Building soil for indoor bed, questions

Hey guys... long time lurker here. Just wanted to ask a couple questions as I am building a 4x5x1 soil bed for the first time and have the plants ready to go for it...

I am trying not to go out and spend my money on 20 CUft of premium potting soil (Foxfarm or RO), which is what I have done in grows past, and move towards a more sustainable long term soil project. Without getting into FPE and EM, I was hoping to use the guanos / earth juice etc I had around to feed as the grow goes as well.

I was thinking:

Generic Cheap Bag of Potting soil (any recommendations here? whats good no clue, I used to use Sam's choice but that doesn't seem to be available in my area anymore)
Mushroom compost
Perlite
EarthWormCastings
Cococoir
Dolomite Lime

Am I forgetting anything important here? I want to reuse this soil too so perhaps greensand for the longterm? Any help from a real guru would be appreciated. thanks guys.

Decided on mixing :

12 CU Ft. of Kellogg's Patio Plus (60 %)
3 CU ft. of Sunshine Mix (15 %)
3 cu Ft. of Perlite (15 %)
1 cu ft. of cococoir (5 %)
1 cu ft. of Earthworm castings (5 %)
I also mixed in 2 cups of Dietamaceous Earth


I made the bed A LA Growmaster from the farm did with a drain in the middle. Plan on starting 12 NYSD in there tomorrow under a raptor 1000W as I presoaked the beds tonight and am too pooped to transplant

I'll start a growlog if there is interest.

Man I have some cool beds but they dont seem to flip anybodys skirt...lol...

That soil mix looks fine to me.

I used 6 cu ft of Patio Blend
4 cu ft of perlite
1.5 cu ft coco



You got any pics? I think beds are cool as shit.

As long as you don't plan on using chems, you could get away with recomposting your old soils and reusing. Just a thought

I have interest! I plan on doing like a 5x10X3H, no till, under 3X 600's, which will be side by side with another 3X600's which will be in 5gal buckets. See which one wins out, i hope the bed wins as that will be harder to get rid of than buckets!

Have you considered adding kelp meal / alfalfa meal / neem seed meal? It would only help, especially in the long run, I would also add compost in equal parts to EWC, i'm loving VermiBlend, for a store purchased option it can't be beat, i will never go without it, i make my teas with it too and get foam in 12 hours

is your bed a prefab one buddy or you built it? prefabs that size seem so overpriced, do you have drainage or a layer of rocks/perlite?

orangecat said:

As long as you don't plan on using chems, you could get away with recomposting your old soils and reusing. Just a thought

Click to expand...

I believe this is a misnomer. I'm gonna find out. I use chems and organics. I dont think using chems wisely means ruining soil.

blueJ said:

is your bed a prefab one buddy or you built it? prefabs that size seem so overpriced, do you have drainage or a layer of rocks/perlite?

Click to expand...

I have a Dr's appt this AM. I will post build pics later.

I built them. I didn't know you could buy them.

Basicaly...my old tables for my pots to sit on. 4x8's with wiggle board tops at a tilt for drainage. Sitting on casters.

I just built a box on top...hardware cloth at the bottom with weed cloth on top of that.

There is a layer of air between the wiggle board and the bottom of the dirt. Drains well and allows air.

blueJ said:

Have you considered adding kelp meal / alfalfa meal / neem seed meal? It would only help, especially in the long run, I would also add compost in equal parts to EWC, i'm loving VermiBlend, for a store purchased option it can't be beat, i will never go without it, i make my teas with it too and get foam in 12 hours

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for stopping. I will definitely be ammending the soil after the first run through and will be adding those 3. The first run through I plan on falling back on ACTs as I have a plethora of guano / earth juice to use up.

If this bed goes well I will be building another bed the same size adjacent to it.

orangecat said:

As long as you don't plan on using chems, you could get away with recomposting your old soils and reusing. Just a thought

Click to expand...

I prefer organics when growing and do indeed plan on reusing my beds.

I plan on removing a good portion of the bed / root balls after harvest, which I will reammend and use at a later date after it's cooked.

From what the 3lb's have written it sounds like all you have to worry about reusing your soil is an excess build up of micronutrients / salts.

Anyone have any experience composting or reusing their soils using EM-1?

Buddy Hemphill said:

Man I have some cool beds but they dont seem to flip anybodys skirt...lol...

That soil mix looks fine to me.

I used 6 cu ft of Patio Blend
4 cu ft of perlite
1.5 cu ft coco

View attachment 2078831

You got any pics? I think beds are cool as shit.

Click to expand...

those are huge beds man, you have any pics of finished harvest?

I have seen grow logs at the farm where growmaster was pulling 2-3 lbs a light.

