Just wanted to warn potential growers about the soil they pick out. I went the cheap route, I bought a cheap bag of "hyponex" organic soil for under $2 at walmart. I beg all of you who see this before starting to spend the extra couple dollars on better soil!!!!!! So far in my soil i've found rocks,bark,glass and various bits of plastic, small pieces of rope, fuck! This stuff is really the pits and I wish I would have spent a few more bucks and got something thats been made correctly. Now i'm also finding out that the shit has parasites in it. I'm not sure if sitting outside of walmart is to blame, but god damn. You dont win with cheap soil
GLASS?! rofl. Bark is fairly normal in organic soil... rocks, not so much. Glass and plastic anything would be a huge no-no. Yah I wish I had easy access to Fox Farm stuff... but MG Organic Choice has been okay for me.
I agree that stuff was pretty bad when i tried it.. I used it in an outdoor garden mixed with native soil, so it wasn't to bad for that purpose... But for our precious marijuana plants we want something a lil better, and more consistent from bag to bag.. I had good results with miricle grow organic choice potting soil.. For every small 8qt bag of mg organic, I add a gallon jug of the terracycle worm casting potting mix also sold at walmart (u could sub this for straight worm castings 2-3 cups per 8qt bag if u have already.... I was just adding the terracycle for the castings/humus content as mg organic is pretty mild). I then add perilite till it's the consitency I like... add 2 tbs of dolomite lime per gallon of soil for ph stabilizing, and have at it..... Start feeding with liquid nutes when they appear hungry... Or ammend the mix further from the start with dry organic material such as bat guano, worm castings, blood-bone meal, kelp meal etc..
When I get a chance this weekend i'm gonna get some quality stuff. I've just left the soil in my grow room and I went to reuse it because I germated some seeds and its got bugs! I could have saved $2 and used the dirt in my backyard. I have one plant going in this soil and its alright. I've added light nutes 1/8th strength to one watering to get some nutes in the soil because its such crap. The plant doesn't seem to mind the crap soil much, yet.
There are many different brands available, but I buy the one pictured below at the local home depot. My walmart carries this brands products, but not the dolomite lime, yours may have it though.. It's just dolomite lime though, and most home garden shops will carry a similar dolomite lime product.. It adds for the most part magnesium, and calcium to the soil, and is used to counteract the acidic nature of peat based soil mixes as they break down, or any mix with a ph out of range... At 2tbs per gallon of soil It has the ability to buffer soil ph, and keep it in the range of 6-7ph
also, with the hyponex brand soil from walmart- it has ferts/nutes in it!! nowhere on the bag does it say an n-p-k ratio or that it has extended release ferts but in the soil there are little green balls about the size of a bb. squeeze one of these and it has fluid in it. FERTS!! this is why i've killed the last 15 seedlings i've grown. my clones are fine, but seedlings can't handle that shit. four of said wasted seeds were feminized passion #1. no bugs in mine, though.
I use hyponex and my plants are doing fine. I did find bottle caps, glass, plastic, rocks, bark etc in it though lol. It gets really compact even with 1/3 perlite. I aerate the top after each watering.
I have found big 40lb bags of organic potting soil at Home Depot for under $2 that are great -- no bottlecaps or dead bodies or anything. It is about 85% organic matter and 15% sand, which is fine for helping drainage.
Damn. Ok so now i've noticed that theres little gnats or something running across the top of the soil... this isn't good right? How do I stop them? Transplant?
Do a transplant, and gently wash off the bad soil from the root mass before putting the plant into the new, nice soil.
Any advice on how to keep the soil good between grows? I bought the soil like a month ago and its already infested :/
Fungus gnats... yeah those are not good... there are larvea in your soil, and when they run out of fungus, and decaying matter to eat they start eating root... This pests are usually casued by to wet of soil for prolonged amount of time. Those parasites u mentioned above are their larva in the soil? If this bag of soil was left outside, and allowed to be rained on like most home depot stores that's where they probably came from.. Let the soil dry out really, really good between the next few waterings. Also u can buy yellow sticky cards which will catch the adults.. To treat the larva u have to dry them out, they also sell many different products for killing fungus gnats at most nursery stores, home depot etc. Edit: I think u just bought infected soil to begin with.. Did u mix in any perilite to the soil? If not the soil probably stays wet for to long which creates the perfect breeding grounds for these gnats.. I mix my potting mixes up and store them in rubbermaid bins indoors... Every few days I just open them up and give them a good stirring, and leave the bin open for the day... When they get to dry I add a lil water..
I didn't add anything in it. Just used the straight organic soil, had some perlite in it (some, lol). Yes the soil was wet when I bought it, and its still damp. So basicly just let the soil dry out until I want to use it? Also what to do about the plant? Let that soil dry out?? Thanks for the stickies idea, will get one for the grow box. Edit: Will check out home-depot this weekend and see if I can find something to fuck these gnats up. Untill then I will do as you said and let the soil dry out really good between now and this weekend.
I found this link that gives some backround info about these common gnats and then some products that will help kill it. http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/uc/uc-028.html
If you have fungus gnats you will need to kill the adults, the larvae, and the eggs. To get rid of the adults put sticky traps on the surface of the soil. To get rid of larvae put potato slices on the surface of the soil, it will attract the larvae. After a few days discard. To get rid of eggs you can put a layer of sand on the soil surface, this will suffocate them. These techniques are productive at getting most gnats but probably not all. The old standby neem oil works well to finish the job.
Hey guys, I would recommend Eko Premium Potting Soil which is sold at the Home Depot's here in Colorado. I would imagine it is sold elsewhere as well. They sell a few varieties including a great compost mix, a great outdoor mix, and my favorite which is their regular premium potting soil. It contains perlite, sand, a mixture of compost including bloodworm castings and peat moss, all with a nice balanced PH. For $5 a 50 pound bag!! hopefully this can save some of you newbie growers some money. I have had EXCELLENT results with this soil, and will continue to use it.