Need some help....I'm Hydrodude who is a complete soil super n00b!!

[BennyHogan]

Because of the heat and my inability to cool my res, I need to switch to soil....I have never used soil and thus I took a look at the Organics for Beginners thread and I'm really confused!!
I have no clue what to do with this seemingly endless supply of ingredients.....Do I mix all these things in the pot together??? or do I layer them in some fashion??
Anyone have any links to a tutorial with pics or something??
I would like to avoid having to repot, so what size of pots would you recommend for a dude using a 150HPS for three flowering and three vegging p's???
My cab is 60in tallx 20in x 21in. and I'm currently using Organic Humboldt nutes

THanks for any help,
Peace and Love

 

[BurnOne]

BennyHogan-
Welcome to Organics.
First things first...
What do you have and what can you get?
If you can find powdered or pulverized dolomite lime, you're half way there. You can find peat, perlite and worm castings if you're anywhere a Wal-Mart.
Dried Blood and Bone Meal should be just as easy to find. Maxicrop can be easily ordered online and I'm sure you have water on hand.
There ya go.

Look over that STICKY again and let us know what you can find in your area. I'm sure we can throw something together for ya. Start with one of the soil mixes. We'll tell you exactly how to mix it up.
Then, look over the recipes and see what you can get locally. If you have an agricultural or farm supply house nearby, they should have a lot of that stuff. Nurseries and upscale garden stores are another great place to look. Home DePOT and Lowes will have some as well. And don't overlook your local hardware store too.

Check back in and we'll hook ya up.
Burn1

 

[BennyHogan]

BennyHogan-
Welcome to Organics.
First things first...
What do you have and what can you get?
If you can find powdered or pulverized dolomite lime, you're half way there. You can find peat, perlite and worm castings if you're anywhere a Wal-Mart.
Dried Blood and Bone Meal should be just as easy to find. Maxicrop can be easily ordered online and I'm sure you have water on hand.
There ya go.

Look over that STICKY again and let us know what you can find in your area. I'm sure we can throw something together for ya. Start with one of the soil mixes. We'll tell you exactly how to mix it up.
Then, look over the recipes and see what you can get locally. If you have an agricultural or farm supply house nearby, they should have a lot of that stuff. Nurseries and upscale garden stores are another great place to look. Home DePOT and Lowes will have some as well. And don't overlook your local hardware store too.

Check back in and we'll hook ya up.
Burn1

Thanks Burnone,
I currently have Organic Humboldt Grow and Bloom nutes and that's all.

There are a lot of specialty grow stores here so I should be able to acquire anything recommended as long as its not too pricey.

Thanks again and I'm looking forward to hearing what I should do next.

 

[ixnay007]

What you should do next is pick a style of organic growing, preamended or not.. basically, do you want to add ferts with teas or have them already present in the soil?

Then pick one of the corresponding mixes in the Organics For Beginners thread, and help will be forthcoming.

 

[BennyHogan]

What you should do next is pick a style of organic growing, preamended or not.. basically, do you want to add ferts with teas or have them already present in the soil?

Then pick one of the corresponding mixes in the Organics For Beginners thread, and help will be forthcoming.

Thanks for the help, really appreciated my man!!

Since I've already got liquid Organic Humboldt nutes, I guess I'd like to use the Tea Option if that's possible??? Since they're in liquid that's my only option if I want to use them right??

I want to go out and get some pots to put them in.....what size should I get based on light and cab dimensions listed above??

I started a solo seedling the other day in Rockwool and it had 3 roots poking through the bottom.....since I don't know exactly how I'm gonna do this soil thing I planted the whole cube in a cup with regular plain ole flower potting soil. I'm assuming there are some sort of nutes already in this crap??? I needed a temp home ASAP and hoping once I've got my gameplan laid out that I can transplant it into its permanent home???

Thanks for any help,
Peace and Love

 

[ixnay007]

Adding it in later it is:

You'll need LC's soil mix then.

LC’s Soiless Mix #1:
5 parts Canadian Spaghnam Peat or Coir or Pro-Moss
3 parts perlite
2 parts wormcastings or mushroom compost or home made compost
Powdered dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of the soiless mix.

