Hey guys I’m just finishing my first grow up. I made an organic soil and it went okay. I’m looking to experiment with bottles nutes and a medium. I was looking into Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Nutrients, Fertilizer. Bloom, Micro and Grow 1-Liter PACK OF 3 And can I just use any kind of soil With bottled nutes ? Someone please help me thanks Sorry I’m still a complete noob
Depends on what kind of result you are looking for. Do you want to mix nutrients and water every day or every 3-4 days? “Tyranny anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.” — someone awesome
Ok I was under the impression you just follow a scheldue that is supplied by AN. And basically I’m looking for what ever gives me the best taste/yield.
IMO, any nutrient schedule you get from a nutrient manufacturer is going to be too hot / too strong for most cannabis plants. Most feed at a 50% - 75% strength of the recommended amounts and frequencies. I would encourage you to do some reading on the Lucas Formula. It uses General Hydroponics line of nutrients, but it uses a very simplified approach. The size and quality of all of my plants has increased many times over since I went from growing in soil to growing in Pro-Mix Sunshine #4. It is an inert grow medium....meaning there is nothing in it but peat, coco coir, and perlite. It has zero nutrients. This type of medium is soilless hydroponic. It works exactly like hydroponics, and you experience the same increased rate of growth, size, and yield that is associated with hydro....only you get the benefit and likeness to growing in soil. Growing this way means that you have to water AND feed your plants every single day. You cannot overwater with this grow medium. Give them just what they need for that day and that’s it. You can choose to hand water (that’s what I do) or you can setup an automated drip system with a nutrient reservoir. I didn’t want to have a reservoir and all that stuff cause I’ve never done that before but I know how to mix nutrients and hand water because I have grown in soil for a little over a year. It’s just like growing in soil, but it’s more work. The great part is that you are rewarded greatly with a much much larger yield that you would have ever had growing in soil. Pro-Mix Sunshine #4 Lucas Formula with General Hydroponics nutrients. This is my first grow with this new Pro-Mix medium and I’ll never go back to soil. “Tyranny anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.” — someone awesome
That’s interesting man. I’m going to look it up. The only problem is I’m away for work for two weeks at a time but I would have to train my girlfriend haha. What size pots are you using ? What is the timeline from seed to harvest ? Your set up looks sweet. What did you use before you discovered the Lucas formula ?
Mix yourself a good quality organic soil and forget about them bottled nutes. If you have space for 15 (or 20) gallon pots you can even go with the no-till soil mix and basically just keep using the same soil over and over, you dont even need to remix it between cycles, just cut your plant at the base when you harvest and plant a new cutting or seedling in its place, adding a light top dress of amendments when needed. You might get bored though as there is not much to do during the grow aside from watching your plants grow Some links with more info if you are interested: No-Till Gardening: Revisited Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners All Organic Recipes and Notes Compilation
Scooby is correct in that growing in no-till does get sorta boring after a while. Lol I happen to enjoy mixing the nutrients every day and hand-watering my plants. If you were gone for one or two weeks at a time, you may not want to choose hydroponics...unless you do a recirculating reservoir. Technically, if you are gonna grow with synthetic bottled nutrients, you can grow in a bucket of nothing but perlite or even rocks. You don’t need soil or coco or whatever to grow with synthetic nutes. No-till supersoil / living soil might be better for you since your girlfriend is going to be helping you when you aren’t home. You can keep some water in a bucket that is pH’d and ready to go with a bubbler and air stone so it stays oxygenated. All she would have to do is pour.
Yeah I’m using a super soil now. It’s just slow. I just wanted to mix stuff up and try something different haha. Yeah she could handle it if I showed her what to do. I just wanted to get soil with perlite and mix nutes into the soil with every watering.
No matter what you do with soil, the harvests will never compare to hydro unless using hydro nutes. If you want to use bottled Nutes, go with straight Perlite Hempy buckets. 3.5 gallon mop buckets with a hole 2-3” from the bottom to create a reservoir and fill with coarse Perlite. Feed hydro Nutes every 2-3 days when young, then every other day or daily as they get bigger and through flower. It’s so simple
If you will be away for a few weeks at a time you may want to consider either staying with soil (very easy to train someone else on) or using a true hydroponic setup (relatively easy to teach someone how to mix water and nutrients and check for problems like pump not working). Hydroponic setups can be set on a timer and you can just have her monitor it and maybe add refresh the water/nutes mix once in a while.