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Trying my first too soil mix
- Thread starter Dirt Weed
- Start date
Ok everyone, I got my soil test back today and of course I could use some help in fully understanding what I am reading and how I should use this info.
Analysis- P 262 Lb/A, K 706 Lb/A, Ca 8745 Lb/A, Mg 969 Lb/A, Zn 1.7 ppm, Mn 4.8 ppm, Cu .1 ppm, Fe 1.7ppm, B .6 ppm and Saturated Salts 3571 ppm
Rating very high VH VH VH Sufficient Suff Suff Suff Suff Excessively High
Soil PH 7.3, Est CEC 26.7, Organic Matter 30.8%
Are these readings sufficient or should I add amendments and let it cook some more, how about the PH should I lower it now or when this gets mixed with the base soil will it settle down?
Analysis- P 262 Lb/A, K 706 Lb/A, Ca 8745 Lb/A, Mg 969 Lb/A, Zn 1.7 ppm, Mn 4.8 ppm, Cu .1 ppm, Fe 1.7ppm, B .6 ppm and Saturated Salts 3571 ppm
Rating very high VH VH VH Sufficient Suff Suff Suff Suff Excessively High
Soil PH 7.3, Est CEC 26.7, Organic Matter 30.8%
Are these readings sufficient or should I add amendments and let it cook some more, how about the PH should I lower it now or when this gets mixed with the base soil will it settle down?
Eekman
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A4 or JM can probably tell you, of course they are busy folks so give them a bit to come around to this.
I wonder what the suff suff is?
Ha
Eek
I wonder what the suff suff is?
Ha
Eek
A4
11th Year Anniversary
Started working on the calculations last night but didn't finish. I will do my best to get it done this morning. It is strong, lol.
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The suff means sufficient. They're "rating" the various results. From the looks of that test, you have a very hot (super) soil. I would suggest cutting it. I apologize, I didn't look back at the mix ingredients. I'll try to have a look in a bit.
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Just had a look at the ingredients.. The thing that sticks out from the soil test is the saturated salts result. Any idea where/what was added to make that so high? Possibly from a particular ammendment brand? I agree with Eekman, and see that A4 is crunching the numbers lol, so you will have some good feedback soon. Best to you.
A4
11th Year Anniversary
Phosphorous 131 ppm Needs to be around 60 - 80 ppm
Potasium 353 ppm Needs to be 250-500 ppm
Ca 4372.5 ppm Needs to be ~1000
Mg 464.5 Needs to be ~200 As important, the ratio of Ca to Mg should be about 5:1
Zn 1.7 ppm Needs to be ~1.5
Mn 4.8 ppm Needs to be ~ 4
Cu .1 ppm Needs to be ~.6 ppm
Fe 1.7ppm Not important as testing is difficult to determine real percentage
B .6 ppm Needs to be about 1-2 ppm
Saturated Salts 3571 ppm This should be less than 10% of total of above combined. So if we combine all nutrients we come up with ~5320. 100/5320=.018796 Then multiply your Sa ppm .018796*3571=67% of your total nutrients is Sa. This is the most concering.
Soil PH 7.3, Est CEC 26.7, Organic Matter 30.8%
So I am thinking in order to reduce Sa levels to acceptable and simple cut with peat or coco coir of 3:1. So for every part supersoil you need to add 3 parts coco, sphagnum peat or preferably a combination of both. To that add 20% perlite, rice hulls or some inert aerating material. That should get your Sa to an acceptable level ans should also lower your pH to acceptable levels which is another concern. That needs to be around 6.8 or so. Adding N will also lower your soil pH, which is probably why they suggested it in your analysis.
One other way to reduce those Sa levels would be a good flush of the soil. The problem with that is, we don't know how much water it is going to take to reduce those levels so we are kind of stuck guessing unless you want to flush it and send off for another soil test. Even then, you don't want to have to flush the mix every time you make it so it is better to add amendments and do the calculations so your mixture is repeatable every time.
Here is where the tricky part comes in. Now that we know we have cut your Sa levels down we effectively taken all nutrients down to 20% of their original readings. If it were me, I would take that aggregate and send it off for another test but that is going to cost some money and some people can't afford to keep throwing dollars to soil. I understand that. So, if you choose to use the soil without a test a calculation will need to be done to get the nutrients back to acceptable ranges. That is going to vary A LOT depending on what you use to get them back up because some amendments are going to contain several nutrients. There is no way I can do the calculations without knowing exactly what you intend to use. For example look at the maxi-crop kelp meal analysis below. Those are the percentages of mineral content in their kelp meal. We would need to look at how much to apply to get the highest percentage of the amendment back into range. After that we would then calculate the other nutrients that it added and try to find another amendment to get them back in range. That is just an example but I like kelp meal, or meals in general. Alfalfa, kelp, neem, they are all excellent products that add a lot of organic matter along with trace minerals. I hope this all makes sense as it is much easier to explain in person that to try and type it out where it is understandable.
