I need some advice.

[PBslipknotCKY]

I am about a week and a half into my first grow. I made the mistake of starting my plants in MG soil. I was wondering what the best type of soil would be to transplant them when they get a bit bigger. Also what kind of nutes do my plants need during veg and when are they old enough to give them nutes. I am growing 4 single plants, each one a diffferent strain. Critical (mostly Indica), Ice kush (55% Indica, 45%Sativa) Power kush(50% Indica, 50% Sativa) and Jack Herer (mostly Sativa). I know that Sativas grow bigger. If I put the Jack Herer in a 10 gallon pot, about how big will it get. Im indoors so I dont want it to get out of hand. I appreciate any helpful comments.

 

[shap3less]

what type of mg soil did you use? i'm doing my first grow in all mg soil. i started the seeds in organic choice, transplanted (only because i had to) into the cactus soil, then final container i used the african violet. all were mixed 2:1:1, mg, pearlite and sphagnum peat moss. i put some lime in the mix too, but not enough. around week 3 or 4 (7 or 8 overall) of flower i realized the soil had gotten extremely acidic. i added lime to the soil and it's finally, week 6 of flower, starting to show signs of it reversing. and i'm pretty sure it was locking out nitrogen. but to be honest, it doesn't seem like it has really effected any of the bud production. and if it did i'm more than happy with the results for my first time. anyways, if i would've stuck to my drop pH test and not a shitty digital pH meter and realized my runoff water is going out of wack, i think it would've worked fine. i have yet to try any of it, so i can't speak to the 'chemical' taste that mg supposedly plagues the bud with; but from what i understand, a lot of that is down to the cure.

i hear people have great results from fox farms ocean forest and fox farms happy frog. i haven't been able to source any locally, otherwise i'd be using that

 

[Mr.Marijuana420]

MG ok, its not great for seedlings tho. idk, go with promix, thats what im doing its good not crazilly priced, and if ur looking to go to wal mart lowes home dep, or some other place like that, u wont find very good soil, MG probably the best they got, and as i said isnt bad at all, ive had very good results with it. but if u want to get serious go to a hydro shop, and get to know the place and product. dnt go in there saying ur lookin for soil but dnt know what to get, bc they will try and sell u the pricyest shit on the rack, same with nutes. i said i wanted to go organic, with just a basic grow and bloom line. the guy trys to sell me nectar of the gods nutes, with like 20 different bottles, for all different types of micro and macro nutes. fuckin 25 bucks each, for the smaller bottles mind u. youd spend well over a 100 for the whole line up. and after i said i only want a basic grow and bloom line. so dnt let them get u, go in there with an idea of what u want. nutes, i would try and find a simple line up, 2-3 parts, (ex veg, early flower, late flower) brand is kinda preference, decide if u want to keep it organic from here on, or go with synthetic fertz, (also u wont find a good nute line up for cannabis in big box stores, another reason to go to a hydro shop) theres alot to review, but keep it as simple as possible. u can feed them after 2-4 weeks, and as for how tall ur plant will get, thats an unknown. hope i helped

 

[Vindicated]

If when you say MG you mean Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix, then I'll say you picked a great medium to start off in. If you meant you used their more popular potting mix that includes 6-months worth of nutrients and is labeled for established plants, then you got a problem. The first rule before you by anything for your plants is to read the label and do your research.

I was going to come in and tell you to pick up Roots Organic and some high profile nutrient line like AN, General Hydroponics, etc. But I really think you'll be better served by buying a good book on gardening and learning what makes a good soil and how different plants work. Then instead of spending $300 on a complete hydroponic nutrient lineup, see if you can grow a nice harvest for under $30.00.

As for container size, 10 gallon is fine for your indica dominated plants. Most indicas won't go past five feet, so 10 gallons is plenty. For sativas, many can average 15'-20' so aim for 45-60 gallons or more. You can get a cheap 100 gallon container for $15, by buying a kiddy pool. Then go to your local landscaper supplier and buy potting soil in bulk or by the yard. I'd easily take lots of "okay soil" over a tiny bit of premium soil if it means 10 gallons vs 100 gallon for the same amount of money.

