Need help amending soil mixture

Ok so what I already will have is
Worm castings
Chicken manure
30% used coco coir
30% used happy frog
30% compost
Amendments

I really need help deciding how much amendments of what to get. I've never built soil so I could really use some help. It would even be great to be able to make a super soil to put as a base layer under potting soil for outside this year.

Thanks for any help!! I'm ready to buy whatever I need my friend is going to split the cost of amendments with me.

I use giai green products they work well and there’s tons of info on them. You can also use other products from local sources if need be remember though when doing your ratios to average your numbers to get your true npk ratio. I use kelp meal and rock dust and bio fish with 4-4-4 to get me through veg that’s mixed in with my compost and perlite then I top dress with giai green 2-8-4 and few other things before flipping I also have earth worm castings and dolomite lime In The mix as well as bone meal and a few other things and just added in some Langbeinite as I flipped the pots for this grow. There are some good threads on here on how to make budget friendly soils and no budget friendly soils. Good luck! your ratio for mixing should be specified on the products your using if not you can always check on the google for the correct ratios

I stick with premade mixes like dte. Takes the guess work out of it.

Bio-live ( DTE )

Most “ general “ dry fertilizer ( 4-4-4 or 5-5-5 ) would work as a good base for easy soil recipes.

this soil mix would be for outdoor veggies by the way, but I might want to do a secondary batch formulated for cannabis

DTE looks simple, and I looked at the gaia green website they look like nice products. Gaia would be sort of like doing build-a-soil right? I don't mind buying the products to make the soil complete, but if it could be simple by just using the DTE I'd be veryu interested in that

Budzbuddha said:

Most “ general “ dry fertilizer ( 4-4-4 or 5-5-5 ) would work as a good base for easy soil recipes.

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anything else I'll need ? Like dolomite lime or anything to go with it? If theres any good guides or anything I just really don't know where to start especially with coco coir in the soil

Hiphophippo said:

I use giai green products they work well and there’s tons of info on them. You can also use other products from local sources if need be remember though when doing your ratios to average your numbers to get your true npk ratio. I use kelp meal and rock dust and bio fish with 4-4-4 to get me through veg that’s mixed in with my compost and perlite then I top dress with giai green 2-8-4 and few other things before flipping I also have earth worm castings and dolomite lime In The mix as well as bone meal and a few other things and just added in some Langbeinite as I flipped the pots for this grow. There are some good threads on here on how to make budget friendly soils and no budget friendly soils. Good luck! your ratio for mixing should be specified on the products your using if not you can always check on the google for the correct ratios

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I'm all ears for anything I could check out to get an idea of what I'm doing. I've never built my own soil before but I have a bunch of coco and happy frog and compost to use so I'm really trying to get a jump on it before summer comes. Thank you for your suggestion

Honestly I would just use what you have there and add in some dolomite lime to help control ph and some Gaia green rock dust with some Gaia 4-4-4 for veg and 2-8-4 for flower with some earth worm castings. I would use perlite to help keep the soil loose. That’ll grow some nice plants mix it water it and let it sit for a few weeks covered. The ratio to mix are on the packages

Hiphophippo said:

Honestly I would just use what you have there and add in some dolomite lime to help control ph and some Gaia green rock dust with some Gaia 4-4-4 for veg and 2-8-4 for flower with some earth worm castings. I would use perlite to help keep the soil loose. That’ll grow some nice plants mix it water it and let it sit for a few weeks covered. The ratio to mix are on the packages

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I appreciate the help! I am looking now with the 10 kg bag's do you think thats too much?
-Gaia Green Power Bloom and All Purpose Organic Plant Nutrients Fertilizer and Growbuds Feeding Chart, 10KG Bundle Set (20 kg total) - 120$
- UnLeAsH Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust, 10 kg - 45$
- Down to Earth Organic Prilled Dolomite Lime, 5 lb - 18$
- Gaia Green Worm Castings 2 Liters Organic Soil Builder -28$ or 30 liters- 160$
-Amazon.com: AeroSoil Perlite Horticultural Soil Additive – Potting Soil for Plants – Seed Starter - Coarse 4 CF : Everything Else - 40$


or is that way too much quantity and I could get away with a trio pack for 90$ that includes worm castings and the power bloom and gaia veg? I plan on making up to a yard of soil.

