Living Soil Recipe Queries...

[dotz]

Finally after a lot of reading and trying to get my head round this different way of growing...sourcing good quality worm castings and getting all the ingredients, I began to mix it all together and suddenly I started to doubt everything I thought I'd learned so I decided to stop and run the ingredients and amounts past the good people at UK420.

 

15l Sphagnum Moss

15l Worm Castings

15l Pumice

1l Enriched Biochar

 

1.5 cups Kelp Meal

1 cup Neem Meal

1 cup Gypsum

3 cups Basalt

1 cup Malted Barley Powder

 

2 tsp Epsom Salts

2 tsp Dr Forest Humic & Fulvic Acid

2 tsp Dr Forest Endo Mycorrhizal 

 

I tried to keep the recipe as simple as possible but still cover all the bases.

Any advice or corrections would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers!

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by dotz
Got my "past" and "passed" mixed up...d'oh!

[Greenfingers420uk]

Whats your plans for storage ? i like to mix my soil up and get it moist (NOT WET) put it into thick black plastic bags and store for a few months "IF" possible.

 

The best thing to do is chuck a few plants in and see how it goes. 

[dotz]

I will have it mixed together and then only 2 or 3 weeks until I use it. Stored in 56l felt pot at 20C

 

I know longer would be preferable but because there was no bone meal I thought I could get away with it. I've added 1 and a half cups of Oyster shell flour to the ingredients list. 

 

Just have to decide how much Humic &Fulvic Acid and Endo Mycorrhizal to use in the initial mix up.

 

 

Totally agree with you @greenfingers420uk about the best thing is to chuck a few plants in! 

 

 

[Clubs]

Looks like everything a plant needs is in there. Have you thought about a mulch layer? Alfafa chop, comfrey or something? 

 

And as for the pumice, consider substituting it for buckwheat hulls or similar. They'll do more for soil life and are easier to work with. 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Clubs
ETA

[dotz]

31 minutes ago, Clubs said:

Looks like everything a plant needs is in there. Have you thought about a mulch layer? Alfafa chop, comfrey or something? 

 

And as for the pumice, consider substituting it for buckwheat hulls or similar. They'll do more for soil life and are easier to work with. 

 

For the mulch layer I was just going to use some hay from the pet store.

 

I'll probably stick with the pumice now that I've got it...but if i have to start again I'll use them as pumice was an expensive part of the ingredients. 

[blackpoolbouncer]

Buckwheat hulls are far inferior than pumice and aren't a substitute at all. Stick with pumice or substitute the pumice for char. 

 

A couple of months in the buckwheat hulls will be compost rendering them pointless addition if your using them for aeration etc

 

 

[GrowCrazy]

@blackpoolbouncer I thought the same thing when I saw them used as an aeration ingredient in the mixes in the shops

[Cajafiesta]

Caveat:  I am not an expert.

 

 

Seems like you've got it all there.  More or less "coots soil," which is sorta what I do.   I do 1/3 compost, 1/3 aeration, 1/3 peat moss.   The 1/3 compost is broken down into half castings and half bagged cheap compost.  It works pretty well.  I use craft blend from BAS as a one-stop amendment.   

 

 

This setup worked pretty well for me until I got lazy and stopped paying attention.  Then I forgot that I didn't add worm castings to the last batch.  That's a significant error. It's pretty wild how complete the castings are and how much they actually do in the mix.  

 

I grew a plant in straight castings once just to see what it would do.  It loved it, oddly enough.  No burn or anything. 

 

 

There was a time period where I messed with using worm casting slurry in an attempt to fix any nutrient issue I had.  The castings/slurry really seemed to fix most everything I threw it at. 

 

 

Anyhow, What you're doing seems pretty thorough to me.  

 

 

I use pearlite for aeration, but I'd much prefer pumice, if it were readily and affordably available to me.  All I can find is the shit that's dyed red, and I don't care for that idea. 

 

 

I struggle with watering consistency.  I'm a notorious over waterer.  It's tricky for me to find the balance between "keep it moist" and " well now it's overwatered and locked out."

 

 

I've had to really pay attention to pot weight and force myself to not " top it off cause it's a little light but not drying out."  I have to force myself to NOT water and let it dry a little more. 

[Lubdub]

On 01/10/2023 at 3:56 PM, Cajafiesta said:

I struggle with watering consistency.  I'm a notorious over waterer.  It's tricky for me to find the balance between "keep it moist" and " well now it's overwatered and locked out."

I've had to really pay attention to pot weight and force myself to not " top it off cause it's a little light but not drying out."  I have to force myself to NOT water and let it dry a little more. 

Small plant big pot, water 5% pot volume every 2-3 days.
Big plant, water 10% pot volume every 2-3 days.
 

I use the above as a rough guide to watering my living soil and it seems to work well.

[Amnesialocal]

This topic is super interesting...

How the soil ended up? Was it working fine?