Organic soil help please

Hey everybody,

I'm an outdoor grower who's looking into organics. Flushing my girls for 14 days last year just didn't cut it so I wanna go the organic route this season. Now, last year I just got some random organic soil, threw some cow dung and some dolomite lime on it until I had a PH of about 6,8, and as they started showing a nitrogen deficiency I threw some liquid 6-5-4 mediteranean plant fertilizer on them and they responded well to it. This year I want to go completely organic and have a few questions.

First off, how much salt should my soil have? Should I look for organic soil with a little more or a little less salt content? Second, most of the organic soils I've looked at have a pretty high Potassium to Nitrogen/phosphorus ratio. Should I opt for a soil with a high potassium to nitrogen ratio or rather a soil with fairly even NPK ratios? I can imagine a high potassium content will be positive for my babes when they go into flowering but is it really nessecary during veg?

Second, my addatives. I'm thinking 10 parts organic potting soil, between 2 and 3 parts perlite (depending on wether or not I get a soil that already has perlite), 3 parts worm castings, epsom salt (can someone please give me an idea of how much I should add?). I want to avoid bone and blood meal because I've heard that they attract bugs and I've heard stories of heavy metal contamination, and that just isn't what I want for my babies. I'll add dolomite lime until I get a PH of 6,8. I want to add either 1 part cow dung or seabird guano(will 1 part be enough?). I don't know how much azomite I should add to the mix and I'm wondering if it's even nessecary because I already have a lot of trace minerals from the animal poop and worm castings don't I? This is supposed to be a ready, set, grow soil mix and I don't want to worry about burning my plants when I transplant them into their flowering pots or a nute lock-up during flowering. I'll add a small vegging soil buffer so the plants can get used to different soil(my vegging soil will consist of organic seedling soil, the cow dung left over from last season, a little perlite, and dolomite lime, in a 1 gallon pot), but like I said, I am worried about burning my babies.

I've heard of people adding Molasses to the soilmix. Can anyone explain to me why? Is it just the poor man's solution to get some mycorrhizae going? I've also been looking into Advanced Nutrients Nirvana because I've heard a lot of positive feedback. I know, I know, I thought that video on youtube comparing different nutes was a sad marketing joke too, but I'm willing to forgive bad marketing tactics if it's a good product. Worth the investment? Is there anything else I should look into?

Thanks guys and keep on growing your dreams

It's great that you want to go organic, and I would suggest you shed all your previous chem thought processes and start from scratch. No pH, no PPM, no carefully calculating NPK. No bagged soil.

Instead give the control to the microbes that are on this planet for this one function. If you want the best plants you have to feed them the best. Here's the one thing I'd like to impress on everyone:

You make the best plant foods yourself.

Secondary metabolites, hormones and plant enzymes are mostly fragile molecules. They degrade quickly, and so are best if made fresh as a tea and used immediately. Very cheap to do.

I'd also beg you to get a worm bin. Use the scraps from your kitchen (no meat / bone) to feed the worms. Amend the worm bin like you'd amend the soil. When done, you'll have the best VermiCompost available anywhere. Fresh, odorless and incredibly alive. You can't buy this sort of quality, so save your money.

Start with 1/3 sphagnum, 1/3 med-large pumice, 1/3 worm castings. Classic balance of water retention, aeration for the worm castings to do their thing.

I can hit you with a more detailed amendment recipe, but wanted to get your thoughts on what I'm saying.

That seems pretty complex, but should work fine. I would add more perlite. like 1/4of total volume. Composting is great, but if you want something a little quicker as a fert while growing, but still better then store bought, you should brew teas. Takes a couple days and some guanos and molasses. The molasses is a carbohydrate source for the bacteria to grow. Ater a couple days you will have so much life in the water you are going to feed.

1/3 aeration 1/3 sphagnum 1/3 worm castings. Pretty simple.

I'm not a fan of Perlite.

If the compost is fresh, less need for teas that are there to introduce microbes. The soil is already teeming with microbes.

I appreciate the advice, but I don't want to go the complete microbiological route. I never used a PPM meter, I just listened to my plants and got a lot of advice from the internet. It's one thing to read about a nitrogen deficiency, it's another if all of a sudden you have half a dozen plants whose leaves are starting to get oddly pale all of a sudden. The straight forward "ok my Ph is at 6,0 and my plant's growth is stunted, let's add some dolomite lime and done" approach is definately something I'm a fan of. Somewhere it's tried and true and it worked better than I expected last year. I mean, a part of me wishes I could just eat some mushrooms and then I'll see growing differently but that's not gonna happen. I appreciate that you want to make me see it differently, but calculating NPK, etc. just gives me a feeling of security and the feeling that I'm doing something right (especially when I smell the flowers in early October) and somehow I just want to hold onto that.

Second problem, I'm a chef. In the season I have a 60 hour work week and I struggle to give the ladies the attention that they need. If it wasn't for my sister, my patch would've died during a dry spell last year. That means I really don't have the time to garden the way I want. Keep in mind, I've got a large legal garden that I have to tend too as well so at some point I really have to portion out my energy and spare time. It doesn't have to be perfect. I don't need to grow some crazy 10 foot tall super lemon haze/BC big bud/afghani creeper cross in a completely selfmade veganic medium that yields buds twice the size of my forearm, I just want clean smoke and a little bit of small change for another trip to Amsterdam at the end of the season. I want to make a good, organic, bake for a month and grow soil mix, plant the seeds of freedom, and watch that field of dreams with my name on it grow.