My first attempt with an organic soil recipe

[ganjfather27]

Hello, IC members!

I am soon to be starting my first all organic grow... I have read up on the basics and threw together a basic recipe.



I am going to need 42 gallons of soil for this grow. Any advice on any parts of the recipe or procedure would be greatly appreciated. As I said, this is my first experience with organic and there is a good chance that I don't know what I am doing



Also another thing to add, I am trying to keep things relatively inexpensive. I still want great organic soil, but I am being cautious of my budget.


Ok so lets get started. So far I haven't bought anything other than the Promix HP mycorrhizae, so anything can be changed at this base point.

*the recipe is for 1 cubic foot of soil, I will be scaling it up, obviously.

Base soil:
1.75 parts Promix HP (3.5 gallons)
1 part perlite (2 gallons)
1 part earth worm castings (2 gallons)

Nutrients:
1 part kelp meal (1 cup)
1.5 parts DR earth all purpose organic fertilizer OR tomato blend (not sure which to get, both seem pretty good) (1.5 cups)
.5 parts neem seed meal (.5 cups)

Minerals:
7.5 cups agricultural lime (I read 1 cup gallon of soil, seems high to me....)
4 cups rock dust

I plan on blending it all up and mixing into the promix, adding water til it is slightly damp, then letting it sit for 2-3 weeks before using.

A couple questions:
Does the temperature that it cooks at matter? right now my basement is around 55-60F, I was planning on letting it cook there.

Does it matter what the soil it cooking in? I was planning on buying a 50 gallon trash can and just putting the soil in there with the lid on.

Do my measurements look ideal? I am worried about there being too much lime.

Which of the DR earth products should I buy? Both the all purpose and the tomato nutes look great. I'm leaning more towards the all purpose but I'm not sure.


Thanks for any advice, feel free to tweak the recipe and let me know where I am going wrong or things I should expect. Again, I am a complete noob with this, but would like to get it right the first time

 

[ganjfather27]

Also, one thing I forgot to add is that I also have a couple boxes of dr earth soft rock phosphate and cottonseed meal already on hand that I would like to throw into the recipe.

 

[SpicySativa]

That mix looks good to me, with a couple comments...

The lime should be closer to 1 cup per cubic foot, not per gallon. Personally, I would go with something like 0.5 cup dolomite lime and 0.5 cup oyster shell per cubic foot of soil to bring the cal/mag more in balance (dolomite lime is rather high on Mg). That said, 1 cup of dolomite lime per gallon should do the job, just don't go any higher than that.

Depending on how much perlite is in that ProMix (never used it...), you may want to add a little less perlite and a little more worm castings and ProMix to reach your desired volume. 20-30 percent perlite in your finished mix is a good starting point; if the ProMix already contains some, adjust your recipe accordingly.

That may not end up being a "water only" mix, but if you apply a couple teas or a little fish hydrolysate you should be good to go.

 

[ganjfather27]

Awesome, thanks for the reply!

I will take your advice on the lime, It seemed like too much to me and the oyster shell is good idea.

If I did want to make it a water only mix, what items should I add to mix?

 

[SpicySativa]

It may just require a little more of the "all purpose" fertilizer blend.

Personally, I would recommend starting out with that mix as you have it. You can always top dress with additional worm castings or fertilizer if you start seeing deficiencies. Once you have completed a round with that soil, mix up a second batch using more fertilizer (if they showed deficiencies, or less if there was any burning (very unlikely with that mix).

At that point, you will have a new batch of soil going, plus 42 gallons of used soil ready to be recycled into EVEN BETTER soil for the next round.

 

[ganjfather27]

Awesome, I didn't really think about top dressing with teas. My original plan, before I realized a little bit about how organic growing works, was to use this recipe and then add some dyna-gro nutes as I felt needed to sweeten things up.

But that plan was tossed when I learned that the chemicals from the dyna-gro would kill the mycorrhizae in the soil and mess everything up.

Which of the DR earth fertilizers would be a better choice between the all purpose and the tomato formula? I know that typically nutes for tomatoes are great for marijuana, but I think the all purpose has a better looking ingredient list but I'm a rookie, so...

 

[SpicySativa]

I'd go with the "Tomato" version. I actually used that very same stuff in my outdoor veggie garden last year. It worked great.

Definitely avoid those chemical nutrients. If you start seeing deficiencies, just add a tablespoon of the Dr Earth and a couple handfuls of worm castings on top of each pot. Water it in with plain water or a compost tea, and you should be set.

 

[ganjfather27]

Thanks man, you've been a big help.



Can anybody answer these question though:
Does the temperature that it cooks at matter? right now my basement is around 55-60F, I was planning on letting it cook there.

Does it matter what the soil it cooking in? I was planning on buying a 50 gallon trash can and just putting the soil in there with the lid on.

Do my measurements look ideal? I am worried about there being too much lime.

 

[SpicySativa]

1-2 TBSP lime per gallon will do. No more than that.

That temp is fine, and the trash can idea is how I do it... In an unheated 55-60 degree basement. You're good to go.

 

[ganjfather27]

Well shoot looks like I did know what I was doing... much thanks for your help!