should i be using nutes

I'd be suspicious of that soil. Who's the manufacturer? When a bag says it feeds for 6 mo it usually means time release chemicals in there. The soil itself could be organic but once you add the time release ferts its chem time. I wouldn't add anything unless your plants telling you to. Veg is slow when using cfls but flowering is the same time. And as well its a seedling so it won't need anything for a while.

 

Heya Johnny,

Along with the accurate information Heretik gave you i would also like to suggest you do not use pre-amended soil to start your plants with. They do not need any food at all when they are babies. They will not begin using food from the soil until the cotyledon leaves (first small round leaves) begin to yellow. These leaves act as an embryo and feed the plant for the first few weeks of its life. When you buy pre-amended soil you do not know how long it has been sitting on the shelf. It may have been there awhile and has already released a good part of the nutrients. At the very least it will stunt growth and at worse kill the seedling. I have seen this happen time and time again with Scott's Miracle Grow potting soil.

If you really want to use pre-amended soils may I suggest you read this thread.

http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/988488-ready-grow-bagged-soil.html

It may aid you in making a wiser choice when choosing pre-amended soils.


HTH

MGB

 

Heya Johnny,

I am not trying to be an ass, but maybe you should ask the folks that recommended it to you. I am sure they could answer your question better than us since they have experience with it. We don't even have knowledge of what the product name is. You have not told us.

I am only speaking for myself but I have never used nor heard of a pre-amended store bought organic soil that would take you the entire grow w/o supplementing it in some form or another.

Sorry I could not be of more help.

MGB

 

Heya Johnny,

That soil is not organic it is organic soil fertilized with granule form Expert Gardener Colorcote Slow-Release All Purpose Plant Food, 19-6-12. I can't tell you whether it will get you through the grow or not.

From the reviews I saw on line it does not have all that great a reputation. Some of the reviews I saw on line came from right here on GC. I suggest maybe you speak with one of those folks. Just type Expert Gardener potting soil in the GC search engine and you will see posts on this product. On the reviews I saw at Walmart where they sell this product it only received a 2.5 out of 5.

HTH

MGB

 

K expert gardener is manufactured by spectrum brands div in Madison WI. They are just a conglomerate that makes and markets tons of shit from garden products to vacuums to razors etc etc. They're just there to fill wal mart shelves. The msds sheets of majority of their products are filled with health risks associated with them. So I would put money on that soil having something funky in it. It basically knock off miracle grow soil. Read up on soil food web and soil mixing and you'll have a better understanding of what's going on in there.

Don't mean to discourage you or anything I really hope this grow works out well for you organic or not. Just wanted to give you an example of how the gardening market is just a sell sell market and doing some product research takes all of 2-3 min and can save you a lot of money and head ache. Happy gardening man.

 

That question was answered in my first post. If your plant tells you it needs it asses the problem then. It looks like a healthy seedling right now so wait and see what happens. It'll probably be fine and adding anything will probably make more problems.

 

Hope you're not offended that I dissed you're soil. I have a bad rep for that kinda shit ha ha. I'm sure you've heard of KISS keep it simple stoner but also think LITFA leave it the fuck alone ha ha.I vet great enjoyment out of growing my own cannabis and o.e of the greatest things it has taught me is patience. As well as balance. Don't put too much stress on yourself to do and have everything the masters have goin on right away and except that there will be failures and bad decisions but learn from them as much as you can and read read read man.

 

Johnny, gardening, especially organically is a lifelong learning experience. I hope that you will continue to hang out and learn alongside the rest of us. There's good folks here that will help lead you in the right direction for hopefully many future grows. Look at the big picture.

Welcome to the Organics forum.

J

 

Like you, I got lucky and stumbled into this forum a few years ago. I had been growing with bottled nutrients for many years prior to that. After I started reading a lot in here and looking at other people's gardens I got hit in the forehead with a sledgehammer - I had been doing it all wrong the whole time. I'm not talking a couple if years either - sheesh it was a big reality slap for me, but things clicked into place. Now I'm obsessed and am always reading and trying new things in my garden(s).

Since I started gardening organically, in a living soil - "living" being the key word here everything had gotten much better for me in my garden. Everything is always real healthy and I very rarely run into any kind of issues; this is one of those things that if you don't screw with it too much it will totally take care of itself.

It all comes down to taking the time to mix your own soil using quality products, with an emphasis on quality worm castings and compost. Get those two items right and everything else will work itself out. Once you get a soil mixed up by following the basic directions found all over the place here the hard work is over, then just sit back, keep your soil moist with plain old water and watch how very impressive organic gardening is. It's such a cool hobby as we can see results fairly quickly.

Ask a lot of questions and read. Before you know it you'll be rockin' the Casbah.

J

 

Looks good to me...

J

 

You can use JiffyMix too. Chunk recommended it to me.