Organic soil and amendments

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by NorthernAutos, Jan 28, 2015.

  1. #1 NorthernAutos, Jan 28, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 29, 2015
    Hey guys, I'm just starting to get into the organic side of growing and need some help with my soil. I know I can find some of these answers here and I'll search, but this might be faster since there's a ton of reading.

    I'll be using two 3gal smart pots and primarily want to know the amendments to use and how much of each! Hoping to make it to harvest without any nutes, it'll be a change

    THESE ARE AUTOFLOWERS!!
     
  2. Yeah Lotta good stuff to learn from Lumperdawgz.  
    Don't forget about the 'most viewed' option in thread categories..that's how I found it 
     
  3. BAS or Buildasoil.com has their recipe for their kick ass organic soil and all the amendments and amounts. You can tweek it however you want. They sell all the amendments too. All the dusts and powders you will need. You can get some of those cheaper on the internet. Don't get Azomite powder for your minerals. Their is mixed things about the stuff. Get the good glacial rock dust from BAS. They sell all quality ingredients. The smallest amounts you can buy are enought for you to make plenty of soil. Get good compost. Organic and it should look black as night. I would use part rice hulls and part perlight. The rice hulls will break down. I bought all of my amendments from BAS or kelp4less.com. they have some good stuff too. Alot of it is organic. I hope this helps. The link is a good one too. -FT
     
  4. I personally suggest BlueJays mix that he uses in his No-Till garden. Super easy, and effective mix that has lasted him well over 10 rounds in the same pots with only sprinkles of amendments on the top layer between crops. No-Till for the win!

    *BAS's mix is good too (just replace rice hulls with pumice or lava rock)

    Bham


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  5. #7 Greasemonkeyman, Jan 28, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 28, 2015
    May want to seriously consider a larger smart pot, 3 gal isn't 3 gal. and if you want a water only, that container won't support that, unless you are running like 150w cfls or something but anything high intensity and you'll be out of food and rootbound at like week three, and that's assuming you transplant late.
    I'm not tryin to rain on your parade but a 3 gallon in organics just isn't enough, I have found that a general rule of thumb is, for organic soil  growing, you need two gallons of growing media per foot of growth.
    I don't know exactly how much a 3 gallon smartpot hold but my guess would be around 2.5 gallons. Maybe less.. and you want room for topdress too...
    If I may make a suggestion?
    Would you be adverse to growing both plants in the same smartpot?
    If so, that's what i'd do, I bet you could fit a nice 15 gallon smartpot in the same footprint as the two 3 gallon, if not at least a 12 or ten?
    I mean you could do it in 3 gallon pots, but you'll be MUCH happier if they have more room.
    That's what i'd do, but as my woman says, I'm f'in nuts..
    Oh and by the way, it's a complete farce that you can't have two plants in the same container, given room, you can have multiple plants per container just fine, they don't "strangle" each other with their roots... just like outside in the ground, plenty of room for all, provided you give them the room.
     
  6. Good stuff here. The recommended minimum pot size for Organics is 7 gallons (as a rule of thumb).

    I place multiple plants (up to 4) in my 15 and 20 gallon pots EVERY round. Never have a since issue.

    Bham


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  7. hah, totally.. you could do a SOG type grow in one gallon pots, easy, but really SOG is more for hydro grows, cuz the container size has a smaller footprint, but hell I've seen people grow in those tiny party cups too.
    But really, if you want better results, especially in a water only amended soil, you need room.
    Yeah, you surely can grow in a 3 gallon, but the difference in yields would be pretty dramatic in a bigger container, like 50% to 100% increase.
    Now if you are feeding with lots of nutrient teas, comfrey teas, alfalfa, kelp, etc, etc? Sure you can get away with a 3 gallon, but even then I've had issues with being rootbound there too...
    That all being said, I like my plants fairly mature when I switch them, I prefer them that way. I LST mine to have six pack colas and that takes about a month of training to do that.
    BUt you are 100% correct, you can flower anything in most containers but the yields will always reflect that.
     
  8. It's kinda' funny, we're all posting up and it sounds as if though OP bailed on us @ post #3!
     
  9. haha, typical stoners... get us started and we forget what started us...
     
  10. Haha no I didn't bail, but I'm growing autos if that helps... I heard 3gallon is a good size for those considering my current grow is in a 1.5




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  11. Oh yeah big thing to add


    THESE ARE AUTOFLOWERS

    If that makes a difference :p


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  12. Why 7-gal for organics? Just curious, never heard that before...


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  13. #16 Greasemonkeyman, Jan 28, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 28, 2015
    hahahaha ahhhh well then... that is indeed a crucial bit of information.
    I have grown dozens if not hundreds of successful harvests....
    but NEVER an auto...
    in my own world ruderalis has no place in it.
    SO on that note I can't help much after that
    I suppose with the word "autos" in your username it' be a giveaway... but in my defense you have a picture of a car for your avatar thingy
     
  14. #17 NorthernAutos, Jan 28, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 29, 2015
    No worries haha I'll come to you when I grow out some photo's

    And yeah I'm growing northern lights autos, so that's where my name comes from hahaha

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  15. I think most of the info we provided isn't pertaining to an auto grow.
     
  16. Ah ok, I'll go see if I can make that clear up there


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  17. #20 BHamBudzNW, Jan 29, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 29, 2015
    7gallon is a good size because in (no-till) organics we don't want the soil to completely dry out EVER. 5gallon just never seems to allow for proper consistent moisture levels in larger plants.

    We also tend to transplant from keg cups directly into the final pots to minimize disturbing the soil (in no to-till systems). So that extra 2 gallons of soil space can mean more explosive growth in veg (which can lower veg time) and a bigger yield in flower (more roots, more fruits!).

    This all definitely only fits into the realm of NON ruderalis cannabis strains. I definitely despise auto flowering strains for indoor grows, weak genetics, small yields, and reduced potency... No Bueno.

    Bham


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