That trichoderma. Is that the stuff that makes your pH take a nosedive? Happens real fast if you piss off the microlife. I have some beldi apollon at 3 days old. Should be plenty dry enough to send. I’m headed to the post office tomorrow for someone else hopefully that works for you
1 Like
Can’t find the proper study, but here’s one along the lines of what I was looking for.
The one I was looking for studied beneficials in common commercial mixes, and found that in their test the trichoderma outcompeted everything, instead of just the pathogens.
So i take that to mean if seeds are planted in a sterile media with the rhizophagus irregularis / glomus intraradices it can develop the relationship we want, in peace.
Then when transplanting from the solo cups, inoculate the new media with the broad spectrum of beneficials for all the environmental controls
4 Likes
This thread has been very useful as I get back into the game. I definitely stopped growing at the wrong time, about 13-14 years ago. The idea of a supersoil intrigues me, but that’s a lot of ingredients and time between mixing and using. I’m use to just mixing a Simple soil blend, just promix and some more perlite, vermiculite, and gardening lime. Then feeding using liquid fertilizers, either organic (Alaskan fish or Neptune) or chemical. Since I got into growing berries and peppers this year, I’ll have more reason to go completely organic and get all the associated fertilizers and techniques in my tool belt.
7 Likes
You can grow excellent plants in the ground using only the local soil, compost, blood meal, bone meal, kelp meal, and lime. And anything you can think of to add air into the soil , such as chopped up one ( or older) year old leaves.
3 Likes
Outdoor: 1 part compost, one part soil, one part peat moss.
Indoor: 1 part compost, one part worm castings, one part peat moss.
6 Likes
I don’t keep track of measurements much, mostly go by feeling.
- Certified organic potting soil
- Basalt
- Malted barley
- Kelp meal
- Alfalfa meal
- Chopped banana peels
For next amendment gonna skip the kelp and alfalfa meal as I’m running out and don’t wanna buy more, and instead add:
- horsemanure
- dandelion
- nettle
- thistle
- grass
And gonna start growing my own beans, alfalfa and clover. Why waste money buying it if you can grow it? Either outside or in your pots after harvesting your weed. When it’s time for your next weed grow just chop & drop and sow. Gonna have two cycles of pots going.
After cleaning out my gutters I now also have a bucket of black gutter compost mainly built from leaves and tree seeds (only partially broken down, lots of little balls in there), and quite a bit of pollen as well I imagine. It’s been in my garage for weeks and it’s staying moist without adding water.
6 Likes
I’m new to this and am aiming at Rols and soon no till this is my recipe as follows I’ve been mixing in 6 cf batches
1/3 base soil
1/3aeration
1/3 compost
base soil is promix the 2 cf bundles of organic garden mix I think it’s called it’s 60 to 70% spagnum, 20 to 30% coir and 10% pelite plus a few things mycos etc
aeration 50% perlite 50% rice hulls
compost currently using rabbit manure compost pine and paper bedding coffee kitchen scraps etc but hope to have vemi producing soon
amendment
biolive 4 cups
barley 2 cups
kelp 2 cups
mineral 2 cups each
basalt
azomite
gypsum
oyster flour
DE 2 cups
the compost is inoculated with local microbes Ivē been playing with from the JADAM Book and recharge going to water with each any thoughts on my mix topdress ideas teas not sure what to “feed” them used to using bottled chelates been playing with making humic/fulvic acid any thoughts or help would be great thanks folks havē a great day
edit i’m wondering about teas molasses if i’m going to hav ph issues cal mag i’m not using much “hot” amendments blood bon or even crab working on building the beds so i can setup the no till but from a bottle grower point of view idk how or if i will need to “feed” the girls the promix and the biolive have myco do i need more anybody have experience withbferments i’ve found a bunch online and here on notill but most of it involves a shopping list of stuff i don’t have kinda feels like the opposite of what I’m aiming at thanks
4 Likes
For that size batch I use 9 cups of meals. I’ve been using biolive exclusively, buy just make sure the ratios line up. You are a bit light on that.
So far I can water only, but I’ve been using ewc and bus blend. The mix has done better than when I used rabbit pellets. Do like to use a little ffj in flowering, but I’m running sips now so I really can’t.
It seems to me that using bio live gives me a better “cook” on my soil. Before I was wetting with a compost tea to be sure. With all the benes in bio live, I don’t see a need.
Yeah I went back and thought I was light I think the last batch well the first batch had three cups of the minerals four cups is a kelp and barley and six cups bio live working on making my first batch of labs also some veg and fruit ferment think I might be having pH issues water is very alkaline but when I measure runoff it’s coming out right around 7 thanks for the help and yeah the bio live got it hot fast edit that bus blend is malibu right been looking for some might have to order it got some worms working now i appreciate the help
1 Like
When I started using ro water possible ph issues went goodbye. I found a 5 stage ro system for fish tanks for about 60 bucks.
No problem man. Anu other questions I’ll do the best can to help.
1 Like
I thought I didn’t need to check my water… should’ve at least once. All the way into my first grow, like a week or two before harvest, I happen to test it, because alkaline poisoning made sense given all the deficiencies the plants showed. Tested over 8, the highest my strips read. Well shit. Hooked up RO, and my plants since then have thrived.
