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

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thanks for the recipe Lawrence. Will let you know about the results
 
Pepper-Guru said:
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.
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That's interesting Guru because the organic soil recommended on GC calls for 1/3 aeration amendment, 1/3 compost/EWC and 1/3 peat.

annie57 said:
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’ve had no damping off, no fungal diseases (corn meal helps), as seedlings have grown, and it doesn’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!!
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I would have to look up the corn meal as that one sounds like one I have heard has bad things about it.
I would substitute Neem cake as it is a great addition. Just make sure it is good neem as there are only a couple of sellers who have the good stuff.
I believe Buildasoil is one. http://buildasoil.com
 
ColdSmoke said:
The amount of different things you can make your soil with is overwhelming 
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True but I think the best soil is one that contains everything needed for the growing season so that all you need to give the plants is water. It's simple, the soil is not lacking anything and you can relax and not wonder what deficiencies the plants may have. I don't know why more people growing in containers don't do it.
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
True but I think the best soil is one that contains everything needed for the growing season so that all you need to give the plants is water. It's simple, the soil is not lacking anything and you can relax and not wonder what deficiencies the plants may have. I don't know why more people growing in containers don't do it.
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Sounds optimistic to think your soil blend will provide the perfect balance of nutes and microbes for the whole season with changing conditions and plant life stages. 
 
It absolutely is optimistic to think your soil will perform like that without any additional attention. I don't care who you are. 
 
ColdSmoke said:
It absolutely is optimistic to think your soil will perform like that without any additional attention. I don't care who you are. 
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Actually it's not optimistic and has been proven many times by many different growers growing many different crops.  I do it in my containers for a lot of plants, others get extra attention.  That's what building your soil and providing for the food web do for you.
 
How could you ever prove your yield was higher if you never fertilized? I guess maybe a side by side comparison with the exact same soil, same strain,...etc. one fertilized and one ridden out with just water. This has been done many different times? I'd love to see it. Any help on where I could find such a thing?
 
ColdSmoke said:
How could you ever prove your yield was higher if you never fertilized? I guess maybe a side by side comparison with the exact same soil, same strain,...etc. one fertilized and one ridden out with just water. This has been done many different times? I'd love to see it. Any help on where I could find such a thing?
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No one said higher yields, only that its possible to grow a season without fertilizing the plants after plant-out.  Chilies are easy plants to grow and do not require a whole lot of a attention and food to grow really well.  They also do not require different nutrients to help with flowering.  They grow and bloom simultaneously so as long as the nutrients and growing conditions are sufficient, they will be monsters.   They will grow better with that extra attention to detail but it is also really easy to over-do it and lose yield.  Just different approaches.  PMD and me like to build our soil and put the food in at the beginning.  Other, myself included, enjoy mixing and making nutrient solutions to feed our plants through the summer, different strokes.  I will say the best plants I grow every year are those that are in-ground and do not get fed at all.  Containers are a different story but HUGE containers can act like raised beds and don't need much feeding either.  Do what you like but don't doubt what you haven't tried.  Cheers!
 
Oh, Check out Pepper-Guru's glogs.  They are EPIC!  Also, if you are so inclined, check out pot growing forums and look in the organics sections for JAW mixes(Just Add Water).  Some of those grows are awesome too.
 
Well said. I completely understand the theory behind both approaches. I really don't consider it a burden at all to mix up nute solutions during the season. In fact, I love to do it!
 
I guess my skepticism is mostly due to me being a container guy (for peppers). I find that posing questions and practicing skepticism helps me learn much fast and is good for both parties. 
 
ColdSmoke said:
Well said. I completely understand the theory behind both approaches. I really don't consider it a burden at all to mix up nute solutions during the season. In fact, I love to do it!
 
I guess my skepticism is mostly due to me being a container guy (for peppers). I find that posing questions and practicing skepticism helps me learn much fast and is good for both parties. 
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Thank you and agreed.  PMD up there has his container mix in another thread, look it up and check it out.  It is pretty sweet.  I also enjoy mixing up stuff through the season, compost teas especially but nutrient mixes too.
 
ColdSmoke said:
maybe you should change the batteries in your sarcasm detector, dude!
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My apologies ColdSmoke as I saw nothing that led me to believe it was sarcastic. All I saw on my phone was the words you posted no smilies or anything.
It appears that you added some later. :doh:
 
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