I'm doing my first micro grow and I have a strong belief in staying organic. I'm using fox farm for my soil, with a mix of some pete moss as well as some of my own compost thats made from the dead plants collected every year out of my garden. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions of some raw foods or maybe dead fish that i could put into the soil for nutrients? if you have any other suggestions just lt me know
lol Recommend a good dead fish? Household composts & such can be nutritious. The growers with the best system for this will get an analysis of their homemade ferts. Without an analysis, it takes alot of trial and error to even get an idea of what it supplies your plants; years of growing. These analyses are pretty cheap if you check online. You just mail in a sample. Some of the best organic ferts include Bone Meal, Blood meal, Worm Castings, Kelp Meal, Maxicrop, Bat & Seabird Guanos, Fish Emulsion and palm Bunch Ash.
Juiceifer, your soil should have enough nutrients to feed your plants for a good while, depending on the one you bought. When they need more I would go simple and cheap with a dry fert like espoma's tones or fox farms dry fertilizers. Use either as a top dress. Too much too soon could lead to trouble, so know your soil. You might want to research earth worm castings, since you did not mention them. They are one of the best top dresses you can do. Along with your homemade compost ewc will give your soil a nice diverse microbe mix.....MIW
Word thanks for the advice. And i like to use fish like trout, that come from really healthy habbitats, because of their diets and lack of polution in the water they have an abundance of nutrients
Ive only ever used dead fish in my garden, but basically I clean the fish of the meat (which I eat) and then bury the remains in under the plant you want to benifit from the nutrients. Fish scrap can add lots of nitrogen and phosphorus to the soil, so depending on the fish and the desired intentions, one could theoretically benifit from using it in your grow. Though I don't pretend to be an expert on the matter, I've seen it work wonders on other plants
Strictly speaking, chemical ferts can accomplish the same quality that organics can. On average, however, it's easier to get there with organics. The microbial activities encouraged by most organics supply beneficial nutrients & gasses, but technology &/or chemicals could supply the same. Also, the vast majority of good organic ferts contain many micronutrients, often with nearly ideal levels of them. These can be supplied by chemicals as well but requires more work and more exact measurements. Your question is a little off topic so please start a new thread to discuss further.
My apologies. I was mistaken when I said that Fish Parts in general have very little P because there is a way to get P out of certain parts. I was referring to unprocessed fish parts like are being mentioned in this thread. That said, only Fish Bone Meal has alot of Phosphorus. Unprocessed fish bones do not supply anywhere near the same P levels. Bones take a long time to decompose if not ground up.
Not to dis on the home made ferts, but why dont u go with an organic fert system like fox farm or general organics? they both have easy instructions to follow so there is no guessing.
Not to dis FF or be a Dick. I know someone who uses it with good results. So Imo It's not truly organic if It's concentrated into bottles. Or if It says its derived from organic materials I'm sure that means (in most cases) chemically extracted. If someone is using Fox Farms entire line of nutes and claiming to be growing 100% organic imho there mistaken or, maybe just don't understand. And just because they have a feeding chart that's far from taking the guess work out. That chart definitely don't work the same for everyone, but that's the same for organic to I guess, what works for you may not work for me. Be Eazy...V
I am just starting off the only amendments I have at the moment are kelp meal,alfalfa meal, espoma plant tone unsulpherd black strap molasses and earth worm castings. And plan to get a fish enzyme seaweed extract and some form of guano I'm thinking high P cave bat guano.
Those are just the soil amendments I'm using as a top dressing for now. The actual soil mix is 1 bag 3cu ft advanced sunshine #4, 1 advanced sunshine super hydro and about 25% worm castings added. I got the soil for free basically, in the store its around 20$ each bag and it did 8 five gallon pots with some leftover but I added castings so the 2 bags probably do 8 pots just rt. I only mixed the 2 because I have 2 bags of each. The 4 soil additives and molasses cost less than 30$. But this is the first time if ever done this and have no idea what the results will be, but very pleased with my veg plants do far. Although I have been reassured that these products are great and if used properly will produce great tasting truly organic buds. But I really don't have the knowledge to advise you either way tho, you need to do the leg work and find what you think are the best methods for you. Please don't take my word alone.There is tons of usefull info here in the organic section read the tea brew sticky and some of the links, the soil food web is great to read up on. I also have a thread u might want to read its called "are worm castings enough" I've got a lot of help from some very informative guys there. Shout out to MIW & LD they've helped me the most but others gave chimed in as well with useful info. Good luck bro hope this helps somewhat, Be Eazy....V
Thanks man i appreciate, i'm just trying to get a large base of knowledge. I need to go get some books, but its good to hear from experienced people. Wana send me a link to ur grow thread?
I just want to be clear I AM NOT experienced. I just wanted to tell you where you could find some useful experienced info. And I'm pretty computer illiterate bro I don't know how to add a link sorry. I mainly use the GC Android app on my phone. But I can tell you where to find them. There both in the organic section here at GC the first is a sticky titled Post your tea recipe and it should be the on the top of the page, and the one I started is a question and that is Are worm castings enough? It should also be easy to find. Good luck, Be Eazy...V