Do you guys STRICTLY follow soil recipe directions for coots mix from buildasoil?

So I got the 3.8 cu ft bag from buildasoil, it comes with the nutrients/minerals and you add your own aeration/compost/sphagnum peat moss.

I was going to just dump everything onto a tarp and mix it, but I was thinking I’d rather mix it up inside each individual pot.

It calls for....
Nutrients:
(Use at 2.5 Cups Per cubic foot of soil or about 5-6 Tablespoon per gallon of soil)


Minerals:
(Use at 4 Cups Per Cubic foot of soil or about 1/2 Cup per gallon of soil)

Lastly, would you suggest I do the basic or do you suggest I do a little less compost?

33% sphagnum peat moss
33% Red Lava Rock
33% compost

Sorry, and lastly this is my red lava rock. It says natural and it’s red in the middle so I assume it’s not artificially colored. Thoughts?

Unless it's smaller than pea-sized, I still don't see the point of adding rocks to your soil. I'd even be picking that stuff out of my raised beds vegetable garden outside. lol

Northwood said:

Unless it's smaller than pea-sized, I still don't see the point of adding rocks to your soil. I'd even be picking that stuff out of my raised beds vegetable garden outside. lol

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Bro are you on shroomery? If so, we “know” each other. Well I’m breaking the lava rock up into smaller pieces. I wanted pumice but didn’t work out.
I’ve read a good amount about people suggesting lava rock, as it works well.

What’s your suggestion on the recipe though? Would you follow directions or change anything at all?

Kind Sir said:

Bro are you on shroomery? If so, we “know” each other.

Click to expand...

Honestly it's been years since I've been there on shroomery. I was the guy giving all the advice on P. cubensis cultivation while showing my edible grows of king mushrooms and stuff, and the fact I was cultivating it from the store via inter-stem tissue. I don't remember you, and not sure if I'm the one you're thinking of. There's a lot of folks on that forum.

Edit: Oops, forgot about your question about your soil mix. I don't know what style of organic you're doing, or what these "nutrients" are, or even what your "minerals" are. Honestly the 3rd of lava rock is going to make it heavy and you'll need to deal with it. I personally hate dealing with anything. lol

Also what is this compost? Is it alive from your backyard, or does it come from a bag from a store? These are important considerations to take into account on what you need to do next.

Kind Sir said:

So I got the 3.8 cu ft bag from buildasoil, it comes with the nutrients/minerals and you add your own aeration/compost/sphagnum peat moss.

I was going to just dump everything onto a tarp and mix it, but I was thinking I’d rather mix it up inside each individual pot.

It calls for....
Nutrients:
(Use at 2.5 Cups Per cubic foot of soil or about 5-6 Tablespoon per gallon of soil)


Minerals:
(Use at 4 Cups Per Cubic foot of soil or about 1/2 Cup per gallon of soil)

Lastly, would you suggest I do the basic or do you suggest I do a little less compost?

33% sphagnum peat moss
33% Red Lava Rock
33% compost

Click to expand...

This is not Coot mix... no powdered nutrients.. FYI coots mix is the Cornell mix

Kind Sir said:

So I got the 3.8 cu ft bag from buildasoil, it comes with the nutrients/minerals and you add your own aeration/compost/sphagnum peat moss.

I was going to just dump everything onto a tarp and mix it, but I was thinking I’d rather mix it up inside each individual pot.

It calls for....
Nutrients:
(Use at 2.5 Cups Per cubic foot of soil or about 5-6 Tablespoon per gallon of soil)


Minerals:
(Use at 4 Cups Per Cubic foot of soil or about 1/2 Cup per gallon of soil)

Lastly, would you suggest I do the basic or do you suggest I do a little less compost?

33% sphagnum peat moss
33% Red Lava Rock
33% compost

Click to expand...

What is in the 3.8cu bag?Im confused

Northwood said:

Honestly it's been years since I've been there on shroomery. I was the guy giving all the advice on P. cubensis cultivation while showing my edible grows of king mushrooms and stuff, and the fact I was cultivating it from the store via inter-stem tissue. I don't remember you, and not sure if I'm the one you're thinking of. There's a lot of folks on that forum.