I do have some more stuff that I use for liquid feed but not sure if it works at all for amending but I'll list it here anyways just in case

Mega Crop 2 Part A 5-12-26 Hydroponic Professional – Greenleaf Nutrients 25 lb
Mega Crop 2 Part B 15.5-0-0 Hydroponic Professional – Greenleaf Nutrients 25 lb
Biobizz Pre-mix 1 lb
Bud Explosion PK Booster – Greenleaf Nutrients
Sweet Candy – Greenleaf Nutrients
Sea-K Kelp Extract – Greenleaf Nutrients
Epsom Salt


So whats the deal, I get these nutrients and mix them into the soil and let it cook or something? Then I'm good to use it as a potting soil or garden bed soil? Thanks alot for the help I'm pretty clueless about this but I really want to get into it

Nizza said:

Ok so what I already will have is
Worm castings
Chicken manure
30% used coco coir
30% used happy frog
30% compost
Amendments

I really need help deciding how much amendments of what to get. I've never built soil so I could really use some help. It would even be great to be able to make a super soil to put as a base layer under potting soil for outside this year.

Thanks for any help!! I'm ready to buy whatever I need my friend is going to split the cost of amendments with me.

Click to expand...

What I do is get a big tub, and measure out everything. You want to make up enough to fill a given number of containers, and repeat the process as needed until you have all the containers filled.

I like to use an empty plant pot as a measuring cup, especially if it’s the size I will be using.

my advice is to go easy on the hot stuff, you really don’t want to burn your plants.

FWIW, I use a base of equal parts coir and Promix BX, hydrated with a gallon of water with 1/4 strength GH nutrients to start seeds. Fill up solo cups, plant seeds, keep moist and transplant them when they’re ready. I really like Promix BX and coir mixed, because it’s sterile and doesn’t harbor pests.

For growing plants (not flowering) I transplant them into a Promix/coir mix and blend in vermiculite. The plants are watered regularly with GH nutrients to boost the N.

For flowering, they get a boost of P and K. GH makes it pretty easy to get a regular feeding schedule established, and by adjusting the amounts you can keep things going.

Cannabis is a plant- a weed- that thrives on intelligent neglect. Too many people literally love their plants to death by pampering them too much.

If i could get my hands on gaia id go for that its so simple. Instead, im doing coots mix alongside some of guanokalongs stuff and dried yarrow, comfrey, malted barley and a few more.
Dont forget to mulch and myccos! Its a great style of grow!! Hooked

Second/third the recommendations for dry fertilizer blends. I use Espoma products because that's what's available locally, @ 2 cups per cubic foot to start.

If this is a mix for container gardening, don't forget some kind of aeration (perlite, etc). The happy frog probably has some but if you're adding compost or worm castings you may want to add more aeration to balance it out.

Am I missing anything here?

Should I get more than just 2liter of worm castings the next size up is 30 liter for 160$

Are the 10liter bags too much? The next size down is 2 liters of the growbuds and bio bloom if that's going to be enough to amend a yard of soil I'd like to go with that

Nizza said:

View attachment 5249185View attachment 5249186

Am I missing anything here?

Should I get more than just 2liter of worm castings the next size up is 30 liter for 160$

Are the 10liter bags too much? The next size down is 2 liters of the growbuds and bio bloom if that's going to be enough to amend a yard of soil I'd like to go with that

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I would go with the 10 liters. Looks like the directions say 3 Tbs per gallon, which translates to ~1.4 cups per cubic foot. A yard is 27 cubic feet, so ~38 cups per yard. 10 liters sounds about right for that.

