Lookimg to make my own soil. Help needed please.

CraigMk

CraigMk

Well-Known Member
Easy people. I have a few questions on what a good recipe in the UK for a decent soil to make that I can just water. The amendments I have so far are:
Bio bizz all mix 40ltr
Coco with eco charge. (Plenty of that)
Worm castings
Bat guano
Fish blood and bone meal
Chicken pellets
Epsom salts
Bio char.

Is there anything else you would suggest? And how much should I use? Should I cook the mix for a few weeks before I plant into it. If anyone could help me out. Happy growing
 
DonBrennon

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
Short answer, without explanation

While it may be tempting to just throw it all in, mix it up and let it cook, that will cause you a shit load of problems.......................so................

What you've got
20% All mix
20% Coco with ecocharge
25% Wormcastings
5% Biochar

What you need (IMO)
30% Perlite

Per cubic ft of substrate
1/2 cup of Dolomite Lime
1/2 a cup of gypsum

I'd personally also try to add some kelp meal(Seaweed meal here in the UK) and or volcanic rock dust at around 1/2 a cup each per Ft3

This mix will already be quite 'hot' to the plants, so save the other stuff for topdressing in small amounts with wormcastings and kelp as the plants get older

Save the epsom for foliar, only if you see mag def

Might be a little tricky getting some of the stuff ATM, but I think stuff is still getting delivered from online purchases for now. Could be essentials only very soon tho.

Hope you and your's are well

Stay safe DB:bigjoint:
 
Leeski

Leeski

Well-Known Member
I agree with don I’m in a similar soil mix and the mix was hot as fuck for clones took them a while to get used to it now there settled I feed the soil aact & sst every couple of weeks
Good luck with your grow ☮
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
Figure out what subcool or Clackamas uses in their recipe and try to follow in their steps as close as possible, impossible it seems but make it work. You may have to break out a calculator, lol I did a spreadsheet and figured out the hotness and worked backwards from that. If your not inclined to do that don't attempt all your plants with your supersoil, you'll probably get shitty results.

If it were me for first super soil I'd grab a normal bag of three in one (loam peat compost) then add 40% aeration, gypsum 1 cup per 28L, 30 ml of Epsom, 1/2 cup of soft rock phosphate and 1 cup of alfalfa meal, 10 % ewc.
 
4

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
Bignutes said:
Figure out what subcool or Clackamas uses in their recipe and try to follow in their steps as close as possible, impossible it seems but make it work. You may have to break out a calculator, lol I did a spreadsheet and figured out the hotness and worked backwards from that. If your not inclined to do that don't attempt all your plants with your supersoil, you'll probably get shitty results.

If it were me for first super soil I'd grab a normal bag of three in one (loam peat compost) then add 40% aeration, gypsum 1 cup per 28L, 30 ml of Epsom, 1/2 cup of soft rock phosphate and 1 cup of alfalfa meal, 10 % ewc.
Click to expand...
Agreed! Coots recipe can be found in the first page of the Rols thread at the bottom posted by Cann. Do not use perlite or rice hulls as aeration. I personally use turface MVP and it kills! No need to cook, its not hot. You can add 5x what he recommends and the plants will be fine. It will mostly be a big waste of money. Fun fact, he already adds too much neem meal to the mix but I still follow the recipe exactly.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
4ftRoots said:
Agreed! Coots recipe can be found in the first page of the Rols thread at the bottom posted by Cann. Do not use perlite or rice hulls as aeration. I personally use turface MVP and it kills! No need to cook, its not hot. You can add 5x what he recommends and the plants will be fine. It will mostly be a big waste of money. Fun fact, he already adds too much neem meal to the mix but I still follow the recipe exactly.
Click to expand...
I don't know why you would be recommending that MVP shit full of chemicals to an organic grow. If you want something besides perlite that doesn't break down, get some pumice or lava rock. Also there's nothing wrong with adding rice hulls as part of the aeration, but you still need to add pumice or lava rock, or even perlite if you plan to remix your soil when it breaks down.
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
I didnt want to be the guy to say it first, I'm not a fan of surface MVP, it contains 11% aluminum oxide. I think diatamaceous earth in krill form would be better as its around 2-4% so I limit it to 2% of the overall mixture. It still has 2-4% al oxide I use rice hulls for aeration albeit not as good, but offset it with pumice. I think pumice is one of the better choices.
 
