Re-using promix?

I've been reading up on recycling soils and I think I want to give it a try. My basic plan is to put some small holes in the top and bottom of a plastic garbage can for drainage, and put my old promix in that.

I was thinking if I left it out in the weather, the rain would flush out any salt build up. I was planning to mix in a bag of organic compost, some dolomite lime, blood meal, and some sort of myco additive. I think that would leave me with a pretty good base soil to work with.

Am I on the right track here? Anything else I should add, maybe some greensand? Any other suggestions/opinions are appreciated. +rep for any helpful replies.

It sounds like it can work. What kind of promix are you gonna use?? Can micro-life survive in organic compost+ Promix. A lot of people can find bugs to be a problem when you recycle soil and the salt build up is another issue. Not sure about the rain idea but I think If you let the used soil compost for a couple-few months the soil you used should have an even and stable PH.

Hope this helps

I have the promix bx. I think what I am going to do is give the old promix a good flushing, then add in some earthgro organic humus & manure. I figure I will mix it up every few days with a shovel and after a month or so I will try it out.

I am undecided if I should add in blood meal, lime, etc before I let it sit. Or if I should just mix in the nutrients right before I use the soil.

I also use Pro-Mix BX. I have reused it twice without flushing or problems. After that I put it outside for this years garden and the corn and tomatoes look great. No flushing.

Check it out.

HowardWCampbell said:

I have the promix bx. I think what I am going to do is give the old promix a good flushing, then add in some earthgro organic humus & manure. I figure I will mix it up every few days with a shovel and after a month or so I will try it out.

I am undecided if I should add in blood meal, lime, etc before I let it sit. Or if I should just mix in the nutrients right before I use the soil.

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That sounds like a good idea. I have a friend who does promix bx. Let me know how it goes after it has settled a bit with the organic additions!!!!!!!!

Good luck!!!!

Thanks for all the advice. I'll update on how it works out. Any more suggestions are welcomed as well.

I mixed it up about a week ago. The humus & manure I used was pretty heavy, so I mixed in some perlite. It is in a 30 gallon trash can that is about 2/3 full. I added 1/2cup blood meal, 1cup espoma plant tone, 1/2cup dolomite lime, and all my unhashworthy weed trash.

I flushed the old promix really well with tap water before mixing in anything else. So far it looks good. I think I'll give it a couple more weeks before trying it out, but I'm pretty optimistic at this point. Any other suggestions/comments are still appreciated.

Sounds good !!!!! I think you are right on track. No suggestions just comments Keep us updated.... I might try to re use my pro mix if it turns out good for you.

Have a good one HWC

I've been recycling mine for 3 grows now. I add some earthworm and bat guano to recharge it. I flush before I harvest so no buildups. The only thing to warn you about is if (by chance) some of your crop gets seeded you will find that some of the seeds will sprout unexpectedly. I always germ mine in a papertowel and use fresh soil til it grows to big for the 16oz cup so I always know if I planted it or not.

I mixed in about 1/3 old mix and 2/3 new promix when I transplanted a rooted satori clone about three weeks ago.

After about a week she was still growing well, so the next couple clones I was transplanting went into 100% of the old mix. They have been in it about 2 weeks and so far are doing great.

At this point I would say the experiment is a success. The only other addition was 1 cup of bone meal and about 4 more quarts of perlite.

I appreciate all the input, you guys gave me some good ideas.

Only use old dirt if you are planting outdoors. Period.
When you do that fill up buckets and put the water hose over it. give a it really good flush. I flush my promix hp before i plant. You are sappose to flush it with warm water to activate the lime. And the roots like it warm. Flush, Plant , feed 1/4 strenght nute mix after planting.

Reusing soil is no problem.

Soil, is nothing more than a medium.

The nutrition comes from either keeping the soil alive with organisms and worms, that break down added matter or nutrients and therefore, the soil will not ever loose it's richness, as long as the soil and worms are being fed veggie and fruit and other matter or you are adding fertilzers and in that case, keep the salts rinsed out and use your fertilzers and your medium again with no problems.

