[BigBozat]

Originally Posted by Kozmo

It is a good read! Half way through. Mixing a proper soil for Sativa in flower is my goal. Remembering that these clones will be going straight into flower after show of growth. Also taking into account sativas low nitrogen needs and there development into buds is not only brought on by shoter light times but the depleted nutriants in the soil.

So, if it's specifically for sativas in flower, and you're looking to induce bud development viadepleted nutrients in the soil, avoid the high-N (esp. slow release) meals in favor of high-P meals/amendments...

Blood & feather meals out...

Bone meal + fish bone meal + rock dust/powder in...

Alfalfa & kelp meals always in, regardless...

Then you control how much N the plants get during flowring by your periodic fertigation/application of teas and any supplemental foliar spraying...

Speaking of foliar sprays, while it's way off-topic here, you might want to look into / experiment with some PGRs for flowering & bud set phase, e.g., jasmonates (e.g., Jaz rose spray), auxins (IAA) + ethylene/ethephon (auxins & ethylene interact to regulate growth), cytokinins (e.g., kinetin, which is in Bonide Tomata & Blossom Set Spray)... Whole 'nother topic in & of themselves & I'm no expert ('tho I'm experimenting)... search around (shaggyballs, spurr, verdant green, only ornamental & others have had some excellent threads around here)

[BigBozat]

2 more posts to go to get to 50...
Make it 1 more with this one, lol

[Ph-patrol]

Originally Posted by BigBozat

IDK if it's been posted elsewhere prev, but FWIW, here's 420 Soil's mix (in parens, their indicated purpose)...

They're a comml soil mfr in Portsmouth, NH, who claims the mix is 'just add water' specifically for comml cannabis croppers, full cycle... I'm not advocating, and am skeptical of the JAW claim... just offering as an idea generator for your org soil mix while I try to get 4 more posts done:

- 30% Coco Pith (Water retention & drainage)
- 30% Perlite (Air porosity)
- 5% Peat moss (Bulking agent & carbon source)
- 3% Horticultural Sand (Drainage)
- 3% Worm Castings (Soil conditioner)
- 3% Bio Char/Hort Charcoal (Carbon source, & soil amendment
- 3% Vermiculite (Water retention & drainage)
- 1% Humic Acids fr. Leonardite (May increase micronutrient uptake?)
[Doesn't add to 100%, so what's the remaining 22%? The ferts (below) + ??? (local dirt?)]

Also: Its 1-2-2 NPK (plus Cal, Mag, Sul & Fe (Iron)) is derived from:
Blood meal, Dolomotic limestone, Fish meal, Gypsum, Rock Phosphate, Sodium Nitrate, & Sulfate of Potash.


*****
Personally, I use fairly similar amts of coco, but add more peat, sand, EWC+humus (composted conifer bark, mushroom & Anc Forest <- u can use KIS Alask Humus instead), vermiculite, biochar, and a variety of trace mins (AZOMITE, rock dusts, etc)...

KIS has most of this stuff (incl below)...

And I add:
- greensand,
- alfalfa meal,
- kelp meal

... for heavy veg, I add:
- composted dairy cow manure (not necess & perhaps not even advisable),
- Plant-tone (cuz it hits so many diff meals in one, but that's me being lazy),
- crab meal

... if heavy P is needed, maybe a hi-P bat guano or fish bone meal or more soft rock phosphates...

In all cases, I inoculate/charge heavily with mycos (Glomus intraradices, Glomus mosseae) & bacteria (Azospirillum brasilense, which fixes nitrogen from the air; bacillus subtilis)... depends on whose samples I happen to have on hand... and humics... and AACT tea starters...

Great share

[BigBozat]

Originally Posted by Ph-patrol

Great share

Thanks... and ta-da, this should be 50! lol

Yeah, I was surprised a bit by 420 Soil's mix... way less EWC & peat than I tend to use and/or would have expected... I'm going to give them a call & see if they can give me some insight as to why.

I get that peat has compaction & acidity issues, but I would have assumed more peat just as filler, if nothing else... and the relatively low level of EWC strikes me as astonishing given their JAW claim... there's a missing 22% that I'd really like to know about...

[Kozmo]

Soil makeup:

Nutrient:, percentage:, lbs/acre@4tons/acre


Organic matter, 18.8%, 1504
Total nitrogen, .75%, 60
Phosphorous (P205), .27%, 21.6
Potassium (k20), .41%, 32.8
Calcium, 2.5%, 200
Sulfur, .015%, 1.19
Manesium, 1.05, 84
Zinc, .0046%, .37
Manganese, .0015%, 1.18
Boron, .0015%, .12

C/N ratio, 15.2

Ingredients: Leaves, woody material, vermicompost, rock and sea minerals.

That's all I could get out of them.

[Kozmo]

Heres what we've come up with basically. Open to any constructive criticism or the like.

