When I’m in the process of amending my soilless media and I have all my dry amendments out taking measured quantities of each one to use for a batch of soil. Would it be possible to keep these measured batches of dry amendments mixed in a container for use at a later time?
Mixing Dry Amendments
by JerichoGrows | Dec 31, 2021 | Grower Questions | 9 comments
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I don’t see why not, I use a premixed blend of dry amendments (dr earth homegrown organic tomato, vegetable and herb fertilizer for veg, top dressed with their bud & bloom before flower) ferts keep well. I’ve had the same $12 4lb bags for my last 3 grows and still have enough to get me through probably 2 or 3 more harvests.
Keep em dry and they’ll stay good, Dr Earth and other dry food are mixes of about 5-7 amendments along with like 1 tsp of mycorrhizae or some microbial component, never had a bag go solid or spontaneously combust yet.
Wear a p100 or some kind of particulate mask when mixing. Wash your hands after too.
I know when we made super soils at the farm ai worked at as soon as we mixed Alf Alfa in with the nitrogen it like created a chemical reaction. The soil would get temperature hot. We would need to wait a couple days before transplanting. I dunno if that would happen in your situation it’s just a thought.
Dry amendments dry out from what I noticed though and if you are adding dried out dry amendments are you really getting the full nutrient intake. It seems to me you need to add more water and possibly over water to saturate the amendments.
Yes you can pre mix them. I’d just be worried about not knowing the ratios. If one element is off how are you going to adjust??
I stopped playing mad scientist and choose to go with a company that has an all in one top dress and still add some goodies. Down to earth has bio live and I hear that’s amazing for veg.
I used to use Mr Bs. For veg and Green gro for bloom. There are a couple companies that are really beneficial for “us” growers. They pay big money to have someone like Guru make sure shits straight. So I trust them and haven’t been let down yet. .
It’s fine to premix as long as they stay dry. I know Dr earth has a pretty consistent ratio when it comes to their veg, bloom and guano and I premix those all the time. Whatever you do, make sure your new mix goes back in a sealed container or one of the bags they came in originally. My dog has targeted dry amendments I’ve left not completely sealed before including anything with bone meal. Luckily they were dr earth and all omri certified.
I also make my soil in multiple 30 gallon batches in brute containers.
I just use a large handheld electric paint mixer to thoroughly mix the soil ( which is moisture free) and my dry amendments. As long as the soil never gets wet, you can keep it around and use it when you need it, which saves time later when transplanting plants. The idea is instead of adding the dry amendments to every plant individually after you plant them, it’s already there. I have a lots of plants in different stages; I own my business so I’m strapped for time, and I live in prohibition land. Obviously anything that helps automate or speed up a process helps us folks.
The only potential downsides are not being completely sure that each plant got the Exact exact amount of dry amendments necessary in such a big mix, and having to store your mixed soil you haven’t used, in a proper manner. That being said, three years into the amendment process I mentioned and I’ve had almost no issues. Once in a blue moon a plant shows a deficiency and it’s easily solved. If you have a small garden and can afford the time and attention go ahead and top dress still. That keeps you seeing them more and potentially mitigating an early problem. Sorry for the long response. I hope this helps.
Hit the nail right on the head, watch the dogs and cats especially if left exposed or just recently top dressed and watered in, they will get into the meals if they can lol. As long as no one is making big batches of fertilizer and keeps it dry and the ratios within a reasonable ratio, not 20/1 or something, not much if any danger can come of it. Might need to let it sit and cook for a little but as long as you’re not making a super soil from absolute scratch it should only heat up a little if at all. I work 60+ hours a week for my job and want to save as much time I can and having top dresses and my casting tea mixes ready to drop in and get em wet so I can take care of my land, my plants, and hopefully get some outdoors fun every once in a while. Dry food in my opinion doesnt need to be mixed so thoroughly since when top dressing we should be mixing it up then and the roots along with the mycorrhizae will go after the food and up take it when the plant wants it, it’s all going to stay in the pot or general area of the broken top soil, don’t stress over the mix being completely distributed but give it a good mixing time relative to the amount being mixed. I do mine in 5lbs batches which I then break down into solo cups for individual feedings, I grow mainly in 5-7gals so a solo cup works great for that much soil. Jeremy from Build A Soil has a good demo in his 10×10 Grow series season 1 episode 3 How to build soil, just remember he’s starting from the most basic inputs most public can get and if you do it that way it will absolutely heat up, if you’re just building up a premixed soil like Ocean Forest it won’t bake much if at all.
Most of the time you can mix stuff, but some ingredients can cause issues…
Mineral stuff like basalt or rock dust can contain a lot of hidden moisture. When you mix these sorts of ingredients with dry organic stuff the moisture can cause funkiness. A good solution is to store really heavy/mineral type stuff that might contain moisture in a separate container.
In other words, to play it safe, store your “mineral” ingredients in one container, and your “meals” like kelp meal, alfalfa meal ect, in a different container.