What are your favorite soil amendments?

[jonnynobody]

I'm about 4 weeks away from transplanting some aurora's to 5 gallon pots for flowering and I'm interested in learning about amending my soil for healthier plants and a more stable ph for my babies. My flowering plants are currently in ocean forest and I've been having a hell of a time with low ph and nute lockout, so I decided I need to learn how to amend my soil so I hopefully don't relive this same problem again.

I see earthworm castings are a good slow release nute packed fertilizer and dolomite lime helps to promote a stable ph but that's about all I know so far. Any info or links you could point me to that might help me better understand this soil amending stuff would rock. I'm also using Ionic grow, GH bloom, micro, and cal-magic...might change my nute line up even to a simple 2 part...

 

[Rrog]

VermiCompost. Make it yourself. Better than anything you can buy. Made from your vegetable scraps.

 

[fattiemcnuggins]

I'd shy away from the dolomite ..something about..it isn't the right calcium and doesn't become available to the plant fr 6 months..could be mumbo jumbo.

Lots of N helps. Kelp meal, alfalfa meal, fish meal, blood meal. Will prevent the early fade.

 

[Rrog]

And all of these cool things can be added to the worm bin first, letting the worms incorporate it. Super-charged compost is the result.

 

[FatMarty]

I'd shy away from the dolomite ..something about..it isn't the right calcium and doesn't become available to the plant fr 6 months..could be mumbo jumbo.

Lots of N helps. Kelp meal, alfalfa meal, fish meal, blood meal. Will prevent the early fade.

Yeah I think the lime is used mostly for soil-less like Pro-Mix to stabilize pH in the medium itself.
That's what I use it for; I don't even think of it as a nutrient.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Johnny, If you're using synthetic fertilizers you would be wasting your money for the most part on a bunch of organic amendments. Those inputs require a healthy microbial population to break those down and become bio available, and the salts in your fertilizer will destroy the vast majority of whatever microbes are present in your medium.

 

[CashCrops]

Spot on here, I use almost all the same methods as you all. I have never had yellowing leaves even until harvest. Could have been strain related but I have grown so many strains and when thrichs are 80-90% milky I harvest. Perhaps I should try waiting until later like 5% amber. Just seems that organic compost has been the best thing for plants period. I grew veggies in regular dirt, synthetic, and ofc organic compost and the compost won hands down.

 

[fattiemcnuggins]

Oh yeah and what stow said



Toss the bottles before you go any further into the organic rabbithole

 

[AimAim]

Pretty obvious nobody here knows how dolomitic lime works.

 

[Rrog]

So was this a motivational statement? Or one to provoke discussion?

 

[FatMarty]

Hard to say Rrog...

I read the label on my bag of Espoma Garden Lime I got and it says, "This product is not intended as a fertilizer substitute".
This is granulated dolomite lime and it says it's for 'raise soil pH' and 'turn hydrangeas pink'.
Under that is says 'safer than hydrated lime', whatever that is/means.

I just grow in Pro-Mix and toss it afterwards; the lime additive to that helps to stabilize pH for me a lot.
Before I started adding it I couldn't seem to get Pro-Mix, or Advanced, to stay level week to week over a bloom.

 

[NickNasty]

VermiCompost and rock dusts are best things I have added to my soil in the last couple of years. I don't think I will ever grow anything without them again. With the VermiCompost everything just has more vigor and with the rock dusts all my plants are way more dense and much tastier with a slower burn. I can fit twice as much bud in a jar as I could before I started using rock dusts.

 

[FatMarty]

Okay - don't know if this is a good spot to ask; but I don't want to pollute the 'living soil' thread.

The poster above piqued my interest on dolomite lime, (because I use it); so I started reading the back of the package and around the web, etc.
One thing led to another and I decided to order a General Organics go box sampler of the line.
So I will now be growing in Pro-Mix BX with @ 1/2 cup of dolomite lime per cubic foot while using the GO nutrients.

First question is: what to do about pH for mixed nutrients?
Keep using GH powders?

Second question is: seeing as I toss it out back after each grow - do I really need to add worm casings or anything else to have a healthy 'organic' medium for the grow?
Seems to me like the GO line is doing that stuff for me?

I have holes to fill in the back 40 for my waste 'soil'.
Me and the woodchucks have an understanding: they dig it out and I fill in the holes...

