What's your Favorite Living Soil Recipes?

Dude I don’t know what your summers are like but over here in summer it’s like 96F most days for months on end, and all those lethal brown snakes all come out of their winter slumber looking for shit to bite at! It’s like a life and death thing here to get your shit together in the cooler months :joy:
For decent soil you need air space in the root zone, the ability to hold moisture and therefore accessible nutrients, you need it to be friable so the roots can get through it, you need enough nutrients throughout the cycle and you need light and that’s about it. Coco peat is the pick of things, regardless of budget for guerrilla soil improvement in my experience.

So… I like guerrilla growing over all growing, there is just something about get way the heck out of anywhere and setting up a good patch. There are a few tools a tricks my bro and I have used over the years but when it comes to dirt we tend to look for somewhere near a creek, somewhere the soil is mostly silt and clay from flooding over the years. Soils like this tend to be high in nutrients, but can lack structure. Coco peat fixes this. In the cooler months we just cart out the 8kg bales of peat, unwrap them, throw them on the ground and leave them for a few week or till you get decent rain and they will expand and fluff up.
Then for nutrients, if absolute organic is your thing, those slow release pellets of manure, kelp,and guano are the go, if you are not such an organic purist, 6 month slow release granules and kelp for veg, add high phosphorus/potassium guano for flower. That is all I have used for years and have never had nutrient issues.
The other thing that is really useful is one of those augers you can get for a battery drill of ebay. Digging holes sucks, and these things are awesome. Also I take a small tarp for putting on the ground next to the hole, dig onto it, add the coco peat and nutes etc,shake it about and tip it back down the hole. This saves time and mess and mixes it all well.
And when it comes to carting water, a 20l backpack bladder is the go, get them cheap as camping showers off ebay. The ones I have used cost me $10 and have lasted 2 seasons.

5 Likes

I live in Manchester UK. Our summers peak around 24c and last about 3 days :rofl: we only have one venomous snake in our country and I’ve never seen one (Adder)

I did actually stick some photo Durban Poison out last year (next to the river with no amendments) and they almost lasted the season. Almost. This is why I wanted to attempt an auto run this year. I don’t mind having to go and feed to be honest. Gives me a reason to crack the fishing rods out. I’ve still got some megacrop too which I think will be used for these. I just need a really cheap base mix to stick in hole lol. I don’t mind carrying a 20l bucket with my fishing stuff for “livebait” or to mix nutes as be the case. I appreciate the tarp idea. As my paths won’t be well trodden but close ish to walking paths. ( Gonna cross the river in my dinghy)

3 Likes

Sounds like a whole different set of challenges :slight_smile: Well to give you an idea a 5 kg block of coco will do at least 5 good sized plants, give or take depending on what the soil is like. Over there it’s going to be decent I’m figuring compared to this baked part of the earth, so you could even make 5 kg stretch to 8 or even 10 plants. You can fit a 5 kg coco block in a mid size backpack without too much drama and you can saw it to make it fit. Per plant in the hole you woudl put 50g of 6 month slow release, and about the same of guano. If you are returning with any frequency then you can also use other things to feed it when you water. Honestly though, I rarely bother with adjunct feeds anymore because a decent nursery grade 6 month slow release alone with the guano tends to have everything the plant will need, especially for a shorter cycle like you are looking at.

If sativa-ish is your thing, I messed about with some Critical 2.0 and Med Seeds Channel + that were at least a good portion sativa, had nice structure and started and finished flowering early. The C+ especially was a fast finisher and is very tolerant of all sorts of abuse. Some of the AK47 variants may be worth a look also?

3 Likes

The soil definitely isn’t too bad around my spot. I do have some guanokalong guano in a tub. So that should come in handy. I also have the majority of a 5kg Coco block left too but the hydro shop is a short hop from me should I need any more. Never thought of using Coco in a guerilla in all honesty. Just presumed a soil/perlite mix of sorts would do it with a few amendments along the way.
From what I’ve read so far I’m guessing I just wing it and hope for the best but I wanna do reikoX autos justice as there’s a lot of effort and some really good smoke in there

I’m not usually a sativa leaner myself. I like a nice couch locky indica usually. But running purple Badlands indoors right now which is sativa dom. (Still couch locky though) not too fond of the AKs had 47 and 48

3 Likes

I truly believe one can get away with the bare bone minimum of @ReikoX (s) starting mix above with a bit of rock dust for an entire cycle, compost and/or worm castings has to be of the highest quality IMO and maybe top dress a couple times more in a 3 month periods

3 Likes

This is what I “knew” before getting into Cannabis growing. :smile:

via Elliot Coleman “New Organic Grower”

and I found the BOG’s old recipe for Walmartian survival:

:evergreen_tree:

6 Likes

Imo if the area around your area you plan to grow has veggitation and the sort I’ll bet it’s pretty good to start with that soil hasn’t been distrubed for probably hundreds of years and there’s biodiversity in the soil already and has good structure I might add also that a cover crop would aid also in fixing N and help further in soil structure some of those cover crops can get their root down 15-20 feet+

3 Likes

I try not to support Miracal grow at all or any of their products for who they been affiliated in past or present.

