What soil to buy ????????????

rickymac21

Well-Known Member
i just want somebody to tell me the best soil to use for all stages of growth... also what nutrients (i understand nutrients might be changed between each stage of growth)

but i dont really want to have to mix anything to make the soil. just a good type i can buy at a well known place like lowes, walmart, homedepot etc... maybe a link to a site too... same for the nutrients... nothing tooo expensive though...
 

Norcal14

Well-Known Member
what i recomend is for you to use some fox farms ocean mix potting soil with there foxfarms nutrients like grow big for veg and tiger bloom for flower hope this helps.
 

Johnnyorganic

Well-Known Member
This is just about the best stuff I have ever used. All organic.



  • A perfect all-purpose potting soil made from our Complete Compost, sphagnum peat moss, perlite, aged pine bark, and organic nutrients such as blood meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, Actino-Iron®, ferrous sulphate, rock phosphate, green sand, and gypsum
  • Great for house plants, hanging baskets, transplanting, whiskey barrels, window boxes and more!
  • Available in 20 quart bags at your local garden center and 60 cubic foot bulk bags and by the yard at our facility
http://www.intervalecompost.org/products.html#potting

Good luck and good growing.
 

JackHerer

Active Member
If you are looking for something cheap Miracle-Gro moisture control will work, or just the regular Miracle-Gro potting soil. If you use that choose that route I would recommend you buy a bag of perlite and mix that in, even though you want no mixing at all, that is pretty easy and its less than $5 for the perlite. I have read the brand Scotts makes some potting soil and that it has a better pH, so if you find that it may be better.

For something you can buy at a hydroponics shop I think it would be well worth it for you to get either Fox Farm Ocean Forest Potting Soil or Fox Farm Happy Frog Potting Soil. These soils come pre-mixed with all the good stuff like bat guano, earthworm castings, etc. They are also natural and organic, not to mention one touch of these soils and you can tell its good stuff. You should definitly be able to find a hydroponics store that is a reasonable distance from you, even out in the boonies if you need to take a drive roll up a nice J and take the damn drive! you're going to have to find a hydroponics store if you want to purchase quality HID lighting and nutrients in person instead of online.

Im in my first grow and have been using miracle-gro, ocean forest, and happy frog and they have all been working but here is what I can tell you about them.

Miracle-Gro has chemical fertilizers in it, you can see the yellow fertilizer balls and they release plant food when watered I think. this soil can be though of as a "hot" soil because there is nutes already in it and there is no need to feed your plant unless there are signs of deficiencies. This is not an organic soil because of the chemical fertilizers but for a cheap grow it will work for you just fine. note that I tried using miracle-gro organic mix and it didnt work too well, when I transplated out of that soil into ocean forest the plant really started to spread its wings and fly.

Ocean Forest is also another "hot" soil. This stuff smells so freaking fresh and strong, so if you dont want your house to smell like a forest after the rain I would suggest one of the other two soils, though the smell will go away in definitly no more than 10 days (if you have quite a few large pots). I did not feed the plants in this soil until they were around 25 days from seed and then I only used 1/4 strength nutes. It seems to hold moisture fairly well but I am now having to water about every other day and the plants are just over a month old. It drains well also.

Happy Frog isnt supposed to be a "hot" soil but I did have my only case of nute burn in that soil, but I think I was just eager to feed as that happened very early on while I wa selecting which plants to keep. This one would be my recommendation, I would still wait untill about 25 days to feed. This one holds more moisture than ocean forest so you have to be careful not to over water.

a link to purchase ocean forest online (would be cheaper at a store, like $23 where I live. Happy Frog is about $26) : http://cgi.ebay.com/Fox-Farm-Ocean-Forest-Soil-Grow-Hydroponics-FREE-SHIP_W0QQitemZ120442276611QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0aeb4b03&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1205%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Now as far as nutrients go I MUST TELL YOU THIS FROM NOOB TO NOOB DONT OVERFEED YOUR PLANTS, IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS AND THEY LOOK GREEN THEN DONT! YOUNG PLANTS SHOULDNT BE IN WET OR DAMP SOIL BECAUSE YOU WANT TO ROOTS TO GROW BY SEARCHING FOR MOISTURE. PLANTS WILL GROW FINE WITHOUT NUTES UP TO A POINT. MAKE SURE NUTES ARE ONLY ADDED TO DISTILLED WATER OR WATER FROM A DEHUMIDIFIER, YOU ALSO NEED A pH ADJUSTMENT KIT WITH pH UP AND pH DOWN HERE IS A LINK TO GET THAT. http://cgi.ebay.com/Complete-pH-Control-Kit-System-General-Hydroponics_W0QQitemZ270350185140QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ef22072b4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50 Also make sure you get some pots with good drainage so you can flush if you have to.

okay so now for soil nutes dont go get miracle-gro plant food or something. invest a little money considering you obviously arent going to be buying weed after this works right? I think for soil there are two good nutrient programs that work well and can be ordered on ebay that I know of and have a good feeding schedule.

