Hello, and welcome growing fellows 
I'm currently into my 6th grow (soil only) and have so far only been using chemical nutrients. But it's hard to REALLY get rid of all the traces of chemicals. Even after a good flushing something still there. So I want to switch to organic growing and I'm looking for some help and guidelines for it. Up until now I have only been growing with regular soil mixed with 20% perlite, vermiculate and clay pellets to get some drainage, but nothing more.
I have researched the internet for tips about good organic soil mixes and I have seen many good ones and many different ones with all sorts of things and methods used in them. There are so many good soil mixes out there and I have a hard time choosing between them. Some things are hard to come by where I live, people put different amounts of the same things in their mixes etc etc. So with my little experinece with organic growing, I'm not really sure how to put together a good soil mix based on other peoples recipes as guidelines.
I have put together a "pre-recipe" which I'm currently using. I have only used products available to me at this point, I want to use more but just haven't found them anywhere to buy (I live in a real shitty place ) I'm working on it though and will acquire more fertilizers to use for the next time. So this one is just a first try.
I repotted 2.5 weeks old seedlings into 3 gal. pots with this mix a week ago. Today they received their first watering since repot, plain water. Growth has been good, plants nearly tripled in size under a 600W MH. Anyway this is what I used:
Each 3 gal pot contains:
55-60% Soil
30% Coco (coir)
10-15% Perlite, vermiculite, clay pellets
1/2 cup Basalt rockdust
1/2 cup Epsom salt
2 tsp Bat guano (2-12-2)
1 tsp Blood meal
1 tsp Bone meal
Mycorrhiza (from Rootgrow)
I also have some liquid fertilizers:
Rootgrow Empathy - Seaweed Kelp
Natures Bio Organic Fertilizer (with fish, kelp, guano and molasses)
HB-101 Natural Plant Vitalizer (liquid + granules)
The soil is the same as I used before. It's the best one you can find where I live and I'm no expert, but the quality seems good and I've had really nice results with it in previous grows. I did NOT moist the mix and let it sit and cook for a few weeks. Being the first time and everything I wanted to go easy and research the field first. But will definitely let the mix cook for 2-4 wks next time, by then I will have more stuff to put in. In addition to the current recipe I'm planning on using, dololomite lime, azomite and worm castings as a definite. But also have an eye out for blackstrap molasses, kelp meal, fish meal, alfalfa meal, oyster shells and what more I can experiment with.
So any thoughts and advice on my mix so far would be appreciated, but let me summarize what I need help with:
1. My plan is to let the plants veg. for another 4-5 weeks and feed them with the liquid fertilizers I have. Don't know if I should mix some bat guano, blood and bone meal, epsom salt or rock dust with water and feed the plants with it at this stage, or wait until flowering. Since I already put some in the soil, but based on the amounts I used in the soil mix, will this be enough to take them through the vegetative phase if I just water them with the liquid fertilizers? I'm not sure about the ingredients of my soil mix recipe, have I used too much of something? or too little? There is no sign of any under or over nourishment at this point, they just look ok and healthy.
I followed recommendations, if available, when mixing the soil, but the 1 tsp of blood and bone meal and amount of rock dust in the soil mix was more or less just a guess. Bat guano label said 1 tsp for 5 litres of soil and the epsom salt recommended 1/2 cup for 10 litres of soil. Is this enough for the vegetative phase?
One concern I have is that the liquid fertilizers seem low on nitrogen and the bat guano has only an NPK
of 2 for nitrogen, so I'm a bit worried about the nitrogen part in the vegetative phase.
A week before flowering I was planning on doing a top dressing with bat guano, blood meal, bone meal, epsom salt and rock dust, and another top dressing half way into flowering. But I can't tell if it will be enough for a good yield. And how much should you use for a top dressing? Can I trust the instructions or watering charts and recommended doses on lables and bottles? I figure it's orgainc so you shouldn't have to check ph, but should I monitor EC levels? Even while many organic fertilizers say there is no risk of overdosing?
