Please Critique my soil recipe!

meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Wondering what everyone thinks of my soil recipe? Also I am looking to add possibly Gypsum to the mix but not sure in what ratio with this mix, also I am using LEDs so I want to have a really high availability of calcium and magnesium as it seems like LEDs (and from what I have read a lot on these forums) seem to make plants much more Cal-Mag hungry. I also have access to plenty of goat, rabbit, chicken, Turkey and Pig droppings as well as ground dried egg shells and banana peals to use. What do you all think?? thanks!

pete moss 7.5 gal
worm castings 3.75 gal
compost 3.75 gal
perlite 7.5 gal
lime 3 cups
glacial rock dust 12 cups
thats my base

then I mix my amendments together as below
kelp meal 6 cups
epsoma tomato tone 3 cups
alfalfa meal 3 cups
neem meal 3 cups
crab meal 3 cups
finely ground egg shells about 3 cups
azomite about a cup

I then take a total of 7.5 cups of the amendment mix and add it to the base and let it sit for at least 4 weeks...
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
Pretty much my mix,I used dolomite lime, my tap water is high/hard in Ca, will add epsom if i need too.I couldn't find neem so i used insect frass.Im at day 23.Also I didnt add any egg shells.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
bump! Would love some opinions off some of.rhe hard core organics guys on here also! Here's some pics oh some thunder wookie by bodhi at day 60 and the last one is purple wookie at day 46 to maybe get some attention.... seems like you gotta be a troll or spewing some nonsense to get anyone in your thread lol
 

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N

Northwood

Well-Known Member
I don't use a lot of that stuff, but I guess I can add my 2 cents. Just ensure your kelp meal isn't too high in sodium chloride because I've seen it as high as 8+% in kelp pellets sold as an animal feed supplement. I wouldn't doubt some Amazon third-party sellers are repackaging that cheap stuff that's sold by the feed bag to make a buck and selling it for horticultural use. Also what form of lime are you planning to use to buffer the peat moss? I'd use a form of lime that isn't super reactive and will act over a longer period to buffer pH like dolomitic limestone. If you do use calcitic lime, I'd start with a courser grade.

Like I mentioned, I don't use a lot of that stuff - not because it's wrong, but because I'm cheap and lazy. Take neem for example. It will add many beneficial things such as nitrogen to your soil, but nothing that EWCs won't supply and even your alfalfa meal. Same with the compost. In my opinion EWC is superior, so I figure why bother adding both? I'm not sure what crab meal gives you that other ingredients don't, and I don't even know what Tomato Tone is. lol

The style of grow you choose has a degree of influence on how precise your initial grow medium needs to be too, as well as what's in your water.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Northwood said:
I don't use a lot of that stuff, but I guess I can add my 2 cents. Just ensure your kelp meal isn't too high in sodium chloride because I've seen it as high as 8+% in kelp pellets sold as an animal feed supplement. I wouldn't doubt some Amazon third-party sellers are repackaging that cheap stuff that's sold by the feed bag to make a buck and selling it for horticultural use. Also what form of lime are you planning to use to buffer the peat moss? I'd use a form of lime that isn't super reactive and will act over a longer period to buffer pH like dolomitic limestone. If you do use calcitic lime, I'd start with a courser grade.

Like I mentioned, I don't use a lot of that stuff - not because it's wrong, but because I'm cheap and lazy. Take neem for example. It will add many beneficial things such as nitrogen to your soil, but nothing that EWCs won't supply and even your alfalfa meal. Same with the compost. In my opinion EWC is superior, so I figure why bother adding both? I'm not sure what crab meal gives you that other ingredients don't, and I don't even know what Tomato Tone is. lol

The style of grow you choose has a degree of influence on how precise your initial grow medium needs to be too, as well as what's in your water.
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thank you so much for your reply! So basically I may be already overkilling it, is what it sounds like? My method is SIPs if you are not familiar they are sub irrigated planters and my plan is to .. basically seedlings for 4 weeks in basic 4 inch pots... veg for 4 weeks in 1 to 3 gallon fabric pots, then move to five gallon sub irrigated planters for flower. I have 3 grow areas... an OG grow tent have dialed in with ink birds for humidity and temp and using T5s with 4 foot floros for seedlings. Then 2 rooms with CBX3590s 3500k on room is a 5x5 with 12 in it and the other is about 5 x 4 with 10 cobs.

The Kelp meal (as well as most other amendments I use) is from down to earth. The Tomato tone I think has a mixture of chicken poop , feather meal and some other things ( if you google it is is Epsoma tomato tone 360). My well water.. is so weird to me because it feels like "soft water" that has been through a water softener filter. But it is just pumped out of the ground to a small tank and then through a charcoal filter. It does come out of the tap at about 9 ph so there is that lol I think I have always wondered about the Lime I am using this time around I used epsoma lime as well. I will have to look at the actual contents of my lime.

