New grower looking for experienced double check

[Shadowgrows]

Good day!
Brand new grower here. I am planning to start within the next couple of weeks or so and would sincerely appreciate an experienced eye to glance over the amendments I have chosen and advise on anything I am missing. The plan is to germinate the seeds in jiffy podsplant in seven gallon pots filled half with amended base mix, then top half with just the base mix
.

seeds are Mephisto Creme de la Chem and I am torn on SCROG or just letting them grow naturally.

Environment control:
3’x3’x70” tent
Spider Farmer SF2000 LED light
AC infinity Cloudline T6 exhaust

Base Mix:
Roots Organics Original
Uncle Jim’s Worm Castings Compost
Vigaro Perlite from my local HD store

Amendments:
Kelp Meal
Bone Meal
Blood Meal
Alfalfa Meal
Need Seed Meal
Magic Roots Mycorrhizae (for when transplanting sprout)

I plan to feed with Roots Organics Terp Tea Grow and Terp Tea Bloom throughput the grow in accordance with their suggested feeding schedule.
Thank you in advance for any time you folks spend reading this

 

[Proph]

Hello!! Welcome to growing your own! One of the first things a new grower will want to do is pick a growing style.. You seem to be leaning towards the organic route.. But what is your plan for all of the amendments you've listed? I'm confused as to why you have all of those amendments AND roots terp tea grow/bloom which are both made from all of those amendments. You can make your own grow and bloom tea with that long list of amendments. Or do you plan on amending the soil with them? If so. You need to be very careful with the ratios. Scrogging isn't really something I'd recommend for autos.. A TRUE scrog set up requires plants that have been topped several times, and extended veg times to allow the plant to fill in the net. Can't really fill out a scrog net when autos only veg for like 3 weeks before hitting preflower. When I scrog my photoperiod plants, it takes about 3 months of topping and vegging to fill out the net properly. That's 4 plants in 5 gal pots in a 3x3 7 tent.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I am not a soil cannabis grower indoors as I grow hydro. So I cannot help with your soil blend but I do not understand why you would stratify the soil layers. Outdoors in my many many soils over the last 60 years the idea has been to get them homogeneous and to add amendments to the top 4 inches of soil allowing water and gravity to leach them into the root zone.

Do not use Jiffy seed pellets, they are sphagnum moss and the PH ~5 is too low for cannabis. Get Root Riots, Rapid Rooters or Rock Wool starter cubes instead. I use GroDan A-Ok 1.5 inch starter cubes with good results.

 

[Proph]

I am not a soil cannabis grower indoors as I grow hydro. So I cannot help with your soil blend but I do not understand why you would stratify the soil layers. Outdoors in my many many soils over the last 60 years the idea has been to get them homogeneous and to add amendments to the top 4 inches of soil allowing water and gravity to leach them into the root zone.

Do not use Jiffy seed pellets, they are sphagnum moss and the PH ~5 is too low for cannabis. Get Root Riots, Rapid Rooters or Rock Wool starter cubes instead. I use GroDan A-Ok 1.5 inch starter cubes with good results.
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I've been questioning this soil layering concept as well.. I can't make it make sense in my head, lol.. I mean, the tap root grows straight down and then sets up the rhizosphere/root zone.. People are putting the heavy mix on bottom, and the light mix on top.. In my head, all I see is the root ball of a young plant sitting smack dab in the middle of some hot soil mix before it's mature enough.. And by the time the roots circle the pot, or air prune themselves close to the top soil, I'm pretty sure they will require more than whatever is left in the light mix that is on the top half of the pot.... Ehhhhh.. I think I just think to much, lol. But I've never layered soils before.

 

[Shadowgrows]

Organic is certainly the method I would like. I was looking at several super soul recipes floating around and had planned to mix the amendments into the soil. Reason for layering was it had been suggested a couple of times that the amended soil would be too hot for a seedling. But then again that was with a complicated super soil mix. I thought to go with the Terp Teas as a means to forego the process of wrapping my head around mixing up something like that since this is my first time. As for the SCROG plan, I probably misunderstood the methods as I have been binge reading everything I can find over the past two months.
So with amending the soil, I should not layer it? Or would you suggest only using the base mix and feed with Tea along the way?
And thanks for the tip on the jiffy pods! Glad I did not learn this from error lol!

 

[Sour D]

I've been questioning this soil layering concept as well.. I can't make it make sense in my head, lol.. I mean, the tap root grows straight down and then sets up the rhizosphere/root zone.. People are putting the heavy mix on bottom, and the light mix on top.. In my head, all I see is the root ball of a young plant sitting smack dab in the middle of some hot soil mix before it's mature enough.. And by the time the roots circle the pot, or air prune themselves close to the top soil, I'm pretty sure they will require more than whatever is left in the light mix that is on the top half of the pot.... Ehhhhh.. I think I just think to much, lol. But I've never layered soils before.

I totally understand what you.re saying.

 

[420Forever]

(and i have now...totally lost...the plot....and it'z still only on the first page... mebbe another bowl...ya, that'z the ticket :smoking: ppp)

 

[Proph]

Organic is certainly the method I would like. I was looking at several super soul recipes floating around and had planned to mix the amendments into the soil. Reason for layering was it had been suggested a couple of times that the amended soil would be too hot for a seedling. But then again that was with a complicated super soil mix. I thought to go with the Terp Teas as a means to forego the process of wrapping my head around mixing up something like that since this is my first time. As for the SCROG plan, I probably misunderstood the methods as I have been binge reading everything I can find over the past two months.
So with amending the soil, I should not layer it? Or would you suggest only using the base mix and feed with Tea along the way?
And thanks for the tip on the jiffy pods! Glad I did not learn this from error lol!

If you mix the amendments correctly and evenly using a solid recipe, all you'll need is plain water. That's the purpose of that list of amendments.. Thats all food for the plant. There would be no need to layer anything if you mix those amendments into the soil properly. The terp teas would be ok every now and then, but again, its made of the exact same amendments you plan on mixing into the soil. It be like double feeding the plant.

 

[hecno]

Seedling hatched in organic soil which has been amended , never layer , mix well and give it time to grow - yes soil grows - This plant has had no bottle nutrients [ NPK ] They are only watered with fish pond water . and also keep a eye on soil temp .

.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Fish pond water is organic fertilizer as is all of the other animal waste. I used Zoo Do in one of my truck farms.

I have grown vegetables and cutting flowers organically since before it became a thing. There are lots of definitions out there of just what "Organic" means. To me it means no pesticides, herbicides or synthetic nutrients. I also think some of the Organic Remedies are equally bad such as nicotine.

The most important part of an "Organic" ecosystem is TIME. In order to make a truly organic soil - ecosystem - along with a good recipe you need to give it the time to cook. A new plot of outdoor soil can take 3 or more years to become good soil using double dig methods and high quality amendments. So when peeps talk about making organic soil for cannabis they seem to miss the most important element - time. If you really want to make good soil mix it up now for your third grow in 6 months.