Hello RIU.
The idea of this thread is to discuss and clarify certain terminology regarding soil mixtures.
Sometimes i get confused with things like: topsoil, soil, mixes, potting soil, potting mix, etc.
Spanish is my native language and over that there are also certain variations of my specific country and the "commercial vs technical" uses of terminology.
My main problem is reading Mel Frank's book where he differentiates between soil and topsoil.
Im talking about Part III, Chapter 9: Soil and hydroponics mixtures
It was easy to understand topsoil definition, translation and recognize it on my local market. But as far as i know, soil consists of a series of horizons, one being topsoil, right? At least that would be a "technical" definition
So...what is Mel referring to when he says "soil"? Because i don't believe that he is referring to all those layers/horizons, right?
At the beginning of the chapter it says:
"Most marijuana growers who work indoors buy the soil from which they prepare their soil mixture".
After that he recommends certain tests to know the properties of the soil and how to adjust it.
For more context: then he writes some mixtures, such as:
Mixture for gritty soil:
5 parts soil
3 parts vermiculite
2 parts humus
1 part cow manure
1/2 part bat guano
Mixture for alkaline water:
3 parts topsoil
2 parts peat moss
2 parts perlite
1 part humus
1/2 part bat guano
So the question is...what would be the difference between soil and topsoil listed as the first ingredient on those two mixtures?
My first guess is that when he talks about soil is related with the sentence i copied above: "Most marijuana growers who work indoors buy the soil from which they prepare their soil mixture".
This soil could be anything like GrowMix, for example? Or any potting mix i could get from a nursery?
Here in my country there are a few mixes "cannabis" orientated which consists mostly of peat moss and compost, lacking topsoil. On nurseries is pretty common to find some mixtures which consists of topsoil and compost.
But if he talks about adding peat moss to the mix, i lean towards the option that soil refers to the topsoil and compost mixture, right? Mostly because on the book he states that he won't add peat moss to an already fibrous soil, which could be a potting mix based mostly on peat moss.
Well, i ended up writing a lot, will summarize the questions:
1) To what kind of mixture you think Mel's talks about when saying "soil", since he differentiates it from "topsoil"? You think that "soil" is about peat moss based mixtures or topsoil and compost mixtures?
2) I understand that you don't want topsoil on potting mixes, is this a "dogma" or it can depend on the quality of your topsoil? Maybe nowadays topsoil is not used at all, and the book is a little "outdated" on this specific topic?
I suspect all of this is pretty simply, but i'm getting caught on terminology details.
The idea of this thread is to discuss and clarify certain terminology regarding soil mixtures.
Sometimes i get confused with things like: topsoil, soil, mixes, potting soil, potting mix, etc.
Spanish is my native language and over that there are also certain variations of my specific country and the "commercial vs technical" uses of terminology.
My main problem is reading Mel Frank's book where he differentiates between soil and topsoil.
Im talking about Part III, Chapter 9: Soil and hydroponics mixtures
It was easy to understand topsoil definition, translation and recognize it on my local market. But as far as i know, soil consists of a series of horizons, one being topsoil, right? At least that would be a "technical" definition
So...what is Mel referring to when he says "soil"? Because i don't believe that he is referring to all those layers/horizons, right?
At the beginning of the chapter it says:
"Most marijuana growers who work indoors buy the soil from which they prepare their soil mixture".
After that he recommends certain tests to know the properties of the soil and how to adjust it.
For more context: then he writes some mixtures, such as:
Mixture for gritty soil:
5 parts soil
3 parts vermiculite
2 parts humus
1 part cow manure
1/2 part bat guano
Mixture for alkaline water:
3 parts topsoil
2 parts peat moss
2 parts perlite
1 part humus
1/2 part bat guano
So the question is...what would be the difference between soil and topsoil listed as the first ingredient on those two mixtures?
My first guess is that when he talks about soil is related with the sentence i copied above: "Most marijuana growers who work indoors buy the soil from which they prepare their soil mixture".
This soil could be anything like GrowMix, for example? Or any potting mix i could get from a nursery?
Here in my country there are a few mixes "cannabis" orientated which consists mostly of peat moss and compost, lacking topsoil. On nurseries is pretty common to find some mixtures which consists of topsoil and compost.
But if he talks about adding peat moss to the mix, i lean towards the option that soil refers to the topsoil and compost mixture, right? Mostly because on the book he states that he won't add peat moss to an already fibrous soil, which could be a potting mix based mostly on peat moss.
Well, i ended up writing a lot, will summarize the questions:
1) To what kind of mixture you think Mel's talks about when saying "soil", since he differentiates it from "topsoil"? You think that "soil" is about peat moss based mixtures or topsoil and compost mixtures?
2) I understand that you don't want topsoil on potting mixes, is this a "dogma" or it can depend on the quality of your topsoil? Maybe nowadays topsoil is not used at all, and the book is a little "outdated" on this specific topic?
I suspect all of this is pretty simply, but i'm getting caught on terminology details.
