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Osmocote, my favorite plant food - easy peasy, complete

Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
Looks like some coir in there

Played with coir back in the 80's. meh....

Most quality, value based commercial soil mixes consist of pine bark fines, peat, dolomite, and perlite. This is my favorite for the money. pH is around 6.2 I believe. It is only a part of my bulk mix.

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Bought some Sam's Club potting soil. Not only was it a good price but damn good quality.

UB
 

Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
Here's a similar link, not the one I was thinking of, but fletch did a pretty damn good job on this one. Wasn't osmocote only, but did have very minimum inputs including osmocoe so contains some pretty good info.


Espoma is crap sold to naive organic purists. Check out the analysis of their products!
 

Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
Thanks @xtsho for that info about how long it lasts at what temps.


View attachment 19051550

They are all much happier, and healthier, and greener, with the larger pots and the Osmocote.
Tallest one is about 200 cm, the other larger ones about 175 cm, and there's a single bud plant about 100 cm, plus a bunch of little seedlings in there (planted to find a male to make some seeds).

Nice job! ICL site publishes longetivity info based on temps for all of their products.

Like making pizza sauce, you can always add more but you can't take it back. But, being a slow release food Os. is pretty forgiving.

Happy harvest,
Ben
 

Orange's Greenhouse

Active member
Ok buddy, below is a very good link on how and why coco works well as a medium. Your choice to read up and understand or not. Good luck in your future grows.

It does work great and I like it. Most of my plants are in some kind of coco mix or another. But the CEC is making it more difficult to use and not easier. All that stuff about buffered and washed coco is directly related to the exchange capacity. Your link even says that feeding/runoff should be sufficient to keep the CEC at equilibrium with the nutrient solution, thus irrelevant.

Dutch glasshouses use rock-/glasswool because it is very similiar to coco in every aspect except the CEC. It has similiar air/water ratio, low water retention, is cheap. The low CEC makes it more inert, thus the composition of the nutrient solution is what the plant feeds, not the medium+solution.
 

greenleader

New member
I love this thread!

During my experiments with 19-10-9 Osmocote in the last months, I discovered that it is ideal for keeping mother plants and also for clones (with rooting hormone). My soil mix is peat moss with vermiculite and 5g osmo for every liter of soil. Only water is needed, but calmag is a must when taking it into flower.

I started a fresh mother from a RQS Special Kush 1 seed and this fall I will try to amend a 3 gallon osmocote grow with wormcastings, azomite and dynomyco to see how that goes.

> On a side note, I have also started growing peppers in 9L pots and the growth is amazing compared to organic solutions available in my area.

special-kush-day13.png
 
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Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
On a side note, I have also started growing peppers in 9L pots and the growth is amazing compared to organic solutions available in my area.

View attachment 19052328

Like I said, I've used it for 10's of 1,000's of field grown stock, greenhouse potted plants, cannabis, grape vines, pomegranates, olives, veggies....you name it, I use Osmocote. You'd shit if you could see the fruit I get from my greenhouse trees, all which I've grafted after years of networking and trading scions getting the best of the best - mango, citrus, avocado, annona, pineapple, dragon fruit (see the large flower). I got at least 1,000 citrus fruit from Dec. 2023 to April when I finally pulled the rest off. I'm still eating blood orange from the crisper.

You might want to bulk up your peat/vermiculite mix with pine bark fines @greenleader. Add some dolomite and Os. and you're good to go from start to finish.



OrangesDec24.jpg HarvestAug10#9.jpg PitayaJune3#2.jpg AvocadosJan12#2.jpg Basket of Goodies.jpg CitrusHarvestLastApril27.jpg OrchidMay9#2.jpg Cana. Lapis Mtn. cure.jpg Deep Chunk male Jan 17.jpg CitrusGraftMay25.jpg .
 
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Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
Real Seeds founder:

7. Any special/secret cultivation tips you could let our readers know about?

When it comes to growing traditional strains, less is more. Go easy on the liquid nutes; try slow-release stuff. And if you’re lucky enough to have the climate then grow outside in soil under the sun. Let the plants put down roots.


 

Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
sounds lovely!

are running any other flavors?

we did a bigger than normal outdoor garden 4 years ago during Covid and had 12 different flavors

here we are 4 years later and still enjoying that harvest

all the best on this cycle!



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Saw those pix, that is stunning! You must be in a state where it's legal to grow?

Am growing Ace stuff and some OLD Positronic crosses I made a good 20 or so years ago.

Am also going to be making my own Griffin's Spin-Out paint for root pruning. Got some Kocide 3000 coming in soon. Bought a qt. of cheap exterior latex paint today for $5, close out..

Amazon wants almost a thou for 2.5 gals.! I can make that much for $80, not that I'd ever use it.

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Thread:

Microkote used to be made under the brand-name SpinOut by Griffin L.L.C. until SePRO bought the rights. After the re-branding they added other metals labeled as "nutrients". In my opinion this is all marketing; the roots will be stopped and not absorb anything near the Microkote layer - so really the only active ingredient is the chemical that stops the roots from growing further (this chemical is copper hydroxide which was the original ingredient in SpinOut).

Microkote is pricey ($28 for 8oz). But you should be able to make your own.

1) Buy some dry Copper(II) Hydroxide, this is used usually as a fungus pestizide. Interestingly, SePro stuff can be bought on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/CuPRO-5000D...er-Hydroxide-SePRO-3lb-foil-bag-/370622313276), this is probably the same stuff they put into Microkote. Other sources are
KOCIDE 3000 (made by DuPont) or http://kingquenson.en.alibaba.com/productshowimg/424951536-200579235/Copper_hydroxide.html.
2) Dilute the Copper(II) Hydroxide in latex paint. The original SpinOut was made with 13 oz/Gal of Copper(II) Hydroxide (source: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/28/5/527.6.abstract). Remember to account for the original concentration of dry Copper(II) Hydroxide in the pesticide bag (this is typically 50%, for which you would add 26 oz per Gal of latex paint).

Remember to read all the instructions in the bag when handling pesticides.

This costs about 10x less than buying the Microkote solution which is over-priced and over-marketed (b/c of those extra additive "nutrients") in my opinion.
 
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Brother Bear

Simple kynd of man
ICMag Donor
Veteran
15-9-12
19-6-12
And so on....

3-4 month
5-6 month
8-9 month

OUB your buying a bag today, ita all on sale and free shipping to boot. So without the sales or deals. What's your favorite of them all.

I followed your link a few pages back to the 18-5-12 50lbs bags with free shipping. Thinking about pulling the trigger on that.
Appreciate your time, and the thread
 

Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
15-9-12
19-6-12
And so on....

3-4 month
5-6 month
8-9 month

OUB your buying a bag today, ita all on sale and free shipping to boot. So without the sales or deals. What's your favorite of them all.

I followed your link a few pages back to the 18-5-12 50lbs bags with free shipping. Thinking about pulling the trigger on that.
Appreciate your time, and the thread

Been buying the 15-9-12, Outdoor-Indoor Plus for years. Use it on everything - tomatoes, mango, avocado, citrus, pineapples, newly planted outdoor trees, cannabis.....you name it.
 

Brother Bear

Simple kynd of man
ICMag Donor
Veteran
8-9 month like in the picture on page one ?
Would you get the 3-4 if it were the same price ? Or do you prefer 8-9
And why...

Please and thank you
 
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