Compost vs soil

Mr.Organic

Active Member
im bout to transplant my still vegging plants into 5 gal planters. ive had this compost pile that literally hasnt had any soil taken from it in 4-5 years and would rather go the completly all natural grower path and utilize this. can someone give me the pros and cons to both?
 

DaveCoulier

Well-Known Member
Many people use both together. Im not quite sure why you think you can't go completely natural with soil. You can get good organic soil that doesn't have chemical ferts in it.
 

DaveCoulier

Well-Known Member
i meant natural as in...."homegrown". i just hate having to buy lots of soil
Oh now I see. I see no reason why you couldn't grow in straight compost as long as you throw in some perlite.

I made a new friend on here who has a plant or two in straight spent mushroom compost. and a couple in smc/perlite. There wont be any pics available until they're done growing them, but he's already said the one with added perlite is growing better.
 

Mr.Organic

Active Member
yeah i figured adding that. i was impressed with the last stuff i used with peat moss would that work too? dont you only addd this stuff as like filler?
 

DaveCoulier

Well-Known Member
yeah i figured adding that. i was impressed with the last stuff i used with peat moss would that work too? dont you only addd this stuff as like filler?
Peat moss works fine if its pre-amended, or you amend it yourself. Im using promix bx with 12-13% SMC, and extra perlite and my 15 day old seedlings were showing N deficiencies.

Im not a big fan of having to do alot to my medium just so it'll support my plants. Ill likely just buy a premium soil like Bio-Bizz or FF in the future and throw in some extra compost.
 

DaveCoulier

Well-Known Member
It'll work fine I think. You'll just need to amend it with some organic nutrients, or start feeding them compost teas around the 2-3 week mark. Compost is great for the microbes. They love all that organic matter, but its not very strong in terms of NPK. My SMC is just .5-.5-.2.

Some worm castings, blood meal, bone meal in the soil would be good.

Here is Uncle Bens soil recipe:

I use alot of brown sphagnum peat moss, a large bag of Schultz potting mix, and a bag of cheap potting soil (screened to get rid of the chunky stuff) to make up enough for 30 to 40 gallons of a final mix, which I mix on a cement floor using a shovel and store in large garbage cans. To this base which provides humates, an acidic hit, trace elements, etc. and a little silt to tighten up the mix and retain moisture, I add:

6 or so cups blood meal, 3 or so cups bonemeal, 4 cups dolomite lime, 1 large bag each of vermiculite and perlite (available at Casa dePOT) and alfalfa meal which contains a hormone called triacontanol (purported to increase vegetable production up to 60%). I buy alfalfa feed pellets from a farm and ranch supply store, put about 4 cups of the pellets in a bucket with a gallon of water and give it a good squirt of Ivory dish soap to cut the surface tension, let it stand for 30 minutes, and then dump the slurry into the mix on the floor. I sometimes add composted horse manure, maybe about 3 or 4 gallons of it. The final, slightly moist soil mix is turned well with a shovel and stored for a couple of weeks in garbage cans to "mellow".
 
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