Building soil

[CaseyQuinn]

So as stated before. I have a big bag of Fox Farms Happy Frog, Ocean Forrest, & Strawberry Fields. So I wanted to use the soil I have before buying more. Although I know F.F.O.F. & F.F.S.F. have some good stuff amended already. I wanted to try & make it better. So this this is my 1st soil "cook" or whatever. Any advice is appreciated. Seriously. So this is what I put together tonight. & plan on transplanting my Northern Lights from a 5 gallon to a 7 gallon pot for flower. The transition to Flower will happen in 3 or 4 weeks. So wanted to give soil time to get ready. Here goes what I mixed: *3 to 4 Gallons Fox Farm Soil (I used mostly Strawberry Fields.. & a little Happy Frog. Since this is for the start of Flower transplant. But would use Ocean Forrest if still in Veg. **that's what she's in now. 5 gallon of straight Ocean Forrest). **2.5 quarts of Clay Hydrationpellets (Lava Rocks), since I had no perlite to add. Althoughtheres some alreadymixed in the F.F. soil. **2 quarts of Earth Worm Castings **1 Tablespoon of Oyster Shell Flour **1 Tablespoon of Dolomite Lime **3 Tablespoons Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust **6 Tablespoons Gaia Green 4-4-4 All Purpose **6 Tablespoons Gaia Green Power Bloom **6 Tablespoons of Gaia Green Mineralized Phosphate **8 Tablespoons Kelp Meal **3 Tablespoons Humic Acid **4 tablespoons Green Sand **3 Tablespoons Wallace's Wow Mycorrhizal Inoculant. Am I overdoing it? Or does this sound like a decent 1st super soil? Thanks again. New to this & hope to get the recipe better with time. I also plan on doing teas every few weeks. Thanks again for the feedback.

 

[DoobieDoobs]

I'm not sure about your amendment ratios, but by just reading your inputs, I think it's a good mix man. Clay hydrationpellets might work, they are very big but I bet they do help with the flow of air and water.

Lets see what someone more experienced says tho.

 

[CaseyQuinn]

I'm not sure about your amendment ratios, but by just reading your inputs, I think it's a good mix man. Clay hydrationpellets might work, they are very big but I bet they do help with the flow of air and water.

Lets see what someone more experienced says tho.

I took a bigger recipe I found online. & just did the math to break it down to the gallons of soil I used. Some little more.. some a little less. Like my trace elements. I know i probably dont need it all, for Glacier Rock Dust, Green Sand, Oyster Shells, Dolomite lime kinda seem Similar. Although each has a little difference in what they do. So I said fuck it & added just a little of each, instead of the whole amount of just 1. So dunno. Could be redundant. But I've heard good things about extra trace elements. Thanks for the reply. I like construction criticism. I'm trying to learn.

 

[CaseyQuinn]

And what about diatomacious Earth? Do yall add that? I read it helps level things out.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

So as stated before. I have a big bag of Fox Farms Happy Frog, Ocean Forrest, & Strawberry Fields. So I wanted to use the soil I have before buying more. Although I know F.F.O.F. & F.F.S.F. have some good stuff amended already. I wanted to try & make it better. So this this is my 1st soil "cook" or whatever. Any advice is appreciated. Seriously. So this is what I put together tonight. & plan on transplanting my Northern Lights from a 5 gallon to a 7 gallon pot for flower. The transition to Flower will happen in 3 or 4 weeks. So wanted to give soil time to get ready. Here goes what I mixed: *3 to 4 Gallons Fox Farm Soil (I used mostly Strawberry Fields.. & a little Happy Frog. Since this is for the start of Flower transplant. But would use Ocean Forrest if still in Veg. **that's what she's in now. 5 gallon of straight Ocean Forrest). **2.5 quarts of Clay Hydrationpellets (Lava Rocks), since I had no perlite to add. Althoughtheres some alreadymixed in the F.F. soil. **2 quarts of Earth Worm Castings **1 Tablespoon of Oyster Shell Flour **1 Tablespoon of Dolomite Lime **3 Tablespoons Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust **6 Tablespoons Gaia Green 4-4-4 All Purpose **6 Tablespoons Gaia Green Power Bloom **6 Tablespoons of Gaia Green Mineralized Phosphate **8 Tablespoons Kelp Meal **3 Tablespoons Humic Acid **4 tablespoons Green Sand **3 Tablespoons Wallace's Wow Mycorrhizal Inoculant. Am I overdoing it? Or does this sound like a decent 1st super soil? Thanks again. New to this & hope to get the recipe better with time. I also plan on doing teas every few weeks. Thanks again for the feedback.

Clay hydration pellets aren't the same as lava rock.

 

[htbj]

Looks like you made a hotter version of no til/coots interested to see how you go.

Id keep it a little simple I don't know about the gaia green stuff but id imagine it would be a lot more expensive than getting raw materials from animal feed stores, garden shops, brew stores etc. I'm not sure but al that stuff wasn't available to me so I'm not sure on how cost effective it is and if that even matters to you!

I wouldn't add in D.E either plenty of silica and traces available from mineral amendments like basalt ! Can make your mix a bit cakey/sludgy too I also wouldn't personally add green sand. I would say less is more to start off and you can add in amendments after you have tested a batch of soil. That way it is a lot more easier to see the effect of certain amendments and you wont be lost or discouraged if your mix is too hot and you cant figure out what's going on in the soil.

I kept mine simple and used a coots mix as a base and made adjustments based of some research I came across like worm casting/ bio char % and diminishing returns, but the notil/coots mix are easily riffable to suit your own style/needs.

