-
ICMag with help from Landrace Warden and The Vault is running a NEW contest in November! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!
That and the huge price difference between mixing your own professional soils vs. paying for mediocre soils that require a bit of fixing to get them up to snuff.Suby said:
I firmly believe that the great downfall of most commercial mixes are the quality level of the earthworm castings that have to be used to hit specific price points.
Also the availability of organic amendments is not the best around the world, I'm sure in your neck of the woods they are easier to come buy but for the home grower with a closet setup a 50LBS back of anything is not an option.
I like the Down to Earth stuff, good availability.
And don't even get me started on castings, I used to get them from a farm close by and they where bomb even compared to the expensive stuff around my parts.
The climate is not good for worming in my parts, we still have 4ft of snow outside and it's been over 0 for 2 weeks lol.
S
I like the Down to Earth stuff, good availability.
And don't even get me started on castings, I used to get them from a farm close by and they where bomb even compared to the expensive stuff around my parts.
The climate is not good for worming in my parts, we still have 4ft of snow outside and it's been over 0 for 2 weeks lol.
S
G
Guest
1 litre grit/sand
1 litre worm castings
1 litre any old potting mix
500 ml perlite
300 ml vermiculite
300 ml peat moss
100 ml sheep pellets
200 ml blood and bone (flowering - 100ml)
100 ml rose fert (flowering - 200ml)
1/2 cup dolomite lime
After a few weeks of watering with jst plain water, when solid ferts have died down a bit I use a concoction of liquid ferts such as liquid blood and bone, fish emulsion, kelp extract, molasses, Earth Juice (EJ) range of ferts etc.
Strange I no bt I like it haha
Sweet as everyone!
1 litre worm castings
1 litre any old potting mix
500 ml perlite
300 ml vermiculite
300 ml peat moss
100 ml sheep pellets
200 ml blood and bone (flowering - 100ml)
100 ml rose fert (flowering - 200ml)
1/2 cup dolomite lime
After a few weeks of watering with jst plain water, when solid ferts have died down a bit I use a concoction of liquid ferts such as liquid blood and bone, fish emulsion, kelp extract, molasses, Earth Juice (EJ) range of ferts etc.
Strange I no bt I like it haha
Sweet as everyone!
Last edited:
A
Aerokush101
100% Happy Frog...
Here is my mix.
9 Cu' Soil Building compost *Gardner & Bloom
4 cu' Acid planting mix *Gardner & Bloom
6 cu' chunky perlite *FF
3 Cups of Mocha Bat Guano *Sparetime Organics
4 Cups of Seabird Guano*Sparetime Organics
4 Cups of Steamed Bone meal *FF
2 Cups of Seafood Cuisine *FF
Going back for one more 3 cu' bag of perlite and compost.
All soil-less, all organic. Supplemented with unsulphered molasses and cornmeal, with various ashes and microbes.
9 Cu' Soil Building compost *Gardner & Bloom
4 cu' Acid planting mix *Gardner & Bloom
6 cu' chunky perlite *FF
3 Cups of Mocha Bat Guano *Sparetime Organics
4 Cups of Seabird Guano*Sparetime Organics
4 Cups of Steamed Bone meal *FF
2 Cups of Seafood Cuisine *FF
Going back for one more 3 cu' bag of perlite and compost.
All soil-less, all organic. Supplemented with unsulphered molasses and cornmeal, with various ashes and microbes.
muddy waters said:
Muddy Waters, I like your mix. Same sort of stuff for me here too, can't really find fancy pre-mix organics in the Thai countryside.
But the coca cola part, that is interesting. Can you elaborate a bit more on that? Now Coke, that is one thing easy to find. Or Pepsi, ha ha..
canniption
Active member
hello all thanks for the props,i love goofing with organics.i happen to be close to a killer organic store,has all the good stuff.the new product they have is paramagnetic rock(lava sands),i'll post the info on it if anyones interested.skunke to answer your question,i usually dont use this until i transplant from beer cups but it should be fine.heres a few more pics at 8 weeks,cannabilizing nutes nicely.skunke said:
first one the room
next a sweet tooth #3 hybrid close up
another sweet tooth#3 hybrid diff pheno
one more sweet tooth #3 pheno
and a afghani dream(bcsc)
till next time,canniption
canniption
Active member
sorry skunke forgot to answer part of your question,the guano is 9-1-1.
canniption
Beautiful garden!
The lava rock that you're adding sounds like many of the other 'rock' amendments available out there. They work extremely well as you discovered.
Using rock amendments with outdoor plants is where you will really see the difference in growth, health and yield increases. Indoor container plants benefit as well.
Nice work again on your garden!
CC
Beautiful garden!
The lava rock that you're adding sounds like many of the other 'rock' amendments available out there. They work extremely well as you discovered.
Using rock amendments with outdoor plants is where you will really see the difference in growth, health and yield increases. Indoor container plants benefit as well.
Nice work again on your garden!
