Organic super soil mix from scratch - for ROLS

Wetdog said:

The leaf mold is a long term deal and takes about 3 years to finish. My last years leaves are just now starting to break down some and not look like freshly collected leaves. I use the lawnmower to chop them up as I can and will put this years in a different spot.
For leaves, it's almost all fungus rather than bacteria and the three years is no exaggeration. Worth it in the end, but patience is a must for leaf mold.

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bassman999 said:

No drain holes?
So I can buy Lowes buckets and not have to worry about overflow anymore....nice

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SupraSPL said:

When I add leaf mold I pick from the layer that is already almost broken down, often white strands running through and smells great. The few leaves that do make it in tend to break down quickly in the presence of all the other nutes, heat and damp. Great stuff!



Yes if you are careful you can get away with no-drain (experimentally). You just dont want to swamp the buckets, so I always hoist each one to gauge how much water each needs. In my experience I would have to overwater to get true runoff from this soil anyway and I prefer not to waterlog them.

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hillbill said:

Been recycling soil for years, bring some new mix occasionally add some peat maybe and amend it like it was new but go light on greensand, rock phosphate and make sure it drains well and smells good. Some ends up in raised beds for flowers or pots. My mix is high drainage and I use compost tea often. Top dress with castings and indo guano once about 4 weeks in. LEDs seem to demand much better drainage than hps.

Getting the drainage right with LEDs is a big deal as the lights don't dry or heat the soil like hps. Fungus gnats prefer soggy soil!

8822

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hillbill said:

That sounds more like a compost bin that has too many greens and way wet. That's what organic mixes or teas go anaerobic smell. Smells like real shit. Your mix should smell like an uprooted tree root ball or like a freshly tilled garden. When your mix is right, it should not hurt the nose, but make you want to take deep breaths of it's wonderfulness.

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hillbill said:

Sounds like it needs air. If you got it too wet, without good drainage the mix will smother itself with cesspool life taking over, hence the smell. My mix under LEDs is a gravely loam and very light using composted bark, perlite and sharp sand along with NAPA 8822. About 40% drainage, 30% with hps.

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hillbill said:

Mix it every couple days which exposes more mix to air which helps. I turn mine everyday for a week after it sets for a couple days to get things going. A good fresh mix will provide it!s own heat. Just make sure a little water just drips out when you grab a handful. Too much more and it will sour and too dry it won't cook. Cooking is really composting the amendments like Guanos, meals etc. Alfalfa and sugar will get the tiny herd cooking, always throw a couple cups of sugar in while wetting the mix. Carbon for the little guys.
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Stick your hand in the middle after 2 or 3 days and it will be very warm. If it smells more and more like dirt your at least in balance. I like using rain water and especially live well water when I can. Worm teas with live well water are great.

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SupraSPL said:

I usually cook it in contractor bags with 50-100L of soil in each, makes it very easy to thoroughly mix them up. The smell will be strongest in the first 7 days and then it should mellow out to the point where it has almost no smell, just a nice soil earthy forest soil smell. If it did get too wet you can turn it and vent it. If it did get too wet and went anaerobic, no worries it will switch back to aerobic once cooked and gets some more air.

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SupraSPL said:

Heavy duty trash bags, usually 2mil thickness and 55gallon. Yes it can lose some water because the cooking creates CO2 and heat which pushes water vapor out of the tote along with the air. It is OK to add some water back in .

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SupraSPL said:

I usually cook it in contractor bags with 50-100L of soil in each, makes it very easy to thoroughly mix them up. The smell will be strongest in the first 7 days and then it should mellow out to the point where it has almost no smell, just a nice soil earthy forest soil smell. If it did get too wet you can turn it and vent it. If it did get too wet and went anaerobic, no worries it will switch back to aerobic once cooked and gets some more air.

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hillbill said:

Not all fungi form threadlike visible structures. There will be fungi. That is a part of earthy scent. I always put in used mix with tiny herd already there. My compost tea has peat
from my bog garden.

My biggest challenge was getting N levels right, especially with LEDs. My mix serves both veg and flower and I always do perpetual. I lightly top dress at about 4 wks flower and stop giving tea at about 6 wks.

LEDs(cobs) provide unmatched light these days but plant transpiration is turtle-slow compared to the sun or HID lights, which is why I make sure to have fast drainage. It keeps things moving inside the plant and compensates for the infrared heat from HID.

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hillbill said:

I use 7ltr home paper trash baskets, and until you are dialed in, that is pretty small. Many prefer 3gal or so. Easy to do 1 gal in sog but would take actual feeding, not just watering with act. The smaller the pot, the more luv and time that is required. Things change faster in small pots and I am a bit slow to pick up on a problem at times.

Do realize that 2gal containers move a lot easier than 5gal. Important if you move plants much. Smaller pots are mostly shorter also which should be a factor here.

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