If I follow recommneded instructions then this will be the watering scheme during flowering:
-Half dose Empathy seaweed kelp every watering for young plants, half dose once every 7-10 days for mid&late season and full dose once a month in flowering.
-Natures Bio Organic, the dose recommended once or twice a week
-1 tsp bat guano/5 litres of water 3-5 times/season
-1.5 tsp epsom salt/1 litre of water once a month
-1 tsp bone meal and 1 tsp blood meal per 1 litre of water once a week
- Can you mix rock dust into water and feed plants with it?
I might chicken out in the middle of flowering and resort to chemicals if I suspect the yileld will be low.
It's a lot of questions, but you all get the point of what I'm trying to say. If I do it the way I described with the things I have, will it be any good? Just some help and advice on how to improve it would be nice
2. Instructions on the mycorrhiza pack said to sprinkle everything in the plant hole so the base of the roots
touches everything when you plant. I have seen people do this but also seen people mixing the mycorrhiza thoroughly into the soil just like any other ingredient. So I did something in between with some of the plants where I sprinkled about half of the mycorrhiza in the plant hole and I sprinkled two layers underneath the plant hole 1.5-2 inches apart so the roots will later have access to theese fungi as they grow downward. But I followed package instructions and sprinkled everything at the base of the roots on some plants just to try out the difference. Which is the best way to do it?
3. I'm not sure whether to use the HB-101. It's a japanese organic plant vitalizer extracted from cedar, cypress, pine and plantain. It doesn't say anything about what nutrients it contains or nothing. Anyone know what it is? It's some transparent fluid that only need 1-2 drops/litre of water. It sounds like some "superthrive wonder" crap thing packed with hormones and don't know if I will use it or if it's even organic. There is also a slow-releasing granule version of it and I sprinkled some in the plant hole on one of the plants as a test.
4. Nearly every fertilizer says on the bottle that you should spray the foliage and stems too. As many growers also do. Is this really necessary? I have never done it so far and have never had any problems with my leaves. always healthy looking, good colour and never had any pests. I don't see any need for it, but maybe it will be different with organic growing? Plants could be more sensitive or whatever? But I'd rather skip that part.
I'm currently into my 6th grow (soil only) and have so far only been using chemical nutrients. But it's hard to REALLY get rid of all the traces of chemicals. Even after a good flushing something still there. So I want to switch to organic growing and I'm looking for some help and guidelines for it. Up until now I have only been growing with regular soil mixed with 20% perlite, vermiculate and clay pellets to get some drainage, but nothing more.
I have researched the internet for tips about good organic soil mixes and I have seen many good ones and many different ones with all sorts of things and methods used in them. There are so many good soil mixes out there and I have a hard time choosing between them. Some things are hard to come by where I live, people put different amounts of the same things in their mixes etc etc. So with my little experinece with organic growing, I'm not really sure how to put together a good soil mix based on other peoples recipes as guidelines.
I have put together a "pre-recipe" which I'm currently using. I have only used products available to me at this point, I want to use more but just haven't found them anywhere to buy (I live in a real shitty place
) I'm working on it though and will acquire more fertilizers to use for the next time. So this one is just a first try.I repotted 2.5 weeks old seedlings into 3 gal. pots with this mix a week ago. Today they received their first watering since repot, plain water. Growth has been good, plants nearly tripled in size under a 600W MH. Anyway this is what I used:
Each 3 gal pot contains:
55-60% Soil
30% Coco (coir)
10-15% Perlite, vermiculite, clay pellets
1/2 cup Basalt rockdust
1/2 cup Epsom salt
2 tsp Bat guano (2-12-2)
1 tsp Blood meal
1 tsp Bone meal
Mycorrhiza (from Rootgrow)
I also have some liquid fertilizers:
Rootgrow Empathy - Seaweed Kelp
Natures Bio Organic Fertilizer (with fish, kelp, guano and molasses)
HB-101 Natural Plant Vitalizer (liquid + granules)
The soil is the same as I used before. It's the best one you can find where I live and I'm no expert, but the quality seems good and I've had really nice results with it in previous grows. I did NOT moist the mix and let it sit and cook for a few weeks. Being the first time and everything I wanted to go easy and research the field first. But will definitely let the mix cook for 2-4 wks next time, by then I will have more stuff to put in. In addition to the current recipe I'm planning on using, dololomite lime, azomite and worm castings as a definite. But also have an eye out for blackstrap molasses, kelp meal, fish meal, alfalfa meal, oyster shells and what more I can experiment with.
