Best soil and nutrient/fertilizer combination to keep things simple?
- Thread starter giannid
- Start date
TheFertilizer
Well-Known Member
Only stuff I've ever found before is like 2-1-1 on the NPK level and didn't say "composted" anywhere on it. I was warned THAT steer manure would burn my plants. Should have looked at good ol' Home DePot
I post this like a broken record.
Thin it out to the consistency cannabis wants with perlite not coco.
Here we go...
I post this all the time and say you will have minor tip burn in veg but not enough to slow you down at all just not beautiful IMO... most people love it. I feel it is over feed and too green but I deal with it because the result speak for themselves.
Steer manure is digested grass and is basically empty grass with poo.
After composting what is left is great stuff all in an organic medium. It is what coco is trying to mimic. Slow release nutes in an organic medium. When it is empty you can use it like coco and refill the nutes.
You take that and thin it with soil and perlite and you don't have to feed at all. You have immediate organic soil. Microbes immediately all over making high quality stuff.
You can be smart about it and sprinkle in more.
There is enough nitrogen in 1/3 to get through veg.
The monster I always show
... grown this way in a big pot. It never even came close to filling it and was never root bound in a 20 gallon pot.
Just add water in veg.
At the end of the grow put the whole thing in the compost bin and reuse it. You will have amazingly hard nugs on that 3rd grow.
Thin it out to the consistency cannabis wants with perlite not coco.
Here we go...
I post this all the time and say you will have minor tip burn in veg but not enough to slow you down at all just not beautiful IMO... most people love it. I feel it is over feed and too green but I deal with it because the result speak for themselves.
Steer manure is digested grass and is basically empty grass with poo.
After composting what is left is great stuff all in an organic medium. It is what coco is trying to mimic. Slow release nutes in an organic medium. When it is empty you can use it like coco and refill the nutes.
You take that and thin it with soil and perlite and you don't have to feed at all. You have immediate organic soil. Microbes immediately all over making high quality stuff.
You can be smart about it and sprinkle in more.
There is enough nitrogen in 1/3 to get through veg.
The monster I always show
... grown this way in a big pot. It never even came close to filling it and was never root bound in a 20 gallon pot.
Just add water in veg.
At the end of the grow put the whole thing in the compost bin and reuse it. You will have amazingly hard nugs on that 3rd grow.
FFOF soil. Add 2 cups dolomite lime prills per bag. No nutes til flower. Once flowering use Nature's Nectar nitro, phos, potassium. 8 ml nitro, 12 ml phos, 12 ml potassium per gallon every water cycle until last 2 weeks then drop nitro completely. No ph'ing at all.
As long as you have decent water supply you'll have zero issues. Try it sometime, less than $100 for dirt, lime, nutes n you'll have flawless plants.
As long as you have decent water supply you'll have zero issues. Try it sometime, less than $100 for dirt, lime, nutes n you'll have flawless plants.
Someone mentioned something about this being just opinions...well those people who have not done the research maybe shouldn't post then?
Someone else wrote about how I should document this ... well here is a rough draft. I am working on it.
Disclaimer: I am not a Horticulture expert. I am explaining this only because in this case it is relevant. I am a Engineer and in my day job I solve problems and come up with ideas. I grew weed with a scientist / farmer who to this day is still a farmer. Most of what I am going to explain I learned from him but this is all available online.
Also I am frugal and a minimalist and want to do everything for as few ingredients as possible...in general...without sacrificing quality.
Soil is a lot of things and very complex. I am not going to explain in detail what is soil. I am going to explain how I came to my base recipe that people do not trust. This is a Base recipe. I expect you to try and play with this but try this first and see if it is too hot for you. I basically stopped messing around because this just works. BUt I can's stop and always add some extras...
But anyway... This is how I came up with my soil mix.
Plants have different needs based on the species. Some like to live in sand and some like to live actually in water but most like it somewhere in-between. That is one thing of many that determine a type of soil for a plant. If you go into a store that sells various soils you can find stuff just for cactus because it grows in the desert. So in the beginning of my real growing era I set out to dial in the right soil recipe. I could not find a bag with what we wanted.
Geeks that we were and serious about doing this right my partner and I had many discussions about how soil is made and used in nature. He taught me a lot of book knowledge and I challenged him with my experienced background in growing and "knowing" stuff. And we were both right and wrong in ways. When we started growing for real and had a perpetual grow going I had at any time well more than 40 plants going in bloom and way more in veg. I had them staggered about 4 at a time in bloom because 4 is enough to handle on a weekend. in veg I was running around 10 plants a week or more and I would take the best into bloom.
