Thrown together soil - thoughts?

Alright, I decided to throw together an outdoor grow, mostly spur of the moment. I had some leftover stuff, and bought a few things locally.


Some portions probably downright suck, but I tried to use what I had and get dirt cooking quick. Please give thoughts.


48" X 14"ish holes.



BASE SOIL:

6 cubic feet sphagnum peat moss
2 cubic feet perlite
5 cubic feet of cow/horse composted manure
Roughly 1 cubic foot of native soil (sand)

1.5 Cups Dolomite Lime
4tbsp Humic Acid
2tbsp Endo Mycorrhizae
1.5tbsp Actinovate


NUTRIENT SOIL
3.5 Cups Bone Meal
1.5 Cups Blood Meal
1 Cup Kelp Meal
1 Cup FF Fruit & Flower and FF Bulb Food Mix
1/2 Cup Bloom Bat Guano
1/2 Cup Bloom Seabird Guano
1/2 Cup Greensand
1/2 Cup Epsom Salts
1/2 Cup Azomite
2 Cups Hardwood Ash
2 Cups Poultry Litter




What I've done is split my base soil in half, mixed my extra nutrients into one half, pour that into my hole, and then strictly use my base soil almost as a buffer soil. I figure I'm a light on some nutrients, hopefully my levels won't damage future growth.



Watered with 2gal of water w/ 2tbsp Liquid Karma, the entire grow area is covered with a black tarp to help speed the cooking process.



Please give constructive thoughts and opinions, I am thinking maybe a couple teas to get the ladies thru, but also hoping my lower layer doesn't burn the piss out of them early.


Thanks!

Once the inputs start to give off nutrients you should be ok. But that might take a while. There is a lot of compost in there so I would not say you are missing nutrients.
One problem I would worry about is wild animals digging or trying to get to your plant roots cause of the organic components in soil (they smell and attract all kind of animals). I have had this problem with way less animal derived ammendaments than you are using there. Found my holes empty and my plants missing (on 20% of the holes I planted, other ones were ok, luckly they were scattered around and not all in one place).
Good luck!

Good choice on hole dimensions, wider is better than deep. You have 105 gallons of soil roughly and only added 1.5 cups (24 tablespoons) of dolomite lime, its recommended to add 1 tablespoon dolomite lime per gallon of soil.

Ibechillin said:

Good choice on hole dimensions, wider is better than deep. You have 105 gallons of soil roughly and only added 1.5 cups (24 tablespoons) of dolomite lime, its recommended to add 1 tablespoon dolomite lime per gallon of soil.

Click to expand...

exploziv said:

Once the inputs start to give off nutrients you should be ok. But that might take a while. There is a lot of compost in there so I would not say you are missing nutrients.
One problem I would worry about is wild animals digging or trying to get to your plant roots cause of the organic components in soil (they smell and attract all kind of animals). I have had this problem with way less animal derived ammendaments than you are using there. Found my holes empty and my plants missing (on 20% of the holes I planted, other ones were ok, luckly they were scattered around and not all in one place).
Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thanks! Am hoping 2 guard dogs and a 9ft chain link fence solves the animals getting to them. Obviously bone and blood meal can definitely attract animals for sure.

Sorry about the goof up on reply. Am on my mobile.

@Ibechillin, i did spread 50lbs of lime on the area being worked ahead of time to hopefully help sweeten soil as well. But, do u think it would be a good idea to top dress my holes w/ more lime now then while the soil is cooking for the next few weeks? Also obviously didn't put a ton of pot ash in but I was hoping that would help buffer pH also.

I've done indoor for years and an outdoor plant here or there with good success, but this is honestly my first outdoor with any real size to it. Will be 24 ladies in this setup. Thanks!

The PH of the soil around your roots is what your aiming to keep buffered. I would add it to the holes as well since the plants roots are likely going to stay contained in the holes you dug. Im a big fan of the dolomite lime, helps takes alot of the guesswork and "what if" out of the grow (ph buffer and adds calcium and magnesium) and i can get 40lb bags of it for $3.

I have not used potash before as a buffering agent, so i cant be of much help, i try to speak from experience.

Ibechillin said:

The PH of the soil around your roots is what your aiming to keep buffered. I would add it to the holes as well since the plants roots are likely going to stay contained in the holes you dug. Im a big fan of the dolomite lime, helps takes alot of the guesswork and "what if" out of the grow (ph buffer and adds calcium and magnesium) and i can get 40lb bags of it for $3.

I have not used potash before as a buffering agent, so i cant be of much help, i try to speak from experience.

Click to expand...

Well, I added another cup of lime to each mix. Appreciate the opinions very much.



Holes are done, watered each w/ 2.5 gallons of water w/ Liquid Karma, and also added a handful of red worms to each hole.


We shall see!

If you really want to bring the soil to life fast you should try to give them an AACT, basically aerated compost tea, you can research on forum how to do it. Give the soil a nice drencing in that 1-2 times in early veg and your soil will come to life quickly.

exploziv said:

If you really want to bring the soil to life fast you should try to give them an AACT, basically aerated compost tea, you can research on forum how to do it. Give the soil a nice drencing in that 1-2 times in early veg and your soil will come to life quickly.

Click to expand...

We are actually brewing a tea right now in a 40gal plastic barrel to do an early soil drench 1-2 weeks before ladies go into the ground actually.

My indoor has always been organic but was a modified LC Mix for years, as I've used teas for that.

Thank you for the input, definitely doing that for sure.