Help with my soil mix =)

Hello all!

I am about to buy 2 cubic yards of a local nurseries compost soil for my outdoor grow this season. I think that's around 400 gallons of soil. I have looked everywhere in the forums and I'm finding it really hard to find a good recipe that has the ingredients available to me. Here's a rundown on what I can get and I'm hoping someone with experience can help me with a good ratio.

400 gallons of soil.
Peat moss.
Blood/bone meal.
Dolomite lime.
Epsom salt.
Perlite.
Worm castings.

All of this I can get locally to avoid shipping costs. But if there is anything that is absolutely needed I may splurge lol. Anyways, if anyone is knowledgeable with mixing this much with these ingredients I would greatly appreciate it. All feedback or criticism is appreciated. Thanks!

Fish poo , with a 30 gal container I use 3 cf of soiless mix, 1cf perlite, 1 cf vermiculite, .25 cf bone meal, .25 cf bloodmeal, spanish peat moss as a top, 4 tablespoons of dolomite lime to begin w, mix well! Get some pond water to feed with lol I use general organics, and love it. Only will use coco and that stuff now, simplicity is huge to me.

Those are exact measurements for 30 gallons but it will get you close .

I actually have a small pond! Lots of fish in it, I never knew it was good or even considered it as a water source. Sometimes mid summer it gets some algae (I think that's how you spell it.) in it. Would that be harmful? I also have a really good source for worm castings and I'm going to use a lot of it for sure. Thanks for the info May11th, I really want to look into pond water now =D

May11th said:

Fish poo , with a 30 gal container I use 3 cf of soiless mix, 1cf perlite, 1 cf vermiculite, .25 cf bone meal, .25 cf bloodmeal, spanish peat moss as a top, 4 tablespoons of dolomite lime to begin w, mix well! Get some pond water to feed with lol I use general organics, and love it. Only will use coco and that stuff now, simplicity is huge to me.

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DO NOT FEED WITH POND WATER! unless you want shit tons of bugs and problems or have a way to sterilize it, this would be an absolutely HORRIBLE idea. Unless you enjoy fighting off random invasions nothing from outside should ever come inside your precious grow room.

This is all for an outdoor grow so I don't think it'd be that big of a deal =) but it could probably cause some kind of problems I'm sure. May test one plot this season with pond water =) does 50 percent soil, 15 percent perlite and Peat moss, 20 percent worm castings sou d like a good ratio anyone? With the other amendments added at proper ratios as well. Any help with that would be much appreciated.

well yeah in that case go for it, i didnt realize it was outside, my bad. just be careful though because unless you have the water tested you really have no idea what kinds of nutes are in it, best of luck with your outdoor stuff this year!

Thank you! :

I know my initial question is a bit noobish, but this is going to be my first and I really want everything to be as optimal as possible for me. Please folks, any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

Lexx and greensummit, if its his pond and he knows whats going on I wouldnt worry tbh, im no professional but if you search my current grow, I feed with pond water as much as I can and I have no fish in it yet but will, if you have algae problems lex get acouple star fish .

You do have to worry about bugs and what not but my plants love my pond water and I add no chemicals, I let the fish and environment do the work and then I take that water and add general organics and I can assume to have a good harvest.

Ps cheers for the summer just starting where im from! Hell yes.

i was thinking it was indoor, outdoor i would be cool with that, mine are next to (not within flood distance) a creek at my house, so same idea really

Hell yeah bro. I am just about to start a outdoor lemon skunk grow against 3 or so super skunks, see which skunk is elite.

It's great to have a close water source, really good on my back! I have 6 autos going now and 23 photos. Not including the autos I have 9 strains going lol. I started 2 on 4/20 and they are already about 4 feet tall! I've been using the fox farm trio on them. The rest I'm going to use blood/bone meal, worm castings, rock phosphate, azomite, bloom bat guano, humic acid and a few other amendments. And now, of course pond water thanks to may11th! If it works out the way I hope, I should only have to water all season.

Hilarious signature btw may11t,, made me chuckle.

Amending organic soil is the way to go. I love being able to just put in my amendments, cook the soil and watch my girls thrive and love life. With all the organics I've been doing I do have to Xplant a little more because my plants are so healthy that they outgrow their planters almost twice as fast as with reg soil and chem ferts. I have a Skunk#1 and a Menage a Trois I've only given bottle nutes to 2-3 times and it was at 1/4-1/2 strength and their almost 2 months old, not bad. When you smoke the final cured product, it's alot better as well and you don't even have to really flush it at the end if you don't want to.(I still do) I started a Lemon Kush a couple of days ago, I want to see how she can yield. I love the lemon hybrids they always seem to be the best pain killers. Peace out.

What you have available will make a good soil - one part peat moss, one part compost, one part perlite. The nitrogen and hopefully unsteamed bone meal will provide nitrogen and phosphorous. You should think about adding some potassium in...greensand...but only greensand if you plan on reusing the soil as greensand can take months to years to completely break down...which is why its so wonderful in the long run. You may also consider getting some Kelp which is generally good for trace minerals/elements.

Long term other items which you may find useful are 1) a slow release nitrogen product unlike blood meal which is pretty fast.....neem and/or karanja cake are nice products but there are others like feather meal and organic cottonseed meal (hard to find but if it's near you great!) 2) slow release phosphorus like fish bone meal. A banana peel tea is good at flowering time for a little quick potassium as is I understand (and will try in the future) coconut water

It's also rather amazing but good rock dust in your soil does help a great deal. I've purchased glacial rock dust and azomite but some folks have just gone to the local quarry for fines/dust.

For about 8 - 10 gallons of soil add 1) 1 cup of nitrogen product (combo of products is best with some fast and some slow) 2)1 cup phosphorus product (once again combo is good for quick and slow term release) 3)1+ cup dolomite lime (could also add oyster shell flour which is a great product at about 1/2 cup) 4)1/2 cup greensand 5) 1/2+ cup gypsum 6) 1/2 cup kelp meal 7) 2 cups rock dusts (glacial, azomite, etc)

Keep in mind one thing about your soil - the quality of the compost is paramount. If your worms were fed paper products, they don't provide as much nutrients as worms that were fed kitchen scraps, etc...or if you use horse manure you have to make sure they weren't deworming and the better the feed the better the poop in general...chicken manure is best from free range chickens as they get a variety of foods. Anyway, spend some time making a good product for yourself (cheap and highly effective!) or spend some time/money tracking down some.

Thanks lexx . I like to laugh often.

Thanks for the great info jcmjrt! I found subcools super soil recipe and I've bought all the ingredients for it. I just bought some green sandsand ill add to it when it arrives. The only thing that sucks is I have to let this soil that I've mixed cook for at least 30 days. As for the chickens, I have 8 that run around and roost in one tree. I'm thinking about putting a tarp under it and catching all their poo lol. I'm also trying a small worm farm I built. They are in two half pieces of a 1000 gallon water reservoir I made and buried partly in the ground. When it rains here at night I go out and catch 50-100 night crawler worms and put in them. I've probably caught around a 1000 in the last few months and put in them =) Been feeding them a combo of table scraps, crushed egg shells and other goodies. This time next year I should have plenty of healthy worm castings.

As I said earlier, this is my first real outdoor grow. I now have 6 plots of 4-6 plants. Most get the same amount of light, same soil ferts and same assortment of strains. But I plan on treating each plot differently. I want to see which strain, topping, fimming ,super croppin
g and soil works best for me. Hopefully I'll get a good harvest but next year using all the experience I've learned this year I'm hoping for a better harvest =)

Again, thanks everyone for your replys and help!