Long time synthetic grower switching to organic grow, thoughts?

Thanks for the reply The ammendments and minerals both came in the same bag from Kis. The malted barley came in a separate bag. I bought the kit for 10.5 cu ft of soil, which I assume would be 21 cups at their recommendation of 2 cups per cu ft.
I dont want to sound like this is a knock on Kis, im new to all this and more than likely I screwed something up, im just trying to understand where I messed up.
Sorry, when I said 6 cups of ammendments, I was including the minerals in that measurement.
Im getting my information about the original recipe from clackamascoot.com, Is this his website? I believe he calls for 3.5 cups of ammendments and 3 cups of rock dust. It looks like the buildasoil kit only calls for 2 cups of the mix as well. Like I said I probably screwed something up, which seems likely if both companies are recommending the same amount. The compost I got was called premium compost, whatever that means, from a local nursery. Wasnt steaming or anything, had a good earthy smell, and was nice and dark, almost black. I doubt it helps, but here is a pic of the compost before mixing.

Maybe i missed it but did you add lime?
Your mix is heavy on the humus part,compost looks good.Rock dust about 4 cups a cube.
plant says ph is out is my guess .

I didn't add any lime to the mix. Should I add lime on top of the 4 cups of basalt dust @ 4 cups per cube, or as a portion of the dust? Thanks for the advice

GrassBurner said:

I didn't add any lime to the mix. Should I add lime on top of the 4 cups of basalt dust @ 4 cups per cube, or as a portion of the dust? Thanks for the advice

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maybe do a ph test,distilled water and some soil,let it sit.

Fox farm ocean forest is a good base for any organic grow. I Ph’d to 6.5 every time I watered and created acidic soil that locked up. I learned you don’t have to ph with organic as long as you use good water. Checking the runoff doesn’t hurt

myke said:

maybe do a ph test,distilled water and some soil,let it sit.

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This. May seem like extra work, but its crucial information needed to understand both your soil AND water.

I moved to a location that uses well water instead of city. My normal soil mix that I used for years suddenly started producing problems with pH. After weeks of pulling my hair out, I finally decided to test the pH of my water. pH was 8.0, turns out my well water has tons of limestone in it already from the surrounding rocks eroding into the water. Every time I was watering, I was increasing my soil's pH to a solid 8 because my mix had a liming agent AND I was watering with 8.0 pH water.

I eliminated all liming agents from my next soil mix; problem solved. Perfect 6.5-7 pH.



Buy a gallon of RO water. Grab 2 solo cups and fill them both with your soil mix. Fill "cup A" with your normal water, fill "cup B" with the RO water. Let sit for 15-20 mins or so.

Strain the water from both cups, then test the pH of the strained water from both cups.

Compare the results with the pH of your normal water, and you'll be able to come to a conclusion.

If your water source has any calcium carbonate in it, consider omiting liming agents entirely. Calcium carbonate is insoluble with water. So, if your water has calcium carbonate in it then it will eventually build up as salt inside of your soil over time.

My "Aha!" moment was noticing the white scaling on the bottom of my fabric pots. For the longest time, I just assumed it was a fungi web until I realized it looked just like the calcium scaling on my faucets. Sure enough, it was.


The idea of ignoring pH in organics is a bit of a half truth. In ideal conditions, yes you should be able to ignore pH entirely. However, there are things you can add to your soil (in my case, hard calcified water) that can throw the balance of your soil out of whack.

I checked the ph of my coots mix soil, was right around 7. Ran another test on my well water just to make sure nothing has changed. Its all about the same, ph is around 7.
Kis Organics got back with me and I was able to get the ingrediant amounts in their mix. Going to add some more ammendments per coots original recipe, and possibly something for nitrogen. Ill start a new thread asking for suggestions.

I grabbed some Miracle Gro performance organic potting soil, mixed it 1:1:1 with ewc's and lava rock. Put the seedlings in there until I can get my coots straightened out. The seedlings have gotten their color back and are growint like crazy! I know the coots mix is gonna perform great, and I'm excited to get it straightened out. Maybe my soil will be ready when it's time to transplant them and switch to flower.
Thanks for all the suggestions and information, its much appreciated!!

Update: the plants are doing awesome in their 15G fabric pots. Its been 3 weeks since I put them in the home made super soil. I'm about to top dress with gaia green 444. I want to keep it simple and avoid teas if I can, but am I missing anything? Is it really just top dressing and tap water? Feels weird not correcting the PH in the water(6.9-7.0) from tap. But the soil will be fine right? The lime in the Promix will carry me until harvest? Or should I add lime with the 444 top dressing?

VILEPLUME said:

Update: the plants are doing awesome in their 15G fabric pots. Its been 3 weeks since I put them in the home made super soil. I'm about to top dress with gaia green 444. I want to keep it simple and avoid teas if I can, but am I missing anything? Is it really just top dressing and tap water? Feels weird not correcting the PH in the water(6.9-7.0) from tap. But the soil will be fine right? The lime in the Promix will carry me until harvest? Or should I add lime with the 444 top dressing?

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Lol. I’m the same. I’ve switched my clones already still waiting for my soil to finish. It’s like you have to do something but nope. Just water your lime from what I understand will last a while.

I almost fed my clones. So use to hydro they green up quick. But I waited and now there greening up. Glad I didn’t jump the gun. Things are so sloooowww. Lol

myke said:

Lol. I’m the same. I’ve switched my clones already still waiting for my soil to finish. It’s like you have to do something but nope. Just water your lime from what I understand will last a while.

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Do I need more lime than whats already in promix?

Update pictures on first organic grow. Im very happy with how they are doing. One plant shows a little yellow. I think its N deficiency, but maybe not?

I see what looks like a thrip!Last photo right in middle.

N deficiency would be lower leaves,its mobile.Someone with more exp will be along soon.

myke said:

I see what looks like a thrip!Last photo right in middle.

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Lol yeah I got some. Waiting to transfer then I'm doing a full clean and spray.

Another question, what should I add to the old promix when I reuse it after harvest? Just crushed dolomite lime and perlite? On my synth grows I would just toss it out.

Use dolomite with caution, ph drifts substantially and you'll lock it up. Chicken shit fertilizer, wheat bran, alfalfa and a small amount of dolomite and Epsom are my regular amendments. All cheap

VILEPLUME said:

Not a dumb post, thanks for sharing.

I picked up some ocean soil, kelp meal and worm casings. Im going to add some of that into my promix and coco grow.

This is a test run, so I'll try 50/50 on coco and promix, I really do love the coco water retention.

Organics with living soil already seems more fun and possibly easier to maintain once all the numbers are dialed in. I like the idea of not cleaning up my water catch disks after every watering.

What PH do you use and what type of water?

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My rain water is 5.7 and works great

Update. I transferred plants to the bloom room. Each is under its own SF-4000 light. They are in 15G fabric pots. Little bit of yellow, but I'm trying to judge how much top mix and the proper mixture.

One thing, I cant tell if this plant is over or under watered. The pot feels not heavy or light and the soil feels no dry but not wet. Are you able to tell if this is over or under? Maybe something else.

They get droopy when its over and under so its hard to tell.

UPDATE: I'm in week 4 of flower and things are near perfect with 2 of my plants but 1 is struggling and already turning a bit yellow. I give them the same amount of nutrients and water only when they need it. Keeping them not wet but not allowing them to dry out.

Is it a good idea to bake my Gaia green dry amendments in like an ultra super soil? Which is like a 1:1 ratio of soil plus dry amendments? That way the microbes and bacteria have more time to break down the nutrients. Then I just too with the 1:1 mix instead of straight dry amendments?

Thoughts?