sientbob

Soil mixes? Fun stuff. I grow a little outside in real dirt that gets ammended with soft rock phophate 0-2-0(also known as colloidial clay phosphate, not the same as "rock phosphate"), cow manure 0.6-0.2-0.5, and alfalfa meal 2-1-2. I also add some perlite to loosen up the dirt to allow for better drainage. Vermiculite is added to improve moisture holding capacity and cation exchange capacity. I use calcium carbonate to raise the ph of my acidic soil. I try and get the soil tested before the season and ammend it accordingly. If I need to increase the nitrogen I add as much as five gallons of composted cow manure into the planting hole, which averages 3 foot in diameter and about 2 feet deep. If the test shows ample nitrogen I usually cut the amount in half. For a planting hole that is defficient in phosphorus I add about 8 cups of soft rock phosphate, for holes that have ample P I only use about 4 cups. I have never had to worry much about potassium, but the cow manure and alfalfa meal add about as much K as they do N so use those guidelines or look into sulphate of potash. If the test show a deficiency in any areas I focus on the ammendments that would benefit me the most. I have worked hard for several years improveing my soil. Useing organic ammendments and fertilizers to increse the organic humas content. I fertigate with compost teas and kelp extract to give the plants a water soluble nutrient boost during the groing season and to promote any beneficial soil microbes. After a few years of close monitoring and ammending accodingly, the soil will have improved enough that a light maintenance fertilizer and ammendment program can be implemented.

The times I have grown with a soil mix indoors I started with an inert soilless medium like ProMix or sunshine mix. For the short time the plants were in the vegetative grow stage all I did was mixed it 2 to 1 with perlite to make it drain better. Fertigated with kelp extract and either 5-1-1 fish emulsion or 6-6-6 compost tea. When I transplanted for the flower stage I would then add worm castings(real new dirt) at the rate of 4 cups per gallon of soilless mix, 1/2 cup of soft rock phosphate or high P guano per gallon of soilless mix and fertigate with a 1-5-5 compost tea.

Dirt farming is fun and these methods have worked well for me.

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choader

Ok, might as well throw my in here.

It's similar to OP (I knew I liked that guy)

40% perlite
40% black gold soil
10% Omni soil conditioner
10% worm castings
1 Tbl/Gal Bone Meal
1 Tbl/Gal Blood Meal
1/2 Tbl/gal green sand
3 Tbl/gal Kelp
1/2 Tbl/gal Sol-Po-Mag

Veg Ferts : Extreme Juice every other watering; B1, superthrive, liquid seaweed every watering
Flower Ferts : Alaka MorBloom every other watering; B1 & liquid seaweed every watering

Choader

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Old_Phart

Say All,
Thanks fer the input! Spread the word...get more folks ta post their mix! The newbs will appreciate it.
OP

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outdoors

Hey OP - Wish I could help you out here but I've never measured out what I put into my mix that goes in pots. Next time I make up a mix, I'll try to take some notes. Otherwise you'll get just what you don't want... handfuls, cupfuls, etc.
I haven't seen too much written about here on H.com about "water crystals." Its the only thing I add that no one here has mentioned. I use a brand name "Watersorb;it helps me to extend the periods between waterings. It grabs and hangs on to water in the "soil" and releases it as the soil gets drier and drier.
Smoken -I agree with Brindie, get rid of the vermiculite and I have a question... In your recipe above I notice you use a cup of lime... what kind of lime? This seems like a lot for the quantity of "soil" you are producing. How come?
Peace- Outdoors

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T-Mann

Another Recipe For The Books.

Soil mix
-660l perlite
-660l Pro-Mix HP (high perosity potting soil, it is about 30% perlite)
-200l Organic potting soil (this has very small amounts of perlite, worm castings, kelp meal and blood meal)

So to make it easy for newbies I'll berak it down into a 15 gallon mix.
-6 1/2 gallons of perlite
-6 1/2 gallons of Pro Mix HP
-2 gallons of premium organic potting soil

Veg food and addatives
While my plants are in veg, I like to be gentle with them. So I start off in a 40 gallon res. at about 500ppm of Fox Farms Grow Big (6-4-4) and add half a litre of humic acid. I will use this combo once per week, gradually increasing the ppm of the grow big to about 750ppm. My plants will get two waterings per week, one with food and one without. I do this to help control the salt build up in the soil. I also folier feed my plants with an addative called Liquid Extacy every 3 days.

