New Grower First Grow in 22 years, Nature's Living Soil

[xena499]

@Proph Fox Farm Ocean Forest. thanks for your help!
@pop22 just as @Proph mentioned a "super soil" amendment designed for autoflowers.
Nature's Living soil instructions mention 2 styles: Super Soil where you layer it for example with the concentrated part in the bottom 1/3. I didn't like the layering style, so choose "Living Soil":
1. Thoroughly mix 1 lb of Nature's Living Soil concentrate for every 5 gallons of organic potting soil to make a ready to use Living Soil
2. Make a small hole, about the size of a 16oz cup, and fill with organic potting soil.
3. Plant and water from seed to harvest

The instructions are very limited, and I tried emailing and chatting and got no support.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Yes but I still don't know what it is.

Per their website:

"The base ingredients for our living soils are Organic Earthworm Castings, High Quality Bat Guano, Blood Meal, Bone Meal, Fish Bone Meal, Neem Meal, Humic Acid, Rock Phosphate, Dolomite Lime, Azomite, Alfalfa Meal, Kelp Meal, Coco Coir, Crushed Oyster Shell, Humic Acid, Epsom Salt, Coconut Water Powder and Aloe Vera."

The fact that it generally smells very bad tells me its not aged anywhere near enough straight from the bag... But thats just my opinion. Its full of good stuff (not a huge fan of blood and bone meals tho which explains the acrid smell) if this is in fact whats in it, but Ide probably add it to a batch of soil and water aacts into it for a month or more before using it.

 

[Proph]

@Proph Fox Farm Ocean Forest. thanks for your help!
@pop22 just as @Proph mentioned a "super soil" amendment designed for autoflowers.
Nature's Living soil instructions mention 2 styles: Super Soil where you layer it for example with the concentrated part in the bottom 1/3. I didn't like the layering style, so choose "Living Soil":
1. Thoroughly mix 1 lb of Nature's Living Soil concentrate for every 5 gallons of organic potting soil to make a ready to use Living Soil
2. Make a small hole, about the size of a 16oz cup, and fill with organic potting soil.
3. Plant and water from seed to harvest

The instructions are very limited, and I tried emailing and chatting and got no support.

The issue with these instructions is that it is using the term "potting soil", and doesn't take into account if that mix is amended. It just say to add 1lb to 5 gals of soil... OF has enough nutrients immediately available to last an auto at least a month. It's 's most heavily amended product. Amending it with NLS from day one makes a hot soil, really hot. Then if you add teas and top dressing, all within the first 30 days (keeping in mind that OF can get you through the 1st 30 days all by itself with water only), you've got a recipe for issues.. Read are something you use sparingly.. It the ratio of fungi to bacteria, or bacteria to fungi, gets out of line, the soil can become aerobic or anaerobic. I really think that one simple top dress of the concentrate mid flower if needed, would be more than enough for an auto.. I honestly don't think the girl flower power product is needed at all with autos.. It's all just over kill that leads to over fed plants. And since autos don't have a recovery period, once issues start, it's like a snowball effect. That's why most autos growers say that "less is more".. Or "Keep It simple".. Because it's a lot easier to add something if/when it's needed, than It is to remove something if/when it's too much.

 

[xena499]

@Proph thanks for your advice. I understand what you mean.
About the Nature's living soil instructions: Our concentrates for super soil/living soil are to be mixed with organic potting media such as Roots Organics, Fox Farm (Ocean Forest & Happy Frog are very popular with our customers)
I see that OF variant is good for 30 days, and is their hottest (nut-wiz) product. I understood my pots will need some kind of amending just before and during the first few weeks of flowering, but apparently leaned on the "more is better mantra".
Thanks for pointing out the organic realities vs. the organic marketing.
@pop22
My pH at the 3&4 cup of runoff at >20% water volume was 6.4
I will continue to water at 20% from now on!
My ppm was light-dirty brown by the 3rd cup at 760. thanks !!

