cannabis stems and leaf make good mulch. i personally use them after harvest but i find i need to add other material cause the left over from harvest isnt enough to make a thick layer of mulch. it might be enough after a few cycles though. cover crop: i think its main benefit is to keep the soil teaming between cycles. its meant to die and turn to dead mulch as the cannabis canopy eventually shades it from light. i personally used it the first couple cycles, now i have a thick dry mulch layer so i dont feel i need it anymore. YMMV.
Wow, this is a lot of great information. Missinglighter (I haven't learned how to tag yet!) pointed me over this way, I have a thread going here: Help a girl out? Small space lighting question. Basically a new 2'x2'x5' closet grow. This will be my first soil grow. My previous experience was hydroponic, with chemicals. Wasn't my grow, I helped a friend. This was about 10 years ago or so. I want to do soil, and as organic as possible would be great. I'm starting to dive into soil research now. I read the base soil mix recipe above. I don't have quite the resources yet (as this in my first solo grow and funds are limited) to gather all of that this time around. I will be working though on collecting those ingredients over time. What I DO have so far is some Fox Farms Ocean Forest and worm castings. Any recommendations on what to add to that that would provide me a good starting point? Sorry if this isn't the appropriate place to post this question, but be gentle as I'm new here and still learning my way around! There is SO much wonderful information and a ton of resources here. It can get kind of overwhelming very easily. If this question needs to go elsewhere please let me know!
@MissMegan this is the perfect spot! I am so glad you are here! There's some other female organic growers I can introduce you if you want. There's another woman from NorCal who just signed up, a lady from Belgium and I have no idea where grace is from and then me.
@missinglighter! woo-hoo, you taught me how to tag! Yeah, I would love to connect with some other female growers! You have been a huge help so I really appreciate it! Been reading a lot about soil today. This is all so fascinating.
That woo hoo and excitement to join in is why I do it. Makes me excited too. I will send you a message and talk to the other ladies. We can set up a spot to talk somewhere. Welcome!!
Hi @MissMegan Was hoping this thread would be the right spot for you. I guess I can answer your question myself. If you plan on using FFOF and worm castings for your only food source, your plants won't do as good unless you added some fertilizers in a meal form. FFOF is made of wood humus, peat moss and a splash of EWC. The soil is very mucky and holds water longer than you need. It's heavy and not fluffy. I used it in the beginning and now I won't use it for a houseplant. The quality of ingredients is not there. people often find their plants yellowing out so they start using the bottle fertilizer that FF sells. The bottles they offer are not organic. They use the cheapest fertilizers and half of the chelates in the bottle are known to cause cancer. Of all the bottled organic and synthetic fertilizers, fox farm is on the bottom as far as quality of inputs used. Fox farm started out their business and the demand was huge. They quickly ran out of decent stuff to use to make the potting soil. To keep up with demand, they've unlisted the help from the government to take toxic waste dirt that has had oil spills, chemicals and stuff that has to be labeled toxic and disposed of accordingly. One way of legally disposing of it is to give it to fox farm. They then pile the dirt on their property and turn the dirt with a bulldozer for two years to let the pesticides, toxic chemicals etc off gas so the soil after so long is deemed usable again. They then removed any word that says organic and replaced it with "natural". I realize the base soil mix has a few fertilizers but one of the things we do is reuse the soil so after you buy the ingredients, you don't have to mix soil again. You just add back 3 fertilizers for the next round. So the next round is very cheap. Saving money is the whole reason I do it this way. For the cost of one bag of FFOF you could mix twice the amount. If you want to use it because you bought it still, that's fine. Just add some kelp meal when the plants start to fade. That will get you to the end of the round when you'll have to pay for soil again. Maybe you'll still be around here and can see how the soil program here works.
Oh crap! That is such a bummer to hear that....doesn't sound like a good idea to use it then. I bought it though and garden a lot so I'll find something to do with it eventually, I'll probably mix it in with some of my compost and use it for ornamental flowers next year. ok, I'm going to review the organic soil recipe and see if I can manage to scrape enough funds together to make that happen. I'll try to track what I spend and then report back, so that others have a good idea of a start up cost. Thanks for the info @missinglighter! You probably just saved me a LOT of frustration and disappointment.
