New Super Soil Recipe Suggestions for the New year

[potmonster1993]

Thank you I appreciate that. Do you think a 20 gallon pot or 30 gallon pot is superior. I have heard some people say that 30 gallon pots are overkill. You think 20 gallon pots could hold enough food and room for roots or that I am better off with the bigger 30 gallon? (I flower one plant at a time under one 600 watt) I have figured more soil would mean bigger roots would be better, but if I can competing results using only 20 gallons of soil then I'm all for it.

 

[Rasta Roy]

Thank you I appreciate that. Do you think a 20 gallon pot or 30 gallon pot is superior. I have heard some people say that 30 gallon pots are overkill. You think 20 gallon pots could hold enough food and room for roots or that I am better off with the bigger 30 gallon? (I flower one plant at a time under one 600 watt) I have figured more soil would mean bigger roots would be better, but if I can competing results using only 20 gallons of soil then I'm all for it.

Bigger roots, bigger fruits! I am the guy who just planted into 100 gallon pots indoors lol. Now that's probably overkill. If you're only flowering one plant under one light I would definitely go for the bigger pot.

There's basically two approaches for filling out your canopy...either more plants in smaller pots, the advantage is a shorter veg time, the disadvantage is your plants aren't as hardy.

The other approach is less plants, in bigger pots. Its a longer veg time, but your plants are more vigorous and on a better path for success when they flower.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

There's basically two approaches for filling out your canopy...either more plants in smaller pots, the advantage is a shorter veg time, the disadvantage is your plants aren't as hardy.

The other approach is less plants, in bigger pots. Its a longer veg time, but your plants are more vigorous and on a better path for success when they flower.

why do you say that?
if anything I find the contrary to be true...
do you have issues with younger plants?
seed? or clone?

 

[Rasta Roy]

why do you say that?
if anything I find the contrary to be true...
do you have issues with younger plants?
seed? or clone?

No issues with my youngins, I just meant they don't have as big of stalks. Hardy was probably a poor word choice lol. Dont veg them longer to get them healthier lol, I was just referring to actual size.

 

[Rasta Roy]

@greasemonkeymann

What's your preferred approach? More plants, less veg time or the opposite?

To me it seems like plants I veg longer that have bigger stalks tend to do better in flower then ones that vegged quickly and then put into flower. But the difference has never been dramatic, the plants just seem sturdier.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

@greasemonkeymann

What's your preferred approach? More plants, less veg time or the opposite?

To me it seems like plants I veg longer that have bigger stalks tend to do better in flower then ones that vegged quickly and then put into flower. But the difference has never been dramatic, the plants just seem sturdier.

ah yes, i see what you are saying, sure, that's applicable for sure
I've done a bunch of different tinkering in that regard, sea of green, scrog of green, au-natural, lst, etc.

and for my particular methods of growing (which is sorta a three stage thing, clone/seed/sex stage, preflower-vege, and flower)
so I like to have the perfect amount of time for them to coincide with each other, so what that means, is since I sorta like sative dom blends, they tend to need a good 90 days to finish (on average), so that's 90 days for the next batch to be cloned, and then pre-flower-veged, I take cuts off the plants I want to keep, I take them right before I flip them to flower.
as for my flower room, my most recent method is to have smaller plants, usually topped to two or four colas, and those I fit into 3 gallon squares, at 9x 9 inches.
so then I lightly lst the plants to have their colas fit their container "footprint" (again, 9x9)
then I cram as many of those as I can under my dual 600w HIDs (one high UV10k mh + one standard hps)
I really like the 10k metal halide bulb, by the way, I've been powder mold free since I started using it, and i'm in a friggin rainforest, and it's been a wet swampy California winter, not sure if it's a coincidence, but since I started using the 10k, my mold has disappeared, so I speculate the added UV is possibly killing the mold spores (pure conjecture, but a reasonable assumption)

I usually flower five or six types strains, and they all finish at different times, and stretch at different rates, but I know em all, so I kinda tweek things to adjust to them.

I also have fairly good results from larger containers and bigger plants, but the drawback is that those exceed their allotted time, meaning longer than 90 days, and more importantly, bigger containers in vege, which is really my limiting factor, my vege room Is small, comparatively..

That being said my biggest harvests are typically in 5 or 8 gallon containers, but recently I've been getting reaaally good numbers with the aforementioned technique

BUT, that is all due to the mass amount of strains I have, if I was monocropping I would be doing things differently
but having 15-20 strains/phenotypes makes it a lil interesting when I have to choose who goes where..

 

[Rasta Roy]

ah yes, i see what you are saying, sure, that's applicable for sure
I've done a bunch of different tinkering in that regard, sea of green, scrog of green, au-natural, lst, etc.

and for my particular methods of growing (which is sorta a three stage thing, clone/seed/sex stage, preflower-vege, and flower)
so I like to have the perfect amount of time for them to coincide with each other, so what that means, is since I sorta like sative dom blends, they tend to need a good 90 days to finish (on average), so that's 90 days for the next batch to be cloned, and then pre-flower-veged, I take cuts off the plants I want to keep, I take them right before I flip them to flower.
as for my flower room, my most recent method is to have smaller plants, usually topped to two or four colas, and those I fit into 3 gallon squares, at 9x 9 inches.
so then I lightly lst the plants to have their colas fit their container "footprint" (again, 9x9)
then I cram as many of those as I can under my dual 600w HIDs (one high UV10k mh + one standard hps)
I really like the 10k metal halide bulb, by the way, I've been powder mold free since I started using it, and i'm in a friggin rainforest, and it's been a wet swampy California winter, not sure if it's a coincidence, but since I started using the 10k, my mold has disappeared, so I speculate the added UV is possibly killing the mold spores (pure conjecture, but a reasonable assumption)

I usually flower five or six types strains, and they all finish at different times, and stretch at different rates, but I know em all, so I kinda tweek things to adjust to them.