 

[Big Sul]

@Proph thanks for your advice. I understand what you mean.
About the Nature's living soil instructions: Our concentrates for super soil/living soil are to be mixed with organic potting media such as Roots Organics, Fox Farm (Ocean Forest & Happy Frog are very popular with our customers)
I see that OF variant is good for 30 days, and is their hottest (nut-wiz) product. I understood my pots will need some kind of amending just before and during the first few weeks of flowering, but apparently leaned on the "more is better mantra".
Thanks for pointing out the organic realities vs. the organic marketing.
@pop22
My pH at the 3&4 cup of runoff at >20% water volume was 6.4
I will continue to water at 20% from now on!
My ppm was light-dirty brown by the 3rd cup at 760. thanks !!

Atta boy. We will get thru this.

 

[pop22]

This product looks a lot like KIS Soil. I'd not use it after having used KIS, which was a disaster waiting to happen. KIS was tested here on AFN and half of the people who used it had issues. The problem I think is it is TOO concentrated. And I'd have concerns about a company that tells a user that OF is mostly coco..... when they mention OF right on their web page! Makes me question if they actually k now what the hell they are talking about!

 

[Proph]

My two pennies? If you're in the US, I'd go with Build A Soil.. Check out their website and IG page. The IG page has step by step how to videos of organic grows from seed to harvest. Jeremy the owner is well known and respected in the gardening community and knows his stuff. They have 4 lab tested soil mixes for different levels of organic growers.. The soil tests show exactly how much of each element is already in the soil. And soil tests are not cheap. You rarely see a soil company post data sheets.. No guess work. I use the Malibu compost mix. I also have one small bag of their craft blend top dress. It is also lab tested and the npk ratios are clearly stated. They also tell you exactly how much of each ingredient is used to make the top dress. They're just super transparent. I bought 30 gals of soil, the top dress and 2 15 gal pots ( like 120 bucks shipped) and have been reusing this same soil for almost 2 yrs now. Haven't bought soil since. Water only for 90% of the grow.

Im with Popp on the products being too hot, on top of them saying to mix 1lb of it with the soil, regardless of how hot the soil already is. I could see adding 1lb to say pro mix, but OF? No way I'm amending that before use. It's hot enough as is. Add in the mis info about Ocean Forrest and Happy Frog being mainly coco, and it's seeming like their may be some snake oil sales tactics at play. I searched their web page and couldn't find the npk ratios anywhere for any product or how much of the ingredients were used to make the mix..The girl flower power should at least have some sort of ratio listed for sure.

 

[xena499]

@pop22 thanks for showing me the light!
@Proph I will look into build a soil for future needs, based on the general comments here for NLS, my experience, and their failure to respond to my emails or online chats. I will only use teas OR topdress a 1-2 times per grow, ONLY if the plant shows signs of nut deficiency (weeks 5,6 or 7). In addition, I hope to not add anything except water.
Also thanks for expert advice! Only 1/9 seems bad like this, and it has been thriving, and the plant has shown no further damage (?) for the last 48 hours. I hope to water her across the line.

attached is day 62 (week 9 starting tomorrow), and day 54 (end of week 7) for the others

 

[DCLXVI]

@Only1Sky - You've got an avatar friend.

 

[Big Sul]

@pop22 thanks for showing me the light!
@Proph I will look into build a soil for future needs, based on the general comments here for NLS, my experience, and their failure to respond to my emails or online chats. I will only use teas OR topdress a 1-2 times per grow, ONLY if the plant shows signs of nut deficiency (weeks 5,6 or 7). In addition, I hope to not add anything except water.
Also thanks for expert advice! Only 1/9 seems bad like this, and it has been thriving, and the plant has shown no further damage (?) for the last 48 hours. I hope to water her across the line.

attached is day 62 (week 9 starting tomorrow), and day 54 (end of week 7) for the others

That is my focus also. What do I need to do to get across the finish line.