FoxFarm nutrients is a three-part system with some additives you can buy. The main 3 are Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom. I have not used these myself so I wont say anything except they would be my #2 choice for soil and I have heard good things. Here are links to get them on ebay

Grow Big + Big Bloom
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fox-Farm-Combo-Grow-Big-Big-Bloom-Qt-Quart-Nutrients_W0QQitemZ200353246464QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea5fbed00&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

Tiger Bloom
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fox-Farm-Tiger-Bloom-1-Quart-Hydroponics-Nutrients_W0QQitemZ270406092422QQcmdZViewItemQQptZFertilizer_Soil_Amendments?hash=item3ef5758686&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

And a feeding schedule (shows the extra additives you could buy)
http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf

The nutes I am using and I would recommend are Humboldt Nutrients 100% organic line. make sure you allow this stuff to "brew" for at least 24 hours before you apply it, and to adjust the pH at that point (after it has "brewed"). I barely feed since my plants are young, but I can say the small feeding did seem to give the plants a nice solid boost. remember I am very weary about feeding the plants b/c Im a NOOB like you and Im not tryin to kill stuff. but I know some little things about these nutes and some soils

I only have Bloom Natural, Grow Natural, Deuce Deuce, Humboldt Roots, Humboldt Honey ES, and Prozyme. If you are using happy frog you can be a happy frog yourself because that soil has living organisms in it you dont need to bother with the myco madness and stuff at all or the flavorful. I would say Mayan Microzyme seems pretty advanced to use since you need to let that ferment on its own with some added molasses, so I might avoid that for now too, and its expensive! anyway here are some more links to this stuff and a feeding schedule

grow and bloom natural
http://cgi.ebay.com/Humboldt-Nutrients-Organic-GROW-BLOOM-NATURAL-Qrt-Combo_W0QQitemZ260376391638QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3c9fa46fd6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50

prozyme
http://cgi.ebay.com/Humbodt-Nutrients-HUMBOLDT-PROZYME-QUART-Hydroponics_W0QQitemZ270353540362QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ef253a50a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

humboldt roots (I really really like this stuff, you barely need any)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Humboldt-Nutrients-HUMBOLDT-ROOTS-50mL-Hydroponics_W0QQitemZ270357431650QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ef28f0562&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

humboldt honey es
http://cgi.ebay.com/HUMBOLDT-HONEY-ORGANIC-ES-QUART-HYDRO-NUTRIENTS_W0QQitemZ270353537448QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ef25399a8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

deuce deuce
http://cgi.ebay.com/HUMBOLDT-NUTRIENTS-22-Deuce-Deuce-1qt-Hydroponics_W0QQitemZ260348119347QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3c9df50933&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

as you can see these nutes are a litle more expensive, but I do think it is worth it and it is totally 100% organic and that means less salt build up (messes up pH)

schedule
http://www.humboldtnutrients.com/schedules/organicPgrm.10.MOD.pdf

I go with a litte less for week 1 (3ml of grow natural)

other humboldt schedules
http://www.humboldtnutrients.com/yum.html

Good luck to you, dont be a cheap ass and you will be rewarded with some beautiful girls. Also if you get some bugs I have killed off spider mites with a 1:1 rubbing alcohol and water solution, but NEEM OIL is best do some reaearch on that should you get bugs, I havent had to go that far yet (thankfully)

Also when putting the soil into te pots you may want to add 2 teaspoons of dolomite lime per gallon of soil. This will help maintain a good pH and also will provide some nutrients along the way, but you do need to make sure you dont over do it, if you arent sure how many gallons your pot is use only 2 teaspoons then I suppose. I will use this stuff on my 2nd grow you should try and use it on half the plants you have maybe and see if you like it. REMEMBER THIS WHOLE THING IS TRIAL AND ERROR YOU LEARN BY DOING GOOD RESEARCH AND GROWING GROWING GROWING GROWING!!!!

I hope I didnt write all this for you to grow 2 swag seeds under a small 150W CFL and in crap dirt and overfeed them! outside of this awesome site I learned a lot from this little guide
http://www.weedsthatplease.com/growindoors.htm

also make sure you take a look at this thread
https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/937-how-grow-marijuana.html

alrite good luck
 

rickymac21

Well-Known Member
awsome ! good info.. thanks guys.. and no im gonna actually have 2 seperate grow rooms... 1. for sprouting/vegetation and another room for flowering... in the vege room im useing 1 fluero lamp set up. its a 4 ft 4 tubed lamp. puts out about 30,000 lumens. space is gonna be around 4 ft deep, 6 ft wide and 7 ft tall.. prolly grow 5 plants a time and vege them till they reach about 30" (goin for bigger plants first) ... the flowering room will have 1 400 watt hps lamp and will be about 5 ft depp 8 ft wide and 8 ft tall... same amount of plants (5) and hopefully get between 1-3 ounces per plant...flowering room is going to ventelated with a ducting and duct fan along with a "window fan" which will have 1 fan blowing in cool air and the other sucking out warm air....
 

luvthe420

Member
i am on my second grow and use fox farm ocean, botanicare pro grow/pro bloom mixed with liquid karma. the hydro store recommended this and it worked great.
 

rickymac21

Well-Known Member
i think i might go with the fox farm products.. a few people reccomended it and it sounds like is a nice reliable choice.. plus its got all the other things made by fox farm too, like the extra nutrients for each stage of growth... thats nice to have....
 

Mr. high

Member
Wats up guys I have a question that I hope u can answer for me. If i planted my seed on regular soil and it already sprouted can i switch it to some miracle growth potting mix ?? Its because im on my 3rd week since it sprouted and i feel like its not growing right because it's bearly growing the second set of real leafs.
 
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