Getting ready to make soil mix, any thoughts?

[Clackamas Coot]

haha, nope. i know that pots do not hold what they are sold/labeled as. so i do see where you are going with this..

go on

Well - actually it gets worse. Hard to believe, eh?

Now a 'standard' lipped nursery pot (the official size actually) from a couple of suppliers come in at .75 gallons for a #1 pot.

Well you're thinking, ol' Clackamas Coot is balking about nothing - a #1 nursery pot (ONLY from a specific manufacturer) is 3/4 of a gallon. What's the big f*cking deal?"

Well - let's go back to the bag of potting soil. While the bag reads something like "1 c.f." or whatever. BUT - in the shipping and distribution of this product things kinda got f*cked up. The bag that you bought was at the bottom of the pallet that arrived at you local grow store - no ill intent. Nothing about trying to screw a customer - but the bottom line is that your soil was 'compressed' and now we're not looking at 7.48 gallons to the 1 c.f. that appears on the bag - we're probably down to 6.4

Let's go back to the pots - so a #1 pot is .75 gallons - fair enough.

So you would think that a #2 pot would be 1.5 gallons, eh? Wrong - a #2 pot (again depending on the manufacturer) can be anything between (legally) 1.4 to 1.8 gallons.

Fun stuff, eh?

After my little battle with fun and stupidity here's the real answer - when figuring the amount of potting soil needed for a project, using 7 gallons to 1 c.f. is the deal with professional horticulture growers. You'll ALWAYS be off for the moronic reasons that I outlined above.

But the '7 gallons to 1 c.f.' is a safe and practical number to work with.

HTH

CC

 

[Corpsey]

yowzer! haha.

thank you for taking the time to explain this, it does help.

this next run i am planning to use 2gallon grow bags(another issue, haha) then up pot to 5gallon orange homede pot buckets, with no intention of filling it up with 5 gallons of mix. so with this info i should be on track.

sorry if i sidetracked this thread at all. interested in how your mix goes bullfrog!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

My "prick" answer would have been something like this.........

So how many gallons are in a cubic foot, CC?

"Whatever you want it to be - and then some - pick a number and I'll agree!"

 

[Corpsey]

well, im glad i got the first answer then, haha.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Good thing you didn't have my cell number and called me at the "CI' (Coney Island Tavern - I've actually taken trash to better establishments) as my answer would have been clouded by several 'pounders' of a local microbrew with an answer along these lines: "F*ck it. Buy a pallet of bags and get back to me! I'm pretty curious myself!

Or worse.......

CC

 

[Bullfrog44]

sorry if i sidetracked this thread at all. interested in how your mix goes bullfrog!

Everything you guys have been talking about has been very helpful. No need to appologize at all, I am glad you guys are educating me.

CC - I knew that soil varied, just didn't know that bad. The last bag of fox farm I bought felt light, then I got it home and it was soaking wet. They must of shorted me 2 gal on that bag.

 

[Bullfrog44]

Ok, every time I post up my mix I forget a part of it. I just wanted to post the final mix, I am going to pre-order all my soil tomorrow. I have a feeling with all the extra help, this year will be a great year. I hope others can also take advantage of this mix. Way better than throwing your plants in some Miracle Grow.

Base soil will be Roots Organics. My "SuperSoil" mix is a concentrated mix that will be added to the bottom half of my containers. The top half with be the base (roots organics) and the plants will grow into the bottom as they need the nutes. My "SuperSoil" mix is........

8 bags of Roots Organics green bag. (12 cubic feet, but really more like 10.5)

1 cubic foot of earth worm castings. Or 50 lbs
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
3/4 cup Epsom salts
1 cup sweet dolomite (lime)
1/2 cup azomite
2 tbsp powdered humic acid
8 cup alfalfa
8 cup kelp meal
1.5 cubic feet of Pumice.

 

[Bullfrog44]

Now that I have that out of the way, anybody want to give me some advice on amending some soil?

I am consulting on a outdoor grow and the grower wants to use the natural dirt on his south facing hillside. The dirt I must admit seems good. All the plants are lush and green around his hillside. Even if the soil is good natural soil, I would imagine it would need amending. Would the above mix work with the natural soil in question? Or should I go to my local supply house and get a yard of compost and mix that in with a tiller. The end product will be 100 gal smart pots, just not sure what the best route would be.

