Store bought soil mix with a rating of 13 04 13

Grow Cycle Preparations
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Okay, as a beginner, and experiencing/experienced apparently “all” known rookie/beginner snaffoos(and I only on the 20th of April ordered some good beginner and advanced growing books(the three main ones) by Jorge Cervantes, apart from the literature from here, so I am low on weed specific growing knowledge, strangely), and wondering if I should even attempt to use this soil rated as such, considering I have five large and two smaller WHITE WIDOW that all were stunted for one reason or another(and those two are ready to go into a larger pot for sure, maybe with this new soil I bought)I have five plants in white plastic five gallon buckets with lots of holes in them, and lucky I haven’t killed those plants so far, they are almost two and a half months old, and right now I could care less when I start to flower them, but I bought some “Turf King” 13 04 13 slow release fertilizer soil to maybe use on at least a couple plants, and some three gallon black pots, I was thinking about replanting them, but in smaller pots, I could always go larger later, but with real plant pots that are black, not white that can allow in light or hold onto too much moisture.

Anyway, I do know that when I mixed up my own soil mix I may have made a mistake, I added for magnesium, Epsom salts, but I also added dolomite lime, I read that those both have magnesium, and I mean, I sort of just off hand mixed quantities in the soil mix, no measuring etc, same way I did with vermiculite, and perlite. One of my plants I had overwatered real bad last month, and seems to turn its leaves light green and damaged on the tip and they don’t look good. I almost wonder if I screwed up the soil mix. WHICH BRINGS ME TO MY POINT, I wouldn’t mind using a slow release soil either now or in the future, I screwed up most of my clones, so, can’t do any experimentation right now. Yeah, I know it would take awhile for the slow release pellets to wear off, maybe I wouldn’t need to fertilize at all for awhile. Right now its about keep them alive for cloning, and basically alive at all, I have two to three good looking ones, but I questioned my sanity on using this soil, and fertilized with some blue miracle grow water, the smaller measure for indoor houseplants, not strong, instead of transplanting at this time, I know I am likely not even mixing that stuff up right other than playing it safe and making it possibly weak, ya know, miracle grow blue powder mix is rated at 24 8 16 NPK, calling for “indoor plants” of 1/2 teaspoon/small end of plastic provided spoon per gallon of water(distilled) every two weeks, and for outdoor plants 1 1/2 tablespoons/large end of provided spoon per 1 1/2 gallon of distilled water. Needless to say, I am even unsure how much really to use, other than for “indoor plants”,…seems safe. I mean, once I know what I am doing, I’ll likely never use miracle grow powdered fertilizer ever again, seems like organic fertilizers can grow a better product, such as the grow boosters sets from here, for instance, organic stuff, nice. But miracle grow, the chemical fertilizer, is like I said 24 8 16, seems real good for vegging, especially, “beginner vegging”. Technically, there is a section here on “fertilizers”, at the informational section mentioning “miracle grow”, the problem with miracle grow, it is easy to use outside with a hose connected to a sprayer with a plastic jar filled full with blue powder, gets evenly distributed, mixing per gallon for indoor plants, the instructions is lacking, no wonder so many people kill their plants with over nuting with miracle grow, I almost did with all of them over three weeks ago, right along with overwatering several of them several days later, a “double tap” assassination attempt on my own plants. .

I will tell ya a real problem, five gallon pots, its always dry from the surface to several inches down, then beyond that it is measuring wet, so I drilled aeration holes, ha, its a all dumb dumb dumb, considering now I know that white plastic pots can transmit light to roots inside or those on the outside edge.

Anyway, everything I have done wrong previous up to now I knew before I did it that I was taking some sort of risk, and so now, well, I am “pausing” and “thinking” about it. Prefertilized soil, and my ignorant use of miracle grow fertilizer mix(blue powder), and how I over nuted with them once already, now I am using it too weak, and yeah, I bought the marijuana booster packs, but I used a little once and decided I will save my nice booster and flowering packs till I I know I aint wasting them while making mistakes, with my WHITE WIDOW plants.

