Can I make a good soil with this?

[benbud89]

Hi guys!
I know there are tons of cool soil recipes here. Unfortunately, I cant get many of the items.
What I can buy is this:

Bone meal
Blood meal
Perlite
Unspecified soil in bags
Humus
Peat moss

Im terribly hooked on trying a subirrigated planter for the next run! Can I make a good, living soil with these items? Sorry to bother, but Im a complete soil newb with a very limited access of items >.<

 

[Rasta Roy]

Skip the unspecified soil in bags.

Stick with the peat moss and perlite as your start.

By humus, is it peat humus? Or forest humus? Or is it compost? If it is peat humus I would only use it if you're growing in a bed type set up. If it's one of the other two I would pick up lots of it. It'll come in handy.

I'm assuming you're having to get your supplies from a Lowe's or home depot type of store.

They should also have cow manure. I would get some of that.

They should also have lime, get that...just avoid hydrated lime.

Sulfate potash magnesia sold under the names sul-po-mag or k-mag or its actual name langbenite is sometimes available in those stores amd you'll probably want it.

Peat moss and perlite will give your soil good drainage and water retention. If it's good humus, that and cow manure will give you slow release nutrients and beneficial bacteria.

Blood meal will give you plenty of nitrogen and bone meal will give you calcium and phosphorus.

Lime will give you calcium and magnesium but you'll wanna grab some epsom salts for root drenches unless you can get some sul-po-mag.

You might be hurting for potassium as well without it unless your humus is made from food scraps.

 

[vaporz]

sounds like a good mix,just remember less is always better to avoid mixing up a soil that will be to "hot" and fry your babies,,also in regards to the bagged soil, depending on what you choose, check it over for pests before you mix it up because as an added bonus some bags will give you fungus gnats/other pests included with your purchase

 

[Nugachino]

I dare say you could. I'm using a few of those for mine. Only difference is that I'm using a kelp and fish emulsion bio booster in my soil-coco mix.

 

[Rasta Roy]

sounds like a good mix,just remember less is always better to avoid mixing up a soil that will be to "hot" and fry your babies,,also in regards to the bagged soil, depending on what you choose, check it over for pests before you mix it up because as an added bonus some bags will give you fungus gnats/other pests included with your purchase

If you're growing organic and creating a good population of fungal microbes in your soil then you should expect fungus gnats and already have a pest management plan in place.

 

[Wetdog]

RR is spot on, but I have to add a *must have* and that is kelp meal. Even if you must order it online, 5# will do to get started.

My very first organic mix was LC's #2, which was a blood, bone, kelp meal in a peat moss, perlite, pine bark fines, dolomite lime, basic mix that I had been making for years. Used Jack's Classic since it was for non edible ornamentals (Had a small rare fern nursery). This basic mix worked well no matter the nutrient source. Google LC's mixes, or, LavenderCowboy for good basic info.

But get some kelp meal!

The pine bark fines (NOT wood) are usually labeled as pine bark mulch in the Lowes or HD garden area. Fines are screened and graded and usually found in nursery supply houses. Have never seen them since I moved out of SoFl, but the mulch works well as it's mostly fines.

The Black Kow manure/compost also has bark fines in it and it gets used quite a bit. Good stuff!

Wet

 

[backtracker]

sounds like a good mix,just remember less is always better to avoid mixing up a soil that will be to "hot" and fry your babies,,also in regards to the bagged soil, depending on what you choose, check it over for pests before you mix it up because as an added bonus some bags will give you fungus gnats/other pests included with your purchase

just add predatory nematodes to the mix so you won't have problems later and to CYA.

 

[iHearAll]

You can kill soil pests by wateting with ghost pepper tea every so often. Six pepper per gallon is ok.

Your mix sounds fine. Learn how to brew your own microorganisms too. Probably reiterating but EM1 can be cultured into many bottles of EMe if you learn how. Also many members swear by lactoserum from unconventionalfarmer. I culture from EM1 for my digestion and biodiversity. Also kombucha cultures.

 

[SPLFreak808]

I agree with adding kelp meal & dolomitic lime. Food grade diatomacious earth & compost would be nice too. Later on in the future you can experiment with oyster shells,comfrey and stuff like that which is also good but probably shouldn't be added with too much lime.

 

[platt]

Yeah do some readings around pests management & mind about spreading all that diatomacious earth around your growtent.