Growing with peat?

[Little Brother]

Hello, pretty new to growing. I've just completed my second grow and the results were pretty dismal. Around 8 grams. @Mañ'O'Green suggested that i not use yard dirt and instead try coco or peat.

I just purchased a fair amount of peat from a local store and was planning on using it in a five gallon fabric pot. As far as nutes, i will just be using megacrop. I have some calmag just in case and some molasses as well as salicylic acid and humic and fulvic acids.

I'm thinking i'll do a water feed water schedule. Last time I way overfed on the mega crop, so this time i think i'll start out at 25% the recommended dose and go from there. How long do people usually wait before increasing the dose, and when it is increased, by how much?

If anyone has experience with this method, please chime in. If you have any advice or stories i would like to hear from you. Thanks everyone :smoking:

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Hello, pretty new to growing. I've just completed my second grow and the results were pretty dismal. Around 8 grams. @Mañ'O'Green suggested that i not use yard dirt and instead try coco or peat.

I just purchased a fair amount of peat from a local store and was planning on using it in a five gallon fabric pot. As far as nutes, i will just be using megacrop. I have some calmag just in case and some molasses as well as salicylic acid and humic and fulvic acids.

I'm thinking i'll do a water feed water schedule. Last time I way overfed on the mega crop, so this time i think i'll start out at 25% the recommended dose and go from there. How long do people usually wait before increasing the dose, and when it is increased, by how much?

If anyone has experience with this method, please chime in. If you have any advice or stories i would like to hear from you. Thanks everyone :smoking:

Hey @Little Brother this will work better. You should add kelp to your line-up of nutrients as well. Use humic acid 5 parts to two parts of Kelp for roots and 5 parts fulvic acid to 2 parts kelp for foliar sprays.

I would also add about 30% perlite to your peat.

I would recommend starting at 50% MC and add 10% more each week until you get a little bit of tip burn then back-off 10%. The newest version of MC has plenty of calcium so don't add any to start.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Thanks for the reply
Do I need anything for pH drop? I've heard that peat can become acidic over time.

At what point after sprouting should i begin feeding? Start with the kelp and acids maybe?

You will need if you do not already have one a soil PH probe. Get an Accurate 8 (or the clone) or a Blu Lab soil probe. Blue Lab is expensive but a good tool and is what I use. Do not buy cheap ones they do not work and are a waste of money. You should also have a quality EC pen.

You will need PH up and Down.

After mixing your soil moisten well and test the PH in the root zone and adjust accordingly by mixing water .5 a point above or below the direction you want to go. So if it is 5.6 you want to go up to 6.2 for peat. Mix some water at 6.1 fertigate to small run-off and wait a few hours measure again. It will be around 5.8. so now mix your water to 6.3 and fertigate to a little run-off and repeat until root zone test is 6.2. Now add your 50% nutrients, Humic Acid, Kelp Mykos or other beneficials and plant your seeds!

Then test the PH in your root zone at least once a week and make any corrections needed at that time.