Newbie with questions on soil

sullivan666

sullivan666

Active Member
Hey y'all,

I had a couple soil grows a few years ago and have just recently started up again. I've been browsing this site and GC a lot soaking up info, as well as reading Teaming with microbes (on Fungi chapter now). I was on the fence of doing what I had done previously (FFOF with a line of nutes) or trying a supersoil type mix. After reading a bit, I've decided to go the super soil route.

My current setup:

6 seedlings (various bag seeds collected over the years) in a 4x6 tent with a Sunblaze 24 T5. They all sprouted on 01/16 and are in cups with Roots 707. Temps range from 68-75, humidity 30-40%.

Today I went to various nurseries and collected some stuff for a super soil mix. Here's what I got thus far:

- 2 38qt bags Roots 707
- 1 12qt bag FFHF
- 1 16qt Bountea Alaskan Humisoil (which I just read is basically sphagnum moss)
- 1 8qt bag worm gold EWC
- 1 2.2lb Jamaican bat guano (1-10-1)
- 4lbs epsom salts
- 3lbs bone & blood meal from Hi-yield (6-7-0)
- 2lbs Hydrated lime from Hi-yield
- 10lbs bag Azomite

What should I add before I start mixing/cooking? Is powdered humic acid a must? What about kelp meal?
 
sullivan666

sullivan666

Active Member
Update: I'll be taking the hydrated lime back tomorrow, as I just found some info clarifying the difference between it and dolmite.

Should I also take back the bone & blood meal and pick up steam fish bone meal and blood meal instead?
 
A

anurism1

Active Member
I mixed up subs recipe exactly how he shared it, and ill tell you Ive been blown away. I'm gathering ingredients now for a second batch now.
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
"i decided to go the super soil route." when i say that aloud to my self even i feel stupid. so you made some good precomposted soil according to subs supersoil recipe my response to that
not_creative.jpg

and your questions are pointless, no you dont need kelp or humic acid. humic acid wil be produced by the decay of the peat in the soil, if its coco based then i would add some. kelp meal i would not skip probably the best nute in the world tbh.

how do you mix or in what order? any order will work just mix well.
 
P

POH Organics

Member
polyarcturus said:
"i decided to go the super soil route." when i say that aloud to my self even i feel stupid. so you made some good precomposted soil according to subs supersoil recipe my response to that
View attachment 2487706

and your questions are pointless, no you dont need kelp or humic acid. humic acid wil be produced by the decay of the peat in the soil, if its coco based then i would add some. kelp meal i would not skip probably the best nute in the world tbh.

how do you mix or in what order? any order will work just mix well.
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You really need to calm down man, I doubt your garden is a reflection of your ego :clap:

When mixing soil, start with peat, compost, and aeration. Now lime it. Next add your fertilizers and finally finish off with your rock dust
 
P

POH Organics

Member
sullivan666 said:
Hey y'all,

I had a couple soil grows a few years ago and have just recently started up again. I've been browsing this site and GC a lot soaking up info, as well as reading Teaming with microbes (on Fungi chapter now). I was on the fence of doing what I had done previously (FFOF with a line of nutes) or trying a supersoil type mix. After reading a bit, I've decided to go the super soil route.

My current setup:

6 seedlings (various bag seeds collected over the years) in a 4x6 tent with a Sunblaze 24 T5. They all sprouted on 01/16 and are in cups with Roots 707. Temps range from 68-75, humidity 30-40%.

Today I went to various nurseries and collected some stuff for a super soil mix. Here's what I got thus far:

- 2 38qt bags Roots 707
- 1 12qt bag FFHF
- 1 16qt Bountea Alaskan Humisoil (which I just read is basically sphagnum moss)
- 1 8qt bag worm gold EWC
- 1 2.2lb Jamaican bat guano (1-10-1)
- 4lbs epsom salts
- 3lbs bone & blood meal from Hi-yield (6-7-0)
- 2lbs Hydrated lime from Hi-yield
- 10lbs bag Azomite

What should I add before I start mixing/cooking? Is powdered humic acid a must? What about kelp meal?
Click to expand...
Drop the hydrated lime and use dolomite instead, hydrated lime breaks down too fast. If you use the much epsom, be sure to properly balance it in a 6:1 ratio calcium to magnesium, and 13:1 calcium to potassium. I'd recommend using more rock dust (azomite in your case) and more ewc too. I try to mix my peat, compost, and aeration in a 1:1:1 ratio (1 Gallon Peat:1 Gallon Compost: 1 Gallon aeration). I also avoid blood meal and bone meal because they tend to attract bugs, substitute fish bone meal instead. Just my .02

Best of luck :)
 
sullivan666

sullivan666

Active Member
Thanks for the replies. POH, when you say aeration you mean perlite? Also, what would you suggest for calcium? I have read oyster shells are good.

I will definitely be using dolmite instead and fish bone meal. More EWC as well.
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
gypsum is a good additive as well as bone meal, not fish bone meal. breaks down etremly slow, and tons of Ca and P.

oyster shell is a good option too but pricier per lb. but has tons of micronutes
 
sullivan666

sullivan666

Active Member
So I traded the hydrated lime for dolmite and picked up some fish bone meal and kelp meal. At one of the shops by my house they have a local bag of compost...im thinking of possibly ditching the 707 (just using it as base) and using it cut with equal parts peat and perlite.

Gonna do some more reading tonight, but any thoughts or additional suggestions?
 
