New Grower Homebrew dirt mix

[brennus]

Hello everyone.

I'm an experienced plant grower and breeder but cannabis is new to me so looking for some help.

I'm planning an organic soil grow and want to make my own dirt mix.

I have access to about 50 metric tonnes of highly composted chicken shit and would prefer to avoid peat if I can.

I was planning on making a mix using:

High quality loam
Chicken manure
Worm castings
Perlite
Blood, fish and bone

...then sterilising the mix.

Any suggestions of further additives and best percentages for each ingredient?

 

[namvet]

It looks ok as long as it doesn't have clay in it .Weed likes a light and airy mix that holds water but drains well. The roots have to breath and don't like to have ther feet wet to long.If you can acomplish this go for it. Make sure you ph it between 6.2 and 6.6.

 

[Mr Piggy]

Chicken shit is hot as hell and I'm not so sure auto's will do okay in it. I also don't understand why you mix up an organic mix and then kill all your microbes by sterilizing?

 

[brennus]

Chicken shit is hot as hell and I'm not so sure auto's will do okay in it. I also don't understand why you mix up an organic mix and then kill all your microbes by sterilizing?

Fair point, I wouldn't sterilise for any other plants, but then I generally produce my own seed for everything else I grow. Having paid so much for these seed I'm probably just being twitchy.

What would you suggest in the place of the chicken shit? I was planning on having the mix about 1/3rd chicken shit, I could up the soil instead, but it isn't the lightest loam, it's not clay rich but can ball because of silt fines. I've got maybe 30L of worm castings out back, so I can use lots of these too, if they're good.

If I am best of just buying a base for my growing media, I will, but I'd prefer to work with what I have lying around if I can.

 

[Mr Piggy]

What expensive seeds do you speak of? Are you growing autos or photos? There's a lot to be taken into consideration.

 

[brennus]

I only mean expensive for seeds in general, as in I pay next to nothing for most of my veg seeds, so for me paying £50 for half a dozen seeds is big money.

I'm growing autos on this grow, I like the idea of being able to keep a few plants, in various states of maturity, ticking over. I'm growing Think Different and Easy Ryder this time.

 

[Muddy]

You don't say if you are growing indoors or out. If indoors, they I would certainly sterilize the soil to avoid bringing any bugs or pests indoors. Once sterilized you can add some mycorhizzal fungi to replace some of the beneficial microbes that sterlization will kill.

Your mix sounds a little heavy, and maybe a bit hot, for growing weed. Weed prefers a light, well drained mix. I would strongly advise you add peat. Chicken manure is fine as long as it's well composted. Given the ingredients you listed I would suggest a mix of about 5 parts peat, 2 parts chicken manure and 1 part worm castings. Then add 50% perlite to that. With the manure and castings you probably won't need much, if any of the blood, bone and fish meals. Once your mix is ready, water it good with some pHed water and let it sit for 3-4 days, then check the pH. Add a sufficient amount of dolomite lime to bring the pH up to around 6.3 and you should be good to go.

Also, seedlings do not like a hot mix. I would suggest for your seedlings that you use only peat and perlite with about 10% worm castings.

 

[brennus]

Thanks muddy, sorry meant to say it'll be an indoor grow this time.