Edit: Oops, forgot about your question about your soil mix. I don't know what style of organic you're doing, or what these "nutrients" are, or even what your "minerals" are. Honestly the 3rd of lava rock is going to make it heavy and you'll need to deal with it. I personally hate dealing with anything. lol

Also what is this compost? Is it alive from your backyard, or does it come from a bag from a store? These are important considerations to take into account on what you need to do next.

Click to expand...

I agree. Lava rock is heavy as fuck. Pumice is much lighter. I used some of both, but more pumice than rock. I was shocked at how heavy that shit is.

Kind Sir said:

So I got the 3.8 cu ft bag from buildasoil, it comes with the nutrients/minerals and you add your own aeration/compost/sphagnum peat moss.

I was going to just dump everything onto a tarp and mix it, but I was thinking I’d rather mix it up inside each individual pot.

It calls for....
Nutrients:
(Use at 2.5 Cups Per cubic foot of soil or about 5-6 Tablespoon per gallon of soil)


Minerals:
(Use at 4 Cups Per Cubic foot of soil or about 1/2 Cup per gallon of soil)

Lastly, would you suggest I do the basic or do you suggest I do a little less compost?

33% sphagnum peat moss
33% Red Lava Rock
33% compost

Click to expand...

You could do that. Make sure it's good compost or add more aeration. I would have got some compost from BAS if you don't have decent stuff around. I ordered almost everything from BAS. Last time I bought the bucket of Craft Blend because I already went through a couple bags. I love that stuff. I like their Oly Mountain Fish Compost and EWC too. But shit, I have almost anything you could think of from them all over my basement now.

Here's a $5 off link for Build a Soil. They had an awesome sale on Black Friday. I got another bag of EWC for 1/2 price.

Kind Sir said:

So I got the 3.8 cu ft bag from buildasoil, it comes with the nutrients/minerals and you add your own aeration/compost/sphagnum peat moss.

I was going to just dump everything onto a tarp and mix it, but I was thinking I’d rather mix it up inside each individual pot.

It calls for....
Nutrients:
(Use at 2.5 Cups Per cubic foot of soil or about 5-6 Tablespoon per gallon of soil)


Minerals:
(Use at 4 Cups Per Cubic foot of soil or about 1/2 Cup per gallon of soil)

Lastly, would you suggest I do the basic or do you suggest I do a little less compost?

33% sphagnum peat moss
33% Red Lava Rock
33% compost

Click to expand...

You'll be fine dumping everything into a tarp and mixing, the caveat being that your source of compost has to be of the highest quality. Texture specifically when sourcing compost.

When you grab a handful of compost, it should clump together when you close your first and stay clumped when you open your first. Then, you should be able to poke the clumped compost with your finger and it should fall apart nicely. It should be similar to peat moss/coco in texture, light and fluffy. And if you're not finding yourself enjoying the sweet earthy musk of the compost, it isn't very good.


- If you have a compost that meets the above requirements, the 1:1:1 ratio will do just fine.

- If your compost is poor-mediocre, run 40% peat/40% aeration/20% compost.

Bad quality compost will clump in your soil mass, resulting in dry spots and making it difficult for your roots to move freely. You can always top dress with more compost, but you cannot take it out.

Compost is no different than soil, if its commercially produced it will likely be mediocre. When Coots says "high quality compost", he typically means compost/EWC that one has produced themselves.

BAS blend itself is good, don't really need to change much with it and its a good base to start with. As you get more grows with it under your belt, you'll know what does and doesn't need to be changed.

Remember, Coots soil is just a base for us. It is meant to be tailored according to our own personal grow environments, situations, and choice of plants. The appeal in Coots soil is how easily you can tailor it to suit your own needs. Get a few runs with it in first, then you'll have more answers. Attempting to do anything perfect on your first time often leads to heartache or even inaction.

You got this Kind Sir.

kratos015 said:

You'll be fine dumping everything into a tarp and mixing, the caveat being that your source of compost has to be of the highest quality. Texture specifically when sourcing compost.

When you grab a handful of compost, it should clump together when you close your first and stay clumped when you open your first. Then, you should be able to poke the clumped compost with your finger and it should fall apart nicely. It should be similar to peat moss/coco in texture, light and fluffy. And if you're not finding yourself enjoying the sweet earthy musk of the compost, it isn't very good.


