Need amendment advise

My introduction into soil has been a gradual one. I had about 6 grows with a full on Hydrofarms Hydro setup. It did work well but as my children got older I had to keep reducing and stealthifying (my own word) my grow area. As a result, I did not have room for reservoirs under my plants so I switched to dirt to get the container lower due to my limited ceiling height. After all, I thought it was just another medium to hold roots. I read my Technaflora Recipe For Success feed chart and sure enough they had soil feed directions and off I went.

I’ve had three grows in soil and they all finished terribly. I started all three grows in FFOF and boy were they growing well. Lush dark green leaves and rapid growth. My quick research indicated that no nutes were needed for 4 weeks because of the organic FFOF. After 4 weeks I began the feed, water, water cycle and after seven days the plants started showing signs of distress. By the end of the flower cycle in each grow all my fan leaves have turned yellow/brown, twisted, dried up and drop off. No matter how much nutes I threw at them in each grow they had the same results. Started with ¼ strength then ½ and then full strength.

Deciding it must be my nutes, I began reading the organics forum to find compatible nutes for soil. So a few weeks later here I am. I am harvesting my dried up yellow plants in one week and will begin germinating my next batch then as well. I have already thrown my bottles of poison in the trash and they have been carried off to the incinerator.

I have logged quite a few hours surfing the organic discussion groups these past couple weeks and trying to put together a basic plan has proved challenging. Boy was I wrong when I thought I would be able to do a quick search and find a recipe used by the majority. I have read the stickies and I am currently reading Teaming with Microbes and it is an excellent read! It’s opened my eyes to the soil food web and I am convinced it is the RIGHT approach to growing.

I have found a pet food/garden business on my way to work that has an organic grow section. There is not a diverse selection but they do have many items in the Espoma line-up. I have a full bag of FFOF that I was going to use to create my base medium. I’m hoping to get some suggestions for a mix using this line of products since I won’t have to deal with shipping on the majority of the heavy stuff.

So I only need 6 gallons of soil 3 times a year.

I am limited greatly by my space (42" ceiling height) and can only fit 2 three gallon containers in there. Below is my first swag at a recipe.

Base
45% FFOF
20% EWC (wiggly worm)
20% Compost (found locally on Crigslist)
10% Pearlite
5% Vermiculite

Amendments
2 TBSP Espoma Bone Meal per gallon
1 TBSP Espoma Blood Meal per gallon
1 TBSP Espoma Dolomite Lime per gallon (powdered via coffee grinder)
1 TBSP Espoma Green Sand per gallon
1 TBSP Espoma Rock Phosphate per gallon

So what do you think? Any must haves not in the list? I was banking on the FFOF having trace elements of mycorrhizae, forest humus, bat guano, fish meal, shrimp meal, crab meal, and kelp meal.

The store has Espoma Plant Tone and Espoma Garden Tone. Should I be incorporating either of these into the mix in place of bone or blood meal? Or in addition to? Or would that be best suited for top dressing? Or is what I have sufficient to carry me through an entire grow? Wow, a lot of questions right there alone!

I use 2 TBS/gal of lime in my mix. It works well. I normally start feeding CalMag at about week 4 of flowering. I'm thinking of adding plant tone and kelp meal to my mix. I would like to know what other people are amending their Espoma nutrients at.

NightbirdX
Are you also using the Espoma bone and blood meal? It was recommended at another site that I drop the bone and blood and use only Plant Tone.

I have the blood and bone meal from mixing a batch of supersoil. I have very little experience with mixing soils myself and am kind of bumbling through it using my knowledge of hydro organics to find similar organic amendments.

I start with Roots organic. (HATE IT.) I am probably going to just go back to Pro-Mix organic and amend it like I did the RO. I find RO a little lacking in nutrients. Every grow I've done with it, the plants get a little deficient too soon and I have to start feeding with Bio Vega.

Right now my mix is something like:

-1 Bag RO (10 gal)
-2 gal Ancient Forest
-2 to 3 gal EWC
-2 Cups lime (roughly 30 TBS or 2 TBS/gal
-10 TBS Azomite
-10 TBS insect frass
-10 TBS Mykos
-10 TBS Azos

My plants have been going deficient right away (looks to be N and P.) Heavy purpling on stems, yellowing on some leaves, and others have dark leathery, leaves that are starting to twist. I thought maybe that my levels on something were too high, but then I have been told that RO soil has a really low charge, so I started upping my dosages of Bio Vega and the deficiencies started going away. I was going to add the plant tone and kelp meal as nutrient supplements and try to get off the bottle so to speak. I really don't like RO as I find that it has terrible absorption and water retention with, so I am going to probably go back to Pro-Mix at least try a 50/50 RO and Pro-Mix Organic to help. I haven't found anything that sucks up water like pro-mix, and the whole point of using RO was to not have to feed, so if I am going to have to feed regardless, I am going to get the soil consistency i prefer, lol. I have noticed that the RO does a lot better if you give it a lot of little feedings rather than the 1-2 bigger feedings that i normally do a week.

I'd like to add the plant tone and kelp to my mix and for flowering, until I want to move back up to 10's and do a Super Soil method, I'll be sticking with my BioCanna nute regimen as I have been getting good yields and phenomenal medicine from it.

I know I know, people are just going to say to go with Super Soil and I am not against it at all in fact I am most likely making my way towards it. I just have to know why i am using something and not just follow a list. So slowly but surely I have been taking out certain bottled nutes if I can find a suitable replacement that i can amend into my soil mix. This way I know why I am using it, and how much to use rather than just follow someone elses lead and when I run into issues, I haven't had any experience with the stuff and don't know how to fix it. The biggest trait a person can have when doing this is patience. So each grow I take bottles out and tweak, and add dry amendments. Eventually I would like to only add Humboldt Honey and water and innoculate every 2-3 weeks. I havent found a bagged soil that I liked well enough to run by itself. Ive had issues from not enough nutes (RO,) to too much of a charge, to being too airy and draining too quick or too clumpy and compacting and draining out the bottom too quick. Pro-Mix is the only stuff that has consistently been my favorite and i've had no issues with it, ever. So I am going to use it as my base and put into it exactly what I want until it works right for me. Time and patience.