Indoor Soil advice please

[RisingStock]

I've germinated my Flash Seed SuperAutos and my LowRyder II seeds.

I've reviewed FD's 'Guide to Growing'

Now I'm ready to plant these babies in their permanent homes. (Airpots and Superpots!).

Unfortunately, here in Asia you have to special order any special organic soil (it's ALL chemicals over here), and I don't even know how to BEGIN to do that! (I can barely tell what is in the REGULAR mixes). Sooo, no bloodmeal or worm casings for me.

My question:
I'm gathering Autos have different/special soil needs, yea? What would be the BEST mix/how would you use of the ANY of the following?

Here's what I have access to:
-'Delicious' (I know the word for this) Organic soil mix
-Composted cow manure (not fetilizer)
-Perlite
-Vermiculite
-Indonesian Bat Guano (Low nitrogen/high phosphorous type---special ordered)
-Pigeon poop (collected from under bridge)
-Ground up egg shells (homemade)
-Coffee grounds (homemade)

I also collect my rainwater in barrels with an aquaruim bubbler AND I have access to Flora Nova's Veg and Bloom, Hygrozyme, and Superthrive(I was just trying to go more organic).

I heard they have Epsom Salt here at the pharmacy, not sure that would help though.(?)

Taking ALL those materials into account, which would you guys use and how?

Thanks for the help. I've been getting VERY subpar results so far, so any help will be appreciated.

Trying to get this shit CORRECT.

 

[RisingStock]

By the way, looked like FD just put his straight into cow manure. (The safest of the Manure's, I'm told).

I'm actually kinda confused on the manures and soils, if anyone would mind clearing that up. (For example, do we even need soil? Looks like manure has everything the plant needs....)

Sorry, kinda a double post. You get my drift, hopefully.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. (Or just plain men, lol).

 

[NC420]

Well, Any manure has the potential to be harmful to your babies unless its aged and has had some of the hot Nitrogen leached out by the rain and elements of the like...
In my case I live on a horse farm and there for there's plenty of horse shit to go around(15 yrs of dumping has made a shit mnt...)We figured that we dump 1 foot a year so if I need 3yro horse shit I dig to 3' down rite above the ash(it collects so much heat it turns to ash)is the safest blackest dirt to use...
We use saw dust or bark fines to cover the stale floor and when the next Monday roles around we shovel out the Saw dust, Shit & Piss mixture then away to shit Mnt it goes... So the mixture is 35%shit-65%saw dust compost, So what I'm getting to is if you know someone with horses ask them for some shit, It makes bushes:thumbs:

 

[RisingStock]

Thanks NC420.

Um......any advice on the things I ACTUALLY have access to? (No hard feelings, just don't want this thread to devolve into a list of everyones favorite soil mix's. Read plenty of those. Aim here is to get feedback on the things I can actually get.)

Perfect answer would include amounts (in %'s or ratios, not gallons/liters) and methods.

 

[RisingStock]

What do you have against chemicals?

Heard they were talking bout my momma.

Nothing actually. Just after reading FD's, who seems to be getting excellent results, guide....I got the impression he was mostly organic. And he planted straight into cow manure, which I thought was interesting.

I have the basics here, just not some of the additives he mentioned.

I have no qualms about using the chemicals I DO have.....just worry about salt buildup in the soil.

Hempy's buckets are another very interesting approach. And that's ALL chemical.

I not getting the kind of returns some of these people are, so I'm just trying to learn from them. I realize there are a lot of factors involved, and I'm just starting with soil questions.

I can see some of the advantages of chem, esp the 'hot mix' you mentioned.

 

[Cave Dirt Cody]

If all you want to do is grow some nice plants. It can be done quite nicely with the vermiculite, perlite and the floranova bloom. That is all you need to grow nIce healthy plants. I am not trying to change your mind. Organics are great, but not for me inside.

 

[FullDuplex]

well i see you have access to somethings that will work but like TBM said you are still going to need to dose.

I do grow in manure and i use a good deal of organic compounds but i do reuse the soil so as it ages it gets better.
The best thing that you can really do is go either in the Delicious or cow compost and add the perlite and Vermiculite
add a little of the bat guano and make sure that the egg shells are powdered they have to be able to be used soon
so the finer that they are ground up the better they can be taken up and used by the plant. Also go grab the epsom salts
from the drug store. Its a great source of magnesium.

The coffee grounds will make the soil acidic so be careful how much you use of them
I would stay away from the pigeon poo too. That stuff carries some nasty diseases
and will make you sick. Its not worth the risk adding it to your mix.

As far as percentages go i use this

50lb bag of manure
half a bag of the perlite
half bag of Vermiculite
cup of the shells
cup of the guano
1/2 cup of epsom salts.

EDIT: Also Cow compo has enough in it to let the plant make it to sex with out ferts. So you can get good results in the compo and rain water alone.

 

[RisingStock]

EDIT: Also Cow compo has enough in it to let the plant make it to sex with out ferts. So you can get good results in the compo and rain water alone.

Wow, can't make it much more clean and simple than that.

I appreciate all the advice. I'm going to tinker around, try several different methods based on this advice, and see what works best for me.

If I can overcome my inherent inertia, I'll document these trials.

Muchos Gracias.

 

[RisingStock]

I do grow in manure and i use a good deal of organic compounds but i do reuse the soil so as it ages it gets better.

Really? I must have missed that in your original post. Pretty important too, especially for something as short-term as AF's.

Would you mind elaborating? (Or link me to where you did elaborate).

Thanks for all the great info.

 

[JM]

hmmm... never heard of this bfore.... interesting,,, makes sense... Another good reason for good flushing and good soil rotation... everytime you look into pest / or disease control for organic growing... the top of the list is (ROTATE crops and /or change soils every year!!!!)