Soil & Nute Recommendation - Bonsai Mother

[Qapla]

Hey guys, been running soiless for my first runs and now I'm looking at making bonsai mother plants for my kali mist and c99 to save money on seeds($25 a pop, ouch) and to not have to ship anymore seeds. I will probably be switching over to hempy buckets on the nexts runs.

Anyway, I've been looking at mediums for the bonsai mother plants and I figure soil is probably the best option for me. I want low maintenance, infrequent watering and even more infrequent feeding. Also low maintenance costs. Can someone recommend a good easily available soil mix that won't need to be fed very often? The mother plants will end up in 1 gal or smaller containers with bi-annual root trimming and repotting with fresh soil. Also, I need some cheap basic nutes to replenish the soil every now and then. Basically, I want small mother plants, but I don't want much work or cost associated with it.

Also, I made a bubble cloner that worked great. I ended up planting 2 clones in solo cups with my soiless mix. Can I still use these as mothers? I'm guessing I would need to wash the medium off the roots and somehow try to repot with the recommended soil mix without killing them.

Any ideas would be great, thanks.

 

[Conradino23]

re: Soil & Nute Recommendation - Bonsai Mother

Do you know how to create a bonsai female in the first place?

 

[Qapla]

re: Soil & Nute Recommendation - Bonsai Mother

Sure do, there's a great thread on it here. Just wondering what would be a good long term soil mix with minimal nutes needed. I don't know much about soil other than it can be low maintenance and very forgiving as far as pH goes. Also what to do about the clones I already put into my soiless mix in solo cups. Looking for good soil that can be purchased and cheap nutes that will work for this the best.

 

[Papageno]

re: Soil & Nute Recommendation - Bonsai Mother

What you are trying to describe is an organic compost blend. The magic of a good compost is that is is alive and constantly breaking down stuff and will continue to do so for a long time. Depending on the size of pot and how low you have the light...it can run a very long time so long as you keep the soil alive.

Subcools compost recipe (which is the bottom 3rd with a proper soil blend top 2/3rds) is the most famous. Done correctly a plant can go its entire life cycle including bloom with superior results following his method by just adding water. Not that you want to bloom...but you can go a good long time without needing to add stuff.

There are lots of videos and threads on many forums referencing Subcools method. So just Google Subcool and you can even find him I think through Youtube and ask him direct questions.


That said it is just about doing a compost blend. Subcools is extremely basic and assured because it has everything right out of a horticulture text book. There are many web sights dedicated to organic growing methods and organic methods specifically for Cannabis.

So give it a go and you should be able to leave it alone no problem. It may be a bit hot if you use low light so you may want to reduce the compost ratio a bit.

 

[Qapla]

re: Soil & Nute Recommendation - Bonsai Mother

So basically I need a supersoil mix? I was hoping there might be a prepackaged mix that might do the job so I didn't have to cook anything before use. I have done a bit of reading on supersoil but got turned off on the cooking part, mostly for needing an area to do it and the smell. I'll look into it a bit more.

Any ideas on switching my clones from soiless to soil? Will I kill them if I rinse the soiless mix off the roots and try to replant in soil? Thanks!

 

[Papageno]

re: Soil & Nute Recommendation - Bonsai Mother

I would just start new clones in soil but if you want to transfer it shouldn't be a problem. Just wait till they got a good root system and dump in bennies with sugar and some enzymes at transfer time.

You can buy a bunch of stuff off the shelf an mix it together fairly easily and make a fake compost soil. Lots of people do it but it doesn't work as good as just doing it right obviously. At some of the grow stores near me (maybe all I don't really waste time in all of them) you can buy compost starter stuff. I haven't tried making a fake compost.

 

[Conradino23]

I'd suggest something less powerful: garden organic soil with worm castings or compost added, and some calcium carbonate to raise calcium levels.