New Grower what soil?

[haggis]

i see do i spray the soil or do i pour it in the soil? ive also heard of folk making all the soil watery at first and just everytime it starts to get try water it again?

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

I think that soil may be heavily fertilized,autos don't tend to like that.should seek further advice before using.

 

[Joe383]

I use roots organic now so what works for me might not work for you as well. All I can say is I think it will work. I am sure it would work great in the happy frog soil too. I add about 1/2 cup of dolomite lime to a full bag of soil that's 1.5 cubic foot. I also add 1/2 gallon of the steer manure to the bag. I put the bag in a 10 gallon tote to mix every thing add about 1/2 gallon of water, mix and let it sit for 30 days. Things are not black and white though. You could probably get away with 1/4 cup to a full cup of lime. I would not use more than a half gallon of the steer manure though as it is a little hot with that much as it is. I would look around in the organics thread as there are smart some people in there that would be even more help full. You should grow using the stuff you have now and study and learn so the next time you buy soil you can plan differently. I figure the more I feed a plant the more chances I have to mess things up and organics simplifies things and limits my chances to make mistakes like over feeding or throwing off the PH. My current grow is photos and on day like 67 with around 40+ days left or something and I have only use a little cal/mag a few times the whole grow. Way easer than remembering how much I have fed and trying to figure out when and how much to feed in the future.

 

[haggis]

thanks for the big reply joe as i am basically stoned 24/7 all this seems alot too me and im getting upset lol if i cant get ahold of the lime stuff or the steer manure is it possible for my plants to grow nice without them? or is this one of these major things? :smoking:

 

[Joe383]

O no you can grow just fine with out it. Its just something that made growing easer for me. You will totally be fine with out it. You will just have to supplement with bottled nutrients. For some the bottled nutes are easer for them I guess. Just do your thing, post questions if things don't look quiet right and we can try to help you if you need advice. I promise that the way you grow now is not the way you will be growing in in a few years as you will learn and find things that work good for you down the road as you perfect the way you grow. Don't let growing stress you out. Every thing people tell you can be taken with a grain of salt. There is a lot of different ways to grow and make good buds.

 

[haggis]

thanks bud

 

[KapScot]

Indeed - I'm with Joe383 on this one - there's a reason it's called weed - it will grow almost anywhere in any compost mix you can provide it. A lot of growers go to technical extremes of composting and nutrients to try and ensure the maximum yield possible under their own growing conditions (particularly the indoor growers where pot size may be a limitation). As an outdoor grower I find weather and pests like slugs and aphids to be a bigger problem...

As it's your first grow just enjoy the experience - start a grow log here and I'm sure people will help you along the way if you have any questions.

I'm off to squeeze a lime (the green one) for adding to my gin n tonic - never confuse the two limes - the other fizzes in the gin makes the glass warm and ruins the taste.

 

[Joe383]

I have never added lime to soil during a grow. I have only added it to the soil before I started so I cant say how well it works top dressing. If I needed to correct PH or needed cal/mag I would use my PH up or bottled cal/mag. I would recommend getting something to check PH later down the road if you don't already have something and something for checking the PPH of your nutes when you mix them. The PPM meter is not a must have but is nice to have but a PH meter or at least PH test trips are very nice to have when trying to diagnose a problem and I would recommend getting something for checking PH at least. Most of your problems with growing will probably be from the PH getting out of range. This is one reason I like using the lime in my soil. I also have added bone meal to it as a PH stabilizer as the two break down at different rates. They both help keep the PH stable. I use potassium silicate for PH up and it works ok but the plants suck up the silicon fast and the PH starts to drift down again on me. The lime seams to stay in the soil longer. I never have a problem with the PH going up so I never worry about that. It only drifts down for me.

 

[haggis]

aw thanks for the advice is it special ph testers? like can you get them from ebay?

 

[KapScot]

As per Joe383 - yes I never would top water or add lime in that way - it's an additive at the start of the grow at soil mix stage - preferably made a few weeks before you want to use the compost which allows it time to degrade into your soil mix. (Apologies if I wasn't clear as I'm not a pot grower indoors I was just using my outdoors plot knowledge although I was a bit vague).