there are a million ways to skin a cat....go to a farm store all ingredients are EXTREMELY cheap compared to amazon/ebay, personally I recycle soil because I'm "frugal" and i can't exactly throw my dirt in the garbage where I live
Base (Seeds & Clones)
1/3 Peat (9 dollar bale at lowes/home depot OR you can get nearly 5x the amount per pound at farm/feed store)
1/3 Perlite (no miracle grow junk, a giant bag of chunky horticulture grade costs 22 bux at dro store OR bulk at farm/feed)
1/3 Earthworm Castings numerous options here really, honestly your own worm bin is the best, Farm/Feed stores don't always have)
1 cup dolomite lime per 7.5 gallons
My batches are done in 7.5/15/30 gallons at a time, depends on what I need, I'll use 7 1/2 gallons as my base for easy math for all (especially me)
The above core materials can be bought in bulk from most garden stores and even Craigslist
To that add 2 cups of Kelp, 1 cup of alfalfa and 2 cups of Diatomaceous Earth....was my original mix and worked well enough starting out...its evolved to recycled now and this is what I add to my base
Nutritional Amendments (2 cups per 7.5g)
2 parts kelp
1 part neem seed meal
1 part diatomaceous earth
1 part Greedsand
1 part Organic Fert
1 part alfalfa meal
1 part crab shell
To this I add 2 Cups of Kelp meal and 1 cup of organic fert
and last but not least, 4 cups of glacial rock dust per 7.5gal
I also use Unsulphered Black Strap Molasses (1tbsp per gal of water) with every watering...kicks out some funk for me. Lately i've been making my soil a little lighter by adding more perlite, increases my watering schedule, a slight carry over from coco...the plants have been loving it...lil more work but it seems i will be rewarded..
before you even jump into water only soils, make sure you know whats in your tap water, if its just cholorine cool, 24 hours sitting out OR a handfull of EWC/Organic material and some airstones will knock it out in minutes...chloramine is another beast that will kill all the microbial life in your soil.. I personally don't have that problem in my water as of yet, but I believe fish stores sell stuff to remove it easily....also ALWAYS PH YOUR WATER a 7 dollar dropper and test tube is all you need to get it within range. READ READ READ before you even start homie...there are 4 things I always have...Dynagrow Protekt (most concentrated on market I believe) Calimagic, MicrobeLIFT and white distilled vinegar for ph'ing...once you get in the swing of things its pretty easy...i might know 1 or 2 things that can help you along the way if you got ?'s..take care and smoke up brother!
