Sunshine Mix #4 question

inhaleindica

inhaleindica

Well-Known Member
I was wondering if you would need to add more Dolomite Lime to this mix regardless that it has already been added? Anyone with experience using Sunshine mix #4. I am currently using Roots Organics and I do love it. I want to try something different and compare nutes with it. Also how much perlite do you add to the batch. I have noticed they don't add very much perlite.
 
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breatheless

Member
I too have some SM4 that I need to spice up and took the liberty of finding us this thread. :)

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/159259-sunshine-mix-4-a.html

"Add about a table spoon of dolmite lime to every gallon of soil that you use. Mix it up really well. It says that they add some to it already but it is not enough and ph will become a problem. It never hurts to add some worm castings to it as well but that is for nutrient value. Both can be bought at most grow shops or greenhouses."

"To each bucketfull of sunshine #4 mix I'll add a healthy pile of perlite, a handful or two of worm castings, and then won't add anything but Advanced Nutrients... To my thinking it's a bit silly to add much of anything else to a soilless mix like sunshine #4 since the whole point of a soilless mix is that it doesn't have anything else in it. It lets you have hydroponic-type control over your plant's nutrient intake while keeping much of the ease of soil growing... So I add perlite to it for improved aeration, worm castings to jumpstart the microbial population, and then do the real feeding with Advanced Nutrients."
 
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Wetdog

Well-Known Member
Add both the lime and the perlite, it's light on both.

They add some, just not enough.

*I* use 2tbl/gallon of mix, or 1cup/cf of mix for the lime. I 'eyeball' the perlite, but my rule of thumb is, when it looks like there's too much, it's just right.

YMMV

Wet
 
inhaleindica

inhaleindica

Well-Known Member
breatheless said:
I too have some SM4 that I need to spice up and took the liberty of finding us this thread. :)

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/159259-sunshine-mix-4-a.html

"Add about a table spoon of dolmite lime to every gallon of soil that you use. Mix it up really well. It says that they add some to it already but it is not enough and ph will become a problem. It never hurts to add some worm castings to it as well but that is for nutrient value. Both can be bought at most grow shops or greenhouses."

"To each bucketfull of sunshine #4 mix I'll add a healthy pile of perlite, a handful or two of worm castings, and then won't add anything but Advanced Nutrients... To my thinking it's a bit silly to add much of anything else to a soilless mix like sunshine #4 since the whole point of a soilless mix is that it doesn't have anything else in it. It lets you have hydroponic-type control over your plant's nutrient intake while keeping much of the ease of soil growing... So I add perlite to it for improved aeration, worm castings to jumpstart the microbial population, and then do the real feeding with Advanced Nutrients."
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Thanks, I was wondering if they added enough Dolomite. I won't be adding worm casting since I want to know which nutes I am using is superior. In my next round or 2 I will be doing nute challenge.

Wetdog said:
Add both the lime and the perlite, it's light on both.

They add some, just not enough.

*I* use 2tbl/gallon of mix, or 1cup/cf of mix for the lime. I 'eyeball' the perlite, but my rule of thumb is, when it looks like there's too much, it's just right.

YMMV

Wet
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Sounds about right. I would do that since thats exactly what I do with my Roots soil. Thanks
 
Izoc666

Izoc666

Well-Known Member
I love the soilless...yes thats what WetDog said...its perfect to start way...as for nutrients...i just started dyna gro s GROW and Bloom as two part from start to finish, also i use Pro Tekt from DG as well..when i use veg stage i use grow and use bloom for base nutrient till flower stage...i will hit the high dose of bloom and use Grow as base nutrient...its more important to make your plant healthy thats way you will get more yield...always remember more healthy=more yield.

666
 
Nullis

Nullis

Moderator
I use Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 and I would argue that it has plenty of perlite. It also has coco coir which gives it good porosity without a crap load of perlite. Dolomite, for cannabis, yes. A tablespoon per gallon of lime or pulverized egg shell certainly wouldn't hurt. Earthworm castings and\or compost\humus would mix in very well also, and if you mixed in enough then a bit more perlite may be called for.

If you're comparing with Roots Organic keep in mind that the RO is definitely more heavily amended\fertilized. The advanced mix #4 with mycorrhizae is very light on nutrients, so as to be suitable for seeds and clones.
 
inhaleindica

inhaleindica

Well-Known Member
Izoc666 said:
I love the soilless...yes thats what WetDog said...its perfect to start way...as for nutrients...i just started dyna gro s GROW and Bloom as two part from start to finish, also i use Pro Tekt from DG as well..when i use veg stage i use grow and use bloom for base nutrient till flower stage...i will hit the high dose of bloom and use Grow as base nutrient...its more important to make your plant healthy thats way you will get more yield...always remember more healthy=more yield.

