I have Gaia Green ( Gaia Green All Purpose Fertilizer 4-4-4 - Indoor Farmer ) and am absolutely sick of dealing with this dusty ass shit. To be totally honest with you guys - as soon as I’m told today “you can’t use it this way” as a reply to this post, I plan to never ever buy it again. I am switching to Black Swallow next time which is “pelletized” although more expensive. I don’t like how messy Gaia Green is, simple as that.
Today I decided to add the scoops to a mixing cup, and about 0.5x equal portion of EWC and 0.5x portion of insect frass, added fresh water to make a slurry and let it soak for a while before simply watering it in. What a delight, instead of dealing with it dry and making dust.
But… I can only assume I am no genius and there’s a reason nobody ever has discussed making a solution out of it.
What is the problem, and why did I make some kind of big mistake?
I’m ok with making a catastrophic mistake, I’m more doing this just to what happens at this point as I’m sick of dealing with this nutrient
I think you will be good bud. Honestly a decent idea. I also use Gaia Green 444 and 284 and its some dusty shit. I water after applying anyways so I don’t think you will have any issues.
edit - After giving my mind a little more time to process, the only thing I can think would be making a little hard top layer. Sometimes when I add a heavy feeding it can become hard when it drys out. May have to go back and break up the little hard shell it may create.
ahh!! so you know exactly what I’m talking about!! I really dislike the amount of “dust” this stuff makes, I’m worried about accidentally inhaling some of it too as I’m unsure how bad it can be for a person considering it’s Guano’s and Rock extracts and all kinds of weird stuff
I already experience the “top hard layer” problem, in FULL, when applying it as per the directions. It’s just another reason I am frustrated by Gaia Green! If I don’t keep that top layer hydrated, watering is such a pain in the ass since it just repels everything, so annoying!!
Personally I love the ease of use but I would like to stop using it in my grow as well, I kinda just use it as a crutch and would like to start mixing my own, maybe down to earth or something like that. Those are still dusty though.
I mix mine with worm castings, top dress my bags, then work it into the top layer of soil, coco or whatever medium you use by hand and water. I never get the hard layer on top. Gaia works fast because it is broken down so fine, the microbes don’t have to work too hard to get it to the point the plant can utilize it.
Have you seen the Black Swallow Living Soil new products that look to be a direct answer to Gaia Green? It seems to be similar in the sense they are dry amendments at all purpose and power bloom - but with the benefit (IMO) that they are lightly pelletized, and supposedly dust is no issue with it even outdoors!
Hard to believe it’s too much at a time when all i seem to do is chase deficiencies once they show up
That being said, now hearing it can take 2+ weeks would explain why I dismissed everything as “not working”… Just not sure what to do when the plant will keep deteriorating for 2 whole weeks even after I try to quickly top dress!
I freaking wish mine would stay like that. They usually look like this for a while and then inevetibaly start getting pale leaves and so on… I just don’t get it
Wow… What do you reamend with when the grow is done? I have been starting to save some soil from harvested plants and have somewhere around 5gal so far maybe, but a lot of root mass still!
I re-amend with Gaia 284 and 444 1 tbsp/gallon, worm castings and bunny shit this run. and once the plants are put in there final pot I mulch the pot with some straw or in this case left over hay for our bunny.
If I don’t see a little life in my pots my plants just arnt happy, beneficial mites, worms and such.
With organics you have to be active instead of reactive. if you see a deficiency, your too late and will have to give what its missing and wait a few weeks. I do large pots, do not ph my water and run it strait out of the well, for me, I not a believer in flushing.
I think of my pot as a battery, the plants will fade when they are ready too. You do not flush in outdoor or in nature. I can understand its use for synthetics, but its just not for me.
I have my ups and downs too with my methods. Sometimes I will just wait a plant out if its being a pain. I do organic living soil to slow down and do less, the plant knows what it wants way more than I do. I find that DLI, Humidity and Tempurture matter way more than who nutrients you have in your garden.
This may help you to not get discouraged. This is a picture of the same 20 or so days ago, full of deficiency and coming out of a re veg from the light stress, same soil, same pot, same water, all I did was reduce my DLI “Turned my lights down” I also train them super low and wide due to high restrictions and it can stress them a bit.
I take my old soil and let it dry out, and then shake the root mass over a tote to get back as much as I can, I try and do a 1/3 rule. 1/3 old soil, 1/3, worm castings and aeration(perlite or what not). I did not do any perlite this run, I’m trying to find an alternative that works with my set up and is cheap and or free. Then I mix the 284 and 444 in at 1 table spoon per gallon of media get it moist and let it sit for a month or so. This give the microbes time to work and start breaking down and making the food plant available.
my goal is to one day be able to run my little grow on all my own inputs, I have worms for castings, bunny manure, just need to figure out some compost(this is in the works, but takes time). any and all leaves that a cut off the plants ether go to the rabbit for food, chopped and dropped directly in the pot or put into compost.
As has been mentioned, if you work it into the soil its not so bad. I’m a big fan of Gaia, think its one of the best products out there. I use it indoor and outdoor. I just bought some Black Swallow 2 days ago, but haven’t started using it yet. I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. I’ve previously bought their kelp and couple of times.
I put a 12-pound bag of worm castings in each 10 gallon grow bag with coco and either Gaia or Dr. Earth. It sounds like a lot, but when everything is mixed up you can barely tell there are worm castings there.
there’s no reason to add a meal blend like Gaia to a frass drench. that’s like making a perfect glass of Nestle Quik, and then inexplicably scooping straight cocoa powder on top.
there’s no problem, you’re a just a noob you’re going to make mistakes. just try to avoid obvious big ones at first.
growing organic is like steering a big boat. you gotta plan ahead. bit of a catch-22 in the beginning, because you need experience (and/or maybe have done more homework) to do so.
scratch up the surface with a fork a little if they get that dry. (p.s. – they shouldn’t.) it’ll help integrate it too.
I am suspicious of your watering practices.
if you take your ball and go home every time you face an issue, you’re not gonna get anywhere. stick with the Gaia until it’s gone. you’ll figure it out before then.
you’re going to make mistakes. just try to avoid obvious big ones at first.