Soil mix for outdoors

[Greenthumb024]

Hello everyone !

A buddy and I were throwing an idea around about putting some plants out this year however my season doesn't start for another 5-6 months and I was looking to start prepping a soil mix for good healthy plants.

Looking to try replicate something along the lines of what Phat has done with his 30 lb attempt.
Hopefully looking to put 20 plants out.
10 Northen lights
10 Amnesia
The goal is 20 pound.

Rough idea was
Coco coir
Potting mix
Bloodnbone
Dolomite lime
Need meal
Worm castings
Humic acid
Epsom salt
Seasol (waterings)

I'm looking to try replicate the subcools/coots soil mix idea or atleast a soil mix that I'll only need to water / top dress lightly.

Comments, tips, questions and thoughts welcome!!
-GT

 

[exploziv]

Not sure but I would be thinking the bloodnbone (i suppose meal?) gonna attract some unwanted pests that might dig up your plants. I heard if you use it, best to spread over a greater area around the plants, so that the critters don't have a clear spot to dig. I had plants taken out simply cause of organic nutes or maybe the humidity attracted some animal.. so I guess it depends on your area and what critters are there. But I wouldn't risk it. Try to find replacements, or add it now all over the planting area or compost the mix before using so its pretty much not a problem till you put the plants in.

 

[Greenthumb024]

Yes I meant blood and bone meal. Okay thanks for the advice I'll give that a go.

 

[Cvh]

Maybe add some wire cages around your plants too. It helps greatly in protecting against big and small animals. If you make one with small diameter holes it can even give a bit off protection against snails and slugs.

You can make them easily with some chicken or steel wire. Which you just wrap around and secure in the ground.

 

[nono_fr]

There is humic acid in worm castings so you don't need to add , just worm castins will be enough ?

A link about benefit of worm castings : https://www.highcountryfarms.ca/benefits-of-worm-castings/

The humic acid in worm castings is what helps to accelerate yield, growth, and aids in the absorption of water and nutrients from the soil.

 

[40degsouth]

Hey everyone, l hope you’re all well.
Greenthumb, most important thing to know is....what type of native soil are you looking to amend??

 

[Greenthumb024]

Maybe add some wire cages around your plants too. It helps greatly in protecting against big and small animals. If you make one with small diameter holes it can even give a bit off protection against snails and slugs.

You can make them easily with some chicken or steel wire. Which you just wrap around and secure in the ground.

Definitely will be adding caging around to protect them while they're young ,maybe even if they get big enough I'll look into bigger caging for support too. cheers

 

[Greenthumb024]

There is humic acid in worm castings so you don't need to add , just worm castins will be enough ?

A link about benefit of worm castings : https://www.highcountryfarms.ca/benefits-of-worm-castings/

Awesome! I was wondering if any of the ingredients were "overlapping" . I'll be using plenty of Worm castings as I love the stuff.

 

[Greenthumb024]

Hey everyone, l hope you’re all well.
Greenthumb, most important thing to know is....what type of native soil are you looking to amend??

Hey mate, I believe the native soil is a peat like soil. (Farmland with patches of native bush around)

 

[40degsouth]

Excellent Greenthumb,
peat is naturally acidic and will contain a certain amount of humus possibly in liquid form, like a tannin.
Adding dolomite could possibly be a good option, depending on the ph, which it would be advantageous to know because it will raise the ph to a range of 6.5 and release magnesium and calcium. If the ph is really low, like 5-5.5 I’d probably also add hydrated lime as well to really shock the soil into a more desirable ph range. Do this before you add compost and manures by two to four weeks, if you can. I’d foliar the epsom salts if there’s a problem down the track because you can upset the cal/mag balance with a heavy handed application.
If it is peat you probably don’t need the coir, for water/fertiliser retention, I’m assuming.
I personally like adding sulphate of potash early at about a handful for every two or three square meters, for potassium and sulphur and two handfuls of gypsum, to the square meter, in any soil I’m working with, for calcium and sulphur, two or three times a season.
The blood and bone, added now, will be good to get microbes going and things breaking down, with the blood and calcium phosphate with the bone but if it’s new soil I’d probably look at adding half to a cupful of soft rock phosphate or phosphate guano over where you imagine the root zone will be and another at transition.
I also like chelated trace minerals in the soil and foliared.
There are obviously much more organic amendments but these are cheap, light and cover large areas especially if you have to conceal and carry them in.
Hope this helps.
40

 

[Greenthumb024]

Excellent Greenthumb,
peat is naturally acidic and will contain a certain amount of humus possibly in liquid form, like a tannin.
Adding dolomite could possibly be a good option, depending on the ph, which it would be advantageous to know because it will raise the ph to a range of 6.5 and release magnesium and calcium. If the ph is really low, like 5-5.5 I’d probably also add hydrated lime as well to really shock the soil into a more desirable ph range. Do this before you add compost and manures by two to four weeks, if you can. I’d foliar the epsom salts if there’s a problem down the track because you can upset the cal/mag balance with a heavy handed application.
If it is peat you probably don’t need the coir, for water/fertiliser retention, I’m assuming.
I personally like adding sulphate of potash early at about a handful for every two or three square meters, for potassium and sulphur and two handfuls of gypsum, to the square meter, in any soil I’m working with, for calcium and sulphur, two or three times a season.
The blood and bone, added now, will be good to get microbes going and things breaking down, with the blood and calcium phosphate with the bone but if it’s new soil I’d probably look at adding half to a cupful of soft rock phosphate or phosphate guano over where you imagine the root zone will be and another at transition.
I also like chelated trace minerals in the soil and foliared.
There are obviously much more organic amendments but these are cheap, light and cover large areas especially if you have to conceal and carry them in.
Hope this helps.
40

