Old timer needs help with soil mix

[Starfire]

OK, Here’s
the story; I am making my own soilless potting mix for an indoor (4x4 Mylar
tent with 16 plants in 3 gal black nursery pots will be under a 1000 watt HPS) SCROG grow. The
screen will be 12” above the medium.I have been
an avid organic gardener all of my life and have been growing pot for 40 years,
but only outside in the ground. This is my first indoor grow in containers. So I
need some coaching from you guys with more experience in this area. Using what
I already have around the shed, this is the mix I am planning (mothers and
seedlings are vegging under CFL’s and are about ready to clone so I still have
a little time to tweak this mix before I actually combine the ingredients). I
don’t want to screw it up because I am making a large batch and bagging it for
future use. Here it is;


8 cubic ft
of compost (black humic compost, I bought a trailer load from a landscape supplier)
2 cubic ft
of Canadian Peat Moss

40 pounds (3
or 4 cubic ft?) of worm castings (I have a total of 80 lbs)

1 cubic ft
of well composted chicken manure (I have 3 cu ft total)
16 quarts of
Perlite

5 lbs of pelletized
Garden Lime

4 cups bone
meal (I have 5 lbs)

4 cups blood
meal (I have 5 lbs)

1 lb Rock
Dust minerals

I would
really hate to go thru all that work and have it fry or overwhelm my plants. I
would like to adjust the proportions so that I don’t have to buy to much more
stuff.

Well, there
it is. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in
advance!

 

[nouvellechef]

Whats wrong with what you have been doing for 40 years? Outside to inside makes no difference on soil base, for the most part. You got a good start. Keep looking for some more organic ingredients.

Kelp meal
Cotton seed meal
Alfalfa and soybean are better than blood
Green sand

Most importantly some myco or some type of innoculant.

GL

 

[BBFan]

That is going to be way too hot IMO. Maybe used as a supersoil type growing, but that mix straight will burn your babies up.

NC- With the compost, wc, and manure he'll have plenty of bacteria.

 

[Wetdog]

BBF

At first I was ??????? hot???. Then I went back and saw all that chicken poo.:holysheep: All the stuff you mentioned will provide BB, but not Mycorrhizae. He still should get some of that.

NC is quite correct. Use what you've been using for years, I do. I also use the same mix for indoors or outside container veggies.

The only very glaring thing I see is 16 qts of perlite for +-10CuFt of mix? No where near enough, especially with the EWC. "I" use close to 40% perlite in my mix. You may want to locate a 4CuFt bag from the landscape supply.:hubba:

BIG +1 on the Kelp meal, Alfalfa meal and the Greensand. I use all 3. I haven't been able to source soybean meal, so can't speak from experience, but NC (among others), love it. From what I've read, cottonseed meal isn't recommended for container growing and is super acidic to boot.

I would really try and score the kelp meal though.

One last thought, you might be a little light with the lime, maybe.

Wet

 

[BBFan]

Compost is loaded with em- both bacteria and fungi.

EWC is also loaded with em- both bacteria and fungi.

Composted chicken manure is loaded with em.


Starfire-

Using compost as your base is going to make your mix hot imo. I also think you will have compaction issues as compost and ewc are dense. As wetdog said, you need way more perlite and peat moss.

Bottom line though, the tricky thing about compost is, unless you made it yourself and know what's in it, it can be very hot. Compost can also take years to break down. Typically, around here, we use it as a top dressing. In the compost we use, if we planted directly into it the plant would fry within days.

Test it out- cut it with 50% perlite (or peat moss) and see if a plant can survive in it.

 

[ozzydiodude]

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54251
Take a look at all these diferent mixes and see if you can adjust your ratios til you get a mix that works right for you. I like to mix my compost,ewc and manures together then mix 50/50 with perlite. This seems to give me the best soil mix.