White Widow Grow- Generic Potting Soil vs. Miricle Grow

[pokernaut]

chemical fertilizers suck. even if they don't kill your plants, they kill it's flavor.

everything your plants eat can affect it's flavor. i won't touch bloodmeal anymore after getting leaflet trim that tasted like rust. blech!

even in concentrations below recommendations, my powdered fertilyzer gave previous plants a particularly nasty burning metallic/chemical flavor.

i'm inclined to go with the authour of the cannibible claiming the best weed is organic and even hydroponic doesn't quite taste right with any strain except chem dawg

[SmknVTEC]

Originally Posted by gonejah17

lookin good vtec

yo can u post a pic of the ph tester u use man I just got this BUNK ass one and I need to get one that works now

Here ya go buddy.
It is the Hanna digital with pH, PPM, EC anmd temp guage. Waterproof too. It was pricey at $R1490-160 but if you skip the other features and go just for pH, it comes way down.

Originally Posted by big_milsy

This is a good experiment Im very interested to see how the MG soil will affect the grow as I have heard alot about how it shouldnt be used in soil grows. Seeing the result of this test with my own eyes is something I look forward too

Keep it up bro!

-Milsy

Welcome milsy. MG time release with yellow fert balls does burn seedlings. It is especially bad for beginner growers as well. Maybe I can make it work since I am closely monitoring pH.

Originally Posted by calichakra

ya, I've always been warned to steer clear of mg likes its the narcos. But I've never seen why, thanks for dedicating a brave solider V.

Yup it can sometimes be bad.

Originally Posted by smalltimetoker

i'm growing in mg time release potting soil whats wrong with it. my plants are all a nice healthy green. i just started flowering

Drop some pics with details on these plants if you can.

Originally Posted by mt308

some will say that the amount of nutrients released from time-release fert. will burn or even kill a pot plant, especially when it's very young. Once a plant gets older I would think its less susceptible to this. SmknVTECH says that HID lights will make the time-release release over a very short time periods, killing plants. But it has been successfully used before, it WILL work, just maybe with poorer results.

It does release it faster, that inconjunction with the fact that weed can handle only a fraction of the fertilizer that vegetables can, makes it a poor choice. And this stuff retains water. I was struggling to get the pH in check by adding more and more water and the sioil could not drain it out very well. I stopped at good enough because I was worried to over water.

Originally Posted by Segue

Smkn, I'm happy to see a side-by-side from a knowledgeable grower. I'm curious what the results will be.

There are a lot of horror stories about MG time-release, but there are a lot of horror stories about EVERY aspect of growing. It's like an MJ-episode of Myth Busters!

I'll definitely keep an eye on this.

Ha thanks myth buster brought to you by VTEC.

Originally Posted by pokernaut

chemical fertilizers suck. even if they don't kill your plants, they kill it's flavor.

everything your plants eat can affect it's flavor. i won't touch bloodmeal anymore after getting leaflet trim that tasted like rust. blech!

even in concentrations below recommendations, my powdered fertilyzer gave previous plants a particularly nasty burning metallic/chemical flavor.

i'm inclined to go with the authour of the cannibible claiming the best weed is organic and even hydroponic doesn't quite taste right with any strain except chem dawg

I agree. My stuff grown with non-ferted soil but chemical nutes has a slight chemical harshness/taste to it. Can't wait to try the organic ferts on these.

[gonejah17]

THANKS SO MUCH VTEC for hittin me with the PH meter info. Ive had no luck with mine and need to get a reliable one. I was lookion at the BIG DOG HANNA but too expensive, thanks again homie, helpful as always

Ur plants chillin???

