My TENTATIVE soil mix. Suggestions please

1 bale sunshine mix#1 (all I could get around here)
5 cups bone meal
2.5 cups blood meal
1 cup Epsom Salts
4 cups dolomite lime as a buffer
2.5 cups kelp meal
10+ lb bag pure worm castings
15 lb bag perlite

After searching around on this site and changing some things around this is what I came up with. There will be 9 shiva skunk by sensi seeds . They will be in 3 gallon pots in a 5x5 room under 1k watt hps
-any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated I'm trying to mix this ASAP so I can transplant. Anything I'm missing or using the wrong amount of Something. Anything unnecessary ? I have had 3 successful grows but I am a noob when it comes to mixing my own soil
Thanks !
I also could use some suggestions on liquid nutes after the mix if I'll need them throughout. I am trying to keep this organic as possible but am not opposed to using FF or other good brands of non 100% organic

google sub cools super soil..if you use it you can just feed water ONLY veg to flower i use it and feed molassis in flowering at mid way threw and two weeks before harvest..its like growin hydro on dirt... great stuff

yea I looked at his mix. I cant get everything it calls for but I took some tips and notes from his recipe and this is what I came up with. I am not looking for a different recipe I guess I am looking for any tips on how to improve mine. Thanks for the reply!

$waGgEr said:

google sub cools super soil..if you use it you can just feed water ONLY veg to flower i use it and feed molassis in flowering at mid way threw and two weeks before harvest..its like growin hydro on dirt... great stuff

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If you mixing soil any ways, why not use the subcool recipe? Why screw it up e.g. 4 cups of lime per 4.0 cu ft. of substrate?

as i said, I dont have access to all of his ingredients. Also the dolomite lime is something ive used 3 times in the past and is a great ph buffer and has worked nicely every time. The other ingredients however I am not too familiar with but have seen used succesfully many times. I just want to know how to use these amendments properly.

I ussually use 1 cup of lime/ cu foot of soil. However I always measure smaller so it turns out to be more like 3 cups because I use a 2 cup measuring cup and when I measure I never fill it all the way because I like to stay on the safe side with amendments and measure slightly less

how much is that bale, 4CuF?

it'll be hot, that mix. be careful. if you can get some kelp meal........that'd be good

scroglodyte, yea my recipe is on the first post. I am including kelp meal.
blue j, the bag is 3.5 cubic feet

scroglodyte said:

it'll be hot, that mix. be careful. if you can get some kelp meal........that'd be good

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thanks for the reply, what will be hot about it? Do I have too much of any of the ingredients? I def dont want to burn them. Thanks!

i'd go down to 2 cups each of bone/blood/kelp/lime, 1/2 cup epsoms

thanks blue j, I got most of the measurments from someone elses sunshine mix recipe and actually cut all of those in half to what my current measurements are. I will reduce each by 2.

1 bale sunshine mix#1 (all I could get around here)
2 cups bone meal
1/2 cups blood meal
1/2 cup Epsom Salts
2 cups dolomite lime as a buffer
1/2 cups kelp meal
10+ lb bag pure worm castings
15 lb bag perlite

hows that look?

u can stick with two cups of blood and 2 cups of kelp for sure, sorry maybe the way i wrote it was confusing. If you have access to alfalfa meal that's great for N too and it contains triacantanol, a plant growth regulator, that your plants will benefit from, especially in the long run if you reuse your soil, and of course variety is a good thing, substitute directly for blood meal, or do half and half blood/alfalfa

The blood meal is what is considered "hot" in your mix, if possible let it sit at least a week, preferably longer before using, although i've never had burn issues in the past

thanks again man! great info. I had a feeling I was close but just wanted to hear from someone whos actually used it. +rep blue j!

1 bale sunshine mix#1 (all I could get around here)
2 cups bone meal
1.5 cups blood meal
1/2 cup Epsom Salts
2 cups dolomite lime as a buffer
2 cups kelp meal
10+ lb bag pure worm castings
15 lb bag perlite

lol

Jefferanamo420 said:

1 bale sunshine mix#1 (all I could get around here)
5 cups bone meal
2.5 cups blood meal
1 cup Epsom Salts
4 cups dolomite lime as a buffer
2.5 cups kelp meal
10+ lb bag pure worm castings
15 lb bag perlite

Click to expand...

That mix is fine as is. Not overly hot. What people don't seem to realize and take into account is that bale is compressed. You will end up with 6cf+ once it's expanded and fluffed out. Measure to the expanded amount, not the compressed amount.

If you can snag some Azomite, or granite dust, or any sort of rock dust, that would be a big+. If not, the kelp is full of trace, so you're still good.

I'm not a big fan of SS since I don't layer, it's too hot at the git and many times needs additional feeding anyway. For me anyway, it's just as easy to top dress with some Espoma a month in and adjust to what the plant needs.

If I really run short of something I'll give a shot of Jack's Classic to hold them over till the top dress has time to work. A couple weeks or so. I'm not going to starve the plants because of some mythical *100% organic* grail and no, a shot of Jack's isn't going to wipe out the micro herd either.

Looks good!

Wet

"You will end up with 6cf+ once it's expanded and fluffed out. Measure to the expanded amount, not the compressed amount."


wasn't aware of that part! good deal wet - Jeff, with 6CuF of base soil, i would even up the blood meal to 4 cups and the kelp to 4 cups, but as is will give 'em plenty to start with and just read the plants, as they start using up whats in the soil, increase your nutes/teas/top dressing as needed

elduece said:

If you mixing soil any ways, why not use the subcool recipe? Why screw it up e.g. 4 cups of lime per 4.0 cu ft. of substrate?

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1 cup per cubic foot is a standard actually.

blueJ said:

"You will end up with 6cf+ once it's expanded and fluffed out. Measure to the expanded amount, not the compressed amount."


wasn't aware of that part! good deal wet - Jeff, with 6CuF of base soil, i would even up the blood meal to 4 cups and the kelp to 4 cups, but as is will give 'em plenty to start with and just read the plants, as they start using up whats in the soil, increase your nutes/teas/top dressing as needed

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Even more actually. My 4cf bag of perlite weighs 18lbs, so 15lbs would be a healthy 3cf. Plus the castings and the volume of the other amendments.

He will probably end up with ~10cf or so of mixed mix.

Wet