thought id post how i go about making my soiless mix.
super simple. 50% peat, 50% perlite. some wetting agent, and some lime. takes about 35 min. no guess work no "feeling" no thought at all. no worms, no composted fish innerds, no seaweed no cradads, no "tea" of anykind.
this mix is for simple folks like myself that prefer to fertigate as opposed to shoveling w/e organic matter you can get you hands on into your mix.
heres how we do it.
first you need this.
3.8 cubic foot bales of perlite and bacto peat.
dolomitic lime, and 60 ml of drexel Surfact 820.
a place to mix it all up...
so yea just hack them open.
so now we have a layer of peat and perlite.
NOW. important bit, we need to add some surfactant.
why? look here.
peat is stupid hydrophobic. this water will sit on the surface for like 30 min before soaking into the peat. in order to defeat this we will add a NON IONIC surfactant. has to be non ionic... ill elaborate at the end of this.
i am using 60 ml of alkylphenol ethoxilate added to approximatly 3 gallons of water. this is watered into the top of the peat by a simple watering can...
its hard to see here... but the soapy water will make a 2" or so cake of wet peat. we will bust this layer of wet peat into tiny tiny crumbs.... and homogeneously mix it through out the peatlite.
why? because the weted peat "crumbs" will distribute the wetting angent evenly throughout the peatlite, such that when you water it... you get a nice even promix like weting.
this is what im talking about. these have to be broken all the way down.
here is how i do it.
thats a grout mixing bit.
once you have broken it all down, add your lime. i typically use about 100grams per 15 gallons of peat. HOWEVER, since this is a brand of peat i have never used... i only used half of what i usually do. why? because not all peat is made the same. a while back home depot sold very cheap peat bales. they were like half bark, and almost ph neutral. if i had to guess id say they were treated with some lime already... but anyway its better to undershoot than over.
super simple. 50% peat, 50% perlite. some wetting agent, and some lime. takes about 35 min. no guess work no "feeling" no thought at all. no worms, no composted fish innerds, no seaweed no cradads, no "tea" of anykind.
this mix is for simple folks like myself that prefer to fertigate as opposed to shoveling w/e organic matter you can get you hands on into your mix.
heres how we do it.
first you need this.
3.8 cubic foot bales of perlite and bacto peat.
dolomitic lime, and 60 ml of drexel Surfact 820.
a place to mix it all up...
so yea just hack them open.
so now we have a layer of peat and perlite.
NOW. important bit, we need to add some surfactant.
why? look here.
peat is stupid hydrophobic. this water will sit on the surface for like 30 min before soaking into the peat. in order to defeat this we will add a NON IONIC surfactant. has to be non ionic... ill elaborate at the end of this.
i am using 60 ml of alkylphenol ethoxilate added to approximatly 3 gallons of water. this is watered into the top of the peat by a simple watering can...
its hard to see here... but the soapy water will make a 2" or so cake of wet peat. we will bust this layer of wet peat into tiny tiny crumbs.... and homogeneously mix it through out the peatlite.
why? because the weted peat "crumbs" will distribute the wetting angent evenly throughout the peatlite, such that when you water it... you get a nice even promix like weting.
this is what im talking about. these have to be broken all the way down.
here is how i do it.
thats a grout mixing bit.
once you have broken it all down, add your lime. i typically use about 100grams per 15 gallons of peat. HOWEVER, since this is a brand of peat i have never used... i only used half of what i usually do. why? because not all peat is made the same. a while back home depot sold very cheap peat bales. they were like half bark, and almost ph neutral. if i had to guess id say they were treated with some lime already... but anyway its better to undershoot than over.
