Johnei's Organic Soil Mix and Compost Teas

Johnei's Organic Soil Mix


tsp=teaspoon=5ml
TBSP=tablespoon=15ml

70% Promix BX/HP
20% Perlite
10% Worm Castings - (Red worms/African Nightcrawler mix) Provides a slow release of NPK and all trace minerals and is packed with huge amounts of unique diverse beneficial bacteria and fungi for soil and plant growth that strengthen, protect and increase uptake of nutrients in the rhizosphere. Also used to spray on leaves as a microbial protection coating layer killing most biting insects from the inside out and inhibiting bad fungi and disease from taking hold. The best!)
1 TBSP/gal Dolomite Lime powder + 1 tsp/gal Dolomite Lime pellets - (Long term pH stabilization and provides Ca and Mg slow release as the Lime is neutralizing the acidic peat moss base.)
1 TBSP/gal Kelp Meal - (Packed with all trace minerals, has low slow release NPK value, many growth hormones and auxins, and things not even identified by science yet. It's an amazing microbe food source that provides carbohydrates and proteins and a lot more. Amazing for plants.)
1 TBSP/gal Glacial Rock Dust - (Every single mineral on earth you can think of.)
2 TBSP/gal Alfalfa Meal - (Hot, soil must have composting time before use min. 2 weeks. Excellent Nitrogen source. Also has low levels of phosphorus and potassium and tons of micronutrients, vitamins, and a special plant growth hormone Triacontanol. It heats up the soil from within so composting quickens and metabolic microbe and plant functions speed up and is an extremly good food source for microbes containing proteins, enzymes and carbohhydrates.)
2 TBSP/gal Fish Bone Meal - (High P and Ca. Soil holds on to phosphorus and is tightly bound within the soil's humic matrix and the soil doesn't want to give it up easy so you need more than usual compared to hydro for example. Uptake of phosphorus for plants growing in soil is difficult and only happens with the help of microbes. Phosphorus levels are extremly high in bone and so is Calcium. I use organic fish bone meal to avoid nasty antibiotics or other crap like synthetic growth hormone boosters in the fish that they most likely gave the fish while it was still alive and residue could be in the bone. I do not and never will use steamed bone meal from cows, ever. Disgusting.)


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Guanos:
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Next few things are only for compost tea brewing because the dust is gross to be spreading over the soil if you breath it in, and also is quite expensive in quantity so I stretch the products by only using in compost tea brewing so as to draw out and expand the microbe army from these products and inoculate the soil with it even though the soil is rich in life already. They are each not only rich in their own unique diverse microbes but are all rich in NPK and every other micronutrient and tons other goodies for plants. Guano is the best 'shit' there is. Some people are against using it for 'tree hugging' purposes saying harvesting of the guano destroys bat ecosystems blahblah.
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Mexican High N Bat guano - (Quickly available N and practicaly every micronutrient, Can fry plants if not careful. High levels of unique diverse microbes and chitin from the insects these bats eat = Systemic Aquired Resistance SAR response in plants which makes them more resistant to bugs, disease, drought, cold etc. flips on their immune system like a cheat to trick and force the plant to already make fighter cells before an attack happens so they're stronger. The compounds in the insect exoskeleton make the plant believe it is under attack.)
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Indonesian High P guano - (High levels of unique diverse microbes and special compounds only found in unique fruiting trees of the jungle/forests of Indonesia that these bats eat from. Nothing compares. This is only used in teas and for top dressing and watering in during flower sometimes if needed. It's the most expensive of the guano's, and hard to find. The one I use is 0.5 - 30something - 1.0. I can't even find it anymore and I only have very little left so I save it for the tea brews. Other Indonesian guano brands these days are in the 20something Phosphorus range, and Jamaican guano is even lower than that and I don't use it, just turned out that way, I have nothing against the Jamaican. But where is the most crazy unheard of undisturbed forest/jungle land fruiting trees full of 'magical' compounds and nutrients that plants love, Indonesia over Jamaica by far. Jamaica has heavily mined and industrialized guano operations. Quality is lower. Nutrients are lower.)
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Peruvian Seabird guano pellets - (10-10-2.5 Packed with unique diverse microbes, micronutrients and compounds from the ocean where these birds eat fish, and those fish eat other creatures and seaweeds in the rich ocean depths, which transfers down the food chain and why this guano is so rich with 10-10-2.5 balanced nutrition and packed with tons of goodness.)
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This formula has worked well for me for a very long time. Years. I reuse the soil forever adding the same ammendments back each time, nothing builds up, just gets better and more available nutrients each time. practically impossible to burn anything, the plant takes what it needs no more no less, the roots have symbiosis with ecto and endo myco's and an army or microbes down there producing digestive enzymes amongst many other things. When reusing the soil and some roots are left behind from the old harvested crop, within a short time roots have disapeared digested into the mix adding to the nutrition. This is one indicator that I know the microbe activity in the soil is solid. I feed a lot of compost teas, and a lot of clean waterings with fulvic acid and humic acids. Too much humic acid is not good, it's not used every watering. Nothing is ever pH'd.

