PLEASE READ FIRST. I have purchased lights and nutrients, so know I would just like to know what soil to get and what size pots to use. Like, will the Miracle Gro potting soil with "3 months of nutrients" mess with my plants when I put them on a normal nute regimen? I have read over these stickies countless times but I still cannot come to the right conclusions on what to use right now. My main concerns have to do with the size of the growing pot, what type of soil, and I want to get a pre mixed nute that works well. I am a new medical patient in Michigan, and I have 10 diesel x lowryder seeds, a blue hash seed, and a few unkown indo seeds. I want to know how big of pots to get for the tiny lowryders, and how big for my regular plants( I plan on vegging for only about a month with LST) I currently only have some assorted CFL lights which I will use from seeds to harvest ojn the lowryders and possibly for the vegging of the others. I want to buy a nice bigger light for flowering, was wondering what wattage would be practical for 3-6 plants, as well as MH or HPS. As I said earlier I would like to purchase a nute blend(s) to feed the plants and would like to know a good brand. Last but not least, how the hell am I going to get all that soil, and what type should I get?( I realize adding sand and a few other things help the plants haeve room, but I am not sure where to acquire sand. All walmart has is miracle grow, and it comes in bags that would probably only fill one regular size pot. Any suggestions for the soil predicament Any information would help. EDIT: Additional stuff I ended up purchasing a 400w HPS, hopefully that is good enough. Now I am just wondering about pot size, nutrients, and acquiring the soils in the first place. Oh, and you can just reuse your soil each grow by flushing it right? I also just bought a few bags of sand, cheap as hell her on the internets. Anything else that may benefit me to add to my soil/sand mix?
well im not sure where about in michigan you are but i live north east of detroit and there is a few hydro stores in the area. theres the cultivation station(TCS) at little mack and harper and hydro harrys at 10 and dequindre. you can find some good soil at either of those stores. im currently using fox farm ocean forest which i purchased from TCS and it seems like alot of people on this site use it aswell with good results. im not really a soil grower though so you may want to get some more opinions. hope this helped.
A lot of folks here are going to tell you to stay away from the pre-ferted MG nutes, but there are some that have had success with them. I personally like to build my own organic soils, starting from a good pre bagged organic soil, and adding wormcastings, perlite, glacial rock dust and diatamaceous earth. I would try to use at least a 3 gallon pot for your lowryders. and 5 gallons + for your regular plants.......the more room for roots, the bigger the shoots.... With 3-6 plants, you can get by with a 400w......but a 600w or even a 1000w would be better. I set my soil up with organic fertilizers in it already, see this thread for my mix An organic soil mix of mine.In fact, anything you can read by lumperdawgz on here will enlighten you. All I need to do is water (with molasses now and then)and occasionally use a worm tea and a hydrolyzed fish/kelp fertilizer. For your needs however, a Fox Farms Trio pack of fertilizer will get you going quite well. FF products have a lot of believers here at GC, myself included. As far as reusing your soil......you can re-use it with no problems if you go all organic....with fertilizers that are hydrochloride based.....you really need to flush them to remove the residual salts from the substrate to have them be effective. There is a composting process called "Bokashi" that will reuvenate your soils to a point that is richer than it was in the first place....try google for info. I've probably overloaded you with a lot of info......but if you can get MG's organic soil without the timed released fertilizer......you have a good soil to start with. Add 15% perlite to help with drainage....worm castings if you can find them and you'll be good to go. Resist the temptation to water them daily.......let them dry out pretty good them water deep. Roots like oxygen....and if they sit in saturated soil for days on end the plant's health will diminish. I use a 7 dollar moisture probe and water only when the needle is in the red zone. The 400 will be fine for your first shot.....you'll become obsessed like the rest of us and after your first crop will be upgrading anyway. Enough rambling for now...welcome to Grasscity and congrats on getting your recommendation. Let us know how things go.......peace.........chunk
Thanks for all the tips, I think I have finally decided on what I am using, based on space and money restrictions. One last thing I am wondering though, should I use a different nutrient regimen for the lowryders since they are tiny autoflowers? Like using my flowering nute mix or change it up a bit? Oh and I just got back from the clinic with my official medical recommendation so, JOY!!