Help with mixing organic inputs

Hipposcottamus1

Hipposcottamus1

Well-Known Member
Trying to buy some bulk organic inputs to mix myself and find a good fertilizer program. Just can not find any info on how to go about it.

Obviously the outcome of this mix would not be a good fertilizer but for the sake of figuring out how to do this. If I have 100 g of each how does this add up?

Fishbone meal 4-14-0
Crab meal 3-4-0
Alfalfa Meal 3-0-3
Kelp Meal 1-0-2
Insect Frass 2-1-1

Does this make a 13-19-6 or is it more complicated than that? At half that rate would it be 6.5-9.5-3?

Let me know what you think or if you have any links to resources I could use that would be very appreciated.

Thanks
 
mudballs

mudballs

Well-Known Member
Does this make a 13-19-6 or is it more complicated than that? At half that rate would it be 6.5-9.5-3?

yes it would be a 13-19-6 but youd have diff 'water soluble" timings and "plant available" timings than commercial 13-19-6 because what they use is designed to breakdown at a certain rate to be available.. too much N may become available too soon...see what i mean.
no to the second question...its like you just bought a small tub of powdered fert and just adding half a tsp doesnt equal 6.5-9.5-3...its still the ratio content formula...just less of it in the spoon ur about to topdress with. I know its weird...youd just add less if you didnt want a heavy dressing, we dont change the NPK values of dry fert like we do mixing a res. or feeding.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Hipposcottamus1 said:
Trying to buy some bulk organic inputs to mix myself and find a good fertilizer program. Just can not find any info on how to go about it.

Obviously the outcome of this mix would not be a good fertilizer but for the sake of figuring out how to do this. If I have 100 g of each how does this add up?

Fishbone meal 4-14-0
Crab meal 3-4-0
Alfalfa Meal 3-0-3
Kelp Meal 1-0-2
Insect Frass 2-1-1

Does this make a 13-19-6 or is it more complicated than that? At half that rate would it be 6.5-9.5-3?

Let me know what you think or if you have any links to resources I could use that would be very appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Yes it's more complicated than that. You need to average them, kinda like this:

(4+3+3+1+2)/5 = 2.6
(14+4+0+0+1)/5 = 3.8
(0+0+3+2+1)/5 = 1.2

So it more like 2.6-3.8-1.2
 
Hipposcottamus1

Hipposcottamus1

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
Yes it's more complicated than that. You need to average them, kinda like this:

(4+3+3+1+2)/5 = 2.6
(14+4+0+0+1)/5 = 3.8
(0+0+3+2+1)/5 = 1.2

So it more like 2.6-3.8-1.2
Click to expand...
Ok that makes sense thank you, I did have a calculation that I ended up doing it like that because I know the NPK are as a percentage but i have never really looked into this. I usually use Gia Green 4.4.4 and 2.8.4 which has worked well but I am looking to save some money and mix up something in bulk.
 
Hipposcottamus1

Hipposcottamus1

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
By weight is more accurate. When I mix stuff myself I just use volume though usually. It's close enough.
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Would you guys mind sharing what type of mix you use?
I have heard a range of recommendations in terms of fertilizers so I am having a bit of trouble figuring out what exactly I should be aiming for. A solid baseline would be good to start with.
I have been using a veg 4.4.4 and a bloom 2.8.4 and not sure if I should try to go down,up or mimic those numbers.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Hipposcottamus1 said:
Would you guys mind sharing what type of mix you use?
I have heard a range of recommendations in terms of fertilizers so I am having a bit of trouble figuring out what exactly I should be aiming for. A solid baseline would be good to start with.
I have been using a veg 4.4.4 and a bloom 2.8.4 and not sure if I should try to go down,up or mimic those numbers.
Click to expand...
I've got a ton of different stuff that I've been experimenting with but all you really need for the most part is a veg and bloom mix along with some EWC.
 
Hipposcottamus1

Hipposcottamus1

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
I've got a ton of different stuff that I've been experimenting with but all you really need for the most part is a veg and bloom mix along with some EWC.
Click to expand...
Right on, I've been on the veg and bloom ewc combo for a few years now and you are right it works great.
This last season I added some alfalfa, kelp and insect frass on top of that and had some great results too, so that got my head spinning on how to keep improving and I may have overcomplicated it.
 
Hipposcottamus1

Hipposcottamus1

Well-Known Member
mudballs said:
I do dr.earth 4-6-3 and espoma plantone all purpose 5-3-3...i was mixing those in a ratio under the misinformed assumption the npk was additive and not averaged. So idk what my final NPK values are. Yesterday i was smart i swear you shoulda been here yesterday hipposcott.
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No worries, I appreciate all the help everyone provides here, sometimes it's just a good conversation. I think the Dr. Earth is pretty similar to the Gia Green I use. How often do you top dress with that?
 
C

ComfortCreator

Well-Known Member
You want a lot more N than that imo and ime. You also want a lot more K...basically too P heavy that mix you suggest.

Learn about diff sources of N P and K and mix so that you are at least 1 1 1.

When you topdress later you can tailor it with the gaia (or other) flower mix, but your initial veg mix needs A LOT of N.
 
mudballs

mudballs

Well-Known Member
Hipposcottamus1 said:
No worries, I appreciate all the help everyone provides here, sometimes it's just a good conversation. I think the Dr. Earth is pretty similar to the Gia Green I use. How often do you top dress with that?
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only once or twice during flower because i load up my soil pretty strong when i first mix it up. and i only top dress with the Dr.Earth...no plantone top dress.
 
Y

youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
I agree that you'll want some more Nitrogen and some more Potassium in your mix. I'm using the same stuff as you, plus some Bat Guano for N and Sul-Po-Mag (also called Langbeinite or K-Mag) for K.

For the N you could add some Bat Guano, Neem Meal, Soy Meal.

For the K, I really think the Sul-Po-Mag is the easiest, cheapest choice.
 
Hipposcottamus1

Hipposcottamus1

Well-Known Member
youraveragehorticulturist said:
I agree that you'll want some more Nitrogen and some more Potassium in your mix. I'm using the same stuff as you, plus some Bat Guano for N and Sul-Po-Mag (also called Langbeinite or K-Mag) for K.

For the N you could add some Bat Guano, Neem Meal, Soy Meal.

For the K, I really think the Sul-Po-Mag is the easiest, cheapest choice.
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I have seen the K-Mag, it is 0-0-22 I just didn't know how slow release it was. Any thoughts on that? I am looking for a good N source outside of blood meal so guano may work if I can find it.
 
Y

youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
The langbeinite is pretty water soluble, so I imagine that it's not very slow release. Or that it is released quickly.

That's why you'll want to let your soil "cook" or "age" after you mix it up, before you use. Give all the nutrients time to break down and be absorbed by the soil. That way they will be released slowly for your plant.

It is Strong 0-0-22 compared to most other organic inputs, so you'll want to use Less of it than other stuff.
 
C

ComfortCreator

Well-Known Member
N P and K each have slow med and faster release amendments, a mix of several works great ime. For example Feather Meal is S L O W but a nice long term source of N.
 
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