Example: If planted in a small pot in the beginning days of the plant's life, by the time food runs out, which it never really does with compost tea feeds and worm castings mixed in the soil, you up pot to a bigger pot which has full fresh soil mix for them to feast on again. The soil is it's own organism in a sense cycling and recycling nutrients. With proper microbe balance and diversity, they will pull Nitrogen straight out of the atmosphere, which has hardly any O2 in it in reality and mostly is Nitrogen. Feeding high N fertilizers to keep plants green is a thing of the past and not applicable any more. Compost teas, whether making a high N or a High P guano tea concoction will dictate in which direction the soil and plant will lean for veg or flower and microbes wil adapt and naturally adjust the soil pH where increased and proper uptake happens. One soil for both Veg and Bloom stages.

Babies/clones/seeds start off in the same main soil mix but without the alfalfa meal because it is too hot and too much N when what we want is the focus on root growth from day1. Save the alflalfa meal for a nice foliar spray to get those growth hormones to the plants when they are well established. And 1tsp/gal of Indonesian High P guano added to the soil for that extra little kick of strong initial root growth that they have to go searching for in the soil as well as for mycorrhizal ecto/endo root and plant inoculation even though the worm castings in the mix provide this already. I feel the guano is a better choice phosphorus than fish bone meal at this stage due to the guano's microbe content and many trace minerals and plant growth compounds, and no composting time, mix and go. Worm Castings, Kelp Meal and Glacial Rock Dust is very rich and will sustain new plants for some time especially feeding some light tea brews in the beginning of life until up potting to the main mix in larger pots.

One thing I've been wanting to try adding is a Langbeinite/Kmag/SulPoMag product because I think more Mg to balance out all the Ca in my mix will make an even better soil, and extra Potassium would be good also. I want to stop using perlite and use rice husks which I've read from soil masters in the past is what they use for that more natural soil because perlite breaks down over time into smaller and smaller pieces and eventually into dust which contributes to soil compaction which is bad, and I believe the rice husks are a good microbe food and will eventually digest back into the soil providing some nutritional value, perlite will not. If I could find non bug infested compost for indoor use I would, but the compost is sketchy around here and Worm Castings in my opinion is the best kind of compost there is anyway. I like to use different brands and different types of worm castings (RedWorm/AfricanNightcrawler) for a more diverse microbe content and nutritional value, because the castings are only as good as what was fed to them and different worm farms use different food sources so the castings are each a bit different in their nutritional content and profile and microbe content. Many other people use a lot more than 10% castings in their soil mixes, but I don't like too much in the soil because the mix becomes too heavy for my liking and an airy soil mix where roots can grow through easily, and get a lot of air is very important, so I use only 10% in the soil mix knowing that I will be pumping the worm casting teas anyway. Just enough in the mix for powerful microbe action and good soil texture, moisture retention and drainage.