Flowering weeks 1-2
For the flowering cycle I will start by adding 2tbls of Welcome Harvest Farms Bat Guano (N=0.1-2%, P2O5=26%) to each 5 gallon pot and then give them a shot of water with nothing but a litre of fulvic acid in it. Then I will start giving them Fox Farms Tiger bloom (2-8-4) at about 750-1000ppm and adding 1/2 a litre of fulvic acid as well.

By adding the tiger bloom and bat guano I should be able to keep the nodes tight because they both have high "P".

Flowering weeks 2-3
During this time I will still be using the Tiger bloom and fulvic acid, but I will start adding Dr.Hornbys Big Bud as soon as I see ant buds starting. My mixture at this point will be 1000ppm Tiger Bloom and 200-300ppm Big Bud, as well as half a litre of fulvic acid.

Flowering weeks 3-6
I will stop using the Tiger Bloom at this point and switch to Botanicares Power Flower (2-2-5). I will also increase the Big Bud to about 500ppm per watering, the power flower will be at about 1000ppm. Sugar will also be added at this point to every watering, not just the food feedings. I will add about 2 cups to my 40 gallon res.

Flowering weeks 6-8
Flushing is the main procedure here, I usually use a clearing solution at this point and then water every second day even if they look as if they don't need any water.

I think that is everything, if it isn't I will post later.

Hope this helps, it might not be the best recipe for a newbie but it's still a great recipe.

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Bubba Lou

This organic mix has only proven itself through 2 weeks of flowering, but what the hey...

40% perlite
35% garden soil or topsoil
15% worm castings
10% composted cow manure

Nutes
for each gallon of soil mix:

0.5 tbsp blood meal (12-0-0)
0.5 tbsp desert bat guano (8-4-1)
1 tbsp bone meal (0.5-15-0)
1 tbsp rock phosphate (0-4-0)
2 tbsp kelp meal (1-0-2)
0.25 tbsp sul-po-mag (0-0-22)
0.25 tbsp sulfate of potash (0-0-52)
0.5 tbsp greensand (0-0-0.1)
1 tbsp dolomite lime

I mix 20 or 30 gallons at a time in a 50 gallon container, turning it over with a spade until my arms hurt. I try to mix it about 4-6 weeks or so before using it.

For vegging nutes, I use fish emulsion (5-1-1) and kelp extract (1-0-4), and I've been "brewing" an alfalfa tea. For flowering, I use a tea made from seabird guano (1-10-0) and bat guano (8-4-1), mixed with kelp extract, both watering in and foliar feeding.

I just tested the soil after pulling a male a few days into flowering, using a rapitest kit with a 0-4 scale...

pH - 7.0
N - 4
P - 4+
K - 3

I think in future I will increase the kelp meal to 3 tbsp/gal and decrease the lime to 1/2 tsbp/gal. I might drop the bat guano altogether when I run out, and maybe increase the blood meal. Also, I might add 1-2tbsp/gal fossilized seabird guano (1-10-1) to flowering mixes, which is supposed to be time released over a 3-12 week period.

Bubba Lou

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Fryballs

Since the majority of my activities are done outdoors these days, I try to keep the number of trips and what I haul in to a minimum. Most plants are in-ground and their mix is 40% Perlite, 10% composted steer manure, and 50% ground soil from the site. Hydrosorb crystals are then added at a rate of about 3-3.5 lbs per cubic yard of soil. The steer manure and perlite are loaded into 1 gallon freezer bags and then are brought to the grow site in backpacks. As for other additives and ferts, I tend to eyeball that kind of stuff... and what I use depends on what I think the soil needs.

And if your outside grow is a little more accessible than mine, you can drop the water crystals to about 2 lbs per cubic yard and completely substitute the ground soil for any commercial potting soil or soil-less mix.

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cecil_b

I was looking for soil info, and OP has roped me to post my soil mix , so here goes. Note that this is for outdoor potted vegetables and to mix into planting beds outside.

