Building A Better Soil: Demonstrations & Discussions Of Organic Soil Recipes

I tossed the whey from my lactobacillus serum right into my soil bin. I can't see how yours would be any different.
 
Im making some lactobacillus serum, as I want to start making some fermented plant extracts ( I will be using indigenous micro-organisms and lactobacillus serum for the plant extracts) and will also make some fish hydrolysate.
Has any of you fellas had any experience with the fish hydrolysate?
Would it be good for flowering or vegging?
 
Another thing that I don't know if it can be useful is to make mother culture. Since I have read about how some cultures can be used for fertilizer and I have lots of different cultures to make different types of cheese. Maybe I can make a mother culture and use it for fertilizer. Any opinion on this?
 
I tossed the whey from my lactobacillus serum right into my soil bin. I can't see how yours would be any different.

I thro in some lacto culture when I'm building soil too....

For rock dust you can go here:
rockdustlocal.com - get the brix blend basalt.. you can use azomite, I use fulpower/silica which is supposed to help with plants not absorbing aluminum metals from the soil. I'm talking off top of head here.. I think the silica is what the plant needs and if she has enough wont grab onto the Al in the azomite. Don't quite me on that but that's what I'm thinking.
 
What's up guys. This is my first time posting and I'm in need for some growing advice cause this is my first grow. Just bought some white widow autos and was wondering what would be the best soil mix. I just bought a bag of miracle grow potting soil just give some perspective.
 
Well I suggest that you read the thread completely since there some recipes and good information. From what I read miracle grow is something that shouldn't been use if you're trying to go organic. Anyway I'm a beginner so maybe wait for more experience members to post.
 
What's up guys. This is my first time posting and I'm in need for some growing advice cause this is my first grow. Just bought some white widow autos and was wondering what would be the best soil mix. I just bought a bag of miracle grow potting soil just give some perspective.

Seedlings like to be started in smallish pots with good drain holes - solo cups, 4" diameter pots, 1-liter plastic bottles cut in half, etc.
This first batch of soil should be weak. You could return the miracle grow. If not, you could mix the miracle grow 50/50 with peat moss for a seedling mix while you research and decide how you want to grow. In a month or so, you can transplant them into the soil of your choice.

I imagine you will have many more questions about lights, watering, fertilizer, so I strongly suggest you start a grow journal - try to put "First Grow" in the title. This grow journal will be your central place for ideas, advice, and proud pappa photos of your plants :

Get started with a grow journal here ===> Journals in Progress
 
Im making some lactobacillus serum, as I want to start making some fermented plant extracts ( I will be using indigenous micro-organisms and lactobacillus serum for the plant extracts) and will also make some fish hydrolysate.
Has any of you fellas had any experience with the fish hydrolysate?
Would it be good for flowering or vegging?

I water with fish hydro every few weeks in veg, and add it into occasional foliars until week 2 or 3 of flower. I throw fish in my compost and under new beds. Start out small on ferment feedings.
 
What's up guys. This is my first time posting and I'm in need for some growing advice cause this is my first grow. Just bought some white widow autos and was wondering what would be the best soil mix. I just bought a bag of miracle grow potting soil just give some perspective.

Welcome Moc88. As Rado said the Miracle grow is not our choice, but I doubt it will hurt anything.

Unfortunately you have your cart before your horse, so to speak. If you want to grow organic soil you should have addressed building your soil at least a month in advance so that it composted well. For instance, I have next seasons (this years) new soil already made, and last years outdoor holes are already amended for this coming June. THEN you worry about the plants.

What I would do (I'm not telling you to, simply stating how I would go about it) is go ahead and build a soil. If the plants get hungry while it is composting get a quart bottle of Earth Juice grow to hold them over until the soil is ready and you can transplant.

Cheers!
 
This question may sound kind of stupid but here it goes. When storing the soil mix, I need to make holes to air to enter or is okay to put a lid without holes?
 
This question may sound kind of stupid but here it goes. When storing the soil mix, I need to make holes to air to enter or is okay to put a lid without holes?

I store mine in totes with lids, no holes at all. I don't fill to the very top and I turn it about once a month.
 
