SNEAKYp
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Over the past year or so I’ve been messing with a problematic soil which I blended and wanted to share what I’ve learned/done so far to rectify the mistakes.
My original blend consisted of:
8 cu ft (60 gallons) 1:1:1 Organic Municipal Compost, leaf mulch/mold, and lava rocks.
5.3 cups of lime
4 cups kelp meal
6 gallons of biochar
Mistake #1 - Liming before soil test
In all my eagerness, I decided to not wait for my soil test results. Following the directions of countless forum soil recipes, I applied lime when I blended the mix together.
To my shock, my original pre-lime soil test came back at 7.1. It was then I knew I was in deep shit. I resampled and waited with dread to receive my new test results.... which came back at 7.9 ph.
Mistake #2 - Adding too much Compost
All composts are unique and whatever my municipality does is extremely rich in nutrients. My initial test results gave me readings that put my salt levels sky high. Basically my soil was potent enough to be diluted x2-3 over and still have good nutrient levels.
Mistake # 3 - Rectifying PH with too much sulfur
So now that my PH was 7.8 and climbing, I had to take quick action. It was this knee jerk reaction to my PH which led me to applying 4 lbs of aluminum sulfate, and 6 lbs of elemental sulfur.
This did an AMAZING job at lowering my PH quickly to 7 and eventually a 6.5. However it came at a cost with my soil mix at 1300 ppm S. This sucked bc now my EC was even higher, approaching 7 mS/cm.
Mistake #4 Flushing too Rapidly
5 gallons at a time caused my 10 gallon fabric pots to clog and the last gallon of water didn’t drain. This caused a huge headache where I had to empty my pots and then wash them free of any debris in clean water. I cannot recommend enough a watering can to slowly saturate the media.
Remediation by Flush
For reference I’ll include two snapshots from before and after my flush. A flush was the only way I could remediate my soil mix which as you can see below was incredibly salty.
Online sources were saying to flush with 2x volume of the soil. I decided that this was no time for half steps and flushed the media with 4x it’s volume.
Here’s the post-flush test:
Now that my levels are back down from the moon, I’ve added .5 gallon of compost, .5 cup of blood meal, and .3 cup of kelp meal to each 10 gallon pot. I’ll retest and share results when its done
Hope this can help someone who is dealing with a poorly mixed soil!
Testing Pro-Tip
Always use the SOILLESS MEDIA test at your local lab for your mix. The Mehlich-3 reactions work great for topsoil, but are dismal at our mixes due to the strong acid they use to extract nutrients with.
Over the past year or so I’ve been messing with a problematic soil which I blended and wanted to share what I’ve learned/done so far to rectify the mistakes.
My original blend consisted of:
8 cu ft (60 gallons) 1:1:1 Organic Municipal Compost, leaf mulch/mold, and lava rocks.
5.3 cups of lime
4 cups kelp meal
6 gallons of biochar
Mistake #1 - Liming before soil test
In all my eagerness, I decided to not wait for my soil test results. Following the directions of countless forum soil recipes, I applied lime when I blended the mix together.
To my shock, my original pre-lime soil test came back at 7.1. It was then I knew I was in deep shit. I resampled and waited with dread to receive my new test results.... which came back at 7.9 ph.
Mistake #2 - Adding too much Compost
All composts are unique and whatever my municipality does is extremely rich in nutrients. My initial test results gave me readings that put my salt levels sky high. Basically my soil was potent enough to be diluted x2-3 over and still have good nutrient levels.
Mistake # 3 - Rectifying PH with too much sulfur
So now that my PH was 7.8 and climbing, I had to take quick action. It was this knee jerk reaction to my PH which led me to applying 4 lbs of aluminum sulfate, and 6 lbs of elemental sulfur.
This did an AMAZING job at lowering my PH quickly to 7 and eventually a 6.5. However it came at a cost with my soil mix at 1300 ppm S. This sucked bc now my EC was even higher, approaching 7 mS/cm.
Mistake #4 Flushing too Rapidly
5 gallons at a time caused my 10 gallon fabric pots to clog and the last gallon of water didn’t drain. This caused a huge headache where I had to empty my pots and then wash them free of any debris in clean water. I cannot recommend enough a watering can to slowly saturate the media.
Remediation by Flush
For reference I’ll include two snapshots from before and after my flush. A flush was the only way I could remediate my soil mix which as you can see below was incredibly salty.
Online sources were saying to flush with 2x volume of the soil. I decided that this was no time for half steps and flushed the media with 4x it’s volume.
Here’s the post-flush test:
Now that my levels are back down from the moon, I’ve added .5 gallon of compost, .5 cup of blood meal, and .3 cup of kelp meal to each 10 gallon pot. I’ll retest and share results when its done
Hope this can help someone who is dealing with a poorly mixed soil!
Testing Pro-Tip
Always use the SOILLESS MEDIA test at your local lab for your mix. The Mehlich-3 reactions work great for topsoil, but are dismal at our mixes due to the strong acid they use to extract nutrients with.
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