 

[PBslipknotCKY]

If when you say MG you mean Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix, then I'll say you picked a great medium to start off in. If you meant you used their more popular potting mix that includes 6-months worth of nutrients and is labeled for established plants, then you got a problem. The first rule before you by anything for your plants is to read the label and do your research.

I was going to come in and tell you to pick up Roots Organic and some high profile nutrient line like AN, General Hydroponics, etc. But I really think you'll be better served by buying a good book on gardening and learning what makes a good soil and how different plants work. Then instead of spending $300 on a complete hydroponic nutrient lineup, see if you can grow a nice harvest for under $30.00.

As for container size, 10 gallon is fine for your indica dominated plants. Most indicas won't go past five feet, so 10 gallons is plenty. For sativas, many can average 15'-20' so aim for 45-60 gallons or more. You can get a cheap 100 gallon container for $15, by buying a kiddy pool. Then go to your local landscaper supplier and buy potting soil in bulk or by the yard. I'd easily take lots of "okay soil" over a tiny bit of premium soil if it means 10 gallons vs 100 gallon for the same amount of money.

I started my plants in the seed starting MG mix, and they do look very healthy so I am glad that it wasnt a mistake, I have heard a lot of negative comments about MG so thank you for putting my mind at ease. As far as the containers, wow I didnt realize how much room they need. I was planning on putting the Indicas in 5 gallon containers and the Sativa in a ten gallon. If I stick with these sizes, will I get bad results?

 

[Mr.Marijuana420]

I started my plants in the seed starting MG mix, and they do look very healthy so I am glad that it wasnt a mistake, I have heard a lot of negative comments about MG so thank you for putting my mind at ease. As far as the containers, wow I didnt realize how much room they need. I was planning on putting the Indicas in 5 gallon containers and the Sativa in a ten gallon. If I stick with these sizes, will I get bad results?

no youll be happy , u wont have monsters but they will still be nice plants, u will be good with those sizes, and if u dnt want ur sativas getting way outta hand, im sure a smaller container would help,

 

[MsJazzy]

Home Depot has a newer organic soil now, called Kellogg Potting Soil, or something like that. It's supposedly organic and has chicken manure, bat quano, worm castings, forest compost, kelp meal. I have never heard of it, or seen it before. Anyways, I cut it with 1/3 perlite and I am testing it out on my flower beds, and one MJ plant. The rest of my MJ's are in an organic soil I purchased from the local nursery that has worm casting, bat guano, ocean forest compost, mycorhizzae (I know I spelled that wrong) and some other good stuff. The one MJ plant that is in the kellogg, is doing surprisingly well. Has anyone ever had experience with this stuff??

 

[Vindicated]

I love Kellogg Patio Plus and they're organic fertilizers are pretty good too. I've been using Kellogg products for years. I have plants in smart pots, one is filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest the other is filled with Kellog Patio Plus, and the third plant was placed right into a bag of Roots Organic. They are all doing roughly the same. Roots Organic is winning by 1-2 inches of growth, but really that could just be the genetics of the plants, so I call them a dead even tie in how they perform.

I didn't even add perlite to any of them, since they all claim to be ready out of the bag.

 

[MsJazzy]

Ok, well that's good to know!! I wouldn't say the differences are that huge, but oddly, the one I have in Kellogg does have a little more growth than the others. I have not tried FoxFarm yet. The price really turned me off, considering I have spent so much money on everything else. If I didnt buy a tent, ventilation and all the other stuff, I would've gone with FF. We have a bunch of little local nurseries here and I just bought one of their organic soils. I refuse to buy or use MG, but would you say Kellogg is any better than MG?