So we set out to use the perpetual grow we had... to run side by sides and dial in each thing one at a time. Then doubled back to confirm.
That means for example... Lets say I make a mix call it Base-1234. I have pot A, B, C, D. In this run I will vary one ingredient. Pot A gets the standard control which I always grow and know how those plants look and I get yield. Pot B gets like 30% of the standard dose of one component. Pot C gets 60% of the standard dose. Pot D gets 120%. (2 of those experiments a week in veg)
So lets say we try perlite for the component. I have a standard blend and the 30% and 60% blends will be hotter and last longer and the 120 will need more food and have a different root ball than the 30%.
So you do this over and over on components until you find what is good for each one. and back track as you dial this in.
Also what I did was component comparison.
Again lets use perlite. One aspect of soil is that it needs to be aerated. Again I am not going to explain all of this just understand that is one component. How you do it ...there are many ways. Vermiculite is a common way to make the soil open and porous. There are many ways. Each actually work in multiple different ways not just one thing. So vermiculite and perlite do not work the same actually. I would then swap out whole sale that aspect of the medium. I used sand and pumice and gravel and anything else I could get my hands on...many kinds of rocks...not because I thought they would work but because I was trying to experiment and see. I wanted to know I found the right thing.
So when I did that ...I very quickly realized that depending on the rock...you wanted basically 1/3 aeration for cannabis. It is not a desert plant nor does it like a swamp. Some things do a better job than others but not to surprisingly it is almost always 1/3.
Perlite works best based of our Base blend.
Now this is where it gets religious. I am a minimalist and I want to do this for cheap on nothing. Again I am not going to explain all about soil but to do things for cheap and easy you want an organic living soil that just works for you. That means some sort of compost or manure. You also want organic stuff in there to soak up the nutes. If all you have in there are rocks it just goes on through. People here do that it is called Drain to waste. That can be done in other mediums. Coco is fantastic for this purpose and gets used as a growing medium due to this. But however you slice it...without an organic medium in there the fertilizers will just go through the pot and out the bottom and not really work.
PRE-COMPOSTED Steer manure is the thing you want. It is not composted but it is not raw poo. It has started and it great to use. It is sold at Home depot in a compost like mix ready to go in a white and yellow bag. Steer manure has steer pee which has fantastic enzymes and a supper high nutrient profile of all 3 NPK. People look at the bag and it says like 0.5, 0.5, 0.5 but anyone who knows will tell you it will burn your plants. Earthgro steer manure blend. I just goggled it for $2.26 a bag but I think Home depot sells it for like $4 bucks now.
People will tell you never to use it on cannabis. I use it every run. Every time I can that is. I dilute it down. What kind of a fool plants directly into compost expecting it not to burn? You have to thin it out. It is sold as an amendment for lawns which is perfect for cannabis Veg.
Surprisingly...you want about 1/3 max on the steer manure. 1/4 to 1/3 is good. At 1/3 you will have some minor over feeding signs but nothing really to worry about. at 1/4 you will have possibly a need to start nutes before bloom depending on the size of the pot.
So that leaves you 1/3 of the pot to fill with something. I like to use the cheaper weaker stuff at home depot as the fox farm stuff is hot. But it works great and I am using both right now. Roots Organics is also fantastic. But any good bag soil that has humis and oyster shells and EWC will do. If it has those on it the rest will be there.
Plus you can sprinkle in all sorts of goodies. Kelp and Alfalfa are the primary things but you need it to be composting really to matter...so toss in a very small amount of EWC and cut some steer manure if you want.
I do not use peat moss or products with or based on peat moss. It is a fantastic thing and works well with cannabis. I removed it from my blend a long time ago and I am happier for it. One less thing.
Which brings me to the bottom line.
I removed everything one by one proving it didn't matter enough to bother with...I don't need it. I could make a work around some how for this or that and things got removed.
And I found out after many back to back simultaneous runs on clones in the same room how much each thing mattered.
1/3 perlite, 1/3 Steer manure, 1/3 your favorite soil.
If you want to add more stuff to make it hotter and better then add coco to thin it out and some perlite to keep that up there around 1/3...most bag soil has a little bit of perlite.
