My own soil mix - Advise wanted.

Hey guys I want to use led's it's about 38w p/sq foot. In a custom made soil.

I would still like to use a veg feed, bloom feed and probably a boost all from either Ionics or the Shogun brand.

But the soil I want to make is like is;

Sphagnum Pete moss 50%
Vermiculite 30%
Compost/ or Worm castings 20%

In 2x 12L fabric pots.

I was also thinking of adding
Azomite
Kelp meal
Biochar

In small amounts like 1/2 a cup of each. Think it's to much or would you add/replace some things.

Lime in small amounts is probably needed and I'm not sure about sulphur. Anyone had any luck using the same sort of mix out there? Or something similar. Biochar I read was good for microbes, kelp meal for all that added extras also plant hormones and azomite for trace minerals.

I was going to add some Azos and some Mycorrihaze Into it the mix as well for the seed to get a kick start in its life cycle.

More nitrogen

Dmannn said:

More nitrogen

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Nitrogen I was going to use from a liquid feed like Ionics veg soil and bloom

EvansInUK said:

Nitrogen I was going to use from a liquid feed like Ionics veg soil and bloom

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I do the same with earth juice. But as a supplement. Cannabis can suck up tons of N, and Cal. I would at least get some composted manurers in there. They are cheap and if you are going the Organic way, you really can't beat it.

Dmannn said:

I do the same with earth juice. But as a supplement. Cannabis can suck up tons of N, and Cal. I would at least get some composted manurers in there. They are cheap and if you are going the Organic way, you really can't beat it.

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So what if I change my 20% worm castings to compost and top dress with Worm castings. Reckon that would be better? What about the 1/2 cup ratio of ingredients do you think they will be fine?

Then there is lime, should I supplement with it.and sulphur or not?

EvansInUK said:

So what if I change my 20% worm castings to compost and top dress with Worm castings. Reckon that would be better? What about the 1/2 cup ratio of ingredients do you think they will be fine?

Then there is lime, should I supplement with it.and sulphur or not?

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Half a cup should be fine. Go easy on the Lime in such a small container. Forget about the sulphur if you liquid nutrient is well balanced.

EvansInUK said:

Hey guys I want to use led's it's about 38w p/sq foot. In a custom made soil.

I would still like to use a veg feed, bloom feed and probably a boost all from either Ionics or the Shogun brand.

But the soil I want to make is like is;

Sphagnum Pete moss 50%
Vermiculite 30%
Compost/ or Worm castings 20%

In 2x 12L fabric pots.

I was also thinking of adding
Azomite
Kelp meal
Biochar

In small amounts like 1/2 a cup of each. Think it's to much or would you add/replace some things.

Lime in small amounts is probably needed and I'm not sure about sulphur. Anyone had any luck using the same sort of mix out there? Or something similar. Biochar I read was good for microbes, kelp meal for all that added extras also plant hormones and azomite for trace minerals.

Click to expand...

From Gas:

Soil base mix
1 part high quality compost
1 part pumice or perlite
1 part sphagnum peat moss-no additives

Food
1 cup fertrell fish meal per cubic ft of base mix
1 cup acadian kelp meal per cu ft base mix
1 cup basalt rock dust per cu ft base mix
1 cup pacific pearl oyster shell powder

water only-no ph'ing...goodfor indefinite use,just add more food at recommended rates on each additional cycle

EvansInUK said:

Hey guys I want to use led's it's about 38w p/sq foot. In a custom made soil.

I would still like to use a veg feed, bloom feed and probably a boost all from either Ionics or the Shogun brand.

But the soil I want to make is like is;

Sphagnum Pete moss 50%
Vermiculite 30%
Compost/ or Worm castings 20%

In 2x 12L fabric pots.

I was also thinking of adding
Azomite
Kelp meal
Biochar

In small amounts like 1/2 a cup of each. Think it's to much or would you add/replace some things.

Lime in small amounts is probably needed and I'm not sure about sulphur. Anyone had any luck using the same sort of mix out there? Or something similar. Biochar I read was good for microbes, kelp meal for all that added extras also plant hormones and azomite for trace minerals.

Click to expand...

I bet you use a little more lime than you think. My custom soil uses the same base subbing perilite for vermiculite. Sphagum peat moss can be pretty acidic.

So you run the same as what I want buy with perlite instead? How's that doing for you? I may go up to 5gallon pots later.

Forget vermiculite. I don't even add it in my peat mix I make. It retains moisture. Meaning nutrients as well.

EvansInUK said:

So you run the same as what I want buy with perlite instead? How's that doing for you? I may go up to 5gallon pots later.

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Yeah perilite is the way to go. Around 40% perilite.

Google Sub cool super soil for a pretty popular base mix. From there you can sub things out, decrease amounts to allow for supplements via watering, etc.
The amount of additives is going to be relative to the starting amount of "soil". A cubic foot of soil is about 6 gallons. I have used a modified version of subcool, cutting the amounts to about half, maybe a third (as its pretty hot), then using it completely (as opposed to sub cool using the super soil only at the bottom of large pots. Typically this approach nuts will run out before the end of the cycle.