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Trust me you are not along on this . I hear miracle grow moisture control bag fertilizer works good for 4-6 weeks during veg with just watering every 2 -3 days using no nutrients . I too have made mistakes as well , been brain storming trying to nurse it back , and it’s showing new growth , after four weeks of trying to figure out what I did wrong and what the plant need and want at the right time . You must first get a watering schedule develop , like every 2-3 days . When you slightly starve the plant of water , it seems to do better from my experience . Than you have to get a feeding schedule . It’s best to start after about 3-4 weeks to start nutrients or depending on the growth of the plant . Now it’s going to take time , because growing is not a fast process . But when feeding , you start 1/4 of measurements of what nutrients system you using because less is more as you are experiencing . But you have to learn to listen to the plant , what you see on the outside of the soil , is an indication of what’s going on in the inside of the soil . If you have over done some things , first you have to flush thoroughly , double the size of pot is how much water you use , let it dry out , and I would transplant out of the over saturated soil to fresh soil , and just water . I was doing a gallon to a 3 gallon , and realized that a half gallon is best . But it’s apart of the process of learning , some guys hit it off first time , but most guys have issues . But I suggest starting from scratch by flushing and fresh soil , and just do watering for 3-4 weeks and hope that will revive it . Lime or Epsom salt should be measured very precisely , because they don’t have immediate responses , but in about a week or two they do help tremendously to buffer the soil . I mixed my lime in water and applied it that way . But get you a written log , schedule it out and stick to it , write everything you do so you can go back and make strategic adjustments from what you done . Not knowing is not knowing . Most guys on here have a lot of experience on growing , but it’s only so much they can do or say when sometimes the problem is the grower and not the plant trying to rush the process like I did , so I know where you are , don’t give in though , because small adjustments can make a hell of difference .

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J. Cervantes Grow Bible is in my library. :slight_smile:

I will address your soil choices later today. :slight_smile: Using Time release fertilizer is asking for issues.

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trying to figure out which one will give me the best results .

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I did an outdoor grow last year and I used the FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil you have pictured on a couple of plants. They grew, on average, three feet taller and yielded much more than all the rest.

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We as grower’s in soil all have our own preference in soil use. I believe it’s all in how we use the soil with each plant we choose we put in it to grow. I as a grower in soil I have noticed over time EACH PLANT has a different out come. There are
so many things that can go wrong with each plant so you must pay attention to what you are doing with each plant, just to mention a few: watering, light , heat and humidity and that’s just to mention a few. There are more things to look out for. It’s not so much the soil as it is the grower.
This is just my opinion

Will

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This is what I use for soil Pic # 1

Pic # 2 This my NL, SS & OG All placed in my soil of choice on 3/21 /15 under 400w hps first time that got fed w / grow booster 1/2 cap to gal rain water ph 5.5 6.0 range after adding nutrients that was on 4/25/15 36 days of water only.

And pic # 3 My 3rd generation of WW Started 4 / 6 / 15 19 days ago placed in the same soil and under t5s water only there are 41 of them so far.

I wanted to take a pic’s of my other ladies but they were all in bed lol
There is 18 WW from seed using Miracle Gro and 15 2nd generation WW in same soil 31 days of flowering.
Wait I do have a pic that I took the other day

Pic # 4 WW 18 from seed 31 days of flower

And pic #5 2nd generation WW 31 days flower both under 1000w hps they both get 1 cap flower booster to 1 gal of rain water ph after nutrients 5.5 6.0 range heat 76 - 87 degrees fan on 12 for clean air.

Will

My Soil

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NL, S.S AND OG
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3rd Generation WW
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WW from seed flowering
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And also seed WW flowering sorry wrong pic lol
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This is a pic of the 2nd generation WW Flowering
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If I can just grow 2-3 like that’s it …I would be super stoked .

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You will my friend, it dose take some time to learn and hey i’em still learning and i’em sure Latewood and Stoner are there is always something new poping up lol

Will

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Thanks garrigan, I mean, I used to feel like a master gardner for fruits and vegetables, and I will succeed with medical marijuana, eventually. Was almost thinking about giving up on this idea of slow release commercial soil, but I am tired of dealing with the five gallon pots that don’t have roots enough to draw off all the excess moisture fast enough, so I am for sure gonna try and get them down in three gallon pots, I hope, and I have been reading the brand new Jorge Cervantes encyclopedia, and anxiously await other books to arrive next week, my injured shoulder is almost healed, and through medical marijuana use, I feel way better than normal, for getting serious on this who weed gardening, indoor.

I mean, I’m used to growing commercial sized artichokes on the cold Oregon coast, and commercial sized strawberries, and I plan on humongous pot plants and buds as well. I just can’t grow outside unless I had a greenhouse, neighbors are too close, and some of them love weed a lot, so do some of their shaky friends.