But darn near nothing out of a bag is optimized for cannabis. And the constituent parts are all sold at home depot right next to each other in bulk. Start there for your first few soil grows.
Someone else wrote about how I should document this ... well here is a rough draft. I am working on it.
Disclaimer: I am not a Horticulture expert. I am explaining this only because in this case it is relevant. I am a Engineer and in my day job I solve problems and come up with ideas. I grew weed with a scientist / farmer who to this day is still a farmer. Most of what I am going to explain I learned from him but this is all available online.
Also I am frugal and a minimalist and want to do everything for as few ingredients as possible...in general...without sacrificing quality.
Soil is a lot of things and very complex. I am not going to explain in detail what is soil. I am going to explain how I came to my base recipe that people do not trust. This is a Base recipe. I expect you to try and play with this but try this first and see if it is too hot for you. I basically stopped messing around because this just works. BUt I can's stop and always add some extras...
But anyway... This is how I came up with my soil mix.
Plants have different needs based on the species. Some like to live in sand and some like to live actually in water but most like it somewhere in-between. That is one thing of many that determine a type of soil for a plant. If you go into a store that sells various soils you can find stuff just for cactus because it grows in the desert. So in the beginning of my real growing era I set out to dial in the right soil recipe. I could not find a bag with what we wanted.
Geeks that we were and serious about doing this right my partner and I had many discussions about how soil is made and used in nature. He taught me a lot of book knowledge and I challenged him with my experienced background in growing and "knowing" stuff. And we were both right and wrong in ways. When we started growing for real and had a perpetual grow going I had at any time well more than 40 plants going in bloom and way more in veg. I had them staggered about 4 at a time in bloom because 4 is enough to handle on a weekend. in veg I was running around 10 plants a week or more and I would take the best into bloom.
So we set out to use the perpetual grow we had... to run side by sides and dial in each thing one at a time. Then doubled back to confirm.
That means for example... Lets say I make a mix call it Base-1234. I have pot A, B, C, D. In this run I will vary one ingredient. Pot A gets the standard control which I always grow and know how those plants look and I get yield. Pot B gets like 30% of the standard dose of one component. Pot C gets 60% of the standard dose. Pot D gets 120%. (2 of those experiments a week in veg)
So lets say we try perlite for the component. I have a standard blend and the 30% and 60% blends will be hotter and last longer and the 120 will need more food and have a different root ball than the 30%.
So you do this over and over on components until you find what is good for each one. and back track as you dial this in.
Also what I did was component comparison.
Again lets use perlite. One aspect of soil is that it needs to be aerated. Again I am not going to explain all of this just understand that is one component. How you do it ...there are many ways. Vermiculite is a common way to make the soil open and porous. There are many ways. Each actually work in multiple different ways not just one thing. So vermiculite and perlite do not work the same actually. I would then swap out whole sale that aspect of the medium. I used sand and pumice and gravel and anything else I could get my hands on...many kinds of rocks...not because I thought they would work but because I was trying to experiment and see. I wanted to know I found the right thing.
So when I did that ...I very quickly realized that depending on the rock...you wanted basically 1/3 aeration for cannabis. It is not a desert plant nor does it like a swamp. Some things do a better job than others but not to surprisingly it is almost always 1/3.
Perlite works best based of our Base blend.
Now this is where it gets religious. I am a minimalist and I want to do this for cheap on nothing. Again I am not going to explain all about soil but to do things for cheap and easy you want an organic living soil that just works for you. That means some sort of compost or manure. You also want organic stuff in there to soak up the nutes. If all you have in there are rocks it just goes on through. People here do that it is called Drain to waste. That can be done in other mediums. Coco is fantastic for this purpose and gets used as a growing medium due to this. But however you slice it...without an organic medium in there the fertilizers will just go through the pot and out the bottom and not really work.
PRE-COMPOSTED Steer manure is the thing you want. It is not composted but it is not raw poo. It has started and it great to use. It is sold at Home depot in a compost like mix ready to go in a white and yellow bag. Steer manure has steer pee which has fantastic enzymes and a supper high nutrient profile of all 3 NPK. People look at the bag and it says like 0.5, 0.5, 0.5 but anyone who knows will tell you it will burn your plants. Earthgro steer manure blend. I just goggled it for $2.26 a bag but I think Home depot sells it for like $4 bucks now.
