link I posted will take you to that site and you can see that they actually thin forest's then produce the char that goes into their Red's mix.

http://www.southforkwoodproducts.com/ and http://www.conichar.com/conichar-faq.html

This is one of the reasons why I am so interested in this company and their product. They are hands on start to finish. It just seems like a very cool thing they have going on.

I contacted the owner last night about the ingredients of the Red's mix and he gave me a longer list but did not want to mention a few of the ingredients.

Coco coir; vegetative compost; perlite; biochar; worm castings (a few different kind but the high quality process); secret cloud; green sand; soluble sea kelp, humic substances; myco; arches and other beneficials; soul bone; fungal and bacterial communities and five varieties of compost. Total there are 32 ingredients.

I grew up on a farm and we had compost piles, manure piles and ash piles. They bring nothing but goodness. This stuff seem to be the closest thing I can get to making my own soil. Besides the rabbit poop and biochar it seems the process in which Spicy and South Texas speak is damn near the same process and same soil.

Spicy I don't think you are trying to stir any pot. You bring valuable experience to this forum and I respect your work. I was just having fun with South Texas more than anything. I have had the pleasure of taking Texans on several adventures. I get a kick out of them.

Interesting to see that the mix is coco-based. I'm a big fan of peat moss, but many folks like coco.

I also wanted to touch on a few reasons WHY I am opposed to bagged compost, or really any mass-produced compost, for that matter:

- The "brown" portion of many mass-produced composts is ground up wooden pallets. Yes it's a "brown", yes it will compost, but it sure isn't the best selection. They like it because it's CHEAP.

- Much of this compost is made from municipal yard waste. Take a stroll down the gardening isle of your local Home Depot and you will see a huge array of toxic chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides, etc that people just LOVE to bombard their gardens with. Where do all the chemicals that Home Depot sells end up? You guessed it... In the green bin, headed for a giant compost heap. Again, they like it because it's CHEAP.

- Much of this compost contains "biosolids", which is a tasteful way of saying dried out, bioprocessed human shit. Again, it's CHEAP.

This may or may not be the case with one or all of the composts used in that Red's soil. Personally I'd ask before dropping any money on it.

Spicy. Thanks for looking out. I told the owner we have a thread going on about his goods. Hopefully he will get on here and explain what he has got going on. I ordered a bag just to see for myself. I talked to the owner last night and I would be surprised if any of those items were in this soil but I am one of those guys who believes all people the first time around. Is it legal to sell human shit for fertilizer?

I have an amount of disposable cash set back for my tiny tiny operation and as long as I am within those budgets I am just ok with getting scammed occasionally. I would like to think and am hopeful it doesn't happen. 15 years ago things were much different and I could not even consider buying soil. I was the window shopper who had a wish list a mile long. It kinda feels good to be able to drop some coin on this kind of stuff now.

Here's a quick read on "biosolids" (dried sewage sludge).

http://www.planetnatural.com/compost-sewage/

Another good one from a source I trust:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/07/182010827/is-it-safe-to-use-compost-made-from-treated-human-waste

No nobody said miracle. But saving some time never hearts and we are on 3 round in same soil and things are great.

Opps............ I just talked to "Red" @ Millers Soil he tells me the compost come from an organic dairy and has clean wood compost added along with 29 OMRI listed products (he would not name) and biochar.........

Good to hear. I'm usually a skeptic, but maybe you actually found yourself a decent bagged soil.

Hey Spicy... been running this soil for over a month now and very happy. I left for 10 days and set up two tents on an automatic dripper with minimal water daily and one tent with no water at all.

I came back to magic. The tent with no water had a little browning on some leaves but nothing dead or even close. The two tents with auto drips grew like crazy with just water and no nutes.

So far so good with this stuff. It's been very nice to see most my nutes get used and not replaced.

Nice! Glad to hear it. Post up some pics if you get a chance.

We are using the Reds premium exclusively this summer in our outdoor greenhouse setup. I will start a thread so the community here can see here first hand the results we get.

Here is the info I think your all looking for.

This looks great!! Keep up the good work.

Good info from everyone. Compost, compost, compost. You can always throw organic ferts with amendments in, but it all starts with good, aged, wormy compost. Mix in the soil before, use as a top dressing or in teas later, it'll never burn anything and it always seems to have what every plant needs. It's also easy, cheap and sustainable. Nature rocks.

Millers is working on new web site! Miller-Soil.com I think.....

I have 6 plants growing, 2 in Reds, 2 in Time Savers and 2 in Ocean Forest. Some yellowing out of the Time Saver but it has no nutrients and I'm doing water only (for all). Yes I know T.S. and Ocean F. need nutrients but just want to see plant response. Red's is doing very good so far........

The plants inside the taped box are Red's and water only. The plant outside the box is grow with nutrients.

I have an update. We have used some nutrients on the plants and they are doing MUCH better!! We are only using nutrients ever other week. The plants did great at first but then slowed and tips yellowed. We talk to Red and he got us wright where we need to be...... Great customer service if nothing else........ I don't think water only for a large will work maybe in small 6-20 plants in very large pots. But for us small pots mean add nutrients. What do you all think???