Super Soil Questions

[gualapa]

I decided to go with the super soil technique I read up on in subcool's thread. I'll be growing 6 pure sativas (10 or 12 until preflower) in donut vert in a 11.5L 9.5W 10H room. I'll be doing 12/12 only (seed bank recommends max of 10 day veg if even), so the grow should take 13-15 weeks (flower only). I'm growing Malawi Gold & I heard she's a monster when it comes to food & growing.

questions:
1) After they sex is when I will be putting them in Super Soil. Will the super soil be able to feed the plants for this long (~10-12 weeks), or will I need to add more super soil to the top near the end of the grow? I understand this depends on the plants & how many nutrients they accept, not just the length of grow.

2) Also, how does applying super soil on the top (where the regular soil is) get nutes to the roots? Is is through watering that the super soil nutes (on top) gets carried down to the roots?

3) I originally planned to go with 10 gal containers since this is a 13-15 week grow. However, that was when I planned to hand feed them. Should I go to an even bigger container for the super soil technique, or will 10 gal be fine? I know 10 gal's already on the large side, but these will probably be some pretty big plants after 3 1/2 months.

Thanks for the help.

 

[B166ER420]

Im no supersoil expert but NO it will not last 15 weeks.You seem to know the answer to your own questions.topdressing as needed will feed when you water it down.10 gallon containers are big but it all depends on how long you veg,I would use 7g..imo.

 

[gualapa]

Well I won't be vegging at all, but pure sativas get HUGE and someone who grew with the same seeds recently said to at least use an 8 gal. thanks

I also just remembered I won't be using the super soil for 15 weeks, it's more like 10 or 11 weeks because I won't be placing them into 10 gal w/ super soil until after they show sex, which should take 2-3 weeks in 12/12 only.

 

[B166ER420]

Yeah,forgot about that 12/12,no veg,duh!Maybe 3-4 weeks on that time till flower.GL.

 

[gualapa]

thanks. hopefully the super soil will feed them for a majority of the 10 weeks

 

[whitey78]

Properly made SS and 7 gallon pots (% amount of supersoil to base is strain/time length dependent) has no problem carrying plants for a 60 day veg with a 8-9 week flowering period... If you watched some of those vids or read subs supersoil thread, he runs his plants in 7 gal hard pots, for usually a 60+ day veg... all the way through whatever flowering period, usually 8+ weeks while running C02... It can be done... If you have any doubts run 10 gal pots and leave room to top dress... Do one run and then tweak from there... Dont try to calculate for a perfect run, its not gonna happen the first time with any strain... Supersoil makes it super-easy but theres still fine tuning that just cant be done by someone else telling you how they did it... There is way to much variation in grow rooms, phenos, soil, amendments, lights... everything causes variance, you have to shoot for the middle and tune to your setup/strains/phenos...

 

[gualapa]

I understand, thanks for the tips. I'll go with 10 gal and leave some room.

I'm trying to adjust the recipe for my 6 10gal pots. The only thing I'm wondering is how many 7gal pots did subcool's recipe intend to use with this mix?

8 large bags of high quality organic potting soil with coco and Mycorrhizae
25-50 lbs. of organic worm castings
5 lbs. of Blood meal 12-0-0
5 lbs. Bat guano 0-5-0
5 lbs. Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0
¾ cup Epsom salt
1 cup Sweet lime (Dolomite)
½ cup Azomite ( Trace element)
2 Tbs. powdered Humic acid
*** If using an RO system add in 1/2 cup powdered Cal/mag

 

[whitey78]

You understand its a concentrate right? You use this "concentrate" in conjunction with a base soil (roots). The concentrate is put at the bottom of the container in your desired amount (strain, time etc...) most strains will take 50% or less of the pot (do some research here or your plant will have enough food for a year if you put to much with a light eater...)... and you fill in the rest of the pot with base...

I highly suggest doing some more reading/video watching cuz it kinda sounds like your missing the premise of supersoil and how its used... That amount of supersoil supposedly will last subcool almost a year in his indoor garden that he flips 6 times a year...

 

[gualapa]

You understand its a concentrate right? You use this "concentrate" in conjunction with a base soil (roots). The concentrate is put at the bottom of the container in your desired amount (strain, time etc...) most strains will take 50% or less of the pot (do some research here or your plant will have enough food for a year if you put to much with a light eater...)... and you fill in the rest of the pot with base...

I highly suggest doing some more reading/video watching cuz it kinda sounds like your missing the premise of supersoil and how its used... That amount of supersoil supposedly will last subcool almost a year in his indoor garden that he flips 6 times a year...

not at all. I understand the concept entirely and I've done plenty of research, believe me. I need to figure out numbers here so I can estimate how much I will need. I know I won't be able to be perfectly accurate, but I gotta start somewhere and that's what I'm trying to figure out. Roughly how many pots did he plan to fill this recipe with (filling them 30-50% only).

 

[jacfolly1]

Around 30, 7- gallon pots

 

[whitey78]

Gotcha... for a second I got scared dude... I did the Keanu "Wow"....

What he said... I never really did the #'s on it because your never filling your pots the same amounts so I never really thought about it, when I see it running out I make more...

 

[gualapa]

haha I see. thanks.

Doing my math out loud here:
(subcool) 30 7-gal = 210 gal total
(me) 6 10-gal = 60 gal total + 40 gal extra for top feeding/just in case = 100 gal -> half of subcool's recipe

That means I'll need about:
3 (6) large bags of high quality organic potting soil with coco and Mycorrhizae & 1 (2) bags of Biobiz
12.5 (25-50) lbs. of organic worm castings
2.5 (5) lbs. of Blood meal 12-0-0
2.5 (5) lbs. Bat guano 0-5-0
2.5 (5) lbs. Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0
~1/3 (¾) cup Epsom salt
1/2 (1) cup Sweet lime (Dolomite)
1/4 (½) cup Azomite ( Trace element)
1 (2) Tbs. powdered Humic acid

 

[jacfolly1]

Yep, my 30 is a rough guess , and some pots I put more in and some less depending on strain but yeah you just need half the amount and your good.

 

[tags420]

The full recipe will make about 15cuft or 112gallons. 1cuft equals about 7.5gallons. So you want 100gallon/7.5=13.333cuft. I personally think you'll only need about 80galllons at most...but extra super soil never gets wasted.

To answer the original question of the post...yes super soil in 10g will be perfect for you time frame. Just harder to fit under one light.

 

[gualapa]

The full recipe will make about 15cuft or 112gallons. 1cuft equals about 7.5gallons. So you want 100gallon/7.5=13.333cuft. I personally think you'll only need about 80galllons at most...but extra super soil never gets wasted.

To answer the original question of the post...yes super soil in 10g will be perfect for you time frame. Just harder to fit under one light.

thanks. I will have 6 plants surrounding 2 bulbs (not 1), either two 1000w (333 watts per plant) or two 1500w (500 wpp) HPS, so i think it should end up pretty well, especially with my ceiling being 10 ft-won't need to top them too much for height.