Third Round Recycled Soil Help

[tr1ck_]

Hello, this will be my third round on this soil. Let me start off by letting you know how I got to where it is now.

I started with (20 gallons):

3 parts Fox Farm Ocean Forest
1 parts perlite
1 parts earthworm castings

2 tablespoons Dolomite Lime per gallon
1 tablespoon Blood meal per gallon
2 tablespoons Bone meal per gallon
1 tablespoon kelp meal per gallon

This grow went amazing start to finish. It was some of the best bud I have smoked to date. After this grow I removed the main root ball, and then added about 5-10% fresh worm castings and then following amendments (1/2 original strength).

1 tablespoons Dolomite Lime per gallon
1/2 tablespoon Blood meal per gallon
1 tablespoons Bone meal per gallon
1/2 tablespoon kelp meal per gallon
1 tablespoon Glacial Rock Dust per gallon (Newly added this round)

I only let the soil cook for a week or two this time. My plants had some problems in veg. They stayed green but essentially halted vertical growth but kept spitting out new leaves. It ended up slowing down my veg by about 2 weeks. However the plants flowered perfectly and showed a lot of color at the end so I believe the amendments were the right strength (Minus the short cook) I assume the problems in veg were either due to a PH problem, or more likely due to lack of cooking the soil.

After this grow was finished, I removed the roots as much as possible. And put all of the soil in a large Rubbermaid, and now it has been sitting dried out in the closet for about 6 months.


I am now down to about 15 gallons of soil, and I need to get back up to 20-25 gallons. I have purchased another bag of FFoF as well as a bag of Happy Frog. I am wondering how much of the original amendments I should add. Also how much of the following new goodies that I have purchased should I add.

Original Amendments:
Blood Meal
Bone Meal
Kelp Meal
Dolomite Lime
Glacial Rock Dust (I only put 1tbs/gallon last time, so I know I need more rock dust)

New Amendments:
Down To Earth Crab Meal
Down To Earth Neem Seed Meal
Down To Earth Granular Humic Acid
Down To Earth Granular Azomite
Down To Earth Greensand
Soft Rock Phoshphate
Diatomaceous Earth

I also setup 2 worm bins that are now about 6 months old and I can harvest as much worm casting as needed.

The plan is to mix the soil up, get it to the proper moisture level, brew up some EWC/Kelp tea and inoculate the soil and then cook it for 3-4 weeks.

 

[pine boy]

Hey trick,your soil should be getting better and better.I will caution you that blood meal is very strong and I would not personally be re ammending my soil with it every run.I suggest you use guanos for a N suppliment in a nutrient tea or just top dress with a small ammount .
If you can keep your soil outside, add your extra teas,water and castings to it to keep it moist and living.My understanding is that if the soil dries,the bugs die..bugs being microbes
Tell us about your water habits.It looks like you could water only for the most part.Do you ph your water? Are you on city water? Some citys start adding differant things as the summer heats up.My city adds cloramine and the ph is like a 9 in the summer,less right now.I dont water my plant with fresh water.
Good luck with your soil trick

 

[tr1ck_]

My city has both Chloramine along with water that is usually above 500tds.

Due to this I run a R/O filter so my water is always 0-5 ppm.

Due to this I add botanicare calmag+ to the water each time. Otherwise I use tea's throughout the grow.

Mainly I guess I am wondering how much of the crab/neem/ rock dusts I should add. I sort of assumed I wouldn't need anymore bone/blood but I wasn't sure about kelp.

 

[mad librettist]

I think you may have over limed it

I would have skipped the 2nd lime application and the cal/mag in the water.


This is all very different f4om how I recycle soil, which involves not disturbing things with mixing.

 

[tr1ck_]

I think you may have over limed it

I would have skipped the 2nd lime application and the cal/mag in the water.


This is all very different f4om how I recycle soil, which involves not disturbing things with mixing.

So I will skip definitely the bone/blood/lime this time.

