Making my own soil

[Gimik]

Hi all,

I'm looking to start another run and want to switch things up this time around! I'm trying to get away from using bottle nutrients and want my soil to do all the work. I just need a little help getting there

First off, I do not want to experiment with trying to create my own soil mix I don't know the nuances enough and would definitely make an unbalanced mix. I was reading about Subcool's soil recipe and I think I'm going to give it a shot. I'm only running a 2x4 space this time so IDK if I need to make 50gallons of the stuff... I found a recipe for smaller batches.

• 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

My question... What should I use as the base soil? Can I use FFOF or is that too hot? Should I just go with straight up peat moss? Do I need to mix in compost to this or are the listed ingredients good enough?

I should also say I want to reuse this soil for multiple runs.... I don't want to use perlite because it breaks down. With the given ingredients will I have good enough aeration or do I need to add rice hulls/lava rocks?

I also don't really want to brew compost teas. I wanted to inoculate the soil using URB. As far as feedings, can I get away with just using water/liquid seaweed/alfalfa + kelp meal and molasses with this mix?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[CADBOY]

Personally I used to use bottled nutrients and pearlite for hempy grow.

I too wanted to get away from that and do a more natural approach and make my own soil.

Many people have helped me dip through the endless reading and experimenting.

This is what I'm doing now and I'm seriously happy still doing hempys.

Soil:
1bag HP Pro mix with Mycorrhizae (70)
1 bag of regular soil (30)
Mix soils 70/30

Nutrients;
Gaia green 444 all purpose (2 tbsp per 1gal)
Gaia green 284 Flowering (2 tbsp per 1gal)
Gaia Green Worm Castings (2 tbsp per 1gal)

Recipe I'm currently using;

#1) Pre-mixing soil when transplanting plants into grow container...

Thoroughly mix into soil (2 tbsp-444) and (2 tbsp-284) per (4L/1gal.) And 2 tbsp of worm Castings of soil or growing medium.
Add the plant, water plant, done.
No food for 3 weeks, only water.

#2) Vegging

Gently dig/throughly mix (1tbsp-444) and (1tbsp-284) per (4L/1gal.) And 1bsp of worm castings in soil surface to mix everything and water.
No food for 3 weeks, only water.
Apply every 3 weeks untill your ready to flower.

#3) Flowering

Gently dig/throughly mix (2tbsp-284) per (4L/1gal.) And (2tbsp of worm castings) in soil surface to mix everything and water.
Apply every 3 weeks untill flowing is done.

Enjoy your weed.

 

[Gimik]

Hey Cadboy, thanks for the response!

So you just use plain water but you mix in new dry additives to the top soil every 3 or so weeks to replenish the nutrients within the soil? Do you mess with pH at all?

 

[CADBOY]

Hey Cadboy, thanks for the response!

So you just use plain water but you mix in new dry additives to the top soil every 3 or so weeks to replenish the nutrients within the soil? Do you mess with pH at all?

Hey

Yes, after I mix nutrients into soil, I only use water for about 4 to 5 weeks roughly, when your plants look hungry mix in more nutrients, then again just use water. I dont test ph or anything else. Seems ridiculous sometimes lol

So I basically take all soils and nutrients, pre mix about 3 gal worth.

Plant my seed in "jiffy pucks or rapid rooters" when seedlings pop outta that, I plant them into this same premixed soil as in recipe into party cups untill it's time to up pot.

So for seedlings use:
Soil:
1bag HP Pro mix with Mycorrhizae (70)
1 bag of regular soil (30)
Mix soils 70/30

Nutrients; ( per 4 liters/1gal )
Gaia green 444 all purpose (2 tbsp)
Gaia green 284 Flowering (2 tbsp)
Gaia Green Worm Castings (2 tbsp)

When you up pot, use the same as here for soil recipe. Only need to amend later on...

Did I make any sense?

