Little question on soil and general

[DankSwayzee]

I'm currently using an organic soil, I have 3 babies in this soil under a 150w hps. They sit nicely in their clay pots right now but I notice the soil seems a bit mulchy and recently, my longest plant has begun to have some leaves turn yellow and is not fairing well. I believe I overwatered them in the beginning.

My questions to you noble growers out there is will this mulchy soil give me much trouble? Its called Miracle-Gro Organic Choice, but is there a soil you guys could reccommend to me as being the best choice that can be found at my local home depot or lowes? I'm afraid there is no easy way to transplant them right now and the other two are looking alright, just seem to be going slowly yet steadily.

Also about how many times a week do you water your loves?

I plan on also experimenting with hydro with this aquafarm, does it look like a promising system?

Its my first grow and I'm sorry for not having any pictures, this whole thing has been a learning experience and a half.
Thanks all

 

[DankSwayzee]

Also, for some odor control, I have some bounce fabric softener sheets strewn near the grow room, will this yield any negative effects?

 

[Guest]

No.no negative effects.I normally water my plants every 4th day or so although environment,lighting,and the size of the plant in the pot will determine how often you water.The cardinal rule is to soak the soil thoroughly and entirely all the way through until you get a decent amount of runoff out the bottom holes,then don't water again until the soil runs pretty dry.The best way to determine this is to learn the wet and dry weights of the different containers you will be using.It sounds like your soil ix could use some perlite for drainage,just about any soil you buy these days need some perlite in my opinion fer sure.If it gets too "mulchy" or waterlogged like you say,the roots literally will be starved of oxygen,floral axphixiation,plant murderer!Seriously you need that soil to dry out after a few days,with about 20% perlite mixed in with your soil mix it helps a lot.Miracle grow is not too good and I just dont know what you have access tne thing I can tell you about soil growing is you ahouldnt be just guessing away at when or how much water to give your plant.Always start in a 4 inch pot or something similar,and as the plant grows you transplant up in size.Here's how it normally works with me.Remember,except in obvious circumstances like you just transplanted and the roots are anywhere near the bottom,always water until total saturation all the way from top to bottom with a good amount of runoff in the tray that you use.I start in a 4 inch pot to 1 gallon to 3 gallon to flower.Normally when the plant is new or fresh in the pot,I find myself having to water every 4th day.Not because I just feel like it,but because thats how long it takes the roots to drink up all the water.I notice as the plant grows I find myself having to water every 3rd day,again not because I want to but because the plant is demanding it.When I get to a point where the plant is demanding water every other day,I know its time to transplant up a size.This system doesnt fail me and there's no guesswork involved at all.

 

[DankSwayzee]

Thanks for the response. After I typed up the last post I finally decided to run out to Home Depot and see if I couldn't get the stuff I needed. (as a side note, I did begin my seedlings in cut solo cups but then transplanted to clay pots)

I asked them for the following soils/nutes that I've seen reccommended here

Supersoil
Promix
fox farm ocean forest

and Pure blend pro to take care of the nutrients.

But..... They didn't carry a single one. They basically could only offer very few brands so I decided to go with Scott's potting soil w/ phosphorous, Scott's Perlite and for Nutes I avoided miracle-gro (as I've seen said here) but went with another brand I wasn't sure of called Vigoro and its labeled as general plant food. Do these sound like moves in the right direction? I looked at the specifications of the Vigoro stuff and it looked to have a lot of the good nutes I've read that can help a pot plant out.

Also, now that I have these things, I plan on transplanting later tonight, I'm a bit weary of damaging my plants but I think this could be the best idea to avoid running into trouble with my mulchy mulch soil. 1/4 Perlite and 3/4 Potting soil sound ok to you guys? Or should the ratio be adjusted? Also, in terms of how I mix it, should I have the perlite sitting in the middle, bottom, near the top or mixed completely in with the soil itself?

I have 2 lowryders and 1 mp5k sitting here, riding on my decisions. I learned my lesson about lights when I made the switch from 2 dinky 42 watt soft bright CFLs to a nice 150hps but now I need to brush up on how to take care of them and raise them to be healthy girls (hopefully at least one).

Thanks for the help once more

 

[Guest]

That sounds like a good perlie mixture,you'll be fine.I dont want to confuse you at this point but next time you also want to use 2 tbls of dolomite lime per gallon soil mix for mag. calcium,and especially to balance your PH.Also,if you know about NPK levels in ferts thats good,if you dont thats not so good.1 thing I want to highly recommend you get for the veg phase is a high nitrogen fish emulsion,they're usually 5-1-1.This is usually easy to find and great overall veg fert.O I just noticed you have to mix the perlite in thoroughly with the soil,you can put an inch at the bottom also like some folks but I never do.Just mix it good.

