Turtle-
I’m not sure what you are basing your soil recipe on. There are a few of us that like build a soil. On their website there is a video of him making living soil. They make coots old recipe (1 part Peat moss, 1 part top soil, 1 part perlite) and then on one recipe they vary the amount of Peat moss, and send it to the labs for analysis. The one that he decides to use has a pH of 6.1. Thats the recipe I based mine on, with a few different amendments. I know I missed the mark because I used vermiculite but no perlite. Got some bad advice. By adding perlite the soil is draining much better. If you haven’t seen my journal its called “growing again, or at least trying to,” and though my plant has not been as big as my last attempt (where I used a pot for pot), she’s always been healthy and green. She is beginning to bud out now, and starting to get bigger. Good luck with your grow. Garrigan has recipes for living soil, and there is a lot of info if you go and look for it. Another aspect to that is a method of gardening that some of the more experienced growers are adapting to is KNF (Korean Natural Farming), in which you are really using and recycling all of your waste which goes into the compost pile or the garden. Its pretty cool, but if you live in an illegal state, you may not be able to do all of the things they do (like compost piles, worm bins, etc.). Good luck, tag me if you need any help. Peace…