Local organic soil

Nutrient:, percentage:, lbs/acre@4tons/acre


Organic matter, 18.8%, 1504
Total nitrogen, .75%, 60
Phosphorous (P205), .27%, 21.6
Potassium (k20), .41%, 32.8
Calcium, 2.5%, 200
Sulfur, .015%, 1.19
Magnesium, 1.05, 84
Zinc, .0046%, .37
Manganese, .0015%, 1.18
Boron, .0015%, .12

C/N ratio, 15.2

Ingredients: Leaves, woody material, vermicompost rock and sea minerals.

Thats all the info i could get from that local soil company.

Peat moss 1 cubic foot expanded
Coco coir 1 cubic foot
Chunky perlite 1 cubic foot
Local soil 1 cubic foot
EWC .5 cubic foot

Next, we turn to other soil conditioners, texturizers & miscellaneous amendments both for mineral diversity and water retention/drainage balance:

Bio Char .5 cubic foot
Vermiculite .333 cubic foot
Pumice .5 cubic foot

6 cups Glacial rock dust
5 cups greensand
1.5 lbs.'s of Azomite
Gypsum(not sure how much to use)
6 cups Dolomitic limestone

Then we turn to the fertilizers that will provide the primary & secondary macro nutes, preferably in amounts that will deplete N well b4 the last couple weeks. I want this to signal flowering for sativa dominant genes.

36 oz. Alfalfa meal
36 oz. Kelp meal
18 oz. neem meal
36 oz. crab meal
18 oz. Fish bone meal

[Former Guest]

I am not sure this will work well for a bloom only soil.

maybe you can put it in a worm bin and use Bongaloids Mix instead which is supposedly for bloom only but on this sticky it doesn't say that. here's a copy paste of the mix which you don't have to cook so you can make it as you need it.

If you want to use guano in your soil mix...
Bongaloid's Guano Mix.
Use all these items combined with one gallon of soil mix.

1/3C hi N Guano Mexican Bat Guano or Peruvian Seabird Guano (PSG)
1/2C hi P Guano (Jamaican or Indonesian Bat Guano)
1TBS Kelp Meal
(OPTIONAL) 1TBS Jersey Greensand

when I made this recipe I used the Peruvian Seabird guano for extra P. then I added lime and left out greensand.

then use some compost teas of just EWC and molasses; maybe a little itty bit of fish hydrolysate only for microbes, not as a nutrient. by the next round your worm bin should almost be ready and you will have the most important thing in organics: quality homemade EWC that are fresh and FREE. this is what is going to help your soil recipe more than adding a ton of different stuff.

here is the exact recipe I used that I was telling you about:
2 bales of 3 cuft compressed peat moss (equilivant to 6 cuft expanded each bale)
2 bags of Happy Frog soil
enough perlite to your liking

8 cups of fish bone meal 3-16-0
8 cups of Azomite
4 cups of Peruvian seabird guano 12-10-2
6 cups kelp meal 1-0-2
1/2 cu ft EWC
Mycos per instructions on for application
4 cups Bokashi compost starter

One cup per 2 cuft
6-5-3 parts of:
6- CaCO3 calcium carbonate lime (not dolomite or garden lime)
5- Soft Rock Phosphate powder
3- gypsum

[Kozmo]

It's not a bloom only mix. It's a mix that should take it through veg and bloom.

[sticky367]

I am constructing a soil blend with materials available to me cheaply, here is my progress so far any feed back or opinions are welcome.

30% coco coir (its whats available to me, any reason this won't work?)
30% drainage material
half/half Red lava 5/16'' minus and 3/8'' pumice
10% greenwaste compost
5% chicken/rice chicken manure compost/rice hulls
5% glaum ranch organic chicken compost
10% sandy loam
5% castings organic
5% oak leaf mold compost

Once a final recipe is decided I will send a sample for testing and amend, will be adding micros and other amendments etc etc

Questions:
Should I simplify this mix more?

What percentages would you tweak?

I can provide analysis for some of these materials just let me know

[BigBozat]

Originally Posted by Kozmo

It's not a bloom only mix. It's a mix that should take it through veg and bloom.

Given the relatively/comparatively low amount of N in the soil mix u listed, u are going to need lots of atmospheric N-fixing going on in order to make it thru both veg & bloom (otherwise, if the only N available to the plants is via N in the soil, I suspect it'll likely be depleted long b4 mid bloom). [For comparison, see Lady's recipe/mix above; note, e.g., amts of hi-N guanos which are not in your mix]

i.e., lots of N-fixing microbes (rhizobia/azotobacteria, archaea, frankia) in the soil...

... and food (e.g., sugars) & molybdenum for 'em to eat/use (moly needed for bacteria to perform N-fixing)... so, regular teas w/ molasses (unsulfured, natch)... other forms of sugars - glucose & mannose - might help, too (azotobacteria can grow mixotrophically without N via mannose + hydrogen in soil/water)...

I think the Azomite & other trace min sources prolly have moly needs covered... but plants generally can tolerate hi levels of moly well while sucking wind when deficient... so, it prolly can't hurt to include add'l moly sources (esp. in foliar feedings).