Dry amendments

[Gweedo's Growroom]

Hey there my phenohunter community just starting this up to get an idea of how and why everyone is using these, taking the plunge into organics as I write this and will be mixing about 2 yards today, being new to this there are many questions of course, I've acquired a decent list of goodies to work with so far
Fish bone meal
Neem seed meal
Kelp meal
Oyster shell flour
Langbeneite
Soluble gypsum
Bio fish
Crab meal
Alfalfa meal
Blood meal
Guano high P kind
Azomite
Glacial rock dust

So if one was so inclined to put together a blend of these what would the usage rates be??? Do you use less if going with a combo or is it just the application rates straight off the box???
Not going for a super soil just a complete mix of what the ladies need, if what I understand is correct the npk specific feeding should go out the window if the whole buffet is stocked, and I'm definitely not going full out on the guano or blood meal as I know they are pretty readily available. Super curious to hear some thoughts, recipes, and or any experience with custom blending, all but the gypsum is the down to earth brand stuff, also using a pre blended veg and bloom formula from elevated organics but only have enough of it to do 1 yard lol so definitely gonna be doing some custom blending before days end

 

[avid_grow]

Here is the recipe that I put together for my current run...
reused/recycled 1.5 cubic feet of Ffof
brand new 1.5 cubic feet of Ffof
amended with:
- 8.50 cups of worm castings (Worm Gold)
- 0.75 cups of Granular Humic Acids (Down to Earth)
- 0.20 cups of Langbeinite (Down to Earth)
- 0.50 cups of Seabird Guano (Down to Earth)
- 0.50 cups of Insect Frass (Down to Earth)
- 0.50 cups of Kelp Meal (Down to Earth)
- 3.50 cups of Bio-Live (Down to Earth)
- 15% of the mix is Perlite
- I also use Great White's Mycorrhizae on all my roots when transplanting.
- When watering, as of right now, I only make sure I've got the pH right - I've got a natural pH at 8.7 to 9.1
- I've not started using any compost teas, but have looked into them. Might in the future, just not sure yet.

Ffof says its composition is as follows:
50-60% aged forest products, sphagnum peat moss, perlite, sandy loam, and fertilizers: Fish Emulsion, Crab Meal, Shrimp Meal, Earthworm Castings, Bat Guano, Kelp Meal, and Oyster Shell

I mix it all up in my bin and let that all sit for 2 wks before transplanting the seedlings/vegglings into their final homes (four 5 gallon pots and one 7 gallon pot - all fabric)
I am pretty new to the game and am just experimenting with different things
So far all my girls are responding really well to this mix - I am going to amend in the next week with some Insect Frass, Kelp Meal, Worm Castings, Bio-Live, maybe some All Purpose and Seabird Guano...we shall see.

my first run I used...
2.3 Cubic feet of Ffof
.5 Cups of Mykos (mycorrhizae)
7 Cups of Worm Castings
10% Perlite
6 Cups of Bio-Live from (DtE)
3.75 Cups of Kelp Meal (DtE)
2 Cups of Granular Humic Acids (DtE)

That was all I had in the base for it - I amended later on with:
Seabird Guano(Down to Earth), Bio-Live(DtE), All Purpose(DtE), Kelp Meal(DtE), and Worm Castings(WG) all in veg
Worm Castings(WG), Seabird Guano(DtE), Kelp Meal(DtE), Azomite Powder(DtE), Feather Meal(DtE), and Rose and Flower Mix(DtE) all early in flower

I don't have any more to add really, just thought I'd send what I've used so far. Can't say that I've had a negative experience with any of these products so far. I can say that I am looking to get into building my own soil and starting no-till so I may not be continuing this beyond another run or two.

Love the thread though...would love to see what some other more experienced folks have to say on some of the varying amendments out there

 

[Gweedo's Growroom]

Hell yes, that's the kind of info I was hoping to get, i ended up just formulating a more diverse mix using the buildasoil guidelines and amendment recommendations, it's got peat,coco,perlite,vermiculite,lavarock,pumice,biochar,happyfrog soil conditioner in place of compost and earthworm castings, amended with kelp,alfalfa,neem,crab,biofish,langbeneite,azomite,gypsum,glacial rock dust,basalt,oystershell,and crab meal watered in with recharge and greatwhite

 

[Frimpong]

Hell yes, that's the kind of info I was hoping to get, i ended up just formulating a more diverse mix using the buildasoil guidelines and amendment recommendations, it's got peat,coco,perlite,vermiculite,lavarock,pumice,biochar,happyfrog soil conditioner in place of compost and earthworm castings, amended with kelp,alfalfa,neem,crab,biofish,langbeneite,azomite,gypsum,glacial rock dust,basalt,oystershell,and crab meal watered in with recharge and greatwhite

Recharge and great white ??

