20 gallons soil 1x used ffof
perlite
vermiculite
earth worm castings
compost
alfalfa meal
fish meal
kelp meal
crab meal
gypsum
dolomite
oyster shell flour
basalt
ok so this is whats on the shopping list
@greasemonkeymann
maybe you can fill in the amounts
ok, sorry man, I seriously haven't stopped juggling cars all damn day..
ok, so for 20 gallons of FFOF that's been used for one run....
alright.
to make this soil perfect you'll want more aeration, more humus, and ideally more peat or coco.
BUT, you can go a different route if you don't want to make the 40 or so gallons that you'd need in order to make the soil ideal.
Meaning in a perfect world you'd be using that old ffof as the base part, and then adding peat, compost and aeration to it
but if all you need is 20 gallons, and you already have that as FFOF i'd just tweak that mix a lil.
First the vermiculite is badass for aeration, especially when used with perlite because of its CEC and water retaining quality, that's why I use so many types of aeration, because they have different roles to play.
I'd add a good 3 gallons of vermiculite, can't overdo it with that
ok for nutrients
I'd add the following
1/2 cup neem meal
1/2 cup fish bone meal
1/2 cup kelp meal
1/4 cup crab meal
1/2 cup fish meal OR alfalfa meal
or if ya wanna be a pimp you could use a 1/4 of each of those.
Now, depending on the size of the previous plants (would indicate how much nitrogen they used up)
depending on that it
may need more nitrogen.
but a half cup of fish meal would get you far along in the grow, not to mention the crab meal has slow release forms of nitrogen as well, and the neem too.
1 cup of basalt
1/4 cup oyster meal (optional since you are using d-lime)
just a tiny maybe small palmful of d-lime
I don't use gypsum normally, not that I don't think it's good though, just I have sulfur in other amendments
I believe
@NaturalFarmer is the guy to ask in that regard.
So I feel compelled to mention that you DO need to age this mix, it MUST be cycled, and it MUST have good fresh microbe sources for that to happen
you can often find hippy homesteader-types that make their own compost
(like myself and
@Rasta Roy , for example)
if you can get FRESH homemade compost or castings youll be stoked.
I want to be clear when I say that fresh active compost/castings
is by FAR the MOST crucial input you have in your soil.
organic nutrients do nothing except fuck up the PH in a soil not cycled with microbial diversity.
punch in craigslist, put "compost" or "worm castings" in the search and you'll probably find some.
if you can't find any near you, then fuck it, go and DRIVE to get some, it's that crucial.
absolutely must not be overlooked.
If you can see pics of their compost that's even better, most will eagerly show their redworms that they have "working" for them
Yet another option would be to source some composted cow manure...
cow manure can be added in large amounts in an organic grow, and it's perfect for a slow release of nitrogen and sulfur.
with cow manure you'd usually see a bunch of redworms in there already, plus it degrades to pure humus as well.
Fuck, that reminds me further..
another option would be to find rabbit manure or alpaca manure, both of those can be used as a sole nutrient.
craigslist for all of that BTW