I think I got my hands on a cement mixer so that should make this mixing work a breeze filling up my soil crate
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My local HD doesnt get the 2cu ft bags 
just the 0.75cu ft for like $12
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Damn that’s rough, I’d be going the lava rock route $5 for .5 cu ft and a sledgehammer lol
Ever think of getting one of those rotating compost tumblers? Something like this:
I’ve thought about it since I generally don’t mix up hundreds of gallons at a time. Put the basic ingredients you listed in, in smaller portions, can even toss in some household compost if you aren’t using it immediately…
Currently I mix in a 27gal rectangular storage bin, and its a PITA. I keep eyeing those things up to eliminate the storage bin 
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Another one thats not so cheap here. $14 / 10lbs, or $5 for 1.5 qts. I used tons of that for filter material in bogs on koi ponds when I was building them. Even by the ton, it wasn’t cheap!
But it makes for an awesome reverse flow settling style bog filter that you can plant and it looks just like another pond
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I’ve already got a colony of red wigglers for my composting stuff, I have checked those out though and just can’t see using it. Both sides arent even 20 gallon so I’d still be stuck to pretty small batches. I’ve already got about 600 gallons of soil from last year that I made/bought throughout the year accumulatively and making this new batch of 500 gallon should pretty much send me over the top of not ever running out of soil again or a need to make more. I’d have to build another greenhouse to choke myself out of soil again after this giant mix.
I was doing the same thing throwing it all in a giant storage tote and getting shoulder deep hand mixing it all, truely is a PITA that way.
Been doing some roofing demo for a guy that his place caught fire and having to replace 10 of the main roof trusses and roofing that happens to have a cement mixer that he’s gonna let me borrow for a day to knock it all out so that’s a huge relief lol
Geez, ur guys HD effin blows out there. I’m in a small rural area too and thought I had it bad trying to find supplies but I guess not…
Oddly enough, living in the state with the highest cost of living in the nation means everything is more expensive. On the plus side, 500 gallons of soil is enough to fill an entire house, and it’s still worth decades in jail to be caught with more than 3 seedlings so none of us are about to be growing in huge greenhouses.
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I think its materials vs location. Doing the koi ponds we had tons of different gravels, rocks and boulders. Stuff from the SW, certain sandstone, lava rock, etc was always pricey, but river gravel, like delaware river run, is cheap as hell cause its all over. Even stuff like Missouri moss rock would cost an arm and a leg here, just cause its exotic and not found locally.
I could easily double my materials cost, if not triple it, if you wanted something “not locally found”. The moss rock looked cool, was the cheaters way to build waterfalls (its very cube like and fits together easier than irregular stones), but damn it was expensive. Buying local stone, it likely came from some foundation excavation, and the hauler is being paid to remove it there, and then selling it to us LOL… That was obviously way cheaper.
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I dunno about an entire house… My soil catch crates are 4x4x4 and will hold about 275 gallon each. What state are you in? We can “legally” grow 12 plants per house hold here but I can’t honestly say we stay within our limits/plant counts. I don’t just grow weed though. All I’ve got is the 4 white rhino seed project plants in the greenhouse currently and the rest of the 12’x 16’ greenhouse is filled with veggies and u guessed it, I’m out of soil again till I get this all mixed up lol the red cups in the pics are what’s just begging for more soil and room lol (ur looking at 600 gallon in use)
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What part of the country are u in? When I hear southwest it can’t be THAT far from me over here in az
I’m in Joisey, the northeast! I know youre in the SW, hence some cheaper rocks LOL
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Nice looking start to the 2022 veggie garden. I wont be sprouting seeds for that till next month LOL. Maybe start some peppers sooner, but tomatoes I will wait on…
Ultimately mine will all go outside, and in the ground. So no need for the larger pots for them if I time it right 
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Ah gotcha, that def makes a hell of a lot more sense! So can you guys even get a premium soil out there like fox farms? Only one we can buy local is the ocean forest, no happy frog, no cultivation nation, etc does ur nursery even have anything cannabis blend related?
I started mine 2nd week of Jan, currently working on sprouting peppers. We don’t have soil here, just dirt and compact without organic matter in it. Get passed that hurdle and we get some extreme winds that just thrash the hell out of plants, I’d love to have a full yard of greenery and veggies but I’ve tried many years and failed everytime. One of the years I planted corn rows and the next morning there’s a hole every spot I had a seed, thought it was birds and aviary netted my whole backyard and found out it was lizards 🤦 threw in the towel that year! Now having the greenhouse I’m pretty much untouchable from pests and shenanigans as long as I can keep the heat managed
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Nurseries have some Stonington, but not a lot of cannabis blends. Some are carrying more but remember, its still illegal to grow at home, so the “public” demand isn’t there. I can get all the FF stuff from amazon with free prime shipping, but thats freaking expensive.
