super soil recipe: couple questions

[anferneybra]

Hey there fellas, I found a recipe on subcool super soil mix and had a couple basic question I was hoping someone with some experience using his soil could answer.

First off the mix Im using is this:

5 bags Roots Organic (camo bags)
2 bags Biobizz Light
30 lbs wiggle worms castings only
5lbs DTE blood meal (12-0-0)
5lbs DTE bat guano (0-5-0)
5lbs Fish bone meal (3-16-0)
3/4 cup epsom salts
1 cup sweet lime
1/2 cup azomite
2 tbs powdered humic acid

mixed them all throughly and put into 2 40 gal trash cans and added 3-4 gallons of water to let it sit

The questions I have are:

1. Should I put a lid on the trash cans or let them have air?

2. Is my recipe missing any K? I remember him using some rock phosphate in a earlier recipe but not this new one. Seems to me I have no K going in as a raw material? maybe its becoming available later after the compost?

Thanks in advance for any help fellas!

Tony

 

[mad librettist]

I would replace the guanos with biotone and lose the salts. Reduce your fish bone meal too, since the tone has bone meal.

That will cover everything.


but since you mixed, you can just dress with tone and maybe use some soluble seaweed once in a while.

 

[organic P]

base soil has coco, pretty sure a fair amount comes from that. Roots also has kelp and rock phosphate in it. ive made dozens of batches and never found it short in K.

yes leave lid on after wetting

 

[rrog]

The stuff needs to be mixed at first. I am doing the SuperSoil at this very moment. If you watch SubCools video on this, he mixes the soil in a trailer for a week, I believe he says. Then he plopped into the pail. The problem I have found is that many people complain of the anaerobic stink from sealing up an oxygen requiring compost and not turning. THERE IS NO HARM IN TURNING. I did, and the stuff is smelling excellent. Why avoid turning? It speeds up the process we want.

Also, I have landscape fabric on top of the garbage cans to allow air. Again, this in an oxygen requiring operation. To seal it up raises the risk of anaerobic respiration.

I used the recipe exactly as he stated. Why? I needed a safe formula that didn't require me to do a bunch of calculating. I wanted a tried and true organic soil recipe. SuperSoil has been used by thousands of people for many, many years so there was my security.

Next time I really hope to have a soil made from my compost and my EWC. Until then, SuperSoil was the safest landing pad for me. Also... expect gnats. Rootz soil is supposedly full of eggs. I treated with nematodes and BTI dunks. Have not seen a single gnat. Pretty happy and I have seedlings sprouting. I have no availability for BioBizz Light so I want straight Rootz all the way

 

[anferneybra]

cool thanks guys, just wanted to make sure I wasnt missing a key ingredient!

i will let this cook for about 30 days outside and have tons of great soil for my winter session. I was just super sick of mixing nutrients and this will take tons of guess work out of it.

I didnt seal my cans up either, i just put the lid loosely across the top to stop uber drying out cause its like 95+ here !

ill turn it next week and add more water as needed since he said keep it wet to get the bacteria built up

thanks again

tony

 

[rrog]

I turned mine every other day for a week. Then 1x a week afterward. Next time I'll turn it 2x a week at first.

I would urge you to add a loose cloth on top rather than the lid. Keeps out bugs and lets air in. I actually went with a open weave gauze. You can find something cheap at Joanne Fabrics or such. Speaker cloth is great. Fabric drapes down like a tablecloth, sealing it.

I keep the soil on the dryer side. Plenty moist and will just create a ball when squeezed. But the ball will crumble if you touch it. I figure that's enough water for microbes and not too much as to be conducive to anaerobic activity. Wet conditions attract gnats also.

 

[the_extremist]

I use super soil per the recipe, 100% exact. Don't change a damn thing, it works great as is. IME, the longer you allow it to cook the better, 30 days BARE MINIMUM, six-eight weeks is better. And moisture content while composting is also critical if you are going to seal it in a tub or a garbage can. You just want it slightly moist, the fresh-out-of-the-bag feel where it will clump when squeezed but won't drip any water. The microbes will do the rest. I turn it daily for the first week until it cools down a bit and quits putting off so much heat and then once a week after that.

Good luck. Just-add-water is soooo easy. I'm spoiled now.

 

[Bullfrog44]

Not sure if you are going to be running this indoors or outdoors, but I find outdoors subcools mix is a little weak. I beef it up a bit.

 

[rrog]

If the soil is turned frequently the breakdown should occur faster. Others have said exactly what the extremist said, so I'm turning regularly so that after 4 weeks it's a little further along than if I just left in the garbage can.

