new guy going green

[puffnstuff]

Hi, Ive been useing MG 3 month feed for all of my previous and current grows but want to get away from yuck bud and try to grow something that tastes a little better. I went on a search around town and didnt find much in the way of organic potting soil, not many choices. So i bought a little of everything to mix together. what I bought was Mg organic-1.2cuft(with chicken stuff), Black Magic organic(withworm castings)- 1 cuft, Organic humas 1 cuft, mushroom compost - 1 cuft, composted steer manure - 1cuft and composted chicken #### - 1 cuft. and 2 8qt bags of perlite(its the only size i found) I also bought some bone meal, blood meal and kelp from Sweet Earth, they claim to be organic. So when i got home I cleaned and bleached the old 8 cuft wheelbarrow and let it dry. then I through in the MG organic, Black magic organic, humas and mushroom compost and mix them up real good. I also added the 2 8qt. bags of perlite. My reasoning with mixing the MG and BM together is that one has chicken and the other has worm castings, a little of both? anyway my wheelbarrow was getting hard to mix at this point so I measure off 1/2 of the mix into a sterile garbage can and set it aside(in case i screw up the first half). Then I added to the remaining mix in the wheel barrow 1/2 of the bag of steer maure and 1/4 of the bag of chicken ###(already have some in there from the MG). I also added per instructions on the box's 16oz of blood meal and 16oz bone meal plus 24oz of kelp and mix them in. To test my mix for drainage I filled a 4" pot and watered. It didnt drain very well so I went out to the walkway and scooped up some gravel, cleaned and bleached then added 1/4 volume to a small test batch, mixed it in and she drains good now. Does this sound like it will work? I also as a test have transplanted a single clone into the mix to see if it dies...
Thanks
Puff

 

[lyfr]

im not a soil guy, its totaly a wid guess but im way-up-there so what the heck...youve been warned. sounds a tad strong, dont know why..PH ?

 

[puffnstuff]

Oh yeh, PH, I havent tested it yet....my meter needs a new probe and the cheapo swimming pool tester i have only goes down to 6.8. I have some runoff water setteling now so I can try the swimming pool tester to try to get some idea of ph. New probe should be here anyday now. Ill let you know what i find when the water gets clear enough to use the color change test kit. and when the probe gets here.
thanks
puff

 

[slowmo77]

it does sound a bit strong but i know nothing about organic. still reading about it.

 

[puffnstuff]

well i let my runoff water set overnight and it was still too murky for the color change tester to work. going to have to wait untill the new probe for my meter gets here. On the bright side, the clone I transplanted into the mix hasn't died yet.
puff

 

[puffnstuff]

Went shoppin again and found a 3.5 cuft bag of vermiculite and a 2.2cuft bail of moss. I also got some dolomite lime,just in case. new meter probe still hasnt come so I picked up one of those cheapo ph/fert. testers for 19 bucks. Cant really trust the meter but at least it should give me some idea of where I am. So I got home dumped my half mix back in the wheel barrow and added 1/2 of the vermiculite in along with 1/4 of the bail of moss. Oh yeh, I got 2 more 8qt. bags of perlite too and added it in. I mixed it up good and tested it for drainage, not bad. then I wipped out the handy dandy multi-meter of questionable acuracy and low and behold it says the ph is 6.3. hmmm....but...uh can I trust the meter... hey i know, test it on some known quantities. my tap water never varies from 7-7.3...never. Sure enough the meter says 7.2. Ok that looks good. The meter also zeros out . next get out the lamotte 4.0 buffer, meter says 4.3, not bad. Lets try the 10.0 buffer, again not bad so I think my soil is probably pretty close to 6.3, good enough so I planted 6 AKx seeds and transplanted another of the clones that I just put in the flower room, hope it works ...
puff

 

[puffnstuff]

Oh yeh 1 question, even if my ph is good should I still add some lime for nutes or will this just cause me ph problems by raising it too much?
thanks
puff

 

[puffnstuff]

I did some more reading and decided it was needed for nutes. The 2 clones I transplanted are doing great. One of them I had been abuseing on purpose for this test. She was put in a 4" pot of super soil and never fed. She was so deficiant that she had turned kind of a lime green color. After being in my mix for a week she is getting greener, darker I mean. She is also keeping up with her sisters in stretching so I'm thinking I must be close at least to a mix that will work, maybe. I needed to transplant all of their sisters so they are all in my organic mix as of tonight, fingers are definitly crossed.
puff

 

[puffnstuff]

just an update on the clones I transplanted into my mix. I had a mg deff cuzz I put them in it BEFORE I added the lime. I gave them about 2/3 TBS and worked it into the soil and watered, they are doing much better now. I used the rest of the stuff I had mixed up on some other clones and the wifes flowers and vegg garden so I am mixing up the other half now with a couple small changes, I will start a grow journal with it pretty soon.
puff