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tutorial All about soil - A great resource I thought I would share

2013 soil amendments for my hot peppers and garden.
My own compost
Mushroom compost
Worm casting
Bat guano

Rotate weekly feedings with:
Kelp meal
Fish immulsion
Worm castings
Bat guano tea
 
Thank you so much, LGHT!!!! Excellent post with so many options. I have a 4 shelf, 4' 2 65k flor fixtures per shelf unit (4 tubes) per shelf, use mylar, and my plants go in-ground: I had to dig with shovel, in moist soil, the roots of naga morich, yellow 7's--well about everything, out this year. Of course, have amended (and amended) clay soil here since 2005. I do plant some stuff in pots, like manzanos, but this is the mix I use and it seems to work, even if a touch not K.I.S.S., which would work: peat, perlite, vermiculite, a little compost works. But when making this stuff up in batches, I like to do it in some bulk:

Double or triple this for seed-starting mix but easier to do one batch at time in wheelbarrow and bag:
5 gallon bucket sphagnum peat moss
3 gallons perlite
2 gallons vermiculite
1 gallon hot-composted, screened horse manure (pasteurize at 200 degrees until internally 160 degrees and no more, for 30 minutes)
2 quarts vermicompost not pasteurized, screened
1/3 cup azomite (mined from Utah—cute name for micronutes, A-Z.)
1/2+ cup dolomite lime—raises/stabilizes soil pH as peat is acidic and chinense in particular don't like acidic from my experience.
1/2 cup kelp meal—nitrogen and potassium, trace minerals, amino acids, micronutes
1.5 cups rock phosphate—cal and phosphorous, iron
2 cups greensand—potassium, silica (“wetting agent”), magnesium, calcium, micronutes
1.5 cups blood meal—nitrogen
1/2 cup bone meal—calcium and phosphorous
1 cup+ whole ground cornmeal—for fungal disease prevention
< 1 oz. granular (Plant Success or RTI Xtreme) mycorrhizae or can soak seeds in mycoblast after hydrogen peroxide soak--not gotten brave enough to do the 10% bleach solution yet.

When watering soil-less from bottom overnight with warm distilled or de-chlorineated water with a little liquid kelp, and molasses, I add some actinovate to the first bottom water feed: one would think this defeats purpose of mycorrhizae but I&rsquo;ve had no damping off, no fungal diseases (corn meal helps), as seedlings have grown, and it doesn&rsquo;t seem to harm miniscule amounts of mycos, as I dust roots with mycos when potting up.

Also, on the pasteurization thing: I get horse manure every spring for next years grow and hot compost it. But since it's in a compost bin or bins, I throw other greens in there, as I get this stuff early spring--in fall, horse manure goes on big garden in spreader, with mulched leaves, turned under. And I just feel better about pasteurizing it a little, as although it's hot composted, aerated, I had a huge damping off a few years ago, overnight, wood stove on, fans on, no reason: nothing changed but adding the hot composted horse manure. This seems to keep the good stuff in and get the potentially bad stuff out. And gives me another use for the el cheapo brinkmann smoker. Can do a lot at one time too with a steel trashcan to dump it all until it cools off. Then bag it until the mix. Might sound like overkill but waking up to 100 flopped, deadern 4 o'clock pepper plants was an "overkill" I just can't forget :!: Also, I use more perlite than vermiculite for seedlings because I really want the "soil" to drain well. For the next pot up, I mix more vermiculite into the mix, but initially use more perlite just for areation.

Again, thanks so much for this topic!!
 
I need a good recipe for a potting mix that contains worm castings and leaf mold. I have 100s of gallons of worm castings and about 150+ cubic feet of leaf mold in my compost coral. I'd like to grow as close to organic as possible. Thank you very much.
 
I plan to use a 5Gal bucket for my first grow. I'm not sure if the container mix I have in mind would be optimal for habs and bhuts.

I plan to put at least 3 inch of gravel/hydroton on the bottom and use a mix of the following up to 80% of the bucket. 1 part fine grade hydroton, 2 part garden soil, 2 part cocopeat and 1 part worm casting.
 