People will tell you never to use it on cannabis. I use it every run. Every time I can that is. I dilute it down. What kind of a fool plants directly into compost expecting it not to burn? You have to thin it out. It is sold as an amendment for lawns which is perfect for cannabis Veg.
Surprisingly...you want about 1/3 max on the steer manure. 1/4 to 1/3 is good. At 1/3 you will have some minor over feeding signs but nothing really to worry about. at 1/4 you will have possibly a need to start nutes before bloom depending on the size of the pot.
So that leaves you 1/3 of the pot to fill with something. I like to use the cheaper weaker stuff at home depot as the fox farm stuff is hot. But it works great and I am using both right now. Roots Organics is also fantastic. But any good bag soil that has humis and oyster shells and EWC will do. If it has those on it the rest will be there.
Plus you can sprinkle in all sorts of goodies. Kelp and Alfalfa are the primary things but you need it to be composting really to matter...so toss in a very small amount of EWC and cut some steer manure if you want.
I do not use peat moss or products with or based on peat moss. It is a fantastic thing and works well with cannabis. I removed it from my blend a long time ago and I am happier for it. One less thing.
Which brings me to the bottom line.
I removed everything one by one proving it didn't matter enough to bother with...I don't need it. I could make a work around some how for this or that and things got removed.
And I found out after many back to back simultaneous runs on clones in the same room how much each thing mattered.
1/3 perlite, 1/3 Steer manure, 1/3 your favorite soil.
If you want to add more stuff to make it hotter and better then add coco to thin it out and some perlite to keep that up there around 1/3...most bag soil has a little bit of perlite.
But darn near nothing out of a bag is optimized for cannabis. And the constituent parts are all sold at home depot right next to each other in bulk. Start there for your first few soil grows.
I got some quality feedback. Some things are not clear which I will fix in the write up.
I started and still use complex super soil. When I first found this website I think the 3rd conversation I tried to start was "what's in your super soil".
There is a ton of things and if I list it all you stop because it is too hard. But if I tell you what it takes to get awesome plants with darn near nothing you will try it. If in fact I strip my recipe to what matters and make it simple you can take care of it.
I add tea every 2 weeks in bloom. Done deal. You can add fertilizers if you like...tea is fertilizer.
But on those components like peat moss. Which in fact these days I use peat plugs for clones, I need to explain better why I removed these things even from my blend.
I did experiments. I went to all the stores and bought everything and dosed it. Well not everything I did this a long time ago and I can only do so much.
Peat is great stuff but redundant in my mix and you need to deal with the pH. The later is realy irrelevant. But as a component, what peat does is what matters.
You can add it as an amendment or swap it out as a base component. You are in charge. You don't need to run a base of rocks, organic mater, compost. You can run just rocks as many run in perlite or just organic as many run in coco. You get to play with the soil mix.
You can play with things like peat or pre composted steer manure that have multiple complex aspects to them and swap it arround. Your compost portion is full of a complex array of things if you want to geek out.
But inevitably I would take components and play with them with the understanding of what that component can do to the mix...trying to see how much it mattered.
I was trying to remove stuff and push stuff and see what mattered. In a way it all matters. But no one ever talks about the most important thing.
Everyone wants to geek out and talk technical and they skip the most important fact. So none of this matters at all.
What everyone skips is this is a 4 month grow. Compost can't do it's thing right in 4 months. Period.
So until you have a steady compost medium method and can play with amendments and let them sit you are not doing it right.
I had bins of compost cooking up stuff.
It gets real confusing. Then you learn meh it's compost. What matters is the rocks and the organic medium because the fertilizers you can always compensate for.
So you play around and realize for a 4 month grow that is hyper fast and a few weeks maybe 8 at most in veg...do I need everything. Does it need to be super?
No... it has to last 4 months. Unless you recycle.
Now the conversation is starting to get layered because yes I both messed with compost and raw amendments and fertilizers. I worked myself out of using almost everything.
So I know it sounds stupid and too easy. But I went through and part by part one at a time...then back together figured it out. For example.
Do like I explaine and find the best for perlite is 35% and then fine that the best for your organic I 50-60%..80%(depends on other things). So then you change your base to this new ratio and try rerunning the same tests. Rinse and repeate. 2 experiments a week. In veg.
My bloom cloud handle 50 and I ran it closer to 43 and I could let things flourish that did well in veg if I wanted to see.
But for the most part in making soil the thing you changed exposes itself in veg...not all things but most.