-1 part clay (very finely smashed up). I can get slabs of dense clean clay from my backyard
-1 part fine sand (screened)
-1 part peat (dry, bagged, from the farm supply store)

That goes in the concrete mixer for an hour or so. Then in go about a gallon pail's worth of worm castings that I've been cultivating all winter, and two or three pitchforkfulls of good cowsh!t. This is essentially Do It Yourself "superloom" - I make about 15 gallons or so at a whack. If I'm laying in new beds, I might do this 2-3 times. The last batch is saved for outdoor pots, to which is added:

-A bag of perlite (note locally I can only source MG laced perlite at the TruValue/Home Cheapo, but I soak it in water overnight and dump their nutes into the yard. All the hicks at the farm stores look at me as if to say "What the hell is perlite?")
-A pint or so of worm tea from the bin

Mix the bejeezus out of that in the mixer. The beds get water right from the hose, because any minerals in the water will get leached out with the rain. The plants seem to handle it fine and I'm too much of a lazy ass to lug around jugs of filtered water to the beds all summer. The potted plants, esp. for indoors, only get water from the filtered part of the plumbing system, so that they don't load up on salts. My well water has a high mineral content, but the filtering seems to tone it down. I haven't tested it in a while, but with the big filter I don't need to do anything. Tomatoes seem to like a neutral to slightly acidic soil, which is exactly what I get with my mix and the filtered water.

For nutes, it's a toss up. There is about as much variation in nutes for tomatoes as there is for MJ - everyone seems to have their own theory. I've tried a bunch of things, but 10-10-10 or thereabouts seems to do me just fine until they flower, and then I find whatever is on sale that has a higher P ratio. I'm not fussy about it and my soil is good enough from the get go to not have to add much for a few weeks. I don't obsess about it - I've got a routine that yields me all the tomatoes I can eat and then some, so I'm happy. Peppers are another story - they like super P from the get go, so all the sweets and hots get 0-20-0 or a more concentrated 2-12-0, depending on what I have around.

I AM picky about what I bring indoors, because I have had massive scale, aphid, and spider mite problems that have turned prize gardenias, indoor herb gardens, and ornamentals to ruin. Let that be a lesson to anyone looking to go out into the back yard and scoop up a pail of soil for their grow. BEWARE. I very strictly sterilize anything I bring indoors from outside in an old cake tin in the oven set on 250 for an hour. (I live alone so I get no guff for baking cowsh!t cookies ) Even the rocks get washed and/or tossed in the oven. It's usually just too much of a PITA to sterilize all the soil for pots, (unless I've mixed an exc. batch for the outdoor pots and have some left over) so I cave and mix a 1:3 ratio of commercial potting soil to perlite, a couple of handfuls of worm castings (def sterlized, because of nematodes) and use plenty of stones at the bottom.

-c-

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cecil_b

Stay away from that stuff. If you're watering properly, you don't need them. They take up bulk in the soil, and roots can't penetrate them. They can also suck water away from and damage the roots when they get dry, and can over-aerate the soil to the point of drying out the roots and weakening the entire soil structure.

I had a huge, bulky, horizontally trained jade (that was admittedly a little top heavy but had dozens of branches) that was just starting to blossom (rare). It collapsed and was largely destroyed (and made a huge mess) while I was on a business trip because the dry Soil Moist shrunk and turned the soil into swisscheese. If you're going away for a few days, get a friend to water your plants or set up a drip or blumat system.

-c-

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"I am kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy." - J. D. Salinger

My Grow v1.0 Journal Skunk #1 & DP Blueberry in soil.
My Grower's Dictionary v1.2 Updated 3/14/04... Check it out and comment for the benefit of all.
Also visit the Cultivation Risk Report. Maybe it will put your mind at ease (or maybe not!)
More advanced grower? Check out the CO2 Enrichment Guide.

tundra_grow

My soil mix includes burying a fish halfway below the surface of my soil. This is just my first grow, and I didn't want to get into the complexities of fertilizer mixing and fish emulsion quite yet.

Besides, my fish will decompose into all those nutrients you guys have, and when the plant reaches flowering, its roots will be strangled all over that fish, sucking its good stuff(the fish wasn't gutted).

The only thing I watched out for was not to use a saltwater fish. Cause sodium nitrate is bad for plants, no??

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