question about making your own soil....

dielaughing

dielaughing

Active Member
So I'm going to be making my own soil soon, I've used Fox Farm up 'til this point and it works like a charm but there's no way I can afford buy enough of it to accomadate the number of plants I have. So my question is this, in all of the recipes I've found to create one's own mixture the main ingredient is already soil, So what kind of soil should that be? Again, I can't buy the expensive stuff, so should I start out with basic Miracle-Gro or something of that sort and by adding other stuff it will make it a strong soil? I feel like this may be a dumb question but I'm a little confused, can some one shed some light on this for me? :confused::eyesmoke:
 
T

thalboy

Active Member
This is blazeoneup's soil recipe. He is a very talented grower and I trust his recipe:

The soil mix consist of 1 bag of mriacle grow organic + 1 bag of pro mix + 1 cup blood meal + 1 cup bone meal + 1/2 cup dolimite lime + 10-20% added chunky perlite. Im running 3 gallon bags btw this mix will fill 10 3 gallon bags.Im running a few strains mostly chronic, But i have a couple URKLE and NYCD in there as well.

Clones were rooted in rapid rooters, Then transplanted to 16 oz styrofoam cups with plain jane pro mix, After they rooted the cups they were transplanted into the 3 gallon bags with the soil mix from above. When I run this soil mix I use plain water from day 1 all the way thru harvest.
Click to expand...
That should be considerably more affordable than the FF soil mix.
 
dielaughing

dielaughing

Active Member
Thanks but I'm not sure if this is affordable. I'm pricing the pro mix (which I may find it hard to locate in my community) and I think it sells for more than the FoxFarm stuff as far as I can see... Any idea or something I can substitute for that?
 
T

thalboy

Active Member
dielaughing said:
Thanks but I'm not sure if this is affordable. I'm pricing the pro mix (which I may find it hard to locate in my community) and I think it sells for more than the FoxFarm stuff as far as I can see... Any idea or something I can substitute for that?
Click to expand...
From Blazeoneup:

There are other options besides the pro mix, But more MG is not one of them...

You could suppliment the (pro mix) with (peat moss and vermiculite). And a few others but it has to be light airy soil to get the right texture. The whole idea of this is to mix the light and airy pro mix, With the heavy rich miracle grow to meet in the middle. So you have a mix thats not to light, Not to heavy with good drainage.

Heavy rich soils dont provide good drainage, Light airy soils provide to much drainage. You meet them in the middle and you get a nice texture not to heavy not to light with good drainage.
Click to expand...
 
dielaughing

dielaughing

Active Member
Thanks for the info, can you send me the link to the post you're taking this from? I may not need as much as the formula he lists creates so I'm wondering what the ratio of the blood/bone meal and lime is supposed to be... Thanks for your help.
 
C

cymbaline

Well-Known Member
a bale of pro-mix which is like 3.8 cubic feet compressed isn't that much money.. 35$ tops? I pay way less than that..
It's actually like 7 cubic feet also.. You should be able to find it at any big box store or greenhouse place really.
 
mrboots

mrboots

Well-Known Member
Make subcools supersoil. There is an entire sub-fourum under the organics section that says how to make it. you can buy all the stuff at you local nursery and every body loves it.
 
C

cymbaline

Well-Known Member
mrboots said:
Make subcools supersoil. There is an entire sub-fourum under the organics section that says how to make it. you can buy all the stuff at you local nursery and every body loves it.
Click to expand...
I know I do but if the OP can't even afford pro-mix they sure can't afford to source all the lovely amendments needed to mix it.
Although personally I don't think it's all that expensive since the ingredients will make up quite a few batches for later.
 
mrboots

mrboots

Well-Known Member
How can the op afford foxfarms stuff and not be able to afford a bag of pro-mix?

had to edit, re-read the original post and answered my question. I still say find the money to make some supersoil it will pay for itself pretty quick.
 
rocpilefsj

rocpilefsj

Misguided Angel
You can just buy sterilized soil from a wal-mart or equivalent and add your own nutrients in. I get sterilized soil, perlite, and worm castings. 3 parts soil, 2 parts worm castings, 1 part perlite. My plants absolutely love the worm castings. I have added fertilized soil in before but had PH problems because of it. Just make sure you find the right sterilized soil, some come with rocks, wood chips and other junk like that. This mixture usually does me fine until flowering depending on how long i veg for. Then i add flowering and boost nutes as needed. Good Luck.
 
dielaughing

dielaughing

Active Member
rocpilefsj said:
You can just buy sterilized soil from a wal-mart or equivalent and add your own nutrients in. I get sterilized soil, perlite, and worm castings. 3 parts soil, 2 parts worm castings, 1 part perlite. My plants absolutely love the worm castings. I have added fertilized soil in before but had PH problems because of it. Just make sure you find the right sterilized soil, some come with rocks, wood chips and other junk like that. This mixture usually does me fine until flowering depending on how long i veg for. Then i add flowering and boost nutes as needed. Good Luck.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I might go that route, sounds doable for me. I have some bone meal lying around, should I add a bit of that into the mix or would that throw it off a bit?
 
rocpilefsj

rocpilefsj

Misguided Angel
dielaughing said:
Thanks, I might go that route, sounds doable for me. I have some bone meal lying around, should I add a bit of that into the mix or would that throw it off a bit?
Click to expand...
I get the same results with this mixture then when i used to buy "premium" soil. Defiantely add some bone meal if you have it. I forgot to mention that I also add dolomite lime to the mix as well, it keeps the soil PH perfect. It depends what kind you get as to the mixture amount, just follow the instructions on the bottle. Good luck and happy growing.
 
dielaughing

dielaughing

Active Member
Hey there, another question for you. You recommended getting sterilized soil. How is that different from conventional soils? I went to Lowes to check out what they had and they weren't sure what sterilized soil was exactly. Is there a brand you can recommend? Thanks.
 
G

gobbly

Well-Known Member
For my soil mix I PH tested a few local soils and found one that sits right at 7 with neutral water. It's a potting soil with no added fertilizer. I mix 3 parts of the soil to 2 parts perlite and 1 part peat. Ends up right at 6.5, has a really nice texture, drains well, but also holds decent water. I add liquid nutes with waterings. I'm a relative noob though, so keep that in mind :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top