Looking for Some Organic Options

Kushthemagictree

Kushthemagictree

Well-Known Member
oodawg said:
Of the few premade/mixed all purpose and flower amendments I have on hand I can see basalt, lime, rock phosphate, gypsum. All of those are derived from crushed rocks/Rock dusts. They do add to Phosphorus values of the amendments as well as other minerals. Seems to be enough rock dust for me. I'm sure it's all good stuff but more is not always better, it's easier to figure out what you need more of but it is harder to figure out what you used too much of. I'm sure glacial rock dust is good stuff but I really don't understand what it is, i know its more for mineral value than npk. Are they going to the artic circle where a glacier has recently receded leaving behind mineral deposits on rocks and then they grind that up? Most rocks were covered by a glacier at some point, do they just look for mineral deposits on rocks?
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i stayed away from these types of products, the lime, gypsum and a few others as i didnt want to have the ph balance way out, of course again depends on amounts, not saying they bad and inmagine only small amounts needed i see these marketed online and some places pretty pricey and i think many push out a ton of diffrent products on to people and have people thinking they need a huge list of soil amendments. I’ve seen. I concentrate on having active pots with plenty enzymes, teas added with a little molasses through flower, too many acidic type products can knock pots way out of syn imo.

Bags of 50kg of all organic mixes at £80 a bag with all the above added and more, pretty penny to fill my pots as they more or less 50litre pots lol.

Dont get me wrong here i want more amendments in current medium but wont be huge amounts, little bio char and barley with old root matter and they’l be left to sit a week or two maybe then i’ll transplant from the smaller pots, veg another week or two and flip. I’ll wait untill two weeks in to flower then i’ll top dress with charge once the plants needs increases with being in flower and i’ll keep watch see how they responding over the days, charge is also slow release which is another reason i like and keeps me thinking ahead of what if anything the plants be needing.

They say the soil recycled actually gets better along the way.
 
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oodawg

Well-Known Member
Kushthemagictree said:
i stayed away from these types of products, the lime, gypsum and a few others as i didnt want to have the ph balance way out, of course again depends on amounts, not saying they bad and inmagine only small amounts needed i see these marketed online and some places pretty pricey and i think many push out a ton of diffrent products on to people and have people thinking they need a huge list of soil amendments. I’ve seen. I concentrate on having active pots with plenty enzymes, teas added with a little molasses through flower, too many acidic type products can knock pots way out of syn imo.

Bags of 50kg of all organic mixes at £80 a bag with all the above added and more, pretty penny to fill my pots as they more or less 50litre pots lol.

Dont get me wrong here i want more amendments in current medium but wont be huge amounts, little bio char and barley with old root matter and they’l be left to sit a week or two maybe then i’ll transplant from the smaller pots, veg another week or two and flip. I’ll wait untill two weeks in to flower then i’ll top dress with charge once the plants needs increase with being in flower. They say the soil recycled actually gets better along the way.
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I agree and thats why i don't use those amendments by themselves(with the exception of lime) they are already included in a balanced mix. I do use the extra lime because both the water I use and the native soil here is very alkaline. So in that particular case I use more to buffer those known alkaline inputs.

I wouldn't get too crazy adding all of those rock dust type amendments for just small batches of potted plants. I'd say that stuff woul be better suited for long haul use like for amending native soil or long term large no till raised beds.
 
Kushthemagictree

Kushthemagictree

Well-Known Member
oodawg said:
I agree and thats why i don't use those amendments by themselves(with the exception of lime) they are already included in a balanced mix. I do use the extra lime because both the water I use and the native soil here is very alkaline. So in that particular case I use more to buffer those known alkaline inputs.