 

[FreedomFarmer]

Definitely do some tests to determine how well the soil naturally drains, at least thats one thing i would be checking out. I highly doubt the native soil is going to have the drainage capabilities of the roots, which is pretty airy. If you even wanted to get techy you could take a sample to the local extension service at the university and get it tested.


Compost always helps with soil texture, however i wouldn't expect it to provide all the nutrition that those big ol' gals. Also, compost is only as good as what goes in it, and alot of the stuff you buy by the yard is landscaping scraps which can be of dubious quality........ that being said, if you have a couple of months, you can always brew up some nice compost on site if you build a really proper pile and maintain it....... just some thoughts for ya....

 

[Bullfrog44]

Thank you FreedomFarmer. I couldn't agree more with the fact that the soil won't drain well enough. I have been thinking about it and I think I should add everything from the list up above, but the Roots Organics soil. The only thing I will change is the amount of Pumice. I will be adding 40% Pumice to the mix.

Any other thoughts people?

 

[Bullfrog44]

So, I went to the hydro store and ordered everything I needed. Got some really good prices on some, and just ok prices on others. The only thing my store didn't have was Pumice. They could order it but it sounded like a pain in the butt, so I decided to go with Organic Rice Hulls at the same ratio.

The rice hulls come in a 4 cubic feet bail and I was told it turns into 7 cubic feet. Should I cut the amount used or should I just go with it? Also, are Pumice and Organic Rice Hulls interchangeable?

 

[maryjanecares]

Howtha.....???

Howtha.....???

Ok so you have a LOAD of mixed composting soil awaiting use. how are you mixing that much and how are you turning the soil?

 

[Bullfrog44]

I have access to a cement mixer, a cement truck, and I just bought a 12 cubic foot compost turner. I think I will use the compost turner at first, then the cement mixer. I doubt I will have to use the truck. I assume you are talking about my Supersoil mix and not my buddies grow.

 

[SubZero Hero]

This is a great thread man. some of you guys really know your information,I am impressed.

I have a question.I love the super soil idea and I know alot of people use it.I was wondering what the per container mix equals out to. I have very limited space and cant mix up a huge container of soil and let it cook.If I am using 3.5 gallon rose containers what is the ratio of ingrediants?If there is allready a thread that someone knows of where this is answered then please post a link.or maybe someone can help me figure out how to break it down It would be so awesome and the most helpful thing in the world to me right now.great thread again.

 

[FreedomFarmer]

So, I went to the hydro store and ordered everything I needed. Got some really good prices on some, and just ok prices on others. The only thing my store didn't have was Pumice. They could order it but it sounded like a pain in the butt, so I decided to go with Organic Rice Hulls at the same ratio.

The rice hulls come in a 4 cubic feet bail and I was told it turns into 7 cubic feet. Should I cut the amount used or should I just go with it? Also, are Pumice and Organic Rice Hulls interchangeable?

They will both provide aeration to your mix, however the pumice will be inert while the rice hulls will apparently eat up some available N during their decompisition. Also the pumice would stick around alot longer if you planned on recycling your soil. The rice hulls will release some sillica once they've broken down. I personally have only ever used them in large outdoor garden beds in the tropics where they were all we had available as aeration. It didn't seem to rob to much N there, but I don't know what the effect of using such high percentages as in indoor mixes would be......

My plan is to use them, but only as 1 part of my aeration, with pumice being the other.....you can always cut it with perlite too....

 

[FreedomFarmer]

This is a great thread man. some of you guys really know your information,I am impressed.

I have a question.I love the super soil idea and I know alot of people use it.I was wondering what the per container mix equals out to. I have very limited space and cant mix up a huge container of soil and let it cook.If I am using 3.5 gallon rose containers what is the ratio of ingrediants?If there is allready a thread that someone knows of where this is answered then please post a link.or maybe someone can help me figure out how to break it down It would be so awesome and the most helpful thing in the world to me right now.great thread again.

IIRC, the subcool instructions say anywhere from 25% of total soil all the way up to 70 or so. What seems to be a little tricky for you is container size, as I have noticed that it is difficult to cram a higher percentage of supersoil in a container, even with 7 gallons, without bumping into the new transplants roots, which you are supposed to make a little buffer zone for as not to burn them with the hot mix. Might work better for you to make your mix a bit less hot so that you can use it straight and then just do a light feeding schedule; compost teas, kelp, guanos, comfrey, whatever floats your boat really.