Perlite is great. Shoot for a #2 - #4 (kind of chunky) grade. Can get it for about $8-10 a cubic foot either online or locally. The more you add, the more you water your plants. I like to have a greater ratio of perlite in smaller pots when plants are smaller, and maybe a bit less for larger pots. Too much, you water too often, too little, you can get root rot, especially in humid environments.
50% perlite would be a lot of perlite for a soil based grow (some people use only perlite, but in a diff situation).

3 gallon pot should be good for a 3 foot, 8 cola plant. 5 gallon is better if you can fit it (also uses more soil tho).

Well my space is 2.6 x 2.6 x 5.4 feet tall.
Or 80cm x 80cm x 160cm.

I was planning on topping and super cropping it To keep it low. My pots are about 12l or 2.6 gallons and I was planning on having 1 pot to start to, test my new led out and get it dialled in with watering temp humidity etc. Then possibly run clones in a sog set up next time around. But I wanted to get my new diamond mylar tent and led up and running before anything else. But soil is where it all starts so wanted to make sure it's on point. So no-one uses Vermiculite? Is perlite that much better then.

Perlite and vermiculite have different properties. In an oversimplified nutshell, vermiculite (especially the chunkier stuff) really breaks up dense soil. It also has moisture properties, but for the most part in soil applications its used to break up dense soil so soil dries out faster and more uniform. Again, over simplified.
Vermiculite really just wants to hold water and is pretty compact itself. Coir, peat, few other things including the base soil itself also cover this property of water retention so vermiculite is not really used much in my exposure when growing in a soil based medium.

Is there anyone on here who knows to make their own fertilizers.? I mean their own N-P-K values.

Example and example only like
4-2-6 or
2.8-.6-3.6 for example.

Just example and not what I want to make. But anyone know how to make nitrogen/phosphorus and potassium in their desired figures.

Or better yet.

What size pot would you need to have, to have a mix of organic materials that would feed the plant for its whole life cycle. I googled sub cool and wasn't fond of it. Also the nutrients at the bottom I think is a little wrong and to hot. So other ideas are welcome please.

EvansInUK said:

Or better yet.

What size pot would you need to have, to have a mix of organic materials that would feed the plant for its whole life cycle. I googled sub cool and wasn't fond of it. Also the nutrients at the bottom I think is a little wrong and to hot. So other ideas are welcome please.

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Subcool soil is pretty hot. Most people just cut the amounts of all the nutes. I just used his and a few other recipes as inspiration and made something similar though not as hot. I do the same when cooking something I never have before.

EvansInUK said:

Hey guys I want to use led's it's about 38w p/sq foot. In a custom made soil.

I would still like to use a veg feed, bloom feed and probably a boost all from either Ionics or the Shogun brand.

But the soil I want to make is like is;

Sphagnum Pete moss 50%
Vermiculite 30%
Compost/ or Worm castings 20%

In 2x 12L fabric pots.

I was also thinking of adding
Azomite
Kelp meal
Biochar

In small amounts like 1/2 a cup of each. Think it's to much or would you add/replace some things.

Lime in small amounts is probably needed and I'm not sure about sulphur. Anyone had any luck using the same sort of mix out there? Or something similar. Biochar I read was good for microbes, kelp meal for all that added extras also plant hormones and azomite for trace minerals.

Click to expand...

If you use chemical fertilizers any microbes will be killed off.
The ingredients list in your mix is rich enough to not need any additional fertilizers.
Did you add any rock phosphate? I don't remember if I saw any phosphorus in your mix.
Otherwise you're good to go.

I hadn't added rock phosphate no as I was not aware, but yes I'm adding soft rock phosphate and fish bone meal just to mix it up. Ah about chemical ferts I.read it was ok as long as phosphorus was under 10%, I'll put a link up later. But maybe it's incorrect then. I thought it only slowed it down if to high and not killed it, UNLESS your using really high nutes with high %'s and burned the plants.

http://forums.strainhunters.com/topic/6118-mycorrhizae-do-we-need-to-ad-some-carbs/

Here was the link where I got the info. Sorry if it's not allowed. It's just explaining Mycorrihizae.


My mix is going to be a 26l tub. How much rock phosphate and bone meal you reckon would be enough per tub. I am using that to fill 2 12l pots to start.

I removed the Pete moss. I'm going with

50% Green compost "Organic mix"
30% soil enhancer activated biochar and green compost
20% perlite
Fish bone meal
Soft rock phosphate
Mycorrihizae roots pack "please don't comment on this, I'm adding it as an extra boost for what may already be there/ or to add it for what's not there".

Top Dressed with worm castings if I can convince the American company to post it for me. Shame all the products I like are USA based and 90% of them don't deliver here....