Blessings,

Rev. TheNatural

TheNatural said:

Reusing soil is no problem.

Soil, is nothing more than a medium.

The nutrition comes from either keeping the soil alive with organisms and worms, that break down added matter or nutrients and therefore, the soil will not ever loose it's richness, as long as the soil and worms are being fed veggie and fruit and other matter or you are adding fertilzers and in that case, keep the salts rinsed out and use your fertilzers and your medium again with no problems.

Blessings,

Rev. TheNatural

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Pro-Mix is a soilless mix.

This is a cool thread. One time I had ~40 gallons of used pro-mix. It had been used for a grow using synthetic nutrients, thus it contained salt residue. Three little birds gave me some advice, and this is what I did.

40 gal used pro-mix
30 lbs EWC
4 cups Bone meal/Blood meal/Kelp meal/Greensand/Dolomite
1 cup epsom salts
Perlite to taste

This mix is then kept moist with a mix of bacteria/myco additive, molasses, and water. I use Espoma's Bio-Tone because I think the bacteria/fungi in it really do break down salts and all the other raw materials.

I see 2 problems that I will run into using a peat-based sytem. The first is the eventual degradation and acidification of the peat component. This is one reason why dolomite is so important. The second problem although minor, is that something like rock phosphate should be added for P release over the course of the mix's reuse.

So tossing Most of my super Hot soil i made myself out into my regular garden to feed my veggies.

And i'm using Mainly Pro-Mix BX now for my main medium, i'm still going to add A Little bit of my "super soil" but that shit is so fuckin hot running at like 4.3pH with 2,900ppm!!! Haha i definitely didn't listen like i should have... and Reamended Too often.

So now even mixing New ProMix BX which is 6.5 6.3ph runoff, i mixed 4:1 PM:SS and the pH is still like 5.2, ppm 777-1,200. Now my girls are still thriving and surviving in a 2:1 mix, and feeding BioBizz line.

My question is, should i Add some Lime now to soil i'll use in a Week? or Should i pretty much Toss my "super soil" and Go strictly Soilless ProMix, and when it's finished Amend with just a little Lime, Gypsum, Dry Molasses, and Black Kow?

I know all of you on here are about to bash and say oh i need to go to ROLS yada yada, but im Not doing it, i'm done with trying to build my own soil yada yada and having bugs crawl and fly around all over the place. It's inside, it's not an outdoor garden.

Interesting to note, 7 years ago, every Big Top grower said to just Toss used soil and buy more. I'm definitely Not capable of doing that, But I Am kind of starting fresh and using Mainly ProMix with the BioBizz line.

Reuse away my friend! As long as you use just plain water your last two weeks of flower you should flush out any nastiness. Next time you reamend just use kelp, worm castings, neem cake, etc. And they'll be no need for you to flush ever again.

And the neem will scare off those fungus gnats everyone is complaining about.

Rasta Roy said:

Reuse away my friend! As long as you use just plain water your last two weeks of flower you should flush out any nastiness. Next time you reamend just use kelp, worm castings, neem cake, etc. And they'll be no need for you to flush ever again.

And the neem will scare off those fungus gnats everyone is complaining about.

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Cool thanks brother.

You heard of discarding the top layer of the soil because of nesting bugs?

You know eventually again I'll purchase a worm farm and make Everything myself like I was trying to do, but for now I NEED results! Tired of sitting waiting to see then inadequate...

cannakis said:

Cool thanks brother.

You heard of discarding the top layer of the soil because of nesting bugs?

You know eventually again I'll purchase a worm farm and make Everything myself like I was trying to do, but for now I NEED results! Tired of sitting waiting to see then inadequate...

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No I haven't heard of that. I top dress my plants with neem, and I steep some neem in water to do a root drench and I don't have bugs. Before I used neem, I used a rosemary oil extract product from SNS and would just root drench the first couple of weeks of veg and I wouldn't have any problems after.

Bugs are easily dealt with, just stay on top of em.

Been growin in the same bale of sunshine mix #4 for over 6 years without issue