imputs and opinions on amending bagged soil

[FUCKINGROOVIN]

Hey guys what's goin on?
I had a buddy moving out of state give me (8) 1.5cu ft bags of soil. (2) Roots Original & (6) FFOF equaling 12cu ft total...I usually make my own mix with 50% peat/coco at a 1:1 ratio, 25%EWC 25% Chunky perlite as my base, which is further amended with ingredients listed below...The thing is I want to make use of these bags of soil.
Its going to be used as a FULLY outdoor mix. I'm using my base mix as of now for my plants that are about to go into 1 gallon pot under (2) 4ft/4lamp T5's on a 14/10 on off light sched. I will take and sex small cuttings from the ones that aren't fem seeds. It needs to be a hot mix which will make up the bottom 50% of my containers (I know a lot of people look down on layering but its worked for me the past 5yrs with no problems) plants will go outdoors on May 5th and will bring indoors if weather requires. Once roots are established, they will go to 7 gal and finish in 25-30 gallon containers. I will be using some teas (probably 3 times in veg and 3 times throughout flowering). Vermiculite is also added into my 7-30gallon container mixes for extra water retention due to summer temps.

I currently have on hand (would like to use what I have and not source anything new)

• (2) 3.8 cu ft bales peat
• (6) 5kg bricks of Botanicare coco
• (2) 4 cu ft bags of chunky perlite
• (1) 4 cu ft bag of vermiculite
• 125lbs of locally sourced EWC

Amendments on hand

• Down to earth- Greensand, 0-10-0 guano, feather/kelp/alfalfa meal, and humate soil conditioner
• all purpose 8-4-4 guano
• happy frog 5-5-5
• peace of mind 3-8-8
• Espoma- bio-tone, rock phosphate, gypsum
• Dr earth soft rock phosphate
• whitney farms bone meal(would rather use fishbone or alfalfa meal)
• 13-8-0 fish bone meal w/ 24% calcium (would prefer to use instead of regular bone)
• maxi-crop seaweed powder
• GO CaMg
• powdered Dolomite
• agricultural lime
• Pro-Manna oyster shell/coral mix
• blackstrap molasses
• fox farm big bloom

So if someone could help me further amend the 8 bags of soilmix listed above, I would greatly appreciate it (measurements listed by tbsp./cups per cu ft please)

 

[Granger2]

If you use the FF, keep an eye out for RA's. I wouldn't use it myself. Once you get them, you've got them and the grief, extra expense and crop loss they cause.-Good luck. -granger

 

[FUCKINGROOVIN]

Yea man i hear alot of ups and downs on roots and ffof but i thinkbalot of bug related issues are storage/sourcing related....i started some veggies in a 1gal pot of each and will put a sample on a slide here n a few weeks to see whats goin on in there...im hoping dankfrank,burnone,xmobotx or someone in that category will drop by with an imput

 

[Granger2]

Well regardless of the catagory you put me in, the first time I ever saw Root Aphids it was in an indoor pot of Happy Frog. Many others have observed the same in FF soils. RA's probably infest their facility, but it doesn't matter how they got in there, if you bring into you room, you're infested. Never heard that about Roots. Good luck. -granger

 

[tokersmoke]

Never had any issues with fox farm soil.Ive used it for at least 3 years no problems ever!!

 

[FUCKINGROOVIN]

Well regardless of the catagory you put me in, the first time I ever saw Root Aphids it was in an indoor pot of Happy Frog. Many others have observed the same in FF soils. RA's probably infest their facility, but it doesn't matter how they got in there, if you bring into you room, you're infested. Never heard that about Roots. Good luck. -granger

Man, I wasn't trying to disrespect you with my response, make you feel your opinion wasn't appreciated, and definitely wasn't trying to categorize you based on anything. I just noticed that when in comes to questions regarding ORGANIC soil mixes and needing a direct answer, those guys are always willing to spread their knowledge. (actually the only reason I put veggies in some of the soil I planned on using was to see if they would become deficient in anyway. That way I would at least have an idea if it was lacking anything or the opposite. Your comment gave me the inspiration to take a look through my scope to see if any pests were involved)

I do wonder though if someone growing indoors would be more prone to getting/harder time getting rid of/or controlling root aphids or other media dwelling pests than someone growing outdoors. Maybe mixing diatomaceous earth in the mix would be a good start?

 

[SpiderMite]

I suspect FFOF is where I got my RAs from as well. Really tough to control nevermind eradicate... Just did a dunk with SNS203, seems to have knocked them back.

 

[Granger2]

FGroovin,
I didn't really think you meant it that way. Just checking/half kidding. You're right about the folks you mentioned. Generally always good info coming from their direction.

I have no experience with RA's outdoors [not native to my area], but it seems to me that it would be harder to fight them in the ground, but their damage would be less significant. Guessing. Good luck. -granger

 

[FUCKINGROOVIN]

FGroovin,
I didn't really think you meant it that way. Just checking/half kidding. You're right about the folks you mentioned. Generally always good info coming from their direction.

I have no experience with RA's outdoors [not native to my area], but it seems to me that it would be harder to fight them in the ground, but their damage would be less significant. Guessing. Good luck. -granger

Yea man after you mentioned it, I REALLY started lookin into them and it seems if you get'em, you got'em and have to scrap everything and then the heavy cleaning begins...I see a lot of people on the west coast and PNW get them frequently. Im in NC and I DO GET REGULAR APHIDS. I believe they come from all of the roses I grow. Really the only pests I have problems with are whiteflies, mealybugs, and for some reason, the past 2 yrs DAMN CATERPILLARS! I mean I've gotten a lil bit of budrot before but nothing like when they crawl all up my buds and shat everywhere. My White Jones, Spacequeen F3's got hit hard this past year. I'm really gonna do some preventative maintenance this year w/ some neem oil all during veg and if I have to use bt and hell if that don't do it spinosad. It's just weird though how they can tear one or two strains up but like Hazeman's White Grapes and G13BX2, and a cross I did between the 3rd dimension X spacequeen F3 can be 3ft away and not even bother. I think certain terpenes repel pest.

 

[xmobotx]

both the roots original and FFOF are ready to use products w/ amendments already added. the premixed soils tend to be a little inconsistent. So that reports vary. Typically adding more amendments causes issues associated w/ over-amending though.

one option might be to use them as packaged or mixed & top-dress if you have under-fed plants

if you happened to have problems w/ root aphids, crab meal & neem seed meal would help to control them & be your preference for top dresses {i havent dealt w/ root aphids}

 

[IGROWMYOWN]

FFOF comes with all kinds of pests at least the so cal batches been using ogbiowar (all 3 powders sprinkled into the soil) and a semi top layer of st Gabriel's DE haven't seen a flyer since.

 

[FUCKINGROOVIN]

both the roots original and FFOF are ready to use products w/ amendments already added. the premixed soils tend to be a little inconsistent. So that reports vary. Typically adding more amendments causes issues associated w/ over-amending though.

one option might be to use them as packaged or mixed & top-dress if you have under-fed plants

if you happened to have problems w/ root aphids, crab meal & neem seed meal would help to control them & be your preference for top dresses {i havent dealt w/ root aphids}

thanks man,
when you speak of using the crab along with neem as a deterrent, your talking about chitin in the crab meal working against the pest?...I know a lot of people, including me have problems with skunks, raccoons, possums etc digging up plant from blood and bone meals, in your opinion how well is alfalfa as a substitute?