Living Organic Soil mix

🌲 Cannabis Growing 🌿 Organic Growing
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Be glad to give you a starter mix @Deanirishgrower. The mix I am using is based on Clackamas Coot’s recipe for living organic soil as most everything posted on the internet these days are. For the purposes of this post, I am using the measurement 1 cu.ft. = 7 gallons.

Base mix:
Equal parts Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, worm castings and/or compost (equal parts of each to maintain the 1/3 ratio) and aeration like medium grain perlite.

This is your base mix. For peat moss, I have used ProMix HP and Veg/Herb (current grow) with good results. The humus, which is composed of the castings and compost is the most important ingredient here. The best quality you can get and afford is key.

To this mix, you can add a variety of amendments for your NPK requirements. This is my recipe (per cu.ft.):

1 cup Kelp meal
1 cup Alfalfa Meal
1 cup Bone Meal
1 cup Crabshell Meal*
1 cup Neem Meal* - ground
1 cup Karanja Cake* - ground
1 cup Malted Barley Sprout* - ground
1 cup Oyster Shell Flour
1 cup Gypsum - Food Grade
1 cup Dolomite Lime - Granulated not powdered
1 cup Mineralized Phosphate aka hi-P bat guano
Ingredients with a * are optional.

I usually mix one ingredient in at a time to ensure even distribution and prevent hot spots later on. Once all mixed in, I moisten the soil just until it is damp, no more no less. A simple way to tell is by the squeeze test. If you squeeze a handful of soil and you can see moisture seeping out betwen your fingers, it is too wet. What you want to get is a clump that will hold shape but crumble easily. You need to keep your micro-beasts that is present in your humus (see now why I specify best quality?) alive and starting to work on the amendments you have added. This initiates the process of decomposition and only gets better with use and regular care. This is also the time when you might feel the soil heat up due to using alfalfa meal in the mix. Easy fix is just turn the soil over and mix well. If you start smelling an ammoniated smell, it means your mix has gone anaerobic which is bad but easily fixed by turning the soil over and air it out. Cover lightly and let cook in cool dry place for about 2-3 weeks or until you no longer feel the soil heating up on its own.

In a 7G pot, I have done a complete cycle from sprout to flower with just water. What I have growing now is my second run no-till (meaning I didn’t disturb the present roots) with just a top dress of kelp meal, worm castings, alfalfa meal, neem meal and karanja cake.I usually keep a separate equal mix of the dry ingredients and use 1/2 cup for top dress plus 1/2 cup of castings. Add some red wiggler worms and your work is done.

That’s it! Sounds complicated but it really isn’t. Just a lot of ingredients to source out. There are online places where you can get all the ingredients here in North America, KIS Organics, Build-A-Soil and in Canada, Black Swallow Living Soil. Feel free to tag me if you have any more questions. It would be best though if you were to start a thread of your grow from start to finish.

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Awesome post! I would like to add that even though worm castings contain some beneficial microbes, you can add some to your mix to help chelate those nutrients for the plants. Something like Bigfoot mycorrhizae is perfect.

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Thank you so so much @canagen, I’m just about finishing my dark devils 4 autos, looking and smelling good, but I know after the 3 grows iv done, by using these bottles of nuits, im not happy with and what your recipe is sounds perfect for our plants,
Again @canagen, so the ingredients you have me I’m going to get and for sure go down this road, really appreciate your help @canagen,
Oh and sorry I am Deanirishgrower just using my phone,
Well thank you mate and happy growing :pray:

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A couple more points to consider when nurturing living soil:

1-You can’t let your soil dry out especially in the top few inches as it will kill off your microbes in short order. You may want to consider mulching and/or growing cover crops like clover and such. Not only will the cover crop reduce surface evaporation, it can feed N back into your soil. Same with chamomille only it adds P and K.

2-What pot size are you planning on using? In this case the bigger (15G+) the better. I am using 7G right now but find this would have to be the smallest I would go without having to resort to teas to help boost microbe content. The more microbes you have working for you the more your plant will have what it needs when it needs it.

That’s all I can think of for now. Cheers and welcome to the rabbit hole.

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Again @canagen tusks a million fit that, can’t wait to get started in it, just got 4 Bruce Banner Autos delivered, just got couple more bits and will go with your lovely recipe cheers bro :beers:

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I have been using 5g fabric pot s and some of the plants on grown in them seem to have been small, they were indica 80% but I can up to the 7 but you think the same for autos, just iv done photos, and the amount of time, I know it’s well worth when it gets near the end but with autos every 2 months you harvest and the rezults are great, but I’m definitely getting my game together thanks to this new mix and extras you’ve thought me, cheers @canagen

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I’ve never grown autos so I don’t know of their growth characteristics and requirements. But I am not sure if 7Gs are even necessary for this type of plant. Someone will correct me but I believe most use 5Gs and under for autos. Either way, you should be fine not having to worry about feeding schedules and what not. It’s all in there.

You may want to consider making teas though as it will benefit microbe content. Just a 1/2 cup of castings and 1/4 cup each of kelp and alfalfa meal once a week or so. I assume autos will benefit from high Phosphorous so you can add about 1T of hi-P guano to the tea once it starts to bloom. Mix it all up in a gallon of water and either let sit overnight to steep or bubble to oxygenate the mix. Strain and dilute to make 2 gallons and use that. The dregs you can either bury into the top (not a good idea if you suffer from fungus gnats) or use as feed for outdoor plants or worms.

Another valuable food source for your microbes is unsulfured molasses. About 1T per gallon of water is good. You can add this to the tea and bubble it with an aquarium airpump and airstone. The more bubbles the pump can generate, the better.

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All that information is great @canagen, thanks, and thank you for taking the time to put it all down for me, :pray:

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Hi @canagen :sunrise_over_mountains::+1:
As Iv asked for this advice and got a great recipe for my new grow, but cause of waiting on getting all the ingredients all together is taking a little longer than anticipated, but I’m sure at the start of next month I will have it all, i live in France, Irish origin, and we do have grow shots here but Iv got to order, and wait but I’m going for your recommendation, can’t wait to see how my babies will look, I’m waiting on some more new seeds, Iv got 4 Bruce Banner Autos and there just sprouted 2 days ago, but from little have Lt. Pot after maybe 2 to 3 weeks can I put them into this recipe, yes of course your going to say I hope👍
Just started them in coco and perlite and always just water for the first 2 weeks, spraying it, but after they sprout how long after that is it right time to take off the dome?Iv normally took it off when the first 2 fan s are out fully, does this sound right
hi @canagen thanks for that great recipe again

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Good stuff! As long as the soil mix doesn’t generate any heat from top to bottom, you should be good to go. It shouldn’t even feel warm when you turn it over. I generally sprout my seeds in used soil (or expanded peat pellets) and once the stem and cotyledons are strong enough to stand on its own, it gets transplanted into its final pot. I am a klutz when transplanting seedlings so I try not disturb the young roots as much. Your mileage may vary.

About the only time I use a dome is with clones. The sprout should have enough food from the cotyledons until it starts growing the first true leaves. Just ensure proper moisture content surrounding your seedling.

If I may suggest, post a log of your grow here on the website rather than the app, preferably from start to finish. It would make it easier to keep track of your progress. Cheers.

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