Miracle Gro Potting Mix?

[Cheap Basterd]

I'm in the UK.

Re-potted one of my plants with compost from outdoors, covered in snow, less than a week ago. I didn't dry out the soil and got an invasion of fungus gnats. I re-potted my clones with the same compost yesterday, which I dried out, and have no problems with them.

I learnt my lesson. Hopefully you can benefit from my experience haha.

Thanks mate. I've already selected a nice section of soil that seems to hold water well, but has sufficient drainage. I'll take your advice and let it dry out, and then water prior to use.

So the plan so far: Take the best soil I can find from my garden, mix with a small amount of Miracle Grow Potting mix, and if I can get my hands on it, Perlite. How does this sound guys?

 

[derekgg2]

the only problem i had was time released fertalizers you cant flush them out they are always active.

 

[derekgg2]

it made my weed taste like crap.

 

[Doomah]

Sounds like a good plan to me. If you're careful with the amount of MG you're using I can't see why you'd end up with crap-tasting weed, though I've no experience there.

I wouldn't use time-release fertilisers either if I had the choice, but a lot of people seem to have a good degree of success with them and you've gotta work with what you've got.

 

[Cheap Basterd]

Sounds like a good plan to me. If you're careful with the amount of MG you're using I can't see why you'd end up with crap-tasting weed, though I've no experience there.

I wouldn't use time-release fertilisers either if I had the choice, but a lot of people seem to have a good degree of success with them and you've gotta work with what you've got.

I'll see how it works out. I'll make a journal and see what happens.

 

[Kevin K]

I have been using MG Soil for 4 weeks now, (yes germinated it mg potting mix) using no perlite and just adding water when the top is dry, and it's looking very good, I have a single 18w CFL at it for the time being as I was going to grow with HPS/MG (250w) after test it produced a bit to much heat, so ill stick to cfl's till I can sort that out. When I purchased MG, I was thinking, that it, my expensive seedling will die, you know what? it grew.. grew like a crazy m*F*

Use mg, but also add 25 - 40 % Perlite, if you don't have accessors to perlite you can always add sand ( make sure you boil it to clean all the salts ) it's not as good but absolutely will do the job for fair drainage. If your in the UK, they have perlite in B&Q & Homebase. Make sure you don't buy MG perlite or any perlite with nutes.

Interims of flushing or " clean smoke " - No, you can't flush it, It will activate all the nutes and yes you'r plant will suffer or even die but what you can do is this. Two days before harvest, cut you plant off at the bottom and place the bottom stem it into a glass jar full of clean 6.5ph water ( no nutes ) after a few days the plant will be flushed, just a bit differently, works great, most MG growers do this.

I don't really get it why people hate MG, I think its like cheating in terms of growing so it's really easy for n00bs but " Pro " growers use just soil and then buy expensive nutes and overcomplicate a simple grow, yes its more efficient then MG, but mg is way more simple and just as good. With MG i water once every 1-3 days and that's all. So simple. I think it's spread like this. Once inexperienced grower over watered the plant and killed it, told his buddies MG is bad and will kill the plant, those buddies told other friends and so it's spread like a disease. I see plenty of MG grower that read before doing anything and have success.


Here's my Ak-47 in MG (4 weeks) - Look's ok to me

 

[GeeTee]

hey kevin looks good man reason i dont germinate seeds in mg anymore cuz it killed out 2 of 4 bubblicious, im not saying doesnt work but the chance is higher for your seedling to die, i now germinate wit a seedling starter mix and then transplanting into a mg soil mix, so far im prtty much 100% germ rate wit the seedling mix

 

[Travisheals]

Sure does look OK!

 

[Cheap Basterd]

I have been using MG Soil for 4 weeks now, (yes germinated it mg potting mix) using no perlite and just adding water when the top is dry, and it's looking very good, I have a single 18w CFL at it for the time being as I was going to grow with HPS/MG (250w) after test it produced a bit to much heat, so ill stick to cfl's till I can sort that out. When I purchased MG, I was thinking, that it, my expensive seedling will die, you know what? it grew.. grew like a crazy m*F*

Use mg, but also add 25 - 40 % Perlite, if you don't have accessors to perlite you can always add sand ( make sure you boil it to clean all the salts ) it's not as good but absolutely will do the job for fair drainage. If your in the UK, they have perlite in B&Q & Homebase. Make sure you don't buy MG perlite or any perlite with nutes.