The one thing to consider the next batch of soil you make is to do away with the epsom salt and use Su-Pol-Mag, which is an organic compound that will supply sulfur, potash and magnesium without all of the salts. It is pretty cheap as well and one of my favorites for flowering. Gypsum is also a good source of calcium without the liming effects of dolomite which is what raised your base mixture's pH so high. As always, feel free to shoot me a PM if you have questions and I will answer them here in the forum so everyone can have something to reference in the future.
Kelp Mineral content:
%
Ag Silver .000004
Al Aluminum .193000
Au Gold .000006
B Boron .019400
Ba Barium .001276
Be Beryllium Trace
Bi Bismuth Trace
Br Bromine trace
C Carbon undeclared
Ca Calcium 1.904000
Cb Niobium Trace
Cd Cadmium Trace
Ce Cerium Trace
Cl Chlorine 3.680000
Co Cobalt .001227
Cr Chromium Trace
Cs Cesium Trace
Cu Copper .000635
F Fluorine .032650
Fe Iron .089560
Ga Gallium Trace
Ge Germanium .000005
H Hydrogen undeclared
Hg Mercury .000190
I Iodine .062400
Id Indium Trace
Ir Iridium Trace
K Potassium 1.280000
La Lanthanum .000019
Li Lithium .000007
Mg Magnesium .213000
Mn Manganese .123500
Mo Molybdenum .001592
N Nitrogen 1.467000
Na Sodium 4.180000
Ni Nickel .003500
O Oxygen undeclared
Os Osmium Trace
P Phosphorus .211000
Pb Lead .000014
Pd Palladium Trace
Pl Platinum Trace
Ra Radium Trace
Rb Rubidium .000005
Rh Rhodium Trace
S Sulfur 1.564200
Se Selenium .000043
Sb Antimony .000142
Si Silicon .164200
Sn Tin .000006
Sr Strontium .074876
Te Tellurium Trace
Th Thorium Trace
Ti Titanium .000012
Tl Thallium .000293
U Uranium .000004
V Vanadium .000531
W Tungsten .000033
Zn Zinc .003516
Zr Zirconium Trace
Potasium 353 ppm Needs to be 250-500 ppm
Ca 4372.5 ppm Needs to be ~1000
Mg 464.5 Needs to be ~200 As important, the ratio of Ca to Mg should be about 5:1
Zn 1.7 ppm Needs to be ~1.5
Mn 4.8 ppm Needs to be ~ 4
Cu .1 ppm Needs to be ~.6 ppm
Fe 1.7ppm Not important as testing is difficult to determine real percentage
B .6 ppm Needs to be about 1-2 ppm
Saturated Salts 3571 ppm This should be less than 10% of total of above combined. So if we combine all nutrients we come up with ~5320. 100/5320=.018796 Then multiply your Sa ppm .018796*3571=67% of your total nutrients is Sa. This is the most concering.
Soil PH 7.3, Est CEC 26.7, Organic Matter 30.8%
So I am thinking in order to reduce Sa levels to acceptable and simple cut with peat or coco coir of 3:1. So for every part supersoil you need to add 3 parts coco, sphagnum peat or preferably a combination of both. To that add 20% perlite, rice hulls or some inert aerating material. That should get your Sa to an acceptable level ans should also lower your pH to acceptable levels which is another concern. That needs to be around 6.8 or so. Adding N will also lower your soil pH, which is probably why they suggested it in your analysis.
One other way to reduce those Sa levels would be a good flush of the soil. The problem with that is, we don't know how much water it is going to take to reduce those levels so we are kind of stuck guessing unless you want to flush it and send off for another soil test. Even then, you don't want to have to flush the mix every time you make it so it is better to add amendments and do the calculations so your mixture is repeatable every time.