 

[CADBOY]

Just to show ya, health AF flowering plant.
This one has only ever had,
Soil:
1bag HP Pro mix with Mycorrhizae (70)
1 bag of regular soil (30)
Mix soils 70/30

Nutrients; ( per 4 liters/1gal )
Gaia green 444 all purpose (2 tbsp)
Gaia green 284 Flowering (2 tbsp)
Gaia Green Worm Castings (2 tbsp)

While in a blue party cup, then same soil, same nutrients when up poted, untill now..

 

[CADBOY]

Two, Zero, Two, Zero Let's Grow

I usually , but not always, transplant at about the size you have there, but that’s me :)

www.420magazine.com

Page 4 shows how I up potted and what was used exactly.

 

[Gimik]

When I get home from work tonight I'm going to take a look at the link you sent me.

I looked up Promix HP -- it contains perlite which im trying to steer clear of because I want to keep reusing my soil. I need to find a base soil with nutrients in it but no perlite. I intend to use rice Hulls / lava rocks to promote aeration.

 

[Gimik]

I think what I'm going to do is this.

Base Soil:
Peat Moss (33%) Peat Moss
Worm Castings (33%) <--- Compost
Rice Hulls/Lava Rock (33%) <--- Aeration

Then add in the following:

• 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

 

[Kanda]

I’m wondering why you couldn’t reuse soil with perilite in it?
I am having good results with supersoil and water only. The Subcool recipe I used is listed out in my indoor journal linked in my signature if you want to check it out.

 

[Gimik]

Hi Kanda!

I took a look at the soil recipe you used... a couple questions for ya.

Did you plant your seeds into your supersoil or is it too hot? Do you just plant in the base soil instead and does it provide enough nutrients until you start using the supersoil?
Also, are you filling you're pots 100% supersoil each time you up-pot?

As for your question about the perlite, I was under the impression that perlite breaks down into a sort of sand overtime which isn't something I want in my soil. Using rice hulls w/ lava rocks provides aeration that doesn't break down.

Someone chime in and correct me if I'm wrong

 

[Kanda]

I use supersoil in the bottom 1/2 ish of container and plant into base soil. you’re right, the supersoil is too hot.
I start my seeds in seedling mix for first week then into plain base soil in 1/2 gallon pot until ready for final home (usually a couple weeks or so) The base soil I used has enough nutrients. I use plain water only.
This is a new mix this year from my first year and all plants....in ground and in bags outdoors and indoors are growing really well. The free growing outdoor ladies are at least 7 feet tall currently in the ground and in 15 gallon bags. I’m somewhat concerned about how tall they will get...time will tell.

From what I understand perilite breaks down very slowly. I’m curious to see what others think.
At least your rice hulls are a renewable resource.

 

[bobrown14]

I think what I'm going to do is this.

Base Soil:
Peat Moss (33%) Peat Moss
Worm Castings (33%) <--- Compost
Rice Hulls/Lava Rock (33%) <--- Aeration

Then add in the following:

• 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

Getting close... you need some glacial rock dust and more Calcium.

Add Kelp Meal can even double up the kelp meal.
Can leave out the rock phosphate too with you bat guano you will be overloaded with phosphates.

can Add 10% bio-char

add a cup of oyster shell flour and a cup of gypsum (food grade) there's your Calcium.
Can use crustacean meal instead of the fish bone or in addition to it. I use about a cup of crustacean meal and a tbs of fish bone meal.

along with the worm castings you can use some sort of compost or vermi-compost mix that together to make up your 1/3 humus portion.

Glacial rock dust... 2 cups minimum.

 

[Gimik]

Ugh the more and more I read the less sure I am of what I want to do lol... I found this article that speaks to Subcool's Soil Recipe and "debunks" it.