Mix that up and wet it down with a little wormcasting/molassasses tea..

As for pot sizes, get em as big as you can for your cab, I've never heard of marijuana suffering from having to live in a pot that's too big (assuming the soil is well aerated).

BTW, go read through the Sticky B1 keeps mentioning, it will probably answer questions you didn't even know you had yet.

 

[BennyHogan]

When you say "mix that up and wet it down" how wet are we talking about??? Do I need pots with little holes at the bottom and collection areas??? I'm such a n00b....how much will all these ingredients run me ballpark?? Can I get everything at Wal-Mart???

I also have little hyrdoton pellets used in hydro ops.....are they something people ever incorporate into soil grows??


Thanks for all the help,
PEace and Love

 

[bassmechanic27]

Benny, you are making this way too hard on yourself. A basic formula for pot size is for every foot they grow, you should have between 1/2-1 gallon of soil. Use LC's soiless mix mentioned above, add your nutes as prescribed on the bottles. Any pot that you buy should have drainage holes in it, or you can buy grow bags which are much cheaper. Also, I have read a ton of posts by BurnOne, so any advice that he gives I would take. Good luck!

 

[BurnOne]

When you say "mix that up and wet it down" how wet are we talking about??? Do I need pots with little holes at the bottom and collection areas??? I'm such a n00b....how much will all these ingredients run me ballpark?? Can I get everything at Wal-Mart???

I also have little hyrdoton pellets used in hydro ops.....are they something people ever incorporate into soil grows??


Thanks for all the help,
PEace and Love

You're not going to be a nb for long in this forum.

Use your local Yellow Pages and call around to lawn and garden stores and ask for POWDERED (not pelletized) dolomite lime. NOT HYDRATED LIME! You can get a 50 pound bag for about $5.00. That will be the hardest thing to find. It's also one of the MOST important items for organic soil growing.
Then look for perlite. Any kind is fine. I get 4 cubic foot bags for $15.00 here.
Wal-Mart now has worm castings CHEAP. Get a few bags depending on how much soil mix you want to make.
Now the main ingredient. Canadian Spaghnam Peat. You can get that at any garden store.
There's your mix. Here's the ratios to mix...
5 parts Canadian Spaghnam Peat
3 parts perlite
2 parts wormcastings
Powdered dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of the soiless mix.
If you use a 3 qt. saucepan as “parts” in the amounts given above, it equals about 1 cu. ft. of soiless mix and you can just dump in a cup of powdered dolomite lime.
But, a "part" can be anything from a tablespoon to a five gallon bucket. Just use the same item for all of the "parts".

...I use a couple of big trash cans to do the mixing. I fill a 1 cup measuring cup level full with powdered dolomite lime. Put a 3 quart sausepan level full of peat in the trash can. Pour in a little dolomite lime from the measuring cup. About 1/10th of a cup. Pour in a sausepan of perlite. Pour a little lime. Pour in a saucepan of peat. Then a little lime. Pour in a saucepan of worm castings. Then a little more lime. Then peat, lime, worm castings, lime, peat, lime, perlite, lime, peat, lime and perlite.

Damn, I'm dizzy now.

You should have used 5 sausepans of peat, 3 saucepans of perlite, 2 saucepans of worm castings and 1 cup of powdered dolomite lime.
Now, take your saucepan and dip that mix one scoop at a time from one trash can to another. That should be mixed well enough.
There's your soil mix.

Now, you can use just that mix (nothing else) until the plants are three to four weeks old if you are starting from seeds. Then use your bottled nutes as directed. What is the N-P-K of your nutes?

Burn1

 

[BennyHogan]

call me crazy but searching out and finding all the individual ingredients seemed like too much work for me so I picked up some Foxfarn organic soil that comes premixed with eartworm castings and a bunch of other stuff......seems really similar to what u guys are mixing up??? Will it work???

 

[BurnOne]

call me crazy but searching out and finding all the individual ingredients seemed like too much work for me so I picked up some Foxfarn organic soil that comes premixed with eartworm castings and a bunch of other stuff......seems really similar to what u guys are mixing up??? Will it work???

Nope.

