I mean if ur filling a cu ft fishtank with water getting in every crack and inch but soil is considered a dry and fluffy and doesn’t fill every gap so the 6.4 would be the more accurate number being a dry gallon volume
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Nobody uses 6.4, Coot worked in the landscape industry his whole life and this is what he goes by and everyone I know. I’m sticking with 7.5. Really as long as you use whatever system you use, you can re create repeatable results.
Rev does and where I seen that number to begin with and went off that conversion building 500 gallons knowing how much inputs to buy
That’s fine, what works for some doesn’t always work for others 🤷
Works for me cuz when looking at a 1.5 cu ft of soil which is the typical size I know it will fit a 10 gallon grow bag perfectly being 9.6 on what I believe to be the right conversion based on doing just that and having my inch of watering space on the top after I dumped a bag of fox farms ocean forest, so either my conversion is indeed wrong or they been shorting us or my grow bags are actually bigger than the 10 gallon they say
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It’s hard to say. Absolutely do what works for you. There’s more than one way to skin a cat! I believe the bales of spagnum peat I use say 5 cu ft. We count them as 7 because it fluffs up so much that’s about what we end up with. Really whatever you do it just needs to be written down. Then once everything is mixed, cooks, and settles out you can send in a soil sample and adjust from there. Eventually you can get things dialed. As long as the same ammendments are used from the same sources, and the source doesn’t change their recipe. I’m really lucky to have a bad ass organic grow store right by my house that has absolutely every organic/mineral ingredient I could ever want. So I’m able to get everything in bulk at a discounted price. I mixed about 2500 gallons in the last two years, by hand, and that’s with my conversion 
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i’m enjoying this thread immensely and learning a ton.
i will say i went the BAS for a while and it kinda bit me. i’d recommend testing your soil after each run to see what is really needed for amending. just blindly throwing craft blend in doesn’t always help.
my last test with using BAS 3.0 for 3 runs with re amending each time with only craft blend, I ended up having no N but an overage of P and K also almost no micros left. 1st run was decent, 2nd run was good but my 3rd was mids. i had some heat issues that 3rd run. of course, there are always other variables that come into play with the quality of each harvest.
that said, if i keep throwing craft blend i will be way over the amount for proper P and K so instead i went with a more surgical approach - blood and feather meal, seabird guano, along with a proper mix of micros and castings.
so pumped to see how this next run is going to be. this is such a fascinating subject. hope to keep learning more from everyone here. cheers!
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Im prob up to about half that around 1200 gallons trying to build and add more each year too. I’ve honestly never sent in a soil sample, just build with 50%compost 25%coir and 25% perlite and additional lava rock from time to time since perlite blows all over and the recommended amount of Dr earth veggie. Never had to ph or or worry about missing anything so far but I’m sure if my soil is missing things it’s picking it up on the tea feedings every 10-14 days
I’m really trying to veer away from peat even though there’s still a bit in my soil from the start just throwing it all together over time, tired of the hydrophobic splash backs
I’ve been happy finding redbudsoilcompany.com as a amendment supplier, their prices are cheap and have everything I could want and more
I did all mine by hand too, really considering getting a cement mixer for future soil builds though
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You’ll save money by doing the soil tests if you’re mixing large amounts of soil. Otherwise you’re just throwing money away at nutrients and guessing. You’ll also be able to identify when something is working better.
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Honestly as far as amendments I really don’t do much other than the cup of Dr earth per 10 gallon , let it cook for a month then follow these recipes with a few twists of my own for the feedings
My choice of compost is mushroom compost and Scotts humus and manure half and half each
Fav two twists in veg is I’ll take fresh aloe leaves and blend them into a slurry and dump it in as part of my base water for a brew. Silica and tons of vitamins and minerals and have personally seen much more vigorous growth and stronger plants in my grows since I started doing it after learning about the benefits of aloe in gardening, also improves plants immunity and heat resistance which is a win here in az
Next twist is I’ll plan a day fishing for a tea, bring home my live catch of a striped bass, largemouth or catfish and leave it alive over night with my airpump in the amount of water i plan to use for my tea and the following day ill either process and filet the fish to consume 
or re release it and throw in my tea bag for the following 24 hrs and feed the plants that, ive never seen such an explosion of growth adding those aquatic microbes fresh like that and truely has been my secret weapon to blow my plants up.