1:1:1 (sphagnum peat moss 33% aeration 33% compost 33%)

organic amendments:
1/2 c per cu/ft: kelp, malted barley, neem, alfala/oat chaff (nitrogen replacement no crab meal in my country also not even necessary)

mineral amendments:
2 c per cu/ft: basalt rock dust
1 c per cu/ft: calcium carbonate(oyster shell flour), gypsum

and I have a bunch of different recipe percentages from the likes of build a soil, KiS organics which I call updated coots mix which really is just an updated cornell mix or mels mix:

KIS: SPM 50% aeration 33% compost 17%
BaS: SPM 62.5% aeration 25% compost 12.5%

 

[Lockedin]

And what about diatomacious Earth? Do yall add that? I read it helps level things out.

DE will give you a small boost of silica and bug-proof your grow - wear PPE & read the SSD warnings, the dust can be an irritant or worse.
Also, the DE will kill beneficial bugs. It's not a selective solution, it's bio-cide.

IMHO, find silica elsewhere and get some nematodes - beneficial microscopic critters that live under the surface of your soil and eat the nasties that eat roots.
$20 solution from seed to harvest for me. Pretty sure I have @PadawanWarrior to thank for that tip!
They tend to die off as the pest population in the soil declines, so I factor them into each new grow.
edit - fixed busted sentence..

 

[VincenzioVonHook]

Gotta agree with htbj.. I second 1:1:1 peat moss/compost/coarse vermiculite or perlite as a base to modify. Saves a lot of cash over bagged soils as a starting point.

I'm also a firm believer of kelp, Neem, alfalfa, soybean, barley and Coco meal for organics and usually skip any slow release specific fertilizers. I'm cheap and go half half dolomite and azomite.

Simple mix a bunch of mates are chuffed with. They were using hardware store potting mixes, so their expectations weren't very high to begin with.

10L peat moss, 10L compost, 10L coarse vermiculite
½ cup Neem, kelp, alfalfa, soybean and Coco meal
4tbsp dolomite lime, 3tbsp azomite and a pack of beneficial bacterias/microbes.

Top dress with more kelp meal, Coco meal and a touch of guano phosphate upon flower.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Gotta agree with htbj.. I second 1:1:1 peat moss/compost/coarse vermiculite or perlite.

I'm also a firm believer of kelp, Neem, alfalfa, soybean, barley and Coco meal for organics and usually skip any slow release specific fertilizers. I'm cheap and go half half dolomite and azomite.

Simple mix a bunch of mates are chuffed with. They were using hardware store potting mixes, so their expectations weren't very high to begin with.

10L peat moss, 10L compost, 10L coarse vermiculite
½ cup Neem, kelp, alfalfa, soybean and Coco meal
4tbsp dolomite lime, 3tbsp azomite and a pack of beneficial bacterias/microbes.

Top dress with more kelp meal, Coco meal and a touch of guano phosphate upon flower.

What is coco meal and guano phosphate?

 

[VincenzioVonHook]

What is coco meal and guano phosphate?

Coconut meal

Bat Guano Phosphate powder

 

[CaseyQuinn]

Looks like you made a hotter version of no til/coots interested to see how you go.

Id keep it a little simple I don't know about the gaia green stuff but id imagine it would be a lot more expensive than getting raw materials from animal feed stores, garden shops, brew stores etc. I'm not sure but al that stuff wasn't available to me so I'm not sure on how cost effective it is and if that even matters to you!

I wouldn't add in D.E either plenty of silica and traces available from mineral amendments like basalt ! Can make your mix a bit cakey/sludgy too I also wouldn't personally add green sand. I would say less is more to start off and you can add in amendments after you have tested a batch of soil. That way it is a lot more easier to see the effect of certain amendments and you wont be lost or discouraged if your mix is too hot and you cant figure out what's going on in the soil.

I kept mine simple and used a coots mix as a base and made adjustments based of some research I came across like worm casting/ bio char % and diminishing returns, but the notil/coots mix are easily riffable to suit your own style/needs.

1:1:1 (sphagnum peat moss 33% aeration 33% compost 33%)

organic amendments:
1/2 c per cu/ft: kelp, malted barley, neem, alfala/oat chaff (nitrogen replacement no crab meal in my country also not even necessary)

mineral amendments:
2 c per cu/ft: basalt rock dust
1 c per cu/ft: calcium carbonate(oyster shell flour), gypsum

and I have a bunch of different recipe percentages from the likes of build a soil, KiS organics which I call updated coots mix which really is just an updated cornell mix or mels mix:

KIS: SPM 50% aeration 33% compost 17%
BaS: SPM 62.5% aeration 25% compost 12.5%

Thank you so much for the reply. I just ordered a book on teaming with microbes. & I'll get the rest of the series too. Looking forward to learning about this stuff. After I added it all I figured I might have added a little much. So I didn't add too much of certain things. But just a little. I sure dont want to burn my girl. Although I guess that's why you test it with soil meter to see how hot before using. Once again. Thanks for the replies. I'm learning.

 

[CaseyQuinn]

Good replies from all. I'm soaking it up.

 

[CaseyQuinn]

Clay hydration pellets aren't the same as lava rock.

My bag. Lol

 

[CaseyQuinn]

Honestly, using Gaia Green 4-4-4... & 2-8-4 .. & Gaia Mineralized Phosphate & Gaia Rock Dust is probably all I need. I dont think I needed to add the other stuff. I had bought some Down to Earth ammendment for Teas down the road. So i just used a little of it. Still not sure. But I guess ya learn as ya go. Thx. Again for any & all feedback. I value the experienced growers replies.