Organic Soil+Transplant or not...?

[officinalis]

I'll preface the following by pointing out that I am by absolutely no means an authority on this - I'm working my second grow, and the first wasn't trouble free, to put it mildly - ha ha!

However - before starting the second one, I did a fair bit more reading - and I have every reason to believe it will go much smoother than the first (fingers crossed!).

For the second grow - I mixed up a simple organic mix, which apparently had good results for a number of people.

I mixed up a cubic foot of soil - 1/3 sphagnum peat moss
1/3 worm castings
1/3 perelite

To which I added - 1 cup of Dolomite lime
4 cups of glacial rock dust
1.5 cups alfalfa meal
3.5 cups of amendment - made up of a mixture of organic fertilizer (4-4-4), organic blood/bone meal, Neem meal, veg targeted bat guano (higher in N), and bloom targeted bat guano (higher in P).

I mixed well - moistened well with a mixture of water, molasses and kelp concentrate tea - and left it to cook for a month, mixing once a week.

I planted a germed Hobbit seed directly into this soil - and it is progressing nicely (Day 32 above ground) so far.

From what I've read - the safety factor lies in the cooking time. Freshly mixed organic soil is very much hotter than a mix thats had time to cook, break down and mellow over a stretch of time.

Anyway - take all that for what its worth - I'm very new to this, and this is my first grow with a organic soil mix - but I did my "due diligence" and researched quite a bit more than I did before starting my first grow.

Great luck with your grow - whatever you decide!

Looks like you have done your homework Gitm. Well done. :smokebuds:

 

[LOWRYDER]

Wow, i am really glad to be seeing so many helpful answers! Thank you very much guys, it was totally unexpected to say the least!

First of all, i believe you misunderstood me in one thing: I am not asking if my soil mix is gonna be ok for the autos. I know it will, i will be using 2/3 of the amendments i used for photo plants to be sure i am not going to burn them. Soil mix is going to be cooked for 1-1.5 month before it is used, i believe it is an adequate amount of time.

I just asked how am i supposed to start the autos, since planting them directly in my organic soil mix is going to burn them for sure. And for that question, i finally got some very good answers. I believe i am not going to use the tier method. I am just gonna put some Biobizz Light Mix on top of the 5 gal smart pots (say ~2 liters for each smart pot) and cover the rest 17 liters with my organic soil mix. So, by doing this that way, i will not stress them with transplants. I am going to experiment with an Auto Bubblelicious from Nirana under 250w HPS before i grow the rest of my autos to make sure it will be ok. I am going to wait for 2-3 weeks with Auto Bubblelicous to see how things go before i plant the rest of them.

For anyone interested in growing with organic soil, you should know that the quality of compost/humus is the #1 factor considering your soil mix. With a very good quality compost/humus and adequate cooking time, you will have a soil mix that rocks.

Once more, i would like to thank all of you, you put me in the right direction! I wish the best to you guys, you will have news from me again!

 

[Loud Pipes]

I've got 2 TD's going now in my organic mix. They're about 3 1/2 wks old. So far they are doing really good. Floated another bean in water today. Good luck with yours