And you can select the best and compost the rest.
Similar method for breeding. Many plants in veg and the best in bloom.
Peace.
I started and still use complex super soil. When I first found this website I think the 3rd conversation I tried to start was "what's in your super soil".
There is a ton of things and if I list it all you stop because it is too hard. But if I tell you what it takes to get awesome plants with darn near nothing you will try it. If in fact I strip my recipe to what matters and make it simple you can take care of it.
I add tea every 2 weeks in bloom. Done deal. You can add fertilizers if you like...tea is fertilizer.
But on those components like peat moss. Which in fact these days I use peat plugs for clones, I need to explain better why I removed these things even from my blend.
I did experiments. I went to all the stores and bought everything and dosed it. Well not everything I did this a long time ago and I can only do so much.
Peat is great stuff but redundant in my mix and you need to deal with the pH. The later is realy irrelevant. But as a component, what peat does is what matters.
You can add it as an amendment or swap it out as a base component. You are in charge. You don't need to run a base of rocks, organic mater, compost. You can run just rocks as many run in perlite or just organic as many run in coco. You get to play with the soil mix.
You can play with things like peat or pre composted steer manure that have multiple complex aspects to them and swap it arround. Your compost portion is full of a complex array of things if you want to geek out.
But inevitably I would take components and play with them with the understanding of what that component can do to the mix...trying to see how much it mattered.
I was trying to remove stuff and push stuff and see what mattered. In a way it all matters. But no one ever talks about the most important thing.
Everyone wants to geek out and talk technical and they skip the most important fact. So none of this matters at all.
What everyone skips is this is a 4 month grow. Compost can't do it's thing right in 4 months. Period.
So until you have a steady compost medium method and can play with amendments and let them sit you are not doing it right.
I had bins of compost cooking up stuff.
It gets real confusing. Then you learn meh it's compost. What matters is the rocks and the organic medium because the fertilizers you can always compensate for.
So you play around and realize for a 4 month grow that is hyper fast and a few weeks maybe 8 at most in veg...do I need everything. Does it need to be super?
No... it has to last 4 months. Unless you recycle.
Now the conversation is starting to get layered because yes I both messed with compost and raw amendments and fertilizers. I worked myself out of using almost everything.
So I know it sounds stupid and too easy. But I went through and part by part one at a time...then back together figured it out. For example.
Do like I explaine and find the best for perlite is 35% and then fine that the best for your organic I 50-60%..80%(depends on other things). So then you change your base to this new ratio and try rerunning the same tests. Rinse and repeate. 2 experiments a week. In veg.
My bloom cloud handle 50 and I ran it closer to 43 and I could let things flourish that did well in veg if I wanted to see.
But for the most part in making soil the thing you changed exposes itself in veg...not all things but most.
And you can select the best and compost the rest.
Similar method for breeding. Many plants in veg and the best in bloom.
Peace.
So bottom line...if you are not running soil on good compost you haven't tried soil. If you haven't made old compost you haven't tried real good soil.
Everyone says they like hydro better because they get better results or coco.
When people say they have tried soil... have they tried high porous real...old organic self feed? Have they tried what is actually soil designed for canabis? Or a bag from the store?
Everyone says they like hydro better because they get better results or coco.
When people say they have tried soil... have they tried high porous real...old organic self feed? Have they tried what is actually soil designed for canabis? Or a bag from the store?
- Thread starter
- #29
Villageidiot, thanks for your help and I think I'm going to give your system of 1/3 mixes of perlite, composted manure, and soil a run as I think it is simple. Couple of questions for you.
Does this have to sit awhile when I mix it up and compost or is it ready to go when I mix it?
I can get the the seedlings planted in this mix from the start? What size pots do you recommend from start to finish? Obviously the bigger the better later on but I have to start with smaller pots to start as I'm using some non feminized seeds this time and don't have the room. I'm thinking maybe start with a 3 gallon pot then moving up to a 7 gallon pot. My goal is to grow 5 plants in my room. I'm obviously going to start with 10 or 12 and ditch the males. Going to use fabric pots.
You the man villiageidiot! I have grown in real soil and feed with compost teas. I used promix with composted steer manure. Then my teas were made with manure, alfafa, kelp, crab meal......I think it was by Down to Earth. They all come in a brown compostable box. Worked great. Ran about a year that way with no complaints. Past couple years I switched to how I mentioned a few posts back, noticed no realdifference, maybe....MAYBE a small difference in taste but nothing I can notice. Started growing commercially 2 years ago and started using the nature's nectar in FFOF, no composting, no brewing, no changing feed schedules....it's just a better option for myself.
