Soil
As we know, there are many types of soil, and we need to know what's best for growing our plants in. If your going to growing in soil and do so organically, what do you really need? How much do we really need to do to get quality soil? I'll not give your soil breakdown info, there are thousands of pages out there on that. We will work with premixed soils for a starting base.
Soil for growing is really comprised of a base mix, and an admix.
potting soil is a base mix. Its loam ( hopefully... ), a little humus and a filler meant to hold air and water.
An ad mix is the added fillers and nutrients we amend the soil with such as kelp meal and lime.
What should we use as a base mix? Well, we could mix our own from scratch, using sand, clay, humus, and compost. But really, getting a base mix just right is a lot of work and time consuming to boot. There are many brands of potting soil available, find one that works for you and stick with it. Its like buying flower for baking, its all pretty much the same! You could buy a mold and cast your own concrete blocks to build a structure with, but why bother? The same with base soil. I buy 30 quart bags of potting soil for $3.00 a bag, and its not the crap you find at Lowes either! Its good, clean, bug free soil from Canada and I'm tempted to buy a truck load and resell it! FoxFarm, etc has nothing on this soil!
When it comes to the admix that things get complicated. There are dozens and dozens of viable organic ingredients you can use. All of them work, some better than other. Some work fast, some are moderately slow, some very slow, some so slow your wasting you money buying them( greensand, Glacial dust, etc, unless you plan to live 500 years or so to see the results.... ).
You can buy premixed, dry, organic nutrients. They can save you a lot of work and some money too! Buying each component you will use can become expensive and buying them in small quantities is even more so when you factor in shipping or time and fuel to fetch them. So if your growing a few plant in small to medium containers, is probably more effective to buy boxed nutrients. Grow More
( 2/25/2021 - It's gotten hard to find the GrowMore organics sadly ) Doctor Earth, and Jobe's, are the most common brands. They sell ready to use mixes as well as small boxes of individual nutrients and suplements. I use Grow More Organic Soil builder, and Organic Flower and Bloom. I also use their " Palm Food" blend. Its still the same organic matter, in a slightly different ratio, and my plants love it just as much as the other, so buy what you can find and don't worry about it! I use Jobe's organic spikes also when I find them on sale, my house plants love them!
However, making your own ad mix is worthwhile also, especially if your growing more than a couple plants. There are dozens of formulas you can follow, I'm not listing them here. However, as typical of people, they can get very complicated. I personally don't believe organics should be complicated. Nature likes diversity, but it also likes elegant simplicity. So I've been working on my "KISS", I'm looking to make to simplest mix I can that remains effective, with little or no further additive generally required. I've also moved to using coco coir as a medium in place of peat. I'm trying to greatly reduce, and maybe eliminate peat from my soils. Peat moss is NOT a renewable resource, it takes hundreds of years for a peat bog to grow!
Now I understand that currently, almost all affordable mixes use peat, there's no escaping it. But I'm a firm believer in recycling soil so each recycle reduces the amount of remaining peat.I'll get into my mix shortly.
PH control in organic soil ( or any soil ) should start at the admix level! Fix it BEFORE you ever plant a seed or clone, and it should not ever be a problem that you even need to think about if your water is good. And here's the crux of the problem. Lime is the key to soil PH moderation. BUT, I've personally read at least 10 different recommendations on how much to use! So that is a part I'm experimenting with in my mixes. Lime not only acts as a ph buffer, it also provides calcium and sometimes magnesium also. A properly limed and cooked soil should never have a calcium problem. Too much lime however, can make the soil ph run high when too much is used. I think I've found the best starting point advice from the author Read Spear, in his book: "Small Spaces, Big Yields." This may be the best book on the market for beginning growers. He recommends lime be added as 10% OF THE ADMIX, not of te soil. I'll include his base formulas at the end.
Magnesium. Critical for your plant as its a component of Chlorophyll. There are several ways to include it. I think the best may be by adding Epsom Salts to the mix. Just as with Lime, the adequate amount is often hard to find in online information. I'll be using 5% of the admix as a base for testing. Again, I'm finding using an admix formula is easier for controlling what goes into your soil than mixing everything into the base. I believe this also makes blending your soil easier and more uniform in the final mix.