 

[headband 707]

Love Subcools soils idea really brilliant and helpful for ppl with disalblies and ppl that don't want to have to use nutes during the grow. But yes I would get rid of the bat quano part of the demo he has. I watched his demo once and he was using his bare hands to put the quano in which is a huge no ,no so I assumed he had no mask aswell which would have been even worse. The rest of it was great though lol peace out Headband707

 

[rrog]

I would not omit the bat guano

 

[headband 707]

I would not omit the bat guano

Really bro why?? lol sorry I know it's a nice fertilizer and all but do you really want me to put the dangers of bat quano up here for ya?? cause it's long and I have put this post up before...needless to say maybe you should type in dangers of bat quano and then measure that against using that in your grow .. Cause believe me when I say your bud will be just as fine without it.. lol peace out Headband707

Really it's kind of a fluck that an animal shits on your plant but when I do find this it doesn't make me feel good it kinda makes me feel like I must wash that SHIT off!!!! before I smoke it call me CRAZY!!!! lol....thats just me....

 

[rrog]

At this point in my grow career I don't have the knowledge to remove any ingredient from the recipe. Guano has been in the recipe for years, and there's an awful lot of people that have used it faithfully for years. I'm sure not saying that makes it the perfect soil, but I'm not willing to alter the recipe at this point.

I appreciate the fact that you have a concern about a health risk with guano.

 

[headband 707]

At this point in my grow career I don't have the knowledge to remove any ingredient from the recipe. Guano has been in the recipe for years, and there's an awful lot of people that have used it faithfully for years. I'm sure not saying that makes it the perfect soil, but I'm not willing to alter the recipe at this point.

I appreciate the fact that you have a concern about a health risk with guano.

Yeah bro bat quano is very dangerous and just not worth the risk actually and here is why..

With winter coming on, many types of animals look for refuges from the cold. Many times this means human habitats that they intend to stay in through the winter. Along with the mice and bugs, many homes will become a refuge for bats. The conventional wisdom to avoid a wild bat is true- they are susceptible to rabies and can spread it even through a very tiny bite. But after they are gone, the danger remains in your home- but not from rabies.
Bat guano can build up in attics and eaves that have been used by bats, and even if the human occupants of the building are not aware of the dung, they can be harmed by it. After guano has lain around for a couple of years, a fungus can grow in it, releasing spores into the air that cause histoplasmosis in humans. The east and central parts of the U.S. are especially susceptible to the fungus that causes this disease.
Histoplasmosis can cause serious respiratory diseases in humans, causing fever and chest pains. If left untreated, histoplsmosis can turn into a chronic lung disease that resembles tuburculosis. In the very young and the very old, or people who already have cancer, AIDS or other serious illnesses, histoplasmosis can be fatal. Histoplasmosis can also travel from the lungs to the eyes, causing ocular histoplasmosis syndrome, which destroys the central vision (not periphreal). The lung problems can many times be cured with anti-fungal medications, but the ocular disease has no cure.
If bat guano is found in a home or other building, it is important to have it removed as soon as possible by a trained professional. A professional will search for any roosting bats that may be inside, then for any passageways that may be accessible to bats. Any points of entry have to be closed so that the bats do not reappear.

 

[rrog]

I've read that. Also read that the actual incidence of illness is low. If someone has acute respiratory or immune system problems many, many things should be avoided.

Every year the flu kills people too.

 

[headband 707]

I've read that. Also read that the actual incidence of illness is low. If someone has acute respiratory or immune system problems many, many things should be avoided.

Every year the flu kills people too.

There is a reason they don't enter a bat cave without a mask. That reason is it would KILL YOU lol lol.. Now if anything out there is going to kill you I would rather stay away from it but hey if your into it you go ahead .. that is what makes that world go around right lol peace out Headband707

 

[rrog]

Bat caves have huge amounts of Ammonia. Anyway, I appreciate your wanting to help make people aware of the risks. Props to you for that.

 

[headband 707]

Then we could always go this route ...

Bat guano is usually mined in caves and this mining is associated with a corresponding loss of troglobytic biota and diminishing of biodiversity. Guano deposits support a great variety of cave-adapted invertebrate species, which rely on bat faeces as their sole nutrient input. In addition to the biological component, deep guano deposits contain local paleoclimatic records in strata that have built up over thousands of years, which are unrecoverable once disturbed.

The greatest damage caused by mining to caves with extant guano deposits is to the bat colonies themselves. Bats are highly vulnerable to regular disturbance to their roosts. Some species, such as Phyllonycteris aphylla, have low fat reserves, and will starve to death when regularly disturbed and put into a panic state during their resting period. Many species will drop pups when in panic, with subsequent death, leading to a steady reduction in population. Research in Jamaica has shown that mining for bat guano is directly related to the loss of bat species, associated invertebrates and fungi, and is the greatest threat to bat caves on the island.[citation

 

[the_extremist]

I always wear a dust mask and gloves when mixing my soil. Once the soil is wetted down and composting, I think it's pretty safe. The guano particles are no longer dry and floating around.

Besides, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow or an asteroid could fuck us all up. I don't have time to worry about whether guano is completely safe because I'm too busy breathing carcinogenic air and drinking my fluoridated water. Besides, what the fuck, you gonna live forever?

 

[rrog]

I happen to have a solid immune system. I eat raw eggs daily. Make my own yogurt. Eat a lot of other raw foods. I avoid chemicals of any kind in my diet, hygiene, environment. Haven't been sick at all in 10 years. I suppose if I had immune system issues I'd be more on alert