How much of the various rock dusts (Azomite/Rock Phosphate/GreenSand/Diamoaceous Earth) and the neem/crab meal should I mix in when I am adding about 5gallons of FFoF and 2-4 gallons of EWC to the 15 gallons of used soil.

Would adding any more kelp meal or adding some of the humic acid at a low rate be worthwhile?

I also need to use the cal/mag. Or I always get cal/mag deficiency. I have found that it works best when using the RO/DI water to add a little bit of calmag around 2-3ml/gallon to get it up to 75-100ppm on my TDS meter instead of 0-5. This is till much lower than any tap water I have ever come tested.

 

[Corpsey]

ok let me start by showing you where im at... I have 2 sets of soils, but they are the same amounts, I just finished a 2nd cycled soil. So im just about to re-amend for a 3rd time(where you are)


---------------------------------------
First Cycle:

11 cubic feet of base soil
Peat 27%
Compost 22%
Pumice 12%
Rice Hulls 9%
EWC 30%

Blood meal ½ cup per cf =5.5 cups
Bone meal 1 cup per cf =11 cups
Kelp meal ¾ cup per cf =8.25 cups
Neem cake ½ cup per cf =5.5 cups
Alfalfa meal ½ cup per cf =5.5 cups
Dololime 1 cup per cf =11 cups
Rock dust ½ cup per cf =5.5 cups
Azomite ¾ cup per cf =8.25 cups
---------------------------------------
Second Cycle added:

Promix 60 cups =1/2 CF
Compost 8 cups
Rice Hulls 28 cups = about 1/4 CF
EWC 28 cups =about 1/4 CF

Fish meal= 2.5 cups
Fish bone meal= 2.5 cups
Crab meal = 4.5 cups
dolomite lime = 2 cups
Kelp meal = 2 cups
Neem cake = 2 cups
---------------------------------------

Notes on soil above: 1st cycle was a bit heavy as you can see 30% EWC and 22% Compost. they still did good, made it through 2 month veg + 10WK flower. if it wasn't for heat+ light stress that would of been my best grow, so easy with the soil just water with R/O + 2 tsp a Gal Molasses and the occasional(1-3times a month) fish hydrolysate(only in veg), aloe vera juice and pro-tekt. last 2 weeks just water.

2nd cycle i decided to start adding diversity and found that most of my conclusions were correct from reading this thread by capt.cheese1 https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=153542.
This one went even smoother. just solid plants. I never have issues in flower like i used to at weeks 4-6.
this is one i just finished up in that soil 2month veg and 10 wk flower and they were just a pleasure to grow.

soo..... to answer your questions..

go light on the amending. ditch the cal mag+ and use unsulphured molasses. try supplementing in veg with teas, or fish hydrolysate/seaweed foliar.
about FFOF, remember it is pre limed, as was my promix on re-amending. but not my peat i started out with. just plain ol peat moss sphagnum. try to get some of that, i always had problems with foxfarm soil. bugs and such.

sorry that was long. its no simple answer, but the good ones never are.


oh and i forgot, here are some tools on the web that help me making mixes
calculating CF,cups,gallons, etc. http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/volume-units-converter-d_1034.html
calculating percentages http://www.onlineconversion.com/percentcalc.htm

 

[tr1ck_]

After reading everything I have tentatively decided on the following:

First off I will cut out calmag and just use molasses with watering.

Then I will be taking my ~16 gallons of soil and adding:
FFoF: 4 Gallons
EWC: 2 Gallons
This should put me at ~22 gallons.

I will the be adding the following minerals:

.75 tbs/gallon Azomite
.75 tbs/gallon Soft Rock Phosphate
.75 tbs/gallon Greensand
1.5 tbs/gallon Glacial Rock Dust
This puts me at the recommend minerals according to CC.

I will then be adding the following meals

.25 tbs/gallon Kelp meal
1 tbs/gallon Crab meal
1 tbs/gallon Neem cake

Does anyone see anything wrong with this?

