JCfarm
420 Member
I'm first time user of gaia green products, just wont some good advice for first time user.
Does any one us gaia green products!
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@Gee64 ?
g-one-three
Well-Known Member
I do! Lol so does @Gee64. I'm here to help best I can and if I can't Gee will definitely fill in the gaps.
Also check out Gee's thread Gee Spot, it's kind of a organic hang out.
My current grow is G-1-3 Grows Strawberry Cough And Panama and its just starting out.
Also check out Gee's thread Gee Spot, it's kind of a organic hang out.
My current grow is G-1-3 Grows Strawberry Cough And Panama and its just starting out.
g-one-three
Well-Known Member
Also welcome to the best grow forum on the Internet, if you start a journal tag me in and I'll follow along.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
I use Gaia products. All purpose 4-4-4, Power Bloom 2-8-4 , glacial rock dust, rock phosphate, and greensand are the ones I use regularly to build and power my LOS grows. They work well.
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JCfarm
420 Member
Okay thats what I used was gaia green 444 and bloom when I transplanted my baby. I wonted the rock dust and green sand but my hydro store was out, now can I add the gaia green rock dust and green sand when I do top dressing. And do u use any the gaia green warm casting. Andthank yall for getting back with me
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JCfarm
420 Member
Okay thank u and I'm be starting journal this weekend or in the very close future lol thanks guys this my first form ever been on. For the last 6 years been usen advance nutrition this first organic grow!!!!!!!! So happy
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JCfarm
420 Member
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JCfarm
420 Member
This my cali connect: green crack it's in 7 gallon hard pot intell we go into flower
Gee64
Well-Known Member
You can if you like. It's better if it's mixed into the soil before potting but it can be top dressed in too. Both 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 have greensand in them and 2-8-4 has glacial dust. I use them seperately when I mix my own soils.
The only real additions I use with the 2 Gaia fertilizer mixes is I add a quarter cup of high phosphorus bat guano to every 20 gallons of soil that I mix up with the gaia fertilizers, some extra dolomite and some gypsum. Gaia is relatively low on calcium.
I also use fish hydrolosate weekly to keep myco happy.
The extra calciums help to get brix levels up. Gaia feeds high brix grows quite well. It's great stuff. It get's a lot cheaper if you buy the 10kg bags of the 4-4-4 and 2-8-4.
I have my own worm farm but I'm sure Gaia castings are great.
No problem, any time. Tag me or pop into the Geespot link in my signature if you have any questions or if you start a journal.
BuzzzD
Well-Known Member
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Gaia recommends 3 tablespoons per gallon. That amount works well but myself I raise it from 4.5 to 6, depending on the strain. I would start at 3 and use the Gaia as a weekly top dressing as well, and if you get thru without issues then try 4 per gallon next grow, and up it each grow to find your sweet spot.How much 4-4-4 would you add to 10 gal. of soil - or 55 litres???
Thanx in advance!!
Here is my current mix recipe per 20 gallons.
13 gals used soil
4 gal EWC
1 gal The Answer potting soil (a soil carbon input, just composted bark and perlite)
2 gal perlite
1.5c greensand
2c prilled dolomite
1c prilled gypsum
1c oyster shell flour
3c Powerbloom 2-8-4 (48 tbsp)
1c All Purpose 4-4-4 (16 tbsp)
.25c SRP
.25c high P bat guano
Cook for 4-8 weeks.
That equals 3.2 tbsp total Gaia ferts per gallon.
That's enough to get things up and running, and unless I have an actual issue all I do is water, use hydrolysed fish ferts weekly, and top dress more Gaia and EWC weekly.
I've gone as high as 6 tbsp/gallon of soil, and the plants that can handle it grow really well, but for some that's just too high. This round I'm backing off and if they get hungry I'll top dress a bit heavier.
You need to keep an eye on calcium levels too and may need a liquid calcium feed. I mix prilled dolomite and water to 50-75 ppm for that, but bottled calmag works too. I buy my dolomite from feed stores in 50 lb bags so it's cheap to mix my own.
@g-one-three has a couple journals on Gaia as well. We both run it slightly different and share knowledge on it, so he's got some good stuff in his journals and there's a fair bit about it in my Geespot thread as well, so if you have more questions check those out or tag either of us directly.
We've both used it for a few grows now and it's the cheapest easiest route to high brix growing that I've found so far. @g-one-three pulls some nice high brix numbers with it too. We both regularly see brix readings of 17-20 with it getting higher at times.
You can get higher brix with custom blends, but Gaia is really cheap and easy and 17-20 brix will grow excellent bug free weed all day long.
Gaia grows great roots too.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Gaia has instructions on their containers but here is my theory/system.
The Gaia generally lasts about 4 weeks until it's eaten, so If you added Gaia's recommended 3 tbsp per gallon to your pot, and thats good for 4 weeks, then she eats .75 tbsp per gallon per week, so that would be 2.25 tbsp of Gaia top dressing per week in the 3gal and 3.75 tbsp/week in the 5gal.
As for EWC I like to add about a full quarter inch over the topdressing, and get the EWC as even as you can across the top of the entire surface.
A lot of nutrition comes from both top dressing and EWC, so a nice even full distribution of both works better.
