Good soil vs Nutes

[MidniteToker420]

I've read some threads that say "if you have a good soil mix" you don't need to add anything.

I'm using FF Marine, verticlamite and guano mix in 3 gal pots.

Vegged 4 under 160 watts of floro grow tubes for 6 weeks. I used Beasty Bloomz on 3 of the 4 plants, the day before switching to 12/12. All 3 have yellow spots on some leaves, but otherwise they are growing from every node.

Yesterday I "flooded" them with water only, in case I over fertilized.

Opinions?

Ed

 

[budvapor]

i'm not experienced enough to comment. just check out this guy's grow thread with no nutes, just tap water...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=59380

 

[C21H30O2]

the link above is a perfect example of what good soil can do but if you can use nutrients cause ur gunna get bigger yeilds. i think that would be a perfect way for a first time grower to grow cause its so simple once you have the soil mix set.

 

[MidniteToker420]

First off I made a mistake..I used OPEN SEASAME not beasty bloomz on 3 of the 4. They are showing so much growth compared to the unfertilized one that I'm going to continue with the nutes. Used nothing on my first grow.

 

[budvapor]

sweet!!

 

[Maj.PotHead]

i use great soil fox farm ocean forrest organic soil liquide karma diamond necture sweet pure blend pro grow seaweed extract calmag+ during veg. i drop the pbp grow and seaweed after 2 wks of flowern and use the rest of above along with indoneasion guano and budswell. i have no complaints on my harvests and evey1 who smokes it loves it. but tis best for a 1st or even 2nd time grower to KISS {keep it simple stupid} use a bare min of ferts and start off less then recomended dossage working upto full dossage's.

but dont forget properly PH'd water helps the soil's PH to stay stabel throughout the grow.FF Marine personally i would use as a additive like to fox farm ocean forrest soil the only FF Marine ive found is little 5lb bags for 20$ at local nurserys havent seen any of my local hydro shops carry it.


honestly speaking even the best soil unless amendments like bone meal blood meal dolimite lime has been added are only good for 3wks max. afterwards you'll need to add some sort of ferts espically during flower. plants become very hungry and absorb nutrients like wildfire when the plants are healthy. you'll still pull something without ferts but ferts help to boost your yield.

 

[Mister Postman]

Problem is you took on an organic growing mindset (soil containing all nutrients needed for growth) and then went and poured on an extremely potent synthetic flowering nutrient which wipes out most of the beneficials in the soil. ..

if your going to grow organic, amend the soil with your organic material, and leave out the synthetics nutrients in place of organic teas, or organic liquid fertilizers without synthetics.. Starting with a good amended soil, and pouring on synthetics is counter productive IMHO.. In an organic grow you use, and count on the soils beneficial fungi/bacteria, and once you go and pour on synthetics you wipe them out, and no longer benefit from them breaking down the organic material, and providing nutrients the plants can uptake. Once the soil is dead, or you killed off enough beneficials with synthetics you will need to continue with the synthetics nutrients or deal with deficiencies (your soil can no longer break down, and make use of them efficiently like originally before the use of the synthetics)

I love organic growing, and thats how I grow my bud. To pull off an organic grow which no liquid nutrients will be added, you have to put Thought into keeping your soil life healthy, and keep it working efficiently breaking down organics in the mix.. I use an amended soil mix, and depending on how I mix it, I could grow solely off the soil through the whole grow using nothing but clean ph'd water.. I like mixing it a lil lighter though, allowing me to use flower boosting (high p, k) teas in flower, and still be able too harvest a clean burning smoke. But for the most part I pour on very lil liquid nutrient solutions, mostly just water with molasses every second watering, and in flower I use my nutrient boosting guano/ewc/meta k/molasses teas.

There are lots of pre-mixed dry organic products on the market these days for those just starting out with organic growing, fox farms piece of mind has some good ones, earth juice company makes one, and bio bizz premix as well.. Basically with these you mix your own basic peat-coco/compost/perilte mix or use a similar premade mix without any nutrient content added, and add these pre-mixed dry organic formulations to the soil mix prior to planting. They are becoming more and more popular, and better formulated for easy organic growing containing all the guanos, meals, and rock dusts popular in organic growing in one easy to use pre-mixed amendment. With some experimenting, and tweaking you could probably grow organic solely using these pre-mixed easy to use amendments without to much trouble.

At any rate IMO, there is no wrong way to grow a plant.. whatever works for you, but the mistake of starting with an expensive organic mix such as fox farms ocean forest, and then dumping on synthetics is a common mistake IMO.. I've done it myself when I first started. I looked for which soil people liked the best which was the ffof at the time, and then used the most recommended liquid nutrient which of course was synthetic based hydro-organic. IMO you either use a medium void of nutrients, and use a synthetic liquid fert that contains all nutrients used for growth, or you grow organic, and use organic nutrients, and keep your soil life healthy. that's just an opinion, and how I see it... I've grown great plants starting with an organic mix, and allowing for the plants to use up the organic nutrients before pouring on synthetic based nutrients, but after some time growing fully organic that didn't make to much sense any longer.

 

[MidniteToker420]

Maj.PotHead:

plants become very hungry and absorb nutrients like wildfire when the plants are healthy. you'll still pull something without ferts but ferts help to boost your yield.

Your entire reply sounds like you're into a good soil mix and "amendments". I'm leaning towards that philosophy. You can always add nutes to your soil, but it's close to impossible to keep adding "new" soil to your plants to make up for what the plant takes out of the "old" soil. I do add guano and FF marine to this batch when I flush with just water between feedings.

 

[MidniteToker420]

At any rate IMO, there is no wrong way to grow a plant.. whatever works for you,

I agree with that!!!

Only my second grow so I'm still reading and learning!

 

[MidniteToker420]

My Girls

My Girls

 

[Maj.PotHead]

how close is your lighting to this plant ???

outside of that your gardens lookn nice

heres half of my garden in flower with my organic/synthitic { botanicare sweet } they went in flower on the sept 14th


grow on buddy dont be afraid to look at other sucessful growers threads and see what ferts they use for there sucess. tis how i come to the choice of soil and ferts i use

 

[DocLeaf]

I've read some threads that say "if you have a good soil mix" you don't need to add anything. Ed

This is true

 

[MidniteToker420]

how close is your lighting to this plant ???

It was about 6-8 inches. I raised it to close to a foot. I swear it was 6-8 inches above the first girl I flowered without leaf burn. Do HPS bulbs give off more heat if they are going bad or getting older?