Making My Own Soil....70% Peat Moss 30% Perlite??

I just started using Sunshine Mix #4. I noticed that it is just basically peat and perlite. Would I be able to just buy bales of peat moss and a 4cu ft bag of perlite and make my own soil this way? The only other thing that Sunshine Mix #4 has is lime and a "starter nutrient charge". I have lime laying around from a few years back, so I could add that and I have a complete nutrient line to use in the soil.

Would this mix of 70% peat and 30% perlite be a good mix? It seems identical to the Sunshine Mix #4. Any help is appreciated.

Bob

i use promix hp good stuff

Thanks for the reply. The sunshine mix #4 is about the same thing just with out the myco. I add that myself anyway. I am looking at mixing my own soil though to save some money. Filling 30 3gal pots ends up costing like $80 a cycle, plus the veg plants. If I can do it for $50 instead with a little extra work, I would much rather do that.

Anybody have any ideas whether that 70/30 mix of peat/perlite will work?

Thanks,
Bob

promix hp is about 70-80% peat with perilite very aeriated medium works awesome im guessing it should work my plants are loving it

bongrippinbob said:

Thanks for the reply. The sunshine mix #4 is about the same thing just with out the myco. I add that myself anyway. I am looking at mixing my own soil though to save some money. Filling 30 3gal pots ends up costing like $80 a cycle, plus the veg plants. If I can do it for $50 instead with a little extra work, I would much rather do that.

Anybody have any ideas whether that 70/30 mix of peat/perlite will work?

Thanks,
Bob

Click to expand...

It will work just fine. Just make sure to add the lime to the mix or it will be too acidic. I think straight peat is between pH 4 and 5. You'll want to use the finest dolomite lime you can get at about 1 cup per cubic foot and mix it really well. You'll save quite a bit of money in the long run. You can also tweak to get a peat : Perlite ratio that works best for you and your environment.

even better than peat moss is coco.. i mixed up my own medium using a couple bales of peat moss & a couple 5kgs of coco. i always add compost, ewc, cow dung, bat guanos, oyster shell, azomite, blood meal, bone meal, kelp, & mycos. i use about 20% perlite & 10% vermiculite. the darker & richer the soil the better

Yeah, not a fan of that much peat myself, though if you counter the acidity it's certainly doable.

Thanks for all the replies.

I have been using Ocean Forest for the past 5yrs or so and just finally switched. This is the first run I have done with the Sunshine mix #4, but I like the way it feels. It is much lighter than the OF and doesn't have all the nutes added to it which I like. The OF was costing me like $90 a grow just to fill the flower pots, plus I had to buy at least another bag or two to fill up my veg stuff.

With the Sunshine Mix #4, I spent like $80 on two bales and still have some left over. I was looking at the bales of peat moss and bags of perlite, and I should be able to get the same amount of soil made for about $50. So it should save me about $30-$50 a grow. This means a savings of like $200-$300 per year. And I will have more control over the nutrients. This is one of the biggest reasons I am switching.

I have heard good things about coco but have never used it. Does it have the same properties as peat besides the pH? How does it drain and dry out? Does it dry out much faster or slower than the peat or is it about the same? The only reason I have been looking at the peat mix is because that is what I have been using.

Anybody else have any opinions on this 70/30 peat perlite mix with some lime added?? Or any opinions/tips on coco?

Thanks,
Bob

Just a quick bump

You probably want it a bit more like 70% perlite 30% peat, peat holds water for ever.

I grow in 2 parts perlite one part peat works well for me.

I know that with coco, YOU NEED TO RINSE IT GOOD. The brand new compressed bag bought coco has quite a bit of salt build up so i would definitely clean it good. Some brands of it comes already pre washed.
BigBudE

Thanks for the replies.

2 parts perlite to one part peat seems a bit light to me. I have been using ocean forest and it barely has like 15% perlite in it. Also, the sunshine and pro mix both have like 60-70% peat. I am not looking for something I have to water every day, or even every other day, so I want the mix to stay moist. About the most I want to water is twice a week.

Yeah I water about every 3 days or so, but welcome to soilless growing it is pretty simple but it's easy to over/under feed.

You could try a 25% mix of peat, perlite, worm castings and compost with some lime thrown in, or a 33% mix of peat, perlite and worm castings with some lime. Both of those can be pretty cost effective if you do it yourself and can find a good source for worm castings. Ive also had to resort to pelleted lime but if you give the soil a good soak and mix before using it the pelleted stuff works just fine, but the fine dolomite lime is preferred. It took me a while to find a good source for worm castings in smaller quantities but was super impressed with the addition of them to my base soil.

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