Should I use compost during flowering?

[Oful33]

I have plenty of compost in my yard, but I have heard that compost have some disadvantages (if there is some, please name them) so I'm not sure should I add it into my soil mix of flowering lady or I shouldn't. And if I should add it, how much do I add it? Is it any rule of thumb to measure how much compost to add into a soil?

 

[conradino23]

There's no disadvantage of compost, except it's usually low on potassium and calcium. if you supplement it, you have a great and balanced soil mix to use throughout the full cycle. I use it all the time.

 

[Blueballavngr]

Top dressing is usually a guess. I recently topped dressed and sent a plant into nitrogen toxicity. There's just no way of knowing what's in it without a soil test. In my rookie opinion I would suggest making a tea with it and dilute it. Then u can get the bennifits of ur compost at lower risk of over dosing ur plant. Also if you are growing indoors you are introducing possible fungi and bacteria and bugs into an area with no/ less predators and could swing the environment durring flower. I just see it as a risk during such a crucial time.

 

[conradino23]

I grow outdoor I might add, so my experience concerns that type of growing.

 

[Blueballavngr]

How can u make that judgement without knowing his/ her soil Composition or feeding or knowing if the plant needs it? Or what the compost is predominately composed of? What if it's a compost pile with layers of lawn clippings and now he's mixing a nitrogen rich compost onto a plant going into flower. I think there is just a lack of info to make that call. I'm just a noob so if I'm misinforming him/her please let me know because I would hate to ruin someone's plants because of my lack of knowledge.

 

[conradino23]

How can u make that judgement without knowing his/ her soil Composition or feeding or knowing if the plant needs it? Or what the compost is predominately composed of? What if it's a compost pile with layers of lawn clippings and now he's mixing a nitrogen rich compost onto a plant going into flower. I think there is just a lack of info to make that call. I'm just a noob so if I'm misinforming him/her please let me know because I would hate to ruin someone's plants because of my lack of knowledge.

Yeah, you sound like a guy, who's been growing only one thing... cannabis, so your gardening experience is quite limited, and don't take this as an offense please. For example, compost I'm using has been checked beforehand on all possible vegetables and herbs, which were also grown without it, and I can tell you straight away that compost doubles, and sometimes triples the growth. You really don't have to spend shitloads of money to analyse your soil in the lab, it's enough you watch how it influences plants in your garden. How do you think farmers have been doing it before technology came in? Oh man Another thing, there's no way of causing nitrogen toxicity in cannabis with compost, even if it's used without cutting it with other agents, cause this is not a salt-based fertilizer!!! On the top of it, compost usually has NPK of 0,5-0,5-0,5, and often less, so it's not only totally safe, but it's perfect for growing virtually everything.

I'll add that I grow bonsai plants in a soil mix, which is 70% compost with some other organic additives, and I also use BUCKETS of it to grow my jungle plants. You wannna see the effect? There you go.

Some plants that I'm running this season

My bonsai budz

Please, stop scaring young growers, man :tokin:

 

[Blueballavngr]

I'm not arguing the positive effects of properly done compost. Or compost used for many seasons in a diverse garden. My point was the compost you have cultivated in Italy works well with ur soil. His/her compost isn't the same as yours nor is his/her soil. U have no idea if his/hers is aged and nor do I. I do have a good size vegetable garden and compost and go organic with brewing my own nutrients when needed. I wasn't trying to scare them just suggest moderation before fully commiting to something u can't get out. When I went from salt based ferts(like he uses) and introduced the plant into a composted soil and teas, it changed the plants environment and caused stress and issues. It did grow out of it and did really well. I just wished I took it easy and transitioned like I mentioned with the teas.

Am I to understand nothing can possibly go wrong by him/her topdressing with compost right before flowering?

 

[conradino23]

Nothing as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Blueballavngr]

Didn't u watch batman, fear kept him alive. Come on man you are an experienced Gardner. When u mix and match techniques the same rules don't apply. Using salted ferts kills benneficial bacteria in soil that would normally buffer ph and form a symbiotic relation
With the roots in exchange for sugars which they eat and in turn help them break down minerals into a useable form. So when u reintroduce them they will start forming colonies in the roots in clusters and not at an even distribution. Causing fluxes in ph in different spots two inches away so they can survive. Then he/she will wonder why is this small cluster of leaves freaking out over here?

U won't have issues with ur soil because u have already introduced bacteria into ur soil that is thriving in ur compost. So no ph change no bacteria battle for territory, all u r doing is giving them back up and in theory increasing the exchange of energy in ur soil causing that big growth spurt u mentioned. Ur soil in Italy is extremely mineral rich because years of volcanic activity coastline exposure. Not to mention you are really close to the equator for optimal sun light. U could have the worst gardening skills in the world and it would be hard to mess that up. That type of mineral content could take liters and liters of water at a ph 8-9 and hold at 6.3-6.5. So your experiences will greatly differ as to someone that lives in Michigan, New Hampshire, or Northern California in the United States. I imagine that ur compost is several seasons old and has worked out any hot spots or uneven mineral distribution because of a high bacteria and or fungal colonies. I'm sure it works great for u. But his is straight dirt and miracle grow.... Just saying less is more man. I may be a noob but I think that's the hardest rule to learn in gardening.

