Actually nope, neither dr earth Is avaible.
What if I find a dry fert with the same ratio of npk?
@Justblazin
@Andrexl Ya any all purpose 4-4-4 or similar should work the same. You could also check the ingredients to see how similar they are. Good chance they would be pretty close
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This is some information I’ve put together for myself, and maybe y;all would like it too
*To convert cups per cubic yard to Teaspoons per cubic foot = multiply by 1.78
*There are 7.48 gallons in a cubic foot
*5 gallons (paint bucket) = 2.57% of a cubic yard
*200 gallons = 1 cubic yard
*48 Teaspoons = 1 cup
*16 Tablespoons = 1 cup
*1 cubic foot = 115 cups or 7.20 gallons
*1 cubic foot = 28.3 Liters
*1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet
*2.2 cubic feet = .081 cubic yards
*1 cubic foot = .037 cubic yards
*1 cubic yard top soil = 3" 108 sq ft / 6" 54 sq ft / 12" 27 sq ft
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- [ ] Recipe is per Bale of peat which is approximately 7 CU FT to this I add 7 CU FT Aeration, and 7 CU FT worm castings(High Quality is very important here.)
- [ ] Amendments are in cups
- [ ] 6- fish bone meal
- [ ] 6-fish meal
- [ ] 6-crab meal
- [ ] 6-feather meal
- [ ] 6- meal worm frass
- [ ] 6- BSF frass
- [ ] 6-kelp
- [ ] 6-neem/karanja/
- [ ] 6-alfalfa
- [ ] 20- barley
- [ ] 20- wheat bran
- [ ] 20- beet pulp
- [ ] 20-land manure
- [ ] 6-oyster she’ll flour
- [ ] 6-gypsum
- [ ] 6-lime
- [ ] 6- rock phosphate
- [ ] 1/2 potassium phosphate
- [ ] 20 basalt
- [ ] 10 greensand
- [ ] 10 diatomaceous earth
- [ ] 8 biochar
- [ ] 10 humic
- [ ] Silica
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i prefer to keep the castings out of the mix and use it for regular teas instead. found too much ewc in the mix can make it a little muddy vs just keeping the promix compost free and rockin the 444. so i dont have to worry about getting more Perlite or anything. then after using the castings for a month or so, ill just toss em around rose bushes in the yard.
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Question for yall - I’m looking into getting bulk amendments to cheapen making soil in the future rather than continuing to buy smaller bags of them.
I usually do standard coots mix, maybe add in some extra N or P sources if its for heavy eaters.
I’m considering either buying a big bag of the expensive amendments (kelp, neem, crustacean meal), or finding replacements for those 3. They’re not cheap, but would last a looong time at the amount of soil I use/make. I’ve found a place 2hrs away that has affordable shipping for the big bags (20$ per)… so neem would be 85, kelp 110, crustacean 60.
So what are some other replacements that are cheaper? I’ve thought of:
Alfalfa, Rock Phosphate as potential options, but still would need a K source to replace Kelp. Maybe ash from my fireplace… have heard that is strong through so not how much I’d use compared to the 1/2cup of kelp per cubic foot. Or maybe Langbeinite?
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Neem can be replaced with any seed meal really, but you won’t get the bug deterrent properties. I would stay away from cotton seed meal though, cotton is heavily sprayed with pest and weed killers.
Kelp is a tough one to replace, mainly because if the trace elements. You could use a small amount of sea salt, then replace the kelp with compost. Compost is generally high in K. Langbenite is nice, especially if you are lacking in Mg as well.
You could probably replace the crustacean meal with oyster shell. Again you will loose the added benefit of chiton that you get from the crustacean meal.
The Coots mix does a good job of having multiple purposes for each amendment. It makes it fairly simple to make a recipe only using a few ingredients. That, in turn, makes it easier to buy in bulk.
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Appreciate the thorough response. That’s a really good point with those three amendments contributing multiple purposes. Yeah it’s always tough to stay on top of which “organic” amendments are troublesome, I know all the blood meals, bone meals, feather meal aren’t too great.
I do have access to coast of maine lobster compost, which should have some crustacean shell meal in it already… and am already using oyster shell in the base coots mix.