1. Bagged soil - WHY? when we are going to the trouble to mix all of this up anyways, me might as well save some money and increase the quality. The other factor here is having exact control over the inputs. These soils already have unknown quantities of nutrients and the quality control isn't perfect, what if you get a hot batch and then further amend it? I would avoid the potential room for problems and make a soil using many standard recipes but most go with 1 part peat, 1 part compost and 1 part aeration.
2. Mycorrhizae: Adding this to your soil doesn't make sense and is a waste of resources. Anyone who works with mycorrhizae will tell you to apply to the rootzone at transplant or seedling stage. Obviously this super soil mix is for the bottom of the container and nowhere near the rootzone at the proper time. Basically just a complete waste of Myco.
3. 25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings: I agree with using wormcastings but that is a WIDE range to apply. Why 25 - 50? I think that when building your base mix you should be factoring in a certain percentage of castings and compost. Not adding to this all later on in a made up way.
4. 5 lbs steamed bone meal - This is a by-product from the Cattle industry and is really not a good input for organic soil production. Fish bone meal however is great for this same purpose and is safer to use.
5. 5 lbs Bloom bat guano - Guano is very expensive and really not neccessary. This is a fast release nutrient and is more in line with the feed the plant regimen instead of soil building. That and harvesting guano is rarely safe and sustainable, there are many reasons to avoid this.... Plus the Fish bone meal that we just mentioned has you covered already along with all the other plant based amendments and worm castings that you should be using.
6. 5 lbs blood meal - More slaughterhouse waste and sure to be unclean. Why use the blood from McDonalds cows when you can add nitrogen so easily through alfalfa meal, fish meal and or worm castings.
7. 3 lbs rock phosphate - This is the 3rd phosphate product and it makes sense because in a soil this rich and without the mycorrhizae actually working like it should there isn't going to be a very good way to access P. That's okay, in a properly built soil you don't need a million sources of P, the plants will get it and the biology and fungi will make sure of it. Not only that but soft rock phosphate is high in heavy metals like cadmium that are proven to be harmful. When growing cannabis, the trichomes will store the heavy metals and smoking the plant will not allow the typical body safety system of passing through the liver etc. before going into your blood. For this reason materials high in heavy metals are typically avoided.
8. ¾ cup Epsom salts - Absolutely no reason to add more magnesium sulfate to a good soil mix. A little known fact about soil is that the Calcium to Magmesium Ratio will control the texture of the soil and adding epsom salts is a good way to tighten the soil and there are better ways to get sulfur, like gypsum.
9. ½ cup sweet lime (dolomite) - Dolomite lime should be avoided as it is completely out of balance with the proper Calcium to magnesium ratios for proper soil building. Especially when considering long term no-till soil use.
10. ½ cup azomite (trace elements) - This is good stuff and is just a "brand" name rock dust that has all the elements from A-Z hence Azomite.... thing is, that also includes heavy metals. While I'd use this in the veggie garden, many will avoid this in the medicine garden.
11. 2 tbsp powdered humic acid - Good advice but humic acid typically purchased at the grow shop is from leanordite and isn't really helpful and is very expensive. Avoid this and get Ful-Power from Bio-ag and use it with waterings.

1. 
   

I found these posts... I think I'm going to go with this recipe/directions: It's a lot to read but good information!!

Part 2: Building Your Base Soil

This is simple enough. Peat moss or Coco coir/aeration/compost in even parts.

For example:

One gallon of peat moss or coir, one gallon of compost, and one gallon of aeration.

What you mean by aeration dog?

Perlite, volcanic rock dust, Google for more...basically something to ensure you will have heavy drainage.

Have some fox farm or promix that you used in your previous grow and would rather start with that as a base?

You totally should! Always make use of what you have before you buy anything else. If this is spent soil from a previous grow it will probably have a comparable consistency to a mix of peat moss and perlite. Add in even parts compost and that'll give you the same solid mix.

What kind of compost should I use?

