Soil mix for first grow

[thisrockcontainsiron]

Hey all,

 

Taking on my first grow in spring and I've decided to mix my own soil which I'll also use for our veg garden. My grow will be outdoors in VIC and most probably in plastic 15gal pots so I can move around the yard if needed.

My grow will be 4 plants, one of each of the 4 all star Indica's by SSS; Lil Peep, Double Affie, Yorker & GG Allin

 

My mix will consist of the following but I'm open to suggestions on how to enhance it.

 

30% chicken manure

20% Worm Castings

20% CANNA TERRA PRO

10% Coco coir

10% Perlite

5% Bat Guano

 

1 cup kelp meal

3 cup crab meal

 

I'm trying to keep it simple for my first grow as I'm sure I'll learn plenty in this first 6 month period and will add to my catalogue of knowledge as I go.

 

I'll be adding nutes throughout as well, but not yet concrete on what they will be.

I've got some local worm wee from a guy I also bought my worm castings from and his garden was incredible so I have high hopes for it to be used throughout.

 

Thanks guys

[itchybromusic]

hey rocky 

my 2c mate 

 

loose the chicken manure & add more castings or a good compost 

aim for using about 1/3 of the mix with castings or 50/50 mix cast/comp 

 

loose the coco & increase the terra pro aim for the same above , about 1/3 

 

increase the perlite or remove it & get some scoria / lave rock , around 7-10mm in size 

make this the last 1/3 & call these 3 parts mixed together your base mix 

 

i wouldn't use the bat shit but that's just me , just stick to recommendations on the pack & wear a mask 

when mixing , wear a mask when mixing soil in general but def wear one when mixing guano 

 

keep in the kelp & crab , i add 3/4 cup each to a little over 42 liters 

i add some gypsum at the same amount 

 

 if you wanna go a little further you can add activated bio char , neem seed meal , malted barley powder 

maybe even some sort of mycorrhizal fungi

 

rock dust is another good addition , i add 7.5 cups to the above 42 liter amount 

 

the worm wee should be good just use it at his amount suggestions , you can make your own

seasol type product at home with ya kelp meal , very easily   

 

you can make nutrients solutions to feed plants out of sprouted seeds 

 

easy to add a living mulch with a green manure seed mix from bunnings 

 

there's other things to consider like pest management & being preemptive 

 

see what others reckon 

good luck mate 

[missrachael]

Excited for you, hope it goes well. I'm years in and my learning continues aplenty. Just so you know, 2c from itchy is worth so much more.

 

itchy, yet another awesome and generous response. My girls aren't usually prone to pests but this year I had a weird tiny sap sucking insect (not mite) invasion this season which did some damage. I've spent hours trying to id them. Will eventually post some pics. Time to think about my prep too...mycorrhizal fungi sound like a grand idea to add to the list.

[itchybromusic]

Excited for you, hope it goes well. I'm years in and my learning continues aplenty. Just so you know, 2c from itchy is worth so much more.

 

itchy, yet another awesome and generous response. My girls aren't usually prone to pests but this year I had a weird tiny sap sucking insect (not mite) invasion this season which did some damage. I've spent hours trying to id them. Will eventually post some pics. Time to think about my prep too...mycorrhizal fungi sound like a grand idea to add to the list.

hey thanks rach

 

yeah myco is a good one to add , some even suggest rolling your seeds in some B4 sprouting them 

in general get ya myco in as soon as poss 

 

def a good idea to id the pest & get to know what your dealing with 

it's a hard part of a grow to deal with because weather drives pests mostly 

 

temps & winter rain fall or lack of it will trigger plant seeds to germinate over another group of plant seeds

those plants will supply food or shelter to a set of bugs which will be food for another set of bugs 

& so forth & so on , until your dealing with the result of that process , a bug hard to id 

 

bloody mother nature will flip the script next season putting us back to square one & starting again 

on id'ing another bug  

 

this is why i try putting allot of effort into plant health rather than spending to much time on plant food

figuring the more healthy the plant the more chance it'll be able to protect & feed itself , not to mention the flow on 

effect of higher quality produce a healthier plant will provide  

[thisrockcontainsiron]

hey rocky

my 2c mate

 

loose the chicken manure & add more castings or a good compost

aim for using about 1/3 of the mix with castings or 50/50 mix cast/comp

 

loose the coco & increase the terra pro aim for the same above , about 1/3

 

increase the perlite or remove it & get some scoria / lave rock , around 7-10mm in size

make this the last 1/3 & call these 3 parts mixed together your base mix

 

i wouldn't use the bat shit but that's just me , just stick to recommendations on the pack & wear a mask

when mixing , wear a mask when mixing soil in general but def wear one when mixing guano

 

keep in the kelp & crab , i add 3/4 cup each to a little over 42 liters

i add some gypsum at the same amount

 

if you wanna go a little further you can add activated bio char , neem seed meal , malted barley powder

maybe even some sort of mycorrhizal fungi

 

rock dust is another good addition , i add 7.5 cups to the above 42 liter amount

 

the worm wee should be good just use it at his amount suggestions , you can make your own

seasol type product at home with ya kelp meal , very easily

 

you can make nutrients solutions to feed plants out of sprouted seeds

 

easy to add a living mulch with a green manure seed mix from bunnings

 

there's other things to consider like pest management & being preemptive

 

see what others reckon

good luck mate

Thank you Itchy, I've read a lot of your threads on this forum over the past couple months and its helped me a lot already.

 

Very keen to get this soil mixed up and will update once I've got things moving ahead.

 

Cheers!

[itchybromusic]

no worries mate 

good luck with it