before you start getting a ton of responses telling you to go out and grab a thousand other amendments you
could add, perhaps now would be a good time to take a step back and think about what you
need to add. Then on to how much of that to add. I'd say grandmah has it right on with the base mix; a popular one is 1/3 sphagnum peat, 1/3 EWC, 1/3 pumice/rice hulls--aeration; you'll probably use your perlite, i do too, but switching over to rice hulls is apparently the thing to do--perlite floats to the top eventually.
Only other advice i'd have for you is to convert your recipe to percentage then use percentage to build the soil in whatever volume you want. If you're going to garden with a water-only plan, make sure your containers are big enough to provide nutrition throughout the life cycle--i belive the recommendation is 7.5gal containers. If you can't muster that, be ready for making aact's to supplement when you start to notice deficiencies.
Dont forget to cook your soil--add a little water, moisten and mix your soil until you can form a clump that will retain its shape, but that you can also very easily break up, i think sub recommends 3 gals dechlorinated water to 32 gal soil mix--for 30 days.
Final tip, mix up enough base such that you have enough to fill half your pots. layer your pots with supersoil at the bottom and base on top (usually 1/2 and 1/2, but depending on the soil this can change to 1/3:2/3 etc.). This way younger roots aren't burned by going directly into nutrient rich SS.
Here's my recipe for an idea:
base mix
20% EWC = 6gal
13% Compost = 3.6gal
40% sphagnum peat = 12gal
12% coco coir = 3.6gal
15% perlite = 4.5gal
————————————
22Gal base mix
10lbs EWC
1.25lbs Blood meal
1.25lbs Bat guano
- 1.25lbs crabshell meal
- 1lb bone meal
- 1/2C Epsom Salt
- 2C Liming agent: gypsum, dolomite, crabshell meal in 1:1:2 ratio
- 1C Azomite
- 1/4C greensand
- 2C Kelp meal
- 2C alfalfa meal
- ——————————————————
- Bubble 3 gal of h20 with 3tbsp liquid humic acid
- First, mix liming agent.
- then, mix base soil
- add 10 gal base to 45 gal can. add amend’ts up to epsom salt, top with 12 gal of base, add liming agent, azomite greensand, kelp and alfalfa, mix thoroughly.
- Add 3 gal dechlorinated, humic infused water.
- dump and mix entire batch, back and forth, between two 32 gal cans. Once thoroughly mixed, cover and leave alone in <50*F to 'cook'
- once a week dump and mix the soil, adding water if necessary to maintain moisture at original level.
Be easy!
Dr.J
