1 Bale sunshine mix #2 or promix
2 L Bone Meal - phosphorus source
1L Blood Meal - nitrogen source
1 1/3 cups Epsom salts - magnesium source
3-4 cups dolmite lime -calcium source & pH buffering
1 tsp fritted trace elements
1/2 - 1 bag chicken manure (steer, mushroom, etc) - nitrogen &
trace elements
- Mix thoroughly, moisten, and let sit 1-2 weeks before use.
Revised recipe - after several failures due to bad manure sources, I now use the following recipe. Results have been excellent and the clones seem to take off right away instead of having a slow growing settling in period.
1 Bale sunshine mix #2 or promix (3.8 cu ft)
8 cups Bone Meal - phosphorus source
4 cups Blood Meal - nitrogen source
1 1/3 cups Epsom salts - magnesium source
3-4 cups dolmite lime -calcium source & pH buffering
1 tsp fritted trace elements
4 cups kelp meal.
9kg (25 lbs) bag pure worm castings
- Mix thoroughly, moisten, and let sit 1-2 weeks before use.
Blood & Bone Meal - when trying to cut costs
Personally, I prefer to simply introduce fungas knat predators (Hypoaspis miles). Once established, they not only control fungas knats, but also thrips and mites. When there is no insect food available, they survive on dead plant material, so remain even after pests are gone to prevent future infestations. Actually, since they have been introduced, I've had no pest problems in over a year and I don't filter my intake. I got mine from Westgro (1-800-663-2552) and they have sales offices in Delta, Victoria, and Kelowna.
Update: they did nothing to prevent a mite infestation in summer of
'89 and were destroyed in the mite war. They will be re-introduced after
mite war is finally over.
I grow strictly organic and I've always reused my soil. I don't sterilize the soil between plantings as my soil is full of microbes and predatory bugs that keep the bad bugs under control. After each crop, I chop up the soil and rootballs with the leaves, stalks, etc and let compost for about 3 months. I then mix it up and add about 2 - 3 cups of lime for every 50 gallons composted soil. I also add about 1/2 cup epsom salts, 2 liters bone meal, 1 liter blood meal, 1 liter kelp meal, 1 tsp trace elements,and enough perlite to regain the porosity of the original soil. I used to add a bag of manure, but I was getting fertilizer burn and so have stopped now. As I've been fine tuning this, the plants just keep getting healthier and I haven't had any real pest problems for quite a while.
I know this is a contraversial approach and maybe even risky, but it allows me to keep my garden pretty much self contained. I don't attract attention by buying bales of soil every 3 - 4 months year around, or in the disposal of leaves and soil after each crop. It's definately not for those who want sterile crops and those that use pesticides and chemical ferts. I believe in working with nature, not against it.
Update: After several generations, a nutrient
imbalance developed which was only solved by leaching the soil thoroughly.
My hunch is that one of the micronutrients was building to toxic levels.
I guess farmers don't get this problem because they have the winter rains
to leach excees nutrients from their fields.
In Reply to: What kind of soil? posted by Darkman on November 07, 1998
at 07:12:01 PT:
40% composted soil
30% worm castings
20% perlite
10% dolomite, guanos, goodies, etc.. i've also heard good things
about "uncle
malcolm" brand soil from peaceful valley is good....
if you're mixing organics with chem ferts, the plant will use
up what the chem
ferts feed it first, then partaking afterwards in the organic
nutes. the beauty of
organics is it's almost impossible to burn your plants, and the
taste is superior to
chem. grown plants.
i use pure blend 1 - 0.5 -1 for veg and fox farm big bloom 0.8
- 3.0 - 1 for
flowering. they're expensive but the plants really like it. sometimes
i'll make a tea
out of wormcastings & guano. peace
Blend these ingredients in a small cement mixer or in a
large barrel with a tight fitting lid that will let you
roll it around to mix the contents. If you have to stir
the ingredients in an open container, moisten them
SLIGHTLY with water to avoid breathing in clouds of dust
as you work.
Do not use more than a pinch of boron. It encourages root
growth, but its levels can quickly go from
helpful to harmful in the soil. Once you get the soil
all mixed you can add some manure tea (see recipe
below). The lime in this mix helps to neutralize the acidity
of the manure tea.
Manure Tea
10 to 15 gallons manure (combine horse, chicken, and cow
manure to get a nice balance of nutrients.
5 gallon bucket of chickweed and/or stinging nettles.
Water to fill 55 gallon drum (you'll need a well ventilated
area to pull this off!!)
Dump manure(s) in the bottom of the drum. Add chickweed
and/or nettles, both of which are rich in
trace elements, then fill drum with water.
Once a week stir the "tea" and add water to replace any
that has evaporated. You'll need a brewing time
of at least 3 weeks before using this tea in the potting
soil mix.
Posted by High Dog on November 11, 1998 at 21:53:29 PT:
Howdy
I add blood meal, steamed bone meal, and rock phosphate at the
rate of 1 cup per cubic foot of
potting soil. I add fine dolomite lime at the rate of about 1
1/2 cups per cubic foot. I add kelp meal at
about 2/3 cup per cubic foot. I also like to add plenty of coarse
vermiculite. I use plain potting soil to
germinate in and transplant into this mix after about two weeks.
Once transplanted and established, I
only give my plants plain water for the duration of the cropping
period without suffering any nutrient
shortage.
