Start watering pots before planting seeds?

[SmokeyBear88]

This is my first real organic grow. Should I water the pots a week or two before planting the seeds? Im using 3 gal fabric bags and auto seeds. I bought worm castings, coco coir, azomite, alfalfa, rice hulls and fish bone meal. I will buy a few other things like great white.

 

[OldMedUser]

I am not a dirt farmer but have read hundreds of dirt farmer's threads.

Have you mixed all those parts together and let them "cook"?

Real dirt farmers bake their mix for a a few weeks/months to give the micro-herd time to convert the organics into the salts that plants need to eat.

I skip all that stuff and feed my plants the salts they need out of a few bottles.

Dirt farming is for folks who are good at it and I am not.

I'm going back to DWC for the bulk of my growing but will always have my moms and clones in something resembling dirt.

Good luck!

 

[SmokeyBear88]

Ive been growing with bottled nutes for about 10 years. Its time for me to change it up. Im still waiting for all the stuff to come in the mail. I havent mixed anything yet. I dont want to let it sit too long or not long enough.

 

[bobrown14]

Ive been growing with bottled nutes for about 10 years. Its time for me to change it up. Im still waiting for all the stuff to come in the mail. I havent mixed anything yet. I dont want to let it sit too long or not long enough.

Mix everything together.... BTW list your complete ingredients I can help make a few suggestions.

Anyway the way I do it is mix everything together and put into large totes and water and put a lid on it and let it sit for a few weeks minimum.

Alfalfa needs to compost some as does most of the ingredients.... doens't take long. Then do an ACT = areated compost tea...

ACT - cup of worm castings and 1/2 cup of kelp meal.... into filtered water 3 gallons or so....bubble/aerate overnight 24 hrs and water your soil....this can be done after the plants get going say at 2nd week after seedling pops.

I didn't see any compost portion in your list.

I do it like this:

Base:

1/3 Compost
1/3 Sphagnum Peat Moss
1/3 Aeration (Such as pumice stone, rice hulls, lava rock)

This will make up your base.
For example, if you are trying to make 15 gallons of soil (2 cubic feet) you would add 5 gallons of each and then mix thoroughly.

Minerals:

4 Cups of rock dust per cubic ft. (7 gallons base soil)

Rock dust/mineral mix - can be any or a combination I use all of them. Gypsum and oyster shell or crab shell meal - that is your calcium you need that in your mx.

Basalt
Glacial Rock Dust
Gypsum
Oyster Shell Flour

equal parts to make up the mineral mix.

Amendments for 1 cu ft (7gallons) :

1 cup Crustacean Meal (crab shell meal) in addition to the Ca in the mineral mix

1 cup Kelp Meal - has all the macro and micro nutrients needed for plant growth
1 cup Neem Cake - source of N and also will help with pests
1 cup Karanja Cake - same as neem

Can get this complete mix in a kit from KIS Organics for $15 for 3.5 cu ft of soil mixed so all you need besides the kit is Peat Moss/compost/aeration.

here's a link to explain:

Official Clackamas Coot Nutrient and Mineral Kit - KIS Organics

Can get these ingredients all mixed from BAS (build a spoil) website as well.


This mix can be re-used... all you need to do is remove the stem (can leave most of the roots in the container) and plant another plant and start all over again.

Add a cup per cu ft of the amendment mix for the next round and your ready to grow....

If you leave the root ball sit in the soil in the container for a week or so, all you will need to do is twist the old stem, the roots will have already been composted. It happens that fast.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it. I just ordered the last of the stuff. I have
Coco coir
Worm casting
Rice hulls
Azomite
Alfalfa meal
Fish bone meal
BioAg vam
BioAg fulvic humic acid
Norwegian kelp 0-0-17

Im only gonna use a tiny amount of that kelp. I needed a way to raise the potassium level to something a little closer to what I was running with the chem ferts Ive been using with good results.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

I decided not to get the great white so I got the bioAg VAM and bioAg fulvic acid. I do have two new 18 gal rubbermaid totes I will use. I will buy some oyster shell for the calcium. I was thinking 20% worm casting 35% rice hull and the rest coco coir. I have 7 seeds coming which were about $115. I wanna start 2 seeds at a time about two weeks apart. So if i see something wrong i can correct it on the next batch.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

Im gonna buy gypsum instead of crushed oyster shell. How many lbs should I buy to do the seven plants in 3 gal containers? Money is tight and I only wanna buy what i need. I already bought two 600 digital phantom II ballast and eye hortilux hps and mh bulb.

