Osmocote, my favorite plant food - easy peasy, complete

No top dressing at all. in veg maybe every 3rd watering hit them with aloe water rather than pure water and in flower same thing with coconut water. If i ever had a super hard dry back id hit with microbes (maybe every 2-3 weeks or so if that). Took them 65 days and harvested last saturday everything is hanging to dry currently. These pics are from around day 60.

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Looks like they came out great. I’m gonna have to give this a try for my next round of plants and some outdoors.

@Thats_bank they’re making a believer out of me lol

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I used to use osmocoat, still have little plastic hulls all over my outdoors garden 25 years later… the plastic coating just doesn’t degrade. And sadly the high level of N is majority Ammoniacal and that can also cause issues if it leaches into the environment

But I quit using ferts with high ammoniacal content as they have been shown to decrease yield, terpenoids, and THC levels in cannabis and Osmocoat is over 50% ammoniacal NH4 which has also been noted as causing late term toxicity in cannabis plants.

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My greenhouse is loving it. Figs, quinces, strawberries, blackberries and lemon. All so very happy. I think I’ll try to bonsai a clone I have.

Good stuff.

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Nice!

Everything loves it. My greenhouse tropical trees are going nuts. Got 500 oranges off 2 trees, most are grafts I did on a key lime tree, 255 Meyer lemons off one tree, am harvesting avocados now, pitaya, etc.

Pitaya (dragon fruit) flower. Is 8-10" across.

My curing re-vegged Lapis Mtn. indica is pure goo. Can’t wait to taste it.You need to grow some mangos. Look for the Zill varieties like Fruit Punch, Sweet Tart, Lemon Merinque, Pineapple Pleasure. Pickering is a productive small tree with excellent fruit that has a background of coconut. These are eyes closed, eat over the sink OMG fruit.

Uncle Ben

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that’s something I’ve been curious about ever since I saw this thread and the linked john kempf video

the tl;dr being sources of nitrogen and levels/timing of calcium application might have a strong influence on node count and spacing, which dyna-gro also claims on their product page for their 9-3-6 foliage pro. And like you said, it might also affect cannabinoids

It really makes me wish osmocote would release a version of the plus with calcium and little/no ammonical nitrogen, it would be the perfect one stop shop for cannabis growers

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I would agree with less ammonia content, but I would hope they also change the plastic coating to something a little more biodegradable. In northern California we have issues with growers overusing these delayed-released chems in public areas, and their visibly discernable plastic fertilizer balls often end up on the news as polluting the public lands and waterways :sweat_smile: Calcium I prefer to amend only when needed, as I only supplement up to day 30 of flower

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If you’re seeing plastic shells, that’s not Osmocote. Osmo uses a biodegradable polymer shell as do many other CRF fertilizers. What you’re probably seeing is dirt cheap polymer coated urea, which uses EVA or other non-degradable plastics as the coating. Or sulfur-coated urea (or sulfur/wax, sulfur/wax/polymer), the oldest cheapest form, which leaves behind sulfur shells, not plastics. Also, that stuff is usually mixed with urease (NBPT) and nitrification inhibitors to make the ammoniacal conversion slower. Still not great to see on public lands for sure, but I would guess that it’s probably shitty conventional ag stuff of the lowest quality bought or stolen by the pallet or truckload by cartels or gangs.

Here’s a good diagram on how CRFs (including coated and treated ureas work from this paper:

IMG_3287

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168365914001205

Babar-jcr2014.pdf (460.8 KB)

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In the REAL WORLD, there isn’t an issue. Ammonical salts are good by design and used by all high quality manufacturers like Peters, Dyna-Gro and Os. They are released slowly and converted into nitrates via microbial action over time. I’ve added blood meal to my mixes for years. It too is ammonical. Can get damn hot if you use too much FWIW.

