Hello, im an inexperienced grower whos successfully grown 4 baby seedlings into plants over the past 1.5 weeks and they are now on their 6-9 nodes i believe . Yay. I have 3 150 watt daylight cfls and 2 300 watt cfls going. The plants are in solo cups right now and im trying to figure out what mixture of soil to use when i transplant them (how much of each supply % wise). Right now they are in ffof, peat moss, perlite, and a little lime. The supplies i have for the next batch of soil include ffof, ffhf, perlite, lime, rock phosphate, kelp, peat moss, and the ff nutes. Im sure im missing some important things but the local flower store doesnt have much. So far the plants look beautiful and im a little nervous about doing this. Any advice from experienced growers would be very greatly appreciated.
Last time I grew I had so many grow shops I had so many soils to choose from, so soil mixing was really never my strongest suit. If no one has answered your question by tomorrow just PM me and I will go digging through some of my books on it and get you the best result. Also remember when we talk about watts on here, we are not talking about the equivalent, so when you say 300Watt, I am assuming you mean the 65 watt, 6500k CFL bulb. Just remember that plants don't grow off of watts, they grow off of lumens, so make sure you look into the rating from those. They are looking healthy, just make sure to get them at least into a one gallon pot so they can really veg well. I would suggest just going to a home improvement store and grabbing some five gallon buckets, but I don't know your situation. I always grew with about four of the 65 watt, 300W equivalents per plant, but that is above the minimum.
Thanks mr. Corn man for the reply! Ok ill refer to the actual watts for now on, and i believe the total lumens i have going is about 15,000. Hopefully that is enough for vegging. If nobody else responds (fingers crossed that they do) ill get back to you. Thanks man
Looking good man. They really are. Just my two cents though...I think maybe you're looking a little too far into it. I haven't ever used soil... I always use a soilless medium and the reason is because the FF soils have pre mixed nutes and its difficult to feed them when your soil already has nutrients in there. When do you start feeding without hurting the plant? If you don't know what you're doing, you CAN burn your plants. Not saying you will.. But you do what you feel is best. If you would like to know what I use, I use 1/3 Peat-moss because it has a soil like texture except its very aerated, 1/3 Perlite for drainage, and 1/3 vermiculite because it retains moisture. Also, use 1tbsp of garden lime per gallon of medium. This will keep your pH up. However, I always test the soil pH anyways before I transplant, because pH is very important for your plants growth.. I don't recall seeing you mention that. I would get a pH kit so you can test and balance the water that you're putting into your medium and also test the runoff from the medium to make sure that your soil isn't too acidic or alkaline. If your pH is off, your plant won't absorb any nutes. Which brings me to nutrients. I use the FF liquid trio starting at 1/4 strength. But I wait until the plant tells me she wants something. Her foliage is like her face... she'll tell you when she needs something. Just remember, don't rush anything, be patient, and remember... this is fun. Get your medium and trans plant by this weekend. I would get 1 gallon pots. Anything less than 5 gallons for now. Try to get a pH kit though so you can adjust your medium pH BEFORE you put your plants in it. good luck dude
Hey thanks for the advice dude. Right now i have mg peat moss, and im guessing that also has premixed nutes? Also, i do have a ph tester, thats why i added a little lime to the first batch so i could raise it up a tad. The ph tester im using is one that you put some of the soil in, add water, and add some powder they give you and compare it to the chart. Do you think that will :be reliable tester for the rest of my grow? One last question, would recommend changing to a 2 gallon pot and then a 4 gallon pot or could i just go straight to the 4?
Yes, MG has a variety of Nutes in it that your plant does not need. I would get a 100% additive free medium and mix it yourself. That way you have complete control over how much she's feeding. Does your pH tester test water as well? You need to balance the water your giving her and also when you feed her... you mix the nutes with water first, then balance the water. If your kit will do this, then yes, it will be just fine for the rest of the grow. I would suggest putting her into a 2 gallon pot if that's all you have. The reason you don't want to put it in anything bigger is because of how much water the medium will retain. Your root system is small for a 4 gallon pot, a root system that won't be able to take in all the water a 4 gallon pot has to offer. This could lead to root rot, and death!
Ocean Forest has organic nutes in it that are good for 30 days give or take depending on how often you need to water. I used to use Ocean Forest but quit using it because to many times I ended getting bags with fungus gnat larva in it. I now use Vermifire soil and so far out of about 8 bags no fungus gnats and like Ocean Forest the organic nutes are good for about 30 days as well. So far your plants look good and healthy.