1337hacker said:

Hey thanks for stopping. I will definitely be ammending the soil after the first run through and will be adding those 3. The first run through I plan on falling back on ACTs as I have a plethora of guano / earth juice to use up.

If this bed goes well I will be building another bed the same size adjacent to it.
View attachment 2079348

Click to expand...

Nice! Glad to see a thread for indoor beds pop up right at the time i'm trying to design my own! And if Buddy puts up his build pics and you can provide some info on how you built yours, well then you two are just awesome! I'm not handy, but can read directions well so i've been looking into prefab ones, which are basically the kits available for regular outdoor gardens, to get a deep one that's at least 4X8, they push $400 to $800! And i'd still have to modify for indoor application.

Another thing i "learned" from 3LB is NO DRAINAGE, i use 2gal and 5gal paint buckets (Lowes are cheapest @ under $3) with an inch or two of perlite on the bottom, as long as you are in tune with how much water you give your plants, then it makes things SO much easier, for me anyways.... So my "no till" bed would incorporate NO drainage with a couple inches of rock/perlite at the bottom, and the soil will never, theoretically be completely removed, just amended and top dressed.

Right now, i mix "new" soil batches 50/50 used soil and new mix, adding small amounts of enzymes at every watering throughout, in flower more-so then veg, i have found really helps break down the roots, even after just a short while after chop....

The other thing i am considering is a 150gal smart pot, if you peruse the other forums (i.e. icmag, grass city) there are threads with successful grows using these massive smart pots as indoor beds... i think i would just have to build a 2x4 frame with plastic wrapping up the edges and fill it with rocks and set the smart pot right on top, something like that?

Please ask any questions!!

Yea, how did you get the dogs to help? Looks good man, i like i like

I just realized something, i have too much SHIT in my bloom room (garage) to try and build something in there....my main problem being that i didn't think ahead and remove things (like 12foot ladder, huge snow blower, lots of storage stuff along the walls etc) BEFORE i sealed up and insulated the garage door! the only way in and out is a regular sized door that opens up to a small landing and a flight of stairs to the left, can't even go straight in and out, got this 90deg angle to deal with damn damn lol

If you notice only one of the tables has the wiggly trim wood for the plastic wiggle board to fit with.

I built that table from a country ass hardware store supply. The sheeting was thinner so I needed the support so it wont buckle.

The other 2 tables dont have that. I got the thicker sheeting from Home Depot. I can walk on it...with no wiggly trim...without it buckling. I weigh 175.

I think its 15-16 bucks a sheet and it takes 4 per table.

The only wood is 2x6's for the frame...and 2x4's running (every 12"s) across. And a couple of 4x4's for the legs.

Dont forget to shorten up a couple of legs..or something to get it to drain. Mine are on a tilt you may not be able to see.

The casters are harbor freight. Like 5 or 6 bucks each. They dont turn...which is good. I can move a wet 16 ft table by myself.

Please ask any questions..

blueJ said:

Yea, how did you get the dogs to help? Looks good man, i like i like

I just realized something, i have too much SHIT in my bloom room (garage) to try and build something in there....my main problem being that i didn't think ahead and remove things (like 12foot ladder, huge snow blower, lots of storage stuff along the walls etc) BEFORE i sealed up and insulated the garage door! the only way in and out is a regular sized door that opens up to a small landing and a flight of stairs to the left, can't even go straight in and out, got this 90deg angle to deal with damn damn lol

Click to expand...

I just snapped these for you. Where here is a will there is a way...sometimes..lol..this is how I move around. They are on casters and I get a few feet play from all three tables.

that sux about all the junk.

Buy the torx head 6pt deck screws from Ace.

Not the square ones

Not phillips...

The ones that cost alot and come with a free bit. They are the shit and make this job 200% easier.

Also , for wood, what I said earlier was for the bottom part . From the caster to the wiggle board.

The top actual 'bed' part is 2x12's doug fir and 2x6 cedar fence board on top of that.



I've never done a grow log all the way. I dont explain well, I dont think.

Please if you wanna know something, ask....

What about adding some greensand, azomite, humate, humic/fulvic acid rock phosphate (if you can find it), Mycrohorzae's, EWC and then if you wanna add some more nutes to the mix throw some bloodmeal, bone meal some of that guano you got, kelp meal etc. YOUR PLANTS WILL LOVE YOU!

I re-use my soils but I only grow in pots but have been really thinking of bringing a raised bed indoor. When my plants finish in their pots I just put all the used soil in a trash can add amendments and let it sit for a couple months come back and it'll be all white and fuzzy throw my plants in and only water until chop

What draws me towards a box is it would be pretty cool to have a nice thick carpet of living mulch.