HandyGringo
Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I have a grow going that was supposed to be entirely organic, but I have made some mistakes along the way. I was wondering if you could help me get it back on track and how to ensure I get a decent harvest.
I have in total 4 plants in smart pots, that I've been feeding with organic pellets, made from some kind of animal dung (3-1-2)
The pots are pretty small by organic growing standards (I've learned after starting) I got an Auto in a 3-gallon, a Frisian Dew in a 6-gallon, and 2 Frisian Ducks in 5-gallon pots, roughly.
The soil is Biobizz light mix, mixed with Plagron Supermix, which contains all kinds of goodies, worm castings, guano and minerals. And perlite of course.
My water source is very alkaline, at around 8 or so. I was watering with that water for the first few months but in June I started seeing deficiencies and based on this thread of mine - I concluded that my PH was the issue. So I started using PH down on my water since then.
I now realize that using PH down on organic soil is a bad idea and might kill off my beneficial microbes. So, effectively I'm starving my plant by killing off the transporter of the organic nutrients, right?
To make matters worse, in the last month or so, I've still seen some slight signs of N deficiency, so I've supplemented with synthetic nutrients twice. Because I feared that my organic nutrients perhaps were lacking in some departments.
So my question is. How do I fix my soil? I don't really have access to a compost pile, I don't have an air pump or air stones. Moving forward I will be using lemon juice to lower my PH, so that's a step in the right direction I guess.
Looking back at all the mistakes I honestly think that the first signs of deficiency were just me underfeeding or being too slow to give pellets because there's a couple of weeks delay before they actually 'work' or simply underestimating how much organic pellets I needed. Then just fucking up from there. But eh. The plants all look decent still (See grow journal in signature)
I have in total 4 plants in smart pots, that I've been feeding with organic pellets, made from some kind of animal dung (3-1-2)
The pots are pretty small by organic growing standards (I've learned after starting) I got an Auto in a 3-gallon, a Frisian Dew in a 6-gallon, and 2 Frisian Ducks in 5-gallon pots, roughly.
The soil is Biobizz light mix, mixed with Plagron Supermix, which contains all kinds of goodies, worm castings, guano and minerals. And perlite of course.
My water source is very alkaline, at around 8 or so. I was watering with that water for the first few months but in June I started seeing deficiencies and based on this thread of mine - I concluded that my PH was the issue. So I started using PH down on my water since then.
I now realize that using PH down on organic soil is a bad idea and might kill off my beneficial microbes. So, effectively I'm starving my plant by killing off the transporter of the organic nutrients, right?
To make matters worse, in the last month or so, I've still seen some slight signs of N deficiency, so I've supplemented with synthetic nutrients twice. Because I feared that my organic nutrients perhaps were lacking in some departments.
So my question is. How do I fix my soil? I don't really have access to a compost pile, I don't have an air pump or air stones. Moving forward I will be using lemon juice to lower my PH, so that's a step in the right direction I guess.
Looking back at all the mistakes I honestly think that the first signs of deficiency were just me underfeeding or being too slow to give pellets because there's a couple of weeks delay before they actually 'work' or simply underestimating how much organic pellets I needed. Then just fucking up from there. But eh. The plants all look decent still (See grow journal in signature)
