Medium: Do I need to add nutrients or not?
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Fuzzy Duck
Well-Known Member
A new generation of growers & new terms to deal with 
Hello - your plants will tell you if they need feeding
If you mean making up a soil then yes, bung some frass in
We would need to know more about this live medium. Most natural soil mixes have life in them because of the micro-organisms that are there eating the organic materials, reproducing and then dying as part of the circle of life. They are returning the various nutrients back to the soil.
What is in the medium mixture?
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I just checked their website and couldn't find that one.
What's in the soil, and how big are the pots you're planning to use?
From what I understand, if you want to go water only with organic soils you want 15 gallon pots or more.
What's in the soil, and how big are the pots you're planning to use?
From what I understand, if you want to go water only with organic soils you want 15 gallon pots or more.
typically the plant uses all the food in a pre-made media before the end of flower, sometimes by veg or mid veg. it's always a good idea to have some nutes around in case you need them to make it to finish.
If you’re using pots smaller than 15 gallons, you’ll need to feed a little (according to the website) organic nutes.
It’s actually called “Stonington’s Blend”. It looks like a pretty good soil.
Yep, Stonington's Blend.
Plus, there are two different Stonington's listed. One comes in a green plastic bag and then there is the Stonginton's Blend Platinum which is supposed to be better than the standard. This Platinum blend is in a silver looking colored plastic bag.
Then to add to the confusion Coast of Maine has a bag of a nutrient blend for those times when the soil mix needs some amendments added for those times when the plant is demanding more than the soil can provide as fast as needed.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
If you are growing organically without additional nutes, you have to be relying on the microbes living in that soil. Not just Great White, for that is fungi and not the various microbes that are needed to process the raw food in the soil and then bring it to the roots. If you want this organic feeding cycle to continue, you have to take special precautions with your soil and your water. Never add chlorinated water to your grow, because that is in there to kill microbes. Consider "feeding" your soil occasionally with additional microbes using teas or actual microbial inoculation products. And then there are the supplements. Even organic grows can need extra finishing nutes and calmag. A good base organic soil can only get you so far. A large healthy plant may require more than is built into your soil and it depends a lot on how much soil you have under the plant as in the size of the container, and of course the size of your plant and how many buds it is trying to produce.
There are a bunch of microbes listed as being in GW, are they the wrong ones?
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
they are myco fungi... technically still called microbes, but of a completely different species than those microbes that process the raw elements in our soil and feed our plants. The fungi set up a web that works in symbiosis with the roots, but the organic feeding cycle does not exist on fungi alone. Whole sets of specialized protozoa, amoebas and other specialized microbes also need to be in there, and they don't come in the GW.
I'm referring to the species of bacteria in there, not the mycorrhizae.
I use endomycorrhizae in my grows. I haven't used GW since it also has a bunch of ectomycos which are useless for cannabis.
I use synthetic ferts, so I haven't studied the microbial aspect as much as I should have.
Bobby Budz
420 Member
They sell supps for their soil here. Stonington Blend Plant Food for Containers, Beds, and More
NOOOBIENOT
Well-Known Member
i use 20 gallon pots with true organic soil and all i need to do is add water only , but i build my soil 3 months before using it ,dry organic nutes and worm castings , i build my soil in kiddie pools in the basement , let it compost for 3 months , then add perlite and more worm castings right before i use it , plants love it , i add beneficial bacteria and great white mycorrhiza when i put my seedlings in their final pot,
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
There are NO bacteria in there, sorry. Here is the complete list of ingredients:
Great White Premium Mycorrhizae powder contains the following mycorrhizal fungus:
Contains non-plant food ingredients:
Mycorrhiza (219,576 propagules per gram)
Ectomycorrhiza/gram
Pistolithus tinctorius – 187,875 prop/gram
Rhizopogon luteolus – 5,219 prop/gram
Rhizopogon fulvigleba – 5,219 prop/gram
Rhizopogon villosullus – 5,219 prop/gram
Rhizopogon amylopogon – 5,219 prop/gram
Scleroderma citrinum – 5,219 prop/gram
Scleroderma cepa – 5,219 prop/gram
Endomycorrhiza/gram
Glomus aggregatum – 83 prop/gram
Glomus intraradices – 83 prop/gram
Glomus mosseae – 83 prop/gram
Glomus etunicatum – 83 prop/gram
Glomus clarum – 11 prop/gram
Glomus monosporum – 11 prop/gram
Glomus deserticola – 11 prop/gram
Paraglomus brasilianum – 11 prop/gram
Gigaspora margarita – 11 prop/gram
Contains 525,000 CFU’s per gram of each of the following 13 species:
More complex species ingredients
Azotobacter chroococcum
Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus licheniformis
Bacillus azotoformans
Bacillus megaterium
Bacillus coagulans
Bacillus pumilus
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
Paenibacillus polymyxa
Paenibacillus durum
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Pseudomonas aureofaciens
Pseudomonas fluorescens
Trichoderma ingredients
Trichoderma koningii – 187,875 CFU/gram
Trichoderma harzianum – 125,250 CFU/gram
All the species I left in the quote are bacteria.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
The thing that differentiates whether these are fungi or plain bacterium is it they are more complex in that they have more than one cell. By this definition they are fungi