My alternative here is “Black Dirt” and mix my own. A few local places sell mushroom compost and black dirt (google NY Black Dirt Region). An ancient lake bed for much of the area, lots of rich soil. Funny thing is when I buy a 1 cu yard bag of it in the spring, it comes from Canada, NOT the black dirt region (although its marketed as such, those bastids), Technically its illegal to sell black dirt from that region in NY (they dont want it all to disappear). Still basically the same stuff, and my gardens and beds have loved it for years… But its gotta be mixed down, its heavy in compost / organics, and gets muddy and wet if you dont blend in coco / peat / perlite pretty heavily…
$120 for the cubic yard So thats not so bad… (compared to a cubic yard bought in bags)
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Ya I’ve priced out the ff on Amazon and prices are disgusting but when there’s shipping involved they are making up for it somewhere. Shit I’d be going late night with a shovel and a truck haha we’re next to a swamp here called catfish paradise that in season is only about 6 ft deep and can’t see more than 6 inches in. Always thought it was muddy and nasty as fuck to a point I wouldn’t even jump in it but learning from wildlife rangers and a friend that is huge into aquatic life thats an extremely healthy eco system, helped her “fish” for the freshwater mini shrimps about the size of a pinhead the other day and got a lot in about 15 min. Now it’s got the gears turning in my head to maybe fill some buckets and use that as the base water for my compost teas and she seems pretty convinced that what’s in those waters is similar to worm castings in the respect it cant burn plants. Def something I want to “test the waters with” this year
120 ain’t bad for that much soil! Could be worse!
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I’m also in Joisey, @Nagel420 and I have basically the same prices to work with. I’m not sure where I’d get black dirt though, I’ve been using Coast of Maine’s Bumper Crop. It’s about $15 for a 2 cu ft bag, then I mix it with sand, peat and growstone. I recently had to buy a bit more growstone and that’s become the most expensive part by far, but it holds and wicks water better than perlite and in fabric bags I’ve found that to be an advantage, especially for my bottom-watered setup.
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I got a swamp with vernal ponds behind the house too and a high water table. A lot of the ground at my house has a heavier clay mix to it. Of course, part of the Appalachian Mountain range separates me from the black dirt region (45 min drive). I have lots of glacial till in the soil as well. The swamps might have some good dirt, but heck, I just head behind my house to where I dump leaves every year and move them to the side and its awesome black dirt compost, just not enough for what I want yearly. I do have a 3 bin compost setup outside as well made with pallets. Problem is right now its under ice / snow and been frozen for months…
My flower beds in the yard are gorgeous soil, made by years and years of mulching with triple ground mulch. no dyes, it decomposes in a year, and REALLY helped amend the clay soils beneath it. I make the walking path in my veggie garden from mulch as well, and till it in every spring and create a new path to help amend that soil. Still gotta contend with a high water table though…
But the convenience of a big bag of gorgeous black dirt I can just shovel into planters, and spread on the flower / veggie beds is worth the $120. Its sifted and just right, not dry, not mud. Plus I get a bonus bag out of it (or $10 if I return it). Worth it to keep it to help with leaf cleanup in the fall
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Well today is mixing day and my cement mixer fell through so doing this the ole fashioned way 40 gallons at a time
4 products, 1 part each and a cup of Dr earth per 10 gallon, I double up the Dr earth on the perlite and leave what I’m dumping in first short of it so it doesn’t trap on the bottom of the bin and perlite spreads the easiest
All ends up in my catch crate and throw a nice amount of spent coffee grounds layered over each 40 gallon I dump in to add a lil acidity to the soil since no peat in this mix and coir is generally neutral.
End result is a nice beautiful airy potting mix that my plants just absolutely thrive in
I will end up giving the crate a nice splash down once it’s full to wake some microbes up and tomorrow I’ll be putting together a nice veg actively aerated compost tea that I’ll throw on it Saturday.
From that point on I’ll leave for a few weeks to cook and gonna be popping my summer grow seeds in a week and a half and in pots by the end of the month, here we grow 2022!
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So interesting update with this one…
The Scotts humus and manure is suppose to be .75 cu ft, well with 1 cu ft being 6.4 gallon, 2 of these bags should be close to 10 gallon (9.6). Well doing this today I was going through 3 bags to fill 10 gallon, called Scotts to see what the heck it up with that and they are offering a reimbursement for the entire purchase of 24 bags 
I mean it sucks they are shorting all those that aren’t paying attention but at least they are making good on the ones that do, those bags are realistically .5 cu ft
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