BUILD-A-SOIL MIX

Step #1: Design The Base Mix Ratios.

This is a benchmark to use at first and then start tweaking based on your situation.

1:1:1

 

This means that there are 3 main components at 1 part each.
Example: To make 15 gallons of soil. 1 Part would be 5 gallons.

1 Part Sphagnum Peatmoss, Coco, Leaf-mold, Etc.
1 Part Aeration material like lava rock, pumice, perlite, rice hulls etc.
1 Part Vermicompost or plain compost.

 

The recipe that I prefer is a little more complicated and is as follows:

40% Sphagnum Peat Moss
25% Vermicompost
20% Pumice
15% Par Boiled Rice Hulls

 

You’ll notice that if you combine the rice hulls and pumice it’s basically a 1:1:1 mix with just a
little less vermicompost as I like to top-dress with more.

​

Step #2: Adding The Minerals & Nutrients:

 

1/2 Cup per cubic foot the following:
* Neem Cake and/or Karanja Cake (NPK, Micro Nutrients and reported Bug Defense all in one)
* Kelp Meal (NPK, Micro Nutrients, Growth Hormones and many other benefits)
* Crustacean Meal (Crab and/or Shrimp Meal) (Calcium, Nitrogen and Chitin along Plus more)
4 Cups per cubic foot of a mineral mix:
1 Cups Glacial Rock Dust (diverse assortment of minerals)
1 Cup Gypsum (Calcium and Sulfur)
1 Cup Oyster Shell Flour (Very available Calcium to help buffer PH of the Peatmoss)
1 Cup Basalt (Paramagnetic Rock Dust from lava flow that is high in micronutrients)

 

The Nutrients added above cover all the NPK and all the micronutrients and I could explain why
each ingredient is added all day long, but I encourage you to do your own research.
Now let’s say that you had access to a range of Fertilizer amendments to use, which ones should
you choose? I like to choose the best product and also the most economical. For instance Guano
is really expensive and typically only brings one or two things to the table. Where as Kelp Meal
is fairly affordable and brings every nutrient and micronutrient with it along with growth
hormones and other secondary benefits. Would it be better to eat Red meat all day long or maybe
a little fish protein with some vegetable protein? Same for your soil! No need to get all crazy
with Blood meal when we can use, Crustacean, Neem, Fish etc. and all of the ingredients I just
mentioned bring tons of secondary benefits where as the Blood Meal only brings Nitrogen and
some salt.

 

Note: If you only have access to Blood Meal, you will be fine and can totally use it, I’m not
trying to get on a high horse and look down on people that use these ingredients. I’m only hoping
to give reasons to look for better ingredients when those choices are available and providing
some reasons for those that want them. All in all, I’d rather see a Blood, Bone and Guano Mix
over a synthetic nutrient grow all day long.... but if you start looking into the environmental
impact of some of the ingredients we use you’ll quickly consider making your own soil from
totally local ingredients and once you have an idea how well this recipe performs you can start
tweaking it to use what is available in your region.
Some Recommendations for custom soil building:

MORE isn’t always better. Consider the Kelp, Crustacean and Neem Fertilizers that I recently
recommended. Suppose a hypothetical situation where they all take exactly 6 months to be
completely broken down in the soil and offer little to no benefit to the plant any longer. Well,
adding twice the amount will still lead to a depletion in 6 months... it’s not like having twice the
kelp will last twice as long, much better to top dress some a little later or incorporate into teas.

 

Most soil recipes have a total of 1.5 - 3 cups of Total fertilizers added per cubic foot of Mix. I
like to keep things really minimal knowing I can always add more later and topdressing is so easy
when you pre-mix with vermicompost. No worry about burning. The other reason I like to add
small amounts of simple ingredients is because it allows you to diversify the soil with ingredients
you haven’t added later on. For instance, my recipe doesn’t call for Alfalfa, but I love the stuff
and make tea’s with it all the time, no reason to have it in the soil and in the tea. But if you never
want to brew teas you could always top dress. It’s up to you.

 

Take it to the next level with Home made Vermicompost and you’ll have a soil better than 99%
of the growers out there. Here is an excellent recipe from the guy who really got my brain
thinking, Clackamas Coots:

“This is the compost that I started with:

• 1 c.y. organic barley straw
• 12 lbs. basalt rock dust
• 2 c.f. roughly chopped Comfrey as the Nitrogen source
• 5 c.f. pumice (1/4" size)

When the material ramped back down to 100F or so I added the following:

3 lbs. kelp meal

3 lbs. a neem / karanja meal mix

1 lb. organic alfalfa meal

1 c.f. roughly chopped Comfrey leaves

1 c.f. roughly chopped mint mix - Peppermint, Spearmint, Thyme, Cilantro, Holy Basil (Tulsi) and chopped Rosemary.

3 lbs. organic fish meal

3 lbs. crustacean meal

I loaded this into #150 SmartPot and dumped about 3 gallons of worms that I harvested from
other set-ups also using SmartPots. Basically 3 gallons is somewhere around 10 - 11 lbs. of
worms. I covered this with barley straw to reduce evaporation in the bedding material.
A year later I harvested over 28 lbs. of worms, thousands and thousands of cocoons (using a 1/8"
screen which will capture the cocoons) and this specific batch of vermicompost is what I'm
currently using.

Then just mix it up as such:

1/3 Humus

1/3 SPM or Leaf Mold

1/3 Aeration (Rice hulls/Pumice/Lava Rock)

A bit of time and effort is required at the front end for sure. After that's done, just add water.”
Mixing the soil together: Recipe for about 18 Cubic Feet of soil or 135 Gallons.

 

I like to use a big tarp when making soil by hand.
(1) 3.8 Cubic Foot Bale of Sphagnum Peat moss will expand to about 6 cubic feet when opened
up. That means that you could make about 15-18 cubic feet of soil with one 3.8 cubic foot bale of
peatmoss depending on your final percentages.
I like to break up the peat moss into a flat thick layer on the tarp and then dump the castings on
top of that. Then dump all the minerals and fertilizers on top of that followed by your aeration
amendments and mix thoroughly. Every once in awhile I take the edge of the tarp and flip the
soil back to the middle and keep mixing.... sometimes I move the soil from the left side of the
tarp over to the right side of the tarp and then back to the middle just to make sure it’s all mixed
well. All in all, don’t get to freaked out about things being mixed exact because it’s all organic
and very forgiving.

 

Once your soil is mixed up, you can plant immediately into it and add a compost tea to kick start
the process. With that being said, it always works a little better if you let the soil sit in a big pile
to homogenize or “Cook.” Without the use of Bloods, Bones and Guano’s it shouldn’t burn any
plants but will be ready to use faster with the pre-digestion of the nutrients in the soil. When
making soil in big piles above 200 gallons things heat up really fast and will need to be turned
every couple days until the heating stops and you are then ready to use the soil.
I hope this short and simple home made soil tutorial can help you make your own soil, because
once you do, you’ll never go back to bagged soil ever again.