High Dog
Re: Bone Meal/Blood Meal/Lime/Epsom Salt...How much?
Posted by anon on November 20, 1998 at 21:29:18 PT:
In Reply to: Bone Meal/Blood Meal/Lime/Epsom Salt...How much? posted
by sleepless on November
20, 1998 at 14:38:45 PT:
i don't grow anymore but here's a formula that worked VERY well for me...
6 parts potting soil
2 parts perlite
1 part vermiculite
1 part chicken manure
1 small handfull lime
that is the basic organic mix. plants are watered daily... every
third watering use fish emulsion 5-1-1
at 1 tbsp. per gallon. continue this until the second week of
the flowering cycle when stretching
stops. then mix fish emulsion 5-1-1 with alaska more bloom 0-10-10
at a ratio of 1 teaspoon 5-1-1 to
two teaspoons 0-10-10. this will give you a 5-21-21 ratio. use
this every third watering until the last
week and a half of flowering... for the last week and a half
use plain water. right at the beginning of
the flower period (sometimes) add a small amount of lime to your
water for one watering to counter
any acids that may have built up during the vegetative phase.
also sometimes i used to substitute the
5-21-21 mix with chemical 10-60-10 (schultzes super bloom) at
1/2 teaspoon per gallon for two
waterings at about week 4-5 of flowering. if there is any yellowing
before say week 5 1/2 simply use
more 5-1-1 and less 0-10-10. this method resulted in hightimes
centerfold plants.... very vigorous. in
three gallon grow bags NL#5 vege'd for 30 days yield 1 1/2 ozs.
of smooth sweet potent smoke.
some strains did closer to two ounces per plant. 2x250w MH. 1
plant per 1 1/2 feet sq.
bottom line is you really don't need exotic ingredients to grow
killer weed. i'm sure that wormcastings
etc. will do the trick for you... but don't feel bad if they're
not available in your area... or are beyond
your budget. this simple mostly organic set-up will give you
EXCELLENT results with common,
easily obtained cheap ingredients.
peace all.
Posted by Orchid man on January 11, 1999 at 18:24:30
In Reply to Soil reaction (pH) nutes lock up posted by Orchid man.
When small quantities of inorganic salts, such as the soluble
mineral matter of soil and commercial fertilizers, are added to water they
dissociate into electrically charged units called ions. The positively
charged ions (cations) such as hydrogen (H+), potassium (K+), calcium (Ca++)
magnesium (Mg++), ammonium (NH4+), iron (Fe++), manganese (Mn++), and zinc
(Zn++) are absorbed mostly on the negatively charged surfaces of the soil
colloids (microscopic clay and humus particles) and exist only in small
quantities in the soil solution. Thus, the humus-clay colloids serve as
a storehouse for certain essential ions (cations). The negatively charged
ions (anions), such as nitrates (N03-) phosphates (HPO4--), sulfates (SO4--),
and chlorides (Cl-), are found almost exclusively in the soil solution
and can therefore be leached away easily with overwatering. The roots and
root hairs are in intimate contact with the soil colloidal surfaces, which
are bathed in the soil solution, and therefore nutrient uptake can take
place either from the soil solution or directly from the colloidal surfaces
(cation exchange). The soil solution is the most important source of nutrients,
but since it is very dilute its nutrients are easily depleted and must
be replenished from soil particles. The solid phase of the soil, acting
as a reservoir of nutrients, slowly releases them into the soil solution
by the solubilization of soil minerals and organics, by the solution of
soluble salts, and by cation exchange. A more dramatic increase in the
nutrient content of the soil solution takes place with the addition of
commercial fertilizers. As plants absorb nutrients (ions) they exchange
them for other ions. For example, for the uptake of one potassium (K+)
ion or one ammonium (NH4+) ion, one hydrogen (H+) ion is released into
the soil solution or directly into the soil colloids by the process of
cation exchange. Similarly, for the uptake of one calcium (Ca++) or one
magnesium (Mg++) ion, two hydrogen (H+) ions are released by the root.
Thus, as the plant absorbs these essential cations, the soil solution and
the colloidal particles contain more and more hydrogen (H+) ions, which
explains why the removal of cations (ammonium (NH4+) nitrogen is a good
example) by crops tends to make soils acidic, i.e., having a low pH. Also,
as the plant (absorbs essential anions such as nitrates (NO3-) and phosphates
(HPO4-), the soil solution is enriched with more and more hydroxyl groups
(OH-) and bicarbonates (HCO3-), which explains why the removal of anions
(nitrate (NO3-) nitrogen is a good example) by crops tends to make soils
alkaline, i.e., having a high pH.
http://www.newleafmarket.com/eco/organic/10reasons.htm
http://www.sunsite.unc.edu/london/envres/Sustainable-Agriculture/composting/fungi-mycorrhizae.faq
http://www.fairfield.com/soiltech
http://bob.soils.wisc.edu/~barak/soilscience326/essentl.htm
http://www.webcom.com/ecostore/organicfertilizers.html
http://www.premierhort.com/horticul/PRT1A1.HTML
http://www.agri.upm.edu.my/jst/resources/links/complete.html
http://www.wp.com/bioag/home.html
HTTP://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/b472/fertile.html
http://www2.ncsu.edu/bae/people/faculty/sherman/vermiculture/webworms.htm
http://www.maine.com/tse/pals/compost.html