First time organic -- curious about whether mix is good

[dikaiosune]

Hey guys, I've been trolling around the boards here for a bit now, getting ready for my own op. My and a couple of friends finally decided to get things together in their basement. I wanted to check with y'all about whether our soil and compost teas seem well balanced nutrient-wise. I build them primarily out of the "Organics for Beginners" tut that's a sticky here, but budget and supply (nurseries are running out of shit because winter's coming) have restricted us slightly. So here are the nutes and such, I'm just looking for comments and suggestions, any help is highly appreciated:

Soil:
5 gallons sphagnum peat moss
3 gallons Black Gold organic potting mix
3 gallons perlite
3 gallons earthworm castings
1 cup blood meal
2 cups bone meal
1 cup kelp meal
1 cup powdered dolomite lime
1 cup greensand

This has been mulching for a bit now, getting ready to repot some guys who we started earlier that have been doing kind of poorly.

Now for the teas:

Since we've got about 30 seedlings coming up right now, I decided to brew some tea just for them, along with one that has a bit more kick for the bigger guys in veg. Bubbled both buckets for 48 hours (per the tut above), and added:

Seedling tea:
1 c. earthworm castings
5 T. unsulphured molasses

Veg tea:
1c. earthworm castings
5T. molasses
5T. Neptune's Harvest 2-3-1 Fish and Seaweed Fert.

Both of those are brewing right now (been almost 24 hours, gonna check em tonight) with the castings in a sock hanging from the side (I went and agitated the shit out of it last night to get the castings aerated).

So, that rundown was kinda overly complex, but I figured I should be precise in order to get any advice. So...anyone see anything that needs changing here?

thanks,
dikaiosune

EDIT: forgot greensand. d'oh.

 

[BurnOne]

dikaiosune-
Welcome to IC.
IMO, you as a beginner would be much better off using one of the recipes from the beginners sticking and following it EXACTLY.
You have everything you need there but your method is off bad.
Neptune's Harvest 2-3-1 is NOT a veg nute and there is no need to bubble it.
Use the peat, worm castings, perlite and dolomite to make LC's mix. Then use the blood/bone/kelp/greensand and make up enough Recipe #1 to fill up a 3 gallon flower pot of mix for each seedling. Follow the directions EXACTLY and in about two weeks the seedlings should be ready to transplant into it. Add water until harvest. Be sure to pick out the males after you turn the lights back to 12/12.
Let me know if I can help.
Burn1

 

[dikaiosune]

hey burn, thanks for the quick reply

So, should I not use the teas in combination with the dry mix? Is this going to be over-nutrified? Also, the mix uses Liquid Karma, which I couldn't find around my area, is this going to adversely affect things?

I like your sig, but I'm a bit confused, I've got the tea brewing right now with just worm castings and molasses, should I only water with that? Or should I do it every few as the compost tea guide suggests. Would the plants like it if I supplemented the dry mix with the compost tea as a foliar spray instead of direct watering?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[BurnOne]

dikaiosune-
Let me see if I can make this eaiser for ya...

Follow this recipe EXACTLY.
First, make your soil mix...

LC’s Soiless Mix #1:
5 parts Canadian Spaghnam Peat
3 parts perlite
2 parts wormcastings
Powdered (NOT PELLETIZED) dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of the soiless mix.

If you use a 3 qt. saucepan as “parts” in the amounts given above, it equals about 1 cu. ft. of soiless mix and you can just dump in a cup of powdered dolomite lime.
But, a "part" can be anything from a tablespoon to a five gallon bucket. Just use the same item for all of the "parts".

You can put your seedlings in that mix for their first two weeks of life. Water if needed with the worm casting tea and molasses you mentioned.

------------------------------------------------
Now go ahead and make enough mix to fill a three gallon nursery pot for each of your seedlings. Add these dry ingredients to the LC's Mix you made for the three gallon pots...

RECIPE #1
1 tablespoon blood meal per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
2 tablespoons bone meal per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
1-tablespoon kelp meal per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of soil mix
1 tablespoon per gallon or 1/2 cup per cubic foot of Jersey Greensand to supplement the K (potasium) in the Kelp Meal.

Mix all the dry ferts into the soiless mix well and wet it, but don't soak it with worm casting tea (1 cup worm castings and 5 tbs. molasses in 5 gallons of water). Stir and mix it a few times a week for a week or two so the bacteria can get oxygen and break down the bone meal and make it available. And don't let the mix dry out, keep it moist and add water as needed.

By the time this is ready (about two weeks) your seedlings will be ready to transplant into it. One seedling into each three gallon pot of LC's Mix with the blood/bone/kelp mixed in as directed. All you need to do is water with worm casting tea with molasses until harvest.

You'll need to grow the plants until you can determine their sex. Shitcan the males and reuse their soil on the next round. Works even better if you took cuttings. After your cuttings root, you can keep the mothers in the blood/bone/kelp mix. Or, go ahead and flower the clones. Lots of options there.

Burn1

 

[dikaiosune]

Awesome. Thanks for the help burn.

 

[maryj315]

Good post BURN1 plain lcs mix rocks on seedlings just put them in cups use plain water and watch them grow

Have a nice day