When does Pro-Mix Soilless turn into soil ?

[PaulieWaulie]

I've been reusing my pro mix for a good six months now, roots and all, and on my current run, I added some organic soil mix to at 15% of total volume. The organic mix didn't give the best results so I will need to remix from scratch on my next attempt and figured at a low 15% rate it wouldn't cause any issues. But now I am wondering about these changes, over the last 6 months the roots continuously decomposing as well as the peat slowly breaking down at what point will this mix be considered soil, where my target medium and water/nutrient solution should be 6.5 - 6.8, versus soilless pro mix where it has been 5.8-6.2.

I am feeding Pure blend pro nutrients/ with liquid karma. The pro mix has been holding a steady PH of 6.1 to 6.3 based on my run off measurements. I don't add dolomite lime as it hasn't gone below this range, and I have fairly hard water at 220 PPM so there is calcium carbonate being added with every watering already.

here is the organic soil mix that was added

3 CUBIC FOOT BASE MIX (21G)
[x] 13 PARTS PRO MIX HP (30% Perlite)
[x] 3 PARTS WORM CASTINGS
[x] 2 PARTS COMPOST
[x] 3 PARTS PERLITE

43% PEAT 9G
24% EWC/COMPOST 5G
33% PERLITE 7G


AMMENDMENTS PER CUBIC FOOT (7G)

[x] 1 CUP BONE MEAL
[x] 1 CUP GLACIAL ROCK DUST
[x] 1/2 CUP KELP MEAL
[x] 1/2 CUP OYSTER SHELL
[x] 1/2 CUP DEHYDRATED MOLLASSES
[x] 1/2 CUP AZOMITE
[x] 1/4 CUP BLOOD MEAL
[x] 1/4 CUP ALFALFA MEAL

 

[Easy7]

It's soil or earth. It's not dirt if that is what you ask.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

I mean more in terms as a classification of medium and corresponding ph range. Soil is 6.5 - 6.8 For cannabis. and Soilesss is 5.8 to 6.2. and hydro is 5.5-5.8.

The nutrients are still bottle fed nutrients. not depending on anything organic from the soil itself.

 

[Easy7]

Ph is a wide range. I would let it go. It's not going to be a huge deal. If all that concerned, add a bit of elemental sulfur. It's small clay disks holding yellow sulfur. Sulfur is the 'go to' for dropping ph. I add it to our berries soil. It turns into sulfuric acid via bacteria. Does NOT take much!

Don't go loco trying to have perfection. Also I believe plant roots put into soil negative ions over time. Negative ions drop ph.

Anything within 4 - 8 and plants don't just drop dead or burn, roughly. They are fairly accepting, they want to live. Some strains are less tolerant of specific ph and elements at different timed. Like dj's bb and narrow leaf that don'y like a lot of n or wild ph swings in flower.

 

[FunkBomb]

I would say you have soil because you have organic matter breaking down. Pro-mix right out of the bag is soilless and has dolomite lime in it.


-Funk

 

[growinthehills]

I would say you have a high quality organic potting soil. To my understanding it is still soilless because it doesn't have mineral soil ie. broken down rocks (sand, silt and clay) but there are peat layers in soil etc. So maybe its just plan ass soil!

 

[PaulieWaulie]

Ph is a wide range. I would let it go. It's not going to be a huge deal. If all that concerned, add a bit of elemental sulfur. It's small clay disks holding yellow sulfur. Sulfur is the 'go to' for dropping ph. I add it to our berries soil. It turns into sulfuric acid via bacteria. Does NOT take much!

Don't go loco trying to have perfection. Also I believe plant roots put into soil negative ions over time. Negative ions drop ph.

Anything within 4 - 8 and plants don't just drop dead or burn, roughly. They are fairly accepting, they want to live. Some strains are less tolerant of specific ph and elements at different timed. Like dj's bb and narrow leaf that don'y like a lot of n or wild ph swings in flower.

Yeah PH is one of those things, if I have problems it could be a deficiency or nurtient lockout from too much of another, or it could be the ph range. and Ive looked at a good 30 ph charts over the years, and they all have this crazy narrow window of uptake for all 17 nutrients, so for a newbie its easy to think that if your .3 out of the range, one of those 17 is gonna cause issues. So thats why I want to get it in the perfect range, so when I have issues I KNOW 100% it is not ph that is the problem. I do have elemental sulfur, My worm castings bin is at 8.2 and all my organic soil mixes end up in the 7 to 7.3 Range and I want 6.5 - 6.8. In the meantime I will continue with re using my pro mix only with bottled nutrients.

I would say you have soil because you have organic matter breaking down. Pro-mix right out of the bag is soilless and has dolomite lime in it.
-Funk

I agree, and that lime is now all gone, but media is staying buffered in same range because of my hard water @ 220 PPM.

I would say you have a high quality organic potting soil. To my understanding it is still soilless because it doesn't have mineral soil ie. broken down rocks (sand, silt and clay) but there are peat layers in soil etc. So maybe its just plan ass soil!

then again sand silt acts as aggregate, which would be perlite vermiculites job in the mixes. Now that the community has chimed in and I have had some more time to ponder, I am thinking soiless is moreso defined by how the plant feeds. So if its a living organic soil with bacteria breaking down ammendments then it is Soil, If they are available soluble nutrients in the water fed into the medium and no soil food web is required to break down the nutrients then it is soil less. More or less a halfway step to Hydro.

I guess either way it sounds like I don't need to lose sleep over this one.