Who grows in plain jane potting soil and just adds liquid nutes during feed?

[gregor_mendel]

hand watering a peat based mix is a skill

hand watering a peat based mix is a skill

Obviously, many here are successful with these mixes.
There is nothing wrong with them, but different people cotton to different ways of doing things.

Yes, you may take a standard peat based soilless mix and water only with nutes from a bottle.

Some one bottle options are GH Floranova and Pure Blend Pro.

Using GH flora series micro and bloom (no grow) allows one to tailor the nutrient profile througout the grow.

Any complete hydro nutrient should work.
I would avoid any nutrient that requires pH adjustment when used with RO water, as good ones don't.

Some things to consider:

Peat based soilless mixes, especially commercial mixes such as promix and sunshine have plenty of lime. Don't add any.

If think you need more Mg, 1/4 teaspoon epsom salt to 5 gallons water.

I can't speak for rich organic mixes like FFOF, but with a non ammended peat mix, follow bottle direction for 2 waterings, then pure water. Repeat. Or use 1/4 bottle directions each watering.

If this doesn't work, you are almost certainly overwatering.

My not so humble opinion about keeping it simple: ebb and flow with hydroton and a bottle of floranova bloom (don't need the grow).

My recent, and most successful run used a 3x6 table, 2 gallon pots of hydroton, 3 600 watt lamps. Yield 0.86 grams per watt AKA 1.8 pounds per 1000 watts.

I know others have done better with many methods, but the following is my real reason for loving this style.

Never change the rez.
Never check pH
Add nutes to 1400 ppm when down to 1100 ppm.
Top off reservoir daily with water.
No tiny lines to clog.
No f'ing problems.
One of these soil guys will warn you of pump failure. Never happend to me or anyone I know. Cheap timers are more of a liability.

I wish you well. If you choose to go with coco, drop in at gr8t3ful h3ad's (spelling) thread: h3aD goes coco.

Don't forget, what works best is what works best for you.

gregor

 

[chimei]

If this isn't doable I'm going to hydro. I don't want to have to make teas and mix 4 different things (some not found at local stores) in soil then blend 4 things together during feeding. I just want to use soil (bagged promix), maybe add some peerlite for drainage/aeration, and feed.

I read sproutco's post that said the floranova nutes would work this way, but I haven't read of anyone that is doing just that wih success, and later read a post that said that Sproutco hasn't even done this himself (no offense to anyone...I just want experience from growers).

So can you just use plain potting soil mix and one of the hydro system nutes, and just mix that approprietly for watering and thats it?

If so, what nute system do you recommend?

I already have the BC Grow/Bloom/Boost 3 part nute system and have just started using that after mixing more crap in soil and mixing crap for feeding has again left me with plant problems. I'm sick of it. Haven't been doing it long enough to notice the plants getting better, but they haven't gotten worse eiher.

Come on someone...gimme your SIMPLE SIMPLE potting soil and simple feeding advice!

Years ago my first 3 or 4 gows I did with soil I took from the back yard. (nothing added) I just used FF grow big during veg, and Big Bloom and tigerbloom during flowering. No adusting of my PH, just fed 1/2 of what was listed on the bottles every watering. Using tap water, no RO water. (If you use RO then you have to account for lack of minerals)

After that I did the same with just potting soil and perlite added. (The reason I stopped using the soil from outside is because I would get little gnat like bugs during the growth cycle)

I have since tried numerous different things, like anything you get into you try all these different methods everyone has talked about to see if you can have a positive effect on your plant.

There is no doubt from what I can see you can tune things to perfection, since I don't run the same plants over and over I never have.

What I have found personally, is it is all in the genetics and a good cure.

If you want you can def keep it simple. Try it, then try complicating things later and decide which you can live with.

Just take your average potting soild with no added nutes, add your perlite to help keep the soil loose. Feed during veg with one fert, then a different fert during flowering.

One thing I can tell you, each genectic type has different hunger levels sensitivity to watering. I have had plants that could be watered every other day, others that if you did not let it go bone dry it would start to lock out nutes.

If you don't like diverisity, and can't have large #'s just find a good one you like and keep growing it over and over again, you can then make changes if you like and you can see the direct impact to your changes.

 

[chimei]

If you want simple, just use soil and no nutes at all. Just add water.

Can you really do this? I assumed if a plant will go yellow in vegitation with lack of N, that in flowering bud sites would not even produce with no added nutrients.