Here is where the tricky part comes in. Now that we know we have cut your Sa levels down we effectively taken all nutrients down to 20% of their original readings. If it were me, I would take that aggregate and send it off for another test but that is going to cost some money and some people can't afford to keep throwing dollars to soil. I understand that. So, if you choose to use the soil without a test a calculation will need to be done to get the nutrients back to acceptable ranges. That is going to vary A LOT depending on what you use to get them back up because some amendments are going to contain several nutrients. There is no way I can do the calculations without knowing exactly what you intend to use. For example look at the maxi-crop kelp meal analysis below. Those are the percentages of mineral content in their kelp meal. We would need to look at how much to apply to get the highest percentage of the amendment back into range. After that we would then calculate the other nutrients that it added and try to find another amendment to get them back in range. That is just an example but I like kelp meal, or meals in general. Alfalfa, kelp, neem, they are all excellent products that add a lot of organic matter along with trace minerals. I hope this all makes sense as it is much easier to explain in person that to try and type it out where it is understandable.
The one thing to consider the next batch of soil you make is to do away with the epsom salt and use Su-Pol-Mag, which is an organic compound that will supply sulfur, potash and magnesium without all of the salts. It is pretty cheap as well and one of my favorites for flowering. Gypsum is also a good source of calcium without the liming effects of dolomite which is what raised your base mixture's pH so high. As always, feel free to shoot me a PM if you have questions and I will answer them here in the forum so everyone can have something to reference in the future.
Kelp Mineral content:
%
Ag Silver .000004
Al Aluminum .193000
Au Gold .000006
B Boron .019400
Ba Barium .001276
Be Beryllium Trace
Bi Bismuth Trace
Br Bromine trace
C Carbon undeclared
Ca Calcium 1.904000
Cb Niobium Trace
Cd Cadmium Trace
Ce Cerium Trace
Cl Chlorine 3.680000
Co Cobalt .001227
Cr Chromium Trace
Cs Cesium Trace
Cu Copper .000635
F Fluorine .032650
Fe Iron .089560
Ga Gallium Trace
Ge Germanium .000005
H Hydrogen undeclared
Hg Mercury .000190
I Iodine .062400
Id Indium Trace
Ir Iridium Trace
K Potassium 1.280000
La Lanthanum .000019
Li Lithium .000007
Mg Magnesium .213000
Mn Manganese .123500
Mo Molybdenum .001592
N Nitrogen 1.467000
Na Sodium 4.180000
Ni Nickel .003500
O Oxygen undeclared
Os Osmium Trace
P Phosphorus .211000
Pb Lead .000014
Pd Palladium Trace
Pl Platinum Trace
Ra Radium Trace
Rb Rubidium .000005
Rh Rhodium Trace
S Sulfur 1.564200
Se Selenium .000043
Sb Antimony .000142
Si Silicon .164200
Sn Tin .000006
Sr Strontium .074876
Te Tellurium Trace
Th Thorium Trace
Ti Titanium .000012
Tl Thallium .000293
U Uranium .000004
V Vanadium .000531
W Tungsten .000033
Zn Zinc .003516
Zr Zirconium Trace
A big thanks to everyone especially A4. How do you convert the pounds per acre to ppm? And I still have all the original amendments that I put in the soil and I will purchase anything that is recommended. I can easily send another sample in for testing after I/we amend it so that's no problem. So it looks like I'm not going to the races anytime soon and still need to correct the soil, and I thought that coping a recipe was going to be the easy route!
Well I have taken a picture of every amendment that went into it so when I get some time I will post them here to see if we can figure out we're all the salt came from and the next time around I will swap the Epsom for Sul-Po-Mag as recommended.
Thanks again everyone
Dirt
Well I have taken a picture of every amendment that went into it so when I get some time I will post them here to see if we can figure out we're all the salt came from and the next time around I will swap the Epsom for Sul-Po-Mag as recommended.
Thanks again everyone
Dirt
A4
11th Year Anniversary
No worries. If you are in need to get a grow going quickly you could probably cut that mix with 1:1 peat to mix and add about 20% perlite and would grow just as good a plant as anyone with it. My only reasoning behind giving you all of that information is to get as close to the perfect mix as you can so that it cuts down on guess work if you run into problems in the future. You will have a very well documented mix that you can recreate every time with little worries. I still haven't perfected mine but I use it with every grow and continue to send samples off with every new batch. Eventually I will get it where I like it but for the time being I use it and see where it's weak spots are.
If you were to choose to use that mix while you are still working on it just be sure to start your seeds on something else and let them get a good root system before you transfer them. A lot of people on AFN tier, or start in a plastic container and then cut the bottom off and plant that in to soil so as to not disturb the roots so much.
Best of luck!
If you were to choose to use that mix while you are still working on it just be sure to start your seeds on something else and let them get a good root system before you transfer them. A lot of people on AFN tier, or start in a plastic container and then cut the bottom off and plant that in to soil so as to not disturb the roots so much.
Best of luck!
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