What dry amendments to use for autoflower soil

[Swagymcfly88]

Hi I'm new here and I was just wondering what people use to amend their autoflower cannabis soil . I've grown photos before but never autos what I have currently is dolomite lime,potassium sulfate ,bone meal ,blood meal and worm castings what would be a good amount of each I don't really know what will hurt autos

 

[fanleaf]

Nothing will hurt autos that wouldn't hurt photos. Plenty of soil builders will chime in here. Perhaps @Emilya might.

 

[Swagymcfly88]

Are you sure from what I've been able to find just looking on the internet people are just saying autos can be a lot more sensitive to high a npk is this wrong ?

 

[fanleaf]

Grown many many autos in Fox Farm Ocean Forrest with no major issues. That's considered one of the hottest soils you can get. Any Autos I've grown have never seemed any more sensitive to a hotter soil then a photoperiod Plant. And that would go for real soil or the promix HP that I grow in now. Obviously the promix is not a hot soil on its own but I feed all those full-strength just like photoperiods. You can click the journal Down Below in my signature for the 4 strain six Auto grow for instance to see results. I'm not saying a soil can't be too hot for seedlings, what I am saying is I don't believe there's a difference between Autoflower seedlings or photoperiod Seedlings.

 

[Swagymcfly88]

Ok thank you Im in Canada btw so I'd have to order any fox farm products sadly or I would just be using ocean forest tbh

 

[fanleaf]

I dont care for it much anymore. Things became so inconsistent with it. If I were to go back to a full organic soil I would use some of the other Forum members here for their expertise in soil building. I've been stuck on my promix HP with some Dolomite and a bag of earthworm castings for quite some time now. I've got everything so dialed-in with it that I hate to even try anything else at this point LOL

 

[Swagymcfly88]

Don't u use any other nutes with that ?

 

[fanleaf]

Don't u use any other nutes with that ?

Oh yes. It's just a light base that I let "cook" for a month or so, so some microlife can colonize before use. I know @Emilya will chime in here at some point. Shes a pro for building a living soil.

 

[Swagymcfly88]

Ok well I have some white widow auto flower fem seeds and I've just never actually used much beside random soils I felt had a good texture and added some perlite so just wondering what's gonna let them grow nicely .one of my biggest problems would be every time I look online for info people recommend soils that are sold only in the USA so I'd have to pay a solid amount for shipping. thx for the help btw

 

[Emilya Green]

Evening Swagy, and thanks for the shout in @fanleaf!
So it sounds like you would like to build a good organic soil. If I lived in Canada and had to put up with the inability to order so many of the commonly used products down here in the USA cannabis world, I am sure that I would try to get away from all of that nonsense and would go full living soil organic. In this way you would not need all those commercial nutrients, would have no need to worry yourself with pH issues, and you would end up with a strong soil that you could use over and over and over again.
You have a start with the materials you have on hand now, but several more things are needed to create a soil that has all of the elements in it that our plants need, and they are hungry and needy plants indeed. Building a partial organic soil that does not have all of the needed nutrients in it is just asking for trouble down the road, so it pays to take some care in the beginning to do it right.
So if you are committed to this, I am reasonably sure that even in Canada you can order the raw materials needed, but it is going to take about $100 for materials and two months or so to get your soil built and then "cooked" so as to be able to support a grow all the way through. Once you have this done, and with some of your raw materials left over from the soil build, all you will need is some non chlorinated water to make your garden happen. You will also want to invest in a good air pump so as to be able to make actively aerated compost teas out of your raw materials, and this $35 investment in a 570gph pump will allow you to build the microlife that makes all of this magic happen in your containers.
Once you get all of this going with your initial investment of time and a little money up front, your cost of operation will plummet. Typically I spend less than $50 on raw materials needed for the next grow, and now that I grow with LED lights, even my cost of electricity has been reduced to the point that I don't think I am even paying $10/oz for the pot I produce these days. TLO is the way to go.
You can also make a lot of the supplements at home that you will need in your cannabis grow. If you check out my links I show how you can make a calmagphos+ product out of eggshells, molasses and apple cider vinegar that will blow the socks off of any commercial product out there. I can show you how to turn backyard dandelions into one of the best natural fertilizers in existence, and very appropriate for growing cannabis, since both weeds are what are considered to be "super accumulators."
Another great thing about living organic soil is that there is no waste. All of your plant debris, discarded leaves, trim from the harvests, old rootballs... all of this is added back into your soil so that nothing is lost and nothing is wasted, nothing is thrown away. Lastly, there is the quality of the pot that you will produce that convinces most people who try TLO, never to go back to growing with commercial nutes again. There is nothing like the taste and quality of a plant that all through its life had every single nutrient that it needed ready to be found in its soil or somewhere tucked away in a layer or spike in the container. I have gotten so picky these days that I can actually taste and identify a FoxFarm grow or a typical hydro grow as opposed to an organically grown product.
So if you really want to make this jump and really build a quality truly organic living soil, I would be happy to be your guide. I can recommend a good book to get you started and I can point you to recipes to build a super soil that you can start building your containers with. TLO is more hands on than just buying a bottle of commercial nutrients, adjusting pH and applying it to your plants, but the rewards definitely are worth the extra effort. It is one thing to be organic, but a totally different thing to be Living Organic.
Or, you can make a similar and long term commitment to one of the nutrient companies and build a soil or soiless medium that can support their carefully designed system, such as the suggested promix, earthworm castings and dolomite. These expensive nutrient systems work well too, but you will be constantly buying nutrients and amendments and new soil and you will not ever be able to experience the true and complete flavors and quality of the pot that you grow. It is much easier to do it this way, and that is how these commercial companies suck people in, but it is way more expensive over the long run to get in bed with them, and I don't think it is as much fun.
So, it is up to you. If you follow the path I am traveling on, it will be a month or two before you are ready to plant a seed, but from then on you will be independent and free to grow some of the best pot in the world.
Are you in?

