For anyone interested in following my 1st outdoor grow see links provided below.
Intro: I formerly owned and operated a tree service and had a ton of wood chip available. I had spread out 12" of wood chips to lay logs on top of. They stayed there about 2 years. Last year I scraped them up into piles and they began to compost. This picture is 13 - 5 gallon buckets of my starter soil (compost) to which I will be adding:
15 gal peat
15 gal worm castings
15 gal perlite
2.5 gal of seabird guano
2.5 gal of blood meal
This will cook until Memorial weekend (I hope that is long enough). I know I am pushing the envelope; however, the plants will be almost 8 weeks old by then, at which point they will be transplanted into 20 gallon fabric pots. If anyone with experience making super soil @canagen 
has any input on my recipe, I am open to suggestions. I appreciate everyone’s advice and help on all my grows. Happy growing!
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Thanks for the vote of confidence. I do have some comments in your proposed soil mix.
First, that compost looks to be small wood chips although they are in the stages of rotting. Which is not too bad but when too much is added into the mix, it might cause nitrogen fixation wherein it uses the N in your soil to decompose. At least this is my understanding of the phenoma. Perhaps you can screen out the dust and use it instead? It would be a great addition to the earthworm castings.
Second, your choice of seabird guano and blood meal. I believe there are two different types of guano depending on where it was harvested. Some are high N and others high in P. The blood meal can be reduced as it is fairly fast in release. I used 1 cup per cu.ft. (7 gallons) in my first soil batch and found it was too much. The plants didn’t burn but they were noticeably dark green. You can always top dress with it or if you need faster uptake make a tea and do a soil drench should the need arise later on. The same goes for high N guano if that is what you are using.
Now for some questions. How do you plan on controlling PH? Since you will be growing in containers you’d need to add something like dolomitic lime (granular for medium to slow release or powdered).
A source of calcium would be helpful. I use both gypsum and oyster shell flour for both medium and slow release (oyster shell). I would highly recommend kelp meal which is high in micro-nutrients.
Some other ingredients you may want to consider are:
Bone meal - phosporous
Crabshell meal - look up chitin and its benefits to our plants.
Malted barley sprout - growth enzymes
Neem meal & Karanja cake - pest control
And many many more…
Lastly, you’ll be growing in 20G which would mean a higher evaporation rate. You could sow some cover crops like red clover and/or use mulch. You don’'t want the top of your soil drying out as it will kill the microbes you are trying to nurture. A handful of red wigglers and you are good to go.
HTH and good luck.
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Wow, thanks for the input.
- I will screen out the wood
- The guano is my source of phosphorous
- I did a ph test on the soil and I think its between 6.5 and 70.
- An additional source of phosporous was somekind of organic calcium product that I did not list. Ill get the name to you shortly.
- I will reduce the blood meal. I wondered about that also since I was already adding the worm castings. Seemed like enough N already. The recipie came from Royal Queen Seeds.
- Have a lot of chips laying around for mulch.
Thanks for the advice
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I don’t know if you’ve seen this but I just posted it this AM:
Organic Nutrient List
You are in the U.S… I believe they offer a service to check your soil for a small fee, something like $35 or so but it will give you a better analysis of what is in your soil. You may want to look at that.
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Here’s the soil before and after screening. I took your advice and put 8 cups of blood meal on it. Also, is a pic of those other sources of phosphorous. I did a home soil test and it was already mid-high on phosphorus and potash, so I should be good on that.
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That’s nicely colored compost you have there. Keep us posted. You should be able to grow some monsters with that mix you are contemplating.
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Here is the results of my NPK test on that soil. Do you think its too hot? I’ll be adding some kelp mix to boost the K.
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Yeah the N looks a mite hot. Where did you get the sample from, the top few inches or closer to the middle of the container? The only real way to find out is to run a plant through. I don’t know enough about that soil test to determine what they mean by “surplus” specifically by how much. You can try planting a seedling or clone in a 1L container or so and monitor the growth. If it does not burn, chances are you could still use the mix as is. How long has it been cooking?
If it does burn, then you have two options: mix in more of your base mix to dilute the concentration somewhat or layer that soil at the bottom and top with regular soil. Sort like using the super-soil technique. But I would try a seedling in a small container first and see the effects.
To my knowledge, kelp will never burn your plants. How does it smell, earthy or what? Bet you are excited to try your mix out. Good luck.
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Here’s something you may want to consider planting now, companion plants. I’ve planted chamomille along the perimeter of the pot along with some basil though it’s not showing yet. But the chamomille adds P and K once the plant decomposes and you can also use the flowers for tea.
Cheers.
Click here to see more.
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I dug down about a foot. Its been sealed up in a trash can, so there has been no water in it or sunlight. It has also been cold so I am not sure what is required for “cooking.” My plants are currently in FFOF. I figured I would allow them to get as big as possible in a 3 gal pot. It has been very slow going because my tents are on 12/12. I started them in the window sill and as you might imagine they streeeetttched. Haha. Now I am taking them down when the lights come on and bringing them back up to the window sill when the lights go off for another 3 hours of light, which will increase. I figure by Memorial weekend they will go outside for good. Thanks for your input.
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Cooking merely means the beginning of breakdown through decomposition. I think you will be good.
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Thats good. I thought it had to heat up and that wasnt going to happen
The soil will heat up when you add alfalfa to the mix. I guard against heat build up by regular turning of the mix. Once the soil no longer generates heat it is ready for use.
That does look and sound like it could nearly do your whole grow, but it’s that your plan @Outdoorman? Or will you be adding nuits, if so can you just please let me know your complete mix cause I’m just about to start some Bruce Banner Autos, and Iv tied using coco and Bottle nuits but I think the way you guys are going has nearly everything in it, may be worth going down this road, yourself your just trying it out but @canagen you’ve been using this mix can you assist me in a good mix for a few of my new baby’s!!! Sorry I appreciate all the advice you have guys 
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Didn’t want to derail Outdoorman’s thread.
Click here instead.
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