hello all, first timer here, been lurking the gc forums trying to figure out how to get my greenthumb going, and after reading other sections of the forums on growing ive decided that organic sounds the best to me. Free of chemicals just has a nice ring to it so ive been reading the forums just trying to soak up as much as i can and it seems that my current living situation doesn't allow me to go as organic as i like and as big as id like. What i mean by that is im unable to cook my own soils or brew teas/fpe's (which im still trying to wrap my head around) and will be trying to do this in a pc sized case. So that kind of leaves me with limited options with what i can do. I found a local greenhouse that sells organic mechanics products. I was thinking of picking up ewcs and a bag of the premium potting soil. I was gonna use the ewc/jiffy/verm for germing ( from dankohzee's sticky ) and then transferring to the potting soil when ready. Which leads me to ask, what if anything should i add to the soil? Because according to their website the potting soil contains compost, pine bark, coir, and perlite (more worm castings and compost than our Container Blend). And would i need to somehow make an act (probably going stick and bucket method here and for all teas/botanicals) to keep the soil nice and active? And would i still need to apply just straight water or would the act be that? Sorry for all the noobish talk haha just trying to get as much as i can figured out before i even germ my seeds Thanks for reading, im sure ill have more questions here as im trying to figure all this out
Welcome to GCs Organics forum! First off, most of us experienced organic heads are old with tired eyes. Please break your chunks of text into more readable paragraphs and such. Myself I tend to skip posts that are hard to read. First off, if you are going the premade bagged soil route, get the very best you can, especially with a micro grow. This topic will help you in that search. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/988488-ready-grow-bagged-soil.html I wouldn't bother adding ANYTHING (like vermiculite) to the premade soil, other than ewc's. I wouldn't use jiffy soil. Stay away from soil mixes that have tree ingredients. Especially pine. ACTS are good. With such a small grow, a small jar, some ewc's, an air stone and aquarium pump should be fine. Just put a small bit of molasses in with it. You need to use it all at once but luckily it is hard to over do on an ACT (although easy to overdo the molasses). If you have a scientific/math bone in your body and want the exact ptoportions to use, this site has that info in it somewhere. Microbe Organics Apply an ACT once or twice during a grow cycle. Also try to do some research and get good quality ewc's. Most are bland. Read here for info on botanical teas. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/951823-botanicals.html
Thanks wee! Yea after I posted it I figured that it was a little too clumped together. Ill try to do better and space things out from now on I did read through that ready to grow bagged soil thread and seems my pick of soil was wrong so back to reading...thinking this time maybe Kellogg's nrich if its at the home depot around me. Ill have to check out that site to get the proportions for an act then since I'm going small scale. And I figured id have to do some research to see where I can get good quality ewcs since I figured most big stores wouldn't carry quality ones Thanks again, really excited to get everything going but still got some prep/reading to do