PLEASE, help me build a No-Till mix

[WildBill]

Oh I wish these kind of brands were easily available here, and the ones that are i wish they were not so expensive. I have lots of experimenting to do!

There are so many ways to get to where you want to be.

 

[Sour D]

Oh I wish these kind of brands were easily available here, and the ones that are i wish they were not so expensive. I have lots of experimenting to do!

BAS used to have the formulas for all his soils--may still be on the blog somewhere but he does tell you what is in them. Being organic and with a little internet time, you can make most of this stuff with local ingredients.

 

[elcoloan]

BAS used to have the formulas for all his soils--may still be on the blog somewhere but he does tell you what is in them. Being organic and with a little internet time, you can make most of this stuff with local ingredients.

Great share, thanks!

 

[Sour D]

BAS has a good series going on in a 10 x 10 tent, showing different methods of growing that might help you out.

 

[Sour D]

This might be of help

 

[elcoloan]

BAS has a good series going on in a 10 x 10 tent, showing different methods of growing that might help you out.

This might be of help

Thanks again Sour! Really informative references.

____


BTW, a little update on my experimenting...

After chatting with two different US soil building companies and a relative who grows commercial no-till basil and tomatoes here in my country, I decided to go with the following mix:

40% peat moss (blonde, not sphagnum)
10% rice hulls
20% pumice
30% EWC.
1 cup per cuf - gypsum
1 cup per cuf - agricultural lime
1/2 cup per cuf - sea weed powder
2 cups per cuf - rock phosphate dust (I think this was too much!)
1 cup per cuf - Malted barley powder
1 cup per cuf - organic fertilizer made from different organic and mineral sources and containing several beneficial organisms (total N: 2%, total P: 1.70%, total K: 3.1%, total Mg: 0.97%, total Ca: 3.04%)


I got 15 gal of this soil mix "cooking" yesterday. It's in a 30 gal fabric container, no lid.
It's cooking in a spare bathroom (Temps: 18C/64F-22C/70F, RH: 55%-70%) while in the tent I'll do a coco run which should be around 3 months long. Haven't added any cover crop or worms yet, might do so in around a week as well as adding some worms.

Just out off curiosity did a slurry test today to see what pH the mix has now and it registers 7.0-7.13 pH from 4 samples. Will be checking in another week to see if it starts lowering or else I'll add a bit more peat moss to the mix. 2 of the samples were taken from 3-4 inches deep and the soil felt warmer there than that of the other 2 samples taken closer to the top, so I guess it started cooking already.

I'll be checking pH weekly and in a month do a proper soil test at a lab to see other details (neither are necessary, but I like knowing these things). Will be updating this thread from time to time also to inform you all of my findings and how well or not this all progresses.
Hopefully in three months when the coco run is done this soil mix will be ready to put a clone in there to begin my first cannabis run in this kind of mix. From what I gather it might be ready even sooner since I didn't use the big "cooking" ingredients. I think I did mess up the amount of rock dust, though, and added too much of it... let's hope it turns out well. Wish me luck!

Again thanks and any input is always welcomed!

 

[Sour D]

Thanks again Sour! Really informative references.

____


BTW, a little update on my experimenting...

After chatting with two different US soil building companies and a relative who grows commercial no-till basil and tomatoes here in my country, I decided to go with the following mix:

40% peat moss (blonde, not sphagnum)
10% rice hulls
20% pumice
30% EWC.
1 cup per cuf - gypsum
1 cup per cuf - agricultural lime
1/2 cup per cuf - sea weed powder
2 cups per cuf - rock phosphate dust (I think this was too much!)
1 cup per cuf - Malted barley powder
1 cup per cuf - organic fertilizer made from different organic and mineral sources and containing several beneficial organisms (total N: 2%, total P: 1.70%, total K: 3.1%, total Mg: 0.97%, total Ca: 3.04%)


I got 15 gal of this soil mix "cooking" yesterday. It's in a 30 gal fabric container, no lid.
It's cooking in a spare bathroom (Temps: 18C/64F-22C/70F, RH: 55%-70%) while in the tent I'll do a coco run which should be around 3 months long. Haven't added any cover crop or worms yet, might do so in around a week as well as adding some worms.

Just out off curiosity did a slurry test today to see what pH the mix has now and it registers 7.0-7.13 pH from 4 samples. Will be checking in another week to see if it starts lowering or else I'll add a bit more peat moss to the mix. 2 of the samples were taken from 3-4 inches deep and the soil felt warmer there than that of the other 2 samples taken closer to the top, so I guess it started cooking already.

I'll be checking pH weekly and in a month do a proper soil test at a lab to see other details (neither are necessary, but I like knowing these things). Will be updating this thread from time to time also to inform you all of my findings and how well or not this all progresses.
Hopefully in three months when the coco run is done this soil mix will be ready to put a clone in there to begin my first cannabis run in this kind of mix. From what I gather it might be ready even sooner since I didn't use the big "cooking" ingredients. I think I did mess up the amount of rock dust, though, and added too much of it... let's hope it turns out well. Wish me luck!

Again thanks and any input is always welcomed!

From my experience, amendments seem to lower water ph a bit and some, a lot-EM1 in particular. So depending on your water ph you'll probably be good

 

[elcoloan]

So, It's been a month of mixing the media every 3 days, watering with aloe once a week and malted barley powder every 15 days. Slurrys are coming out with a ph ranging from 7.1 to 7.5... mostly close to 7.5.
Going over my notes, I realized I not only added more rock phosphate dust than I should have, but also twice the amount of gypsum than i should have. I imagine these excesses are what's keepin the pH at 7.5.

@hecno @Sour D , should I wait a bit more to see if the peat and castings help reduce the pH or should I do I add more of something right away? Planned to let the mix cook for three months, so not sure if I should wait for these 2 months to see if the pH lowers.
I was planning on adding more peat, but a relative who grows blueberries gave me a kilo of a yellow powder he uses to lower soil pH saying i should use it for my case instead of the peat... he called it pure sulphur which i guess is the same a elemental sulphur that is used to lower pH. He insists that since I added too much gypsum and rock dust the peat won't really help me fight the gypsum's effect but the pure sulphur will. He doesn't know how to use it in the quantity of soil I'm using so i'd have to do some reasearch to figure out how much to use.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

[low_and_slow]

Don't rush to add sulphur yet, that stuff can be super strong. As the soil cooks you should trend towards 7, especially if you have good fungal populations.

 

[Sour D]

So, It's been a month of mixing the media every 3 days, watering with aloe once a week and malted barley powder every 15 days. Slurrys are coming out with a ph ranging from 7.1 to 7.5... mostly close to 7.5.
Going over my notes, I realized I not only added more rock phosphate dust than I should have, but also twice the amount of gypsum than i should have. I imagine these excesses are what's keepin the pH at 7.5.

@hecno @Sour D , should I wait a bit more to see if the peat and castings help reduce the pH or should I do I add more of something right away? Planned to let the mix cook for three months, so not sure if I should wait for these 2 months to see if the pH lowers.
I was planning on adding more peat, but a relative who grows blueberries gave me a kilo of a yellow powder he uses to lower soil pH saying i should use it for my case instead of the peat... he called it pure sulphur which i guess is the same a elemental sulphur that is used to lower pH. He insists that since I added too much gypsum and rock dust the peat won't really help me fight the gypsum's effect but the pure sulphur will. He doesn't know how to use it in the quantity of soil I'm using so i'd have to do some reasearch to figure out how much to use.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I'd check again at 2 months just to make sure its not climbing.