Interims of flushing or " clean smoke " - No, you can't flush it, It will activate all the nutes and yes you'r plant will suffer or even die but what you can do is this. Two days before harvest, cut you plant off at the bottom and place the bottom stem it into a glass jar full of clean 6.5ph water ( no nutes ) after a few days the plant will be flushed, just a bit differently, works great, most MG growers do this.

I don't really get it why people hate MG, I think its like cheating in terms of growing so it's really easy for n00bs but " Pro " growers use just soil and then buy expensive nutes and overcomplicate a simple grow, yes its more efficient then MG, but mg is way more simple and just as good. With MG i water once every 1-3 days and that's all. So simple. I think it's spread like this. Once inexperienced grower over watered the plant and killed it, told his buddies MG is bad and will kill the plant, those buddies told other friends and so it's spread like a disease. I see plenty of MG grower that read before doing anything and have success.


Here's my Ak-47 in MG (4 weeks) - Look's ok to me

Thanks for dropping by Kevin.

That plant looks fucking awesome. Very healthy looking.

*Sigh of relief regarding MG.

Might have to pick your brain at some point. When my bloody seeds get here, damn snow slowing down Royal Mail.

Good look with your grow Kevin. I'm going to drop by your Journal now.

 

[Cheap Basterd]

Fuck yeah! My seeds arrived today. 5 regular Nirvana White Rhino. I got them from Pick'N'Mix.co.uk. I'd heard mixed reviews about them, went with them anyway. I have to say that it was a pretty stress free process. When I tried to pay by card the site refused my card, so I ended up doing a bank transfer and all went well. Very quick communication from them. And they arrived pretty fast even though the weather is shit here at the moment. They were cheap, so perfect for me to practice on, since I'm a complete Noob. I have to say though, they do look a bit on the small side. Time will tell, I'll keep you all updated about how I get on with them.

So, does anyone have any last minute hints for me? My house is pretty fucking cold. What can I do to help the germination process? I'm going to be using the moist paper towel method.

Thanks

 

[dura72]

is there not a b n q near you? ive used mg every grow ive ever had, although not for seedlings, and ive never had a problem. problems only occur if u feed them too early or your over watering which seems to release the nutes too quickly. i use b n q own brand seedling and potting compost, b n q also have own brand perlite and vermicuilte. ive never understood why people have probs with it. ive had a load of grows with it mate.

 

[Cheap Basterd]

is there not a b n q near you? ive used mg every grow ive ever had, although not for seedlings, and ive never had a problem. problems only occur if u feed them too early or your over watering which seems to release the nutes too quickly. i use b n q own brand seedling and potting compost, b n q also have own brand perlite and vermicuilte. ive never understood why people have probs with it. ive had a load of grows with it mate.

I do have a B&Q a few miles away, however they didn't have any Perlite. Fuckers.

So far I've been to: Wickes, Focus, Homebase, Wilkos and a few others I can't remember. Don't know if it's because of the season. My last port of call is a specialist Garden Centre, then I'm just going to say fuck it and go with a custom mix of some nice soil from my garden and some Miracle Gro Potting Mix.

If I can't find Perlite, could I use really small stones in the bottom of my pots for drainage? I was thinking of giving them a good clean before use.

 

[dura72]

yeah stones will help drainage but i'd boil them first.

 

[IAm5toned]

you could also use vermiculite instead of perlite....

 

[malicifice]

I use the same stuff from seed, but I add a little more food to the mix. Like 3 parts potting soil to one part food.

 

[Cheap Basterd]

yeah stones will help drainage but i'd boil them first.

Yeah, I was going to boil them in a very, very mild Bleach solution.

Also, I had an idea about crushing up sea shells into very small pieces (again washing them off) Would they release any kind of minerals into the plants though? Lol, my minds racing with all kinds of ideas since I started planning this grow.

 

[Coconut Joe]

A neat trick that I used to find growing supplies was to Google HYDROPONICS and then your ZIP CODE. I have found that your local hydroponics dealer will likely have all the grow supplies you are looking for. When you are in the store and they ask you what you are growing substitute the word "girls" for "Cannabis" and they will know exactly what your talking about. (Very few plant species have male & females) Once I found a hydro center (even though I grow in soil) I was able to source everything I needed. Good Luck! I hope this helps!