Not matter how good our mixes are though, issues will pop up, plants do what they want to do, they are worse than my children.........LOL! Some are always going to be finicky, other will grow in toxic waste... My point is, we will need to have a couple of nutrients available. NPK, the three key nutrients make up 90% of all nutrient problems in any soil. Some plants are just hogs and will take almost all you can throw at them. Most are not like that though. Still, good soil is partly science and partly an art you learn by doing, and plants don't read science books, that's what makes them so un-cooperative at times.....
Sometimes, just adding a little of your admix as a top dressing will be all you need, or even better, fresh worm castings! I feel that you should also keep a few items in case of deficiencies. Blood meal for FAST doses of N, kelp meal for K, molasses or alfalfa meal for P, lime and Epsom salts or Cal/Mag for calcium and magnesium. Use these if you see definite signs of deficiency. N in particular is easy to spot.
Mixes:
My current mixes:
Base:
Update: 2/25/2021 I've modified my mix slightly. Either mix will work fine I just like my new mix better.
Old Mix
30% coco coir
50% potting soil
10% cow manure
10% peat
New Mix
20% coco coir
70% organic potting soil
10 cow or horse manure ( composted )
Admix:
60% worm castings
5% Jobe's , Dr. Earth, etc
5% blood meal
10% dolomite lime ( fine ground is best )
15% chicken manure ( or a blend of Bat guano and Seabird guano )
5% epsom salts
KISS MIX:
60% worm castings
20% boxed " super soil" nutrients, Jobe's Doctor Earth, etc
10% lime
10% epsom salts
Read Spear's mixes:
Base:
35% coco
25% perlite
25% peat
15% compost
Admix:
40% composted manure
25% topsoil ( the real stuff, black and fine grained )
10% Dolomite Lime
10% Gypsum
5% Bone meal
5% blood meal
5% azomite
mix 2 parts base to one part admix. Cook for 2 weeks to 30 days if mixing large batches, for a gallon or two, just a few days for the lime to work is all that's needed. The KISS mix you can use right away!
Don't get the idea I'm an organic expert, I'm certainly not! But, I do my homework always and never trust just one source! I am however, on a quest as always to sort out the bullshit from the good information. I hope this will give beginners a place to start on the path to good organics!
As we know, there are many types of soil, and we need to know what's best for growing our plants in. If your going to growing in soil and do so organically, what do you really need? How much do we really need to do to get quality soil? I'll not give your soil breakdown info, there are thousands of pages out there on that. We will work with premixed soils for a starting base.
Soil for growing is really comprised of a base mix, and an admix.
potting soil is a base mix. Its loam ( hopefully... ), a little humus and a filler meant to hold air and water.
An ad mix is the added fillers and nutrients we amend the soil with such as kelp meal and lime.
What should we use as a base mix? Well, we could mix our own from scratch, using sand, clay, humus, and compost. But really, getting a base mix just right is a lot of work and time consuming to boot. There are many brands of potting soil available, find one that works for you and stick with it. Its like buying flower for baking, its all pretty much the same! You could buy a mold and cast your own concrete blocks to build a structure with, but why bother? The same with base soil. I buy 30 quart bags of potting soil for $3.00 a bag, and its not the crap you find at Lowes either! Its good, clean, bug free soil from Canada and I'm tempted to buy a truck load and resell it! FoxFarm, etc has nothing on this soil!
When it comes to the admix that things get complicated. There are dozens and dozens of viable organic ingredients you can use. All of them work, some better than other. Some work fast, some are moderately slow, some very slow, some so slow your wasting you money buying them( greensand, Glacial dust, etc, unless you plan to live 500 years or so to see the results.... ).
You can buy premixed, dry, organic nutrients. They can save you a lot of work and some money too! Buying each component you will use can become expensive and buying them in small quantities is even more so when you factor in shipping or time and fuel to fetch them. So if your growing a few plant in small to medium containers, is probably more effective to buy boxed nutrients. Grow More
( 2/25/2021 - It's gotten hard to find the GrowMore organics sadly ) Doctor Earth, and Jobe's, are the most common brands. They sell ready to use mixes as well as small boxes of individual nutrients and suplements. I use Grow More Organic Soil builder, and Organic Flower and Bloom. I also use their " Palm Food" blend. Its still the same organic matter, in a slightly different ratio, and my plants love it just as much as the other, so buy what you can find and don't worry about it! I use Jobe's organic spikes also when I find them on sale, my house plants love them!
