Thoughts on Promix soil?

[FunkDoctor]

anyone use the big bales of Pro Mix, BX I believe???

just wondering what the consensus was on this soil. I have heard it's ok as long as you add perlite

is their a higher quality, PH balanced soil that I need?

thanks

 

[xcrispi]

I use it w/o issues but I do ammend it
2 or 3 parts pro mix , 1 part pearlite , and 1 tblsp. hydrated lime per 1 gal. of mixed soil .
Crispi

 

[mjjj04]

love the stuff right from the bale. it already has lime in it so be careful when ammending. I do mix age old dry ferts with the mix.

 

[Miss Blunted]

We use Promix...have for a while now. I would definately do the promix, worm casting, lime and perlite recipe with microhyzae pellets.

But....we're switching to coco, tired of the mess.

 

[NorthernKronic]

Promix is bomb.. best soiless mix on the market bar-none.. They keep switching between making the BX with a biofungicide and innoculating with mychrohorizal.. Either way its the jam and I will rep it for a long time to come..

-N.Kron

 

[Perpetual]

waitwait what are mychorrizae pellets and where can i get those??


Oh, and I use and like promix as well, I use #4 which describes itself as being airier than some of the others.

 

[BurnOne]

LC's Soiless Mix #2:
6 parts Pro Mix BX or HP / Sunshine Mix (any flavor from #1 up)
2 parts perlite
2 parts earthworm castings
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".

Burn1

 

[Weedman Herb]

ProMix BX isn't soil ... I use it straight in soilless hydro (floranova) ... there's plenty of perlite in it. It has mychorrhizae and a light nute charge.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

ProMix is a professional 'blank soil' as it's called in the nursery stock trade. Those plants you see at HomeDepot and Loews in the spring? Those are grown by people like me.

ProMix is based in Eastern Canada and therefore pretty much has the Eastern US market covered. You'll see it on the West Coast occasionally at nursery suppliers but with shipping costs being what they are the pricing is not competitive to the OTHER huge Canadian soil company, i.e. Sun Gro Horticultural which is based in British Columbia on Canada's west coast with packing plants in several locations both in Canada as well as the US. Because Oregon is the 2nd largest producer of nursery stock (behind California) they have a packing plant a few miles up the road. They even allow small users like me to buy direct as long as I purchase a full pallet.

Most of you probably known or have heard of their various 'Sunshine Mix" which like ProMix and their product is a 'blank soil' - they're all some formula of either peat moss or coconut coir or both, one of the usual aeration products like pumice, perlite and vermiculite. Some will have 2 and in some cases they will have all 3.

Both products are 'PH adjusted' according to their advertising department BUT if you've ever seen a soil mixing plant you might take that with a grain of dolomite lime.

Here's a photo of a medium-sized mixing plant:

So when Fox Farm Fertilizer starts going off on some gibberish about 'pin-point proportioning' you might have a good laugh.

Both ProMix and Sun Gro Horticultural use #1 grade peat moss - unlike most of the 'grow store products' which do not. I know of one plant locally that does private-labeling packing for some regional soils so it's possible to buy enough raw materials to 'do your own thing' if that's your way to go.

Both companies have consumer products sold under various names - some better than others. Sun Gro Horticultural manufacturers the 'Black Gold' line of soils and I'm sure that ProMix also has similar product lines.

At the very least, these blank soils will give you the best chance you have of controlling the quality of your container soils. If you're going to go organic you will need to add either compost or earthworm castings. Or both. Whatever - there's a ton of opinions about what should and should not be included.

If you're going to go with chemical based nutrients then I'm sure you'll be buried in opinions on which one is the best or whatever.

You'll do well with ProMix as long as you understand that basically you're starting off with an inert strata - regardless of what appears on their packaging.

I add yucca extract as a wetting agent - something I learned from the Sun Gro Horticultural sales rep. Get a few drinks in him and he'd probably give me the whole exact formula - LOL

Best of luck. You've got a professional product you're starting with.

HTH

CC

EDIT: I didn't see BurnOne's posting about the LC Mix which will serve you very well. Personally I would add a couple of cups per 1 c.f. of a rock dust (Azomite is one that's available in most nursery centers) but others may disagree with that. Regardless, LC Mix is a good, solid organic mix.

 

[emmy75]

you don't need to buy promix. just buy a bale of peat and cook it with lime, castings, guano and kelp, molasses and azomite. do this and you will have a stress free grow.

throw in some nettle tea and you have a great "soil"

 

[FunkDoctor]

Thanks for the recipe Burn1

do you think it would be alright to add 1 tablespoon Fox Farm Peace of Mind 4-8-4 Fruit and Flower amendment per gallon of that?

sounds like if you add a mix of organic goodies to that mix you listed, that you have a perfect mix.