I wouldn't get too crazy adding all of those rock dust type amendments for just small batches of potted plants. I'd say that stuff woul be better suited for long haul use like for amending native soil or long term large no till raised beds.
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Sound man, see you know what you need and dont need which is where u need to be with organics and the general understanding of it all, i know for my next run its just adding some new amendments in small amounts looking for more beneficials as i see what i currently do is working, no point doing too much and taking the things the wrong way.
And yeah agree with point on the larger scale gardens and allotment types and its also likely the native soil actually needs this more especially for fruits and vegtables, i know my current soil was from bags and had plenty allready added so no need to reamend too much creating an inbalance, wont be buying any more though as it’l be the no till method from here

You grow fruits and vegtables also mate ? I’m getting ready for next year and plan on a home garden with various edibles
 
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PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Kushthemagictree said:
i stayed away from these types of products, the lime, gypsum and a few others as i didnt want to have the ph balance way out, of course again depends on amounts, not saying they bad and inmagine only small amounts needed i see these marketed online and some places pretty pricey and i think many push out a ton of diffrent products on to people and have people thinking they need a huge list of soil amendments. I’ve seen. I concentrate on having active pots with plenty enzymes, teas added with a little molasses through flower, too many acidic type products can knock pots way out of syn imo.

Bags of 50kg of all organic mixes at £80 a bag with all the above added and more, pretty penny to fill my pots as they more or less 50litre pots lol.

Dont get me wrong here i want more amendments in current medium but wont be huge amounts, little bio char and barley with old root matter and they’l be left to sit a week or two maybe then i’ll transplant from the smaller pots, veg another week or two and flip. I’ll wait untill two weeks in to flower then i’ll top dress with charge once the plants needs increases with being in flower and i’ll keep watch see how they responding over the days, charge is also slow release which is another reason i like and keeps me thinking ahead of what if anything the plants be needing.

They say the soil recycled actually gets better along the way.
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I try to stay away from lime too, but the DTE 4-4-4 that I've been experimenting with has some. Not sure what I think about the 4-4-4 yet.

I like oyster shell flour instead. I think it's milder. But I gotta be somewhat careful how much extra Ca I add since my water already has some Ca, so I rarely add it.
 
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oodawg

Well-Known Member
Kushthemagictree said:
You grow fruits and vegtables also mate ? I’m getting ready for next year and plan on a home garden with various edibles
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Oh yeah, got some peppers, tomatoes, Okra, cantelope and cucumbers kicking ass all in 4 gallon pots with that base mix. For them I only top dress with the 444. Compost tea and plenty of water. Insane the amount of growth coming out of those 4 gallons for the tomato and cantelope
 
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EvansInUK

Well-Known Member
Turns out I can get 2.5 gallons of the Feed I want, but its Expensive with shipping from the Us, that is without the cost of the worm castings and inoculants too. But I think it would last a long, long long time.

BUT IT'S £200 with shipping :O Just for the feed ...
 
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Kushthemagictree

Kushthemagictree

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
I try to stay away from lime too, but the DTE 4-4-4 that I've been experimenting with has some. Not sure what I think about the 4-4-4 yet.

I like oyster shell flour instead. I think it's milder. But I gotta be somewhat careful how much extra Ca I add since my water already has some Ca, so I rarely add it.


EvansInUK said:
Turns out I can get 2.5 gallons of the Feed I want, but its Expensive with shipping from the Us, that is without the cost of the worm castings and inoculants too. But I think it would last a long, long long time.

BUT IT'S £200 with shipping :O Just for the feed ...
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yes mate not cheap, suppose the lay out early on and then if you going the no till way it’l save in the long run buying bagsof medium and doing this every run, another reason i prefer the organics
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Kushthemagictree

Kushthemagictree

Well-Known Member
oodawg said:
Oh yeah, got some peppers, tomatoes, Okra, cantelope and cucumbers kicking ass all in 4 gallon pots with that base mix. For them I only top dress with the 444. Compost tea and plenty of water. Insane the amount of growth coming out of those 4 gallons for the tomato and cantelope
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sounds good mate, nothing better seeing your results a few days/weeks later for teas and feeds, tomatoes be the first thing in my garden aswell as onions and some spring onions
 
