Looking for opinions on my soil mix.

[QRanc]

I have been looking over soil recipes for a while now, and tried to make a cost effective mix based on what I saw. I am new to this, so I'm guessing my soil will probably be lacking in some respects. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

So far my mix consists of:
-28L peat moss
-50L black earth
-16L perlite
-35L manure compost
-1/3 cup crushed/powdered egg shells
-1 cup crushed/powdered Kellogs Vector cereal

I added some manure compost tea to it, and covered it.

After reading around some more, I figured it was probably lacking still, so I picked up some epsom salt, as well as blood and bone meal. I will mix them in sometime this week. Any thoughts on quantities? I'll be digging holes and filling them with this mix, so I may mix in some native soil.

I'm not sure if this would be able to take me all the way through to finish or not. I'm not opposed to adding nutes with watering.

 

[namvet25]

https://www.autoflower.org/f89/

 

[X]

Looking for opinions on my soil mix.

Yes, it appears you are missing some stuff that would be beneficial. What is "black earth"?

At first glance, I would say you haven't put in near enough egg shell to feed your microbe herd sufficiently... You probably need at least a few more cups of the shells or some dolomite, if you can't get more shells.

Since I'm not sure what exactly your "black earth" is, I'll wait on a response before commenting further.

 

[QRanc]

To be honest, I'm not really sure. I had a couple bags of it kicking around, so I used it. I think it's just a top soil and compost mix. I have another bag, still. I'll take a closer look at it, see if there is a better description on the bag.

I may have to pick up some lime. I don't think I could eat enough eggs in a week to get the amount of shells I'd need.

 

[X]

I don't think I could eat enough eggs in a week to get the amount of shells I'd need.

No, not likely... You'd have to really, really like eggs to get the couple pounds of egg shell you could probably use.

It sounds like your "black earth" is some sort of compost base. It would be good to know if it is "organic", if it is ferted already, if it has already been buffered for pH (lime added). Let me know.

 

[QRanc]

I took a look at the "black earth" bag. It's just humus. It doesn't contain any extra fertilizer.
I went looking for lime. I've been to 4 garden centres and two box stores, and one hydro store. No luck at any of them. I picked up a bag of granular rock phosphate from the grow store. It is 24% Ca. That along with the bone meal will have to do for now. But, I'll keep looking.

 

[QRanc]

I added 4 cups of epsom salt, and 6 cups of both the rock phosphate and blood/bone meal to the mix. And about two dozen earth worms.

 

[hereb4]

I use Oak ash from a fireplace/woodstove this grow instead of Lime in my mix....my ph has stayed stable this entire grow....also you mention amending your soil,but I don't see where you let your mix cure for a couple months or more...for everything to become available to the plants naturally you need a period of time for the soil to meld together...

 

[X]

I've been to 4 garden centres and two box stores

HD and Lowe's both carry "Garden Lime", which is marketed primarily to influence the color of hydrangeas. It is actually dolomite...

This is what you need for a well-rounded mix. Your "black earth" should do nicely as the "compost" portion of the recipe. Anything you are missing from this list in your mix, will need to be substituted for with a similar amendment. If you leave anything out (without a suitable substitute), your mix will most likely suffer deficiencies. Sorry, but that is just the way it is.

List:

Compost
Peat moss (or promix bx works fine)
Mexican bat guano
Indoesian bat guano
Jamacian bat quano(optional)
Peruvian seabird quano
Kelp meal
epsom salts
Earthworm castings
Greensand (optional)
Rock posphate (optional)
Crushed oyster shells
dolomite lime (optional)

For further instructions regarding this or similar recipes: https://www.autoflower.org/f89/tlo-super-soil-recipes-10566.html

 

[Mr Piggy]

And that is why we have the internet. Anything you can't find locally you can order for cheap.