moonshine mix

[wopuVR]

Hello. I am very glad I found this thread. I am highly intrigued by this organic... as I have come to realize I am allergic to nitrites/nitrates, and its in most liquid fertilizer. I have been doing my homework on organic growing, and came across this monster thread.

One problem I face is that I live in Alaska, so my choices are limited. Lucky for me, there is a local run gardening center that carries good brands, including almost everything on the list, except the red bag of Earthworms/Bat Guano Planting Mix. They do carry Black gold as well, but many different kinds? I'm definitely not botanist or gardener, but I try to understand everything I learn about.

What are the things I lose out on by not including the potting mix, that isn't in the other two mixes?

When it says earthworm castings/bat guano, does it mean it is just that? or is it a mix with those things? would I be able to simply get Bat guano and earthworm castings? or would that be overkill by themselves added to the mix?

From what it looks like on the back of the other two bags, they both already have castings. The light warrior has a ton of Mycorrhizae and then the Ocean Forrest has a ton of ocean creatures and stuff like kelp as well as some guano.

What is the main thing that the planting mix brings to the table? I read that it is "hot"? I think that means it is loaded on nutes? should I look for a replacement like Happy Frog, the place does carry that, or maybe Black Gold, or should I try to go for more specific additions like Wiggle Worm Soil Builder 1-0-0 straight up earthworm castings?

Another thing I was wondering was more in general, does the climate, or more the humidity, affect choices made in the mixture, like to make the soil more breathable and resistant to mold? Where I am, the humidity is like 20%.

 

[wopuVR]

OH! I forgot to mention... They also do not carry the Peace of Mind Fruit & Flower, at least not until the spring. They have the starter, the bulb, the rose, the vegetable, everything but the fruit & flower. Is there a viable alternative? or should I just order it online? I was thinking I wouldn't add the POM fruit & flower until later anyways, and premix in the POM starter for the veg period? The lady at the place told me I could simply substitute the happy frog dry organic fert for my vegetable growing needs... what about my non vegetable growing needs? is she on the right track?

Oh here is a list of the NPK levels from fox farm website:

Happy Frog® All Purpose Organic Fertilizer (5-5-5)
Happy Frog® Tomato & Vegetable Organic Fertilizer (7-4-5)
Happy Frog® Fruit & Flower Organic Fertilizer (5-8-4)
Happy Frog® Bulb Food Organic Fertilizer (3-8-8)

Peace of Mind® All Purpose Organic Fertilizer (5-5-5)
Peace of Mind® Tomato & Vegetable Organic Fertilizer (7-4-5)
Peace of Mind® Fruit & Flower Organic Fertilizer (5-8-4)
Peace of Mind® Bulb Food Organic Fertilizer (3-8-8)

they look identical to me. Anyone know what the difference is between these two product lines?

"[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]All of our Happy Frog® organic fertilizers are specially formulated to replenish the soil, lift the human spirit, and beautify the Earth, naturally. Bring your plants to life!"
"[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]All of our Peace of Mind® organic fertilizers are specially formulated to replenish the soil, lift the human spirit, and beautify the Earth, naturally. Bring your plants to life!"

quoted from their website.. so what is the difference really?
[/FONT]

 

[wopuVR]

oh, another quick question... is a lot of the stuff in these soil mixes alive? would they die when being shipped to the gardening center? its freaking 20 below out still.

 

[Castelvetro]

half ffof, half Lw, add some perlite, done.

nutes are nutes, chems or organic, in a soil like this with a decent flush nobody will be able to tell that it was chems over batshit.

 

[wopuVR]

I have had better results with this mix than the original msm.i use 2 parts ocean forest to 1 part light warrior,plus 30% big and chunky perlite.then i mix 1/2 of a tablespoon of fruit and flower and 1/2 of a tablespoon of starter mix per gallon of soil..then i give them a very light top dress of fruit and flower after 30 days of flowering,amount depends on the size of the pot...i water with the culligan water from the machine at walmart,the ph is around 6.5 -6.7 and the plants seem to like it.. Don't get me wrong the msm is a very good mix this was just easier and better results for me.plus i can mix it in small portions.....

I finally got through reading this entire thread. I found this as a possible alternative, since it doesn't use the original planting mix I can't obtain. I am thinking of adding that bag of wiggle worm for the added N. It sounded like the other deficiencies were a result of over watering, but the N depended on the strain. Although it could be due to lockout from other chemicals. It also seemed that the dolomite lime had positive effects.

I also found some info on a mixture called SubCool's Super Mix. Here is some info:

"The best results we’ve had to date using a well-known commercial soil has been with Fox Farms’ Ocean Forest soil combined in a 2-to-1 ratio with Light Warrior. Used on its own, Ocean Forest is known for burning plants and having the wrong ratio of nutrients, but when cut with Light Warrior, it makes a pretty good base-soil mix."

"After choosing your base soil, the Super Soil concentrate is placed in the bottom one-third to one-half of the container and blended with the base soil. (With strains that require high levels of nutrients, we’ll go so far as to fill ¾ of the container with Super Soil, but this is necessary only with a small percentage of strains.) This allows the plants to grow into the concentrated Super Soil layer, which means that in the right size container, they’ll need nothing but water throughout their full cycle."