I am still not sure if I should add any of the Diatomaceous Earth, or Granular Humic Acid though. Thinking potentially .75tbs/gallon DE and .5tbs/gallon Humic Acid

 

[SupraSPL]

Good call scrapping the dolomite. I always reamend with some but it is the smallest amendment on my list (1ml/L). You have the right idea adding calmag to bring the r/o water up to about 100ppm but if you feel like you have too much dolomite in there at the moment plain R/O should do fine.

I add raw humates at 2ml/L every cycle. The instructions call for 8ml/L (dr soil). I add DE occasionally, it holds up very well. Hopefully it adds a bit of silica.

 

[wantaknow]

simply take it out side and flush well with garden hose ,a couple of times at least 24 hours appart ,its good to reuse i have for some time usings subcool supersoil mix plus some other additives and i do put bone and blood meal in lime ,too ,seabird and bat quano both ,epsom salt is a must add each time also ,but i do flush it well befor planting in it ,it seams to key to a successful low maintaince grow

 

[wantaknow]

p.s. use unsulfered molasas,it gets stinky quick if you dont

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

Hey man, just wanted to give you a quick word on Botanicare's Cal/Mag+. It contains EDTA. EDTA is classified as a persistent organic pollutant. It is not organic. It will harm microlife. The Rev (from Skunk Mag) used it by mistake and it really hurt his veg plants. It is cytotoxic as well as being genotoxic.

GO makes an organic cal/mag supplement. Then again, so does Mother Nature, it's called molasses.

 

[Desert Dan]

yourcorpse,

Could you repost that link? It seems to be invalid...

Thanks
DD

 

[Gascanastan]

yourcorpse,

Could you repost that link? It seems to be invalid...

Thanks
DD

...for now anyway,not sure if it's lost or not. Questions?...hit me I know CC1.

 

[vonforne]

...for now anyway,not sure if it's lost or not. Questions?...hit me I know CC1.

What do you want me to hit you with?

 

[Gascanastan]

What do you want me to hit you with?

Bong me with the hit.....is this thing on? Luv ya V~

I can do my best to relay the questions to CC1 and/or explain everything the guy has taught me about recycling and re-amending soil...if I CAN.

 

[SeaMaiden]

What do you want me to hit you with?

You can hit me with your rhythm stick.

 

[Desert Dan]

Regarding the link to CC1's thread... I was wondering what you meant by diversity? Different ammendments containing varying amounts of the same nutrients? Like Alfalfa meal, ewc, and blood meal for nitrogen sources? Just trying to learn something new...

Thanks,
DD

 

[vonforne]

You can hit me with your rhythm stick.

Anytime Sea.

 

[Gascanastan]

Regarding the link to CC1's thread... I was wondering what you meant by diversity? Different ammendments containing varying amounts of the same nutrients? Like Alfalfa meal, ewc, and blood meal for nitrogen sources? Just trying to learn something new...

Thanks,
DD

The diversity we speak of includes not only the various forms of amendments and their different release and decomposition rates,but also the diversity in the life forms that populate the soil itself.

By adding local topsoils,compost,EWC,forest litter,leaf litter,etc we are insuring that the balance between life forms remains healthy. Much like reintroducing wolfs back into Yellowstone to take out the weak and diseased species. Not only that,but adding material from different locations introduces soil organisms that would otherwise never make it into your soil.

Potworms,blind soil thrips,soil mites,etc.....all good guys that aid in breaking down organic matter into usable forms for micro organisms and the next phase of that particular nutrient or amendment.

If that helps....

 

[schwagg]

After reading everything I have tentatively decided on the following:

First off I will cut out calmag and just use molasses with watering.

Then I will be taking my ~16 gallons of soil and adding:
FFoF: 4 Gallons
EWC: 2 Gallons
This should put me at ~22 gallons.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this?

your minerals and meals look good but why add more FFOF when you could add some compost instead? that prebagged stuff is nothing compared to some EWC or Compost.