Bobrown14 - All about soil - Cottage 420's Organic Perpetual Indoor Garden

bobrown14;3750279 said:

MagicJim;3749323 said:

Here's a link to information from years ago but probably as accurate as any:

Organic Nutrient List

Organic Nutrient List This is a list of Organic nutrients obtained from the Marijuana Cultivation Bible. Enjoy. Organic Nutrient Chart Manures Rabbit manure N= 2.4 P= 1.4 K= 0.6 comments- Most concentrated of animal manures in fresh form. Cow manure (dairy) N= 0.6 P= 0.2 K=...

www.420magazine.com

I've used KIS Organics for their nutrient packs but they have lots of the individual products. You can find several other merchants through that Google search.

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G.O.P said:

Hey Bob, do you have a link, or list or something like that to a compilation of various different soil additives/amendments?
I've seen you mention things that I don't really see anyone else mention so wondering where you get that kind of info....Horsetail ferns for example, never seen them mentioned anywhere else other than you, but it seems like an awesome amendment

Sorry just to expand a bit.....but I'm trying to find in depth info on a variety of amendments, like how long they take to break down in specific forms, what they're sources N,P,K,Si,Ca etc...if they're slow release or fast release and so on......If there's nothing like that maybe a couple suggestions on books or sources I could look into for it

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Link = my brain... my brain on eggs! Yummmm

Yes I can give you the breakdown of my organic soil mix. Basically I run a "Coots" style soil mix. You can get the Coots mix at KIS Organics. Jim uses KIS nutrient packs but they just recently started carrying the Coots mix. I've been running the Coots mix since the early days on IC Mag and then Grass City forums when Coots and a bunch of us were ironing out the details. Basically simplifying it. Coots did all the heavy lifting for sure.
Basic soil mix:

1/3 Canadian sphagnum peat moss

1/3 hummus (compost + EWC) for bagged compost I recommend BU Blend (west coast) or Coast of Main Lobster Compost (east coast)
If you have any problems sourcing compost, ask me... I know a ton of different good choices, non of which are "bagged soil".

1/3 Aeration - rice hulls or Perl-lite (what I use). I do no-til and re-use the soil over and over. Rice hulls break down.

To that ^^ I add:

Clackamas Coot Nutrient and Mineral Kit

This kit has 2 parts - nutrient amendments and minerals and they add in some Malted Barley... that wasn't in the original mix but we were all using it as a top dress/watering in along with a few others.

Depending on how much soil you want to mix - they offer different size packages.

Here's the link for KIS & Coots mix:

Official Clackamas Coot Nutrient and Mineral Kit - KIS Organics

I've been mixing my own for years and have all those ingredients in separate containers. We do a lot of outdoor gardening so doing it that way works for me. I've got the mix I pointed to above also. It makes life pretty easy. I don't have to take 10 minutes extra and mix it all by hand! I'm lazy yup!

That will get you start to finish... the extra stuff I talk about like Nettles and Horsetail Ferns. My wife and I have been gardening organically for all our lives so we picked up a few things along the way. I share them when I get them out of our tool box.

There's a whole list of Dynamic (bio)accumulators. We use many of them, both growing in our gardens for flowers or in our gardens to harvest to make compost. Many of them grow wild and we hike around in the woods and harvest them. We grow the ones that make pretty flowers. Composting with all of them is what really makes great soil.

"Get your compost dialed in and there not much else to worry about." CC

Comfrey (Bocking 14 - sterile version) - use for compost - we grow it and harvest about 5-6 times a year. Nitrogen and many macro and micro nutrients

Stinging Nettles - nitrogen and potassium. Its biggest value is as a good source of some of the minor nutrients.

Horse Tail Fern - Silica in spades and many many other goodies - we use this primarily as a foiler in VEG to combat PM & molds. The plants really love this foilered on... amazing results.

Dandelions.. We can make a green manure tea Throw them in a bucket of water and let them sit for a week ... mix with water and water in - Nitrogen source. Composting is how we use them. Green manure ... also good for humans - eat leaves with salad or top burgers with them.

EWC - earth worm castings.. we harvest locally from the local wooded park near us and also have compost bins with red-wigglers FTW!

Kelp Meal - it's in the nutrient mix above, but I keep it handy for foilers and issues with plants. Anytime I think there's a problem plant (worthy of work), I mix up a cup of EWC and a 1/2 cup of Kelp meal in a gallon or 3 of water and either aerate over night or let it sit... stir it up and water in. Problems solved...

Vetch - many organic farmers grow this for cover crops - nitrogen fixer - can grow cover crops in containers, when cannabis plants get big the cover crop dies back... just like in nature after the trees get leaves, the forest floor cover dies back and the worms take over.

Karanga Cake
Neem Cake - Both of these go hand in hand.. they are also in the Coots mix already but I keep them on hand.

Neem Cake - can soak in water and use the liquid to foiler on when I have an active insect infestation. I like that better than the neem oil... the oil is harsh on the plants and burns flowers. The neem cake "tea" is not as harsh.

Alfalfa Meal - good source of N and lots of other macro and micro nutrients. Can burn roots without some "cooking" (composting). It's a green manure in soil, so best use of this is to add it to your compost and let the worms/bacteria break it down. Or add to soil 2-3 weeks minimum before planting. For animal feed it's tough to beet. Rabbits eat it, poop it out.. done and ready for the garden.. so rabbit poop FTW. We feed our dogs rabbit. Food for thought!

G-O-P - great list.. the challenge is getting the right ratios of everything.

Why I suggest getting the Coots mix - all the science and testing has been worked thru.. then while your plants are growing and you have all that idle time, start researching all the ingredients and how they work with soil, plants, animals and humans and most importantly, the environment.

You may find, that this is all old news and chemical fertilizers are not really "conventional". Sustainability is a thing and it's been around for 10s of thousands of years...many many ways to this sustainability thing.. lots of NW gardeners are into Korean Natural Farming (KNF).

The way its being implemented is using the "bottle" methodology. Meh.. pass. Composting will accomplish the same thing without all that work.. IMHO. Lazy bro here! I prefer to let the worms do the work.

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