I believe he'd say don't ph with organic. But I'll let him confirm that. If anything you'd want to concentrate on getting your soil ph proper, not ph water/feed. Soil will buffer your feed/water. My nute mix is around 4 to 4.5 after mixed with water. My soil is around 6.5 give or take. I water n check runoff......6.5. Soil buffers!
TheFertilizer
Well-Known Member
VI my only question so far about steer manure is... Doesn't that stink your home up?
I had people tell me that cooking soil didn't stink. Next thing I knew my house smelled like a gym full of guys steaming brussel sprouts. I'll never forget that experience, so I had to ask haha
I had people tell me that cooking soil didn't stink. Next thing I knew my house smelled like a gym full of guys steaming brussel sprouts. I'll never forget that experience, so I had to ask haha
I had same issue Fert! N then brewing my teas! Stank at first, after 12 hours of bubbling it got a sweet smell but my whole grow was funky, especially if I forgot to pack the runoff out.
LoL ai have cats and am allergic to cats. I am also allergic to flowering weed and I have massive problems when growing. I can't smell at all.
But no it doesnt smell that bad. I dont think so. I have a carbon scrubber on my tent. I notice the EWC more not the manure.
Now pH is a fun one. I ussually mess it up in the begining because I am a but stubborn. I am not perfect and I do things how I want to a lot. But I am constantly experimenting.
You should manage pH propperly. That is easy to look up. However...a very strong compost...a high microbial count, strong mix is going to be in control not you.
Sort of like an Auto... you lose some control and are just sort of guiding it. If it is alive and working you can add stuff. I will end up... in really good stuff, only adding sugar water and maybe some cal mag if I have to...
But in the begining they are very weak and I always try to use regular water and have cal mag problems until they get roots and get going. I could pH the water and dump in some or wait for them to just get a few roots.
I like to get them off to a good start pHing somewhere 6.4 to 6.8. As the microbes w like are at 7.
But very early defficiancy and slight over feeding in veg are not a big deal. You will se this and they will be fine.
In fact if you do things smart like raise them propperly first in some cup then you can avoid some of my problems.
I cut to the chase. Soak em for 2 days and put em in a 3 gallon or bigger pot in a warm room.
Then they start out in too hot of stuff and cry for a bit then blow up. And I am fine with that.
If you have it rocking the pH don't matter so long as it is reasonable...some people have unreasonable water. What j judt tested on mine was 7.2. So I can just use my water.
The scale is not linear meaning the change from 7 to 6 is small as compared to 6 to 5. It gets more aggressive as you go. Having neutral water goes a long way.
You don't want to kill the soil it is a living thing you want to make thrive.
But no it doesnt smell that bad. I dont think so. I have a carbon scrubber on my tent. I notice the EWC more not the manure.
Now pH is a fun one. I ussually mess it up in the begining because I am a but stubborn. I am not perfect and I do things how I want to a lot. But I am constantly experimenting.
You should manage pH propperly. That is easy to look up. However...a very strong compost...a high microbial count, strong mix is going to be in control not you.
Sort of like an Auto... you lose some control and are just sort of guiding it. If it is alive and working you can add stuff. I will end up... in really good stuff, only adding sugar water and maybe some cal mag if I have to...
But in the begining they are very weak and I always try to use regular water and have cal mag problems until they get roots and get going. I could pH the water and dump in some or wait for them to just get a few roots.
I like to get them off to a good start pHing somewhere 6.4 to 6.8. As the microbes w like are at 7.
But very early defficiancy and slight over feeding in veg are not a big deal. You will se this and they will be fine.
In fact if you do things smart like raise them propperly first in some cup then you can avoid some of my problems.
I cut to the chase. Soak em for 2 days and put em in a 3 gallon or bigger pot in a warm room.
Then they start out in too hot of stuff and cry for a bit then blow up. And I am fine with that.
If you have it rocking the pH don't matter so long as it is reasonable...some people have unreasonable water. What j judt tested on mine was 7.2. So I can just use my water.
The scale is not linear meaning the change from 7 to 6 is small as compared to 6 to 5. It gets more aggressive as you go. Having neutral water goes a long way.