I also have fairly good results from larger containers and bigger plants, but the drawback is that those exceed their allotted time, meaning longer than 90 days, and more importantly, bigger containers in vege, which is really my limiting factor, my vege room Is small, comparatively..

That being said my biggest harvests are typically in 5 or 8 gallon containers, but recently I've been getting reaaally good numbers with the aforementioned technique

BUT, that is all due to the mass amount of strains I have, if I was monocropping I would be doing things differently
but having 15-20 strains/phenotypes makes it a lil interesting when I have to choose who goes where..

Variety is the spice of life! I'll usually run 3-5 strains a grow...But I have 13 mother's currently and am always introducing new ones and cutting others when superior ones out do them. I'll pick what strains I want, based off what time of year I'm trying to grow, and how big the room is.

I usually lean towards bigger pots and less plants just so I can keep my numbers down and have more mother plants lol.

 

[Organja]

Hello so I'm gonna start by saying I have been growing for just over 2 years and just recently made the switch from bottled nutrients to super soils and I have loved the results as well as the lower cost on my wallet and the environment we all cherish. I am close to tossing out the ole PH pen considering I haven't needed it for the past 8 months as the microbes have taken over what they have done for billions of years.

So here is my new list I was gonna mix up. Tell me what you think and why please. I am all about the incredible power of open source knowledge for I would have none of my organic knowledge without it.

I flower in 30 gallon pots using 13-15 gallons of this super soil on the bottom. I fill the rest in with recycled super soil as the base soil and it works beautifully.


20 cubic feet (10 bags) of Happy Frog.===== I do this only because of the deal I can get at 12$ a bag for this stuff at my local store. They charge 12$ per bag of either ocean forest or happy frog, but I figured that sense I am mixing this all into a beautiful super soil, it made far more sense to go with happy frog because they are 2 cubic feet compared to ocean forest's 1.5 cubic feet. Same amount of money just 50 cubic feet more soil.
1 cubic foot (1 big bag) High quality earth worm castings!
6 Cubic feet of Rice Hulls (silica source plus I hear fungi love this stuff)
6 pounds of fish bone meal
6 pounds oyster shell flour
5 pounds Crab meal
3-5 pounds of kelp meal
3-5 pounds Alfalfa meal
3-5 pounds neem seed meal
5 pounds high phosphorus seabird guano
2-4 Cups Azomite
2-4 Cups Gaia glacial rock dust
2-4 cups Diatomaceous Earth??? (Curious of amounts to add of this)


So please tell me what I should add or possibly take away from this list. My goal is to eventually make it into permaculture veganics because of all of the incredible things I have heard of people doing with that. So any alternatives to my animal additives would be great I stopped using bat guano and blood meal, but am still using seabird guano because I will admit I am a bit scared to leave out a big organic source of phosphorus, but also because the Down to earth seabird guano I use is also 20% calcium (PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME WHY I NEED TO LEAVE SEABIRD GUANOS AND ALL OTHER GUANOS BEHIND FOR GOOD AND PROVIDE REASONING AND ALTERNATIVE SOURCES). Then for the fish products I use (fish bone meal, crab meal, oyster shell flour) I do not know of any other good alternative that provides good sources of calcium, potassium, and trace minerals. I've loved calcium because PH problems using different sources.

Also I will be recycling this soil using the methods from the ROLS forum here along with methods from Rasta Roy's why you don't need supersoil demonstrations. I just grew 3 plants in super soil next to 3 plants same clones strains and everything using Rasta Roys method and it worked perfectly. You can not tell a difference in plants quality as they all look like beautiful organics, but Rasta Roy's method was far easier, more sustainable, more cost efficient, and really got me thinking about how much I need to learn and that the more you do learn about organics and being all natural, the more everything pays you back. (Because the world wants to pay us back and it is awesome)

The more I learn the more I realize nature wants to make things simple for us, that is why you do not need to ph and use harmful chemicals on your plants. So please tell me what I need to do to make things easier on myself and how I can mimic nature better to create healthier medicine, food, flowers, and replenish the soil.

Peace and may you kick 2017's ass if you are reading this!

looks like a legit mix bro! I have left out the bone meals in my mix, and added crustacean meals, aka -crab meal, and shrimp meal. Based off CC's recipe. I personally would get rid of the high phos seabird as well. I wish I had some science to back it, but honestly I am just picky about it and I've never wanted to use Blood, Bone, and bat/bird in my mixes. Not to say it isn't good, I do think some salts come on board with the bat and bird guano's though. Not sure if you have access to cascade minerals, it's a basalt product that comes from central Oregon. It's great for bacterial surface area, as well as long and short term minerals. I have a list of my mix somewhere let me find it and we can compare notes. I think you're pretty spot on though man!

I also wished I would have left out my alfalfa meal, as it seemed to make my soil mix hot initially, but the microbes took care of that in a couple of weeks time.