CC
canniption
Active member
thank you cc,very kind of you to say.true about the rock ammendments,i got some azomite this year also to try as they were out of glacial rock dust at the time,picking some up tommorro though.love the grd.Clackamas Coot said:
canniption
I've used the Denali Gold Organic Humus product which contains Alaskan volcanic ash. I can source it locally for $25.00 for 50 lbs.
I've also used Live Earth Humate Soil Conditioner in our raised beds outdoors and will continue to do so.
Here's a website that discusses the need to use rock amendments to organic soils - Remineralize the Earth
Good info there for you to take a look at.
CC
I've used the Denali Gold Organic Humus product which contains Alaskan volcanic ash. I can source it locally for $25.00 for 50 lbs.
I've also used Live Earth Humate Soil Conditioner in our raised beds outdoors and will continue to do so.
Here's a website that discusses the need to use rock amendments to organic soils - Remineralize the Earth
Good info there for you to take a look at.
CC
Compost vs. EWC
Compost vs. EWC
Suby and/or Burn1
A couple of weeks ago I had 2 clones from the same mother plant that I needed to transplant.
For the sake of this question, let's say that I'm using the unaltered LC Mix. The only slight difference is that I mix the EWC to 15% of the total but everything else is basically the same.
I need to mix 10 gallons of soil and I only had enough EWC for 5 gallons so I went ahead and mixed that and planted the clone. The EWC are from a verifiable source, i.e. they have their castings tested at a professional soil lab and post the results.
For the other clone I used an organic compost mix that I get from the wholesale house. It's made by a multi-state nursery operation that's been in business since 1890 and they have a line of soils that they mix and are only sold to the trade.
It's made from composted forest products (bark dust - geez!), composted dairy manure, composted poultry manure, kelp meal, bat guano (probably a pretty small amount) and dolomite lime. It's dark, looks rich and only costs $2.00 per cf. by the bale. Basic compost I would imagine, i.e. nothing all that special.
I mixed the compost at the same percentage as I do with the EWC.
2 weeks later the difference is pretty striking. I would have thought that the EWC would have provided better growth in the early days of the veg cycle but that isn't the case. The clone in the LC Mix using the compost has better branching, leaf development, etc.
Does this make any sense?
The only feeding was a single application of bacteria-dominant compost tea at the time I transplanted them and waterings are the same using Maxicrop and molasses.
Weird.
Compost vs. EWC
Suby and/or Burn1
A couple of weeks ago I had 2 clones from the same mother plant that I needed to transplant.
For the sake of this question, let's say that I'm using the unaltered LC Mix. The only slight difference is that I mix the EWC to 15% of the total but everything else is basically the same.
I need to mix 10 gallons of soil and I only had enough EWC for 5 gallons so I went ahead and mixed that and planted the clone. The EWC are from a verifiable source, i.e. they have their castings tested at a professional soil lab and post the results.
For the other clone I used an organic compost mix that I get from the wholesale house. It's made by a multi-state nursery operation that's been in business since 1890 and they have a line of soils that they mix and are only sold to the trade.
It's made from composted forest products (bark dust - geez!), composted dairy manure, composted poultry manure, kelp meal, bat guano (probably a pretty small amount) and dolomite lime. It's dark, looks rich and only costs $2.00 per cf. by the bale. Basic compost I would imagine, i.e. nothing all that special.
I mixed the compost at the same percentage as I do with the EWC.
2 weeks later the difference is pretty striking. I would have thought that the EWC would have provided better growth in the early days of the veg cycle but that isn't the case. The clone in the LC Mix using the compost has better branching, leaf development, etc.
Does this make any sense?
The only feeding was a single application of bacteria-dominant compost tea at the time I transplanted them and waterings are the same using Maxicrop and molasses.
Weird.
^See my little recipe, I value your opinion.
I need to add a wee bit of lime, but the compost bales I got have lots of good stuff, including oyster shells, kelp, WC etc... Lime is listed, but I would feel safe adding a bit more.
Again, I am going for the soiless approach, and I know there are a few things left out. Feel free to comment away, thank you ahead.
I need to add a wee bit of lime, but the compost bales I got have lots of good stuff, including oyster shells, kelp, WC etc... Lime is listed, but I would feel safe adding a bit more.
Again, I am going for the soiless approach, and I know there are a few things left out. Feel free to comment away, thank you ahead.
It looks like a great soil mix. The brand names didn't mean much to me because I'm sure that those are regional brands for your area of the world. But brands don't mean squat on the type of amendments that you're using in your garden.ithruxix said:
You're right about adding dolomite lime.
The only thing that I would think that you will want to add would be some form of rock dust and there are several out there. Azomite is a fine choice and easily available - maybe even from the company that packages the other amendments that you're using. Rock dust will definitely add to the health of your plants and there's a lot of good solid science out there for you to peruse.
HTH
CC
makes perfect sense to me. done the test many of times and compost wins hands down every time. but wormcastings doesn't come far behind. dont get me wrong castings are good stuff, but compared to quality compost theres no competition.
its only the best fert EVER.....