FFOF is mostly plain old peat. You'll still need 2 tbs. powdered dolomite lime per gallon, more perlite and more worm castings. You can use it, but it's a ripoff. There is still not enough organic food in it to support a grow. Also not enough magnesium and calcium.

You made a cla$$ic mistake. You didn't listen after you asked for advise.

This organic stuff isn't hard. You just have to learn. It's a hell of a lot easier than hydro, I'll tell you that for sure.

Burn1

 

[MrFista]

I second that. Once you have your ingredients together, and a grow under your belt in dirt, you wont want to go back to hydro it's too finicky.

Bagged soil doesn't come close to what Burn1 is telling you. try it, and thank him later.

 

[BennyHogan]

Before buying the foxfarm I asked the old guy working about the lime stuff and he said he had never heard of it....a tiny bag of earthworm castings cost 4 bucks and I got a bag if fox farm with it, bat guano, perlite, etc for 9.
What will I be missing out on if I just use this and my Humboldt nutrients???

I'm gonna go out and try to find that lime stuff.....its too hard to explain over the phone to the r-tards working at these places.

Can I use the Fox Farm like its pure peat in the recipe or should I just ditch the stuff???

Do you guys put rocks or anything at the base of the pots or just fill them straight up with dirt??? Seems to me that the hydroton used for hydro would be the perfect base to allow good drainage???

 

[wishbone420]

sounds like moneys an issue. so get growin and see how it turns out. 4 or 5 post up is the winning recipe dude. hope it turns out well

 

[MrFista]

Yeah progress not perfection - stick with these guys the forum here is imo better than any other gardening resourse available but you have to work for the rewards by reading as much as you can every time you visit. The organic fanatic collective is an absolute authority on gardening, but for now, stick to what Burn1 tells you, then branch out - and - enjoy the journey.

The initial purchase of products is about it.

A bag of dolomite will last you many years.
A bottle of organic liquid kelp will last a long time too. you can brew your own in time if you're close to a source.
EWC can be made at home.
Molasses can be purchased extremely cheap too.
Perlite is reuseable and just gets better with the practise of recycling.

You'll spend far less than you did on hydro once you're set up, and your weed will be better.

The bagged soil you have can be enriched by dolomite, perlite, and a good compost tea before use.

 

[BennyHogan]

All i can find is hydrated lime and agricutural limestone so far

 

[BurnOne]

All i can find is hydrated lime and agricutural limestone so far

I hope you're not driving around and looking for this stuff with gas at $4.00/gallon. Use your local Yellow Pages and call the places I told you. Lots of people use powdered dolomite lime in their vegetable gardens. It's out there. I find it at Lowes and Home DePOT.
Wal-Mart has worm castings now.

That Fox Farm Ocean Forest will get you by for now. Use 1 gallon nursery pots and transplant those seedlings. FFOF can be a little hot on some strains when they are young.

I can get bales of peat for $15.00. Worm castings for $2.50 for 10 pounds. All at Wal-Mart.

People who sell mulch may have this stuff. I've found powdered dolomite lime at hardware stores.

Don't give up, you JUST got started. I've taught hundreds of people how to do this.

Burn1

 

[BennyHogan]

Oh i'm not giving up (And I'm not driving around...I just went to a place thats close to the place I was grabbing a burrito at).....once I locate everything should I just ditch the FFOF or is there some way I can incorporate it into LC's formula???

I'm gonna attempt to salvage the 2 in the DWC hyrdo by grabbing some clones.....I've seen some people trim the fan leaves of the clones they take....is this something I should be doing??? I just FIM'd the tops the other day and they are looking nice....I think that the tops would make for good clones????

Thanks for all the help,
Peace and Love

 

[BurnOne]

BH-
You can use the FF. Just use it like peat in LC's Mix.
You can trim the fan leaves or just cut part of them off. You lose less water through the leaves that way. Spray the fresh cut clones with a little seaweed extract added to your misting water for better rooting.
Glad to have you on board Kid. Keep us posted.
Burn1

 

[Suby]

Your in very good hands BennyH.

Just listen to B1 and you'll be cooking with gas in no time.


Rule #3 Start with a richly ammended, composted, ammended soil with dolomite and the rest is gravy.

Welcome to Organics