You don't want to kill the soil it is a living thing you want to make thrive.
I wanted to call this grow my newb grow because I am starting from scratch with no compost at all. I had seeds in soil under lights before I had my tent up...total mess. But I am unpacking.
I beat this girl to hell but I used this mess of stuff I had laying about. Somilar to the base I am explaining. But I wanted to make it light so I could dump in tea.
12 parts very light soil (home depot stuff I got for the garden)
6 parts perlite
4 parts steer manure
3 parts fox farm
1 parts my compost at 1 week
A little coco then I remembered how much I have in the compost and stopped.
Dash of dolomite lime.
I eased way back on the steer manure and added some raw compost and thinned it out a bunch.
Honestly I was trying to use up my old stuff on some bunk seed to test out my still not set up tent. After they ate the first set of leaves for calcium I dumped some in some cal mag.
I used a heavy dose of tea right away because I wanted to make some and I worked it hard into the first layer of soil for a few days too. The plant is showing signs of overfeeding as expected. It will blow up if I get the damn temps right. It is cold here. I have very cold air running into a hot tent. I need to heat up my garage. I need to plug in my big light but I think maybe today I get a new LED.
I don't expect to feed this for some time.
I beat this girl to hell but I used this mess of stuff I had laying about. Somilar to the base I am explaining. But I wanted to make it light so I could dump in tea.
12 parts very light soil (home depot stuff I got for the garden)
6 parts perlite
4 parts steer manure
3 parts fox farm
1 parts my compost at 1 week
A little coco then I remembered how much I have in the compost and stopped.
Dash of dolomite lime.
I eased way back on the steer manure and added some raw compost and thinned it out a bunch.
Honestly I was trying to use up my old stuff on some bunk seed to test out my still not set up tent. After they ate the first set of leaves for calcium I dumped some in some cal mag.
I used a heavy dose of tea right away because I wanted to make some and I worked it hard into the first layer of soil for a few days too. The plant is showing signs of overfeeding as expected. It will blow up if I get the damn temps right. It is cold here. I have very cold air running into a hot tent. I need to heat up my garage. I need to plug in my big light but I think maybe today I get a new LED.
I don't expect to feed this for some time.
Lol I stand corrected!
Like the saying goes "more than 1 way to skin a cat"
I'm not disagreeing at all with a proven grower! I back VI 100% but i will stand by my method though. Now I am partial to my flowers but honest to god I haven't seen very many grows that can compete wit me. With quality and quantity. Not trying to get in a pissing contest w anyone but my buds are packed with flavor, incrusted with trichs n hitting 30 to 40 ounces per light of dried manicured flower.....it works.
Like the saying goes "more than 1 way to skin a cat"
I'm not disagreeing at all with a proven grower! I back VI 100% but i will stand by my method though. Now I am partial to my flowers but honest to god I haven't seen very many grows that can compete wit me. With quality and quantity. Not trying to get in a pissing contest w anyone but my buds are packed with flavor, incrusted with trichs n hitting 30 to 40 ounces per light of dried manicured flower.....it works.
What I am saying is that is raw...newb style. That is how people screw it up...and think they did it right. It is not 6 months old and on auto in a good room.
I bunk up a lot of things and was sloppy and I wont have to do anything but water like a good soil anyway.
It will be super simple to finish from here.
But there are many ways to grow. Mine is by no means the best... it is easy to learn and easy to control the ferts. That is what people like about coco... but you can sort of run the soil live and also control the nute level slow release in the organic medium.
There are tons of good mixes.
I bunk up a lot of things and was sloppy and I wont have to do anything but water like a good soil anyway.
It will be super simple to finish from here.
But there are many ways to grow. Mine is by no means the best... it is easy to learn and easy to control the ferts. That is what people like about coco... but you can sort of run the soil live and also control the nute level slow release in the organic medium.
There are tons of good mixes.
I hear ya! It is nice having a discussion without being belittled by a person that thinks they know. I almost quit 420 mag. because I'd just mention my style n have someone freak out n say I'm a idiot, or idk wtf I'm talking bout. Then look in there pics n I just laugh seeing what they do! I understand people think the bible is the bible, n you can't reinvent the wheel. Thick headed n stubborn they are lol!
Anyways, sounds like everything been mostly answered. Hope everyone's grows are stanky n heavy!
Anyways, sounds like everything been mostly answered. Hope everyone's grows are stanky n heavy!
