P. Wubs Journey to Super Soil Land

Just want to use this thread to document my efforts in creating my own super soil mix. I want to customize and try different things and use some things from my backyard and local area. I will be trying out a bare bones mix with no amendments, just to see how far nature can get me. Then I will do some runs with amendments. I will continue to adjust improve and alter my mix recipe in versions, and do side by side runs with my control group of pro mix/pureblendpro plants. I will dedicate 25% of the # of plants to these tests every month on my perpetual bloom cycle. I want to achieve same growth rates/yields as soilless but with all the benefits of organic. All will be accurately documented as side by side with as little variables as possible.

Input feedback ideas welcome


P.Mix V1

- [x] 3 Parts Pro Mix HP (Recycled)
- [x] 3 Parts Compost
- [x] 2 Parts Expanded Clay Pellets
- [x] 2 Parts Vermiculite
- [x] 2 Parts Walnut Shells
- [x] 2 Parts Guinea Pig Bedding
- [x] 1 Parts Horse Manure
- [x] 1/2 Parts Charcoal

I ended up with a PH of 7.8 run off and very little small growth after 2 weeks. Version 1 = Failure

Charcoal and vermiculite is alkaline, as is woodash which was put in the compost at one point. Will add acidic ingredients next that reduce this to 6.5 range

P.Mix V2 (this was created before my conclusions of Mix1)

- [x] 3 Parts Pro Mix HP (Recycled)
- [x] 3 Parts Compost
- [x] 2 Parts Expanded Clay Pellets
- [x] 2 Parts Vermiculite
- [x] 1 Parts Cannabis Stems
- [x] 2 Parts Guinea Pig Bedding(20% Droppings 80% Pine Needles)
- [x] 1 Parts Horse Manure
- [x] 1/4 Parts Charcoal


I am now doing a PH Test of:

1)Recycled Pro Mix
2)Compost
3)P.Mix V1
4)P.Mix V2

From LEFT TO RIGHT
MIX 1, MIX 2, Compost, Pro MIX


Will post PH results tomorrow and create new recipe based on results

Link to my previous post detailing Mix 1.0 Test.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=344617

3 parts pro mix, 1 part compost, 1 part manure, .5 part char

Your last mix was over watered. If you would let it dry, you would be fine. Also those plants are in much too large of container. Your looking at 3 weeks plus before your roots take hold and you start seeing foliage growth.

Smaller containers, less water, by quite a bit. Too much water=no root searching. You should be able to pack a one gallon pot with roots in 10 days, if not, your watering too much.

The microbes in your soil need very little water to survive, the plant will droop before soil life begins to die.

RESULTS

RESULTS

Compost

PH - 8
PPM - 2980




PRO MIX HP (recycled)

PH 6.5
PPM 330



MIX V1

PH 7.8
PPM 410



MIX V2

Very interesting that the PH is substantially lower. I think this is due to the mix having pine needles in it as well as I used 50% less charcoal on this mix.

PH 7.2
PPM 450

DAY 14

DAY 14

MIX V2.1

MIX V2.1

VERSION 2.1
- [ ] 4 Parts Pro Mix HP
- [ ] 3 Parts Compost
- [ ] 3 Parts 10% Guinea Pig Dropping/ 90% Pine Needle Bedding
- [ ] 2 Parts Perlite
- [ ] 2 Parts Expanded Clay Pellets
- [ ] 2 Parts Vermiculite
- [ ] 2 Parts Cannabis Stems
- [ ] 2 Parts Horse Manure
- [ ] 1/4 Parts Charcoal

I have adjusted mix 2 and added:

2 parts Perlite
1 parts pro mix
1 parts guineapig dropping/pine needle bedding
1 Parts Horse Manure

This adds more porosity, and should reduce my ph to 6.5-7.0

growingcrazy said:

3 parts pro mix, 1 part compost, 1 part manure, .5 part char

Your last mix was over watered. If you would let it dry, you would be fine. Also those plants are in much too large of container. Your looking at 3 weeks plus before your roots take hold and you start seeing foliage growth.

Smaller containers, less water, by quite a bit. Too much water=no root searching. You should be able to pack a one gallon pot with roots in 10 days, if not, your watering too much.

The microbes in your soil need very little water to survive, the plant will droop before soil life begins to die.

Click to expand...

Hey Crazy, thanks for following along again over here.

I prefer the 1G pots because the 16 oz cups I find, I have to transplant not even 2 weeks later. They also dry out very fast towards the end of the 2 weeks, and get knocked over easily all the time. The mix tends to settle a lot after the first watering. You can see in the last pictures it is not a full 1G of soil in that pot, its about 2/3 full when its settled down after 2 waterings.