- If you have a compost that meets the above requirements, the 1:1:1 ratio will do just fine.

- If your compost is poor-mediocre, run 40% peat/40% aeration/20% compost.

Bad quality compost will clump in your soil mass, resulting in dry spots and making it difficult for your roots to move freely. You can always top dress with more compost, but you cannot take it out.

Compost is no different than soil, if its commercially produced it will likely be mediocre. When Coots says "high quality compost", he typically means compost/EWC that one has produced themselves.

BAS blend itself is good, don't really need to change much with it and its a good base to start with. As you get more grows with it under your belt, you'll know what does and doesn't need to be changed.

Remember, Coots soil is just a base for us. It is meant to be tailored according to our own personal grow environments, situations, and choice of plants. The appeal in Coots soil is how easily you can tailor it to suit your own needs. Get a few runs with it in first, then you'll have more answers. Attempting to do anything perfect on your first time often leads to heartache or even inaction.

You got this Kind Sir.

Click to expand...

Ya I’m actually quite confident in everything I have going on, excited to finally get this going. The compost I’m using is called “Coast of Maine Lobster Compost” and I read some good stuff about it.

I thought I had a tarp but it got thrown away, I let my sphagnum soak up some water overnight in these storage containers (3.8 cu ft of sphagnum.) It wouldn’t damage the food web or whatever if my soil “cooked” in three separate storage containers, would it?

I would’ve never thought that before but I read some people talk about having their soil cycle in the final potsdue to reasons.

Kind Sir said:

Ya I’m actually quite confident in everything I have going on, excited to finally get this going. The compost I’m using is called “Coast of Maine Lobster Compost” and I read some good stuff about it.

I thought I had a tarp but it got thrown away, I let my sphagnum soak up some water overnight in these storage containers (3.8 cu ft of sphagnum.) It wouldn’t damage the food web or whatever if my soil “cooked” in three separate storage containers, would it?

I would’ve never thought that before but I read some people talk about having their soil cycle in the final potsdue to reasons.

Click to expand...

You can totally separate it into multiple containers. That might even be better. Definitely better than too much in one smaller container.

I try not to disturb the soil in my no-till pots because I don't want to break up the fungal hyphae network. But you don't have to worry about any of that when making your mix.

Kind Sir said:

Ya I’m actually quite confident in everything I have going on, excited to finally get this going. The compost I’m using is called “Coast of Maine Lobster Compost” and I read some good stuff about it.

I thought I had a tarp but it got thrown away, I let my sphagnum soak up some water overnight in these storage containers (3.8 cu ft of sphagnum.) It wouldn’t damage the food web or whatever if my soil “cooked” in three separate storage containers, would it?

I would’ve never thought that before but I read some people talk about having their soil cycle in the final potsdue to reasons.

Click to expand...

CoM's Lobster Compost is amazing stuff, some of the best compost money can buy in fact. When I made smaller batches of soil, I'd use it because a bag of CoM Lobster Compost shits on commercial EWC. Problem is, I live in the middle of nowhere and have to pay $25-$30/bag of CoM compost. If you're fortunate enough to have a store that sells it for $10/bag, hop on that shit for sure.

Don't worry too much about damage, the colonization doesn't truly start until the soil is in the final pots. And, since you're using Coots mix, you don't need to wait for things to "cook". Just throw it into your pots and you'll be good to go.

When I mix soil, I don't even use a tarp. I've done it straight on my native dirt, I've always liked the idea of some of the native dirt/soil getting mixed into the soil I'm mixing.

Anyway, mix all your ingredients up until evenly mixed. Then, dump the soil into your pots. Ideally, they'll be fabric pots, because the fabric pots can breathe and provide much needed oxygen to your soil microbiology. After mixing the soil, and potting the soil, I saturate the potted soil with water until it is completely wet. I let it sit in pots like that for a day or two, then I plant my plants into the pots and start growing.

I have literally never "cooked" coots' soil mix, that's the best part about it, you don't need to. Just mix it, throw it in a pot, and you're good to go immediately. I've started seeds/clones in Coots mix for years now.