Cleaned up the thread, will be updating for 2014 - there were lots of posts about success with this method. I have personally used this method. Will delete this notice once the thread is updated..
Soil & Ferts from Lowe's Home Improvement
Welcome new grower's to AFN's easy dirt guide!
This guide is meant for those who can't order online or are just looking for a simple start. This guide will walk you through, step by step, what to get and what to do. I'm open to any and all questions, suggestions and advice. While this is just a general guide and some things may need to be dialed back for your application, this is a pretty simple method that doesn't have a lot of booster to it. Everything is available at Lowe's except the Blackstrap Molasses. I'm including the soil mix, containers and fertilizers in this thread. Everything in this guide will be kept simple for learning purposes, if anything requires further explanation or you just want to know "why", please ask.
The Products
Alaska Fish Emulsion (5-1-1) [$7.98]
View attachment 173882
Miracle Gro Liquid Quick Start (4-12-4) [$8.97]
View attachment 173883
Epsoma Bio-Tone Starter+ Organic (4-3-3) [$8.47]
View attachment 173887
32QT Harvest Superpowered Organic Potting Mix (0.1-0.5-0.5) [$6.98]
View attachment 173886
8QT Miracle Gro Perlite [$4.24]
View attachment 173885
2x 4LB Natural Coarse Sand [$3.97 ea]
View attachment 173881
1 Bottle BlackStrap Molasses - Any grocery store [$5.00]
View attachment 173884
Total: $49.58
Soil
The goal of the soil is to give as much myco activity as possible, this means there will be live fungus and bacteria in your soil that will help the plant grow by increasing root activity. As well, the soil needs water retention AND good drainage. This soil contains dolomite lime to balance pH @ 6.5, this is intended for those who have no access to PH meters. While it's always advised to have a meter, if you use just what's recommended here a lock-out is unlikely to happen unless you're watering with >9 or <5 PH water. Most tap water does not fall in this range.
First thing you want to do is get a bin or tub large enough to mix all of your components.
Next cut open your bag Potting Mix and dump it in the bin, after this you want to use 0.5TBSP per QUART of potting mix, so with 32 quarts of potting mix, you want to mix in ONE CUP (measure) of Bio-Tone Starter+ into your potting mix. Sprinkle half a cup, mix thoroughly, when you think you're done mixing, mix more. Pour the other half of cup in and repeat, remember the more mixing, the better. Once you've mixed in all of your Bio-Tone Starter+ get your bag of perlite and poke holes in the bottom of it, rinse it through in the tub or something to get rid of all of the dust. This step isn't required but it's advised. Once you're done rinsing the perlite, pour half the bag or 4 quarts in. The exact amount isn't as important as it was to measure out the bio-tone, perlite has no nutrients in it. Again, mix thoroughly - much like you did with the bio-tone.. the bio-tone is small and hard to see the perlite is larger and you'll know when you have an even consistency. Once you're done mixing this, pour in your two bags of Natural Coarse Sand (this stuff looks like gravel more so than sand, you'll see when you have an even consistency as well)
That's it, you have your soil now and your soil has a built in myco herd to support plant growth. The Bio-Tone has tons of mycos in it as well as cal-mag. We're using the Bio-Tone scaled back to %75 of the dose because we'll be using fertilizers.
Nutrients
Alaska Fish Fertilizer is your veg fertilizer, it's organic and will feed the mycos as well as the plant. You won't start feeding this nutrient until your plant has 3 sets of true leaves. That means not the ones that popped out of the shell, but the actual plant leaves that have definition, when you reach the third set - that will be week one.
Miracle Gro Liquid Quick Start is your bloom fertilizer, it's not organic, but the MSDS says you can drink it with no adverse effects, this is how you know it's not going to kill your mycos as well. Don't let the "Quick Start" fool you, this plant food has good PK ratio for bloom.
Blackstrap Molasses is your carb booster, it feeds those little ones in the soil as well as your plant. It's also a little Cal/Mag booster.
With all of that said, here's your nutrient schedule, follow it and adjust it as needed but this schedule will NOT burn your plants with the soil mixture above.
Week 1 (Three true leaves) - 1TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water.
Week 2 - 1.5 TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water.
Week 3 - 2 TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water
Week 4 - 2 TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water
Week 5 - 2 TSP Miracle Gro Quick Start per gallon of water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 6 - 3 TSP Miracle Gro Quick Start per gallon of water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 7 - 3 TSP Miracle Gro Quick Start per gallon of water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 8 - Plain water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 9 - Plain water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
The molasses gives cal-mag boost, you can use it in veg if needed, but you should have enough cal-mag between the dolomitic lime available in the soil and the bio-tone to get you to week 5. If you start to notice any Cal-Mag def at all, use 1TSP of Molasses for one of the waterings during week 3 & 4, otherwise use the same schedule the entire grow.
EDIT: Removed some redundancy.
(All of these pictures are from Lowe's website, while all Lowe's carry different things, these are readily available on their website. It can all be found in the garden center / section.)
Soil & Ferts from Lowe's Home Improvement
Welcome new grower's to AFN's easy dirt guide!
