"Natures Living Soil" is not very good

[Eyes on Fire]

Yeah,its still a little early to tell with some of them.I have KIS and NLS mixed and three pots with NSL and a few others mixed.the rest are KIS and strains Im familiar'ish with.So far so good. ill know more in 2 weeks.LOL

 

[Cannalove420]

So I usually mix my own soil...this time around I decided to be lazy and try a premade supersoil made specifically for autoflowers..i mixed this garbage exactly as directed on their website with roots organic soil (their preferred soil):
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HOW TO USE
Super Soil Technique:
1. Add 1lb of Nature's Living Soil concentrate for every 1.5 gallons of organic potting soil to make a ready to use Super Soil (about 1/3 of a 5 gallon container)
2. Fill a container 1/3 full with the super soil from step 1 and 2/3 with organic potting soil.
3. Plant and water from seed to harvest
____________________________________________________________________________
I use a charcoal kde filter to remove chlorine and chloramine from my water... my ppm is at 250 and ph 6.5 - 6.8 (not that it should really matter)
everything was going along nicely until the plants hit the ss layer and the tip burn started... another week or so later, I started to see calcium deficiencies.. then after a couple more weeks phosphorus deficiencies...To be fair this was happening with a sour kush plant that is known to be a calmag hog... but this doesnt explain the lack of P in their mix. The soil ph was never out of range and the runoff ppm after a month was extremely low @ around 700 ppm. ive never had issues with supersoil mixes until I used this stuff. I contacted the company and they were cool about it and offered to give me a different batch or give me a refund. It seems as thought their quality control is an issue or their instructions are wrong, I havent decided yet.. I think the stuff needs more time to break down and the smell that this stuff has kind of confirms my suspicion...I guess its possible they gave me a bag that hadn't sat long enough possibly. None of my super soil mixes smell terrible after they have cooked and are ready for use... this seems to indicate that the components have yet to break down and this seems evident by the tip burn. Just a heads up.. if you use this stuff and plan on growing a heavy feeding auto, dont buy the auto flower mix...but the regular mix... I ended up culling that sour kush plant it was so far gone with P deficiency.. . I may have just gotten a bad batch and the company was cool about refunding my money... Just thought you may want to know what youre getting into.. or if anyone has had the opposite experience with the stuff, feel free to leave a comment. What I experienced, boils down to a lack of amendments in the autoflower soil NLS produces.. and the amendments are not properly processed or cooked and can and will cause burn. I cant speak on their standard mix, I havent used it...

Cheers!

Hey I have a question about the soil recipe we are using, is the runoff ppms supposed to be fairly high if the compost amendment is hot or are the ppms supposed to be low since the plants only take what they need? I’m just wondering bc a couple weeks ago I started feeding them bloom nutrients bc my runoff was low 300-500ppm but read on a post of ppl saying to not worrie about ppm in soil that only the nutrients broken down are going to show up?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Hey I have a question about the soil recipe we are using, is the runoff ppms supposed to be fairly high if the compost amendment is hot or are the ppms supposed to be low since the plants only take what they need? I’m just wondering bc a couple weeks ago I started feeding them bloom nutrients bc my runoff was low 300-500ppm but read on a post of ppl saying to not worrie about ppm in soil that only the nutrients broken down are going to show up?

thats really low..was your soil really dry when you watered? run off ppm should read at least 1000-1500 i would say... maybe @Eyes on Fire can chime in...are your plants showing deficiency? if not maybe your meter is off? i checked mine a couple days ago and it was over 2000..poured a couple gallons through them to bring it down to something that would register on my meter..only one was showing signs of a little burn...but ive got 500 watts of cob n blurple in the tent

 

[Cannalove420]

thats really low..was your soil really dry when you watered? run off ppm should read at least 1000-1500 i would say... maybe @Eyes on Fire can chime in...are your plants showing deficiency? if not maybe your meter is off?

I try to water the plants when the pot gets light, they have been drying out quite quick I’ve been having to water in the morning then top it off at night so it’s not bone dry when I wake up. There’s some pics sorry for the shitty lighting, I have some branches tied to the side post so I can’t take it down without a hassle. The brown blotches on the gorilla glue didn’t appear until I hooked up a 150watt led next to my 300watt led so a total of 400watt and on top of all that wattage they grew to close to the light so I tooled down the 300 watt and tied the top cola to the side of the tent and tried moving the 150 watt to the side of the tent away from the top. The lights -“are 10-14 inches away from the plants!

