Super Soil Error?

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asylumhavoc

Member
So... I posted awhile back about making my own organic living soil. Well, now it's time to plant but I have some input from others that my mixture doesn't look right. I added 1/3 of Fox Farms Ocean Forest, perlite, and EWC with mixtures of Kelp meal, neem meal, blood meal, fish bone mean, insect frass, oyster shell, garden lime... I'm worried I may have got way over my head since I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm really doing... Someome suggested its way too "clay-like". Should I scrap and start all over??
 

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PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
asylumhavoc said:
So... I posted awhile back about making my own organic living soil. Well, now it's time to plant but I have some input from others that my mixture doesn't look right. I added 1/3 of Fox Farms Ocean Forest, perlite, and EWC with mixtures of Kelp meal, neem meal, blood meal, fish bone mean, insect frass, oyster shell, garden lime... I'm worried I may have got way over my head since I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm really doing... Someome suggested its way too "clay-like". Should I scrap and start all over??
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Don't toss it. Add more aeration and mix it more often. Let it cook and it'll probably be a pretty decent mix. My soil base is FFOF.
 
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asylumhavoc

Member
PadawanWarrior said:
Don't toss it. Add more aeration and mix it more often. Let it cook and it'll probably be a pretty decent mix. My soil base is FFOF.
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Well I have plenty of perlite left over... Someone also suggested cutting with peat moss. Perhaps both? I have 9 5 gallon pots of soil, so how much should I be adding?

I assume cooking this for another 30 days?
 
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youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
I agree, More Peat Moss! Probably some perlite too. Pumice is pretty cool if you have some laying around. If not, no biggie,In my opinion.

Do you remember how much of each amendment you added? You should be able to lighten and fluff up your soil with peat/perlite and be OK, unless you added a crazy amount of something.

Did you add the azomite some time after you first mixed the soil? One time I top dressed with azomite and it formed a crusty cement like layer on top of the soil. It didn't cause any problems, it just looked pretty gnar.
 
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asylumhavoc

Member
youraveragehorticulturist said:
I agree, More Peat Moss! Probably some perlite too. Pumice is pretty cool if you have some laying around. If not, no biggie,In my opinion.

Do you remember how much of each amendment you added? You should be able to lighten and fluff up your soil with peat/perlite and be OK, unless you added a crazy amount of something.

Did you add the azomite some time after you first mixed the soil? One time I top dressed with azomite and it formed a crusty cement like layer on top of the soil. It didn't cause any problems, it just looked pretty gnar.
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I mixed everything together when I got it first.

Edit: https://www.rollitup.org/t/question-soil-reuse.1029014/

I followed this thread that I started on everything I added.
 
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asylumhavoc

Member
myke said:
So your 1/3 FFOF,1/3 EWC, 1/3 perlite? Then amendments?
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Yea! I used 5 gallon buckets to measure the base and a measuring cup for the amendments. Each run had 30 gallons of base soil in them and I just split the amendments in half for each since I didnt habe a 60 gallon container.
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
asylumhavoc said:
Yea! I used 5 gallon buckets to measure the base and a measuring cup for the amendments. Each run had 30 gallons of base soil in them and I just split the amendments in half for each since I didnt habe a 60 gallon container.
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Well from what ive read its too much EWC.Ontop of the ffof.I thought the humus part was supposed to be 80-20 compst to EWC.?
 
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CTGrown203

Well-Known Member
It’s the w/castings I’ve added too much myself and that’s what the soil looks like, if you have already planted then u might run into problems if not just mix in more of that ffof if that’s all u have
 
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asylumhavoc

Member
CTGrown203 said:
It’s the w/castings I’ve added too much myself and that’s what the soil looks like, if you have already planted then u might run into problems if not just mix in more of that ffof if that’s all u have
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I haven't planted yet, I got the seedlings in smaller pots with just FFOF. I was just about to head to Home Depot and grab 6 cu ft of peat moss and split my mixture half and half... Is that still the best thing to do?
 
quirk

quirk

Well-Known Member
asylumhavoc said:
So... I posted awhile back about making my own organic living soil. Well, now it's time to plant but I have some input from others that my mixture doesn't look right. I added 1/3 of Fox Farms Ocean Forest, perlite, and EWC with mixtures of Kelp meal, neem meal, blood meal, fish bone mean, insect frass, oyster shell, garden lime... I'm worried I may have got way over my head since I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm really doing... Someome suggested its way too "clay-like". Should I scrap and start all over??
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Light, airy, fluffy and well draining so it gets moist, never wet. Wet displaces oxygen. Roots require air pockets throughout medium.
 
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