 

[DankSwayzee]

high nitrogen fish emulsion eh? Well I searched google for NPK and I couldn't find too much info to describe the generalities of it... I'm completely new to growing in general, would you happen to have any online references I could check out with info on it?

Edit - I didn't see any high nitrogen fish emulsion at home depot, do they normally carry it there or other local stores, target, lowes, etc?

 

[Guest]

Normally they carry it at walmarts and home depots,most plant nursuries have it also.If you've ever noticed all plant food has three numbers,this is the NPK.N=Nitrogen,P=Phosphorous,K=Potassium.For the veg phase,until you throw the plant under a 12/12 lighting schedule,you want a high Nitrogen fert.This means you want you first number to be larger than the second and third.The second number signifies Phosphorous and should be used in the flowering phase after switching the lights to 12/12.The third number is potassium and we're not going to worry about that one now.So for the beginning of the plant life you want something like 30-10-10.(Note 3-1-1 is the same ratio).For the flowering phase you may want something like a 2-6-4(same as 20-60-40).Too bad OG isnt still around you could get your fill of NPK lol

 

[DankSwayzee]

Awesome info! Thanks tons! Just another quick question. You say I'll want something like 30-10-10 (3-1-1), since fish emulsion is kind of close to that, would it work for the 3-1-1 ratio I need? Or is there a specific nute with 3-1-1. Same question applies to 20-60-40 (2-6-4). Thanks

 

[Guest]

Those are examples only,the actual numbers will all be different.Most veg fish emulsion I've seen is 5-1-1 although I learned the other day 4-1-1 also exists,which would be fine.For flower I use tiger bloom which is 2-8-4,I have a 109.00 jugg of that shit lol!Other flower ferts could be 4-8-2 or 20-60-30 or.2-.8-.6 its going to all be different.You just want to get a veg fert for vegging and a flower fert with phosphorous for flowering.Wow thats pretty obvious huh lol...

 

[DankSwayzee]

I must say Skeletor, I really do appreciate all the help you have given, as well as others I have read up on.

To be honest, the last question in this thread I have to you or anyone out there is your opinion of this waterfarm contraption found here http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/Itemdesc.asp?ic=HGSBSWFC&eq=&Tp=

I'd like to experiment in hydro because I've seen such awesome grows done with it but I know not yet the physics of hydroponics, so I'm going to try to start out and learn on this seemingly simple looking bucket system.

 

[Guest]

I couldnt help you with that bro,just a dirt grower here lol.If you're new to growing you may want to get your feet wet or I should say your hands dirty with some soil grows first,jumping right into hydro even with good literature and stuff is a lot to take on if you ask me.

 

[Infiniti]

this is an Organic method used by a Breeder in Oregon who has Won Awards for her strains in local "Cups" its VERY simple gets good results and won't break your pocket

Planting

First of all, no potting soil. They often have fertilizers added already and you don’t want that. They also have wetting agents, to keep the soil moist for house - plants. You don’t want that because it can cause a mold problem. Also, most potting soils are not sterile. We only use a sterile soil-less medium produced by the Sunshine company. It is sterile, holds exactly the right amount of water, drains well and doesn’t add fertilizers. We need the sterile dirt because we are creating an environment with the specific bacteria that marijuana needs to thrive. We don’t want the marijuana standing in a lot of water; we want the medium to drain well. We also don’t want to water every day so the medium needs to hold some water.

Second, we use our fertilizer all at once. No mixing chemical every time we water. We take a large bucket and fill it with our medium. We take a second bucket and use it to separate the two mixtures. Mix #1 is 2/3 of a bucket of Sunshine #2 mixed with ½ cup Whitney Farms All Purpose 100% Organic Fertilizer and 1 tablespoon of Maxicrop Soluble Seaweed Powder and mix thoroughly, as the seaweed is very strong. Mix #2 is the remaining medium mixed with ½ cup of Whitney’s. Add 2 gallons water and put under lights.

I would like to note sometimes the #2 mix is harder to find. The #4 mix can be substituted but it is a faster mix, meaning you'll need to water more often.

 

[DankSwayzee]

Skeletor - good advice, I was thinking on starting a hydro bucket grow next round, hopefully I'll have more of a green thumb next time.

Infiniti - Thanks, I'll save this info and take it into strong consideration when I finish up this soil grow.

I fully transplanted two of my young ones into a soil/perlite combo last night but I had a hard time being careful about the roots....I should have gotten something I could have cut, not clay pots. I wasn't expecting the roots to be so spread out by now after such little time and I can't tell whether I was way too cautious in transplant or way too rough, time will tell I guess. My biggest baby I didn't completely change the soil out of but mixed potting soil and perlite all around the existing soil. Anyway, sometime when I get a camera, I'll get some detailed pictures when I need some help.

Speak easy