Originally Posted by pokernaut

chemical fertilizers suck. even if they don't kill your plants, they kill it's flavor.

everything your plants eat can affect it's flavor. i won't touch bloodmeal anymore after getting leaflet trim that tasted like rust. blech!

even in concentrations below recommendations, my powdered fertilyzer gave previous plants a particularly nasty burning metallic/chemical flavor.

i'm inclined to go with the authour of the cannibible claiming the best weed is organic and even hydroponic doesn't quite taste right with any strain except chem dawg

Interesting and helpfull to a newbie, would you expect Water Soluble All Purpose MG Plant Food to affect the taste as well?? Probably, huh?? I switched from Organic FF Grow Big to "WSAPMGPF" per recommendation here on GC but didnt think about it affecting the taste - so thanks thats good info man . . . . I think Ill be going organic if the taste isnt quite right with the MG.

And I LOVE CHEMDAWG!!!!!!

[pokernaut]

aside from my bias of chemicals affecting taste (don't grow near train trackes either unless you want weed that tastes like oil! i just think that nature knows best.

think of foods YOU eat... which tastes better...
frozen foods or foods made fresh with good ingredients?
imitation flavoring or the real thing (artificial sugar is downright NASTY!)
a box of chocolate chip cookies with preservatives etc. or home made ones?

if you don't like eating chemicals, then why would you want to smoke them?

i like the idea of giving plants the best quality organic ingredients to make them happy along with lots of love.

i worked with a guy that had that philosophy that did his own grows with off the shelf hyponex potting soil and his very own nutrient rich food compost.

not counting the few strains i've smoked that had specific flavors like the yummy red pepper flavor of kali mist, it was some of the tastiest weed i ever had. it just tasted so clean and fresh.

i actually think that THAT'S why dogs can track people by their odors. they aren't smelling anything genetically related, they're just smelling the chemicals from all of the different things one person ate that another didn't.

i know from personal experience that i quit liking beef in the 80s when all of a sudden it had a livery iron taste only to find out a few years later that farmers were feeding leftover cow meat back to them (that's where mad cow disease comes from BTW... it's the cow version of guru laughing sickness) and a buddy i used to work with from kansas city used to rave how much better their local corn fed beef tastes than what the rest of the country is used to. one movie also has a brief scene mentioning how delicious japanese soy fed beef is too.

you really are what you eat.

[SmknVTEC]

Here they are at 17 days. Terrible pics sorry gotta run soon.
pH had to be adjusted on 3 plants, 2 regular soil and of course the MG soil. I also fed today because I saw some spots that look like they were hungry. MG PLANT not fed. Better pics next week when I get back.

EDIT Forgot to mention that from Friday to Monday, they will be put under 4 27 watt CFL's; 2 6500K and 2 2700k .

[myles117]

those are white widows? i have four white widows from nirvana currently growing. they are about three weeks old, 5 inches tall and very very bushy. probably 3 times as wide as the seedlings you're growing. i wonder why there is such a difference in appearance.

as far as the miracle grow time release soil, i hate it too. i have lost seedlings due to root rot from poor soil drainage and had other seedlings get such severe nute burn that they coul not be saved. plus, with standard soil, the amount and type of nutes the plants get can be controled with ease.

when i first started growing, i used a 400 watt MH for veg. The light was too strong for my cuttings but did a fine job growing the mothers. I now use t5 flourescent bulbs for veg. growth and i simply love them. They give off much less heat then an HID and can be much closer to the plants. i have noticed the plants do not stretch in the least bit and grow bushy and lush.

good luck with this experiment and i am still just as confused as you about the soil runoff reading. why would a premixed soil have a ph out of the ideal target range.

[SmknVTEC]

Yeah I am not impressed with the mh. My hps seems better for veg. Those are about 6 inches tall. Plus I am not a very good grower

[pokernaut]

nirvana's strains aren't pure. they breed with other strains to get seeds. i've heard they've used skunk #1 and possible norther lights #5 to breed other named strains. that's why none of their strains that should be purple are reportedly. that's probably also why some strains get renamed eg. bubblicious & blue mystic.

[silk]

You say miracle grow soil. I have only used Miracle gro moisture control potting mix (not soil). The only problems I have had was with hot spots in the mix which combined with my nute feed burned the plants. It sounds to me that your experiment is setup to fail.

