dr earths soil, advice on my mix if you please...

[captinknots]

hey guys. ive read a bunch on here and appreciate all your info! ive been growing a couple years with chems and just strated trying to get down organics. my first run with organics i fucked up because i fed them with guano tea as per directions of the guano co. bad news. burnt the fuck out of them! plants were stunted, burnt and didnt recover any rapid growth. the buds came out really good tho, smelly, and dank in all ways but pretty fucking small!! after harvest i checked the roots and there were none, for the most part. so im starting over and trying again. anyway i wanted to bounce my mix off you guys and see if you could offer any advice.
dr earths soil
blood and bone meal, dr earth
dolomite lime
greensand
ewc
perlite
4-4-4 all purpose fert, garden and bloom

per 1.5 cuft bag of soil its 1 cup of meals,fert and greensand, 2 cups lime. 1cuft of ewc and a little less then that of perlite.

i have tons of shit in my arsenal besides all that too. im just trying to be a little more cautious with my mix. i overwhelm my self often...
budswell 0-7-0
peru guano 10-10-2
indo guano
mex guano
fish emulsion
dry seaweed extract
liquid seaweed extract
fish meal
kelp meal
alfalfa meal
shits cheap at $7-10 a bag! lol compared to those chems....


im sure i didnt let my shit cook long enough before, then when i saw no growth i started hitting them with guano and bacterial teas. the entire cycle looked like shit,but like i said above, the buds looked good. just a really small harvest that i cant really afford to have.

is two weeks long enough to cook soil? and with the mix im using would you add any of the other shit i have?

im hoping to just add water when they need and to add bacterial teas like once a month.

think that will work?

 

[captinknots]

by the way, even with my meager yield i find great promise in organics! these buds tasted so good directly after harvest with no curing time needed!! better then any of the chem stuff i ever harvested!

 

[NSPB]

Organic will produce a superior product, IN MY OPINION. (that's a big can of worms for some, but that's why we're in the organic forum)

I will also say, there is ZERO difference in yields when growing organically compared to chemically. If your soil is properly amended your yields will be just as good, if not BETTER. Now, if you want to talk yields in hydroponics versus soil, well, I can't argue that one. I like the flavor and terpene profiles of my flowers much better when grown in soil...

On a side note, if you are simply using the ingredients listed, there is a very guide to amending your soil here:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792

This was more or less the starting point for me when I first learned to use organic amendments many years ago...



NSPB

 

[captinknots]

thanks bro

 

[pearlemae]

I prefer the smoothness of organic, what I grow doesn't make you cough and its not harsh on the throat. I use a mix of:

1 block coarse coco makes 2 cuft when wet
1 block fine coco same as above
1 cuft EWC
1lb or so blood meal
1 lb or so Kelp meal
8 qts vermiculite
8qts perlite
hand full 0-12-0 guano
myco inoculent
couple hands full prilled lime, it works faster cause its prilled,
Mix it all together in my wheel barrow let it age for week or so check the PH and go for it.
I only feed guano tea while flowering and molasses every so often as a foliar spry, and as tea when in flower.
Pics from 3 different runs all organic no chem ferts.

 

[schwagg]

sounds like a decent mix, maybe drop the 4-4-4. isn't the dr earth soil already loaded with some stuff? soma talked about loving to water in the budswell with an organic mix.

compost would be a great addition!

 

[captinknots]

dr earth is pretty hot. chicken manure, bat guano, kelp, and some other shit too i believe. im letting this batch of soil cook for a while, like 2 month or more. going back to what i know. good soil, a little perlite, dolomite lime, roots organic grow, bloom, and trinity. Already looking great. I went all in like a dummy with this last batch and fucked myself buy putting em all in the same soil. itll get me buy, im not ruined by any means, but i guess i underestimated supersoil mixes.... glad to be back to basics to be honest. ill hit you guys up when i test the cooked soil mix on like 4 plants instead of 40 lol

 

[grapeman]

NSPB has good advice on the link he provided. Lots of organic folks there willing to dole out good advice if you post there.

 

[VerdantGreen]

perhaps you should start with raw soil ingredients like peat, topsoil etc rather than taking what sounds like a fairly hot bagged soil and then adding even more ferts to it.

 

[NSPB]

I honestly think, if I was purchasing a pre-mixed "hot" soil, I'd really not be trying to amend it much further without really cutting it down first. By cutting it down, I mean, adding to it other mediums (peat, coir, perlite, EWC...) that have little to no nutrient profile. If not, using such a hot soil, and then adding more nutrients to it, you are likely going to burn your plants a bit.