It’s one of those things people who don’t know why they’re repeating it take it too far. Organic soil can and will buffer ph, but be reasonable, it’s not magic.
5 Likes
yeah i have had issues in the past with ph tested its at 8 or above didn’t know how this new soil mix and such would affect it when I do the runoff test its still comng out a bit high like 7.1 or7.2 I will have to look into an ro setup
2 Likes
Mix above looks good … I wouldn’t worry about higher ph the plant adjusts its own ph in and around the rhizosphere don’t try and fix some that’s not broke is my mantra.
1 Like
Yeah I added some more/better compost to the last batch and so far so good just 1 plant showing some cal mag issue other than that looking good still thinking about an RO system but I’m loving the living soil
Edit I think it’s time to build the no till beds
1 Like
1/3 compost, 1/3 peat, 1/3 potting mix… best base for anything
3 Likes
Base soil mix:
1:1:1: CSPM (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss) : Pumice/Lava rock : Compost - Malibus B/U is an excellent choice if it is available in your area.
Amended per cuF with:
1/2 - 1 cup Neem or Karanja
1/2 - 1 cup Kelp
1/2 - 1 cup Crab/Crustacean meal
1 cup MBP (Malted Barley Powder)
1/2 cup Gypsum (nice sulphur source)
4-6 cups Basalt
6-8 cups Biochar
Small handful of worms per container
9 Likes
Hello everyone
Just thought i would post my water only organic soil mix for everyone interested.
I like this cause I don’t have to ph my water or mix any nutes. And it’s 100% organic.
Ok really all you need is
Bale of Pro Mix - HP,BX or MP
Gaia Green all purpose 4-4-4 and Gaia green power bloom 2-8-4
Earth worm castings. I only use maybe a half a cup per gallon of promix. Most people use alot more I think.
And that pretty much it…lol
I personally also add some neem meal and some extra dolomite lime, oyster shell flour and insect frass. I add them for buffering the peat based pro mix(promix puts lime to buffer the soil) and to help keep away pests.
But this stuff isn’t needed, you can just use the all purpose and power bloom with great results.
Now all you do is mix at recommend rate-
Pre-mixing soil for hanging baskets, potted plants, and planter boxes: Blend 45 ml per 4 L (3 tbsp per gallon) of soil or growing medium.
Now some people use just 444 for this while others mix in some 284 as well.
A good ratio would probably be 30 ml 444 and 15 ml 284 or something similar.
Let this cook in a tote or something for a few weeks, preferably a month. You don’t have to do this but it helps the soil start breaking down the dry amendments.
Now I don’t like my plants to get to big in the pots before flowering or they run into trouble.
If you want big plants you need big pots.
I only run small plants in small 2 gal pots. I flip almost right after I transplant a clone or small plant in a solo cup. It gives the roots fresh soil for the initial stretch after flower is induced.
So if you have big plants I would recommend up potting to give roots space once tripped. If you don’t your surely going to run out of steam during the stretch. Has happened to me plenty of times when I put to big of a plant into flower with not enough new soil to keep it happy with the stretch.
Top dress as directed
Top-dressing hanging baskets, potted plants, and planter boxes: Apply 15 ml per 4 L (1 tbsp per gallon) of soil or growing medium. Gently dig into the soil surface. Apply once a month.
Once in flower I top dress every 2 or 3 weeks.
If my plant is already a good size I might top dress the day I flip just to be on safe side. This top dress would be 4-4-4
First top dress at 2 weeks would be maybe half 4-4-4 and half 2-8-4
Then next would be all 284
I usually top dress until week 6 or so depending on how long the strain is supposed to flower. Something that goes 11 weeks I might top dress later than week 6.
After the flower run I keep my blumats set up, keeping my pots constantly moist, I keep them like this for around a month. This helps break down the root balls in the pots. Then when I pull the stock all that should come out is the Rockwell cube with very few roots attached.
At this point I dump my pots in a tote and re amending at half my original rate and add a little bit more ewc and a bit more perlite(usually try to put them in equal parts or more perlite). Keep tote moist so the soil can cook for a few weeks or a month. I run another flower run with different soil while it cooks.
Then rinse and repeat.
I’ve had great results with this method.
This past run I didn’t have soil made up for a new run.
I remembered a post on ic mag about just reamending in your pots.
So This time I just ripped out the stem with Rockwell and a few roots attached. Then dug hole to almost bottom and put in 2 tbls of 4-4-4 and covered with a little soil. Then I put in plants from solos or rooted clone.
I use blumats and also top dressed at same time, just plopped a couple TBS of 4-4-4 under drip line.
Done!!
I am noticing some calcium deficiencies already so not sure how good this is going to work compared to my original way.
Here’s a nice chart a member over at thc farm made from another member shaded_ones method for growing with Gaia green dry amendments. It’s very similar to what I do.
He also top dresses with gypsum and Epson salts
Any questions or anything feel free to ask.
17 Likes
Great write up. Intersting info you share here…… and evidently it is working for you. Well done!
3 Likes
What is your favourite sandwich? 
9 Likes
I’m a coco guy but with a straight forward recipe like this I may try to give soil a go again lol I failed pretty hard last time.
Nice write up dude.
5 Likes