i guess i made the wrong choice but could not find anything thing else this winter. yeah i read some people avoid this like the plague.my problem is my ph reading says 6.3 to 6.8 after run off. quite normal, however my stems are red and some plants quite stunted, yellowing with brown spots and some nute burn.although it says soil this stuff holds water way too long and when it does dry out it becomes really hard, really pulls of the sides of the pot and is very hard to water it seems to flow right through so i have to empty the bottom trey back into the plant like 3 times for it to soak into the soil. my question is i have read in other forums that i should be treating this soil as a soilless medium therfore should i be lowering the ph down to 5.5-6.0. i am really scratching my head on this any help or tips from someone that has fought with this stuff before would greatly appreciated
I used it before and nute burnt a purple urkle to death. I couldn't bring it back once I realized what had happened. I would transplant to a bigger pot and use a real potting soil. You will still have the miracle shit that the roots are holding on to, but they will find their way into the nicer soil fast. Repot ASAP.
I personally have used Miracle grow soil with much success. I always cut it with a lot of extra perilite, but it always worked fine and the I just don't add nutes until near flowering time. I do feel as though it may have been linked to a clone death or two, but seedlings seem to do great in it. Just my $.02
I did the same thing last winter a year ago and had similar problems. I decided to give up on dirt and go soil-less but if that's not an option for you I agree with the earlier post, re-pot. I've had very good success repotting using a bucket of water to loosen most of the existing dirt out of the root ball and then planting in whatever's next. You just don't want to tear/rip/hurt the roots. I stuck the whole thing into the bucket and came back 10 minutes later when everything was completely soaked and falling apart. I just held the plant by the base of the stem and swirled it around to get as much of the dirt off as would come off and then up and into the new pot/mix. If you get it out of that dirt and into some neutral the plants should come back. Give them a week to re-tool and root in and they should come back.
I'm usually an outdoor grower of other plants than weed. Couple of ?'s for you? Did you amend the soil w/ anything else? Are you adding more nutes to this soil? Since most Miracle -Gro has time - released nutes already in it & it's actual Ph is usually around 5.1 you might try transplanting into a mix of 3 pts soil,2 pts compost (spring for a decent one), 1 pt spaghum moss,couples parts vermiculite (try to get the big chunks - small compacts down or I've heard of people using packing peanuts) & I'd toss in some worm castings,blood & bone meal. For nutes I use a mixture of Garrett's Juice (low nutes but esstinial vitamins),fish emulisions (not alot though it'll burn 'em), molasses & a couple drops of Superthrive in a couple gallons of lukewarm water (cold water can put them in shock). I use it on everything in my garden & it must work - pulled over 800 - 7" cayenne peppers off of 1 plant & turned (10) mother plant strawberries into over 300 plants in 1 season & my 1st indoor crop of Whitw widows are only a week old & growing like weeds...LOL. Grandpa always said " If ya aint got good soil,ya aint going to grow shit"
Here is a pic of my seedlings recently purchased from Nirvana and a few craigslist clones all in miracle grow soil with perilite. Doing very well. up close of an ERSB seedling. Products Used: What my mix looks like:
Regardless of the success some may have had with MG soil, it sounds like the OP is getting nute burn from it and needs advice about that. You're not helping yourself to have good pH in this instance, that just means that the plant is not locked out of range to uptake any of the nutrients it is already drowning in. Best thing you can do if you are in MG soil and it is giving you a problem is to flush the hell out of it and then transplant to a bigger pot with soil that is not pre-ferted. You may even want to gently wash some of the soil off the roots, but don't disturb the roots too much.
I have used MG soil for mother's in the past and haven't really had a problem. I would keep mothers for some 4 months at a time then move them to my flowering room. All the horrible MG nutes are leached out by this time and I switch them over to Fox Farm or Canna nutes, to be honest most nutes give you the same results, and I get a nice and full bush. I would never use MG soil to flower with straight out of the bag, its nutes are just not stable or balanced enough for flowering mj plants.
Depending on the size of the plants I'd be careful of washing the roots - will work w/small plants but in my experience w/ larger plants of other varities you could put it into shock. I'd carefully roll the pot on it's side to loosen the dirt & carefully move it to a larger pot ( rule of thumb in the gardening world - no more than 2" larger than pervious pot as you'll stimulate root growth & not foliage). It'll grow out of the dirt you have it in & less likely to go into major shock & set you back 2-3 weeks growing time while it recovers. Hope this helps. Also instead of mixing your soil you might try a new 1 I'm trying this year ' Wondersoil' by Spray-n-Grow.com. It's a renewable coir fiber w/ worm castings,kelp,starter nutes(doesn't give Ph),water-saving polymers & mycorrhiza already in it & that's pretty much everything you need. Might need to tweak it a bit w/greensand & some more vermiculite but it sounds pretty good.
there is a post of my experience in the seed bank section: http://forum.grasscity.com/seed-banks/558373-craiglist-clones-san-diego-ca-purchased.html Check it out, they were very nice too! I am still trying to snag some of the blue dream clones on there but they sell out too fast, sorry for the thread jack, it wasn't my intention.