What's a simple soil recipe?

I plan on getting Fox farm ocean forest, and adding perlite for the first 2 weeks. When I transplant, I want to transplant into a nutrient rich soil.

What should I add to the ocean forest? I'm thinking:

Worm castings
Bone meal
Dolomite Lime

Any thoughts on what else to add? Would be nice if I didn't have to watch PH to closely.

my simple recipe is a bucket of pro mix with either fresh rabbit poop when I have it, and organicare dry ferts mixed per instructions.
I add only water from my spring. I fertilize once in veg, twice in flower for perfect finishes every time. no fuss, no big cash. My ppm/ph meters been on the shelf for years

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what ratio do you mix the rabbit poo with the pro mix? Ive tried that before with less than stellar results.

thetr33man said:

what ratio do you mix the rabbit poo with the pro mix? Ive tried that before with less than stellar results.

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1 cup pooh to one gallon promix app. worked very well for me. winter is difficult bunny weather for me so I only do this half the year for meat, and pooh.

I know people who tried ffof and failed miserable too while others flourish, proly lots of variables to consider?
I cook my soil in buckets sometimes for a whole season before planting in it. but Ive used fresh bunny/dirt too with good results.

chemphlegm said:

1 cup pooh to one gallon promix app. worked very well for me. winter is difficult bunny weather for me so I only do this half the year for meat, and pooh.

I know people who tried ffof and failed miserable too while others flourish, proly lots of variables to consider?
I cook my soil in buckets sometimes for a whole season before planting in it. but Ive used fresh bunny/dirt too with good results.

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Do you powder the poo somehow or just use whole 'berries'? Still need calmag under led?

I use hid lighting, no need here for calmag. My well water is full bodied.
My best rabbit experience came from whole/mashed berries. If I had the time I kept a bucket bubbling with turds and water
, molasses drop and that tea was powerful good too, I 'd suggest a weekly dip. my chicken crap was too hot to use fresh but next years poop compost was fine. alpaca, llama, bunny....I know those are good fresh, used them all. I liked my worm farms too but too much work for this one

I found a nice write-up about an organic soil mix HERE

Have You tried Labrador

kaivorth said:

I plan on getting Fox farm ocean forest, and adding perlite for the first 2 weeks. When I transplant, I want to transplant into a nutrient rich soil.

What should I add to the ocean forest? I'm thinking:

Worm castings
Bone meal
Dolomite Lime

Any thoughts on what else to add? Would be nice if I didn't have to watch PH to closely.

Click to expand...

FFOF needs nothing but more perlite - its already PH'd ( 6.3 - 6.6 ) ... It will carry your plants up to week 5 before getting weaker. It has worm castings , oyster shell , unicorn piss , etc.

It IS a bit hot for some strains , slight burn sometimes but will be one of the easiest soils to use....... No need to Precharge soil or cook.

THE ONLY THING I HAVE EVER ADDED .... recently was some added myco to soil.
Other that ... It needs nothing. I dont feed plant til week 5 ( either Auto preflower time ) or when i FLIP 12/12 on regular photos .... By then i am getting ready to use bloom nutes.

NITROGEN lasts quite long in this soil .... So adding feed will push it sometimes too high and problems appear. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to check runoff with this soil .... All you are doing when you water up to the point of excessive runoff is Leaching the soil and removing good amendments.

Think about it ..... You plant the seed .... Let FFOF do its thing just use PH water ( 6.5 ) , i dont use RO or distilled , i just use adjusted TAP. Let the soil , grow the shit without throwing the sink at it. THIS WAY " IF " ( that's a big IF ) something goes south ..... You will KNOW that the only THING YOU ADDED WAS WATER. then you can identify any problems for what they are not from a bad feeding or supplement you added , much easier to correct things.

If you use RO , you WILL be adding CAL/MAG to balance it out.

