Soilless Organic Mix Critiques / Advice?

Hey guys, I'm looking to make 25 gallons worth of growing substrate for an indoor grow. The following is a list of all I have available right now:

Base Substrate: Pro-Mix Premium Organic Vegetable and Herb Mix

Ingredients: Canadian sphagnum peat moss, coir, perlite, gypsum, calcitic lime, organic fertilizer, and micorrhizae.

Available amendments:

- Voila! brand composted shrimp cocktail
- Perlite
- Dolomitic Lime
- Earthworm Castings
- Alfalfa meal
- Kelp meal
- Fulvic / Humic Acid
- Two types of Pro-Mix organic fertilizer, OSHA-rated, 3-7-3 and 7-3-3

My general plan:

- Brew a compost tea for 36 hours
- Inoculate the Pro-Mix with the compost tea
- Allow it to "Cook" for 3 - 4 weeks
- Transplant month-old plants into the mix


Proposed compost tea recipe:

2.38% Worm Castings
1.25% Insect frass
0.50% blackstrap molasses
0.25% Alfalfa meal

A couple pinches of the Pro-mix (for the micorrhizae)

The percentage proportions come from a website that I found linked on Rollitup but have since lost.

Proposed Soilless Mix:

60% Pro-Mix
30% Perlite
10% Shrimp Compost

Questions:
- Any thoughts on the compost tea recipe? Do I need to add some of the shrimp compost?
- How much tea do I need to brew to inoculate 25 gallons of soilless mix? Is there a general rule for amount of inoculant needed per gallon of substrate for jnoculation?
- Should I adjust the soilless mix? Add any of the amendments? I'm not sure what proportions to use.

Cheers!

DoctorChaos said:

Base Substrate: Pro-Mix Premium Organic Vegetable and Herb Mix

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That's what I used as the base mix for my no-till. It serves me well.

I kept mine pretty simple for the rest. Mainly just whatever mineral amendment was available locally, alfalfa pellets from the feed store, and of course my own worm castings. I use hay as mulch bought in square bale form from the same feed store. You can't really use too much of any of these ingredients. I only added one potentially "hot" thing, and that was the organic hen manure pellets that are sold at Canadian Tire. I probably added between 20% to 30% perlite in my original mix as well, but it wasn't an exact thing.

I didn't mess with teas. I just depended on the homemade worm castings for inoculation purposes. They were fresh castings, still with lots of live worms and egg cases in there. Even the hay is a good inoculant, especially for protozoa.

Northwood said:

That's what I used as the base mix for my no-till. It serves me well.

I kept mine pretty simple for the rest. Mainly just whatever mineral amendment was available locally, alfalfa pellets from the feed store, and of course my own worm castings. I use hay as mulch bought in square bale form from the same feed store. You can't really use too much of any of these ingredients. I only added one potentially "hot" thing, and that was the organic hen manure pellets that are sold at Canadian Tire. I probably added between 20% to 30% perlite in my original mix as well, but it wasn't an exact thing.

I didn't mess with teas. I just depended on the homemade worm castings for inoculation purposes. They were fresh castings, still with lots of live worms and egg cases in there. Even the hay is a good inoculant, especially for protozoa.

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Thanks for the response. What % worm castings approximately did you use in your base mix? Did you let the mix cook before using it?

I intend to go no-till on my next grow, my main focus on this grow is to select my genetics. Big time respect for you no-till guys.

DoctorChaos said:

Thanks for the response. What % worm castings approximately did you use in your base mix? Did you let the mix cook before using it?

I intend to go no-till on my next grow, my main focus on this grow is to select my genetics. Big time respect for you no-till guys.

Click to expand...

In my initial mix I only added around 10% worm castings per volume of finished medium.. As I said, it was what I used as my inoculant and not for its nutrient content.