4

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
I don't know why you would be recommending that MVP shit full of chemicals to an organic grow. If you want something besides perlite that doesn't break down, get some pumice or lava rock. Also there's nothing wrong with adding rice hulls as part of the aeration, but you still need to add pumice or lava rock, or even perlite if you plan to remix your soil when it breaks down.
Click to expand...
I may be missing something but what on earth is wrong with MVP? It doesn't contain any bad chemicals, it is literally calcined clay which is clay heated to high to temp to form a crystalline structure that holds air, water, and nutrients. Please expand or send me to a reference so I can read it.

Bignutes said:
I didnt want to be the guy to say it first, I'm not a fan of surface MVP, it contains 11% aluminum oxide. I think diatamaceous earth in krill form would be better as its around 2-4% so I limit it to 2% of the overall mixture. It still has 2-4% al oxide I use rice hulls for aeration albeit not as good, but offset it with pumice. I think pumice is one of the better choices.
Click to expand...
I don't understand where the issue with aluminum oxide comes in? It is a huge part of clay, most clays contain amounts of metal oxides, and aluminum oxide is a larger portion of them. I hate to bring this up as well, but pumice is primarily aluminum oxide.

Now, why do I use Turface? First, it is dirt cheap compared to pumice. Second, it has better soil characteristics than pumice. And third, I hope everyone here has heard of terra preta? It is a soil which contains biochar and calcined clay, which creates an ideal environment for microbes and fungus to live. This creates a very healthy soil with very happy plants.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
4ftRoots said:
I may be missing something but what on earth is wrong with MVP? It doesn't contain any bad chemicals, it is literally calcined clay which is clay heated to high to temp to form a crystalline structure that holds air, water, and nutrients. Please expand or send me to a reference so I can read it.



I don't understand where the issue with aluminum oxide comes in? It is a huge part of clay, most clays contain amounts of metal oxides, and aluminum oxide is a larger portion of them. I hate to bring this up as well, but pumice is primarily aluminum oxide.

Now, why do I use Turface? First, it is dirt cheap compared to pumice. Second, it has better soil characteristics than pumice. And third, I hope everyone here has heard of terra preta? It is a soil which contains biochar and calcined clay, which creates an ideal environment for microbes and fungus to live. This creates a very healthy soil with very happy plants.
Click to expand...
Well I looked it up and saw the chemical analysis. I'm just trying not to add any chemicals. I could be way off on this, but seeing that just made me wonder. I'm no expert though.
 
4

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
CraigMk

CraigMk

Well-Known Member
Hello people the is for all the co.me ts , sorry I have just got back to this thread.. here is a list of what I have and most of it I will be mixing up together. I will be using some stiff to top dress when needed. This will be for am outside gorrilla grow I the .uk..
Anyone had any luck with the stuff I have and have a recipe they want to share? 20200401_152132.jpg
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
4ftRoots said:
I may be missing something but what on earth is wrong with MVP? It doesn't contain any bad chemicals, it is literally calcined clay which is clay heated to high to temp to form a crystalline structure that holds air, water, and nutrients. Please expand or send me to a reference so I can read it.



I don't understand where the issue with aluminum oxide comes in? It is a huge part of clay, most clays contain amounts of metal oxides, and aluminum oxide is a larger portion of them. I hate to bring this up as well, but pumice is primarily aluminum oxide.

Now, why do I use Turface? First, it is dirt cheap compared to pumice. Second, it has better soil characteristics than pumice. And third, I hope everyone here has heard of terra preta? It is a soil which contains biochar and calcined clay, which creates an ideal environment for microbes and fungus to live. This creates a very healthy soil with very happy plants.
Click to expand...
Ok you have a point, to tell you the truth I have no scientific basis to form the opinion I have. All I'm going off is aluminum toxicity is harmful to plants when ph is low but there seems to be a lot of benefits too so I don't know. I don't like aluminum when it comes to cooking, it imparts a taste but that's my taste buds not a plant.

Doesn't look to be a problem at a ph above 5 and it has to be a form of Al that is readily available.

library:articles:soil_aluminum_and_test_interpretation - Spectrum Analytic

www.spectrumanalytic.com www.spectrumanalytic.com
 
Last edited:
4

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
Bignutes said:
Ok you have a point, to tell you the truth I have no scientific basis to form the opinion I have. All I'm going off is aluminum toxicity is harmful to plants when ph is low but there seems to be a lot of benefits too so I don't know. I don't like aluminum when it comes to cooking, it imparts a taste but that's my taste buds not a plant.

Doesn't look to be a problem at a ph above 5 and it has to be a form of Al that is readily available.

library:articles:soil_aluminum_and_test_interpretation - Spectrum Analytic

www.spectrumanalytic.com www.spectrumanalytic.com
Click to expand...
Lol I totally agree with aluminum with cooking! Cast iron for the win!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top