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EvansInUK

Well-Known Member
And the reason I wish to do the amendments myself (albeit it is more complicated and complex) is because that is where the fun is for me, its Not about just getting max yield, I actually enjoy the learning behind the mixes (think of it as formula's and some mad scientist) for example, and I think mixing the stuff up is where the fun is for me. Like the science behind it all, as in biochar giving a large surface area for microbes than regular soil, ir the rhizosphere and all that fungi etc. I find all of that entertaining. Its like a world under a world under a world. We have ours, the plants have theirs and we are all living around this small but tiny world (Large if including forests and stuff lol) but then under that again is what you could call a secret world again. It's all under there, and you don't usually batter an eye lid at it. Kind of like humans looking to space then. But instead there is this microscopic world (like a whole other universe) right under our noses.

so mixing up the amendments and stuff and figuring out the outcome is what I like the idea of the most: lol. I should go study some kind of soil/microbiologist course haha.
 
DancesWithWeeds

DancesWithWeeds

Well-Known Member
EvansInUK said:
Well that's some list. What is the mix ratio of all of them, is that one GIANT mix??? if so holy crap! lol Azomite I believe I have heard of. But man, I would need to break this down lol into smaller ratios like 1/4. HAHA but this is What I am looking for :D
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It was a big outlay up front but it's actually several years worth. I need to keep an indoor grow going all the time. Normaly I wouldn't put this kind of soil outside but this year was a bit different. The rain washes out a lot of the nutes. The soil needed to be refilled after the heavey spring rains but that's all the nutes that have been added. The groung under the bags should be full of nutes now so I'm planning to put a plant there next year.

Last night I saw another recipe at growweedeasy.com. It had a little less stuff in it and not cost as much.
 
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EvansInUK

Well-Known Member
theres a question;

If I mix up my pete moss/biochar
and some nutes in it like seaweed/bone meat etc

will it get hot the mix? does it need to be cooked?
 
DancesWithWeeds

DancesWithWeeds

Well-Known Member
I think you are always ahead to let it cook a while. They say about 6 weeks. When I mix a bag of my nutes with base soil i let it cook in a plastic storgage tug until needed.

As soon as I finish a plant in a bag I work the soil over by cleaning out the root and adding about 1/2 portion of the super soil nutes. If you are growing indoors that's probably all the nutes you need for the entire grow. I use a little manure tea along the way.

If you read the problem posts people put up most of them, maybe 2/3, are nute problems. Funny thing is most of the ones growing in soil are using the same thing. Add up all those nutes and problems and SS doesn't sound so expensive.
 
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EvansInUK

Well-Known Member
DancesWithWeeds said:
I think you are always ahead to let it cook a while. They say about 6 weeks. When I mix a bag of my nutes with base soil i let it cook in a plastic storgage tug until needed.

As soon as I finish a plant in a bag I work the soil over by cleaning out the root and adding about 1/2 portion of the super soil nutes. If you are growing indoors that's probably all the nutes you need for the entire grow. I use a little manure tea along the way.

If you read the problem posts people put up most of them, maybe 2/3, are nute problems. Funny thing is most of the ones growing in soil are using the same thing. Add up all those nutes and problems and SS doesn't sound so expensive.
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Hi thanks for the reply, I will mix it up and let it sit for a bit, final question to anyone and all;

My humidity is low, for the room ( cant open the window due to the sound and noise of my fan) my tent is 2.6ft x 2.6ft by 5. something feet. I vent into an open door room, because I dont want my room to get so hot either.... so whats the best way to add humidity, sure a humidifier may work, but what models/brand/placement is best. inside the tent is a no go because of lack of space...
 
DancesWithWeeds

DancesWithWeeds

Well-Known Member
One guy said he put a pot of water out with a towel hanging in it and a fan on the towel. I've never tried it but it does sound reasonable.
 
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