This guide is meant for those who can't order online or are just looking for a simple start. This guide will walk you through, step by step, what to get and what to do. I'm open to any and all questions, suggestions and advice. While this is just a general guide and some things may need to be dialed back for your application, this is a pretty simple method that doesn't have a lot of booster to it. Everything is available at Lowe's except the Blackstrap Molasses. I'm including the soil mix, containers and fertilizers in this thread. Everything in this guide will be kept simple for learning purposes, if anything requires further explanation or you just want to know "why", please ask.
The Products
Alaska Fish Emulsion (5-1-1) [$7.98]
View attachment 173882
Miracle Gro Liquid Quick Start (4-12-4) [$8.97]
View attachment 173883
Epsoma Bio-Tone Starter+ Organic (4-3-3) [$8.47]
View attachment 173887
32QT Harvest Superpowered Organic Potting Mix (0.1-0.5-0.5) [$6.98]
View attachment 173886
8QT Miracle Gro Perlite [$4.24]
View attachment 173885
2x 4LB Natural Coarse Sand [$3.97 ea]
View attachment 173881
1 Bottle BlackStrap Molasses - Any grocery store [$5.00]
View attachment 173884
Total: $49.58
Soil
The goal of the soil is to give as much myco activity as possible, this means there will be live fungus and bacteria in your soil that will help the plant grow by increasing root activity. As well, the soil needs water retention AND good drainage. This soil contains dolomite lime to balance pH @ 6.5, this is intended for those who have no access to PH meters. While it's always advised to have a meter, if you use just what's recommended here a lock-out is unlikely to happen unless you're watering with >9 or <5 PH water. Most tap water does not fall in this range.
First thing you want to do is get a bin or tub large enough to mix all of your components.
Next cut open your bag Potting Mix and dump it in the bin, after this you want to use 0.5TBSP per QUART of potting mix, so with 32 quarts of potting mix, you want to mix in ONE CUP (measure) of Bio-Tone Starter+ into your potting mix. Sprinkle half a cup, mix thoroughly, when you think you're done mixing, mix more. Pour the other half of cup in and repeat, remember the more mixing, the better. Once you've mixed in all of your Bio-Tone Starter+ get your bag of perlite and poke holes in the bottom of it, rinse it through in the tub or something to get rid of all of the dust. This step isn't required but it's advised. Once you're done rinsing the perlite, pour half the bag or 4 quarts in. The exact amount isn't as important as it was to measure out the bio-tone, perlite has no nutrients in it. Again, mix thoroughly - much like you did with the bio-tone.. the bio-tone is small and hard to see the perlite is larger and you'll know when you have an even consistency. Once you're done mixing this, pour in your two bags of Natural Coarse Sand (this stuff looks like gravel more so than sand, you'll see when you have an even consistency as well)
That's it, you have your soil now and your soil has a built in myco herd to support plant growth. The Bio-Tone has tons of mycos in it as well as cal-mag. We're using the Bio-Tone scaled back to %75 of the dose because we'll be using fertilizers.
Nutrients
Alaska Fish Fertilizer is your veg fertilizer, it's organic and will feed the mycos as well as the plant. You won't start feeding this nutrient until your plant has 3 sets of true leaves. That means not the ones that popped out of the shell, but the actual plant leaves that have definition, when you reach the third set - that will be week one.
Miracle Gro Liquid Quick Start is your bloom fertilizer, it's not organic, but the MSDS says you can drink it with no adverse effects, this is how you know it's not going to kill your mycos as well. Don't let the "Quick Start" fool you, this plant food has good PK ratio for bloom.
Blackstrap Molasses is your carb booster, it feeds those little ones in the soil as well as your plant. It's also a little Cal/Mag booster.
With all of that said, here's your nutrient schedule, follow it and adjust it as needed but this schedule will NOT burn your plants with the soil mixture above.
Week 1 (Three true leaves) - 1TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water.
Week 2 - 1.5 TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water.
Week 3 - 2 TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water
Week 4 - 2 TSP Fish Emulsion per gallon of water
Week 5 - 2 TSP Miracle Gro Quick Start per gallon of water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 6 - 3 TSP Miracle Gro Quick Start per gallon of water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 7 - 3 TSP Miracle Gro Quick Start per gallon of water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 8 - Plain water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
Week 9 - Plain water + 1TSP Blackstrap Molasses
The molasses gives cal-mag boost, you can use it in veg if needed, but you should have enough cal-mag between the dolomitic lime available in the soil and the bio-tone to get you to week 5. If you start to notice any Cal-Mag def at all, use 1TSP of Molasses for one of the waterings during week 3 & 4, otherwise use the same schedule the entire grow.
EDIT: Removed some redundancy.
(All of these pictures are from Lowe's website, while all Lowe's carry different things, these are readily available on their website. It can all be found in the garden center / section.)
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Well done, something I've wanted to do for a long time but never got around to. :thumbs:
OF with these.. they were out of stock on the sand when I made the mix, so I doubled up on perlite.. the sand is much better for drainage as it has no wicking properties at all and it's ph neutral. I appreciate the kind words and the rep, I enjoy doing stuff like this, keeps me busy!
