Sharing proven soil recipe!

[Dr. Who]

Nah, it has a rather alarming ammonia smell when you open the bag...very cat pissy smelling....something else to it,,,,fermenting bat/bird turd tone....My SS's smell like nice dirt or humus like smelling,,,kinda comfortable like, earthy, natural...
Phil's soil is HOT....One of the tests I'm running with it is cut with my base and completely mixed in.....Gotta have fun with it and "see"....overpowering urge to "know"....eh?

Doc

 

[st0wandgrow]

Nah, it has a rather alarming ammonia smell when you open the bag...very cat pissy smelling....something else to it,,,,fermenting bat/bird turd tone....My SS's smell like nice dirt or humus like smelling,,,kinda comfortable like, earthy, natural...
Phil's soil is HOT....One of the tests I'm running with it is cut with my base and completely mixed in.....Gotta have fun with it and "see"....overpowering urge to "know"....eh?

Doc

That's not uncommon. When the microbes are mineralizing the high N organic inputs there is an ammonia odor given off. Phil claims that his soil is "hot", which likely means that he used a shit ton of alfalfa meal, blood meal, etc. I would NOT use this soil just yet. It can burn your plants roots. I would put it in a container and turn it a couple times a day, keeping it moist but not wet. When that smell dissipates you should be left with more of a typical earthy soil smell, at which point it's safe to use.

The other issue could be that the soil has turned anaerobic. Depending on how much they wet the soil down before bagging it, and how long it sat in that bag, anaerobes may have taken over. If this were the case I'd spread the soil out on a tarp and let it dry out a bit. Once the texture is a bit more crumbly wet it down with a compost tea. The beneficial aerobic bacteria will out compete the anaerobic bacteria with all of that fresh air and the soil should be fine to use.

This is why I never buy soil, compost, castings, etc by weight. Always buy it by volume. When it's sold by weight the manufacturer has a vested interest in saturating the soil for more profit.

 

[Dr. Who]

That's not uncommon. When the microbes are mineralizing the high N organic inputs there is an ammonia odor given off. Phil claims that his soil is "hot", which likely means that he used a shit ton of alfalfa meal, blood meal, etc. I would NOT use this soil just yet. It can burn your plants roots. I would put it in a container and turn it a couple times a day, keeping it moist but not wet. When that smell dissipates you should be left with more of a typical earthy soil smell, at which point it's safe to use.

The other issue could be that the soil has turned anaerobic. Depending on how much they wet the soil down before bagging it, and how long it sat in that bag, anaerobes may have taken over. If this were the case I'd spread the soil out on a tarp and let it dry out a bit. Once the texture is a bit more crumbly wet it down with a compost tea. The beneficial aerobic bacteria will out compete the anaerobic bacteria with all of that fresh air and the soil should be fine to use.

This is why I never buy soil, compost, castings, etc by weight. Always buy it by volume. When it's sold by weight the manufacturer has a vested interest in saturating the soil for more profit.

Yeah that's why It sat and got turned for a cpl of weeks before I transplanted into it.....It was quite damp when received....I opened it right when I got for that reason.......It was watered with a basic bio tea before the trans by about a week.....Plants looking good so far...smells gone of course.

Exactly,,,,,I really like building my own

Great tips though St0w!

 

[old shol4evr]

i agree with greasemonkey, subs recipe is popular but not to my liking either not only that the shit is expensive as hell,i think you should work with what you got and amend as you think need be ,sub started somewere so should you,i build my own soil to and use all diffrent kinds of things,you will be able to tell what you need by def if any ,you can keep it cheap and still grow weed