When initially mixing the soil I use a light tea brew to wet the mixture and jump start the microbial digestion action, adding a huge diverse live not dormant colony that was just brewed drawn out and multiplied in the tea, and not completely soaked overly saturated, just consistently moist throughout and still light and fluffy and able to breath adding liquid a little bit at a time mixing and getting it just right before finally letting it sit for a minimum 2 weeks to actrively compost in a big rubbermaid. The longer the better.
Initial soil mixing soil drench formula :
/gal
2-3 TBSPs Worm Castings
1 tsp Kelp Meal
1 tsp Glacial Rock Dust
1 TBSP Unsulfered Molasses
Brew for only 24hrs and use asap.



That's how I do it.

I'm sure there will be other things that I would of liked to add here that will come to me later but editing posts after 24hrs is not permitted here so I did the best I could to convey absolutely everything I could think of for this to be complete.

Good Growing!



Compost tea recipes are next...




Pictures of some different plants that were grown in this mix...

Healthy beneficial fungi growth after soil has been prepared and composted for ~2weeks...



...this can be placed in a compost brewer to multiply and grow the fungi out further for inoculation.

Post#1 Soil base ingredients...

Only use PromixBX, not HP. too much perlite in the mix giving me problems. A slightly heavier mix with less perlite is working much better now.

Or, do a 80/10/10 mix with either Promix, which has worked good for me in the past. Lots of perlite and drying out quickly is not what we want in the organic soil mixture. It would be fine for using straight Promix out of the bag with extra perlite added if that's all we were doing and watering with synthetic nutrients at pH5.9-6.3 running the promix a soilless hydro style with quick dry times between feedings for the good root air, but too much perlite in an organic soil mix is not what we want, it just dries out too quickly down there for the good microbe action. Microbes need moisture to physically move around and do their thing. Dry=death for them.

I like Promix or Sunshine mix over using some kind of garden soil or bagged soils out there, because you know exactly what you're getting and the consistency of it and I want something with no extra stuff added, like a foxfarm soil for example that is already ammended, I want to make the mix and decide how much of what goes into my mix. This is why I start with the Promix. I want full control always.

Thanks for reading.

Conclusion, less perlite more base mix, however that can be achieved. Perlite is not nutritious and has very few functions in the soil in comparison to the peat moss which actually contains beneficial bacteria and fungal colonies. You can brew just a scoop of any peat moss out there, and you will have beneficial fungi growing in the bucket. More Peat is better than more perlite here.

My Soil mix in post#1 that is 70/20/10 is good if youo want very quick dry times between watering. 80/10/10 new idea will hold moisture longer which is beneficial for all the microbes we are nurturing in the soil. Air is still very available in the rootzone and the mix breaths just fine.
-end.

I will take a few cuttings and make 3 soil mixtures and test the results of each.

Promix/Perlite/WormCastings
70/20/10
80/10/10
and 1 mix with more worm castings and less peat/Promix
70/10/20

All other ammendments as described in post#1 the same.

We'll see what happens. This will take a while so results much later.

Clone/Seed soil mix: (Simple and effective.)

1gal Promix
2cups Perlite
1cup Worm Castings
1TBSP Dolomite Lime powder
1TBSP Glacial Rock Dust
1TBSP Kelp Meal
Wet with low dose Humic acid and Fulvic acid solution, or Worm Casting tea.

Organic Blockhead in 1gal pot...

Flowered right after pinching... grew double heads.

Organic Blockhead harvest from 1gal pot...

The hidden power of regular ole peat moss... that many people dismiss as not part of organic gardening...

The hidden world of a compost tea brew...

These are good videos demonstating how the beneficial fungi that we sprout and grow
from worm castings and guano teas help to protect our plants from pathogens and disease.
This is why we want a more fungal tea brew at certain times to inocculate the soil with.
It's not about the NPK in a tea, it's about growing these fungi, and armies of diverse beneficial bacteria that feed and nourish the soil, the soil organisms, and ultimately the plant.

I find these videos extremely fascinating...

Mmmm...biology candy!

