need to buy soil, but no NPK given from organics

[cannabisblunt]

hey
i was just at home depot checking out soil types and i noticed that almost all of the bags mention things like "chicken manure, kelp extract, worm castings" etc. but none of them give any N-P-K values. I asked the garden guy and he said that NPK was for fertilizers, not the soils. I guess he didnt get what i mean. What im trying to get at is that i have no idea if my plants will be burnt by these "organic" soils that are loaded with organic fertilizers. Like this one...
Kellogg Garden Products, Flower & Plant Fertilizer, Landscaping & Gardening Tips

how do i find the right soil from home depot though i dont know the NPK values?

[Hawaiian89]

get some sunshine mix #4 and order some advanced nutrients

sunshine mix is a "soiless" mix so that means its a sterile soil with no nutrients already inside, this gives u more control on when u feed your plants and how much nutes u can give them

[MVRIDER]

Originally Posted by cannabisblunt

hey
i was just at home depot checking out soil types and i noticed that almost all of the bags mention things like "chicken manure, kelp extract, worm castings" etc. but none of them give any N-P-K values. I asked the garden guy and he said that NPK was for fertilizers, not the soils. I guess he didnt get what i mean. What im trying to get at is that i have no idea if my plants will be burnt by these "organic" soils that are loaded with organic fertilizers. Like this one...
Kellogg Garden Products, Flower & Plant Fertilizer, Landscaping & Gardening Tips

how do i find the right soil from home depot though i dont know the NPK values?

I wouldnt worry about it unless you are growing something that you know for a fact is really whimpy to ferts...maybe some pure Sativas might burn a little. Shockingly, the Home Depot guy was right, you aren't really goning to get an NPK listing out of the soil, especially if the nutes in it are organic. They need to start breaking down before they can start giving off their N, P or K.

But what are you fooling around at Home Depot for anyway??

If you are in NorCal, there are "grow shops" everywhere. That's where you want to be. Get some good soil and some nutes that are a little more Marijuana specific. Build a relationship with the grow shop, learn their secrets! If you want soil I'd try either the Ocean Forest or the Happy Frog from Fox Farm. Roots Organic is pretty good stuff, but if you think your strain may be a little timid and burn easily, I'd wouldn't use it.

The key to a killer organic soil grow will be to keep up with the compost teas.

Sorry if I rambled a little, I do that when I'm stoned!!

[cannabisblunt]

haha i dont really want to make a trip across the bay to go to a grow shop. plus im 18, meaning they would probably look down on me for growing.
also, the man tried selling me steer manure for 1$ a bag. if i put in 1/3 steer manure into my mix will they burn, or will it be ok?

[hootskers420]

Originally Posted by cannabisblunt

haha i dont really want to make a trip across the bay to go to a grow shop. plus im 18, meaning they would probably look down on me for growing.
also, the man tried selling me steer manure for 1$ a bag. if i put in 1/3 steer manure into my mix will they burn, or will it be ok?

Seriously man, you really need to make that trip. They wont look down on you for growing, almost everyone that shops there is growing weed. And if they look down on you because your young, fuck em, theyre still going to sell you whatever you want, your a customer. Like Hawiian said, you need to get a good growing medium, and some good fertilizer, you will harvest far more bud of a far higher quality than if you used cheap soil and cow shit.

[MVRIDER]

Originally Posted by hootskers420

Seriously man, you really need to make that trip. They wont look down on you for growing, almost everyone that shops there is growing weed. And if they look down on you because your young, fuck em, theyre still going to sell you whatever you want, your a customer. Like Hawiian said, you need to get a good growing medium, and some good fertilizer, you will harvest far more bud of a far higher quality than if you used cheap soil and cow shit.

Word! Besides, there's a TON of grow shops on both sides of the bay. That I know of on the East bay, Berkley Secret Garden, across the street is Berkley Indoor Garden. SF, West Coast Growers on Market. Southbay/Peninsula, Southbay Hydroponics and Organics in Mountain View.

Here's a small list http://www.yellowbot.com/tags/hydrop...0CA/page1.html

[hydrocult]

The more time (and money) you spend planning your grow before you even put seeds into dirt (or hydro) the less time you'll have to spend during the grow trying to figure out what's wrong and how to fix it.

You can "just get some dirt" and plant seeds, water them, feed them some fertilizer, and so forth and get good results. Or you can set in motion a nightmare of problems with almost no diagnostic ground to stand on.

You can also have problems even if you use nothing but the best of everything, but if that's the case the problems are usually far easier to figure out and correct.


This is good advice here. Get out to places that specialize in what you want to do. Even if you don't get all the best stuff, the cheap stuff at those places is still going to be better than the best stuff at Home Depot or whatever.

I've got a very uncommon car. In a city of half a million people I've seen one other car of the same model. I could pull into any repair shop to get a problem fixed, but I don't. I go to the only shop in town that has mechanics who actually specialize in this kind of car and worked on it when it was new. (The dealership doesn't even carry the repair manual for my car anymore, but you can bet the service department empties out to look at it if I pull in.)

I spend more money to get the car fixed at the place I take it (but it's actually cheaper than what the dealership charges), and I have not a single doubt that it's worth every penny I spend. It looks, runs, and drives like new because I don't cut any corners and if it acts out in the least I check it myself and if necessary take it to my mechanic.

I don't go quite that far with my growing, but the concept is there. Like the saying goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Don't cut corners on soil, nutrients, or anything else important. Don't spend any more or any less than you can afford.