I use an older recipe that I modified a little. Was easy to get right the first try. After seeing results I realized how much of a waste of money most concentrated nutrients are.

kaivorth said:

I plan on getting Fox farm ocean forest, and adding perlite for the first 2 weeks. When I transplant, I want to transplant into a nutrient rich soil.

What should I add to the ocean forest? I'm thinking:

Worm castings
Bone meal
Dolomite Lime

Any thoughts on what else to add? Would be nice if I didn't have to watch PH to closely.

Click to expand...

Your recipe should work well, but it takes a while for bone meal and dolomite to become usable. Might have to give them some synthetic nutes until the rhizosphere is fully developed in the new soil.
I had good success just adding a cup of SeaBat to a bag of FFOF.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Greenbelt-Organics-Sea-Bat-Fusion-Guano-2-lb-Organic-Granular-Fertilizer-GB00561P2LBS/204583312

From my notes:


The basic recipe is to mix sphagnum peat moss (or leaf mold and/or coco coir), aeration bits (pummice, turface, scoria, perlite, vermiculite, rice hulls, calcined clay...a mix of different sized material is best), and compost (usually thermophilic compost and worm castings). Most run something like 25-33% compost, 25-35% aeration and the rest is peat. You would be just fine running equal parts peat, compost, and aeration. Use whatever you can get your grubby little hands on. This is your base. Diversity is the best, but don't bother having a bag of expensive rock dust mailed to you. The idea is to use the recipe as a formula to utilize what you can get.

Now it can be a little confusing for the uninitiated---we're going to have to amend. Here is the post from a guy you may know as Clackamas Coot that really got me going in the right direction:

"I use 3 mixes to keep things straight in my old brain. They are as follows:

1. Food Mix

2. Fix-It Mix

3. Mineral Mix



Food Mix

You want about 2 cups of your food mix - however you get there. You're going to use (he was responding to a guys question about how to mix everything he already purchased -ed.) alfalfa meal, fish meal and bone meal. Mix up a large amount with equal parts (by volume and not by weight) and add 2 cups of this mix to your soil.

If you were to decide that you wanted to add canola meal (aka rape seed meal), flax seed meal (aka linseed meal), et al. then add the same volume of this to your mix but you're still only going to use 2 cups of the final mix. That total amount that you want to use does not increase - you're simply making your Food Mix more diverse( a worthy goal, IMHO)



Fix-It Mix

You're using kelp meal and a combination of neem and karanja meals. Again mix these in equal parts (by volume) and add 1-1.5 cups of this mix to your potting soil. If you were to add crab meal (another good Fix-It component) you would still add the same amount even with the addition of another agent, i.e. 1-1.5 cups.



Mineral Mix

You're using azomite and green sand - mix these together like the other mixes and of this mix you'd want to add about 1 cup to your potting soil. If you were to add limestone (or Oyster Shell Powder) and agricultural Gypsum (both available at Home Depot, BTW) you'd add these minerals by the same volume but you'd still only use 1 cup of however a diverse mix you might come up with.

Glacial Rock Dust is different and its application rate is 4 cups to 1 c.f. of potting soil irrespective of the other minerals you decide to go with.



All the amounts above on all of the mixes are for 1 c.f. of potting soil or 7.5 gallons (allegedly)."

__________________

Strong enough for a man, but pH balanced for a woman.

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Any suggestions for crab meal replacement? Can i make if myself outof the rests of shellfish?
And if no kelp meal, watering with kelp extracts?

What kind of shellfish do you have? Crab, lobster, and shrimp are usually the most common due to the Chitin content. I use to go to the beach and collect the crab shells and smash them up to small bits then run them through the nutri-bullet with the milling blade to powder it up. If thats an option for you or if you eat crab and lobster you can save the shells and use them.

I've never used kelp extract so i can't tell you how it works. I would just order some kelp or pick some up at a garden center or grow shop if you have to. Pretty good ingredient to have around.