Veg tea

tsp=teaspoon
TBSP=tablespoon
per 1gallon of non-chlorine, non-chloramine water

--2TBSP Soil (Soil you always reuse that has already been ammended, or healthy outside soil a few inches deep around where the plants live)
--2TBSP EWC (RedWorms and AfricanNightcrawler EWC mix)
--1TBSP Organic Alfalfa Meal
--1tsp Kelp Meal (Not ground powder, Meal.)
--1/2tsp Glacial Rock Dust or Azomite (or 1/4 tsp of each per 1gal. water) Never too much, compacted powdery substances are not good for microbe air space purposes. It will compact the mix too much. Little goes a huge long way.
--1/2tsp Organic Rolled Oats (not powder, rolled oats for more surface area for fungi to latch onto and feed/grow)
--small unmeasured splash of fulvic acid per entire 4-5gal tea brew
--small unmeasured splash of humic acid per entire 4-5gal tea brew
(Fulvic and Humic acids are not necessary here, but won't hurt anything and provide benefits, never too much.)

--1/4tsp Unsulfered Molasses (All the complex carbohydrates in this mix and long chain slow to breakdown sugars will feed fungi growth, what we want, bacteria is always present, if we use too much Molasses type sugars it will grow the bacteria to insane levels too quickly, and take up all the dissolved oxygen in the bucket faster than can be replenished, the bacteria will take over growing so fast and the tea will shift anaerobic. We want more complex carbohydrates, that take longer to digest, which will give a chance for the fungi to be dominant in the tea brew. so a slightly longer brew, with very very low Molasses, or dont use it all!)

..and if you have it, some High Nitrogen Mexican Bat Guano...
It's not absolutely necessary with the formula I've given that is already rich with many forms of NPK Ca Mg and all trace minerals, but all guano's are amazing stuff, it's their microbe content we want to draw out in the tea and multiply the army of helpers. Mexican guano also trigger a SAR response in plants; Systemic Aquired Resistence. The Mexican Bats eat insects, while Jamaican bats and Indonesian bats eat fruit, and are higher in phosphorus and compounds from fruiting plants. The insect's exoskeleton fools the plant into thinking it is under attack, and turns on its immune response to create killer helper cells, before an attack actually occurs, which makes the plant more resistent to bugs, pathogens, and disease, as well as against frost and heat damage. It tricks the plants to becomes stronger, BEFORE an attack may come. A little goes a long way. This stuff can burn with it's high levels of nitrogen in salty form, even after bewing in a tea. The microbe digestion action in the tea will 'soften' the salty nutrients in the Mexican Guano to more plant available forms, but still too much will fry the plants. Other Guano's are a little more forgiving.)
--1tsp<->1TBSP High Nitrogen Mexican Bat Guano, usually something like 10-3-1 NPK - per 1gallon of water, depending on the stage of plant life and how strong you want to feed them actual EC/PPM NPK Ca Mg +trace minerals value. The alfalfa is rich in Nitrogen as well, so not too much, we just want to draw out the microbes, mainly, and get some NPK value as a bonus.

Brew the concoction with the least amount of water you can, so that the most amount of oxygen from your pump will increase dissolved oxygen levels in that smaller amount of water, then dilute before feeding to proper amount if you have to. Super high incredible levels of oxygen being pumped into the tea is key here, or you'll be feeding what you think is good brew, but will be shit.


Hope this helps.

Good Growing!

If not to follow precicely, then just to give ideas for you. I would use this to feed nice strong vegging plants.
This is not for young plants, although you could dilute this 50/50, or even to only 25% strength cut it in 4 and will still provide incredible nutrition and diverse life to the soil.

You could also use Peruvian Seabird Guano at 10-10-2.5 instead of the Mexican bat guano, or even both in small quantities each here. The PSG is super potent and very nutrition containing elements from the ocean, like Seaweeds/Kelp, and unique diverse microbes from the sea. It's packed with NPK Ca Mg and all trace minerals. Birds eat the fish, those fish have been eating others, and so on eating little micro creatures and feeding on seaweeds. Highly nutritious and why it is 10-10-2.5 and complete. I use PSG that is in pellet form, and just toss a few in the tea for extra microbes that wouldn't be there otherwise. This is the way. Microbe diversity, from many many sources.

Smoked a fatty, and this is what happens, it's good shit! ...I don't mean to... teach you or anything, it's just so you understand a couple things in my mixes. cya Hope this helps.