Any opinions on soil recipe

So I have been reading and asking and experimenting. I only know a tiny tiny fraction so any input would be great thanks. Trying to be a water only soil
Base mix 40 peat
30 compost
30 perlite
Per cuft
Cup bone meal
Cup crab meal
Half cup alfalfa meal
Half cup kelp meal
About .5 oz Langbeinite

half cup dolomite lime
Half cup gypsum

4-6 cups granite dust

I have access to very cheap bone meal and very very cheap crab meal so that’s why I use a lot of them. And a lot granite dust. I am finding my plants are running out of gas now, how should I change the recipe. This mix sat for a few months
before being used. I am mixing up my next years in a month or two.
Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks

Robbieg22 said:

So I have been reading and asking and experimenting. I only know a tiny tiny fraction so any input would be great thanks. Trying to be a water only soil
Base mix 40 peat
30 compost
30 perlite
Per cuft
Cup bone meal
Cup crab meal
Half cup alfalfa meal
Half cup kelp meal
About .5 oz Langbeinite

half cup dolomite lime
Half cup gypsum

4-6 cups granite dust

I have access to very cheap bone meal and very very cheap crab meal so that’s why I use a lot of them. And a lot granite dust. I am finding my plants are running out of gas now, how should I change the recipe. This mix sat for a few months
before being used. I am mixing up my next years in a month or two.
Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks

Click to expand...

Looks good, except for the amount of granite. 2cups should be about the max. That 4-6 cups just makes the mix too dense, VOE here.

I've now quit using granite dust (despite it being nearly free here), in favor of azomite & Greensand @ 1 cup of each and have had better results.

Wet

Thanks for the reply. Is it granite that makes it too dense at 4 cups or any rock dust. If this mix runs out of gas could I top dress half way through the grow season With maybe a total cup of all the amendments minus the alfalfa (too hot)?. Or should I just add another cup at the first, which would be 4 cups per cf? Sorry for all the questions just like to find out all I can.

I do essentially 4 cups of rock dust per cuft but its a 1:1:1:1 mix of basalt:azomite:gypsumyster shell. I would say 4 cups per cuft is as high as i would go. I have no experience with granite dust though.
If you're running out of gas during flower, get a gauge of when your seeing it fall short and next grow, top dress with ewc/compost 2-3 weeks before you noticed your flower showing deficiencies. I would top dress with:
2 parts ewc/compost
1 part aeration
1 cup per cuft kelp meal
This should work well, but if you wanted you could also do 1/2 cup per cuft each of the alfalfa meal and crab meal

Robbieg22 said:

Thanks for the reply. Is it granite that makes it too dense at 4 cups or any rock dust. If this mix runs out of gas could I top dress half way through the grow season With maybe a total cup of all the amendments minus the alfalfa (too hot)?. Or should I just add another cup at the first, which would be 4 cups per cf? Sorry for all the questions just like to find out all I can.

Click to expand...

Pretty much any RD will be too heavy @4cups. I guess I do much the same as @rkmcdon since I also add 1cup of gypsum & 1cup of dolomite, although I don't consider either RD's in the sense of RD's.

Not cheap, but if you can snag a small bag of Greensand, that would be my #1 choice, if you can only afford (or find), one. Azomite is my 2nd choice, but I use both @1cup of each.

Greensand compliments Kelp meal very well with its slow release K, plus nearly all the minerals and a decent dose of iron.

Yes, you're going to need to top dress during the run. Very light top dresses more frequently work better than heavier ones with longer intervals.

There isn't any real set schedule or amounts other than experience in seeing what works best for you and your particular grow environment.

HTH
Wet

Awesome thank you both for answering. The info is very enlightening, I will work on top dressing them and see if I can source greensand.

@Wetdog is correct about the gypsum and oyster shell not being rock dusts. I group them together because they are all mineral amendments. Sorry, should have clarified that

That’s alright haha one more question
Is it better to mix 2 cup of meals in your soil at the first and top dress 1 cup later. Instead of 3 at the start?

It is general considered preferable to put everything into your soil that the plants need at the beginning. Top dressing is if your soil is running out of gas. The thing about top dressing is that you need to add it about 2-3 weeks before your deficiency shows up. If your using pots that are smaller than 10 gallons, you will likely not have enough soil to make it through an entire grow without top dressing. As far as 2 cups vs 3 cups, that is trial and error.
I think a general rule of thumb is 2-3 cups dry amendment per cubic foot of base mix (peat:compost/ewc:aeration) and 2-4 cups of rock dust/mineral amendments per cuft of base

Thank you awesome info