 

[fanleaf]

Amen @Emilya . To be honest I would love myself to be able to go with a living soil however what stops me is the fear of losing a large Harvest that I count on because I have my current system down so well. There's nothing I would like more than to be able to make teas and no what tea is for when and what it contains. Perhaps I would be interested in that book you speak of for myself lol. After I read the book maybe I can pick your brain or do a grow Journal your way after I get a living soil all cooked up and give it a shot as long as I know I could count on you to help me through it LOL.

 

[Emilya Green]

The book is:

 

[fanleaf]

The book is:

I'll get the book when I'm done working tomorrow. This would be a scary jump for me because it's basically like starting all over again from scratch LOL. Thank you! I'll get the book, get it read and start picking your brain from there.

 

[Emilya Green]

I'll get the book when I'm done working tomorrow. This would be a scary jump for me because it's basically like starting all over again from scratch LOL. Thank you! I'll get the book, get it read and start picking your brain from there.

I look forward to the day when you get to sample your first organically grown pot... you are going to kick yourself for waiting so long.

 

[fanleaf]

I look forward to the day when you get to sample your first organically grown pot... you are going to kick yourself for waiting so long.

Ha, well, since I'm awake I went ahead and bought the book right now. I could have got it a little cheaper but I wanted to get it here in a hurry so I paid a little extra. It will be here in a few days.

 

[Emilya Green]

Ha, well, since I'm awake I went ahead and bought the book right now. I could have got it a little cheaper but I wanted to get it here in a hurry so I paid a little extra. It will be here in a few days.

lol, I will tell Rev that he owes me a commission

 

[GeOMaTTiC]

As a Canadian that is planning on making my own batch of SubCools supersoil, I thought I would chime in.

I priced it all out, from several places, but mostly Amazon for certain hard to find items, and its nearly $400 to make a large batch. I'm sure you can scale it down, but this was to his specs.

Seems like a high cost, but its not if you knew just how much it will help down the road.

Regardless of price, organic growing is certainly fascinating.

 

[Emilya Green]

Most of us have no need to make a full subcool batch... that is a lot of soil. I made a 1/4 batch, and have been using it for years to supply my little grow tents.

 

[GeOMaTTiC]

As its cheaper to buy in bulk, especially when you add shipping to it, I'd rather just make one batch for all my needs.

I am not just in it for me, I want all my friends to have the best. Best buddy was going to toss his autos into plain top soil. Told him I would fill the buckets for him. Made it 90% of my pro mix HP, 5% added perlite, and 5% of his cheap dirt. Little babies are loving it

 

[Swagymcfly88]

@Emilya that sounds like it would be a great idea for me I grow in a indoor/ outdoor grow by that I mean I have a tent and led light however its in a no insolated shed so is very effected my temp outside so I still have to wait till march to plant my seeds so that's why of its gonna take a few months to cook organic soil it shouldnt be a problem for me.furthermore I live in a pretty small city its like 60k people so my options for buying nutes from a brand are very limited anyways so if u all willing to help me out with a recipe I can go home later send some pictures of everything I currently have and then u can just tell me what more I need