ive had issues with roots organic. it can sometimes burn or kill your plants if you dont take care of it properly. youll want to have a ppm meter if you use this stuff (or anything really for that matter). the reason i say this is because this soil is HOT! the organic nutrients tend to over-saturate the solution you feed with. for example, i fed with only ph correct (6.4-6.5) distilled h2o. when my plants showed stress, i measured the runoff. the ph was 5.5 and the ppm was over 2000! yikes! it just creates a lot more work because you have to give your pots a major flush to correct the nutrient balance and ph. go coco and dont look back lol happy growing /\/igga
Use the soil less coco mix for my fresh clones, I use it to start small clones, great so far! There are a few types of roots organic, which one are you talking about?
Raskama, Roots Organic soil is great BUT they make a great soil~less mix I would highly recommend getting some coco coir in a brick or in loose fibers and making your own personal coco mix from it ~ then transplant when tha time is right Personally, if it were my grow, I would cut the roots organic soil mix by 50% w/ coco coir and add 10% of my home~made compost....Plus, I'll even tell you my secret soil ingredient that started my grow off once w/ a bang [before I had to shut it down]... granular garden sulfur. Add 1 tablespoon per 2 quarts of soil by volume. [2x 32 oz container] It will get your Ph right for you and it's something cannabis wants but rarely gets. Everyone uses dolomite lime.... Grow Pakalolo
This is my first experience with roots organic and it was a bad one. I suggest you stay away from it. A certian strain seems to be having PH problems based on the assorted problems yet I have only gave it water with a ph of 7.1 (new yellow and brown growth & one plant just wilted over as if it was underwatered but isn't). Better off making your own soil mix or going with a different brand IMO. I never plan on using this crap again.
yoctown I have an opinion on why folks have such different experiences with 'grow store soils' like Roots Organic. I'm not picking on them, per se, but this is a company that I know quite a bit about since we shop at the same wholesale supplier - literally. LMAO Let's break-down any potting soil (based on the Cornell Mix circa 1937) So potting soils will have some level of a 'peat moss' - and if they're using 'peat moss' specifically you're f*cked 10 ways to Sunday. If the mix is using Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss - you're dancing on several levels not the least of which is microbial activity and viability. The very best 'peat' is Hypnum Peat Moss which is the absolute best but good luck trying to find it. Hypnum peat tests out at 6.8 - 7.3 pH - again good luck finding it and if you do please send me a PM before posting it! LOL Or they might use coir or some mix of peat and coir. Sunshine Organic Growers Mix for example. So you've got your base and now you need some aeration amendments - pick your poison - pumice, perlite, vermiculite, gravel, sand, et al. So out of the gate the only real factor that would make one mix better than another is which peat they're using. Aeration amendments carry any number of arguments - some of them even lucid on occasion. So now we're down to humus (thermal compost or EWC) and this is where all of the cannabis potting soils fall on their faces because they do not have their own operations. There is one exception down in Phoenix, Oregon but even they play a couple of games on the EWC deal. So the question becomes 'Where are they sourcing their humus components?" and this is where the differing results come about. Brokers up and down Washington and Oregon send out an RFP (Request for Proposal) to those interested in the bidding process. You might buy a bag of potting soil and the compost component is high quality. A few months down the road you pick-up another bag or so and your results suck. Having such a variable in THE most important component of a potting soil will guarantee that you'll have results all over the board. Ask some old timers that were using Roots Organic 4 years ago when they weren't packing their own soil but were out-sourcing the packing to 3 or 4 contract packing houses stretching from Seattle down to California. Talk about inconsistent. LD
Hey thanks for the link LD and the info. I never really thought about it like that before. I figured since they had the big bucks they wouldn't have a problem sourcing quality ingredients since they were charging an arm and a leg. It is pretty apparent I was wrong haha. I heard lots of good things about roots organic which made me want to buy it but now seeing what they gave me I can and will easily make a better product.
LD, so using Sunshine #4 as about 25% of my mix is A-OK, right? (Sorry to hijack) Yoctow, I used to buy a compost locally made here in the Pac NW. It was great, even Microbeman put it under the scope and verified the extremely high microbial activity. I went back to my local farm store and purchased a few more bags. I opened them up and it looked like it was just uncomposted wood chips. I think these guys cut corners and didn't let the material compost and I think they changed inputs. I'm no expert on how these companies source inputs, but as an end user i got a dose of reality that the end product definitely can change!
yoctown No one makes any money on selling you a bag of potting soil. FFOF carries a MSRP in the PNW of $14.95 for the 1.5 c.f. bag, i.e. $10.00 per c.f. At $10.00 per cubic foot you have to cut a lot of corners to make a profit - so they don't try. Roots Organic, Botanicare, Fox Farms, et al. make their money off their 'nute programs' Let's take 1 single product for discussion - Botanicare Silica Blast which can be sourced for as little as $24.95 per gallon. The suggest rate of application is between 1/2 - 1 tsp. per gallon which results in 768 - 1,536 gallons of mix. Sound pretty good doesn't it? Until you read the 'other part' of their label - like this caveat: Guaranteed Analysis: Soluble Potash (K2O) - .5% derived from Potassium Silicate and contains 2% Silica (Si) Hmmmmm............ Is that normal? No. Let's look at another liquid silica product - Dyna-Grow Pro-TeKt which sells for around $32.00 per gallon - price gougers!!! Until you read the label: Soluble Potash (K2O) - 3.7% and Silicon (SijO2 - Silica Oxide) - 7.8% Also derived from Potassium Silicate. The suggest rate of application is 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. per gallon = 1,536 - 3,072 gallons of mix. Even running the lowest application rate of 1/4 tsp. you're getting 3 or 4x the agent that you wanting, i.e. soluble Potash (Potassium) and Silica in a liquid form. This formula is available here for $18.95 per gallon and it has Silica (Si) level of 26.5% If you're a scientist then you could head over to a pottery supply house and buy powdered potassium silicate as it's used in some glazes for those who mix their own. You'd have to figure out of the percentages on Potassium Silicate are measured by volume vs. weight. I have no idea. Fun stuff, eh? LD
MizzaFishKilla Sunshine Mix (whichever flavor) is a great base to begin with. However I think that if you were to buy Sunshine Growers Organic Mix you'll not only save money but you'll have a solid organic base. The current price on this product at the farm stores is < $20.00 for a 2.8 c.f. This base consists of 40% coir, 30% Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, 10% each vermiculite, perlite and pumice. The wetting agent that they use either yucca root powder or the liquid products. Good start, eh? I used this mix for 3 years and all that I did was to add 1 c.f. of pumice ($4.50) and 1 c.f. compost or EWC or a combination of both. That's it other than your usual amendments like minerals, et al. It works and works very, very well. HTH LD
you know for a first time grow my roots organic cut with FF light warrior seems to have helped my plant but like LD said their just packaging what they can or what's "hot" at the moment, putting it in a bag, probably just want you plants to be able to grow but not grow well and cut corners to make a profit. right now i'm about 3 weeks into flowering and have enough soil left over for another grow but after that I should be ready to make my own mix. As for OP's question my plant is still alive and while I did/still have some problems it is still a promising first grow.