Questions about the soil I am mixing.

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touretticdiabetic

New Member
Starting my second grow ever; first time making my own soil. I am going to be growing in equal parts sphagnum peat, worm castings, and expanded clay pebbles, with Coast of Maine Stonington Blend added. The blend says to use three cups per cubic foot of medium. Should I layer this at the bottom, or just mix it all together? I am going to roll my seeds in mycorrhizae, as well as sprinkle some in the hole when I transplant. Anything else I should do with this?

I am about to start soaking my peat; do I need to PH balance the water I am using for this?

What else would you recommend I add to my soil? And with a mix like this will I need to allow it to cook? What should I expect to need to feed throughout the grow?

I am picking up some dolomite lime to mix in to help with pH, but at what ratio for the mix above?

Happy growing
 
weedstoner420

weedstoner420

Well-Known Member
Mix it all together. Peat/ewc/aeration, plus an all-purpose dry fertilizer blend is about as simple as it gets for a living soil, and can be very effective. Just make sure you use a large container (7-10 gallons at least) so they don't run out of food halfway.

(I'm assuming you're talking about the 5-2-4 coast of Maine blend?)
 
T

touretticdiabetic

New Member
Jjgrow420 said:
Sounds like you should do some more research on living soil before you jump into the deep end. Something simple, tested and true is coots mix, or kiss mix.
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I have been doing research for a while now and, as I said, this is my first soil build. I put together what I thought was a simple and good mix and was reaching out for advice for what I have..
 
T

touretticdiabetic

New Member
weedstoner420 said:
Mix it all together. Peat/ewc/aeration, plus an all-purpose dry fertilizer blend is about as simple as it gets for a living soil, and can be very effective. Just make sure you use a large container (7-10 gallons at least) so they don't run out of food halfway.

(I'm assuming you're talking about the 5-2-4 coast of Maine blend?)
Click to expand...
I wanted to keep it pretty simple with my first soil build so that I have a solid baseline to go off of with my next grows.

I have 7 gallon fabric pots that I am planning on using, but have been thinking about just going ahead and getting 10-15 gallons.

I am talking about the 5-2-4 CoM blend, yes. It says to use a teaspoon per 6" of pot size, or a tablespoon for every square foot. This seems a bit low to me, what say you?

With this blend, should I expect to feed later on in the grow? I also forgot to mention that I am adding diatomaceous earth into the soil as well.
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
My first ever mix was equal parts peat,ewc/compost and perlite.That gets a little thick when wet,reduce ewc/compost a little.40/20/40 is good. Straight ewc will be mud when wet and choke the roots.
1 cup domo lime per cuft.If straight peat.
2-3 food
4 cups rock dust.
Let cook,3 weeks.
 
weedstoner420

weedstoner420

Well-Known Member
touretticdiabetic said:
I wanted to keep it pretty simple with my first soil build so that I have a solid baseline to go off of with my next grows.

I have 7 gallon fabric pots that I am planning on using, but have been thinking about just going ahead and getting 10-15 gallons.

I am talking about the 5-2-4 CoM blend, yes. It says to use a teaspoon per 6" of pot size, or a tablespoon for every square foot. This seems a bit low to me, what say you?

With this blend, should I expect to feed later on in the grow? I also forgot to mention that I am adding diatomaceous earth into the soil as well.
Click to expand...
3 cups per cubic foot actually seems a bit steep to me, most similar brands like Gaia and Espoma (with npk numbers in the 2-6 range) recommend more like 1 or 2 to start, and may require top-dressing depending on plant size and container size. I looked up the directions for the CoM and they say to add 3 cups per cubic foot of compost, like for raised beds, so if compost is 1/3 of your total mix then that's 1 cup per cubic foot of total mix.

And yeah like @myke said it doesn't hurt to add a decent amount of rock dusts for minerals and such, especially if your base amendments don't contain any.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Sunshine 4 Advanced is some pretty good stuff once it’s moistened. My bale was extremely hydrophobic despite containing yucca. I just added liquid soap to the water at first to get it actually wet.
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
weedstoner420 said:
3 cups per cubic foot actually seems a bit steep to me, most similar brands like Gaia and Espoma (with npk numbers in the 2-6 range) recommend more like 1 or 2 to start, and may require top-dressing depending on plant size and container size. I looked up the directions for the CoM and they say to add 3 cups per cubic foot of compost, like for raised beds, so if compost is 1/3 of your total mix then that's 1 cup per cubic foot of total mix.

And yeah like @myke said it doesn't hurt to add a decent amount of rock dusts for minerals and such, especially if your base amendments don't contain any.
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It’s strain specific the cups per. The ones I grow have no problem with 3 cups but I break it down like 1 cup kelp 1 alfalfa 1 frass 1 Gaia etc.
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
I think my very first mix was 1 cup kelp and 1 cup Gaia 444,also 4 cups rock dust.Copied from somewhere on the net.
 
Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
myke said:
I think my very first mix was 1 cup kelp and 1 cup Gaia 444,also 4 cups rock dust.Copied from somewhere on the net.
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I stopped using rock dust as much because of the heavy metal content.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love heavy metal. Just through a speaker and not inside my body ;)
 
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