 

[Vindicated]

I like Miracle-Gro's Seed Starting Mix because it's just peat moss and perlite with a tiny tiny amount of nutrients. The Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting Mix that feeds for six months uses the same peat and perlite, but they they add coir (that's the moisture control part), a bit of Miracle-Gro Continuous Release Fertilizers and MicroMax, which is Scott's time-released micro nutrients line that's supposed to last up to 18 months. It's not bad, but it's not organic, and heat & watering frequency plays a big role in how fast the nutrients get released.

Most of the people who have problems with Miracle-Gro are new growers who buy the MG soil because it's cheaper than the stuff you find in hydroponic stores & it's more widely available. They either use it with seedlings, which is not what its intended for and it burns the plants almost immediately, or they go out and buy cannabis specific hydroponic nutrients that are popular in magazines and forums, add it to the MG without testing the mediums NPK levels first, and apply the nutrients at the rates recommended on the bottle, which also ends up burning the plants almost immediately.

To make Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting mix work for you, you have to use it on established plants (never seedlings or clones, that's what their seed starting mix is for) and you have to let the plants use up the nutrients that's in the potting mix (flooding the soil just releases more nutrients). To know when the nutrients are low, you watch the plants, and also use a $3 soil test kit which checks pH and NPK levels. Then when you've confirmed the plants are hungry and have used up most the available nutrients in the mix, you re-fertilize with more MG continuous release fertilizers that's formulated for fruits and vegetable. Doing it this way means you should only have to feed 1-2 times per year, not every week like you would with hydroponic nutrients.

I do think Kellogg makes a better product overall (even better then MG's organic line, which for years Kellogg was the true maker of it) because of the forest mulch, mushroom compost, bat guano, worm castings, kelp, and all the other stuff they put in it. Kellogg is also cheaper and made locally (Kellogg's plant is in Ontario, California which isn't far from where I live) so that's why I go with Kellogg.

However, Kellogg isn't perfect. There are Kellogg haters out there too, believe it or not. A long time ago a story got out about their soil amendment having sewage sludge in it and it caused a big uproar in the environmental community (mostly treehugger and gardenweb forums) when Mitchell Obama used it in the White House vegetable garden.

After the uproar died down and the experts came in explaining how biosolids are treated and how using it is actually very eco-friendly (normally the waste undergoes little treatment and ends up in our oceans) people started going back to it. Companies like Kellogg are tightly regulated by the US Government. Once they buy biosolids, they immediately sterilize it, process it and use a tightly regulated composting process that insures its safe for veg gardens meant for human consumption (a very high standard to meet). Kellogg also only uses it in their amend line, not their patio plus line.

 

[Vindicated]

wow, I just realized I know a little to much about soil and the companies that make them. I need a new hobby. lol.

 

[MsJazzy]

LOL it's all good.

I did read article's about Kellogg using sewerage sludge. Do you find you have to fertilize much with using Kellogg? I have a digital soil tester coming in the mail, but my plants have not shown any dificiencies and I have not needed to add any nutrients, yet.

 

[Vindicated]

No I don't fertilize a lot, in fact very very little, but I also practice crop rotation and use mulches. My organic garden is a simple raised bed made from old lumber. Around November and December I like to plant snow peas (a type of legume) which are able to create their own nitrogen from the air. In early march I harvest the peas, then I'll start my cannabis seeds indoors under 18/6 lighting. At the end of March I'll plant without fertilizing. All I need to do is add a mulch to keep the soil warm and hold in moisture. Around the end of April or mid May I'll feed using Kellogg Organic All Purpose 4-4-4 fertilizer which cost $7 at Home Depot. Usually I mix 1 cup with five gallons of water then pour it on as root drench. In June I'll get Alaska Fish Emulsions (5-1-1) and apply that as a tea for a quick nitrogen boost. I finish using Alaska Bloom (0-10-10) and the 4-4-4. Sometimes I'll even add some ash that I saved from smoking since it's high in potash and free. All in all, I'm probably spending between $20-$30 in fertilizers.

I also have containers going and that's where I use my synthetic hydroponic nutrients. The ones in containers grow faster, but because the containers are only 10 gallons, the ones in the raised beds are able get a lot bigger.