My soil recipe; opinions please

I know people will give me grief about FF soils but I have them laying around and plan on reusing the soil by re-amending.

(Base)

1.5 cu.ft. FF Ocean Forest
1 cu.ft. FF Original Planting Mix
1 cu.ft. Black Gold (OMRI)
.75 cu ft. Earthworm castings (OMRI)
.50 cu ft. Ancient Forest Humus
1.75 cu.ft. Botanicare ReadyGro (Aeration)
1 cu.ft. FF Light Warrior
5 gal FF Big and Chunk Perlite


(Down to Earth)
2 cups fish bone meal
2 cups alfalfa meal
2 cups GreenSand
2 cups Oyster Shell
4 cups kelp meal
4 cups Neem Seed meal
4 cups BioLive
? cups Green Sand

Please help on the GreenSand amount. I was going to use Azomite but changed my mind after reading a lot about heavy metals.Should I be using Crab meal? I want to be able to just add water.

the aparition said:

I know people will give me grief about FF soils but I have them laying around and plan on reusing the soil by re-amending.

(Base)

1.5 cu.ft. FF Ocean Forest
1 cu.ft. FF Original Planting Mix
1 cu.ft. Black Gold (OMRI)
.75 cu ft. Earthworm castings (OMRI)
.50 cu ft. Ancient Forest Humus
1.75 cu.ft. Botanicare ReadyGro (Aeration)
1 cu.ft. FF Light Warrior
5 gal FF Big and Chunk Perlite


(Down to Earth)
2 cups fish bone meal
2 cups alfalfa meal
2 cups GreenSand
2 cups Oyster Shell
4 cups kelp meal
4 cups Neem Seed meal
4 cups BioLive
? cups Green Sand

Please help on the GreenSand amount. I was going to use Azomite but changed my mind after reading a lot about heavy metals.Should I be using Crab meal? I want to be able to just add water.

Click to expand...

i'd add a different source of minerals, greensand takes SO long to breakdown, it's useless for the first couple harvests at least.
Soft rock phosphate, granite dust, gypsum, etc is what you want.
Yes you should be using crab meal.
you are adding 16 cups of nutrients to this mix, that is too much.
For re-amending I wouldn't add more than 6 cups total, not counting minerals.
i'd do 2 cups of neem meal, one cup of fish bone meal, one cup of kelp meal,one cup of crab meal, and one cup of alfalfa meal.
then add four cups of minerals.

Awesome, thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it.

Ok, here is my updated mix:

(Base)

1.5 cu.ft. FF Ocean Forest
1 cu.ft. FF Original Planting Mix
1 cu.ft. Black Gold (OMRI)
.75 cu ft. Earthworm castings (OMRI)
.50 cu ft. Ancient Forest Humus
1.75 cu.ft. Botanicare ReadyGro (Aeration)
1 cu.ft. FF Light Warrior
5 gal FF Big and Chunk Perlite


(Amendments - Down to Earth)
1 cups fish bone meal
1 cups alfalfa meal
1 cups Crab meal
1 cups kelp meal
2 cups Neem Seed meal
1 cups BioLive

(minerals)
3 cups Down to Earth Green Sand
1 cup Down to Earth Oyster Shell

This mix will be in the compost tumbler for approx. 30-45 days. I will add 1 gal of RO water a tbsp of Hi-Brix. Shaken; not stirred.

I did some further reading on Azomite, Rock Phosphates, & gypsum and all I gleen from the readings is to stay away from them in organic gardening due to heavy metals. Thoughts?

Soil has been mixed and started cooking! Can't wait to see the results in about 30 days; then 5-6 months after that!

The rock phosphate and gypsum I bought are the organic versions from Espoma. Not sure if that make a difference in the heavy metal dept though.

I am sure the kelp meal I added has them as well.

the aparition said:

Soil has been mixed and started cooking! Can't wait to see the results in about 30 days; then 5-6 months after that!

The rock phosphate and gypsum I bought are the organic versions from Espoma. Not sure if that make a difference in the heavy metal dept though.

I am sure the kelp meal I added has them as well.

Click to expand...

you did well, that mix should work for you.
I was gonna say that you need more minerals but you said you added soft rock and gypsum, so you should be golden, just remember that the greensand is bascly just aeration for at least a yr or so

I have not actually added the rock phosphate and gypsum yet but I think I will. I was trying to keep the heavy metals down to a minimum.

When I recycle this mix don't really plan on adding any more Fox Farm soils; I had those just laying around and thought they would make a good base.

In the future I will just re-amend and add organic mushroom compost and/or black gold.

I must say; after mixing everything together it was looking pretty darn good. Can't wait for the results.

Let the waiting begin!

the aparition said:

I have not actually added the rock phosphate and gypsum yet but I think I will. I was trying to keep the heavy metals down to a minimum.

When I recycle this mix don't really plan on adding any more Fox Farm soils; I had those just laying around and thought they would make a good base.

In the future I will just re-amend and add organic mushroom compost and/or black gold.

I must say; after mixing everything together it was looking pretty darn good. Can't wait for the results.

Let the waiting begin!

Click to expand...

I wouldn't sweat the heavy metals so much, most of it isn't absorbed by the plant.
I would recommend making a compost pile and a wormbin, those two are WAY more important than most everything else.
Azomite is sorta controversial because of the aluminum in it, which in theory could breakdown over yrs, but the argument against that is in order for it to indeed breakdown and be absorbed by the plant the PH would have to be so acidic the plant wouldn't live anyways, so it's sort of a question mark.
5% of granite contains uranium...
azomite contains aluminum
etc
etc