Ok direction change.

I'm curious how many people actually calculate how much macro and micro goes into their soil amendments. Either when starting new soil or amending existing.

Second question, are you simply using the % listed on the boxes/bags?

Third, and possibly the one that's going to hang most people up. When you are considering your P and K numbers, do you use what is listed on the package (say...3-4-4), or do you use the actual weight of the desired element?

Confused? Lets look at a bag of Gardentone. 3-4-4 is what it's analysis states. But look closer at what they (and all fert producers) are guaranteeing is in there. Potassium is presented as K2O, or potassium oxide. Two potassium atoms and an oxygen. Working out the maths on the atomic weights...

2xK (atomic weight 19) = 38
1xO (atomic weight 8) = 8
Total weight = 46

38 (total K) divided by 46 (total weight)

we see that 82.6% (round to 83%) of available K2O is actually K. So applying that 83% to the listed minimum qty of 4 and you get....3.32.

Not happy about that? Well then look at phosphorus. Presented as P2O5 or phosphorus pentoxide. Again the maths on molecular weight show that merely 43% is actually phosphorus. In our bag of 3-4-4, the actual available P is only 1.72.

The left over oxygen is used by soil life, not the plant.

Discuss.....

:Namaste:


PS. Another pet peeve, I guess, is N sourced from ammonium. It reacts with lime agents and that available N just exits the soil as a gas.

The Gardentone has .2%. So in my mind the label should REALLY read 2.8-1.72-3.32. Sorry Espoma, you're getting picked on but all ferts are labeled like this.
 
Ok direction change.

I'm curious how many people actually calculate how much macro and micro goes into their soil amendments. Either when starting new soil or amending existing.

Not me. I am here becasue I DON'T do the calculations. I am here for the recipes that already work.

I am interested in copying the prize winning recipes from the county fair winners, not creating and developing my own recipes.
 
Not me. I am here becasue I DON'T do the calculations. I am here for the recipes that already work.

I am interested in copying the prize winning recipes from the county fair winners, not creating and developing my own recipes.

I do the same, I have follow journals from some of the members that contributed with recipes here like Susan and bobrown14 and I was quite impress with their results.
 
I was wondering if I could get some input on a soil recipe. Mostly just going by things I can find locally and a few ordered online. I've been using Coots recipe, but I find myself still giving regular feedings to get the most out of my girls.

Base soil is 25% peat, 10% coir, 25% perlite, 15% vermiculite, 25% worm castings. On a perlite swick bed. Hoping for a bit more aeration than the standard 33% mix, want to move away from perlite but it works so well.

Goal is water only 90 day seed to harvest for Autos.(seeds started in lighter mix) With maybe an ewc tea mid veg and a p booster mid flower. Mainly just equal parts of everything I could find, with alfalfa the main N source. Open to suggestions if ratios should be tweaked or how much per cubic foot of soil(planning to test 2, 3, 4, 5, cups per to see how hot I can safely get the soil for my little autos)

4 Alfalfa Meal
1 Neem Meal
1 kelp meal
1 crustation meal
1 bone meal
1 fish bone meal
1 fish meal
1 oyster shell powder
.5 sul po mag
1 glacial rock dust
1 greensand
1 gypsum powder
1 azomite
1 flaxseed meal
.2 humid acid
 
Me personally i would scrap vermiculite and the peat coija duz same thing retain moisture i would add as much organic matter as possible. I heard a few things bout vermiculite a few yrs ago so steered clear.Y not add more castings instead of peat.U could always add composted bark fines instead of perlite 10 -20mm works fine as long as they were composted properly .Uncomposted fines will draw nitrogen out of media.I would make sure i composted properly by adding blood and bone into compost.In winter it is is easy to tell ,u can watch steam rise its actually cool to watch.Mustard seeds alfalfa etc can be grown in compost or just ur mix wen ready just turn back into soil nitrogen. Rain water has nitrogen in it from ammonification nitrogation.Meaning rain catches nitrogen that was first an ammonium.U ever wondered why grass always gets greener after rain that is why.Hope i helped i was thinking technically speaking it aint organic if it has perlite.All the best champ
 
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