 

[bobrown14]

Im gonna buy gypsum instead of crushed oyster shell. How many lbs should I buy to do the seven plants in 3 gal containers? Money is tight and I only wanna buy what i need. I already bought two 600 digital phantom II ballast and eye hortilux hps and mh bulb.

Reason for both is:

Gypsum is a fairly quick Ca release - depending on soil mix.
Oyster shell flour - is fast release AND slow Ca release.

Why I use both. You can't really add in Ca once you have plants growing (not organically). With Autos you likely wont get a Ca issue with the 1st round.

3 gal containers is how I grow AUTOs - plants wont get huge. I usually just pop them all and run them all at the same time. With 10 #3 nursery pots that takes up about 3'x3' and I grow them on a table so I don't have to bend over all the time watering! Gonna use less electric running them all at the same time if thats an issue for you.

You are mixing 7 pots @ 3gal = 21 gallons of soil which is about 3 cubic ft of soil.

Try 6 cups of the Gypsum to your soil mix.


What brand kelp meal are you using?? I'm not familiar with any Kelp products that have that much K (potassium) in them.

Kelp meal from Norwegian Kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) has all the Macro and Micro nutrients that plants need to grow in the proper proportions and is usually listed NPK close to 1-1-1 NOT 0-0-17. Post the brand kelp your using. That's a lot of K.. I'm not familiar with any Kelp that has that NPK.

We use a lot of kelp meal in our soil mix, also can grind it &/or just soak in water and pour off the liquid and foiler on and then add the already soaked meal + EWC and top dress and/or scratch in and/or mix into the soil. Kelp is a GREAT foiler.

Anytime I have a "possible" issue with a plant I always mix up some EWC/Kelp meal tea and water in. All the girls love it.

1 Cup EWC
1/2 Cup Kelp meal
3 gal filtered water

Bubble overnight ... if you dont have an air pump can add ingredients and stir it up let it sit stir some more... next day water in.

Just that EWC/Kelp tea... will get your plants going and take the place of any bottles you were using b-4. Can use that all the way to flower.. can even filter and foiler on.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

I got the kelp from ebay. It says Guaranteed 0-0-17 analysis and its a reputable seller. It says the brand is seed supply. Im gonna buy more kelp but the kind with average npk ratio. Im gonna buy a air bubbler to make the tea.
6 cups of gypsum equals about how many lbs? Will 2 lbs be enough?.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

I just got my 11lb brick of coco coir in the mail. Im gonna soak it in water until my seeds come in the mail. I plan on reusing the soil after these auto flowering are done. I dont want to use tap water anymore since the ppm is around 150. I bought a mr.clean water filter that gets the ppm down to around just 5. That should be here by tomorrow or the day after. I will use the filtered water to soak the coco and water the plants.

 

[bobrown14]

Looking good... I just went on Ebay to check the Kelp out... WOW the prices are high. Did a quick google apparently there's a Kelp shortage this year!

I stock up on Kelp meal.... the 0-0-17 doesn't sound right. I'd send the person that sold it to you a message and ask him why the NPK numbers are the way they are since they aren't even close to everyone elese's measurements. The NPK can vary a little.. by .5 not 15.

Filtered water is the way to go really really must have since there's all sorts of chems in the water even if you have city water... lead is a thing and will kill plants and people.

Are you thinking about starting a Grow Journal?? You should once you get going. Lots of helpful folks here!!

 

[SmokeyBear88]

Yeah Im definitely gonna do a grow journal. Should mix the coco coir while its dry or wet? Im ordering mylar and a few other things tomorrow. Seeds should be here within 2 wks.

 

[bobrown14]

Not sure about the coir.. never used it. It's coconut husk ground or something?? ... should be really good for container soils. Wetting it cant hurt but I've never used it (YET)...

I do use coconut water (organic 100% pure coconut water) mixed with my water when I water in... its GREAT, and foiler on too!

Girls go wild!

