Building soil from scratch and on the cheap!

COorganics No-Till soil Mix

Base Mix
1/3 high quality top soil (the soil mix originally created here is being used as the top soil)
1/3 Canadian sphagnum peat moss
1/3 organic matter (vermicompost, compost, forest floor scraps)

Dry Amendments per cubic foot of soil (7.48 gallons)
6-5-3 mix of Limestone, Gypsum, and SRP- 1/2 cup
Crab meal- 1 cup
Neem seed meal- 1 1/2 cups
Alfalfa meal- 1/2 cup
Fish meal- 1 1/2 cups
Kelp meal- 1/2 cup
Biochar- 2 cups
Azomite- 1 tablespoon

Aerating amendments
1/3 total soil volume
(I am using an equal parts mix of perlite, lava rock, and clay balls)
Different options are rice hulls, pumice, and others.

Top Layer blend
Equal parts of feather meal and blood meal. This blend is designed to be sprinkled sparingly on the top of the container, directly below the mulch layer, avoiding the plant stalk.

This soil mix should be cooked for at least a month, turn it over regularly and keep it semi moist. Inoculate with ACT once during veg and once into flower. Other than that or an occasional biological tea, this is a water only grow. I will be using pure water with CaMg+ added from time to time if need be.
 
I thought I had a diverse population of microbial life in my containers before. But now I feel I was missing out on a lot by relying too much on ACT's. The microherd in the current containers will be brought in from a wide variety of sources, including indigenous ones like the forest floor litter I collected. Sphagnum peat moss actually contains lots of Microlife as well. Millions of tiny Canadians added to the party. A boat load of castings and homemade compost brings more players into the game as well. ACT will be used to further inoculate the mix, no longer the sole provider. Balance, harmony, and nature... Inside under HPS in a plastic room. Ha haa!
 
I didn't see it but I might have gone over it, here is a small batch of SS.

1 ten gallon bag of high quality Organic Potting Soil- Such as “Roots Organic Soil”

3 to 6 pounds of Organic Earthworm Castings- (1 lb. of casting = about 1 gal.)

10 ounces of Blood Meal- ( 10 oz. of blood meal = about 1 & 1/2 cups)

10 ounces of Bloom Bat Guano ( 10 oz. of guano = about 1 cup)

10 ounces Fish Bone Meal ( 10 oz. of bone meal = about 1 cup)

6 ounces Rock Phosphate

1&1/2 tablespoons Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate)

2 tablespoons or 1 oz. (liquid measure)of Dolomite Lime

1 tablespoons or 1/2 oz. (liquid measure) of Azomite (trace elements)

1 teaspoon of powdered Humic Acid
 
I need to throw this out there. Don't try this soil mix. I don't recommend anyone try exactly what I'm doing. I am just realy getting into organics, as it turns out, and I haven't even personally tried or seen my current program work. I have really benefited from this thread. Thanks to all. I do find it frustrating that I can't post links to the current soil mix recipe I'm tuned into. Come on 420. This is the first forum I joined and I like the folks here. But I wanna further my learning and not being able to post links to other forums is counterproductive to the goal. (Getting better at growing organic weed). I like to copy posts like this one sometimes for my records.
 
You may not be able to link to the page but you can copy and paste the formula in text form, and name the author of the formula I believe.

COorganics said:
I need to throw this out there. Don't try this soil mix. I don't recommend anyone try exactly what I'm doing. I am just realy getting into organics, as it turns out, and I haven't even personally tried or seen my current program work. I have really benefited from this thread. Thanks to all. I do find it frustrating that I can't post links to the current soil mix recipe I'm tuned into. Come on 420. This is the first forum I joined and I like the folks here. But I wanna further my learning and not being able to post links to other forums is counterproductive to the goal. (Getting better at growing organic weed). I like to copy posts like this one sometimes for my records.
Click to expand...
 
COorganics said:
Hey there good 2 see ya. How's your dirt?
Click to expand...

I discovered a vein of Super Veg Dirt in my backyard. :) The secret is a bird feeder. Haven't gotten quite as far as growing my ladies in the Super Veg Dirt because I had to close down my flower room because Gramma discovered the room and... Betty, my partner who was in charge of veg is now in charge of flower, too. Betty is about through her initial flowering learning curve, so hopefully we'll be able to test out the Super Veg Dirt soon. Here's something I'm just going to throw in--it is my firm contention that the properties in this particular dirt negatively effects flowering.

I'll probably never prove it, but I plan on having some fun trying to figure out how. ;)
 
If someone wants to grow the best organic plants google ClackamasCoots soil mix and start reading. That's the mix I've settled on based on seeing results. Research for yourselves, don't take it from me.
I'm going to ask the mods to close this thread. Thanks for following along, and for the assistance along the way, especially to Conradino.

The soil is all growing stuff nowadays and it's going well and documented in my no till journal.

Laters
 
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