666
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I use all of Dyna-Gro products myself. I have all of them even the foliage pro which I love to use for Veg and I am going to add some Mag pro to my list when I get an RO water.
 
inhaleindica

inhaleindica

Well-Known Member
Nullis said:
I use Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 and I would argue that it has plenty of perlite. It also has coco coir which gives it good porosity without a crap load of perlite. Dolomite, for cannabis, yes. A tablespoon per gallon of lime or pulverized egg shell certainly wouldn't hurt. Earthworm castings and\or compost\humus would mix in very well also, and if you mixed in enough then a bit more perlite may be called for.

If you're comparing with Roots Organic keep in mind that the RO is definitely more heavily amended\fertilized. The advanced mix #4 with mycorrhizae is very light on nutrients, so as to be suitable for seeds and clones.
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I am not comparing soils for this purpose. I am comparing organic nutrients with the soilless mix then I will probably switch back to Roots for organic after I determine which nute I like the best. Currently I use Dyna-Gro with my RO soil and I love it.
 
malignant

malignant

Well-Known Member
I add dolomite to every soil, and cut 50/50 with coco. i live in the desert, water retention is muy importante.
 
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Blakrex

Member
Hey guys, I know this thread is WAY old for a revive, but I did just stumble across it so maybe I can help others who stumble across. 4 months ago I did a side by side comparison of RO and SM4. Both in 5 gallon containers, same strain, attempted to grab 2 closest looking rooted clones to compare with. I wish I could scrounge the pictures up (we'll see). Plants shared a 600watt MH with around 256 Watts of T8 lighting around them to assist.

At 1-2 weeks the SM4 plant appeared bigger/taller, looking as though it rooted faster. About 4'' taller.
At 2-3 weeks the RO plant was still shorter than the SM4 plant but had begun producing more inner branches/segments/budnodes. It had also achieved about 2'' more of width growth on it.
At 3-4 weeks the RO plant had achieved the same height as the SM4 plant, more importantly it had nodes that were 1/2''-1/4'' closer together than the SM4.

Right after the 4th week the RO appeared to start experiencing nitrogen deficiencies. So at that point I had to start adding nuts to even the plants out, so I had all the information I wanted.
The SM4 plant gave pretty good veg growth for another 1 1/2 weeks before I needed to start adding in extra nuts.

Even though the RO appeared to grow the plant better for me, I still use SM4. I liked that the SM4 worked longer through the veg without assistance. The biggest reason why I choose to keep using SM4 is because it is easily amended without as much to worry about nut burning. If RO was cheaper than SM4 around here I'd consider using it again and trying to amend it before use next time. Maybe I will have to side-by-side test amended versions of the 2 soils too. ^^ There's my 2 cents.
 
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NobodyGrowzLikeMe

Member
Thank you
Blakrex said:
Hey guys, I know this thread is WAY old for a revive, but I did just stumble across it so maybe I can help others who stumble across. 4 months ago I did a side by side comparison of RO and SM4. Both in 5 gallon containers, same strain, attempted to grab 2 closest looking rooted clones to compare with. I wish I could scrounge the pictures up (we'll see). Plants shared a 600watt MH with around 256 Watts of T8 lighting around them to assist.

At 1-2 weeks the SM4 plant appeared bigger/taller, looking as though it rooted faster. About 4'' taller.
At 2-3 weeks the RO plant was still shorter than the SM4 plant but had begun producing more inner branches/segments/budnodes. It had also achieved about 2'' more of width growth on it.
At 3-4 weeks the RO plant had achieved the same height as the SM4 plant, more importantly it had nodes that were 1/2''-1/4'' closer together than the SM4.

Right after the 4th week the RO appeared to start experiencing nitrogen deficiencies. So at that point I had to start adding nuts to even the plants out, so I had all the information I wanted.
The SM4 plant gave pretty good veg growth for another 1 1/2 weeks before I needed to start adding in extra nuts.

Even though the RO appeared to grow the plant better for me, I still use SM4. I liked that the SM4 worked longer through the veg without assistance. The biggest reason why I choose to keep using SM4 is because it is easily amended without as much to worry about nut burning. If RO was cheaper than SM4 around here I'd consider using it again and trying to amend it before use next time. Maybe I will have to side-by-side test amended versions of the 2 soils too. ^^ There's my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
 
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