Then you have the kids, the experts you know, that have never used it but claim Os. produces harsh smoke while theirs is the smoothest taste this side of Swisher Sweets. :rofl:

My homegrown is potent and the “taste” is silky smooth. No one complains.

I still maintain that cannabis is indigenous to non calcareous soils, those of a volcanic origin, usually found growing in highlands. If you FEEL you need Ca, then throw some gypsum into your mix. Can’t hurt, unless you get carried away,

Facts over feeling,
Uncle Ben

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Understood…dicyclopentadiene and glycerol ester dissolved in an aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent

That’s from 1993, we are on Generation 5 of Osmocote nowadays, technology advances:

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Fine, then don’t use it. No matter what you use, it’s all about degree, amount.

I’ve used Osmocote on greenhouse grown large tropical fruit trees since the greenhouse was erected in 2012. It’s just not a problem, again, in the REAL WORLD. Could care less about some cherry picked paper that is not relevant to my situation.

UB

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One of my friends just started growing for the first time and they’re gonna be using just osmocote plus and good soil. I really look forward to their results!

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Used it for 30+ years. Does that count? :slight_smile:

Look…I’m an old pHart, 73. I’ve trialed stuff on about every kind of plant material you can think of for 50 years.

For veggie gardens it’s an economy of scale issue. Damn stuff is very expensive ever since Uncle Joe took office. (Green new deal, pro organics, tariffs on raw synthetic materials like potash, etc.) Few months ago I planted cukes, okra and cantaloupe in the veggie garden. I scratched some in. Getting a ton of tomatoes mainly from the greenhouse. Lovin’ one of my favorite grape tomaters, Juliet.

UB

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I have been using Osmocote since 1976. My outdoor guerilla grows thrived on it. I have used it on my indoor grows also when I knew I couldn’t maintain them as much as I should. I have had 0 issues in all these years. I am definatly a fan of this product with it’s ease of use and low maintenance.

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7 months old re-vegged Lapis at harvest. Osmocote and MicroKote came thru. Doing the root pruning thing again, this time with MicroKote - #100 by OldUncleBen

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I recently bought some Osmocote and decided to test it out on some of my veggie garden plants.
My tiny basil plants started to take off. all the other plants I used it on seem very happy. While i’m not as old as you, I have been gardening 45+ years. Oddly I never tried Osmocote. In the past it was Peters which Is now Jacks. So I may test Osmocote on 1 plant in my fall indoor to see how it goes. Thanks for starting this thread. I may have never tried this otherwise.

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I’m doing all of my autos with Osmocote, based on this thread.
They’re in a homemade soil mix that’s about half and half Cococoir and compost, with a good dose of perlite in it.
They’re all in containers. I dug a hole for the seedling, dumped a small handful of bonemeal in the hole, plopped the seedling in, and we’re off to the races.
They seem to be VERY happy so far. Not sure why, with the terrible weather we’ve had in Maine so far. I think for the past 6wks, we’ve had maybe 4-5 days of sunshine. Everything else is just gray/rain/drizzle.
Folks around me planted their gardens, TWICE, washed out each time, and just gave up.

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Congrats!

Yeah, Os is the bomb. Used it for decades which should speak for itself.

If you’re growing outdoors using pots here’s a trick - dig a 3" deep hole a little bigger than the bottom diameter for the typical 3-5 gal. pot. Make sure the drainholes are not plugged, drop the pot in the hole, kick up soil around the pot and water as usual. Roots will grow into native soil which is a good thing. I did this for big pot plants subterfuge in my ag field. Ran a 1/4" drip tube off my main irrigation line into the top of the pot…

Gardening is all about the roots. As soon as folks figure this out, they’ll excel.

Uncle Ben

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Agree with the roots…that’s why I give everything a little dose of bone meal in the hole before the plant goes in.
What’s the advantage of planting the pot?..seems to me that if you just put the plant directly into the soil, the roots grow unabated, instead of just through the drainage holes…am I missing something?

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