I have Expert Gardener Potting Soil. Walmart brand. I have heard that it's really bad to flush it because it, like Miracle Gro has time release fertilizers in it. I've already flushed my plant with Foxfarm's Sledgehammer till the water ran clear. Now I'm all stressin' and shit. What's going to happen to my already sick plant?
i posted this in your thread in the sick plants section, but just in case others are interested ill put what i said in here as well: time release fertilizers are activated each time you water. the best way to describe it would be to picture a jawbreaker candy. imagine how slow it would dissolve if you placed it on top of a screen and poured water over it. ^^except its not a jawbreaker, its releasing nutrients. so, if you add TONS of water, youll release TONS of nutrients, surely burning the sh*t out of your plant. -OSUB
you really can't flush the added ferts out. if you look close you'll see that the nutes are usually the little round things. as they age, they get smaller as they break down, so they don't wash out. i'd get them out of that soil.
go here Potting Soils - BLACK GOLD - All the riches of the earth i have heard very very good things about these guys. you want the organic or the Hy-Porosity Potting Soil and its cheap. you can find it online for about 16 bucks for 16quarts. use that.
I suffer the same fate; poorly planned use of time-release soil, plants in mid to late flower so no easy fix. Just have to live with results; lesson learned the hard way.
Cheap soil = cheap schwag. Its like anything else in life - you get what you pay for. By the way, you're wasting your money on Fox Farms - overhyped and overpriced. Your call. jerry.
The big issue with timed release plant food is that each time you water you release "nutrients" - salt based chemical nutrients that do nothing but kill off the beneficial bacterias in your soil, if they were even there in the first place. Most of those timed release fertilizers are salt based nitrogen, so when your plant is flowering you're releasing nitrogen - not what you're looking for - whatsoever. FYI the stuff is JUNK. Wal-Mart junk = Wal-Mart budz. A good, real organic soil is never flushed. jerry.
Hi Jerry. Is there a bagged organic soil you personally recommend? I can buy anything because I'm going to have it shipped here. I want the very best and tested. I've just heard so many good things about FFOF that I jumped the gun and went ahead and bought it. My little plant is basically frying in the current soil and FFOF is the only organic potting mix I'd heard of.
The problem with pre-bagged soils is that they all claim to be the very best and contain many items listed on the bags. The reality is that these companies are only out to make money (most, at least) and the bags only contain miniscule amounts of the items listed. Sphagnum peat Earthworm Castings Compost Kelp Meal Epsoma Plant or Tomato Tone organic fertilizer Make your own. These 5 items will get you started just fine and blow away any bagged soil. Mix, wet, let it sit for 3-4 weeks. gl jerry http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/988488-ready-grow-bagged-soil.html
Look here. Great info. Some of these products do need a little ammending but its definetly a start. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/988488-ready-grow-bagged-soil.html
I know this is a old thread but I have access to many bags of miracle grow that feeds for "three months" and it has time released pellets in it I am told. Do you guys think that I could just soak this soil in the tub for a hour or two and then mix it 50/50 with a bag of fox farm ocean forest and some perlite?