Bro this is awesome knowledge! Thanks for sharing. I'll look onto putting some gypsum in there and definitely look into chelated trace minerals too. I was going to use to Coco coir to bulk out the soil but since I won't need it could I just use 50/50 native soil and potting mix?
Cheers

 

[40degsouth]

Hey everyone,
to be honest Greenthumb, I’d be really careful of potting mix. Tom Hill made us aware of this, years ago, saying just how much salt can be in it. I experienced this last year with some late starts that were nearly killed, in an off the shelf, top of the range, potting mix that was full of salts, probably sodium chloride from the food wastes that make up part of its ingredients.
He’s also the person who made me aware of the many benefits of calcium and the importance of having as many different sources in the soil as you can get, without messing to much with the ph. One of the advantageous things is that it binds to salts and takes them out of the soil, with flushing or heavy rain
I’ve always thought that if I’m going to the effort of carrying in a pack load of material, l want it to be as full of nutrients as it can possibly be for example, composted manures, that you might get from a local landscape supplier or nursery and it’ll probably work out a lot cheaper than buying potting mix, or pelatised chicken manure or the like.
A famous gardener said once that “blood and bone, with added potassium, is a near complete fertiliser.” Rico Swazi, however, posted up some information about the potential hazards of blood and bone in the “Local Materials” thread and that’s something to be aware of.
There’s some really fantastic information in the “Local Materials” thread and it’s well worth a read and will probably take your thought process off in a different direction, regarding different sources of nutrients in your area.
Your native soil might be full of available nutrients as it is. Post a photo or two up, if you think it’s appropriate, and see if you can squeeze it and it holds its shape, without falling apart,; you might already have some good stuff
Do yourself a favour and get a soil ph test kit, the one with the powder and liquid. You can use much less powder than they recommend (of course ) and I’ve got one that’s still going after fiveteen or twenty years and it’s way more accurate and heaps less mucking about than a probe. PH is the key to everything.
30, 70 litre pack-loads is a cubic meter
Cheers,
40.

 

[goingrey]

Bro this is awesome knowledge! Thanks for sharing. I'll look onto putting some gypsum in there and definitely look into chelated trace minerals too. I was going to use to Coco coir to bulk out the soil but since I won't need it could I just use 50/50 native soil and potting mix?
Cheers

I like coco in the mix. Holds water and oxygen, increases time between waterings. Sure there are other, maybe even better, options like biochar or burnt clay as well.

 

[40degsouth]

My idea of a peat bog is that it naturally holds a lot of water, so that shouldn’t be a problem in my mind; in fact you may need to build mounds to prevent plants being inundated and drowned in a true peat bog.
I moved away from coir and moss as soon as water crystals became available. In my experience they are superior in every way to anything else I’ve used in gurella grows and as they dry out and create voids they naturally draw atmospheric oxygen into the soil. Earthworms will also do this,l love my red wrigglers.
The only problem with the water crystals is that l can’t find out if they’re organic
Here’s a few photos of some plants grown, in a true peat bog, by a very naughty boy and he’s never watered them ‍☠

 

[goingrey]

My idea of a peat bog is that it naturally holds a lot of water, so that shouldn’t be a problem in my mind; in fact you may need to build mounds to prevent plants being inundated and drowned in a true peat bog.
I moved away from coir and moss as soon as water crystals became available. In my experience they are superior in every way to anything else I’ve used in gurella grows and as they dry out and create voids they naturally draw atmospheric oxygen into the soil. Earthworms will also do this,l love my red wrigglers.
The only problem with the water crystals is that l can’t find out if they’re organic
Here’s a few photos of some plants grown, in a true peat bog, by a very naughty boy and he’s never watered them ‍☠ View attachment 18728500 View attachment 18728502 View attachment 18728503 View attachment 18728504 View attachment 18728505

Interesting product those water crystals. At least the Miracle Gro ones seem to bee 100% polyacrylamide, a synthetic polymer.

That never-watered bog grow looks amazing!

 

[40degsouth]

Not bad for a first year soil, goingrey. Plant health was on point but resin development was a bit off. I’m thinking this might be because of a deficiency in sulphur or maybe they just needed some molasses which, in hindsight, would of fixed both issues.
40.

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[SHO774]

can you treat soil mixed with coco like soil? i want to bulk out some soil for a guerilla patch with coco bricks, perlite and compost?

 

[goingrey]

can you treat soil mixed with coco like soil? i want to bulk out some soil for a guerilla patch with coco bricks, perlite and compost?

Yea except be extra careful about not overwatering.

 

[Greenthumb024]

Hello hello everyone ! Sorry for the late replying its been a jumble moving all around the place lately but I'm settled now.

I've dug 42 holes around 1/2 metre x 1/2metre and roughly 50-70 cm deep.

Ive filled 20 holes with half a bag of tui compost garden mix and native soil each with added
2 handfuls of nitrophoska
2 handfuls of blood and bone meal
1 handful of dolomite lime
2 handfuls of wormcastings
3 handfuls of sheep and chicken pellets
For the other 22 and remaining 18 holes I'll be using just the native soil with the added list above added to the holes.

I will be fencing off the plants with chicken wire cut into cylinders because their are sheep, rabbits and cows around the place.

I currently have 20 Amnesia seeds , 20 Northen lights seeds and another set of 20 Amnesia autoflowers sprouted in a glass house, now moved into a tent inside. They're roughly a week old. I'm looking to plant out around mid Nov.
Will put up some photos tomorrow.

Any thoughts and suggestions are more than welcome !

Thanks
GT.