RandomHero8913 said:

From my notes:


The basic recipe is to mix sphagnum peat moss (or leaf mold and/or coco coir), aeration bits (pummice, turface, scoria, perlite, vermiculite, rice hulls, calcined clay...a mix of different sized material is best), and compost (usually thermophilic compost and worm castings). Most run something like 25-33% compost, 25-35% aeration and the rest is peat. You would be just fine running equal parts peat, compost, and aeration. Use whatever you can get your grubby little hands on. This is your base. Diversity is the best, but don't bother having a bag of expensive rock dust mailed to you. The idea is to use the recipe as a formula to utilize what you can get.

Now it can be a little confusing for the uninitiated---we're going to have to amend. Here is the post from a guy you may know as Clackamas Coot that really got me going in the right direction:

"I use 3 mixes to keep things straight in my old brain. They are as follows:

1. Food Mix

2. Fix-It Mix

3. Mineral Mix



Food Mix

You want about 2 cups of your food mix - however you get there. You're going to use (he was responding to a guys question about how to mix everything he already purchased -ed.) alfalfa meal, fish meal and bone meal. Mix up a large amount with equal parts (by volume and not by weight) and add 2 cups of this mix to your soil.

If you were to decide that you wanted to add canola meal (aka rape seed meal), flax seed meal (aka linseed meal), et al. then add the same volume of this to your mix but you're still only going to use 2 cups of the final mix. That total amount that you want to use does not increase - you're simply making your Food Mix more diverse( a worthy goal, IMHO)



Fix-It Mix

You're using kelp meal and a combination of neem and karanja meals. Again mix these in equal parts (by volume) and add 1-1.5 cups of this mix to your potting soil. If you were to add crab meal (another good Fix-It component) you would still add the same amount even with the addition of another agent, i.e. 1-1.5 cups.



Mineral Mix

You're using azomite and green sand - mix these together like the other mixes and of this mix you'd want to add about 1 cup to your potting soil. If you were to add limestone (or Oyster Shell Powder) and agricultural Gypsum (both available at Home Depot, BTW) you'd add these minerals by the same volume but you'd still only use 1 cup of however a diverse mix you might come up with.

Glacial Rock Dust is different and its application rate is 4 cups to 1 c.f. of potting soil irrespective of the other minerals you decide to go with.



All the amounts above on all of the mixes are for 1 c.f. of potting soil or 7.5 gallons (allegedly)."

__________________

Strong enough for a man, but pH balanced for a woman.

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Is this a 'let it cook' recipe or use immediately recipe? Seems there are 2 different types when it comes to organics and if you use a 'use in 2 months' recipe immediately youll burn the hell out of your plants...

I mix it and use it a week later, but if you don't want to wait I would just omit the alfalfa as that has the highest tendency to burn.

thetr33man said:

Is this a 'let it cook' recipe or use immediately recipe? Seems there are 2 different types when it comes to organics and if you use a 'use in 2 months' recipe immediately youll burn the hell out of your plants...

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If you're worried about burning your plants simply use the organic mix in the bottom 1/2 to 2/3's of your pot and throw any simple mix, pro-mix, fox farms on the top section. By the time your plants roots get to the hotter soil they will be big enough to handle the additional nutes.

Danielson999 said:

If you're worried about burning your plants simply use the organic mix in the bottom 1/2 to 2/3's of your pot and throw any simple mix, pro-mix, fox farms on the top section. By the time your plants roots get to the hotter soil they will be big enough to handle the additional nutes.

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Mother nature feeds plants exactly the opposite way -- most of the nutrients are near the surface. They go deep for water, not food.
This is why top-dressing is so effective.

You're getting it to a certain degree if you are using any kind of compost that has been properly cooked: mycelial network. Root symbiotic organisms. A lot of add-ons include it now. Make sure its in your mix. Add manually if you have too with mykos or similiar product.. Best to let it 'cook' inyour soil for a week or three.

Biggest thing I miss from organic.. Making that perfect substrate.