Hello everyone
Just thought i would post my water only organic soil mix for everyone interested.
I like this cause I don’t have to ph my water or mix any nutes. And it’s 100% organic.
Ok really all you need is
Bale of Pro Mix - HP,BX or MP
Gaia Green all purpose 4-4-4 and Gaia green power bloom 2-8-4
Earth worm castings. I only use maybe a half a cup per gallon of promix. Most people use alot more I think.
And that pretty much it…lol
I personally also add some neem meal and some extra dolomite lime, oyster shell flour and insect frass. I add them for buffering the peat based pro mix(promix puts lime to buffer the soil) and to help keep away pests.
But this stuff isn’t needed, you can just use the all purpose and power bloom with great results.
Now all you do is mix at recommend rate-
Pre-mixing soil for hanging baskets, potted plants, and planter boxes: Blend 45 ml per 4 L (3 tbsp per gallon) of soil or growing medium.
Now some people use just 444 for this while others mix in some 284 as well.
A good ratio would probably be 30 ml 444 and 15 ml 284 or something similar.
Let this cook in a tote or something for a few weeks, preferably a month. You don’t have to do this but it helps the soil start breaking down the dry amendments.
Now I don’t like my plants to get to big in the pots before flowering or they run into trouble.
If you want big plants you need big pots.
I only run small plants in small 2 gal pots. I flip almost right after I transplant a clone or small plant in a solo cup. It gives the roots fresh soil for the initial stretch after flower is induced.
So if you have big plants I would recommend up potting to give roots space once tripped. If you don’t your surely going to run out of steam during the stretch. Has happened to me plenty of times when I put to big of a plant into flower with not enough new soil to keep it happy with the stretch.
Top dress as directed
Top-dressing hanging baskets, potted plants, and planter boxes: Apply 15 ml per 4 L (1 tbsp per gallon) of soil or growing medium. Gently dig into the soil surface. Apply once a month.
Once in flower I top dress every 2 or 3 weeks.
If my plant is already a good size I might top dress the day I flip just to be on safe side. This top dress would be 4-4-4
First top dress at 2 weeks would be maybe half 4-4-4 and half 2-8-4
Then next would be all 284
I usually top dress until week 6 or so depending on how long the strain is supposed to flower. Something that goes 11 weeks I might top dress later than week 6.
After the flower run I keep my blumats set up, keeping my pots constantly moist, I keep them like this for around a month. This helps break down the root balls in the pots. Then when I pull the stock all that should come out is the Rockwell cube with very few roots attached.
At this point I dump my pots in a tote and re amending at half my original rate and add a little bit more ewc and a bit more perlite(usually try to put them in equal parts or more perlite). Keep tote moist so the soil can cook for a few weeks or a month. I run another flower run with different soil while it cooks.
Then rinse and repeat.
I’ve had great results with this method.
This past run I didn’t have soil made up for a new run.
I remembered a post on ic mag about just reamending in your pots.
So This time I just ripped out the stem with Rockwell and a few roots attached. Then dug hole to almost bottom and put in 2 tbls of 4-4-4 and covered with a little soil. Then I put in plants from solos or rooted clone.
I use blumats and also top dressed at same time, just plopped a couple TBS of 4-4-4 under drip line.
Done!!
I am noticing some calcium deficiencies already so not sure how good this is going to work compared to my original way.
Here’s a nice chart a member over at thc farm made from another member shaded_ones method for growing with Gaia green dry amendments. It’s very similar to what I do.
He also top dresses with gypsum and Epson salts
Any questions or anything feel free to ask.