I also am not sure what the crab meal gives lol but... at this point I stopped buying crab meal.. my wife and son and one of my daughters LOVE crab legs so whenever we support our local super club I dry out the shells and save them hahaha oh we also go through about 2 bunches of organic bananas a week that I have started drying out and grinding... do i just use those in a tea? or can I add them to a the base?

thanks! and sorry for the novel!
 
N

Northwood

Well-Known Member
Naw, you're probably not overkilling it. Like I said, I'm just cheap and lazy. lol

If you know the balance of NPKCaMg in each amendment you use, just add them all up based on dry weight to ensure nothing is completely off-balance because it can affect the availability of other completely different nutrients. Chicken poop is great stuff in moderation. In my own initial mix I used organic hen manure they sell in pelleted form that's available around here.

What's the EC or ppm of your water? Unless you're "ionizing" it, that's very high. It might be in your interest to find out what's causing it. Knowing what your bedrock is made of in your area will offer a clue. But right now it's a big question mark, and you don't want to add question marks to the amendments already in your soil because of that balance thing again.

No idea about the banana peels, but I'm sure they'll do no harm and will help feed your soil microbiology. I don't use teas either, (lazy remember?) so perhaps someone else can chime in on that topic.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
Wondering what everyone thinks of my soil recipe? Also I am looking to add possibly Gypsum to the mix but not sure in what ratio with this mix, also I am using LEDs so I want to have a really high availability of calcium and magnesium as it seems like LEDs (and from what I have read a lot on these forums) seem to make plants much more Cal-Mag hungry. I also have access to plenty of goat, rabbit, chicken, Turkey and Pig droppings as well as ground dried egg shells and banana peals to use. What do you all think?? thanks!

pete moss 7.5 gal
worm castings 3.75 gal
compost 3.75 gal
perlite 7.5 gal
lime 3 cups
glacial rock dust 12 cups
thats my base

then I mix my amendments together as below
kelp meal 6 cups
epsoma tomato tone 3 cups
alfalfa meal 3 cups
neem meal 3 cups
crab meal 3 cups
finely ground egg shells about 3 cups
azomite about a cup

I then take a total of 7.5 cups of the amendment mix and add it to the base and let it sit for at least 4 weeks...
Click to expand...
Ok, I'll critique your post.

It's not Pete's Moss, it's peat moss, lol.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
Same here man. I hated English classes, and I was always way better with the sciences. It's just way more interesting. I think most stoners are more scientific, but then there are the hippies, lol.
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I guess maybe once you get all your soils just right and everything else ... all you have left to keep the hobby interesting is to put rose petals in the water and make sure it soaks in the light of the full moon or an extreme lightning storm... only then can it be given to flowering plants lol.. ever read the canabible? lol
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
meangreengrowinmachine said:
Wondering what everyone thinks of my soil recipe? Also I am looking to add possibly Gypsum to the mix but not sure in what ratio with this mix, also I am using LEDs so I want to have a really high availability of calcium and magnesium as it seems like LEDs (and from what I have read a lot on these forums) seem to make plants much more Cal-Mag hungry. I also have access to plenty of goat, rabbit, chicken, Turkey and Pig droppings as well as ground dried egg shells and banana peals to use. What do you all think?? thanks!

pete moss 7.5 gal
worm castings 3.75 gal
compost 3.75 gal
perlite 7.5 gal
lime 3 cups
glacial rock dust 12 cups
thats my base

then I mix my amendments together as below
kelp meal 6 cups
epsoma tomato tone 3 cups
alfalfa meal 3 cups
neem meal 3 cups
crab meal 3 cups
finely ground egg shells about 3 cups
azomite about a cup

I then take a total of 7.5 cups of the amendment mix and add it to the base and let it sit for at least 4 weeks...
Click to expand...
Replace the lime and eggshell with dolomite lime and bam Ca/Mg done.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
myke said:
Ive switched my clones over to organic,boring yes lol.I think ill keep one or two in hydro just to stay busy.
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I fucking SUCK SHIT at cloning... I just cant get it right... I have tried soil, rockwell and even built a freaking cloner... I am not giving up though... I have my "nursery dialed" in perfectly now and am going to just buy a commercial cloner. If that doesn't work I really don't know lol ... sorry venting hahahaha
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
meangreengrowinmachine said:
I will correct that for my next batch here thank you! Any Idea on the gypsum levels? I have heard they can very much enhance terps if nothing else
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The key to terps, I am currently learning, is S. I don’t really know what typical sulfate ranges are. But if you have ag “solution-grade” gypsum, a teaspoon per gallon every other soak should make up the difference if you stumbled into low-S soil.
 
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