RangerDanger
New Member
Indoors or out, if you're growing in soil, organic is better. Here's why.
Many rookie growers have lost plants to chemical fertilizers. They're harsh and it's easy to overdose plants, especially young ones.
Organic nutrients accomplish the same thing, but they're natural and milder. It's a lot harder to overdose with organic nutrients.
Healthy soil makes for healthy plants, and organic nutrients support the beneficial micro-organisms in the soil such as nematodes and mychorrizae; chem. nutrients don't. Farmers who use chem nutrients find themselve forced to use increasing amt's of chem nutes each crop, because they've dumped so many chemicals in the soil that the soil is now sterile. Not good for the crops, the farmer, the land or for that matter the earth.
Run-off from chemical fetilizers is a major problem on earth. It poisons streams, rivers, lakes and eventually the ocean. Now I'm not saying that MJ farmers are destroying the earth, but I used to work for the U.S. Forest Service and I have seen first-hand how chemical nutrient run-off hurts the environment. I came across a guerilla grow once (about 50 plants) where the grower had dosed his plants with lots of chemicals, and it reduced life in the stream as well as a pond the stream ran into.
And finally, the taste.
Anyone who's ever eaten a "regular" (grown with chemicals) tomato and an organically grown tomato KNOWS organically grown tomato's taste better.
Taste alone is why a lot (most?) experienced soil growers use organic nutrients.
Possibly the worst product a MJ grower can use is potting soil that has been pre-dosed with chemicals. For the reasons listed above PLUS the fact that MJ needs different ratio's of N-P-K at different stages of the plant's growth. Chem nutes that may support good growth during the early stages of a plants life produce a smaller yield than plants that are fed what they need when they need it. It's hard to judge how much of what to feed the plants when they sit in a witch's brew of chemicals.
The same is true of time-released chem nutes.
My friend has chickens, and every spring I help him clean out his chicken coop. I take some of the old dry chicken shit and fill 5-gal. buckets 1/5 full and then add water to the top. I sink an air stone hooked up to a air pump (under $10 at a pet store) and bubble the mixture for a few weeks, stirring daily. This should be done outside cause it stinks. After a few weeks the smell is reduced. Then I pour this into 1-gal. containers tightly capped and this is my concentrate. I add 2 cups of this to a 5-gal container of water and feed my plants this during veg. Chicken shit tea has an excellent N-P-K ratio for veg, and it's free.
The BEST potting soil to use for MJ are brands such as Fox Farms Ocean And Forest that are amended with organic goodies such as Bat/bird guano (guano = shit), seaweed/kelp, worm castings (castings = shit), hydrated lime (acts as a buffer) and mychorrizae.
I used miracle grow and other chem. nutes for over 20 years, because I didn't know any better. Then one day I smoked some of my friends weed. He grew clones he got from me and his weed tasted so much better than my weed. I asked about his growing technique and he clued me into growing organically. I gave organics a try and never went back to chemicals.
The only downside is organic nutrients are a bit harder to find than chem's. You can't get them at the local supermarket, you need to go to a garden center if you can't make your own. If they don't carry organics you can ask them to order some and they'll usually be glad to oder them for you, or simply order some from a company that makes organics, such as some (but not all) Fox Farm and Advanced Nutrients products.
P.S. IMO, the best nutrients are Iguana Juice products from advancednutrients.com (no, I don't work for them). They're expensive, but I used them for the 1st time earlier this year and I was impressed. Chicken shit tea works as good as chem nutes; Igauna Juice works better than either one.
Many rookie growers have lost plants to chemical fertilizers. They're harsh and it's easy to overdose plants, especially young ones.
Organic nutrients accomplish the same thing, but they're natural and milder. It's a lot harder to overdose with organic nutrients.
Healthy soil makes for healthy plants, and organic nutrients support the beneficial micro-organisms in the soil such as nematodes and mychorrizae; chem. nutrients don't. Farmers who use chem nutrients find themselve forced to use increasing amt's of chem nutes each crop, because they've dumped so many chemicals in the soil that the soil is now sterile. Not good for the crops, the farmer, the land or for that matter the earth.
Run-off from chemical fetilizers is a major problem on earth. It poisons streams, rivers, lakes and eventually the ocean. Now I'm not saying that MJ farmers are destroying the earth, but I used to work for the U.S. Forest Service and I have seen first-hand how chemical nutrient run-off hurts the environment. I came across a guerilla grow once (about 50 plants) where the grower had dosed his plants with lots of chemicals, and it reduced life in the stream as well as a pond the stream ran into.
And finally, the taste.
Anyone who's ever eaten a "regular" (grown with chemicals) tomato and an organically grown tomato KNOWS organically grown tomato's taste better.
Taste alone is why a lot (most?) experienced soil growers use organic nutrients.
Possibly the worst product a MJ grower can use is potting soil that has been pre-dosed with chemicals. For the reasons listed above PLUS the fact that MJ needs different ratio's of N-P-K at different stages of the plant's growth. Chem nutes that may support good growth during the early stages of a plants life produce a smaller yield than plants that are fed what they need when they need it. It's hard to judge how much of what to feed the plants when they sit in a witch's brew of chemicals.
The same is true of time-released chem nutes.
My friend has chickens, and every spring I help him clean out his chicken coop. I take some of the old dry chicken shit and fill 5-gal. buckets 1/5 full and then add water to the top. I sink an air stone hooked up to a air pump (under $10 at a pet store) and bubble the mixture for a few weeks, stirring daily. This should be done outside cause it stinks. After a few weeks the smell is reduced. Then I pour this into 1-gal. containers tightly capped and this is my concentrate. I add 2 cups of this to a 5-gal container of water and feed my plants this during veg. Chicken shit tea has an excellent N-P-K ratio for veg, and it's free.
The BEST potting soil to use for MJ are brands such as Fox Farms Ocean And Forest that are amended with organic goodies such as Bat/bird guano (guano = shit), seaweed/kelp, worm castings (castings = shit), hydrated lime (acts as a buffer) and mychorrizae.
I used miracle grow and other chem. nutes for over 20 years, because I didn't know any better. Then one day I smoked some of my friends weed. He grew clones he got from me and his weed tasted so much better than my weed. I asked about his growing technique and he clued me into growing organically. I gave organics a try and never went back to chemicals.
The only downside is organic nutrients are a bit harder to find than chem's. You can't get them at the local supermarket, you need to go to a garden center if you can't make your own. If they don't carry organics you can ask them to order some and they'll usually be glad to oder them for you, or simply order some from a company that makes organics, such as some (but not all) Fox Farm and Advanced Nutrients products.
P.S. IMO, the best nutrients are Iguana Juice products from advancednutrients.com (no, I don't work for them). They're expensive, but I used them for the 1st time earlier this year and I was impressed. Chicken shit tea works as good as chem nutes; Igauna Juice works better than either one.