Okay I'm planning for my grow this season, and it being my first serious year of growing, I'm going to be mixing a simple garden soil. I have 14 5 gallon buckets of topsoil from last year and I'm going with a 1 part dirt, 1 part peat, 1 part perlite with some Jobe's fert mixed in. The question I have is, will I effectively triple my volume of growing medium, or will perlite, being a lot of air, settle and not take up as much volume as equal amounts of the other 2 main ingredients? To put it simply, does 1 Gallon dirt + 1 gallon peat + 1 gallon Perlite = 3 gallons of soil? Or am I just overthinking it?
 
I kept wondering why no-one had asked about seed-starting mix. I was just about to post a question asking for a mix recipe. This was like hitting the mother-lode!
 
Okay I'm planning for my grow this season, and it being my first serious year of growing, I'm going to be mixing a simple garden soil. I have 14 5 gallon buckets of topsoil from last year and I'm going with a 1 part dirt, 1 part peat, 1 part perlite with some Jobe's fert mixed in. The question I have is, will I effectively triple my volume of growing medium, or will perlite, being a lot of air, settle and not take up as much volume as equal amounts of the other 2 main ingredients? To put it simply, does 1 Gallon dirt + 1 gallon peat + 1 gallon Perlite = 3 gallons of soil? Or am I just overthinking it?
You almost have it. 30% perlite is a bit too much though. I'd back it down to 20% or less and increase your compost or decomposable medium. "Dirt" Otherwise youll be watering way too often to keep up, have temp isues at the root zone, and leeching all your nutrients out of the soil with every watering.
 
You almost have it. 30% perlite is a bit too much though. I'd back it down to 20% or less and increase your compost or decomposable medium. "Dirt" Otherwise youll be watering way too often to keep up, have temp isues at the root zone, and leeching all your nutrients out of the soil with every watering.
Thanks, Guru. Coulda used that info about 3 weeks ago. Hopefully it works out anyway.
 
Starting my first big grow this year.  I had a sorta late start in the pacific nw  so I have invested in an indoor grow tent set up to allow the plants maximum light for 18+ hours a day.  1000watt MH most of the time and then I move them in and out weather depending.  I have nearly 100 plants, so it's a good deal of work.  My starts were transplanted in to gallon pots of http://blackgold.bz/black-gold-waterhold-cocoblend/
 
a coir blended organic mix.  Seems to have been doing pretty well.  Giving them a variety of low nitrogen value organic fertilizers and frequent intervals.
 
I'd been dragging me feet about what to do as far as soil is concerned and I've finally made up my mind. I'm going to grow in 5 gallon bucks with gravel on the bottom followed by bulk soil from my local garden center.  I'm using what they call 4way (sand, loam, alder bark compost, organic compost) + 50% dairy compost.  Gravel on the bottom to improve drainage.  Not sure what's going on up here but all crops in this area are coming in early, strong, and healthy.  Last year I had a couple carib reds that collectively only produced a handful of pods and this year I only have one (mostly doing supers now) and it's got 20 pods starting and the plant is barely 12" tall.
 
I just acquired the soil so probably be transplanting this week.  I'm going to add some perlite and vermiculite in as well.  Hoping this'll be a productive soil mix.
 
Hey Guys,
 
What mix would recommend for growing in raised beds and 5 gallon smart pots?  I am in Northern California in a sheltered valley (45 minutes E of San Fran).  Temps get up to 100 during the summer, plants will have 12 hours of full sun.
 
Thanks,
 
Hi all. I'm about to attempt to make my own potting mix for the first time. I currently have a 3.8cu ft bale of sphagnum peat moss, a 40lb bag of mushroom compost and approximately 3/4-2/3 of a 4lb bag of Espoma tomato tone. I have a 2cu ft bag of perlite ordered and on the way, and am considering adding some worm castings as well. My questions are-would 2 parts peat, 1 part perlite, 1 part shroom compost be a good base mix, with tomato tone added per recommendations on the bag? Would adding worm castings as well be more beneficial? And is the mushroom compost good enough on it's own, or should I add another type as well? I'm limited on what's available locally, and costs from ordering online are ridiculous, but do have either Black Kow composted cow manure, Hapi Gro compost and rabbit manure available locally. Any help is greatly appreciated. 
 