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I stopped buying individual amendments after doing a spreadsheet comparing my usage of them, the cost for bulk amounts (20lbs or more for each), and comparable organic amendment blends such as BAS Craft Blend, Espoma Tomato Tone, and Gaia Green.
The big bags of amendment blends are cheaper at recommended usage than you can make yourself, even if you get free shipping on 50lb bags of individual amendments. Tomato Tone is cheapest, but some of their ingredients are questionable. Craft blend uses the highest quality ingredients with good chain of custody, and is still cheaper than individual amendments, plus it includes things I wouldn’t add in a basic Coots mix. If you can wait for their Black Friday and 420 deals, you can get a 44lb bag of it with free shipping for pretty cheap. It works so well, I switched over to it completely and use no individual amendments besides barley and kelp anymore.
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Yeah I’d thought about doing a craft blend mix - if you were building soil from scratch how much would you be using? I’d kind of formulated a recipe with similar amounts of rock dust/gypsum/oyster, and then 1-2cups of craft blend per cubic foot. Can’t remember if I ever made it from scratch tho, I usually just re-amend with craft blend. Maybe a bit less of the mineral mix as craft has some in it.
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I’d use 3 cups craft blend per cubic foot when building soil from scratch, and it really doesn’t need any more minerals at all from rock dust/gypsum/oyster shell meal for veg, but you could add gypsum at a rate of 9g/gal occasionally when you topwater.
With that ratio, you won’t need to add any other amendments, but you’ll want to topdress craft blend once at each transplant, and that’s it as long as you don’t overveg in any stage.
Another tip with craft blend is that, while it’s not required to let it “cook” before using the soil, I have recently noticed that my reamends with craft blend do become thermophillic for a couple weeks after recycling and reamending the soil, so it might be worth reamending immediately when recycling, then letting it sit for a bit until you’re ready to use it. The craft blend didn’t need that previously, but it’s gotten so diverse in its ingredients that maybe now it needs to cook. 
HTH!
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Interesting! Good to know it subs fully for all the minerals. Appreciate the advice man!
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Who’s your boss Mr accountant, I’m tipping him off that you’re swindling the company. Buildasoil is not cheaper. That’s simply a lie.
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Sulfate of potash for K.
One thing I will correct u on is the cu ft in a SOIL GALLON not a liquid gallon
It’s 6.4 not 7.48 or 7.20 which u have those 2 figures on it, that’s a big difference when building soil and/or recipes
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cool, thank you. You should charge your phone 
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Depends on the recipe really. Clackamas Coots, for example, explicitly states he uses 7.5 gal as his cubic foot.
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Your right about the plants flexibility when it comes to pH.
But the plant itself has needs, and can only absorb certain nutes at specific pH’s…
Setting a target is always good @Tinytuttle
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The recipe is 3 parts ProMix, Air, Compost plus amendments.
ProMix - 4 cf Pro-Mix BXM
Air - 4 cf Perlite
Compost - 4 cf Coast of Maine Lobster Compost
Amendments
30lb Worm Castings
5-6lb Blood Meal
5-6lb Bone Meal
5-6lb Seabird Guano
3 cups Kelp Meal
2 cups Rock dust
1 cup Dolomite lime
I like Down to Earth and Espoma for my organic inputs. Something I would like to stress is make sure you source all your inputs from clean sources. If you grow via seed only and use reliable clean sources of inputs you should have minimal pest issues.
Mixing can be a chore I use 2 55g HDX totes. I tend to use it immediately and have no issues doing so. I would steer clear of using this for seedlings due to possible wilt from all that bioactivity. For that I just use the ProMix BXM. The mix can be used for multiple runs and you will have to re-amend after the third run assuming you have dodged pests along the way. Second run comes out the best. Not sure if the rubber lobster claw bands are organic 
I just pick those out.
I think of the soil as a gas tank:
1g can go 6-8 weeks without issues
5g min to flower out without issues
if you transplant to 7g and veg for a week or 2 more and flip that leads to some great senescence at the end.
This recipe sets my constant with just adding water so I can let the plants speak to me. Let me know if you have any questions happy to answer.
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I agree, 7.48 is the standard.