So for me at 3.2 tbsp/gal and in 10gal pots, that would be 32 tbsp in the pot, so a quarter of that weekly as top dress, so 8 tbsp Gaia/week.
2 solo cups of EWC covers the top of my 10gals perfectly.
So it depends on how strong you mixed your original soil mix and how strong compared to that mix that you want your top dressing to be.
I like balance so I feed at the same rate as what I put in the pot. If that formula is too much or too little you can always adjust.
I usually go from solo cups straight to 10gal final pots, or sprout in the final pots, so I blend a bit of 4-4-4 and a larger amount of 2-8-4 in my mix, to be there for flowering, and I blend my top dressing to match.
I don't do the 'veg soil then uppot to flower soil' thing.
I just root into a 10gal as quick as I can and roll right thru to harvest.
Starting with Gaia's recommendations of 3 tbsp/gal gives you a good benchmark moving forward, and the strains vary greatly in how strong they like it.
3 tbsp/gal is safe. Most strains like a bit more from late veg to harvest but you can always increase it if needed.
g-one-three
Well-Known Member
So Gee is a little more heavy handed on his amounts than I am but he has been growing long running Sativa's and they are hungry. I feed 1 tbsp/gallon of soil weekly.
If the soil is unamended I will start the first week of veg with 4-4-4. Then as a transition to flower split it 50/50 with 4-4-4 and 2-8-4. Then straight 2-8-4 for flower. I also add Gaia Mineralized phosphate every couple weeks, even in veg to help the microbes start mining it.
My current grow is the first time I have really "cooked" soil. I amended it closer to how Gee does his at 3 Tbsp/gallon of 2-8-4 and 1 Tbsp/gallon 4-4-4 and let it cook for 30 days.
The real problem that I had with my soils that were only top dressed was Cal/Mag deficiency but that's easily rectified by using Dolomite Water.
If the soil is unamended I will start the first week of veg with 4-4-4. Then as a transition to flower split it 50/50 with 4-4-4 and 2-8-4. Then straight 2-8-4 for flower. I also add Gaia Mineralized phosphate every couple weeks, even in veg to help the microbes start mining it.
My current grow is the first time I have really "cooked" soil. I amended it closer to how Gee does his at 3 Tbsp/gallon of 2-8-4 and 1 Tbsp/gallon 4-4-4 and let it cook for 30 days.
The real problem that I had with my soils that were only top dressed was Cal/Mag deficiency but that's easily rectified by using Dolomite Water.
Did " cooking " the soil make any difference that you noticed? I didn't cook my soil. It's living soil with 10% etc & 10% perlite all with the 3tbsp/gal of 444. I top dressed my 3 gal bags last night with 3 cups ewc , 1.5 tbsp each of 444 & 284. That was all b4 I read this thread. My plants are 8 weeks old and still have not started to flower which seems strange to me. They are all purple kush except the one Meridian sour that went into flower right away. I did a little defoliation last night. The plants are all in-between 1 & 1.5ft.
All are autos. Are they stunted or do they look ok ? This is my second grow, so still learning lots.
All are autos. Are they stunted or do they look ok ? This is my second grow, so still learning lots.
g-one-three
Well-Known Member
They look healthy to me, but I'm not a super big fan of autos lol they are just so unpredictable for me. The one in flower has some nice buds on her and you can just look at that as a snack while your wait for the others to finish upDid " cooking " the soil make any difference that you noticed? I didn't cook my soil. It's living soil with 10% etc & 10% perlite all with the 3tbsp/gal of 444. I top dressed my 3 gal bags last night with 3 cups ewc , 1.5 tbsp each of 444 & 284. That was all b4 I read this thread. My plants are 8 weeks old and still have not started to flower which seems strange to me. They are all purple kush except the one Meridian sour that went into flower right away. I did a little defoliation last night. The plants are all in-between 1 & 1.5ft.
All are autos. Are they stunted or do they look ok ? This is my second grow, so still learning lots.
.I think the biggest thing that I'm going to find after cooking, is the availability of nutrients right off the bat. It takes a bit for the Gaia to break down and cooking it means that they nutrients are going to be readily available to the plants. I think that's kinda the gist of it but @Gee64 may have a more complete breakdown of it.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Your plants look fantasticDid " cooking " the soil make any difference that you noticed? I didn't cook my soil. It's living soil with 10% etc & 10% perlite all with the 3tbsp/gal of 444. I top dressed my 3 gal bags last night with 3 cups ewc , 1.5 tbsp each of 444 & 284. That was all b4 I read this thread. My plants are 8 weeks old and still have not started to flower which seems strange to me. They are all purple kush except the one Meridian sour that went into flower right away. I did a little defoliation last night. The plants are all in-between 1 & 1.5ft.
All are autos. Are they stunted or do they look ok ? This is my second grow, so still learning lots.
.What @g-one-three said. If it's already broken down it's more available, but if you are uppotting into it without cooking, it will still work fine, as there is likely other nutrients in the soil that are available, such as EWC or anything else your living soil has already composted. If they start to look hungry or you just want to be preventative. My the time your myco gets established the Gaia will be starting to break down.
Thank you to every one for answering my questions. Hopfully I'm not hi jacking this thread too much. Let me know if I am. I feel ike such a noob for asking this, but , how do you tell if your plants are hungry ? I can totally tell when they need water but thats about it.