Well guys i appreciate the advice. The problem i have is that this is a stealth grow, so i dont want to order anything online. Also, ive looked around at all the garden stores and home improvemtn stores and all i could find is pretty much what i have. Is there any way i could kill or make sure theres nothing bad in the soil? Also if i go with this stuff could i just flush it really well? Lastly, if i go with what i have, will the plants get all the nutrients that they need throughout the grow?
You already got a decent amount of stuff except for you didn't mention if you have a digital PH meter one that tests liquids not the kind you stick down in the soil unless you got the money to by a nursery or agricultural grade one. Flushing the soil should only be done when you have a problem like the PH being off a decent amount or to much nutes in the soil or in the last 2 weeks before harvest.
So there would be no way of making sure theres no gnats or anything already in the soil? And no i dont have a PH meter like that. I guess tomorrow i will be spending my day searching for one lol. Its pretty tough finding stuff around here man, we got this huge gardening store in town but it just has a lot of yard furniture and decor and grass treatment. Since i decided to start this project ive been reading every minute im not at work but honestly im surprised they are growing so well and so dam fast! Prayinnn i dont mess them up ha
Heres another pick, its been really awesome watching them take off. The one at the top of the picture seems a little strange to me though, everytime it starts a new set of leaves they are purple for a couple days. Ive read that can be caused by cold temp or cold soil but im 100% sure the room doesnt get below 70 degrees even at night. Seem odd to you?
How long have they been in the Ocean Forest soil and did you see any bugs fly out of the bag when you opened it? My past experience with Ocean Forest was hit or miss when it came to getting fungus gnats in it. Some bags didn't have any but a good number did. You can top dress the soil with sand or water with stuff like Azamax to kill them. As for the purple leaves as long as the color turns to a normal green color I wouldn't worry about it to much.
Well ive seen one gnat in my grown room so far. Does that mean theres a million others? There were none when i opened the bag. Theyve been in the ocean forest since seed.
This is why I told you to make your own pro-mix... but if you insist.... you can put your bag of soil in your oven and bake it for a few hours. It will stink up the house but its the only way to kill all fungus or disease. Other than that, you'll have to use chemicals and I don't like usting chemicals on anything. You had asked a question asking if what soil you had would feed the plants for the rest of their life and the answer is no. That's why, to me, it doesn't make sense to buy a pre mixed medium with food already in it... because you end up having to buy food anyways. The initial leaf's that sprout, the round ones, are called cotyledons. They are a natural source of nutrients for the plant until you need to feed them manually.... around 30 days. So putting germinated seeds in a medium with food is pointless. Because it comes naturally equipped with food and then you have all these issues with non-sterile soil. Why not skip the mess, get a 100% natural substance with guaranteed no fungus or disease and let the plant do its own thing? I dont care what kind of garden store you have. I'm positive they sell straight peat moss, straight perlite, and straight vermiculite. 100% pure genuine, additive free organic decomposed material. I'm sorry, i can't remember if you said you had a pH tester or not? Make sure you balance the soil pH with a water pH kit before you trans plant them.
I get what youre saying mr. Pres, but what i was asking is, is all of the supplies i have enough to make it through the grow, not just the soil. I drove a little out of town and found vermiculite and organic peat moss. So what if i did about 30% ffof 30% ffhf 20% perlite (considering theres a good amout already in the soil) and 20% vermiculite, with some kelp meal and rock phosphate added in? And from there i can readjust the PH. Also, i looked everywhere for water ph testers and the best i could do is the little strips in the aquarium section. What do you think sir? I know your suggesting all organic but id like to stay with ff because they seem to be doing very well so far. Does the mixture i mention seem legit?
Well the only reason I use organic medium is simply because there are no additives so I control everything. There is no guessing when its time to feed. However, I use the FF trio which, two of the bottles aren't even organic lol so by no means am i growing organically, just using organic medium. If you're going to use FF soil, i would use one or the other... and i'm not sure how much perlite is mixed in to begin with so its hard to give a decent % mixture. I do it in 3rds. 1/3peat 1/3 perlite 1/3 vermiculite, But you said there's already perlite mixed in so I'm not sure...maybe 50%soil 25%perlite 25%vermiculite? Kelp meal, Rock phosphate, bat guano, worm castings... all great things to mix in but doesn't FF already mix that stuff in to begin with? That's the guess work I was talking about... Those test strips work fine. We use them at the shop to test the pH in the coolant. You dip it in the water and measure it up with the key on the bottle. It isn't an exact reading, as it only shows increments of .5 but that's really all you NEED. And i basically have the same thing except i mix mine up in a tiny test tube. The soil you're using IS legit. Many many many people use it and have great results. I'm just a stubborn, detailed person and like it my way lol so i'm sorry if i come off a little biased