And dang, $28 for 2 liters of worm castings?? That better be some good shit lol, surely you can find a better deal on those from another brand...the brand I can get locally is $12 for 8 quarts, and it's seriously good quality stuff...

if you can source your ewc locally thats way better than the stuff sitting on a shelf for months and i think you are way overthinking this just aim for 1-1-1 npk ratio and good secondary and micro rich inputs. like manure, ewc and guano and maybe kelp and its a good mix really. plants will love it.

and as a general rule i dont understand why people layer their nutrient rich soil under their nutrient poor soil. especially in a garden, couple of good rains and all that nutrients will move down deeper and deeper in the soil. i think its better to put high cec material at the base maybe even layer the bottom with something like zeolite and layer with a richer mix as you get close to the surface to minimize the loss of nutrients. my 2 cents tho.

weedstoner420 said:

I would go with the 10 liters. Looks like the directions say 3 Tbs per gallon, which translates to ~1.4 cups per cubic foot. A yard is 27 cubic feet, so ~38 cups per yard. 10 liters sounds about right for that.

And dang, $28 for 2 liters of worm castings?? That better be some good shit lol, surely you can find a better deal on those from another brand...the brand I can get locally is $12 for 8 quarts, and it's seriously good quality stuff...

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crimsonecho said:

if you can source your ewc locally thats way better than the stuff sitting on a shelf for months and i think you are way overthinking this just aim for 1-1-1 npk ratio and good secondary and micro rich inputs. like manure, ewc and guano and maybe kelp and its a good mix really. plants will love it.

and as a general rule i dont understand why people layer their nutrient rich soil under their nutrient poor soil. especially in a garden, couple of good rains and all that nutrients will move down deeper and deeper in the soil. i think its better to put high cec material at the base maybe even layer the bottom with something like zeolite and layer with a richer mix as you get close to the surface to minimize the loss of nutrients. my 2 cents tho.

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Nice, thanks for the input. Im going to take the EWC off and source that locally and go with the big bags, I appreciate the tips and am happy to save money! I was going to get some local black gold compost (horse manure, leaves, twigs, bark) but the high wood content I'm not sure of.

I added a worm tower so now I'm going to be starting a worm bin... haha!! wish me luck!

I added zeolite to the list of stuff on amazon

I could add peat locally to help fill out the mix as well, and buy other local things

This mix will be used in garden beds as well as container gardening for vegetables so If I make a strong soil I was hoping to just be able to dilute it with a potting soil if need be.

Dr Earth is another good dry amendment.. I agree with this ^^^^..
Keep a good nutrient layer on top, Kinda the way it works..

crimsonecho said:

and as a general rule i dont understand why people layer their nutrient rich soil under their nutrient poor soil.

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This is another silly cannabis growing myth.
"I put my super soil at the bottom so my seedling can grow a bit before hitting the rich soil"....Anyone that has grown a seed can tell you that the tap root is there before you have a true leaf.

Don't add dolo it has mg and will crush your soil
Adding mg is a sure way to gatentarente failure
Mg is foilar fed the soil doesn't need much and it doesn't leech out worm cast can be enough for years

Careful on salty products kelp is salty everyone says we need it and we don't alfalfa is safer and has hormones throw some rock dust for minerals
Kelp again is good foilar leaves can handle salt roots can't

Ewc is plenty for a grow other bits prep the next grow and feed fungus

I add alfalfa malt wheat and bran flakes
And then chicken shit has everything you need

Most important is up the gypsum
And use oysters shell or limestone not dolo not ag lime, limestone is different

You veg is about bulk ca load ca get ca need Ca

Flower you stop ca and mulch alfalfa and spray fish aminos til week 4 if you want you can push k with comfrey and nettles no lie haha better k than most ferts just pik em blend em mulch em
.
Now fuken chill out and wait