Growing for 10+ years, Indoors, using potting mix. Always had big beautiful plants. Then about 2 years ago something went wrong. Plants dying, stunted growth, all sorts of bad thing began happening to my plants. It seemed like every week was a new problem.
I blamed myself. To much nutrients? Not enough? Over watering, under watering? Lights? Air? Temp, ph?
I blamed the seeds, the genetics, the tap water. Read books and forums for troubleshooting. All the while things kept getting worse.
And before you say it, yes I keep everything clean.
For my potting mix I would normally go with 1/3 coco coir, 1/3 FoxFarm, and yes I admit it-- 1/3 Miracle Grow.
Finally one day I decided to google, “Why are my plants dying?” I got the ads for potting soil from Lowes to Walmart. I scrolled down and found Miracle Grow reviews. These were just miracle grow reviews posted on Google but almost all started with, “I’ve used miracle grow for years but a couple years ago…” The 2 main complaints were fungus gnats and root rot. Page after page of people saying the same thing.
I go get some grow bags form plants I had already harvested but hadn’t emptied out yet, I dump them out, and sure enough, no roots!
Usually the used pots are busting with roots. Not any more. The only roots I could find were brown and slimy. All along miracle grow had been killing my roots and it took me 2 years to find out.
I bought cheap potting soil and replanted all the younger plants and the older ones I flushed with neem oil. It didn’t take long for everything to start growing again. Stunted but growing.
Now I got coco coir and perlite and made my own soilless mix and I’m using FoxFarm nutrients.
I have just now gotten some new plants started and so far they look good. But this is totally starting over for me. I’m just following directions and hoping for the best.
Now I’m a new newbie.