Switching to Organics before Flower cycle..

Douglas Fox

New Member
I'm growing in FFOF and used synthetic nutes for veg because I made the mistake of listening to this hydro store owner.
I recently purchased Natures Nectar fertilizer (just arrived today).

Should I flush out the soil completely before adding organic? I have a ton of myco supplements to add to the soil to hopefully bring it back to life. I'm considering using molasses as well

Has anyone ever switched from chem to organic ferts before?

I also just switched to 12/12 a week ago. Looking to put the NN in for bloom nutes as soon as possible.

Any input is much appreciated!
 
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Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I am also guilty of listening to the hydro store guy against my own better judgement... The results threw my plants into an imbalance which took weeks to correct. Use nothing from a bottle if you can help it but if your plants are already drunk on the kool aid you should just let them finish it off & start anew next run. FFOF is a pretty stout mix on it's own but if you are already into flowering & have been using nutes I think your best bet is to go ahead & finish this flower cycle using your synthetic nutrients as needed & then recycle your soil for the next run using nothing but soil amendments- then you can shitcan those bottled nutes. In the meantime you should aquire all manner of soil amendments you'll need & start up a worm farm.
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Problem is synthetic nutes kill the microlife needed by the plants to be fed which forces the grower to keep on using nutrients made of dissolved salts that are readily available in the root zone for plants to take up & convert to sugars through photosynthesis. Organic soil amendments on the other hand must be consumed by microbial life for their by-products to be expended into the root zone for plants to use thereby increasing o2 levels in the soil & pushing vigorous growth. Your plants do not care where their next meal comes from but they will always take whatever is readily available first. Using synthetic nutes in my opinion is sorta like feeding your kids mcdonalds every meal: they will love you for it but their health will suffer in the long run. Make the switch to living organics when you can but only when you can start at the beginning with a good amended mix that will last throughout the entire life of your plants without deficiencies.
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
You can also get away with using a bigass pot full of fresh FFOF soil & then use good clean non chlorinated water which might just get them through for most of the flowering cycle but it's likely you'll see a deficiancy in mid to late flower cycle which a dose of nutrients would easily correct. If you have the plant in a pot big enough already it's entirely possible you could complete this grow using water only.
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
You can also get away with using a bigass pot full of fresh FFOF soil & then use good clean non chlorinated water which might just get them through for most of the flowering cycle but it's likely you'll see a deficiancy in mid to late flower cycle which a dose of nutrients would easily correct. If you have the plant in a pot big enough already it's entirely possible you could complete this grow using water only.
A good flush with clean water should rid your soil of most dissolved salts which if left unchecked could kill off the myco fungi you want to innoculate your soil with. The best use for it is to sprinkle it directly into the roots when you transplant. You could also make a fungal tea out of endo myco but again you'll need a clean palate to start with which might be best done at the start of your grow. A transition to purely organics could be done mid flower with some effort but surely eliminates a lot of guesswork if you started out that way instead.
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
i would not recycyle your soil unless you compost it for a couple months due to the petroleum based ferts. if you have the money, make your own ammended mix with crab meal, kelp meal, neem seed meal, oyster shell, rock dusts. jump over to the ROLS thread that is stickied at the top of the organics forum. lots of good stuff to learn there. i'm actually gonna be cooking my first batch of soil next week! I'm stoked for organics.
 
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