What's a good fertilizer?

For what? Hydro or Soil grows?

~Experimentalist

 

Yeah.. depending on your budget, you should try to get some good organic fertilizers
like the Fox Farm Soil "Trio". If you can, buy some blood meal to provide nitrogen to
the plant throughout the grow, and some bone meal to provide phosphorus for the
duration.

I am making my own organic nutes now, but I kinda am (and was) a Miracle Gro
grower, but the fears of chemical hazards in chemical ferts is scaring me off of MG
products for the future.

~Experimentalist

 

Depends on a lot of things, but blood meal and bone meal are like $6 for a gallon here,
and MG fertilizers are usually around ~$8-$10 for a box, which is lots!!

~Experimentalist

 

I couldn't really tell you how much to add or anything because we don't know what kinda
soil you're going to be using, nor do we know how much of it will be in each pot. Once we
know the volume of soil per pot, we can work out the amounts of each additive.

Usually the bags of blood/bone/whaever meal have mixing guidelines right on the back
so you cant really fuck it up.

You won't be able to get anything to the point of never having to add fertilizers and what
not, the blood & bone meal just add to the grow thoughout the entire cycle. You still need
some good high N ferts for vegging, and high P&K for flowering.

I use a 30-10-10 fertilizer during veg, then switch to a 15-30-15, but ideally I'd want
more of a 0-40-0 and a 0-0-30 or something for flowering. You don't want to be adding
very much N during flowering.. P is the most important but you will want almost the
same amount of K as P during flower.. make sense?

~Expermentalist

 

Ok.. primarily all fertilizers come with a number on them, this is called the N-P-K and
it stands for "Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium" I know this should be N-P-P but the
K comes from the latin word "Kalium".

These numbers express the quantity (in %) of the present nutes. So a general
purpose fertilizer with an NPK of 10-10-10 has 0.10% N, 0.10% P and 0.10% K
in it. Each of these elements provides a useful purpose to the plant. For our purposes,
growing MJ, the most important element to have present during the Veg cycle is
Nitrogen as it allows the plant to grow rapidly. However, for flowering, you want to
drastically reduce the N (to almost nothing) and have a fertilizer with a higher P&K
ratio.

Again.. I used a 30-10-10 MG fertilizer for vegging, at 1tbsp per gallon of water. This
is the recommended dose on the box, but if I had a 10-2-2, I'd want to add twice or
three times that per gallon to achieve the same amount of fertilizer going into my
soil for the plants consumption. In order to determine how much your plant will
need, you need to experiment.. each plant is going to have its own needs that you
need to determine, by slowly increasing the dose of fertilizer to your plant over
several waterings. Eg, start out by giving 1/4 the recommended dose, and over
two weeks, increase that dose to full strength nutes.

If you're wondering how to determine what 1/4 strength or full strength is, look at
your fertilizer.. they almost ALWAYS have a "dose" chart on them or directions to
follow at the very least.

As for the bone & blood meal, no you dont NEED them, but if you can get it for
cheap, do it.. they'll "be there" for the plant when it needs it.

Most pots you buy have their size written on the bottom.. if not, get a measurement
of the diameter of the pot and its height and you can easily calculate its volume with
those two numbers.

Yes. without good nutrients you wont have a good plant with potent buds. A bigger pot
usually means a bigger yield.. if its too small, it will seriously stunt your plant. I recommend
at MINIMUM a three gallon pot, preferably five.. but that depends on your growing conditions.

~Experimentalist

 

I know its kinda overwhelming man but seriously once you get the stuff and do it once,
you'll see how "no big deal" it really is.. don't be concerned with the actual numbers
but rather the ratio between them. I mean, don't buy a 5-30-30 for vegging... know
what I mean?

~Experimentalist

 

Absoulty not.. that soil will NOT support a grow in its current state..you will need to add
nutrients basically every few waterings after a couple of weeks of growth.

Yeah adding Blood and Bone meal DOES add to the NPK but think of it like this.. when
you water your plant with a water soluable fertilizer, you're adding it to the soil but only
temporarily.. the plant will consume those nutes as it drinks the water up, etc.. but
blood and bone meal will be in the soil for the ENTIRE grow.. slowly releasing itself to
the plant and being "available" when needed.. its not essential, because you're going
to be watering with ferts, but its "nice to have" if you can spend the $10-$15. The
trade off is that, once you have your plant going, you cannot add the blood or bone
meal.. you gotta mix it in before you plant.

~Experimentalist

 

Yes a seed only needs a little moisture to crack and sprout that tap root.. if your seed
is showing a tap root you'll want to get it into some soil ASAP.

It's best to grow in a smaller container and then "up-pot" the plant into larger and
larger pots otherwise you won't necessarily "maximize" on the available soil for root
growth. You "can" grow in the largest pot.. just not necessarily the "best" way to go
about it, all of that is subjective though.

It's really easy to over water a smaller plant in a larger pot too, so watch out for that.
Sometimes you add a little water and the much larger volume of underwatered soil will
"wick" the moisture away from the plant, so you add more water, and then all of a
sudden its saturated and your plant dies of root rot. Same thing goes with adding
nutes.. so its best to grow in a smaller container at first, then transplant when
its starting to become "root" or "pot"-bound.

Yes, mix the "meals" into your soil via the directions on the bag. Usually 1 cup per
gallon of soil, that sort of thing. Mix well.. be sure to buy some perlite too, you'll
want to add more to your soil, guaranteed. This will help with root development as it
retains oxygen and holds moisture for your plant.

Yeah, water your plant when it needs it. The best way to do this is to learn how your
plant feels by weight.. feel it when you have watered it fully, and then feel it as it
dries over a few days.. when its light, water it. When its heavy, don't water it. Don't
add nutrients every time you water either.. you can harm your plant that way. Personally
I add nutes every second watering, but thats just me and my strains.. your plant might
be different.. be safe at first, do the 1/4 dose first and work up.. see how the plant
reacts to it.

Keep the Q's coming man.. don't hesitate to ask if you need any more help!

~Experimentalist

 

haha I appreciate that man, I try.. I remember asking questions similar to yours once, so
I know how it goes but after awhile it becomes second nature. Trust me

Don't be a stanger around here.. come by even when you don't have any quesions..
pick threads at random and read them, and read the guides at the top of the forums.. lots
of great advice in them.

Since you're going to name a plant after me, that kinda makes me its god father.. so
I'll expect lots of pictures and updates on its progress!

Keep in touch!

~Experimentalist