First organic soil grow.. what’s going wrong?

[Stilg7]

Hey everyone, I recently switched from coco and nutes to an organic grow. I’m using growweedeasy’s “just add water” method. It’s a mix of ff coco loco and a super soil from Amazon. The first four pictures are of pink Panama by mephisto and the last five are of double grape from mephisto as well. Both of them are right around 30 days old give or take a few days. By the looks of it these girls look to be about done growing. I expected switching from coco and nutes that my plants would probably be smaller but by the looks of it these two seem to be about done growing and heading into full flower. These are two of the smallest plants I’ve grown by far. And I forgot to take a pic but I think the pink Panama might have a couple bananas, again something that’s never happened in over two years. The only things that come to mind that might be causing this are, that the humidity has been pretty low for the past couple weeks, below 30%. And I’ve been watering just about every 2-3 days. Until recently the bottom half of my pots wouldn’t receive much water at all if any because my plants couldn’t handle much. Without going into a long winded explanation, what could’ve gone wrong? Is it normal for these autos to grow this small in organic soil? For the most part they seem pretty healthy. Maybe a little too much nitrogen but they’ve never clawed on me so idk if that’s even the case. Could it be because the ph of my is off? I use bottled spring water. Is it normal when growing in soil for most of the pot to not be wet and to be pretty light most of the time in the beginning of grows? I really want to get away from using liquid nutes but if I’m only going to grow one foot tall plants I don’t think it’s worth it. Please anyone at all if you have any ideas as to what could’ve caused this and/or some tips to get better results using strictly organic soils and mephisto genetics. Thanks in advance for any and all of your guys’ help!

 

[FarmerJake]

Complete beginner here, just wanted to chime in to keep trying. I run with Coast of Maine stonington blend(OMRI listed) and pure RO water and while I do run into issues later on in the grow it consistently gets a plant in a 3g-5g pot to day 40-50 without deficiency and grows a decent sized plant. Still working out the last part, but even with this approach I got 2oz per plant on average in 3g pots on first grow. Maybe try not blending your own soil but buying it premade? Again my knowledge is limited but I assure you better success will come in future attempts, stick with it. Plus beyond size those plants look great!

 

[Stilg7]

Complete beginner here, just wanted to chime in to keep trying. I run with Coast of Maine stonington blend(OMRI listed) and pure RO water and while I do run into issues later on in the grow it consistently gets a plant in a 3g-5g pot to day 40-50 without deficiency and grows a decent sized plant. Still working out the last part, but even with this approach I got 2oz per plant on average in 3g pots on first grow. Maybe try not blending your own soil but buying it premade? Again my knowledge is limited but I assure you better success will come in future attempts, stick with it. Plus beyond size those plants look great!

Thanks for your response. I was on the fence about switching from coco and nutes to a full organic soil grow. I’m terrible at making decisions without taking my time and doing a bunch of research and time was of the essence because I had both plants in jiffy pellets and their roots were starting to pop out of the bottoms. So I read about the “just add water” method on GWE.com and I went with it. I’ve read about cost of Maine and it being pretty good stuff. Unfortunately the only way I can get that is by ordering it online and ordering soil online just isn’t worth it. However, my local grow shop has this soil I’m tempted to try https://detroitnutrientcompany.com/products/great-lakes-water-only-soil. The people who work there say that it’s very good and it works wonders throughout most of the grow. The same company also offers some sort of compost tea that can be used with the soil later in grows if needed. Thanks again for your response! Quick question… do you prefer 3 gal or 5 gal pots? I’ve only ever grown in 3 gals with coco and nutes but everything I read says to use 5-7 gal pots minimum with soil. I went with a 5 gal pot for this grow but I’m thinking 3 gals would be fine if the plants are going to stay this small.

 

[FarmerJake]

I’m actually going to upsize to a 15g next grow, Coast of Maine states 15g of their soil carries a plant through to harvest, so given I have run into issues each time (day 40 w/3g and day50 w/ 5g) I am tempted to test what they recommend. My 1g plants aren’t too bad either though and I am trying to pot them up this grow to see if results are improved by a tiered potting up schedule. Try that local soil! I really don’t think your plants are destined to a small size in organics, here is some of my first plants grown in 3g

 

[mdabber]

I second the stonington blend idea It's a good soil you can buy the Stonington blend fertilizer to give more nutrients back make banana ffj and feed aloe vera for some silica maybe make a ferment out of grass clippings non sprayed organic of course. It's still good to use liquids just make your own. Look into bokashi it ferments meat eggs whatever all food scraps makes a liquid you can drain and feed. And top dress the fermented scraps or bury them they will enrich the shit out of your soil.




www.findaspring.com maybe you aren't watering enough I think that happend to my friend he was using little water bottles I kept telling him to buy a filter. He said the fabric pots were bad because the water came out the sides I told him multiple times that it was his soil that was dry as a brick so it wasn't absorbing water that's why it just ran thru the sides. Maybe look into getting a five gallon jug they are like ten bucks stores have ro for 30 cents a gallon or you can go to the woods and just take it from a spring stream whatever. My two cents

 

[mdabber]

Grow other plants organic like tomatoes. Get the feel for growing like our ancestors instead of a science experiment. You just need to get creative with what's in your area if you don't want to pay for shit. Anything can be fermented into nutrients fish heads doesn't matter. Just recycle everything you can from your plants dry your fan leaves and top dress.

Liquid Fish Amino Acid (FAA)

Cho Global Natural Farming, SARRA India

cgnfindia.com

Great veg fertilizer.

 

[mdabber]

You need to think of your soil as a living medium it should be alive full of bacteria. water yogurt in so you can add some probiotics that website teaches you how to make lactic acid bacteria which is in yogurt with rice with wild bacteria you can culture. You need to think of it as I'm feeding the soil not the plant the soil feeds the plant. I like em1 fish shit and urb but you don't have to use those.

 

[mdabber]

Also I'd say 5gallon

Those are 5gallonfabrix pots