I just want to stay simple - just finished fighting bugs and shit over Summer - composting and teas are not my idea of simple. lol
But if I should add something else to the Pro-Mix while mixing in the lime I could use that advice.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Okay - don't know if this is a good spot to ask; but I don't want to pollute the 'living soil' thread.

The poster above piqued my interest on dolomite lime, (because I use it); so I started reading the back of the package and around the web, etc.
One thing led to another and I decided to order a General Organics go box sampler of the line.
So I will now be growing in Pro-Mix BX with @ 1/2 cup of dolomite lime per cubic foot while using the GO nutrients.

First question is: what to do about pH for mixed nutrients?
Keep using GH powders?

Second question is: seeing as I toss it out back after each grow - do I really need to add worm casings or anything else to have a healthy 'organic' medium for the grow?
Seems to me like the GO line is doing that stuff for me?

I have holes to fill in the back 40 for my waste 'soil'.
Me and the woodchucks have an understanding: they dig it out and I fill in the holes...

I just want to stay simple - just finished fighting bugs and shit over Summer - composting and teas are not my idea of simple. lol
But if I should add something else to the Pro-Mix while mixing in the lime I could use that advice.

The GO line comes with CalMg+. 5ml per gallon should stabilize your ph just fine without adding anything else. I used that line for a while, and the only other thing to note is that I bumped up the feeding higher than what the chart recommended for the biothrive grow and bloom (twice as much) and got better results when I did that.

 

[FatMarty]

Cool deal Stow - I appreciate it.
I like to 'overfeed' a bit anyway; so it's good to know I can carry on where I left off.

Now when I do pH; like when I feed plain tap water that has sat for a day:
Is the GH powder going to be okay with the GO nutes, etc., and not kill off all the good stuff?

 

[roosba]

I use pro mix and add earthworm castings, bone meal, blood meal, and some beneficial bacteria to the mix. I will fertilize with some sea bird guano dissolved in RO water. Seems to work good for me.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Cool deal Stow - I appreciate it.
I like to 'overfeed' a bit anyway; so it's good to know I can carry on where I left off.

Now when I do pH; like when I feed plain tap water that has sat for a day:
Is the GH powder going to be okay with the GO nutes, etc., and not kill off all the good stuff?

If you're using the GO CalMg+ and have dolo lime in your mix, PH won't be a concern for you. The only issue may arise from the chlorine/chloramine in your cities tap water. Letting it sit for 24 hours is enough time to dissipate the chlorine, but the chloramine will remain. You have to add an organic ingredient to the water for the chloramine to bind to. I use blackstrap molasses, but it will start to ferment if left in standing water for that long. Your two options would be to bubble the water with the molasses in it for a couple hours before watering, or use another organic ingredient that doesn't need to be bubbled if you don't have a pump and airstone. Let me know if don't have a pump/airstone and I'll get you some other options for what you can use.

 

[jimmer6577]

Just like he said^^^^^ the dolomite lime will help your medium with buffering your water so no need to ph. The lime is a natural neutralizer.

 

[FatMarty]

Sweet!
Thanks guys - looks like I am ready to make the switch.
I don't have a clue if there is any chloramine in Detroit water system.
Anyone know?
Hmmm - I can pick up a pump and air stone - but I'm open to any other suggestions for chloramine removal.

I was using the full Earth Juice line before I got infested and tossed everything a couple times.
I had to toss thousands of seeds and shit - ended up starting over from seed twice.
All seems well here for the last couple months; so I figure it's time to try and dump the salts and get back to 'organics' from a bottle.
Earth Juice worked well for me; but the pH swing was wild to put it mildly.
I was just about ready to order Flora or Fox or something similar in salts when Johnny started this thread and got me thinking a little deeper.

 

[mrCRC420]

I grow my seedlings/veg in Happy Frog - with Iguana Juice. And I flower in FFOF amended with Molasses - I really like molasses and my blueberry plants are usually ridiculously fragrant; I smoked an ounce and still couldn't get over the taste and smell; and I'd like to attribute that to all the sugars but can't be sure. I used to use Advance Nutrient's Mother Earth Tea blend but some of my Organic Chocolate plants ended up smelling a bit fishy during the cure so.. no. That's all I use.... I dunno, worm casting and bat guano interest me but also gross me out... and as long as I hit 2-4 zips a plant I'm happy ya kno?