However, making your own ad mix is worthwhile also, especially if your growing more than a couple plants. There are dozens of formulas you can follow, I'm not listing them here. However, as typical of people, they can get very complicated. I personally don't believe organics should be complicated. Nature likes diversity, but it also likes elegant simplicity. So I've been working on my "KISS", I'm looking to make to simplest mix I can that remains effective, with little or no further additive generally required. I've also moved to using coco coir as a medium in place of peat. I'm trying to greatly reduce, and maybe eliminate peat from my soils. Peat moss is NOT a renewable resource, it takes hundreds of years for a peat bog to grow!
Now I understand that currently, almost all affordable mixes use peat, there's no escaping it. But I'm a firm believer in recycling soil so each recycle reduces the amount of remaining peat.I'll get into my mix shortly.
PH control in organic soil ( or any soil ) should start at the admix level! Fix it BEFORE you ever plant a seed or clone, and it should not ever be a problem that you even need to think about if your water is good. And here's the crux of the problem. Lime is the key to soil PH moderation. BUT, I've personally read at least 10 different recommendations on how much to use! So that is a part I'm experimenting with in my mixes. Lime not only acts as a ph buffer, it also provides calcium and sometimes magnesium also. A properly limed and cooked soil should never have a calcium problem. Too much lime however, can make the soil ph run high when too much is used. I think I've found the best starting point advice from the author Read Spear, in his book: "Small Spaces, Big Yields." This may be the best book on the market for beginning growers. He recommends lime be added as 10% OF THE ADMIX, not of te soil. I'll include his base formulas at the end.
Magnesium. Critical for your plant as its a component of Chlorophyll. There are several ways to include it. I think the best may be by adding Epsom Salts to the mix. Just as with Lime, the adequate amount is often hard to find in online information. I'll be using 5% of the admix as a base for testing. Again, I'm finding using an admix formula is easier for controlling what goes into your soil than mixing everything into the base. I believe this also makes blending your soil easier and more uniform in the final mix.
Not matter how good our mixes are though, issues will pop up, plants do what they want to do, they are worse than my children.........LOL! Some are always going to be finicky, other will grow in toxic waste... My point is, we will need to have a couple of nutrients available. NPK, the three key nutrients make up 90% of all nutrient problems in any soil. Some plants are just hogs and will take almost all you can throw at them. Most are not like that though. Still, good soil is partly science and partly an art you learn by doing, and plants don't read science books, that's what makes them so un-cooperative at times.....
Sometimes, just adding a little of your admix as a top dressing will be all you need, or even better, fresh worm castings! I feel that you should also keep a few items in case of deficiencies. Blood meal for FAST doses of N, kelp meal for K, molasses or alfalfa meal for P, lime and Epsom salts or Cal/Mag for calcium and magnesium. Use these if you see definite signs of deficiency. N in particular is easy to spot.
Mixes:
My current mixes:
Base:
Update: 2/25/2021 I've modified my mix slightly. Either mix will work fine I just like my new mix better.
Old Mix
30% coco coir
50% potting soil
10% cow manure
10% peat
New Mix
20% coco coir
70% organic potting soil
10 cow or horse manure ( composted )
Admix:
60% worm castings
5% Jobe's , Dr. Earth, etc
5% blood meal
10% dolomite lime ( fine ground is best )
15% chicken manure ( or a blend of Bat guano and Seabird guano )
5% epsom salts
KISS MIX:
60% worm castings
20% boxed " super soil" nutrients, Jobe's Doctor Earth, etc
10% lime
10% epsom salts
Read Spear's mixes:
Base:
35% coco
25% perlite
25% peat
15% compost
Admix:
40% composted manure
25% topsoil ( the real stuff, black and fine grained )
10% Dolomite Lime
10% Gypsum
5% Bone meal
5% blood meal
5% azomite
mix 2 parts base to one part admix. Cook for 2 weeks to 30 days if mixing large batches, for a gallon or two, just a few days for the lime to work is all that's needed. The KISS mix you can use right away!
Don't get the idea I'm an organic expert, I'm certainly not! But, I do my homework always and never trust just one source! I am however, on a quest as always to sort out the bullshit from the good information. I hope this will give beginners a place to start on the path to good organics!
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