Rollin J. Anderson, a geological prospector and organic pioneer, founded Azomite in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1942. Convinced that what ailed America was its food supply and the depleted soil from which it came, Anderson left the city life of San Francisco in search of a remedy. He initially pursued development of his father’s Utah-based gypsum mine as a means for neutralizing alkaline farmland; however production logistics of a promising start were foiled by World War II crisis. Intrigued by the Native American folklore surrounding the healing powers of the “painted rocks” just south of Salt Lake City, Anderson set out to learn more and to try to validate their claims
Start by pouring a gallon of potting mix onto a potting bench. Add 1 tablespoon each of blood meal for nitrogen, kelp for trace elements, and greensand for potassium; then add 2 tablespoons of bone meal for phosphorus. Mix it all together and you’re ready to plant.
Tick’s:
Basically Organic mix with ProMix HP as a base. The ratios used for mixing are 50 Litres of Promix combined with with 25-35% wormcastings, 15% Shrimp compost, 750 ml of Bat guano and a cup of Bone & Blone meals. This renders aboot 85-95 Litres of grow mix.
Mix thoroughly, moisten, and let sit 1-2 weeks before use.
Substitutions
The original recipe was a success, but I simply needed to experiment. In addition, sometimes not all ingredients were always available. Therefore, here are some possible additions and/or substitutions:
Blood & Bone Meal - when trying to cut costs
Kelp Meal - contains over 62 trace minerals. Good supplement for reducing the manure content to speed availability of soil.
Worm castings - excellent source of micro nutrients.
Bat guano - excellent for top dressing a week into flowering.
Seabird guano
BOG’S - Feeding and Mix
I use Wal-Mart Continuous Feeding formula potting soil with 5-10% perlite added for aeration and drainage. I add 2 cups of bone and blood meal to every 10 gallons of soil. I feed Pure Blend grow in veg and I transplant 3 times. Starting in 1 qt pots then 2 gallon pots then 4 gallon pots.
I transplant to 4 gallon pots when going to flowering. At this time I give a strong dose of foxfarm bloom liquid bat guano product, 2/3 cup to a gallon. This is a one time heavy nitrogen feed as transplanted and going into high light flowering room. (all HPS 35 watts/sq.ft.)
Often I let them flower until sexed before the final transplant and nitrogen treatment. It doesn’t burn them and they shoot in the first 2 weeks of flowering a lot. Capturing this growth “shoot” as I call it is the key to big buds IMHO. Health and vigor is maintained by lots of continued rooting through flower.
I also use some CO2 in flowering and some superthrive once or twice while in flower at a very weak rate. In flower I feed the first half of flowering with Pure Blend Bloom which has half strength nitrogen compared to their vegging formula. Then the second half of flowering I use Earth juice Bloom to feed as it has no nitrogen and my pots still have some.
SubCool taught me to premix my earth juice bloom 20 hours in advance to reduce its acidity and this has helped me feed more without burning them.
GrowDoc’s Soil Mix:
Per 100 liters/2 bags
60 gram seaweed meal
60 gram bone meal
120 gram blood meal
80 gram Guano Peru
20 gram trace element
40 gram lime/kalk
3 liter worm casting
12 liter Perlite
Fafard FOF 10 (organic peat mix 20% perlite)
Coast of Maine Bar Harbor compost
COM Worm Castings
Perlite
Vermiculite
Down to Earth Bio-live nutes blend
Blood Meal
Kelp Meal
DTE Seabird Guano
Dolomite Lime
Azomite or Granite Dust
I may replace the Blood Meal with Coast of Maine Lobster meal next time., I really like what blood meal does for the plants though. Also Fafard soil products is no more, they were bought out. Since I must stay 100% organic I’ll try Promix MP Organik next time as the base (has anyone used this? It’s about 3:1 peat to coir ratio, I’ve never used coir before)
In general I want the peat mix to compost ratio to be about 4:1 - so about 20% total compost (worm castings count as compost). I want perlite/vermiculite at about 30% of the total mix with 2:1 perlite to vermiculite. Generally I’m adding 3 to 5 tablespoons of the various dry nutes per gallon of mix. Currently I’m into Down to Earth’s blends - they give you 6 or 7 different types of fertilizer in one box.
I don’t let the soil sit unless it happens by accident, sometimes I mix it just before transplanting. Yes, Bar Harbor is labeled as a potting soil but once you open the bag you see it looks like 50% compost or more. It’s super heavy by itself, needs massive amount of perlite or blending with something lighter.
My current mix
6 1cu ft. promix
4 .75cu ft. Mushroom compost
1 .75cu ft. Composted steer manure
2 gallons worn castings
3 gallons of rice hulls I had left over
3 gallons pelletized gypsum
3 gallons crushed oyster shell
10 cups Alfalfa meal
10 cups Kelp Meal
4 cups Malted Barley Powder
4 cups powdered oyster shell
2 cups powered egg shell
2 tablespoons Dr. earth fish bone meal
And because Im still working on my control issues from running hydro for so long I have for teas/top dressings:
Yep. I should have thought of that in a better way… I guess, correcting my statement, it’s in every one and each of us to post pics… Our prerogative.
Thing is, i don’t remember many pics from GGW, will never forget the ones in the “spill ur beans” thread, those aficionado cases of seeds and many strains…
How long do you let it cook for before use?