New Help! Switching for DWC to dirt!

[Ruhaa]

ok i need some advice. I have been growing hydro (dwc) for a long time now and i just moved. My room is outside in a shed lock up with camras and a alarm. So winter is comming and my new plants that i put into budding are have a hard time with the weather. I do have a heater in there and a water heater to. But I live in northern Michigan and the water is unstable temp and im losing plant.

so I want to change to dirt but im afraid of bugs. Plus I dont know much about dirt, What I would like to know is whats the kind og dirt should I use and how to test it for PPM,PH what they should be and what sould I look for in nutrients for dirt.

I think the dirt would be a good insalater for the roots during winter times. Or am I worng. Cause i can keep the air stable and maintain temps in the room.

I really need help!

 

[fish cake]

I think if you are going to a soil grow then maybe you should make a mix of your own rather then buying a miracle grow like compost.
I like to mix my own useing a sterilized potting soil and adding amendments to it no bugs in that.
my mix consists of 40% potting soil, 30% perlite,and equal parts worm castings and spagnuhm peat moss. after that you may wish to mix some kelp meal and or lime for calcium and magnesseum supplement.
I get good drainage and have not yet had trouble with it. and its organic
also you may want to get some straw and surround your pots for insulation but this could bring insects. so maybe a good top dressing of diatomecious earth would be a helper as critters wont like that at all

 

[Muttt]

I agree with Fish Cake.


Here's what I am using for soil. I decided to put together my own.


I found a really nice local soil mix called Earthgro. It's an all organic mix that contains .....

- Peat
- composted forest products
- sand

I also found Black Forest Compost on sale. It looks to be another all organic mix that contains .....

- compost
- forest humus
- worm castings
- Chicken poop
- bat guano
- kelp meal
- oyster shell
- dolomite
- lime
- mycorrhizae

I used 2 cubic feet of the dirt and mixed it with 1.5 cubic feet of the black forest compost. Then, I added about 1 cubic feet of perlite to help break it up a little. I mixed it all up in my wheel barrel and put it into a plastic garbage can (with no lid) to use as needed. I am potting them in 5 gallon cloth pots. When I initially potted them in the big pots, I pour about a gallon of water in each pot. About an inch of water ran out into the saucers underneath. So, I left it sit there and it was all soaked back in by morning. I don't normally do this ..... but the first time they need a really really good soak because all the dirt is dry.


If you can't find soil similar to mine. You can always make it from scratch. Google Subcool's Super Soil. It is easy to make .... although a little pricey for all the addatives. But here is the recipe. There are many variations of this online. They all work pretty well. I can't remember where I got this, but I'm pretty sure it was posted by Subcool.


Subcool's Super Soil

To me there is nothing like the flavor of properly grown organic cannabis. The subtle flavors and aromas created when using mother earth is over whelming to the senses when done properly.

As with many vegetables a rich Organic soil can bring out the best in a plant. Over the past 20 years I have tried almost every possible way to cultivate our favorite plant and while hydro is certainly faster and the yields blow soil away, I have developed a soil that performs extremely well and there's very little guess work. I don't worry about ph or ppm I simply have spent a few years developing a sound recipe and in combination with 7 gallon nursery pots I can run from start to finish using only water. Other than a bit of sweat equity every 90 days or so it takes a huge amount of science out of the garden and puts nature back in charge. This recipe is slightly different from my last and from the one so many use as gospel that I have passed around for years from grower to grower.

I always start with at least 6-8 large bags of high quality organic soil. The selection of your base soil is very important so don't cut corners here. I cannot begin to discuss all the different products but I will discuss a few in this article. A good Organic soil should cost between 8-10$ per 30# bag. I want you to get a real good idea what I consider a balanced soil to be so take a look at the ingredients of a product called Roots Organic:
Lignite*, coca fiber, perlite, pumice, compost, peat moss, bone meal, bat guano, kelp meal, Green sand, soy bean meal, leonardite, k-mag, glacial rock dust, alfalfa meal, oyster shell flour, earth worm castings and Mycorrhizae.
I have always believed in giving my plants a wide range of soils and additives I figure it's like a buffet they get all they need "Lignite, also known as leonardite, mined lignin, brown coal, and slack, is an important constituent to the oil well, drilling industry. Lignite, or leonardite as it will be referred as hereafter, is technically known as a low rank coal between peat and sub-bituminous. Leonardite was named for Dr. A.G. Leonard, North Dakota's first state geologist, who was a pioneer in the study of lignite deposits. Leonardite is applied to products having a high content of humic acid. Humic acid has been found to be very useful as a drilling mud thinner."