P

POH Organics

Member
sullivan666 said:
So I traded the hydrated lime for dolmite and picked up some fish bone meal and kelp meal. At one of the shops by my house they have a local bag of compost...im thinking of possibly ditching the 707 (just using it as base) and using it cut with equal parts peat and perlite.

Gonna do some more reading tonight, but any thoughts or additional suggestions?
Click to expand...
I'd grab an all purpose fertilizer like Espoma or Rainbow Mix and ammend that as well. This is all for pretend, but I'd do it like this: Use the 707 and additional peat up to 30 gallons or so, then 30 gallons of perlite, 30 gallons of compost and/or ewc. You wanna use a cup of dolomite per cubic foot of soil, 1 cubic ft. = 7.5 gallons. Now take all of your ammendments and combine them in a bowl in equal parts, so 1 cup fish bone : 1 cup all purpose fertilizer : 2 cups kelp, now scale appropriately with the understand that you're going to add 2-3 cups per cubic foot of this 'nutrient mix'. I'd also look into some azomite or glacial rock dust, granite dust from local stone cutting businesses will do too (They throw it away usually, its called granite slurry).

Very important, what is your water source?
 
sullivan666

sullivan666

Active Member
Thanks a lot POH. I have a 10lb pag of azomite, what ratio should it be added?

My water source is RO water from a water store. PH is about 7. i'm going to be adding BMO super plant tonic to most waterings. Considering using Dyna-gro pro-tekt as well for silica.

Let me know what you think.
 
P

POH Organics

Member
sullivan666 said:
Thanks a lot POH. I have a 10lb pag of azomite, what ratio should it be added?

My water source is RO water from a water store. PH is about 7. i'm going to be adding BMO super plant tonic to most waterings. Considering using Dyna-gro pro-tekt as well for silica.

Let me know what you think.
Click to expand...
With rock dust, I try to add as close to 4 cups per cubic ft. as possible, can get expensive though. I'm glad I asked, I suggest using crab meal in the mix since you're running ro water and you dont wanna run cal/mag deficient (More cal/mag means we're gonna need to balance Ca:Mg:K though, let me know the final recipe before you mix it all up). Definitely wanna use an adequate amount of kelp and azomite for trace since you can't count on any from the RO.
 
sullivan666

sullivan666

Active Member
POH, thanks so much for the help.

Will definitely look into crab meal. Would you agree that humic acid is a must?
 
P

POH Organics

Member
sullivan666 said:
POH, thanks so much for the help.

Will definitely look into crab meal. Would you agree that humic acid is a must?
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A must, no, but definitely beneficial. I prefer BioAg branded Humic and Fulvics. They're the only humic thats actually made from decaying material as opposed to leonardite. Best to use it with caution, its very powerful stuff (Start at like 1/4 to 1/2 dosage). Quality compost and EWC is more important in my opinion :)

You should also use the protekt, silica is huge in establishing big, thick stems. Thick branches = big buds :)
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
i prefer to make my own humic acids. a 2L with the top cut off add some EWC or other microbial source of life. mix it once a day give it plenty of time to decay, (week to a month depending on the temps) strain with a cheese cloth or similar.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Man, what a concentration of great posts! I also prefer to rely on the vermicompost as my humus contributor.

Fun Fact: Humus also binds plant enzymes for future use, in addition to the cations we always think about. Whoda thunk it?
 
sullivan666

sullivan666

Active Member
Okay, so I think I'm about ready to mix. Went to the hydro store today and got 1.5 cu/ft of a local compost soil, 2cu/ft perlite and 1 cu/ft peat and 100g of BioAg Ful-Humic powder.

Im thinking I can add 0.5 cu/ft worm castings to the local compost, then cut that with 2cu/ft perlite and 2 cu/ft peat...resulting in a 6 cu/ft mix. Then add amendments. I haven't picked up an additional calcium source yet, such as crab meal or oyster shells, but i plan to hopefully tomorrow so I can get started.

Thoughts?
 
BelieveInJesus

BelieveInJesus

New Member
POH Organics said:
You really need to calm down man, I doubt your garden is a reflection of your ego :clap:

When mixing soil, start with peat, compost, and aeration. Now lime it. Next add your fertilizers and finally finish off with your rock dust
Click to expand...

polyarcturus, let's rewind.

Now, if I was going to chill out and spread some goodness how could you have rephrased that?
If you want respect, spread peace and love.
 
P

POH Organics

Member
sullivan666 said:
Okay, so I think I'm about ready to mix. Went to the hydro store today and got 1.5 cu/ft of a local compost soil, 2cu/ft perlite and 1 cu/ft peat and 100g of BioAg Ful-Humic powder.

Im thinking I can add 0.5 cu/ft worm castings to the local compost, then cut that with 2cu/ft perlite and 2 cu/ft peat...resulting in a 6 cu/ft mix. Then add amendments. I haven't picked up an additional calcium source yet, such as crab meal or oyster shells, but i plan to hopefully tomorrow so I can get started.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Depending on quality is which I would use more of as my humus source, I can personally source surplus quality EWC more than compost, so my humus is like 70% EWC. Were you able to source more rock dust?

While you're mixing, might as well go ahead and prepare some micro-culture so you can innoculate before planting (and continue throughout the plants life);

[video=youtube;xOO1_jNKbKw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOO1_jNKbKw[/video]

Be sure to watch 1 through 5
 
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