Ya know what is funny, I saw years ago a healthy pot grow in the trunk of a old Cadillac, he popped the trunk and there were the older style fluorescent grow lights screwed to the lid and a two shop lights in back, he called it “mobile security” with a “battery charger” always connected, and I think had a bathroom fan drawing in air from the bottom of the car, I mean, if someone can grow like that, I can master indoor growing

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You are going to do just fine, I was raised on the farm not a large one but large enough. So I know a little about growing even though this is a different same basic thing and you sir have the gift of growing, just give it some thought all you are doing is growing only on a smaller scale.
My parents mixed up there own soil for there greenhouse’s and I could to but I just don’t have the time So I use this stuff
My next grow of clones will be done even better that will be my 5th grow.
I also did a shit load of reading and reseash before I got these results

Will

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You know I don’t have to go out to my room all the time to see my girls I can just click and view…lol

Will

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UPDATE::::In the dark outside, and now trying to do the rest in my laundry room lest my either my hateful neighbor, or fellow pot user neighbors cannot see what I am doing now that the sun came up, I mean, even at 6am in the morning I wouldn’t doubt someone is looking, though, yesterday I was preparing replacement strawberry fruit plant half barrel rounds, and I have starts in the house.

I have been trying to replant all my plants, two six inch pots that were repeatedly damaged and stunted, two months old, something was going on with their leaves, yet again, probably over nuted, or my bogus “let em get dry or only damp” idea, worried about root rot. Anyway, in that aforementioned soil, the two went into three gallon pots, the roots hadn’t reached the outside, a sure sign something wasn’t good.

Then I have repotted two of my most regularly damaged plants, and wow, just like I suspected, the root ball is bout as big as it was in six inch pots, but one of them had some nice roots extending real deep that got cut. Basically, the five gallon pots, what a mess, the soil doesn’t seem good, probably stays too wet, a waste of resources, and I found clumps of Epsom salts, dang, I knew it was a mistake using that stuff that I’ve had for years, it had gotten moisture and wasn’t completely powder.

Anyway, I am enthused with the replacement soil, I only worry about the low amount of nitrogen, and especially the low amount of phosphorous. It really means that I could serve a miracle grow blue powder real weak, or figure something out otherwise. And I didn’t add a darned thing to the soil, most likely where I went wrong, when I threw together a soil mix of peat and everything else in the middle of the night, tired, and a shoulder in pain, and my medical marijuana card hadn’t come yet for pain relief.

Garrigan, sounds like you have a video camera setup for looking at your plants in a shed or something, cool, I have thought about something similar when I move out there. Wow, it sure would be great to have a total electron alarm system, sounding an alarm if soils get too dry, light burns out, etc, someones gonna have to make an app for computer or cellphone, total automated plant growth. I may have to grow fifty fifty out in shed and in home, due to electrical concerns, like vegging indoors, seedling/cloning and flowering in the shed.

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I have video camera’s every where. Good call bud. I see every thing that go’s on even in the grow room. I know when some thing go’s wrong, a light out, fan off any thing, but mostly ripper’s mother fu…ker’s got me once it will never happen again and if it does I will know who it was and I will go and take care of it …if you know what I mean…lol

Will

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I went back and finished replanting my plants, the two good condition plants had feeder roots deep into the five gallon buckets, but nothing massive, and they both need to be cloned, they are like a bushes with too many branches, etc. I discovered in my haste that I had massive clumps of various additives not mixed up in the soil in all of them. I had to finish up in my laundry room, cause a neighbor of mine has his curtains open, probably no risk, but as we all know, its word of mouth risk. I have cover story of my other plants, if anyone wants to know if I do indoor gardening.

I’ll be able to grow these properly now, the soil does have perlite added already, and I went with no sand additive. I gave them what distilled water I distilled in my distiller, and I technically want to use tap water, but the small community here is on a well sump pumped to all out here, rural. There have been additives infused, I believe, or it is from the ground water, I am unsure what it is, and ph is about 4. I have a water barrel setup that I never used, bought out of gardeners supply catalog, from back when they infused so much bleach I worried it was gonna ruin some of my plants, then we had a bad bad rainy summer, here on the southern Oregon coast. For all I know, maybe my plants started looking funny cause I used tap water for the first time days ago, with miracle grow fertilizer that brought the ph to perfect 6.5.

Three(3) gallon pots, just the way to go, and I just saw a Jorge Cervantes video on his liking three gallon pots too, moving away from five gallon pots. Its a whole new start for me, and I understand weed root structure more and what happens to problem plant root masses, they were small.

I discovered my two best plants could have in theory been left in their five gallon buckets, they had already drawn off the moisture and they were light, but they showed something going wrong, minor, but I couldn’t chance it, and they had roots along the side of the white buckets, which allow light to pass through somewhat and cause root damage, if that matters there, unsure.