Would one have to add more lime if Fox Farm Peace of Mind was added? thoughts?

ingredients for Fox Farm Peace of Mind Fruit and Flower:

Feather Meal, Bone Meal, Hydrolyzed Fish, Fish Meal, Fish Bone Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Sulfate of Potash Magnesia, Blood Meal, Bat Guano, Rock Phosphate, Kelp Meal, and Gypsum. humic acid and mychorizae...

My plan: I am thinking of using LC's mixture above with Peace of Mind added. I will do this instead of buying Fox Farm Ocean Forest. should be close to same thing right?

thoughts?

 

[habeeb]

^ I like rare earth ( not sure exactly what pyrophillite mineral they use ) but I use it right now over any other rock dust as there must be mad amounts of silica in it, it's the only product I've seen that has instant results over night, turns floppy small weak stems into super giant stems.. ...

I have heard rice hulls have alot of silica in it, also sand , but not sure how fast sand brakes down in a container. considering how much of earth's crust is silica, I'm sure it's important to get silica to our plants

 

[Clackamas Coot]

habeeb

Rice hulls are a great addition to one's soil mix. It breaks down very slowly. Even in a worm bin it takes about 4 months because of the high level of lignin and opaline silica.

Rice hull ash contains as much as 60% silica so burning small amounts would be the best and easiest way to access the hull's silica content.

Rice hulls are also a great bedding material for a worm bin. They're usually pretty cheap - about $15.00 per 50-lb. bag which is about 3 c.f. or so. If you have a micro-brewery in your area, they can direct you to the source as hulls are used as a filter during one of the steps in making beer.

CC

 

[BurnOne]

FunkDoctor-
The recipes I use are in the sticky "Organics for Beginners" at the top of this forum. They have all been tested and proven many hundreds of times.
Burn1

 

[FunkDoctor]

thanks Burn1

the recipies seem a little hot. almost a cup total of Bat/Peruvian Sea guano per GALLON of soil?

almost a cup of Bloodmeal/Bone meal for the other mixture per gallon of soil?

seems like a cup of guano per gallon of soil would be WAYYYYYY to hot. plus guano drives down the PH of your soil incredibly. thoughts???? thanks!

just trying to fully understand this: so you are saying for a 3 gallon container of soil, I should be adding like 2-3 cups of bat/seabird guano???? seems like a lot, but you probably know more than I do!!!

 

[maryjohn]

I believe you misread the recipe. When I followed it i definitely did not add 1 cup per gallon of anything. And my shit's doing fine.

 

[FunkDoctor]

yeah I could be totally wrong. much respect to you and burn1. I just saw this as one of the ProMix recipes...

"Use all these items combined with one gallon of soil mix.
1/3C hi N Guano (Mexican Bat Guano)
1/2C hi P Guano (Jamaican or Indonesian Bat Guano)
1TBS Jersey Greensand
1TBS Kelp Meal"

so almost 1 cup of guano for a gallon of perlite/Promix soil mixture is not too hot?

I could be totally reading this wrong, I am baked! C means Cups right?

That would mean if you use 3 gallon buckets with Promix, too add almost 2.75 Cups of Guano per 3 gallon container???

 

[Guerilla Family]

PROMIX FOR ME

PROMIX FOR ME

I've been using Bales of Pro-Mix BX for years now.. I have a close friend that works at the local Farm & Garden Supply. He gives me all the busted up bags for next to nothing, not to mention throws in a free bag of promix from time to time.
Thats because he knows he will have a nice sample of the fruit come fall

I amend my pro-mix with Cow manure, Mushroom Compost, and feed with Fox Farms GROW BIG During veg. When Im ready for flowering in the fall I start the Flora Nova Series
I love my promix!
GFam

 

[FunkDoctor]

also, would that much guano affect PH and make it drop drastically as guano is pretty acidic? always thought you had to be careful overusing guanos because of acidity/ph drift?

possibly the lime added to the mix counterbalances the acidity?

would there be a cause for concern using TOO much lime or TOO much guano? thanks for replies, very curious as to these questions.

much love!

 

[barnyard]

technically, the wetting agents in both pro-mix and sunshine mix disqualify from a pure organic grow. Not that I'm that picky, just sayin'

these mixes are already pH neutral and don't require any lime to "adjust the pH". IMO, the lime only becomes necessary because the grower is over-fertilizing.