[Sloppy G]

Miracle Gro Potting Mix is what Miracle Gro calls their potting soil. Miracle Gro also has Garden Soil Varieties as well.
I think what he's testing here is the effects of the Moisture Control versions of the potting mixes/soils have on the Plants.
<a href="http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t215/Sloppy-G/realrando.jpg" target="top"><img src="http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t215/Sloppy-G/realrando.jpg" height="450">
http://www.miraclegro.com/index.cfm/...oducts%2FSoils

I'm pretty sure what kills the plants are the Moisture-Control, Yellow fert balls that contain an excessive amount of Nitrogen wich is really good for flowers and vegetating plants. However, when plants are producing reproductive biomass (tomatoes, peppers, buds, e.t.c.), the require a minimal concentration of Nitrogen, and greater ammounts of vitamins, potassium and especially phosphorous.

What makes it worse is that when the plants have so much of a certain nutrient, they completely reduce their overall absorption of nutrition and water as well. What makes this even worse is that the plant is pretty much starving itself, so the symptoms aprear to be malnutrition, and many resort to this by feeding and watering, which progressively makes the issue worse and kills the plants. (That's what I did to a couple of my first plants).

To make things even worse, when the plants dont absorb all the water from the soil (over-watering), the lingering water prevents the plant from absorbing oxygen from the roots while bacteria collects because of the pooling water, which can quickly rot the roots and kill the plants in a matter of days.

VTec's experiment should just be really helpful, although there's a huge bias towards the Miracle Gro plants, because I would say his growing skills are unrepeatably better than the average grower.

I'm kinda running the same thing right now, but just so I can make my personal decision about the matter.

Keep it up SmknVTEC

[myles117]

Originally Posted by pokernaut

nirvana's strains aren't pure. they breed with other strains to get seeds. i've heard they've used skunk #1 and possible norther lights #5 to breed other named strains. that's why none of their strains that should be purple are reportedly. that's probably also why some strains get renamed eg. bubblicious & blue mystic.

so the nirvana seeds that are labeled White Widow could be a WW Skunk #1 mix? Isn't that false advertising? i wanted to grow legit White Widow and that is why I bought the seeds to begin with. However, even if these plants aren't pure Widow, they are showing extremely awesome grow charactoristics. One of my seedlings is growing three fan leaves per node rather then two. This is happening every set and each leaf has its axillary bud just as it should. This plant is the bushiest 2 week old beauty i have ever seen.

[jcj77d]

the mg moisture control is bad news, i used it several grow ago & i had probs all the way to end.

[doob3r]

y0 smokinV, we have the exact same ph meter. but today mine is trying to tell me my tap water is at a ph o 9.8 when its been 7.5 for years, i think it needs calibration, if you dont mind telling me, how do you calibrate these bitches?

[cultivationist]

i grew from seed to flower just one plant if u remember v tec last year
i was in mg continuous release soil the 3 month shit
from seed to flower not one problem didnt even fert no leaves canoed(curled)no nute burn but when you harvest you will have nutes in it for sure
there is no real way to flush the time release other than time so in my oppinion mg isnt bad but you need to grow for say 5 months just to get the proper flush
unless of course you like a headache and soar throat
it grew some of the best bag seed ive seen totally looked differant than the nug i picked the seed from lime green fire orange hairs and so sticky the nugs would stick nnot just crystal/keife

....its all an oppinion

[SmknVTEC]

Originally Posted by doob3r

y0 smokinV, we have the exact same ph meter. but today mine is trying to tell me my tap water is at a ph o 9.8 when its been 7.5 for years, i think it needs calibration, if you dont mind telling me, how do you calibrate these bitches?

Hey man. I think you need to buy some pH calibration fluid; up and down. Then there is a process to calibrating it which I don't know off hand. Maybe the directions that came with the meter say? I am still out of town and can't check.

That reminds me mine are still under the cfls. That will delay any over ferting should it occur.

cultivationist I remember and agree about the mg soil. It burned mine when I did not watch pH and I think the stuff back then had had bigger more numerous fert balls then the stuff my one is in now. Maybe MG has tonned down their ferts over the last few years?...