All of the kinds of compost!!! Grow stores are so limited, most will usually have over priced forest floor compost and worm castings at best. Your big box stores with garden centers, tractor and farm supply stores, and landscape supplier's will provide more affordable options. Google if there's a local compost facility in your area. Thatd be even better.

Cannabis is an annual so it prefers bacterial dominant soil. Worm castings and thermal made compost (compost with lots of foods scraps, leaves, and coffee grounds to create a hot compost pile) will provide this.

Fungal heavy compost (found in compost broken down without heat); made from just wood chips or the forest floor, plays an important role is well. Leaf mold compost (also cold broken down) is great too, it's super rich in humus and minerals. Fungal microbes play a major role in phosphorus uptake so you want at least

Worm castings of course are the best of all...especially of you can homemake them.

A nice blend of bacterial compost, a forest floor or fungal heavy compost, and worm castings will be best. But if you have to settle for one, you'll be okay. Just the more diversity you can have in your soil the better.

Part 3: Nutrients, and Amending Your Soil

I won't go full on essential plant nutrient lesson, it's covered in many other guides. I'm assuming a level novice knowledge has been acquired before reading this guide.

We want to build a soil that will have all the nutrients the plant needs, readily available when the plant needs it. Organic growing is not the same as growing with bottled nutrients where you apply and the nutrients are already chelated and ready for uptake by the plant roots. Growing organic, you already have everything in the soil, the roots send out exudates that communicate with the microbiology in the soil, and the microbiology breaks down the organic matter in the soil to be uptaken by the plant. If you want to know more of the details of this relationship I highly recommend checking out the book Teaming With Microbes.

So what nutes do we want in our soil and how do we provide them?

I'm gonna start backwards with the micronutrients. Boron, copper, manganese...these should be plentiful in your soil with little effort. No need for extra amendments to provide these typically.

Calcium, magnesium, and sulfer, while still micronutrients, are much more needed by the plant. In particular calcium and magnesium. The good news about sulfer is that it's usually provided when you're providing something else. So there's no need to amend for sulfer typically. Now magnesium is available in compost, castings, so there's some in the base mix but adding some is usually needed, especially in container gardening. Which most indoor cannabis is. Calcium, could almost be a macronutrient with how important it is. It is also available to the plant from compost and worm castings but we will want to amend the soil further and apply some additional love throughout the grow.

Onto the big three boys. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. NPK. Cannabis uses lots of nitrogen in veg, and lots of phosphorus and potassium. This has misled synthetic growers, who have to feed the plant directly, into not supplying adequate K during veg (although not often), and cutting off the supply of nitrogen too soon into flower. And everyone always overdoes it with phosphorus...Google peak phosphorus... A good NPK ratio for cannabis soil (tomato's, and pepper's love this as well) would be something like 5-2-3 (these numbers are pretty arbitrary just trying to give you an example). Lots of nitrogen, more than anything, it is your biggest building block...however...over doing it can inhibit root growth and delay maturity. That's why phosphorus needs to be not too far behind nitrogen. And since we want big fruits to come from those big roots, and we want a strong, sturdy plant...we've got potassium.

Growing organically, we don't have to feed the plant directly. We make sure the soil is good and prepared, and its microbes and the roots talk to make the magic happen.

Now, in my gardening I noticed that while building a solid soil yielded positive results, quantity could use some improvement. Even when I composted my amendments into my soil (commonly referred to as cooking in super soil circles). Growth rates and yields were a little disappointing.

Adding readily available sources of macronutrients, along with amendments that provide growth hormones and trace minerals (alfalfa and kelp meal) in addition to having a prepared soil was where I found my salvation. I did some grows where I simply applied the readily available macronutrients and beneficial amendments into a unamended soil and it had some deficiencies, and performance issues.

The plain water approach vs the just tea approach was no match for the two of them combined.