Most my garden was started on average around the beginning of June WAAAAAY late for the season I still managed to pull 6-10 footers and my last veg tea I went fishing to give it that last final veg push before they flipped, worked like a charm
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Huh, that’s very interesting. I use aloe, silica, barley sprouts. That’s my secret weapon lol
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Pretty sure I got my base mix all put together, just need to source everything now. If anyone has recommendations let me know! I’m basing this recipe off of Coots with some tweaks from KIS organics.
8% Biochar
42 % Sphagnum Peat Moss
33% Pumice
17% Earth Worm Castings
Per each Cubic Foot
1/2 cup organic Neem Meal
1/2 cup organic Kelp Meal
1/2 cup Crab or Crustacean Meal
1 cup Malted Barley
1/2 cup Insect Frass
4 cups “Mineral Mix”
- Glacial Rock Dust
- Gypsum
- Oyster Shell Flour
- Basalt
Handful of Worms
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10-30 percent coco. I feel like none of the people who prefer coco or peat have grown in either. Or they’d agree. Never see them mixed together. They both suck by their self. Pure peat will have the most uneven moisture, no clue how people use it. You see all these giant fabric pots of peat with maybe 3 gallons worth of roots…
I’ve grown with coco and peat. They both work well if you know what you’re doing.
Fabric pots work best when they are wrapped with a 2" gap on the bottom for air pruning of roots.
Similar to Grass Roots
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Well here’s a really cool opportunity to learn!
Peat is easy, cheap, organic and sustainable right out of the ground in North America, and it’s fantastic as a soil foundation all by itself. Just add saponins (via aloe, yucca, soap nut, or Q) to your water and water slowly the first time through in a peat-based soil; do the same when making your peat-based soil mix before letting it “cook.” You’ll never have hydrophobia issues after that as long as you keep your organic soil moist, which is recommended practice anyway in support of the microbes and fungal colonies we cultivate in our organic living soils.
Like many others here, I’ve been using bales of straight peat in my organic dirt recipe for years and have none of the issues you’re describing by following the suggestions noted above. I started out in fabric pots and now use the same mix in SIPs and it’s great at wicking.
Peat also makes a very, very good soil base in places with alkaline water. With high pH tapwater, you don’t want to add lime or oyster shell flour when you use peat because of peat’s natural acidity; instead, use small amounts of langbeinite and gypsum.
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I love this response. Big thanks to you.
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I noticed that when I switched from ProMix to Sunshine 4 Pro (which has added silica washed into the peat) that my dry spot issues mostly went away, so I’ll add potassium silicate (like AgSil16H which I also water in) to the list of things that help, it’s a great emulsifier for oil-based foliar sprays so that makes sense.
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WOW! This is the thread I have been looking for. I have been a hydro grower since 2008 but only growing vegetables & Flowers. I started researching the soil food web in June of 2023 and have decided to switch over to organic and focus on building living soil. After purchasing my first microscope in November I feel like I am starting all over again… I have just discovered much of what I don’t know about growing. Thanks for letting me into this community! More to follow.
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Per 7 gal Promix HP with Myc
2 cups EWC
1/4 cup crushed oyster shell powder
1/2 cup power bloomplus
1/4 cup fishbone meal
1/4 cup alfalfa meal
Both meals and the powerbloom are Gaia green products bought in the largest size bags.
This is the cheapest , best producing , simple , first run mix I have come up with yet.
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new product from DTE. not avail in outdoor sizes 
https://downtoearthfertilizer.com/products/blended_fertilizer/flower-garden-2-6-5/
TOTAL NITROGEN (N) 2%
0.2% Water Soluble Nitrogen
1.8% Water Insoluble Nitrogen
AVAILABLE PHOSPHATE (P2O5) 6%
SOLUBLE POTASH (K2O) 5%
CALCIUM (Ca) 8%
MAGNESIUM (Mg) 1%
1% Water Soluble Magnesium
SULFUR (S) 3%
Derived from:
Fish Bone Meal, Potassium Sulfate, Magnesium Sulfate, Alfalfa Meal, Rock Phosphate, Basalt, Langbeinite and Seaweed Meal
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