The Truth and Myths of: "NUTRIENTS"

I look forward to seeing your results. This could be of great use to the community seeing as there are so many varieties of nutrients on the market.

 

what are you using?

 

a friend of mine recently grew a rather gorgeous crop of purple wreck with absolutely no nutrients. all he did was throw some organic blood and bone meal down ONE time, so i dont even count that lol.

 

Good morning ZS.

For 20+ years I grew using a wide variety of hydroponic nutes in a wide variety of different mediums - always looking to find the "perfect setup".

I never did.

Of course, I did fine. I grew good pot, better than most, but, as you described, there was always some kind of an issue - yellowing, spotting, curling, burning - whatever. Its almost inevitable.

Several years ago I was turned on to real organic gardening. I havent looked back since. I havent bought a bottle of nutrients in years - I simply dont need them anymore. My garden produces more, my flowers smell and taste better, I dont ever get deficiencies, nute burn - whatever, like I did for all those years when I was using bottled nutes.

Holy shit do I save money not buying "nutes"! But - even if I wasnt saving a shit ton of money, I'd still garden organically. To me, there is simply no comparison anymore.

An organic garden is a magical, wonderful thing. Organic soil is totally ALIVE - I mean, how cool is that.

I lean more towards seed meals, Dynamic Accumulators, rock dusts and sure, some crab meal, but tend to stay away from animal byproducts like bone and blood meals - theyre just kinda gross to me.

When we garden hydroponically, we really guess, leave it up to the chemical fertilizer manufacturers and force feed what we think our plants need. When we garden organically, we make a diverse soil mix, with a little bit of everything that plants need. As the plants grow, both they and the soil life decides what the plants need to thrive, and take it as they need it, resulting in healthier, more vibrant plant health.

I make my own compost and worm castings at home. These items are really the heart of an organic garden, as all of the soil life starts out in these items. Over time, they breed and spread out through our soil. Bacteria release enzymes which break down, or "nutrient cycle" organic matter, effectually breaking it down into food for both the plant and the microbes. Fungal strands stretch out through the soil, literally carrying nutrients directly to your plants roots. Fungal strands will actually penetrate directly through your plants roots to carry nutrition to your plants.

Im able to continually reuse my soil. The day a plant is harvested I dig out a 1 gallon hole out of my 15 gallon pots and drop in a new 1 gallon vegging plant. Ive been reusing the very same soil for several years now - plant No.15 in the same pot of soil as plant No. 1 was in with absolutely no loss of quality or quantity, by simply topdressing with assorted organic amendments here and there - it simply doesnt get any easier. I dont ever need to check pH, or PPM's. I keep my soil moist with straight tap water, with the exception of an occassional botanical tea.

There is no perfect bottled nutrient. I'll never buy another bottle again - because I dont need to.

Thanks - just my .02c.

j

 

I ask because you can burn a plant with Organic Soil

This depends.

With a well made soil, made with quality humus (compost, castings, vermicompost), as long as you allow the soil to nutrient cycle (this refers to the time allowed for the soil life to break down the organic amendments you added) then you really cannot burn your plants. Nutrient cycling is, of course, key. Fresh amendments added to a soil can and probably will burn. Properly made soil will not.

A decent soil recipe should be used, for example:

1/3 humus components (castings/compost/vermicompost)
2/3 Sphagnum peat
Aeration amendment if needed
4-5 cups of rock dust per Cubic Foot (7.5 gallons)
2-3 cups nutritional amendments per CF

There are of course many variations, but this is a basic recipe. the 2-3 cups of nutritional amendments are a TOTAL of your items - not each. If you use a dozen cups, vs. 2-3, sure, you'll burn up your plants probably. depending on how many different amendments are used, you just add, lets say, a quarter cup of each, or whatever, until you have your 2-3 cups, total, per CF.

j

 

zeroshawdow, you should head to the organic grow section. You'll learn a ton from the good organi-folks there.

 

Synthetics do tend to give you a bigger yield, but not by much. But for personal consumption it's all about the quality at the end. Organics definitely has the edge on synthetics when it comes to smell/taste.

 

but I do believe with 'Hydroponics' you yield more

Not necessarily true...*lol*

This is a Blueberry plant in a 15 gallon pot of my homemade soil. If I remember correctly she gave me almost 3/4 of a pound of the sweetest smelliest stickiest buds ever.

She was kept moist with tap water. No bottled nutrients whatsoever.

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Organics is NOT about this amendment or that amendment - it's about high quality humus. It's about creating and maintaining a living soil. It's about the bacteria that exude enzymes that break down organic matter into its elemental form, where compounds are released from their bonds, how fungi actually penetrate roots to help carry nutrients from A to B -

Fertilizer companies are raping the modern gardeners pocketbooks. I spent countless thousands over the years. It feels good to not need them anymore.

It takes a little bit and some patience to get started, but if if you were really interested I'd be more than happy to help. The deeper one gets into organics the more fascinating it becomes.

J

 

I feel like there are too many variables to say this about the yield. There are some pros around here pulling some damn weight in there organic grows. Jerry's one of them. G45 grows some monsters too. My last grow was 13 ounces with 3 plants in a 4x4 space. Not bad and my Scrog has room for more growth still. My goal is 4 plants-20 ounces in my 4x4 space. We'll see.

With organics, its not about the fertilizer, its about the compost source. Did you make it yourself or did you buy a $2 bag from lowes. You get out what you put in. And I also believe that watering technique plays into it. If your soil goes dry, that is time that your plant is not growing. People are matching growthrates of hydro growers with watering systems like Tromf Blumats and SIP planters. The reason hydro growers have a better yield is because of a consistant water source.

 

Why would you get rid of perfectly good soil. Reuse it man!

I believe I read that SG1 uses cheap walmart fertilizers. I dont see why they wouldnt work. I think AN is taking advantage of the fact that we are all stoned

 

Potassium Nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and magnesium sulfate and some micronutrients like iron, manganese, sulphur and copper - some of the ingredients in hydro nutes - then you get guys like Big Mike at Advanced, all of them; they buy these items in bulk out of China and with a basic recipe and a thousand percent markup, a cool looking picture on a quart jug and you've got yourself a Nute Line. Bulk chemicals are dirt cheap. It's all about marketing. They are all base chemicals, just mixed in different ratios.

I think they're all at least roughly the same buddy. I think I've tried them all over the years - they all work fine if that's your gardening method. It's up to the gardener to tweak their mixes, get to know their plants, don't over feed, don't overwater, make sure your medium is aerated - etc.

An experienced gardener will perhaps do better with cheapo nutes than a movie with Advanced, if that's what you were getting at?

No, I don't believe that there is a BEST nutrient line, I think that they are all roughly the same.

J