Best soil recipe?

bimple

Active Member
I am considering growing in soil to avoid the cost and hassle of having to deal with nutrients in a soilless mix or hydroponics, so what are some good recipes for making my own soil for indoor cultivation? I have seen a lot of recipes that mention various items, however I rarely see any quantities attached tot he ingredients, so simply knowing i need worm castings, blood or bone meal or perlite is helpful to know however it is useless without proportions, and I don't see the need to reinvent the wheel when there are so many knowledgeable people here :)
 

Tomselik

Member
I wanna try get 8 1.5 sq bags mix 5gal blood, 5 gal bone low N , 5 Jamaican / indonesian bat guano
25-50 lb worm castings some alfalfa meal, dolomite lime, epsom salt, perlite, some coco coir throw 2 gal of water let it sit for 40-60 days cover it up. ur good
 

diggindirt

Well-Known Member
I run with Subcool's soil mix. It's worked well for me for a while zero hassle once it's mixed up. Go check out Subcool's Old School Organics, should be under a sticky near the top of the page. Stores for a long time as well if you make a bigger batch than what you need, just keep it moist and stir it up once in a while, and also stir again before using. After that, RO water and you're good to go for some frosty plants.
 

bimple

Active Member
hmm - well my grow is starting up soon so I don't have a month to wait to let it all stew so maybe I will make up a batch for the next crop. Int he meantime, what is a good mix without doing the whole super soil thing?
 

bimple

Active Member
I saw a suggestion in the subcool thread to use Fox Farms “Ocean Forest” soil combined in a 2-1 ratio with “Light Warrior,” and I was wondering if anyone else can chime in on this as being a good soil to grow in without having to worry about many nutrtients later.
 

bamacheese

Well-Known Member
I saw a suggestion in the subcool thread to use Fox Farms “Ocean Forest” soil combined in a 2-1 ratio with “Light Warrior,” and I was wondering if anyone else can chime in on this as being a good soil to grow in without having to worry about many nutrtients later.
Use Happy Frog instead of Ocean Forest. Ocean Forest is too heavy on the nutes....I've flowered 8 week strains for 10 weeks in it, unable to get them to fade. The nutes take too long to break down. Happy Frog seems to be a lighter blend, however, and I get great results from it.

No need to add Light Warrior, simply a waste of money as a soil additive. To start seeds in (certain species of plants, anyway), it works excellent. You'd be better off buying worm castings and vermiculite to add to Happy Frog...
 

bimple

Active Member
Use Happy Frog instead of Ocean Forest. Ocean Forest is too heavy on the nutes....I've flowered 8 week strains for 10 weeks in it, unable to get them to fade. The nutes take too long to break down. Happy Frog seems to be a lighter blend, however, and I get great results from it.
thanks for the reply - would you still add Light Warrir in a 2 to 1 ratio?
 

BeastGrow

Well-Known Member
i'm trying 2 bags of FFOF to 1 Bale of Promix HP this year... using molasses, jacks all purpose, epsom salts, ph down, and just a little worm castings for vegging
 

mrblu

Well-Known Member
hmm - well my grow is starting up soon so I don't have a month to wait to let it all stew so maybe I will make up a batch for the next crop. Int he meantime, what is a good mix without doing the whole super soil thing?
if you are planning on starting soon i would just go with ocean forest or ocean forest/happy frog mix half and half. you will have to add nutrients on down the line but your not going to be able to mix a good soil without letting it sit for a little bit the PH will probably be way to low with all that bat guano and stuff in it. the lime probably wouldnt have time to level it off.

i would still add lime to whatever you use though a tbs or so per gallon. also perlite helps too.

are you growing outside or inside?
 

SpaceBuddha

Well-Known Member
I use a mixture of 3 indoor plant soils, some contain peat and sand more than others, which are good for preserving moisture.
I can't really recommend the brands as they are only local ones but when when combined with perlite or gravel (10-30% of the mix) it makes up to a very fluffy mixture.

Adding some chicken shit and seaweed extract into the soil mix seems to work just fine for me, I haven't had much need for adding nutes during veg growth so I give way below the recommended nutes.

I like my mixture, I do watering maybe once a week or once 2 weeks, thats how well it keeps the moisture, then again I use big ass containers as pots for my plants
 

roidrage152

Active Member
I use root riot cubes for seeds, Pro-mix seed starter for clones/seedlings, and pro-mix hp 5 to 1 with fox farms ocean forest or other name brand soil mix for veg/flower. I've done various combinations of adding perlite/vermiculite in this mix as well without any significantly noticeable differences in end results. For nutes General Hydro 3 part and vary the supplements. Unless you were looking for a mix that would need minimal to no extra nutrients, I would not over think the initial recipe. I have messed around with adding other stuff to my mix such as other brands of soils, worm castings, etc. just because I like to think I can get a better variety of nutrients in the dirt, however, I've never really seen a difference in the end quality product. The one significant change I made that was an immediately noticeable improvement was switching from regular pots to fabric ones. My re-potting is from solo cups, to 1 gallon smart pots, to 15 gallon fabric pots over the course of an 8 week process. Well rooted the plants need a heavy watering approx every 2 days.

I have to agree with Bamacheese that Ocean Forest is very hot. I would consider maybe vegging a well rooted plant in Ocean Forest if I didn't want to add any other nutes over a 4 week period or something. When I first started, I was using it for my initially rooted clones, and there was always major shock/stunting for a couple weeks before they did any growing. When i switched to the Pro-mix seed starter which is basically nothing but peat, my plants always took off pretty fast and it happens to be like half the price of the Fox Farms brands around where I am at least.
 

bimple

Active Member
thanks for the tips - I am growing indoors. so a 50/50 mix of happy frog and ocean forest? instead of 2 to 1?
 
Top