So any thoughts and advice on my mix so far would be appreciated, but let me summarize what I need help with:
1. My plan is to let the plants veg. for another 4-5 weeks and feed them with the liquid fertilizers I have. Don't know if I should mix some bat guano, blood and bone meal, epsom salt or rock dust with water and feed the plants with it at this stage, or wait until flowering. Since I already put some in the soil, but based on the amounts I used in the soil mix, will this be enough to take them through the vegetative phase if I just water them with the liquid fertilizers? I'm not sure about the ingredients of my soil mix recipe, have I used too much of something? or too little? There is no sign of any under or over nourishment at this point, they just look ok and healthy.
I followed recommendations, if available, when mixing the soil, but the 1 tsp of blood and bone meal and amount of rock dust in the soil mix was more or less just a guess. Bat guano label said 1 tsp for 5 litres of soil and the epsom salt recommended 1/2 cup for 10 litres of soil. Is this enough for the vegetative phase?
One concern I have is that the liquid fertilizers seem low on nitrogen and the bat guano has only an NPK
of 2 for nitrogen, so I'm a bit worried about the nitrogen part in the vegetative phase.
A week before flowering I was planning on doing a top dressing with bat guano, blood meal, bone meal, epsom salt and rock dust, and another top dressing half way into flowering. But I can't tell if it will be enough for a good yield. And how much should you use for a top dressing? Can I trust the instructions or watering charts and recommended doses on lables and bottles? I figure it's orgainc so you shouldn't have to check ph, but should I monitor EC levels? Even while many organic fertilizers say there is no risk of overdosing?
If I follow recommneded instructions then this will be the watering scheme during flowering:
-Half dose Empathy seaweed kelp every watering for young plants, half dose once every 7-10 days for mid&late season and full dose once a month in flowering.
-Natures Bio Organic, the dose recommended once or twice a week
-1 tsp bat guano/5 litres of water 3-5 times/season
-1.5 tsp epsom salt/1 litre of water once a month
-1 tsp bone meal and 1 tsp blood meal per 1 litre of water once a week
- Can you mix rock dust into water and feed plants with it?
I might chicken out in the middle of flowering and resort to chemicals if I suspect the yileld will be low.
It's a lot of questions, but you all get the point of what I'm trying to say. If I do it the way I described with the things I have, will it be any good? Just some help and advice on how to improve it would be nice
2. Instructions on the mycorrhiza pack said to sprinkle everything in the plant hole so the base of the roots
touches everything when you plant. I have seen people do this but also seen people mixing the mycorrhiza thoroughly into the soil just like any other ingredient. So I did something in between with some of the plants where I sprinkled about half of the mycorrhiza in the plant hole and I sprinkled two layers underneath the plant hole 1.5-2 inches apart so the roots will later have access to theese fungi as they grow downward. But I followed package instructions and sprinkled everything at the base of the roots on some plants just to try out the difference. Which is the best way to do it?
3. I'm not sure whether to use the HB-101. It's a japanese organic plant vitalizer extracted from cedar, cypress, pine and plantain. It doesn't say anything about what nutrients it contains or nothing. Anyone know what it is? It's some transparent fluid that only need 1-2 drops/litre of water. It sounds like some "superthrive wonder" crap thing packed with hormones and don't know if I will use it or if it's even organic. There is also a slow-releasing granule version of it and I sprinkled some in the plant hole on one of the plants as a test.
4. Nearly every fertilizer says on the bottle that you should spray the foliage and stems too. As many growers also do. Is this really necessary? I have never done it so far and have never had any problems with my leaves. always healthy looking, good colour and never had any pests. I don't see any need for it, but maybe it will be different with organic growing? Plants could be more sensitive or whatever? But I'd rather skip that part.
