Question about Searles...

[T!CTAC]

cheers indy 

no worries tictac

 

i would go with a good quality compost or casting or mix of both rather than a store potting mix 

& use the same mix above  1 1 1 , compost peat air 

there are also extras you could add but there be a fair bit in 5in1 already if that's what you use as the compost part 

 

i'll also add larger volumes of soil in large pots are allot easier to maintain than smaller pots if trying 

to have a living soil

 

Sorry to be a pain but I'm still a little confused.

If I was using a 30L pot, would I use 1:1:1 of the Searles, peat moss and scoria at 5L each and add that to 15L of a compost and casting mix?

I can't believe I'm not understanding this. Must be the lack of sleep . I really appreciate your help though.

[itchybromusic]

Sorry to be a pain but I'm still a little confused.

If I was using a 30L pot, would I use 1:1:1 of the Searles, peat moss and scoria at 5L each and add that to 15L of a compost and casting mix?

I can't believe I'm not understanding this. Must be the lack of sleep . I really appreciate your help though.

no worries 

i can do that to people 

 

if not buying bagged potting mix , then any size mix you DIY , stick with 1 part + 1 part + 1 part = compost/castings , peat moss & aeration 

 

with compost or casting you can use 1 or the other or a mix 50/50 of both 

either one you use should only take up 1 part of the base mix in total 

 

adding amendments gets a lill trickier , as you increase or decrease your 3 part mix 

your amendments need to increase or decease as well 

 

I mix 1.5 cubic foot at a time , cos that amount works well mixing on a tarp in my space on my own  

works out to be , 

 

base mix , 

14lts peat moss

14lts scoria 

14lts castings / compost 

 

i add amendments to this base of 1.5 cubic foot 

3/4 cup neem cake = crushed neem seed from making neem oil  

3/4 cup kelp meal , seaweed 

3/4 cup crab shell meal , hard to find here , can be replaced with crushed oyster shell , or dolomite  

3/4 cup gypsum 

1.5 cup malted barley powder , malted barley seed from a brew store powdered with a coffee grinder 

7.5 cup basalt rock dust , volcanic rock dust 

9    cup activated bio char , activate your char by mixing with liquid fish just b4 soil mixing or measure out the amount 

                                            of char & castings or compost your using & mix the 2 ahead of time & let sit for 2 weeks , this 2 week sit will activate the char  

                                            don't mix bio char without activation first  , you can by pre activated , just costs more & easy to do yourself 

 

so what ya reckon have i really fucked you up now  

[GREENQUEEN]

Yep I reckon you have ,but it gets easier the more you learn about it TT and organic really is the best option infact if you want good quality meds/buds its the only option and itchys advice is pretty solid and keep asking questions if your still not sure because its how you learn,GQ

 

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[timmyykk]

Your suggestion to me was the simplest of a simple soil solution GQ. Compost, soil mix and poo.

 

 

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[GREENQUEEN]

that's all I do Timmy and that's all I'll be doing for my next outdoors too,its served me well so far,touchwood but I am lucky to have rich volcanic red soil to start with and that makes a huge difference,but any soil can be turned into good soil with the right ingredients

 

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[timmyykk]

:-) well I'm just growing in pots remember and you said to throw in some of my own soil with it. Well time will tell. I might surprise myself!

 

 

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[GREENQUEEN]

All those bags and more that I showed you in that pic we're headed straight for pots too but I always add my own soil to the mix

 

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[T!CTAC]

All those bags and more that I showed you in that pic we're headed straight for pots too but I always add my own soil to the mix

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Oh! Ok. Thanks GQ.

So you do home soil PLUS what you showed in the pic, all mixed up?

There's more to this growing than I thought. .

I used to do hydro but I swear this seems harder hahaha!

[T!CTAC]

no worries 

i can do that to people 

 

if not buying bagged potting mix , then any size mix you DIY , stick with 1 part + 1 part + 1 part = compost/castings , peat moss & aeration 

 

with compost or casting you can use 1 or the other or a mix 50/50 of both 

either one you use should only take up 1 part of the base mix in total 

 

adding amendments gets a lill trickier , as you increase or decrease your 3 part mix 

your amendments need to increase or decease as well 

 

I mix 1.5 cubic foot at a time , cos that amount works well mixing on a tarp in my space on my own  

works out to be , 

 

base mix , 

14lts peat moss

14lts scoria 

14lts castings / compost 

 

i add amendments to this base of 1.5 cubic foot 

3/4 cup neem cake = crushed neem seed from making neem oil  

3/4 cup kelp meal , seaweed 

3/4 cup crab shell meal , hard to find here , can be replaced with crushed oyster shell , or dolomite  

3/4 cup gypsum 

1.5 cup malted barley powder , malted barley seed from a brew store powdered with a coffee grinder 

7.5 cup basalt rock dust , volcanic rock dust 

9    cup activated bio char , activate your char by mixing with liquid fish just b4 soil mixing or measure out the amount 

                                            of char & castings or compost your using & mix the 2 ahead of time & let sit for 2 weeks , this 2 week sit will activate the char  

                                            don't mix bio char without activation first  , you can by pre activated , just costs more & easy to do yourself 

 

so what ya reckon have i really fucked you up now

 

So your base mix is:

42L soil

14L peat moss

14L Scoria

14L compost/castings (50/50 mix).

 

Is that correct? Then you add everything else you mentioned?

How do you think I'd go for now making the above base mix and then adding the Searles 5 to 1 as per the ratios on the bag?

I'm trying to keep in fairly simple and between you and GreenQueen, I think I'm slowly getting somewhere.

Cheers mate :-)

[GREENQUEEN]

Haha I'm the opposite I'm struggling to grow under a light,but my outdoors mix is just,compost,manure,soil from the bag and my own soil from the backyard mix it all together and that's it,I don't put any of that other stuff in,but I'm always open to learning

 

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