 

[Cannalove420]

thats really low..was your soil really dry when you watered? run off ppm should read at least 1000-1500 i would say... maybe @Eyes on Fire can chime in...are your plants showing deficiency? if not maybe your meter is off? i checked mine a couple days ago and it was over 2000..poured a couple gallons through them to bring it down to something that would register on my meter..only one was showing signs of a little burn...but ive got 500 watts of cob n blurple in the tent

I forgot to mention in the post that the ppm for the gorilla glue with the blotchings runoff ppm today was 950-1000ppm. I worked my way up to 15 ml half strength buried treasure bat guano tea 05.05.07 along with 15ml of pure Blend pro 01-04-05 with a ppm reading of 1300. Also I was using distilled water and adding cal mag to the mix at about 200ppm before adding the bloom Nutes. I think I should have feed them full strength cal mag since I was using distilled water. I switched back to my well water last night that has a ppm of 300, I was starting to get the spots on one of the plants in veg before I switched to distilled water, I made the move to distilled water bc I thought I had a calcium buildup at first bc I was getting white residue on the side of the smart pot. Hope this wasn’t to confusing. Thanks

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I forgot to mention in the post that the ppm for the gorilla glue with the blotchings runoff ppm today was 950-1000ppm. I worked my way up to 15 ml half strength buried treasure bat guano tea 05.05.07 along with 15ml of pure Blend pro with a ppm reading of 1300. Also I was using distilled water and adding cal mag to the mix at about 200ppm before adding the bloom Nutes. I think I should have feed them full strength cal mag since I was using distilled water. I switched back to my well water last night that has a ppm of 300, I was starting to get the spots on one of the plants in veg before I switched to distilled water, I made the move to distilled water bc I thought I had a calcium buildup at first bc I was getting white residue on the side of the smart pot. Hope this wasn’t to confusing. Thanks

that tea is only useful to your plants if you have a healthy population of microbes to break it down imo
make an aact and water with that and see if it helps..if you used nls you probably have a bunch of unavailable nutrients sitting in your pots already and a monster dose of good bacteria from a living compost tea should be beneficial imo..i havent used any bottles in over a month and when i did it was a small amount of roots buddha bloom..about 150-200 ppm.. my compost teas have helped immensely..and top dressing with a little plant tone dry amendment along with insect frass, boogie base, high p guano weeks ago and castings ..its all leveled out now and ive got feeder roots growing all along the top layer of soil..good signs!

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I try to water the plants when the pot gets light, they have been drying out quite quick I’ve been having to water in the morning then top it off at night so it’s not bone dry when I wake up. There’s some pics sorry for the shitty lighting, I have some branches tied to the side post so I can’t take it down without a hassle. The brown blotches on the gorilla glue didn’t appear until I hooked up a 150watt led next to my 300watt led so a total of 400watt and on top of all that wattage they grew to close to the light so I tooled down the 300 watt and tied the top cola to the side of the tent and tried moving the 150 watt to the side of the tent away from the top. The lights -“are 10-14 inches away from the plants!

that yellow leaf drying up seems to point to a lack of food..see if @Eyes on Fire has any input before doing anything drastic..pre-flower and early flower seems to be the crucial point when the plant will tell you it needs something..gl

 

[Cannalove420]

that tea is only useful to your plants if you have a healthy population of microbes to break it down imo
make an aact and water with that and see if it helps..if you used nls you probably have a bunch of unavailable nutrients sitting in your pots already and a monster dose of good bacteria from a living compost tea should be beneficial imo..i havent used any bottles in over a month and when i did it was a small amount of roots buddha bloom..about 150-200 ppm.. my compost teas have helped immensely..and top dressing with a little plant tone dry amendment along with insect frass, boogie base, high p guano weeks ago and castings ..its all leveled out now and ive got feeder roots growing all along the top layer of soil..good signs!

Yeah my top layer has a bunch of roots also, I fed it a acct tea my local grow shop brews a couple times the last 2 times but it brings my ph way up so I took a break from it, I might have to get a new batch bc the one I have now I thinks been sitting to long with the cap off. I’ve been using citric acid to get my ph down, the runoff ph is in between 6.1-7.0 it bounces back and forth I usually have to use different levels of ph. I test every watering and adjust ph as needed.

 

[hecno]

Bloody hell . I am glad I make my own soil . @Cannalove420 I feel for you mate . I have been following along on this thread , but I can't give you any input being in the tropics and using what is around me . My soils all start at Ph 7 after at least a 3 month cure . Having a strong microbe herd breaking down nutrients a ph 6.3 to 7 is not a problem [ I have found ] I believe the soil is the problem and you are chasing to many tails . Which is putting every thing out of whack . --- If it was my soil , I would flush the hell out of it to get a ph around 6.5 to 7 and use organic nutrients to get to the end of the grow . 1 thing that did stand out for me was the water holding capacity of the soil , and the flushing effect it has on it , as in how much watering you have to do . [ which is flushing ] so you are adding teas but the soil holding capacity is not there to benefit the soil or the plant . Hope you can sort it out mate .

 

[Eyes on Fire]

Yeah man,thats exactly what I was talking about.over flash feeding in veg giving them spots and anomalies ,mutations and everything.but as soon as the first week or so in flower ,BOOM shit goes sideways.top coating with Limne since thats probably almost gone if not already,and a quality Tea or two possibly lightly PH'd with a natural solution. but with a proper top coating that'll work most likely.

ALSO, which you can use something like baking soda or earth juice are pretty organic friendly.and get a large bucket of water and PH it close to where you need to be.like 6.2--6.8 range and soak thee entire pot(dont forget the surfactant too) until the bubbles stop then pull it out,apply top coating then pass a tea slowly through it.(1-2 cups) then next feeding hit it with another tea.And the whole tiem you are using Mammoth.thats why Im on about making these top coating all the time.time to break down will save your ass, but Teas are your only real shot right now.But that will do alright.a few items turned into the soil will help some with a little mammoth.