MeatHead1313 said:
Hi all. I'm about to attempt to make my own potting mix for the first time. I currently have a 3.8cu ft bale of sphagnum peat moss, a 40lb bag of mushroom compost and approximately 3/4-2/3 of a 4lb bag of Espoma tomato tone. I have a 2cu ft bag of perlite ordered and on the way, and am considering adding some worm castings as well. My questions are-would 2 parts peat, 1 part perlite, 1 part shroom compost be a good base mix, with tomato tone added per recommendations on the bag? Would adding worm castings as well be more beneficial? And is the mushroom compost good enough on it's own, or should I add another type as well? I'm limited on what's available locally, and costs from ordering online are ridiculous, but do have either Black Kow composted cow manure, Hapi Gro compost and rabbit manure available locally. Any help is greatly appreciated. 
I would mix equal amounts. 1/3 humus, 1/3 peat and 1/3 coarse perlite
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
I would mix equal amounts. 1/3 humus, 1/3 peat and 1/3 coarse perlite
Thanks for the info. I'd posted that before having my mix tested. This is the results I got using 2 parts peat moss, 1 part mushroom compost, 3/4 part humus and manure, 1/4 part ewc and 1 1/4 parts perlite-
soil.png
 
What do you think of this soil mix? First time growing with it and I've seen great success from other people that have used it.

-1 part potting spoil
-1 part peat moss or coir (I'm using peat moss because I could not find coir in Home Depot.
-Half a part of vermiculite.
 
trevonator said:
What do you think of this soil mix? First time growing with it and I've seen great success from other people that have used it.

-1 part potting spoil
-1 part peat moss or coir (I'm using peat moss because I could not find coir in Home Depot.
-Half a part of vermiculite.
I don't like vermiculite as it retains water too much. I would put one equal part of perlite or red lava rock instead. ;)
 
I don't like vermiculite as it retains water too much. I would put one equal part of perlite or red lava rock instead. ;)
Thanks! I don't think that's too much of an issue because summer's coming up here in AZ.
 
I have been on the search for a seedling / potting soil that meets all my needs and have never found one I could buy that really worked well. So for the past few years I've been trying different recipes for mixes and ratios with some being better than others but having their down falls. 
 
Until now.....
 
I was not satisfied with the seedling soil I made this year but it was good enough I thought, but it could be better, and i think I've made it better!
 
As for all my seedling / potting soils I start out with peat moss 3 cu ft of it. I bought mine at Lowes, tested it's pH and found it to be at around 6.3 a little low, but doable. 
 
Next I grabbed two bags of compost/manure mix 2 cu ft in total. 
 
I needed something for good drainage so I used 1 cu ft of river sand, not the play sand, just river sand. 
 
I already had Pearlite at home, the course grain size, not fine, it seems to not allow enough space for air or water retention. Around 1/2 cu ft.
 
So the ratio is:
 
40% - Peat Moss
30% - Compost/Manure
20% - River Sand
10% - Pearlite
 
I added an organic fertilizer to it as well with beneficial microbes in it. Once I tested it with a soil tester the pH was 6.8, Nitrogen was in perfect range, Potassium was in perfect range, and Phosphorous was in perfect range. Best of all, my plants love it! I also added a half dose to the whole mix of a micronutrient organic fertilizer which has really greened up my plants. 
 
I'll have to post some photos tomorrow, but it's great so far, clams right, holds just the right amount of water, and the roots are shooting through it! 
 
Here are the products I used to make it. 
 
http://www.easygarde...category_ID=227
 
http://www.lowes.com...ar|1&facetInfo=
 
http://www.lowes.com...ge=1&facetInfo=
 
http://www.lowes.com...sand&facetInfo=
 
I would not buy pearlite at lows because all the ones I found already had fertilizer added, so go to a garden center to find some!
 
But hope this helps some people out trying to find a good mixture for seedlings or potted plants, so far for me, it's been amazing!

 
 
 
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