Help with soil mix

[PainMan]

I am doing an indoor organic grow (can't tollerate the chemicals in some hydro) and as a very ill person with a totally disabled wife we need a steady supply to deal with pain, seizures, muscles spasms (etc, etc) so the concept is a three grow area production line with a regular creation of clones (or from seed) and onward to veg and then flower (one area is flourescent for babies, one for veg, the other for flower). The two larger areas are 5 foot by 7 foot by 7 foot, each with 2 400 watt HPS. This way we should get several ounces for each month (just enough to kjeep the pain level down a bit). As I said, I have done this before, but I have health problem that effect my thinking and my body, and I am out of practice.

 

My problem is that it has been several years since I have been able to grow (forced to rent for a while from nosey landlords). I have lost my touch a bit, and my seed is VERY old but around 1/4 still germinates (especially if I soak it for a couple of days in a very light organic fertilizer solution). So I will get going again. I have several types of seed, and my favorite is my own hybrid (male WW cross with a femal Oz Skunk).

 

My problem at the moment is my soil mix (must grow in soil) sucks and many of my plants are too light in colour (not as dark green as they should be) and I am pretty sure that if anything I am TOO rich on my soil mix. Did I just wait too long to transplant them? I did help a bit when I went over to foliar feeding my newest babies (much bigger leaes, far faster growth), but I still have a number of plants that have gone downhill in colour despite this (and being in larger pots).

 

I have read all over the web about different soil mixes and they often contradict each other. Most don't seem to realise that there is a difference between a garden soil mix and a potting soil mix. Potting soil has no nutrition to speak of (it just holds the roots in place and can even be used for hydro style growing). Also all the potting mixes that I see these days are CRAP. They have gone down hill in quality. They (5 brands so far thatIhave tested) are mostly bark (with big pieces). They used to be peat based black stuff, and now they are full of bark. That of course will have changed the PH, the drainage, and just about everything about the base materials qualities. What can I do to use a standard (crap) potting soil as the base. Will a 10% to 15% organic fertiliser mix plus a small amount of sand/perlite still work? I understand that there isn't a lot of peat moss left these days but it does manke things harder.

 

I know that I started out WAY too rich on my mix (50% composted manure and mushroom compost), and wited too long to get them into larger pots (I was too ill to move them for a while). That said, I am really at a loss for how to make up for the difference in the potting mix. They used to be really nice black and fine...easily compressed with a lot of 'spring back' to them. Now they look like what is left at the bottom of a trailer that had a load of firewood in it.

 

I anm looking for a good mix for growing inside, not too rich or too muddy, good drainage. I do a lot of outdoor organic gardening so I have a lot of stuff on hand.

 

The ingredients I have on hand for my garden are:

 

premium potting mix (several brands)

composed steer manure

mushroom compost

Attunga organic garden compost

perlite

clay balls (for drainage at the bottom of pots)

sand, clonex and rockwool (for cuttings)

Yates seed raising mix (for seeds)

Fishers Crek Rock Dust (volcanic remineraliser)

and some liquid fertilisers (Charlie Carp, Bio Juice, Seasol seaweed fertilizer, a fossilised guano liquid, and a small amount of left over : OZI Magic Grow Juice Magic Bud Grow, OZI Magic Grow Juice Monsta Bud)

 

Suggestions are VERY welcome as I have a number of babies in need of moving into their final veg growth location.

 

Cheers

[mull]

You have plenty there mate.

 

Depends on your pot size. I'd throw in a layer of perl at the bottom.

Then about 50% premium potting mix, a good handful of the steer manure, a layer of mushy compost (which fungus gnats luv bigtime..), a good layer of perl, a good layer of the attunga compost, top off with potting mix and mix it up well leaving the bottom layer of perl undisturbed.

 

Other ingredients to consider, you can buy peat blocks or bagged, also coco or coco/peat. Humus plus.

Mollasses. Blood and bone. And if you have a worm farm, can use liquid worm castings in nutrient teas with the guano and seaweed, maybe an airstone to mix.

 

Best of luck.

[PainMan]

Thank you very much.

 

I hate the fact that these micro brain haemorrhages have scrambled my memory all to hell. I have to keep relearning stuff.

 

Anyway, my pots are large. Five of them are black rectangular tubs (similar to hyrdo tubs) and the rest are very larg round pots. In the past I have grown 2 to 3 very healthy plants in each of the very big ones (to be certain of some surviving females).

 

What I was thinking this time is similar to what you said. Layering everything as I mix it, to have a well mixed soil with a bit of perlite/sand throughout. Make sure I have good drainage at the bottom (perl and using clay balls instead of gravel like many use...it is lighter ad my back hurts less). Then something with no real nutrition on the top, to keep down pests as a very rich mix will attract them (I *HATE* those damned fungus flies).

 

Are you sue that 50% potting soil is not too much manure and compost (too rich to drain well)? I keep reading people saying things about 15% manure/compost to keep drainage up.

 

I do have a worm farm, though it has only be back up and running for about a month and a half.

 

Interesting enough I have some very old castings that sat in storage for a few years. RobbieGanjaSeed posted (on Mar 16 2007, 11:27 AM) about finding out that old castings left in a foam broccoli cooler ended up being a lot like bio-dynamic formula 500 (the stuff made in cow horns). Well...it jut happens that I had an earlier worm farm several years ago and the castings went into storage until we had a place of our own. They got more shallow over time and changed texture, sitting in two foam coolers for about 3 years. When I looked at them a few months back (before I read the post by RObbieGanjaSeed) I looking into the old worm farm, and found that I had two coolers, each with with smaller amount of stuff in it than it started out with, which was more solid than it had started out as - spongy and black that crumbled easily into this really beautiful dark stuff (which didn't look quite like sandard worm castings any more).

 

Most of it is still in an old chook feed bag (looked very rich...like a good soil additive, so I put it aside...even grew a few babies in it in 3cm started pots). I seem to have reproduced RobbieGanjaSeed's version of formula 500 by accident (the one where nobody does any rituals over cow horns). Most of the original castings came from worms eating horse poo plus a few kitchen scraps.