The super soil:

8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs Bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
½ cup azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp powdered humic acid

I think this makes a huge amount. It seems very similar to the Moonshine Mix. The stuff added to the super soil is basically whats in the fruit and flower and starter. I don't really see what the FF planting mix has to offer that the Ocean Forest doesn't already have. I really wish FF listed the full ingredient list on their website, they list it on the bag, but its hard to see the bag when it's not available. There is also some of that dolomite lime people were talking about.

What I think I will test is:
1.5 FFOF
0.75 FFLW
1 perlite
1/2 cup dolomite lime
bag of earthworm castings
1 cup POM starter

I can also maybe test a 2nd soil side by side, which is a bit more like original:
1.5 FFOF
1 FFLW
1 FFHappy Frog
1 perlite
1 cup POM starter
1/2 cup dolomite lime

Then I can order the POM fruit & flower, and add it add day 30.
I would be testing 2 strains, 1 of each kind in each kind of soil. 2 x Alaskan Ice (WW x Haze, WW pheno), 2 x Herijuana x Trainwreck.

 

[LymphNode]

1.5 FFOF
1 FFLW
1 FFHappy Frog
1 perlite

is pretty much the mix I use, and its AWESOME. I don't use any extra nutrients at the moment, but for this flower cycle I might make some tea .

Thanks forever moonshine!

 

[milehimedi]

I'm 3 weeks in with my Moonshine crop. The soil seems to hold water like no other. I have only needed to water every 9-10 days. I do keep my temps low, but this is crazy. The plants are not even begging for water at that point. Anybody else have similar experiences?

 

[pufferfish]

I'm 3 weeks in with my Moonshine crop. The soil seems to hold water like no other. I have only needed to water every 9-10 days. I do keep my temps low, but this is crazy. The plants are not even begging for water at that point. Anybody else have similar experiences?

yea the watering is crazy 4 me its every 6 to 8 days

 

[Pebbles]

Hi all. This is my first post, and my first grow attempt. I am pretty sure I will do a FF OF bag, a FF HF or a FF PM bag, a FF LW bag, a coco brick, two or three cups dolomite lime, a cup of POM Starter for the veg mix, and a cup of POM Flower for the flowering mix.

My question is, do you guys ever mix up whole batches of moonshine mix, and dedicated that just for vegging in (one or two gallon pots most likely) and store what isn't used for the next veg stage? And then mix a whole batch of moonshine mix, throwing the POM Flower in it, and dedicating it to the flower stage 5 gallon pots?

Or is it easier to just mix a batch at a time, adding the dry ferts as needed when using the mix? And make a new batch as I run out? I do want to let it sit moist (with perhaps moistening of a tbls of Liquid Karma per gallon of water) for a month or so (with the dry ferts added) before using.

Thanks for clarifying. This is a good thread and apparently the Fox Farm products are available in my area. If I do make a batch of the moonshine mix at a time, then I will have to figure out how to proportion dirt and dry ferts.

ps the Liquid Karma idea is something from the LC soilless mix thread. Would it be overkill here? If so I can reserve it for the LC soilless mix which I am interested in trying as well.

 

[milehighmedical]

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[Dreamscape]

ALWAYS REMEMBER !!!

With the moonshine mix ... you've only got about 30 days worth of nutes in there ... So prepare to supplement after that first month. I learned this the hard way.

 

[milehighmedical]

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[Absolut]

Just started my first grow using MSMix!!! Super excited.

I was just wondering what the difference between POM and Happy Frog Fruit and Flower??

Looking at the site the only thing that's different is the packaging.

 

[milehighmedical]

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[internal space]

Hi all you moonshine growers great thread!
After reading through a good bit I decided that this soil mix would be the perfect way for me to help some of my lazy uninformed outdoor growing friends (no ph/ec meters - last year they bought a bottle of fish emulsion and top dressed the soil with it straight up)

Usually they take a 5 gallon bucket w/ no drain hole fill it with some sandy/clay soil stick a plant in there and hope for the best

This year I was going to suggest that they dig a hole twice as deep as the 5 gall bucket fill 1/2 way with clay aggregate, drill holes in the bottom of the bucket set bucket in hole on top of clay pellets use the moonshine mix and add the POM topdressed at the solstice.
the soil doesn't drain hear so ideally water would runoff into the space below the bucket which the roots could grow down into the pellets creating a wick like system so less chance of over watering and less need to water over all.

what do you guys think? will it work? Would hate to make a complicated expensive suggestion and have it work less than spectacularly. what about top dressing with pom? am giving them some chronic, nlxblueberry, and supreme hp seeds which I think are all heavyish feeders. any imput would be appreciated sorry bout the long post

 

[milehighmedical]

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[IKILL3RI]

Had a question about adding the POM, do you add 1 cup to the whole mix or the whole bag of POM?

 

[BigRigRob]

POM?
(sorry, too high to look it up )

 

[IKILL3RI]

Peace Of Mind: fruit and flower, Once I have all the soil do i just make a big pile of dirt and start mixing all the soil together, also do I add all of the POM: fruit and flower to the mix or just 1 cup with the whole mix?

 

[BigRigRob]

Thank you