Soil
Now that you have got a grasp on germination you are going to need to have a medium to place the seed in after the white tail has emerged. My preference is soil. I have grown in a few different mediums but nothing to me has given me the results i get when i use my hand mixed soil. The biggest thing to the survival of an auto, and any plant is the root system. This is the life line of your plant. If you take care of them they will in turn take care of the plant. Feed the soil and not the plant is the idea here. If there is enough micro activity in your soil, the girls WILL swell like no other.
Now my soil is composed of several things but most importantly all organic friendly and natural compounds. I mix this all by hand that way i can tell when it is ready to just sit there and do its thing. Autos have the unique ability to make it to sex in general compost. They can be germinated directly into the soil and then have no risk of any kind of burn the first two weeks. At this point you can begin a feed regimen but well cover that at a later time.
So i figured that if it is good enough to germ seeds in AND they can make it to sex in it why not use it as a base for all my soil. So with that in mind lets go over a few things i like to add to it to give it the bang.
I start with the base of general baked compost. This is mainly cow patties that have been collected baked in a large oven and then bagged and sold
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This stuff is loaded with potash and that is fantastic for root development and their health. Then comes in the Blood and Bone Meal, Epsom Salt, powdered egg shells, Sea Weed Kelp (i use liquid), dolomite lime or coffee grounds, powered baby cereal. Now you may laugh at that last ingredient but when you get your hands on some take a look at what that stuff has in it. There are tons of trace minerals and vitamins that the plant loves in there.
Once you have all of this it is time to make it light. That is the key to success here, if the roots are well taken care of and can move easily through the soil the better the result. This is where i have hidden success, Perlite. When you aer mixing this together it is important to have a good deal of perlite in the mix. I use one 18Qt Bag to a 25lb bag of compost. Its seems like over kill but i promise you there will be no root binding. What this has done for me is allow one main tap all the way to the bottom and then the rest of the soil is concentrated with the feeding roots that branch off. When i remove the dirt from the pots the roots look like spider webs instead of circling roots. Most of the time you are unable to see any roots on the outside edge of the soil.
So with a prime mix and super light soil you are able to create an environment for rapid growth and healthy root development. I cant stress enough how important it is to maintain healthy roots, if you do this you will have superb plants.
Now what would this be if i didnt give the measurement break down of what i use in the mix.
25lb bag of compo
18Qt Bag perlite
3 cups of Blood and bone Meal
1.5 cups of powdered egg shells
1.5 Cups of Epsom salt
1/2 cup of sea weed kelp
1 cup of powdered baby cereal
I then mix all this together at once. Mix until you think you have mixed enough and then do it some more for about 5 min. After this test the soil's pH. Adjust it to where you need it by using the lime of coffee grounds to go down. Most of the time you will need to bring it down. If you need to bring it up i have used baking soda in the past. Once you have it to the desired level you can let it sit until you need it. Now i have never let it sit for any specific amout of time other than just over night before use.
One thing that i do is reuse the soil. After a plant is done ill through all of it back into the bin. I may break it up a little but it all goes back and gets used over and over. Plus it promotes healthy soil as it sits there and breaks down.
One other tip that i can advised is if you are able to keep a bin with a lid, go out and buy a few dozen earth worms and throw them in there. The soil has to stay damp to keep them alive, but the fresh casings in the soil are fantastic.
Thank you for that, I have had trouble with germination of very tiny seeds, Mi5 ect. Does pre-soaking them help? I currently use a pre-soak method to wake them up. I was also told, not done yet, to place match strike in box and shake seed in match box to crack it a little, have you heard of that method? cheers mike
