Big box store organic soil mix

Dr.Blue

New Member
Not fond of being on camera at the hydro gro stores myself so I have worked with the materials you can get at HD and the big L as much as possible. On these forums we tend to see a lot of expensive components used which is fine but you can still get pretty fine results from commonly available componenets.

Sta-Green garden soil is usually my base soil when mixed 3 parts soil to 2 parts either fullers earth or calcined clay which are floor sweeps found at the auto supply stores. These "sweeps" both aerate and hold moisture along with have some trace elements and silica in them.

Main nute is one of Jobes Organic products. I mix this 1/4 cup per gallon of above mix. I like to use the 2-7-4 tomatoes and vegetables version.

I mix in 1 tablespoon per gallon epsom salts for magnesium sulphate

1 tablespoon of Ironite per gallon of soil for trace elements and minerals

This will get you very good results but I also add a tablespoon per gallon of OC+ or one of the Miracle grow products, particularly the one with calcium because I use 3 gallon pots with 2 1/2 gallons of soil which is not a lot for growing organically. If I grew with larger pots I could pass on this addition.

My tea is generally made from 1/2 cup of Jobes 4-4-4 all purpose organics and 2 tablespoons of Mollasses in 4 gallons of water bubbled 24-36 hours. I use this once a week till the 3rd or 4th week of flower and switch to a mix of 1 tablespoon of neptunes harvest seaweed and 1 1/2 teaspoons of mollasses per gallon which does not really have to be aerated (you can though). If you think your plants are too deep a green or are clawing a bit pass on the tea for a week or two. Not all plants can take the same amount of ferts.

A tea I sometimes use is 1/2 cup of powdered alfalfa cubes and 2 tablespoons of mollasses per 4 gallons bubbled for 24-36 hours. This will be my first tea addition when I go into flower. It has a good amount of nitrogen along with natural growth hormones which is good during stretch.

My main experiment next run will include a mix of 90% limestone, soft rock phosphate and gypsum to mineralize the soil. DocBud has been experimenting with Hi Brix and I intend to do the same.

Remember to start your small plants or seeds in 32 ounce cups in standard potting soil so as not to burn them. you can feed them with a mild nutrient solution. I like to either use a teaspoon of OC+ per cup or a mix of Carl Poole BR 61 and a teaspoon of epsom salts after the first week or so.

You will of course have to water as needed between the tea feedings.
 
Do you plan on getting a refractometer ? I would highly recommend it if you are going for the High Brix focus, and there actually quite addicting. I picked one up for about 35$ on amazon.

They really help you "see" if you plant health is going up, down or staying the same..... The fun comes in when you start trying different foliar spray combinations to see how they affect the plants.

Can't wait to see your grow in action, will you be starting a journal?
 
This particular gro won't start till september and it will be a seed run. Probably no journal but may post some pix in one of DocBuds journals if he doesn't mind. I did a grow just like this one last year without the mineralizing and it turned out very well.
 
Hi, Good info, I would be very interesting to see a seed grow, just out of interest. I had one of my clones spring a male branch, couldn't believe my eyes... I cut it off as soon as I saw it, but it was at that back of my grow box, so it was or could have been a few days old, we had maybe 20 seeds in the rest of the 4 plants we had, vut was an interesting thing to find on a clone, the other clones off that same mother were fine.

I agree about the cheaper garden ferts, I added some powdered tomato blast or some name like that, into the soil of my finishing pots, mixed ur right through, then put a couple of inches of potting mix between it and the new roots I was transplants, you could tell when the roots hit it, they just went nuts, and ended up being a great a really good harvest, 6 bonsai and 16 or 18 px dried between them.

I'm getting seed's sent now, and when they arrive I'll be growing in a glasshouse, my only interest is in medical part of MMJ, not getting stoned, so I'm be making a tea with soaked comfrey leaves, worm wee, seaweed, some organic chicken manure, comport tea, Epsom salts, molasses, and couple of other things I have forgotten right now, but making it out of everything I have here for my indoor garden now. Can you think of anything else, oh and I'll have a look at maybe some blood and bone. I'll start seedlings on a weak solution, and see how they progress. I can always change things for the cuttings when I have sexed them.

I have grown tomatoes in a container where there were about 30 garden worms, the plants that grew in it are outrageously healthy compared to the ones that don't have worms, so I'm seriously considering adding worms to a couple of pots, just to see how they go, the worst outcome is they will doe, and be a tiny bit of extra fertilizer. I'll put a couple of hundred in another box of the exact same soil as I use to pot plants, so if it works well, I can add them to other plants, and they won't move out from shock of a different food.

Anyway Cheers, thanks for letting me rabbit on.
 
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