5 Likes

Same here & for other reasons too possibly but I’m just curious what @ReikoX’s desperation mix would be. For someone who’s isolated & lacks resources, no on-line ordering etc., maybe access to a big box store or a tractor-supply catalog.

An analogy using food would be fresh wholesome meal vs. frozen microwaved burrito… :laughing: :zap: :burrito: :biohazard:

:evergreen_tree:

2 Likes

Bare bone minimum for me in a guerilla type grow would to be go find some naturally composted leaves and debris throw some down the planting hole and and side dress the plant easy peasy no cost! Except for gas to get to the place! lol

5 Likes

I’m trying a very basic, water only, recipe here now. I got everything except the kelp from Home de Pot.

Lavender Cowyboy’s Mix:
5 parts Sphagnum peat moss
3 parts perlite
2 parts compost
1 cup per cubic foot dolomite

Per cubic foot I added
1/2 cup kelp meal
1/2 cup blood meal
1 cup bone meal

Cost breakdown:
3 cubic foot bag of peat moss $15
2 cubic foot bag of perlite $16
1 cubic foot mushroom compost $3
(free if you make your own)
5 pounds kelp meal (hydro store) $15
6.75 pounds dolomite lime $6
3.5 pounds blood meal $8
4 pounds bone meal $8

Total: $71 for about 5-6 cubic feet of soil.

12 Likes

Exactly this. After mixing and hauling soil, digging holes in the sun in 35C, and then watering when it hadn’t rained for weeks, I had 4 Cindy 99 seedlings that were extras and dug a spade depth hole with some leaf litter mulch, a handful of osmocote and in the end they were only a bit smaller than those that got all the attention. So it depends a bit on the environment you start with.

In one place I used to live, the soil was basically so dead that rejuvenation was a lost cause, and digging a hole needs a jackhammer, I used half hessian(jute) bags. If you chop them in half, fill them with dirt you can seal up the ends with hog ring pliers, which gives you a 25 litre bag of good to go dirt in it’s own mulch bag. Then all I did was drop in on the ground, punch a hole in the middle and put a seedling in it. It worked a treat and depending on access can be easier than digging holes.

5 Likes

I am not such a big fan of perlite and guerrilla growing myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love the stuff and I would and have used it, but the stuff is just so damn messy it’s hard to keep it all as stealthy as I would like. It doesn’t break down leaves a patch looking like a blizzard has been through. That sticks out like dogs balls over in the mostly brown environment here :grin:

6 Likes

I’m thinking more for aeration of the roots. We get a lot of rain here. So I’m thinking good aeration and planted on a slope. (I’ll probably need ropes to get up to where they’re going) but it will still only be 20-30 ft from a fresh water source too. I imagine perlite would go unnoticed given the circumstances but I fully appreciate where you’re headed with that.

4 Likes

Vermiculite or even better medium fine charcoal are some other viable alternatives. The coir itself helps to aerate boggy soils but can itself get a bit boggy if it’s constantly saturated wet so something like perlite or similar to break it up is always good imho. Charcoal/biochar works to aerate as well as help keep nutrients accessible to the plant AND it’s lightweight if you have to lug it. I’ve used charcoal used in open char bbq’s here, I have to break it up a bit but it goes for only $8 a bag and works well.

4 Likes

I hear DE is worthless after it gets wet and the purpose is defeated by doing so?

3 Likes

:thinking:

@anon58740919 @slain

might be able to stain perlite with humic acid… old perlite from my bottom drain layer in a SIP/Earthbox is rust colored. if i get REALLY bored i may do an experiment… :joy_cat:

and it does decompose-- into SAND! and then toxic hazardous dust.

silicosis. :unamused:

:evergreen_tree: my lungs are fragile enough :laughing:

2 Likes

I’m not too fussed about the white in there anyway to be honest. If someone stumbles on the perlite they stumbled on the plant. Humic acid won’t do any harm though so worth a crack big tree man definitely.

I planted 6 LD x LR the other day in Coco. Left with no heat or light source and 6 of 6 are up. Slightly elongated but absolutely fine. @ReikoX what kinda Dr Frankenstein are you. 10/10 for stress resistance so far. Definitely a good sign for old blighty weather

4 Likes

The cheapest soil I ever built that worked was:
1 part pumice
1 part “manure” (the $1 bag stuff that’s just the beef industry’s fouled cow bedding bagged up).
1 part dirt & as much leaf debris as was covering it.
A couple cups of all-in-one organic fertilizer.

The plants were nothing to brag about, but I still got decent results.

4 Likes

DE? Apols it’s a bit early for me this morning.

2 Likes