Making the layer cake for next year!

With curing being just around the corner I've decided to get my till on super early... now that I have nothing to take care of outside I don't really have an excuse to distract myself from trimming... and I would like one!

Preface:
All of this will be done in planters that I still need to build. Pots are nice, and may arguably be better, but I like planters the best. I've been growing tomatoes in em for about 12 years... why not put some grass in em.

So... here's the plan:
Each planter will be 3'x7'x2' and consist of 5 layers.
Top layer (sprout stage!):
80% roots org 707
20% worm castings
Plain in simple, don't want it to sprout in hot soil and start out all fucked up

Second layer (veg stage!):
50% roots org 707
25% worm castings
5% bat guano (Mexican) 10-2-1
5% fish blood meal 12-0-0
5% bone meal 4-12-0
2.5% potash of sulfate 0-0-50 (holy shit!)
2.5% Texas greensand 0-0-3
2% dolomite (cool that shit down)
1% azomite
1% humic acid
1% Botanic ZHO root inoculant
(All of the percentages are rough estimates... I don't weigh out anything... I kind of treat soil mixing like I do cooking, never exact, but pretty damn close. The trace elements and inoculant are probably < 1%, but it's more cosmetically appealing for me to put them this way)

So, after putting the correct weight on all the percentages we get a soil with worm castings and trace elements with a fertilizer of 26-14-27.5
I may have to add some N, and possibly add some more dolomite... may have to think that one through.
So, I'm putting in the guano first cause it gets used up pretty quick (or so I've been told) so why not have it help out the veg stage? Green sand provides a little bit of iron, and fish blood/bones have always been known to help plant growth. This should get a good network of microbiology goin', the root inoculant will hopefully help that out. I think I'm gonna add two rounds of compost tea to the mix while it's cookin' as well, just to make stuff super happy. Some nematodes will get introduced to the mix as well.

Third layer (first flower stage):
50% roots org 707
20% worm castings
5% bat guano (Mexican) 10-2-1
5% bat guano (Jamaican) 1-10-0.2
5% fish blood meal 12-0-0
5% fish bone meal 3-18-0
2.5% potash of sulfate 0-0-50
2.5% Texas greensand 0-0-3
2% dolomite
1% epsom salt (mag)
1% azomite
1% humic acid

Slowly introducing more P, keeping the K around the same, and letting the N go down gradually. Now we have a 29-32-27.7 fertilizer. This will be the last time we use guano as well. The second layer will probably be have quite a few roots in it by the time this layer is reached, which will provide a slow move in nutrition change... hopefully. The trace elements are going to stay the same throughout, from now on I'm only going to list them as trace.

Layer four (Second stage of flowering):
40% roots org 707
20% worm castings
20% Stutzman farms chicken manure 3-2-2
10% fish bone meal 3-18-0
2.5% potash of sulfate 0-0-50
2.5% Texas greensand 0-0-3
5% trace elements
Chicken shit is slow releasing, so when the roots first start breaking into this layer, probably around the time they have established a good amount of roots in the second layer, they won't pick up too much of the shit, but by the middle of flowering, this chicken poop is gonna do wonders! The fertilizer is at about 18-44-34.5

Bottom layer (The end!):
40% roots org 707
20% worm castings
20% Stutzman farms chicken manure 3-2-2
5% Llama manure 0.5-0.5-1.5 (usually around that area)
5% fish bone meal 3-18-0
5% potash of sulfate 0-0-50
5% trace elements

Just let the k do the work! I tend to water pretty heavy in the last two weeks, guess that counts as a flush.

Now I know the numbers of the fert may seem high, but that is the fert at 5% of the soil, I just find it easier to work with whole numbers rather than decimals.

Please gimme some feedback on this, tell me how it sounds and what you guys would do different. I would love to get some info before I go shoppin' (going be about a month away)

ok help a brotha out, cause i dont get the cake thing? i grow in 15 gallon smartpots and by week 3 of veg my plants are growing through the bottom of the bag. I read the cake article in rosebud and i was really confused on how that can work? the article was acting like plant roots grow a little in veg, then a little deeper in flowering? my plants fill the pots with roots before i flower them. So wouldnt the plants have gone through all of the layers by the time they hit flowering week 1? I am not disrespecting the article, because i have heard this theory from other growers, but I honestly just dont get it? I would think that one could have more control by using a consistent media like coco coir and adding the nutrients as the plant demands. this puts the control back in the growers hands imo. let me know what i am missing, because the volcano has been on for a while. grow kind-stay kind

Seems complicated, it's not really going to work in perfect order like that, with the wind and rain they will kind of just mix together, so you might as well mix it all up and let it break down evenly over the winter.

Well, I'm going to cover it with a tarp over the winter, it's worked out with just three layers before, and though the percentages seem confusing, I'm not really following them exactly.

ok help a brotha out, cause i dont get the cake thing? i grow in 15 gallon smartpots and by week 3 of veg my plants are growing through the bottom of the bag. I read the cake article in rosebud and i was really confused on how that can work? the article was acting like plant roots grow a little in veg, then a little deeper in flowering? my plants fill the pots with roots before i flower them. So wouldnt the plants have gone through all of the layers by the time they hit flowering week 1? I am not disrespecting the article, because i have heard this theory from other growers, but I honestly just dont get it? I would think that one could have more control by using a consistent media like coco coir and adding the nutrients as the plant demands. this puts the control back in the growers hands imo. let me know what i am missing, because the volcano has been on for a while. grow kind-stay kind​

Click to expand...

This is what I'm guessing based on experience not science I haven't actually done a scientific method comparison on two grows at once, I merely tried something new a little bit ago, and now I'm building on my previous thinking because I think that it's right.

When I grew in pots and bags I noticed that my roots covered the whole area. But, in my case, were still far more plentiful at the top (I transplanted twice, 1 gal - 3 gal - 7+ gal). Maybe it was because of something crappy I did that grow, or because I transplanted too early... I dunno. What I figured was that new roots, at first, develop faster then the roots grow downward. So when layering it is key to make the switching process gradual. Because as the root ball gets denser, it will be covering more area downward AND need more nutrients.

Also, I'm pretty sure the way roots grow is toward water and food sources. For example: roots grow most when the soil is dry correct? This is because the roots are extending themselves to more moist soil so they can get their necessary water and nutrition for the plant. If there are layers, the plant will extend at rate (in theory) that will make the layers provide the exact nutrition they need when necessary. Again, this is just my thinking and guessing... I could be 100% wrong, but that's why I asked the question in the first place. If I get no response, then fuck it, might as well try.

Wont work bro, the roots grow WAY faster than you think. Possibly last time you were rootbound and didnt loosen up the rootball? It'd explain why the roots grew so slowly.

Plus you need WAY more N, remember its the main mineral that keeps plants green and photosynthesising at 100% of their potential.

Green plants till harvest and it'll be a happy day

How much more N would you say I need? I was thinking of buying some liquid N ferts maybe some 5-1-2 or something... the recipe is pretty balanced for most stages of growth as just a giant mix anyway... would be pretty high in K, but I've noticed more and more how valuable K is. Maybe add more mexican bat guano to the mix?