Department Store Super Soil Mix

quemedica

New Member
I recently visited a friend in rural Canada who asked for a quick, less bulk alternative to Subcool's super soil mix using locally sourced material. The only garden supply in his home town was a Canadian Tire store. After research, several mixes and soil tests, here's a loam recipe I came up with for his organic closet grow. It is cheap to produce, contains everything a canna plant needs (including proper soil pH) and if followed correctly, should only require that you water your plants from seedling to harvest.

Minimum supplies needed for this procedure will amend up to 5 plants grown in 5 gallon buckets/pots. Merkin friends reading this can likely source all of these ingredients at Home Depot and Wal-Mart…

TOTAL COST OF INGREDIENTS: $35,95
COST PER PLANT: $7,19
MIXING TIME: 20 minutes per plant
COMPLEXITY: Very easy

PLEASE NOTE:
Ingredient quantities and the procedure outlined below were specifically meant to efficiently mix a minimal amount of loam, using minimal hardware, in 4 easy steps. But I included percentage values for those equipped to batch mix bulkier quantities.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups (45%): Bio Max Peat-Shrimp-Manure Compost $4.99 (CT Product #59-4881-0)

1½ cups (20%): Pro-Mix Vegetable & Herb $7.99 (CT Product #59-4370-6)

1 cup (15%): Rubicon worm castings $8.99 (CT Product #193-5938-0)

1 cup (15%): CIL Kelp Mix $4.99 (CT Product #59-4596-0)

½ cup (5%): CIL Blood and Bone Meal $8.99 (CT Product #59-2157-8)

1/4 cup: Mama Nature rain water

Here is an image of all ingredients used:
INGREDIENTS.png

HARDWARE:
One measuring cup $0.99 (CT Product # 81-3782-6)

One electric hand beater/mixer $12.99 (CT Product # 43-2102-4)

Two (minimum) five gallon buckets $3.99 (CT Product # 58-1060-4)

One (minimum) lid for five gallon bucket $1.99 (CT Product # 58-1031-4)

STEP 1:
To minimize the odds of an incorrect mix, stand your bags from left to right in the order which they appear in the ingredients list. You can also write the number of cups needed on each bag with a marker.

STEP 2:
Follow the ingredients list adding them (including the water) into one of your buckets. Using an electric hand mixer on the slowest speed, mix until the preparation has a uniform dark colour. Swing the hand mixer beaters around and under the ingredients to achieve a nice even mix, this shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. Finally, drop the mix into your second bucket and even it out across its diameter with your fingers.

STEP 3:
Repeat STEP 2 three more times until the second bucket is half full.

STEP 4:
Fill the second bucket to the top with good quality soil. Seal the bucket with lid and let it cure in the sun or somewhere warm for 6 to 10 days. If you’re using pots, seal the bottom and top with plastic wrap to protect the mix from insects while it cures.

Congratulations, you're ready to grow!
 
The only things you have on that list I can get here is the ProMix veg and herb (vegs pot great all by itself) and the blood/bone meal.

I have an hour drive to get it too but I'm stocked up with 3 bags of that and a bale and a half left of the two Promix HP I got at Canadian Tire. The HP i use straight out of the bag with AN pH Perfect Sensi Grow in veg and Connoiseur for flowering.

I've never heard of anyone using a mixer like you describe and my wife would have my dangly bits if she caught me using her mixer for that. :)

I would just put all I needed in the same proportions you laid out one at a time in a pot until it was full then dump the pot in a tub and pour that back and forth a few times to have it done in a couple min and very evenly mixed. Once the pot is full wet it well and cure like you said.

It looks like a darned good mix. Nice and easy too. :thumb:

I got a bag of worm castings about the same size as yours and it was $30. Up here everything is almost double price for the shipping costs. 5 hours to the big city and I never seem to have extra cash when we have to go down there to see a specialist or something.

L8r
 
Regular plants won't start flowering until the middle of Aug and we've had frost that early and for sure by the middle of Sept so they just don't have time to finish. I've tried a few times. Night before last it got down to 4C/38F and the plants don't like that much.

Autos offer the only way to get the plants done in time and that's on the agenda for next year. I have lots of seeds that are a cross of regulars and a Purple Jem auto and I'm planning to grow 30 or 40 to find ones that start flowering in a month of 24 hour light. Then bred them to get seeds that will be mostly autos for outdoor planting. If I can do it in time I might be able to get a 3rd generation by spring, June here, and grow those which should all be autos.

Grow 1000 of them, crop 500 girls then get the hell out of Dodge! :)

L8r
 
OldMedUser, go easy on the water. The BioMax and CIL Kelp Mix, which make up 60% of this mix, are already in compost form so it's just a question of having it slightly damp for the cure. This is also why it only needs a 6 to 10 day cure.

Cheers
 
Hi there,

So when you finish completing the bottom half of the soil recipe mix, and filling the other half with good quality soil ( in my case it would be promix hp mycorizzhae ) do you mix them after the 10th day or do you leave it at it is ?
 
Living in Northern Ontario i was only able to find Promix HP and a bag of CIL EWC at my local CT. The shrimp compost was not availble but at Rona I was able to order some online and ship to the store for free. Other than that the rest was aquired at my local hydro shop.
 
Living in Northern Ontario i was only able to find Promix HP and a bag of CIL EWC at my local CT. The shrimp compost was not availble but at Rona I was able to order some online and ship to the store for free. Other than that the rest was aquired at my local hydro shop.

Did you mix the top with the bottom or you left them separate after curing ?
 
I did not use this recipe although it is very similar. With my recipe i just poured everything onto a big tarp used a shovel and turned and mixed everything then popped it all into a cleaned out food grade 45 gallon barrel.
 
Once the soil is made do you plant your plants directly in it? Or do you fill a bucket half way and then put soil over it?
 
I made this. Not sure how it's going to work, I filled part way a couple 5G buckets (after baking 10 days), then topped each one with promix. We'll see how this works out over the summer. I added perlite (1-2 C) and domolite (1/2 TBSP) lime to this recipe. The promix tends to be hot. Just about to transplant my seedlings.
 
The promix hp and bx have no added time released nutes, that is why most suggest one of those 2. When potting i transfer from cups to 5 gallon pots, adding the mix to the bottom of the pot and straight promix on the top.
 
The promix hp and bx have no added time released nutes, that is why most suggest one of those 2. When potting i transfer from cups to 5 gallon pots, adding the mix to the bottom of the pot and straight promix on the top.

Thanks a lot for your feedback. And how did it go for your plant ? Have there been any signs of nutrient burn on the leaves ? Have you followed exactly what quemedica provided in his recipe ? And if so, did you have to add any nutrients throughout the cycle or did you just feed with regular water until harvest ?

Thanks :)
 
Cause I don't understand why you'd have to cover the mix with promix and then recover it with promix when you put it in the pot
 
I used a diff mix then what the original poster used. The baked product could be rather strong for a young seedling so some people when transferring only add the soil mix in the bottom portion of the pot and just surround the transplant with a straight unmixed soil.

Hope that makes some sense.

NorthernBoy
 
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