Begging For Help With Pro-Mix Ultimate Organic Mix

I had posted this yesterday in the general section but i have yet to have a reply. I have always had such great help before on RIU that i figure i must have posted in the wrong section.

I have search and found very little info on this particular mix
Premier Horticulture – PRO-MIX growing mixes & Peat Moss: The ultimate growing performance
I had intended to get the BX but they were sold out, All they had in bales was the BRK and that sounded all wrong. Of the rest of the promix selections the organic seemed best.

I picked up 2 1cf bags of the ultimate organic mix, a bag of lime, 2 small bags of schultz perlite, a 5lb bag of worm castings [may just save for top dressing] and a small bag of soil crystals [may end up in a test plot outdoors]

Any advice on mixing my blend, and i notice that contains "sea compost" does that mean it already has fertilizers in it, searched the bag and the website and i can't find an NPK on it. Also it contains lime already, Do i need to add more? and if so how much?

I plan to use this mix for a SOG grow to be done in either 2-liter soda bottles or possibly 1 gallon grow bags, Just thought it might be relivent.

Any advice appreciated

P@ssw0rd

Ok the pro mix comes loaded with little dirt mites,the nutes it comes preplanted with are not as manky as the MG soil so that is a plus.Im useing it now on my sativa,well half of the pot is it since I had an emergency and that soil was all I had on hand.So far im about 3 solid weeks into active flowering after waiting nearly 3 weeks to sex with no problems,just use plenty of perlite because it is really full of peat moss and it gets packy quick.

Pookie, i would love some clarification on a few things,
1. Is this info specific to the Pro Mix ultimate organic mix or promix in general?
2. "Dirt mites"???

As far as the perlite goes thats the one thing i had planned, i have already mixed in 1 bag of the schultz perlite per bag of promix, not sure of the exact size of the bag of perlite but it seems to be at least 25% the size of the bag of promix.

It's the lime that has me stumped, Why do so many people add it, seems its only purpose is to raise ph, is this correct? I do keep a bucket of tap water sitting out that i ph down to 6.5 before use, runoff also measures at 6.5 on my current grow [miricale grow moisture control]. So given that i keep an eye on things do i need to add lime?

From reading the bag it seems that i could proceed without it and then water it in if it ever became necessary, but honestly my tap water measures a ph of 8.5 so it would seem that i could just stop ph downing the water if i ever needed to raise the soils ph.

Thanks for your input, hoping for more

P@ssw0rd

The ultimate organic had mites,they are harmless they just feast on composting material,mine came a little damp so that might explain them.The lime I really don't have a clue about the lime.

Here is my opinion. Firstly, I've never used Pro-Mix Organic, but I love me the Pro-Mix potting soil.

Don't add anything. THERE! I said it! Seriously, I like it just like it is. I may add 15% worm casting or bat guano if I have some laying around just to give the seedlings a little taste, but it really isn't needed, you just get on the nutes a few days earlier.

Lime is more properly called a PH stabilizer rather than a PH raiser because no matter the PH of the water you add, it tends to keep the soil at 7.0. Lime is basically calcium carbonate which reacts with acids to neutralize the solution. If you keep pouring acidic water into the soil, eventually the lime will run out and then you got trouble. Much mo' bettah to PH your water first and not rely on your lime to fix your PH which could run out whenevah and you'll only find out when your plant starts dying.

But here is the deal. Lime is already in there! They know what they are doing! You can add more perlite, but in my opinion the soil is hard to water properly then. It gets drainy and you almost have to water every day.

Hope that helps.

"You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Picasso345 again" I really appreciate your help, I'm gonna mix my full volumes of perlite and promix together as the organic does seem quite dense [65%+ peat] but that will be all, I'll save the worm castings, and soil crystals for outdoor stuff.

I read that lime also supplied calcium but being a converted hydro grower, im still using up my old botanicare CNS17 nutes till i run out and buy some fox farm stuff, and i think the CNS is already loaded with calcium.

Anyone else wanna chime in?