Another local product we are trying now is called Harvest Moon.
Washed coco fibers, Alaskan peat moss, perlite, yucca, pumice, diatoms, worm castings, feather meal, fishmeal, kelp meal, limestone, gypsum, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, rock dust, yucca meal, and Mycorrhizae fungi. The Roots produced a more floral smell in the finished flowers while the Harvest Moon generated larger yields.

If you have access to a good local mix like these then I highly recommend starting with these type products. We have also had decent results using commercial brands as well but not as is. The best results we have seen from well known soil that is available nationwide is Fox Farms "Ocean Forrest" soil combined in a 2-1 ratio with Light Warrior. On it's own the Ocean Forrest is known for burning plants and having the wrong ratio's of nutrients but when cut down with Light Warrior it makes a pretty good mix for a base soil. You can also just use 2 bales of Sunshine mix #4 but this is my last choice and plants growing in this may not complete properly with this "Just add water" method of soil growing. The concept to this concentrated soil is to not have to worry with mixing up nutrients after the soil is made. The concentrate is placed in the bottom ¼ to ½ of the container and blended with base soil. This allows the plants to grow into the strong concentrated soil and in the right size container need nothing else but water throughout the full harvest cycle. With strains requiring high levels of nutrients we go as strong as ¾ of the container with Super Soil but this is only with a small percentage of strains.

Here are the amounts we have found that produce the best tasting buds and strongest medicines.

8- Large bags of High quality Organic potting soil with a coco and Mycorrhizae
1- 25-50 pounds of Organic Worm castings
5 lb. Steamed Bone meal
5 lb. Bloom bat Guano
5 lb. Blood meal
3 lb. Rock Phoshate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ to 1 Cup cup Sweet Lime ( Dolimite)
½ Cup Azomite ( Trace Elements)
2- TBS Powdered Humic Acid

This is the same basic recipe I have used for 15 years the hardest ingredient to acquire is the worm castings most people don't even know what it is. Be resourceful and find it worms make up ¾ of the living organisms underground btw and hold our planet together.
Be careful not to waste money on Soil Conditioner with worm casting but local Pure Worm poop with no added mulch.
There are several methods of mixing this up well.
You can sweep off a patio or garage and work there on a tarp.
You can use a kids plastic wading pool these cost about 10$ and work really well for a few seasons.

Some growers have been known to rent a cement mixer and cut down on the physical labor. As long as you get the ingredients mixed up properly that is all that matters.
This can be a lot of work so don't pull a muscle if your not used to strenuous activity. This method is good for mind and body. Working with soil keeps me in pretty good shape, but if you have limitations you can simply have someone mix it up for you while you supervise. One of the things I like about this method is I can drop of plants to a patient and all they have to do is water the plants when the soil dries out.
Place a few bags of base soil in first making a mound. I then place the powdered nutrients in a circle around the mound and then cover with another bag of base soil.

Then goes in the bat poop and then more base soil. I continue to layer soil and additives until everything has been added to the pile. So now I put on the muck boots, these help me kick the soil around and get it mixed up well using my larger leg muscles and not my back and arms. Then it's as simple as my Skipper used to say " Put your back into it". This is hard work that I obsess on, even breaking up all the clods of soil by hand. I mix for about 15 minutes, turning the pile over and over until it is mixed well. I store the mix in large garbage cans. Before using the mix the entire load is poured out once more and mixed well. Once placed in the containers I water it slightly adding 3 gallons of water to a large garbage can full. It will make the stirring harder next week but it will activate the Mycorrhizae and I think help all the powders dissolve.