Part 4: soil mix recipe

There's a lot of options for what amendments you can go for knowing what you need to give the plant. I recommend whatever is locally available to you. I like amendments that provide multiple benefits. Fish meal for example provides nitrogen...but also phosphorus, calcium, amimo acids, and hormones. While blood meal only provides nitrogen and iron. So these are the amendments I go for, applied at 1/2 cup per cubic feet (that's about 7 gallons) to virgin soil. These are mixed directly into the soil.

Fish Meal (9-4-0)
Nitrogen, phosphorus, along with amino acids, hormones.

Crab Shell Meal (4-3-0)
N, P, calcium, magnesium, pH buffer, chitin

Oyster Shell Flour
Calcium, pH buffer

Kelp meal (0-0-1) or (1-0-2)
Potassium, trace minerals

Do you need to let this all cook? Not the way we're doing things. The readily available nutrients from worm castings, compost, and teas we'll be applying will do the heavy lifting in veg, while the meals in the soil will be ready for us once we hit flower. Now...if you're able to let the mix age...that would be all for the better.

A quick side note about pH and lime...Growing organic you don't need to adjust pH constantly. If your soil pH is too low (like if you use peat moss over Coco coir) you'll want an amendment that acts as a pH buffer to bring up the pH. Most people use dolomite lime. You'll notice I don't use any lime in my mix. I use a combination of crab shell meal and oyster shell flour. Calcium and magnesium levels in my soil stay higher for longer vs when I was using lime. And my soil is buffered all the same.

If your plant is having uptake issues the first thing you should do is get a cheap soil pH test kit and see where your soil is at before you do anything drastic.

Part 5: Tea recipes

I've thrown out the tea word a couple of times already. So let me clarify and say that tea is a blanket term for a few different things.

First compost tea, more specifically actively aerated compost tea (AACT). This is not something we do to add nutrients, we do it to add microbiology to soil if it is in need of being recharged. A soil built with organic matter will develop a microherd on its own (especially if you water with molasses), compost tea just speeds up this process. So if you don't want to or aren't capable of doing AACT don't fret. If you desire a better understanding of the process again I recommend reading Teaming With Microbes. You'll need an air pump and and airstone or three. And it can be applied at anytime, and won't burn plants. How do you know when it's done? Take a good whiff when you first dump the molasses. When that sweet smell is replaced by a more earthy smell, your tea is good to use. Apply immediately as a root drench or foliar spray (helps fight pests and powdery mildew!)

Compost tea recipe

Five gallon of dechlorinated or RO water
Six cups of compost
1/4 cup of unsulphered molasses
Brew for 24 - 48 hours
Dilute with up to twenty gallons but dilution isn't needed.

Worm Castings tea
This is similar to the above but I believe it has some well rounded nutrient content if you're using fresh, homemade worm castings.

Five gallons dechlorinated or RO water
4-6 cups of worm castings
1/2 cup of kelp
1/4 cup of molasses
Brew 24-48 hours
Can dilute with up to 15 gallons of water

Then there's nutrient teas, these are used to add boosts of your macros and big micros. These are usually steeped teas but you could approach these as AACT as well...just be aware that some fertilizers can slow microbe growth...which is why we use compost tea to add microbes, and nutrient teas to add nutrients. Bird and bat guanos provide the most readily available fertilizer. I prefer seabird guanos over bat guano because of the sustainability issues around harvesting bat guano. Also seabird guano is richer in trace minerals. Bat guano trace minerals leech away easily before it's even harvested for use. I also use alfalfa and kelp. These are both rich in growth hormones, trace minerals. Most bottled additives that promise you the world and more are made from one or both of them.

All of these are steeped for 24 hours or could be brewed for 24 hours if you throw in the appropriate amount of molasses. Strain off liquid for foliar spray or just dump on roots.

Teas for in Veg, these are all just 1-2 tbsp per gallon. No need to dilute, you could... especially if you feel your plants don't need much and you just want to add for the growth hormones. I'll use just alfalfa meal and kelp meal. Applied once every couple weeks.