 

[Gweedo's Growroom]

It seems to be doing okay with only a week or so of cook time, to get a bit more specific its 33% coco and peat 10%pumice, 10%vermiculite,10%perlite 25%soil conditioner 10%castings and about 5% homemade biochar charged with jadam liquid fertilizer derived from alfalfa and some native soil, I'll get back on later with the exact amendment recipe I went with, took about a month to get it where I felt it would be as complete as possible, now I'm working on a topdress as well using the same DTE amendments just working on getting the ratios right I'm throwing NPK out the window and just fully stocking the buffet ??????

 

[avid_grow]

buildasoil guidelines

Yep yep!! That's what I'm looking at now!!?

Just curious, what grade of pumice/vermiculite/perlite did you go with? I've only ever used grade: 3. Size of a pea.

 

[Gweedo's Growroom]

The vermiculite is a-3 pretty sure the perlite is as well though the bag does not say

 

[Gweedo's Growroom]

Well some progress to report, now at 10 days in on the homemade soil and I'm surprised not gonna lie lol they are taking off nicely only watering in with recharge and greatwhite at half strength, need to mulch em and work out the watering schedule, just waiting on a moisture meter in the mail now, gals are photo shebergans and an auto white widow xxl from DNA

 

[jaguarlax]

Well some progress to report, now at 10 days in on the homemade soil and I'm surprised not gonna lie lol they are taking off nicely only watering in with recharge and greatwhite at half strength, need to mulch em and work out the watering schedule, just waiting on a moisture meter in the mail now, gals are photo shebergans and an auto white widow xxl from DNAView attachment 65991View attachment 65992View attachment 65993View attachment 65994View attachment 65995

thats a pretty wild before and after.. good shit broski

 

[Gweedo's Growroom]

Surprised the shit outta me lol the lack of speedy growth was my only real worry with switching over to the organic method, but it would appear that is just a myth spread by inexperienced soil mixers ???

 

[avid_grow]

Well some progress to report, now at 10 days in on the homemade soil and I'm surprised not gonna lie lol they are taking off nicely only watering in with recharge and greatwhite at half strength, need to mulch em and work out the watering schedule, just waiting on a moisture meter in the mail now, gals are photo shebergans and an auto white widow xxl from DNAView attachment 65991View attachment 65992View attachment 65993View attachment 65994View attachment 65995

That's an amazing turn my dood!! Really well done, they look amazing!! ? ?

 

[avid_grow]

Getting ready to flip within the week and so did a top dress yesterday before watering.

All the from seed girls got:
1/4 cup of worm castings
1/4 cup of Insect Frass
1/8th cup of Seabird Guano
1/16 cup of Langbeinite

The Black Widow clones got:
1/4 cup of All Purpose
2/5 cup of Rose & Flower Bloom
1/4 cup of worm castings

The Sour Diesel Clones got:
3/5 cup of All Purpose
3/5 cup of Rose & Flower Bloom
1/2 cup of worm castings

I've got 3 BW in one 5 gallon fabric pot and 5 Sour D in one 7 gallon pot - just figured I should explain why the different ratios.
Everything is Down to Earth brand other than the worm castings, which are Worm Gold brand.

Mixed everything into the first inch of soil and then watered them in for the night.

Looking pretty happy after the first 24


Definitely gonna amend once more, maybe week 3 or 4 of flower.

 

[MtRainDog]

I keep my soil pretty simple. I've slowly been gravitating toward using more and more Pro-Mix... Pro-Mix is the business!

For Seedlings:
---------------
1/2 Pro-Mix HP
1/2 leftover, unspent soil (see below)

Soil Base:
----------
1/2 Pro-Mix HP
1/4 EWC
1/4 Perlite

Amendments (per ft^3):
--------------------------
2-4 Cups Azomite or Glacial rock dust
1 Cup Alfalfa Meal
1/2-1 Cup Kelp Meal
1/2 Cup Espoma Tomato Tone
1 Cup Garden Lime

I also feed *lightly* organic bottled ferts pretty much every watering. And 1/2 strength CalMag most of the time. I don't muck with PH at all.