If just using the Dr. Earth's as a medium....I'd only really look to feed further by using different teas as necessary. This would be determined by how the plant is behaving and growing and by paying very close attention to what it is telling you it needs. (yes, they talk...but only if you learn to listen) Thus the reason I referred you back to that particular thread, as it offers excellent starting recipes for just those getting involved with organic teas.

My perfect base soil medium is pretty much completely void of any nutrients. (with the exception of what the EWC adds). I prefer this so I know EXACTLY what is in the soil, at EXACTLY what concentrations and I KNOW if there is an issue, it is something I did and therefore something I can fix or adjust.

Soil Mix:

4 gallons local organic potting soil (no base nutrient value)
1.5 gallons peat
1.5 gallons coir
3 gallons perlite
1 gallon EWC

Now this base soil mix can be amended thousands of different ways...



NSPB

 

[NSPB]

One of the best gardeners here on ICm in my opinion, uses one of the most annoyingly simple blends I have ever heard of. However, his threads and final results speak very clearly for themselves.

thanks guys.

same mix for veg and flower.

1/2 bail of promix bx
1 bag fox farm ocean forest
1 cup dolomite lime
1 cup organic blood meal (using miracle grow organic)
1 cup organic bone meal (using miracle grow organic)
started using 1-2 cup of earth worm casings
some added perlite (about 10% of the total mix)

thats it. i just water. mix works great for almost everything i grew out. some strains need some extra calmag but not many (mostly chem or og related stuff).

Notice, if you read my posts through out this sub-forum, you can make note I am a HUGE proponent of mixes that will support and feed your garden from start to finish. Also, as I was commenting on, make note of how he uses a store bought pre-fertilized soil (FFOF) and before amending it any further, cuts it down with a 1/2 bale of Promix Bx. This is what I was talking about...



NSPB

 

[captinknots]

thanks N. what kind of potting soil can you find with no nute value?

"My perfect base soil medium is pretty much completely void of any nutrients"

 

[NSPB]

really...you just have to look around. It is not something sold as "top soil". The best I have found to date, is truly something that is produced only locally. It is an "organic potting soil". Such things are common ANYWHERE...can be found at lowes, home depot, ace hardware, any feed store...and honestly, all it consists of is local earth...and FAR too little perlite. Your ONLY real goal in searching out such a product, is CONSISTENCY. Find the product that is the MOST consistent EVERY time you purchase it. If such a local soil product does not exist, work with what you have, and take the information and advice provided to you in this thread, to make the most educated and rational decision you possibly can.



This is actually what I use in my soil mix. I buy it from Lowes for just under $2 a bag.

4 gallons soil
1.5 gallons coir
1.5 gallons peat
3 gallons perlite
1 gallon EWC

This makes my base soil mix, and with the exception of the EWC, it is void of any nutrient profile. The key for me was finding that particular soil, as it is organic and always has very consistent quality.



NSPB

 

[captinknots]

so if it doesnt have an NPK rating.... it has no NPK?

 

[schwagg]

home depot sells a compressed 2.2 cuft bale of lakeland organic potting soil. it's a big white block with a picture of red flower or rose or something. it has very little if any npk in it. very good starting point. to that i added a cu ft of good compost, cu ft of EWC, perlite, pumice, and all my dry ferts. i can run on just water and a little molasses.

why buy any more soil though? run your dr earth and then amend it. you could just start adding a decent compost to what you already have. unless you simply want more soil to have on hand.

 

[NSPB]

so if it doesnt have an NPK rating.... it has no NPK?

Not necessarily. But, when you find a product that does not have any sort of rating, the next thing you should do is locate the source manufacturer and start asking questions. I probably should not say there are NO nutrients in the soil, but rather what is there, is negligible...simply for the sake of making the most accurate statement.



NSPB

 

[captinknots]

I emailed the company and the owner said that the NPK is negligible. less then 1% of each. he also said not to add any liming or acidifying agents because the mix is properly blended with peat and woody materials (fur bark and others)which are acidic, with the compost that is alkeline. This is supposed to achieve a proper ph.

I added dolomite and perlite to this mix before using.... i think that may have bumped my ph way to high.....

 

[captinknots]

Pics of problem im having with new mix

Pics of problem im having with new mix

smallest one is burnt somehow....all my rooted clones are burnt right now. even in a soil mix of less then 1-1-1.

the other pics are 2 week old transplants from clone of blackberry kush.
started good the first few days then quickly stopped growing and started to wilt and yellow.