 

[hyperluv]

I am doing my first organic grow too. I watered the soil with about 1L of water before transferring the seedlings from the paper towel to soil which I call Day 1. Two of my plants were placed in a 1.5" rockwool cube with a drop of CalMag. I am using premixed soil so I did not do any "cooking". For your method, you may need to.

The only thing I mixed was the earthworm castings with Roots Organic and/or ProMix. I probably did not need to do that, but tried it anyway. You can check out my grow using the link in my signature.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

Looking good... I just went on Ebay to check the Kelp out... WOW the prices are high. Did a quick google apparently there's a Kelp shortage this year!

I stock up on Kelp meal.... the 0-0-17 doesn't sound right. I'd send the person that sold it to you a message and ask him why the NPK numbers are the way they are since they aren't even close to everyone elese's measurements. The NPK can vary a little.. by .5 not 15.

Filtered water is the way to go really really must have since there's all sorts of chems in the water even if you have city water... lead is a thing and will kill plants and people.

Are you thinking about starting a Grow Journal?? You should once you get going. Lots of helpful folks here!!

I searched and found a few other places selling the exact same npk ratio kelp. Heres a quote from one of them "Soluble Seaweed Extract 0-0-17 is an extract made from Ascophyllum nodosum. Only the highest quality north atlantic kelp is used in the production of our seawead extract."

 

[SmokeyBear88]

You guys think 2 lbs of gypsum is enough for 6 cups?? Im gonna order it later today.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

Just a little info on the kelp with high potassium. It says Derived from: Seaweed Extract and Plant Ash. So Im guessing the high amount of potassium is from the plant ash. Most plant ash nutes i find are high in K and very low in N and P.

 

[SmokeyBear88]

I decided to take a chance with a bag of dolomitic lime from home depot for only $5 6.75lb bag. Its pellets so Im gonna crush them up into a fine powder. Not gonna add gypsum or oyster shells on this batch (2 plants) and well see how it goes. I appreciate all the input fellas. This is by far my fav marijuana grow forum.

 

[PVBudz]

Reason for both is:

Gypsum is a fairly quick Ca release - depending on soil mix.
Oyster shell flour - is fast release AND slow Ca release.

Why I use both. You can't really add in Ca once you have plants growing (not organically). With Autos you likely wont get a Ca issue with the 1st round.

3 gal containers is how I grow AUTOs - plants wont get huge. I usually just pop them all and run them all at the same time. With 10 #3 nursery pots that takes up about 3'x3' and I grow them on a table so I don't have to bend over all the time watering! Gonna use less electric running them all at the same time if thats an issue for you.

You are mixing 7 pots @ 3gal = 21 gallons of soil which is about 3 cubic ft of soil.

Try 6 cups of the Gypsum to your soil mix.


What brand kelp meal are you using?? I'm not familiar with any Kelp products that have that much K (potassium) in them.

Kelp meal from Norwegian Kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) has all the Macro and Micro nutrients that plants need to grow in the proper proportions and is usually listed NPK close to 1-1-1 NOT 0-0-17. Post the brand kelp your using. That's a lot of K.. I'm not familiar with any Kelp that has that NPK.

We use a lot of kelp meal in our soil mix, also can grind it &/or just soak in water and pour off the liquid and foiler on and then add the already soaked meal + EWC and top dress and/or scratch in and/or mix into the soil. Kelp is a GREAT foiler.

Anytime I have a "possible" issue with a plant I always mix up some EWC/Kelp meal tea and water in. All the girls love it.

1 Cup EWC
1/2 Cup Kelp meal
3 gal filtered water

Bubble overnight ... if you dont have an air pump can add ingredients and stir it up let it sit stir some more... next day water in.

Just that EWC/Kelp tea... will get your plants going and take the place of any bottles you were using b-4. Can use that all the way to flower.. can even filter and foiler on.

I just read something on here the other day about making an organic calcium supplement with vinegar and eggshells. I've got some brewing up now I'll report back when/if I've seen results

 

[SmokeyBear88]

I like the idea of making calcium with egg shells but they would have to be organic eggs. I will see what i can find about that.

So I just broke up 3 egg shells and put them in apple cider vinegar. I read that it takes about 24hrs to completely break down. Im not sure if i will use it. I still need to figure out how much to use.