Do you live in the city or are you near agricultural areas that have horses, cows, etc? A livestock feed store may still have stuff you can use like kelp, crab, lime, etc. Home Depot has peat moss for $12 for a 3 cuft compressed bale that expands to about 5 cuft. That's five bags of FFOF worth of peat moss for $12. They also have calcium carbonate lime and agriculture gypsum as well as online ordering with free in store shipping. Amazon is another good source to buy if you can't find local too. hydro store Down To Earth boxes are pretty expensive but you are only gonna need ten gallons of soil right? Small grow? The down to earth boxes would last you a year and if you bought fertilizer at a nursery or alternative source in large bulk bags, that would last you years but higher initial cost. If money is super tight you can eliminate the rock dust but that can be sourced cheap depending on where you live. I believe GiMiK lives around your area. He has mentioned a few ways to get rock dust on the cheap.
Quick question. The "Aeration (Pumice/Lava rock)" listed in the base recipie, is that a corse or fine texture? When I think of lava rock I think of big chunky rocks....or am I looking for something of a finer texture?
Lava rock comes in several sizes and can be as small as a 1/2" or less. Harder to find so what some folks have done is crushed them with their car tires. I haven't used it but I've used pumice and perlite. Both work and which ever you choose, poke holes in the bottom of the bag and rinse it off first with a hose. When you think it's clean, rinse it twice more. Lol it's very dusty and it's not something you want to breath in either. I bought a 4cuft bag of perlite small grade at the hydro store for $20. Cheapest I can find that isn't miracle grow brand which has synthetic nutrients added to the perlite?! The pumice I bought at a bulk soil landscaping store by the cubic yard. $14 for a half cubic yard which is about 13 gallons.
You said you have worm castings. How much and are they homemade or is it a bagged brand like Worm Power?
You're gonna hate me. Wiggle Worm is not very good quality if I recall correctly. People bought it and ended up having problems just like FFOF which also has crappy compost (wood humus). Compost can be anything that's decomposed into humus. Wood decomposes till it crumbles and is cheap. It is often what bagged compost is made of. Worms are fed sawdust because it's cheap and easier to feed in massive amount commercially compared to food scraps which is what homemade worm bins use. You know that saying you are what you eat? That is true of worms. The biology of poor castings is low and it won't have the battery or reserves needed to sustain your plant for a long time. Compost is like a car. Cheap compost or castings is like driving a beater car that barely runs while good castings are like a Ferrari getting you where you want, faster, bigger, and it doesn't break down along the way. All stuff in the recipe you can skimp on price and buy as cheap as you can but the castings or compost component is what you need to find the best of the best. I don't think they have Malibu Compost in the Midwest. I really don't know of a brand to recommend in that area. Is there any compost on Craigslist you can buy from a home owner? I found some decent priced worm castings for around $20 for a cubic foot. I wish I could tell you your wiggle worm will be awesome but if you want an easy grow with big resinous buds, wiggle worm won't do that. I could be wrong. Maybe someone could recommend something?
Nah, not gonna hate you! I'm a gardener, have been for a long time. This is just my first soil run growing herb, so I understand what your saying about good vs. poor quality. I have a lot of decent compost already from my own pile. Not sure what to do about the worm castings, you are correct - I don't have access to the Malibu products here. I might have to make due with what I have for now and get my own worm bin going ASAP.
Oh you already have homemade compost pile?? Just use that. You'll have a great run!! How mature is the compost?? Picture?
This is what I got off of four plants with my first run using this and water. 36 oz and 33 was all nice smokable nugs. The rest was made into hash edibles. I'm sure you can squeeze out 2.5 ounces per run for your one ounce a month needs if you run some good genetics. You'll do fine with the seeds you've bought.
oh. my. Gawd. Holy shit. That picture is just about torture to a girl who is totally without. Hence the decision to grow for myself. Seriously looks beautiful. I'm going out in a bit to root through the compost and see what's there. I'll snap some pictures for you.
What size pots? Nice harvest! Nice bud pic also. Sent from my SM-T567V using Grasscity Forum mobile app