Teas for in flower:

For when you first switch over, applied again in the third week of flower

Five gallons of dechlorinated or RO water
One cup of all purpose seabird guano (12-12-2)
1/2 cup of kelp
4 cups of worm castings
1/4 cup of molasses
Dilute with 10-15 gallons of water (you'll wanna dilute this one for sure...cut back on the guano if you need to make a smaller batch)

Kelp meal tea...just 1-2 tbsp per gallon of water steeped for 24 hours. No need to dilute, can apply up until cut down...but by week 7 I'm not bothering. This can be applied anytime in the life cycle. It's great for after transplant for shock relief. Apply once a week flower.

Now...week 3-7 I know y'all wanna add phosphorus...I don't know that you have to the way a lot of us have been conditioned to think we do. I'm still doing tests to be sure. I'll keep y'all posted. In the meantime if you're afraid you might miss it then use the seabird guano recipe above but use high phosphorus seabird guano instead of all purpose. Apply once every couple weeks.

Part 6: top dressing
If you can't do teas top dressings are a good go to alternative. Applied every three weeks. Usually 1/2 cup or 1/4 cup of each per plant depending on their size. Sowed into the first couple inches of soil (don't tear down into your roots!), Here's some recipes....

In veg every three to four week
Worm castings
Neem cake or neem seed meal
Kelp meal

At the beginning of flower
Worm castings
All purpose seabird guano
Kelp

At any sign of deficiencies I top dress with neem cake, worm castings, and kelp. Problem clears up.

 

[Kanda]

Will follow along. Looking forward to seeing your results.

 

[Gimik]

Will follow along. Looking forward to seeing your results.

Awesome!! I would love for people to follow along and hopefully learn something or provide input =D. Once I get everything squared away I'll start a proper grow journal.

 

[Kanda]

Awesome!! I would love for people to follow along and hopefully learn something or provide input =D. Once I get everything squared away I'll start a proper grow journal.

Will keep an eye out for ya!

 

[bobrown14]

Look up "Coots Mix" tried and true... you are almost there and you wont see any debunking.

I've been using that recipe for years.

 

[Gimik]

Look up "Coots Mix" tried and true... you are almost there and you wont see any debunking.

I've been using that recipe for years.

That's funny, I looked up Coot's recipe after purchasing my ingredients and I ended up getting pretty much all the same stuff.... Here's a list of everything I bought.

Fish Meal (9-4-0)
Crab Shell Meal (4-3-0)
Kelp Meal (1-0-2)
Neem Seed Meal (6-1-2)
Oyster Shell Flour (Calcium)
Gypsum (Calcium / Sulfur)
Glacial Rock Dust (Trace Minerals)

 

[Gimik]

Hey I'm getting ready to mix my soil....

Forgive me if this is a silly question. If I wanted 21gal of soil, I would mix 7gal of each: Peat Moss / EWC / Perlite?
What I plan on doing is just using an empty 7gal pot and fill it with each of the above ingredients, am I approaching this wrong?

 

[beez0404]

I use the Coots mix also. It is based on 1 cubic foot units which = 7.5 gallons. I mix 30 gallons at a time (7.5 gals x 4) so knowing how much of the Coots minerals and nutrients is simple.

My base however is 1/3 (10 gallons) of Peat Moss (Canadian Sphagnum) 1/3 (5 gallons EWC and 5 gallons Coast of Maine Lobster Compost) and finally 10 gallons of perlite. The perlite holds up well with repeated use.

Something I don't see in your ingredients mix is Malted Barley. This is very beneficial to the soil and reduces the flowering time of the plant by a week or so. I don't buy my ingredients separately, I buy the nutrient and mineral packs already mixed and ready to use. I just need to know how much to add based on the amount of soil I am amending. Couldn't be much easier. And this is a water only soil. So do some work up front to prepare the soil and then it's just water and go till harvest.