What organic soil should I use?

[mouse1818]

I was thinking of buying a soil from roots organics but I dont know which one to choose. I was thinking of using my outdoor garden soil but there are mushrooms and a lot of cat piss and poop nugs in their so i dont know if i would use it for my indoor garden. Also i have a package of azomite volcanic powder that I plan on using with the soil I choose for the trace minerals.

 

[kommano]

I use roots organic as my base just be prepared for the fungus gnats and no biggy plus I like how they don't cook it like most companies.

 

[mouse1818]

Yea I will prepare weapons of gnat destruction if I notice any sign of gnats. I am going to use a mix of Dr. Sal suds soap and neem oil as a foliage spray, yellow sticky traps, and food grade diatomaceous earth to sprinkle on the top of the soil.

 

[Smidge34]

Your own. 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost/ewc, 1/3 perlite or rice hulls, etc, add agricultural lime and amend. There are a ton of articles out there on soil building.

 

[goodjoint]

Don't buy the bagged shit.

 

[May11th]

Fox farm ocean forest. Add neem meal, ewc, crab shell, for veg, for flower add a Lil more pk. I don't have knat problems w this, even then knats can be easily takin care of.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

I was thinking of buying a soil from roots organics but I dont know which one to choose. I was thinking of using my outdoor garden soil but there are mushrooms and a lot of cat piss and poop nugs in their so i dont know if i would use it for my indoor garden. Also i have a package of azomite volcanic powder that I plan on using with the soil I choose for the trace minerals.

here I just got posting this elsewhere, works PERFECT, and you can re-use it for at least two harvests before re-amending, provided you have big enough pots.
---my recipe.
it's a lil difficult to give the EXACT recipe, reason being is much of it is recycled vermifire, but I can tell you my amendments and the ratios of that which will help you get on the right path.
first if you are making from scratch stick to the 33/33/33 mix.
33% compost/vermicompost (homemade if possible) I like a 50/50 mix of both leaf compost and EWC
33% aeration
33% peat
the per cubic foot (about 7.5 gallons)
add one cup of the following
neem meal, kelp meal, crab meal.
then per cubic foot add HALF cup
insect meal (mashed up dried insect chicken feed)
alfalfa meal
fish bone meal
that's all for the nutes
then the minerals
3-4 cups per cubic foot, I like a mix of different minerals, if you are re-using your soil maybe avoid azomite.
must have one cup of oyster flour per cubic foot to control peats acidity rock phosphates, gypsum, basalt, granite, (although it can be radioactive.....) greensand or langbeinite if you are re-using your soil, but don't expect much from them at first
that's all the normal shit.
it's in my amendments where the difference is maybe the insect meal too), biochar, pumice, volcanic rock, and rotten tree log chunks are what I use.
of the 33% aeration I go 50% of that as standard conventional aeration, volcanic rock or pumice, then 25% biochar and 25% rotten wood chunks.... in fact i'm pretty sure I have more than 33% aeration in my mix if you account for all the rotten wood chunk, but damn, I tell ya my plants LOVE this mix, and it retains the PERFECT amount of water.
if you have any doubt add more aeration, never hurts, especially if it's biochar or rotten wood.
on top of all that add a cup of oyster shells (again chicken feed area) per cubic foot
you can sub out the alfalfa meal, if you want to add any kind of manures, but go light.
I would NOT sub out ANY of the other ingredients.
In fact I wouldn't change anything, but i'm sorta partial to it, cuz it's rewarded me with some grade AAA herb.

 

[mouse1818]

Thanks for all the help I will probably make a soil similar to that. Since i am using a 3 gallon bucket should I use half a cup of neem meal, kelp meal, crab meal? and for the nutes 1/4 cup of
insect meal, alfalfa meal, fish bone meal? And how many cups for minerals? 1-2?

 

[TBoneJack]

I use roots organic as my base just be prepared for the fungus gnats and no biggy plus I like how they don't cook it like most companies.

Ditto, and yes be prepared for fungus gnats.

Roots Organic is a very good base soil.

 

[mouse1818]

How do you deal with the gnats?

 

[goodjoint]

How do you deal with the gnats?

Mix neem meal, Karanja meal, and/or crab meal or another source of chitin like insect meal into your soil.

The key is to prevent them. Use yellow sticky traps if you have them. Also checkout granular BTI topdressing.

 

[mouse1818]

here I just got posting this elsewhere, works PERFECT, and you can re-use it for at least two harvests before re-amending, provided you have big enough pots.
---my recipe.
it's a lil difficult to give the EXACT recipe, reason being is much of it is recycled vermifire, but I can tell you my amendments and the ratios of that which will help you get on the right path.
first if you are making from scratch stick to the 33/33/33 mix.
33% compost/vermicompost (homemade if possible) I like a 50/50 mix of both leaf compost and EWC
33% aeration
33% peat
the per cubic foot (about 7.5 gallons)
add one cup of the following
neem meal, kelp meal, crab meal.
then per cubic foot add HALF cup
insect meal (mashed up dried insect chicken feed)
alfalfa meal
fish bone meal
that's all for the nutes
then the minerals
3-4 cups per cubic foot, I like a mix of different minerals, if you are re-using your soil maybe avoid azomite.
must have one cup of oyster flour per cubic foot to control peats acidity rock phosphates, gypsum, basalt, granite, (although it can be radioactive.....) greensand or langbeinite if you are re-using your soil, but don't expect much from them at first
that's all the normal shit.
it's in my amendments where the difference is maybe the insect meal too), biochar, pumice, volcanic rock, and rotten tree log chunks are what I use.
of the 33% aeration I go 50% of that as standard conventional aeration, volcanic rock or pumice, then 25% biochar and 25% rotten wood chunks.... in fact i'm pretty sure I have more than 33% aeration in my mix if you account for all the rotten wood chunk, but damn, I tell ya my plants LOVE this mix, and it retains the PERFECT amount of water.
if you have any doubt add more aeration, never hurts, especially if it's biochar or rotten wood.
on top of all that add a cup of oyster shells (again chicken feed area) per cubic foot
you can sub out the alfalfa meal, if you want to add any kind of manures, but go light.
I would NOT sub out ANY of the other ingredients.
In fact I wouldn't change anything, but i'm sorta partial to it, cuz it's rewarded me with some grade AAA herb.

For the rotten tree log chunks I have a forest nearby with lots of rotten stumps and logs how fine should I chop up the chunks? like playground park size?

 

[greasemonkeymann]

For the rotten tree log chunks I have a forest nearby with lots of rotten stumps and logs how fine should I chop up the chunks? like playground park size?

for me I simply crumbled them with my hand, if they aren't that rotten, they aren't good for your soil, it'll feel almost like the texture of styro-foam.
If you can find rotten log are in the soil already those are the best, already moist and FULL of BIMs.
I go with marble size chunks, don't worry about the smaller pieces they'll just condition your soil, you'll notice watering a lil less often this way.