Having said all that, I will use 16 oz cups on todays transplant to soil mix 2.1, to ensure its not a possibility.

If you are set on 1 gallons, wet your mix and the squeeze out the excess. Add the moist mix to the container without compaction, add clone and slightly pack only the soil around the clone.

Don't water the pot for a week+. Only moisten the top layer of soil when it dries out. Maybe 15-25ml every couple days. After the first week, water and let all excess drip from the container. Roots should be visible in the bottom openings of your pot at this point.

At day 10-14, pop it out of the pot to check for how much room is left... transplant up in exact same manner as before when needed...

Air in your mix is fairly easy to manipulate as long as it isn't saturated in water.

looks interesting
ill sub

Strongly suggest you learn about Calcium. You don't have any in your mix. If you start with a Calcium deficiency, you can never recover. Ever.

That doesn't mean you can't grow a plant and get something reasonable. Just that if you are going to try and learn, read up on Calcium.

The slownickel lounge is a good place to start....

slownickel said:

Strongly suggest you learn about Calcium. You don't have any in your mix. If you start with a Calcium deficiency, you can never recover. Ever.

That doesn't mean you can't grow a plant and get something reasonable. Just that if you are going to try and learn, read up on Calcium.

The slownickel lounge is a good place to start....

Click to expand...

i would agree 100%

slownickel said:

Strongly suggest you learn about Calcium. You don't have any in your mix. If you start with a Calcium deficiency, you can never recover. Ever.

That doesn't mean you can't grow a plant and get something reasonable. Just that if you are going to try and learn, read up on Calcium.

The slownickel lounge is a good place to start....

Click to expand...

Thanks slownickel,

With this version of the mix, I wanted to see what a soil without amendments is capable of. I have high quality compost, and several manures that were the main source of nutrients. As well for calcium I have a water report for my city showing I have 138PPM of calcium in my water. If I water with this every watering, shouldn't that be plenty of calcium ?

With not enough base saturation of Ca, adding it at 138 ppm with water will not correct deficiency. Ca is one of the hardest elements for the plant to uptake other things push their way through easier through the roots on Ca, the only bandaid solution is foliar applications in that case or applying a gypsum slurry very thick on the soil and root zone trying to force feed calcium in but that is not a healthy or long term solution for the crop. I like your experiment as you are finding out where you want you mix, keep it up.

Calcium is the only element that if every deficient, you missed the boat. It is the only element from which if deficient, you can never recover.

What that means is that 99.9% of the folks never even come close to reaching the plants genetic potential. The guys that have learned that will tell you. If you want to read about results from growers, you will see it in the thread.... if you want to see growers that were confused and resisted yet have now come full circle, read the thread.

Base saturation of Ca in the soil should be 80 to 90% Ca to start, hopefully with a reasonable pH of 6.5 or so. That Ca number is very elusive due to the procedures that are used in soil analysis, again, read more about it in the thread...

what is the reason for using guinea pig bedding?

I would stay away from raw inputs like manure, droppings, pine needles, stems etc.
if you have lots of that stuff compost it for next year.

it looks like you also have some big chunks of woody materials in those pots, raw wood isn't good in a potting mix either.

your peat/compost/aeration mix resembles coot's mix,
consider using his amendments also like EWC, kelp, oyster shell, gypsum, minerals, and enzymes etc.

good luck! my plants have never been better since I've improved my organic inputs.

Had to cancel the experiment because it plants literally would not grow at all in any of these mixes.I will experiment later when I have had some success with a more basic and recommended mix. Everyone's comments really made me question my mixes I was trying to experiment with as far as all the woody sticks, and not having a calcium amendment. I have adjusted the mix accordingly. Thanks for the input guys.


Any feedback is appreciated, wanted to run it past you guys before mixing and letting it sit for 1 month. In the meantime, I have continued running pro mix with pure blend pro.

Super Duper Soil
1 Cubic Foot = 7 Gallons

BASE
[ ] 3G PRO MIX HP (Recycled) (30% Perlite)
[ ] 2G Perlite
[ ] 1G Compost
[ ] 1/3G Guineapig Droppings
[ ] 1/3G Horse Manure
[ ] 1/3G Earthworm Castings

AMMENDMENTS

[ ] 1 Cup Bonemeal
[ ] 1 Cup Kelp Meal
[ ] 1 Cup Oyster Shell
[ ] 1 Cup Dehydrated Molasses
[ ] 1/2 Cup Alfalfa Meal
[ ] 1/2 Cup Blood Meal
[ ] 1/2 Cup Glacial Rock Dust
[ ] 1/4 Cup Azomite