So now we add water and let it cook in the sunshine. 30 days is best for this concentrate.
Do not put seeds or clones directly in this mix. It is an advanced mix used in conjunction with base soil. It is used to place in the bottom of each finishing container and fully rooted established clones are placed in a bed of base soil that is layered on top of the concentrate. As the plants grow they slowly push their roots into the super soil drawing up all nutrients needed for a full cycle. The Super Soil can be used also to top dress plants that take longer to mature.

I will use this mix for a full year just adding like 30-50% in the lower potion of the container and plain base soil in the top portion.
Base Soil means your regular potting soil Like Roots, Harvest Moon, or even sunshine mix without the additives!

Buds from this method finish with a fade and a smoother fruity flavor. The plants are not green when done but Purple, Red, Orange and even Black at times. The resin content is heavier and the terpins always seem to be more pungent.
This method is used my medical growers all over with amazing results. The feed back I receive is really positive with reports of Hydro-like growth and novice growers producing buds of the same quality as life long growers.

 

[Ruhaa]

Thanks for the dirt info. Now what about PPM,PH? And do I add full stength nutrients or 1\2 then add more so on. Plus I heared something call a run off. Is that the drained water? and do i have to test that?. And can i reuse the soil?

 

[fish cake]

how you add nutes depends on the plants age and health just like hydro. as far as ppm and ph you will want to check pf before you water wether it be just the water its self or with added nutes. the thing about soil grows is that some nutes can be stored in the soil so every other water you want to feed and drench the soil till you have runoff. then check the ph and ppm coming out of that to see if an adjustment is needed. as far as useing the soil again I would just take it out to the flower bed and get some more when you start a new grow

 

[Ruhaa]

Thanks for the info Fish Cake.

 

[fish cake]

Thanks for the info Fish Cake.

welcome

 

[Ruhaa]

Ok i was thinking of a flush. do you have to do that to like hydro? or start to finish and should i plant my clones in to the pot there going to be in from start to finish.
I was thinking of 1gal pots in veg the a week before putting them under 12\12 lighting put them in to 5gal pots. If thats not good please correct me. or get me going in the right direction please.

 

[oldrthandirt]

Ruhaa,

If you have done hydro grows you will find out there is and there isn't a lot of difference. With soil you just have to slow down! Doing anything with hydro such as: adding nutes, flushing, so on acts fast and most of the time you get instant results. With soil you have to take into consideration that you have to build the nutes into the soil, the results of flushing takes a few days. Things like that so that is a adjustment.

For soil there are a couple of commercial soils that I have used such as, Foxfarms, Power Soil and Green Thumb but the best results I have had are a combo of commercial soils and my own compost(very close to Subcools) that I have posted in my grow. Nutes like everything else should be gradually added. Always check your PH both the water, water with nutes added and runoff.

Flushing in soil can be done but remember not to drown your plants. I would rather when watering have a little bit of runoff than to do a major flush. My reasoning behind this are: Flushing leaches a lot of the nutes out of the soil which you have to rebuild, Flushing will stress plants so you are stunting growth time, Flushing leaves the soil very moist for a few days which is an invitation for bugs!

As for pot size, I only use 3-5 gallon buckets because I never want root bind!

As for the weather, a friend of mine puts his 5 gallon buckets inside a larger tub(old wash tubs work great) then fills the tubs with pine straw which insulate the potting buckets. He grows outside all year using the tubs and heavy clear plastic over the plants (he lives in Montana)

Just remember than soil is the slow but natural way to grow and its just plain fun to get your hands dirty.

 

[Muttt]

I grow in soil. You don't have to get too worked up over PH when using soil. Soil has a way of balancing itself out. I check my PH from time to time. I check my water and I check my dirt. I don't worry too much what the PH is of the run if the soil PH is OK. I don't check them all the time unless I start to see issues with my plants (like lockout). I'm sure I could get more into it and really fine tune it .... but as long as it's working well. I'm just going to keep it as simple as I can.

 

[Muttt]

By the way ...... If you haven't already. Everybody that reads this post needs to check out OLDRTHANDIRT's "42 yr old bagseed journal" .... It's such a cool journal.