 

[conradino23]

Yeah ok, I know that there is probably one place in the world which beats Italian loam with mineral content, and it's Hawaii, but the guy didn't say he's been fertilizing with chems at all. And that's what we need to find out really, although I took him as an organic gardener, cause he didn't mention any miracle glo and shit. Yeah, but I agree that you cannot mix techniques, cause your plants will get crazy.

 

[Blueballavngr]

Very true, very true. It's briefly mentioned in his journal. But by the way thanks for helping me figure out my plant problems the other day. You probably saved it's life. I had the atomic nl turning dark green. I'm starting to think that the guano (8-2-1) I was using was actually slowing bacteria growth. I removed it from my tea recipe and added TBS humic acid to a 30gallon mix. I have never seen it that live before. Atomic nl is still on h2o for a while. Doc buds and a lady called the artistic Gardner (you can find her in a yahoo search, she's all about high brix but it's not really a cannabis site, more middle aged house wife website). They both have parallels in theories on high brix, so close that they might be married lol. Anyway I digress, it basically mentioned that most loam and topsoils contain 4-8% N and is more then enough for many seasonal plants. I have a batch of minimal npk and high mineral soil cooking from docs kit. 3 will be a control of his method and another 3 of my soil and my tea and the last 3 of the kit and my teas. This providing a control and test subjects. I'm sure u know there's a lot of b.s. Out there but hopefully this will set me straight into true organics. Ur loam is probably closer to this than many realize.

 

[conradino23]

Aaah, you've had this plant that was getting overloaded with nitrogen, right? And I told you to stop fertilizing? Yeah glad to give you a hand, man. I've been always strongly against fertilizing too much. In my opinion it does more bad than good. I'm not really a high brix grower, cause I don't own refractometer and don't use Doc Bud's kit, which is not 100% organic by the way, makes little difference though, for sure. I'm into living organics really, mineralized soil full of many natural additives, occasional fertilizing with hyperaccumulators, inoculation, no flush and stuff. And that together with my natural soil does it for me perfectly :tokin:

 

[Blueballavngr]

I've been doing a lot of research to understand the ammendments and what percentages of each for optimal. Except the people that really get into it, I need a periodic table to follow. It's only written periodic abbreviations and gives for example Gives an amount for calcium. 200-400 lbs per acre. Now that's a big range! But let's say I have access to sea shells. Idk how to figure how much that covers and what else it adds in percentages to figure out this theory of "ideal soil". I know I can have success in what I use now, but I just want to understand why it works and how it works. I think I've figured out his Foliar spray recipes as they look and smell and contain the same main ingrediants. So the minerals is where I fall short on.

 

[conradino23]

You can start adding Azomite, gypsum or crushed lava rock, they work very well for other organic growers.

 

[Oful33]

Before even reading your previous conversation I transplanted my ladies into new soil and pot. My soil contains 50% dirt (Yep, I use dirt because my friend told me it's even better then to buy any potting soil) 25% rock phosphate, 20% compost and 5% sand. I tought I could just feed her with some phosphorus high (something like 6-15-10) non-organic fertilizer. I'm not an experiened grower, I'm new to this and I'm still making lots of mistakes, did I just made one again? I can't feed her with these dry non-organic fertilizers because her soil contains compost and mixing organic with non-organic makes her stress?

 

[conradino23]

Way too much rock phosphate. Cannabis doesn't need that much phosphorus, it's a myth. It also reduces uptake of iron, zinc, molibdenum and such. And as she still doesn't flower she need LOADS of nitrogen till middle flowering. Repot again with dirt and compost in proportions of 60% compost, 20% dirt, 10% sand, 5% rock phosphate and 5% biochar or perlite if you can get it. Tell me what other organic amendments you have on hand? Can you get worm castings or bat guano? Also, what goes into your compost pile? You'll need moderate amounts of potassium, and compost sometimes can be low on it if you put there mainly grass clippings, but if you put dry leaves there, wood ash and vegetable scraps, you'll be fine.

 

[Oful33]

No way I'm going to repot her, the pot is way to heavy to even lift normaly.. She is allready in flowering for 1week. Not sure about organic amendments I have around, but I'm pretty sure I have none, I live in very small town. My compost contains mostly grass, roots, sticks, leaves and other similar garden trashes that had to be throwen away.

 

[conradino23]

Ok, so you're gonna have an inferior produce, if she doesn't die first, but that's your choice man.

 

[Oful33]

So it's because of way too much phosphorus? You see the thing is that when I transplanted I just put like and inch of that new soil mix to bottom of pot and then when I transplanted her rootball allready had lots of dirt around it and that old dirt filled rest of pot. so it's just very little of that phosphorus in soil.

 

[conradino23]

The answer is you need to decide which way to go, man!