Need Soil Mix Help

Stomata

Well-Known Member
Long story short, I'm tired of paying 26 bucks a bag for Fox Farm. I don't know if I got hold of a bad batch or what, but last grow all my plants had some sort of deficiency that I could never nail down. Why pay so much for soil if the plants look like shit?

I've decided that I'm going to make my own mix. I found some "Organic Compost" locally for $1.50 a bag and it's decent stuff. Made by a company called ASB Greenworld. I don't know what's in it exactly, but it looks really rich. I've got a couple seedlings in a mix of the compost and about 30 percent perlite and they're doing great so far. There are a few big sticks in it, but they're easy to screen out when you mix it up.

So far I've got a mix of about 50% compost, 30% peat moss, and 20% perlite. I want to mix up a big ass batch of it (about 50 gallons worth) and let it cook. I use BMO nutes on my plants and they have a supplement called Super Plant Tonic. It's basically mycorrhizae and other stuff to keep the organic breakdown process going. I was planning on mixing up this stuff about 10ml to a gallon and moistening the mix down with two gallons or so to jump start the process.

I have noticed the PH is off. My guess is that the compost is mostly leaves and what not. I've never mixed my own soil but I do know that lime will help. How much lime should I use per 50 gallons of soil mix? The runoff was in the mid sevens when I ran some distilled through it.

Anything else I should add to this mix? Bone or blood meal? Kelp? Help me out here. What should I mix in and how much?

Thanks in advance. :mrgreen:
 
Well, I did some reading and It looks like about 1 cup of lime per CF of soil mix is a safe bet. I believe I'm going to put some worm castings as well. Probably about 10% castings. I figure a 50 gallon tote will hold around 6 CF of soil mix. I think I'm going to mix it up like this:

40% compost
30% peat moss
20% perlite
10% worm castings
1 cup dolomite lime per cubic foot of soil
Distilled water @ 10 ML per gallon Super Plant Tonic to moisten mix

I'll let it cook for about a month before I start using it. That should be enough time to let it get happy.
 
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