Best Soil and Nutrients

Ok guys so I'm starting my second grow and I want to make sure I'm doing everything right this time cause I only got a half oz from my first one. I used Miracle Grow and didnt add any nutrients at all or check my Ph in the first grow, just would run water from the tap and have it sit over night before watering my plants. I wanted to try to do things minimalistically so I know what I should be guaranteed if I grew properly so now I know no matter what I do I should get at least a half oz. I'm really shooting for at least a qp this time so I'd like to know what the best soil to use would be and where to get the best nutrients. Keep in mind I'm on a budget and thats why I'm using soil again, when I get more money for my third grow I will try hydroponics for the first time.

This pro mix with some cow manure compost mixed in and some miracle grow and epsom salt. Boom!!!! Note: I water straight from the tap, Fuck letting it sit out.

@Budzbuddha was using a soil combo that seems to be working well, maybe he will chime in here. Easy to get from Loews.

Hey @ChaosHunter ...

Yeah the soil i have been using is a cost friendly alternative to more expensive blends.
This is from lowe's and has grew exceptionally well for what it is.



I got the original idea to use this from watching a grow journal by @CptNemo .
He grew a number of plants on this stuff and they were looking very good.
It IS a Controlled Release Fertilizer mix , however it will NEED extra feeding in flower.
It is a very aerated mix made from peat ... It does have dolo lime for ph control.

In his recipe : it requires a 50/50 mix of both soils layered at bottom 1/3 of container.
Then fill remainder with Garden Soil mix.
Oddly the bag STATES " not for container gardens " ... But that is wrong.

All of my autos are over 3 - 4 foot tall on this stuff. The plants grow nice and green.
No burns like with hotter soil.
I modified his recipe slightly by adding perlite . Roots grow crazy on this stuff , i used Smart pots and roots would punch thru bottom of bag , so i " potted " those bags into a larger plastic pot with a layer of soil at bottom. Be aware of this , if using BAGS.
Plastic pots will be fine .



Pros :
Grows well and grows FAST !
Good vegging and feeding ( by itself ) up to week 5 or 6
Green lush leaves
Inexpensive compared to 1 bag premium soil.
Exceptional root ball growth
Aerated for easy drainage

CONS :
Soil will " tap " out at flowering stage ( feeding to compensate )
Dries quickly ( may need to water more often )
Roots will push thru grow bags
Ph may need adjusting in later weeks

Overall for the price of one bag of premium , you can get 2 bags of this and grow well.

No soil or nutrients will take you from 1/2 oz to a qp... thats a 800% increase. Be a bit realistic with your goals if you want to acheive them. Your light source is going to be the key here... if you tell us about your light we can help more.

growingforfun said:

No soil or nutrients will take you from 1/2 oz to a qp... thats a 800% increase. Be a bit realistic with your goals if you want to acheive them. Your light source is going to be the key here... if you tell us about your light we can help more.

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It's a 400 watt HID with both MH and HPS bulbs with a wing reflector and no cooling system, I have a fan blowing on my plants to control the temperature and if it gets too hot I crack the window during the light cycle. It stayed between 75 (light off) and 85 (light on) through the whole grow (I put the weather thermometer on the pots the plants were in). The first month of the grow was under a 16 watt CFL and I didnt try to FIM or top the plants, didnt even learn about these techniques until I got into the flowering stage. After I finally got my HID light I put it under an 18-6 cycle with the MH bulb for a month and after seeing the plants still didnt grow much, like 6 inches (pretty confident the first month of 16 watt CFL stunted their growth). I switched to flower with the HPS 12-12 cycle and my only real bud formation was on the main colas and the buds on the lower branches were super tiny. I talked about this in another post how I was going to top my plants and such next time so instead of a bunch of popcorn nugs formed on the bottom where they receive hardly any light I'll have 4-8 colas of big nugs to improve my yield (every site on growing pretty much said this will exponentially increase my yield). My top colas got like an eighth to 4 grams dried each and probably another gram or two per plant of popcorn nugs.

Also I had some sort of fungal problem that only affected the leaves where they grew tiny orange dots on the top (cant be a nutrient thing because all the pics of nutrient deficiencies on the internet showed big oval spots, these were perfect circles) and white on the bottoms and if I left the leaf too long you could clearly tell it was dying and being eaten by something so I cut off a lot of leaves to avoid a spread of the infection (which worked). Here I'm not sure if this caused a smaller yield or not cause the I Love Growing Marijuana site says taking off fan leaves could actually increase yields because it will get light on lower nugs and the trim leaves are enough to promote growth but on other sites people say the fan leaves are necessary and removing them is detrimental.

However, my buds I did get were some FIRE. I only cured them for like a week so pretty much I smoked them when the hay smell went away (strong smell they had during growth never came back though guides on the internet said they would after like a month but I was too impatient) but it got me just as high as some straight gas I get from my plug. Just without the pungent smell so I know the genetics are good for potency and clearly the buds werent unhealthy.

Roots organic

Digital Chronic said:

Ok guys so I'm starting my second grow and I want to make sure I'm doing everything right this time cause I only got a half oz from my first one. I used Miracle Grow and didnt add any nutrients at all or check my Ph in the first grow, just would run water from the tap and have it sit over night before watering my plants. I wanted to try to do things minimalistically so I know what I should be guaranteed if I grew properly so now I know no matter what I do I should get at least a half oz. I'm really shooting for at least a qp this time so I'd like to know what the best soil to use would be and where to get the best nutrients. Keep in mind I'm on a budget and thats why I'm using soil again, when I get more money for my third grow I will try hydroponics for the first time.

Click to expand...

I used miracle
Grow my last grow and i still yielded a qp. But it destroyed the quality...

mo841 said:

This pro mix with some cow manure compost mixed in and some miracle grow and epsom salt. Boom!!!! Note: I water straight from the tap, Fuck letting it sit out.
View attachment 3887951

Click to expand...

Man If I tried my well water straight out the tap it can be only 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The only real reason to let the water sit out is to bring it up to room temperature so you don't shock the roots.

I only mention because your tip is not good for everyone. As usual. It all depends.

I started using fox farms ocean forest. It's awesome. But u have to make sure u are keeping ph correct so I mixed in about 3/4 cup of Pelletized dolomite lime. It's good for calcium and it brings up ph. No nutes for a month. Smart pots are good too. Just let her get dry before u water..

Ok, so your goal of a qp is reasonable.
You are right when you say the low watt cfl screwed you, it did nothing but life support and prepare your plant for a sub optimal (retarded is the correct term, but dont get pc on me lol)
So assuming you start the plants under the 400 mh, (the hps wont hurt ya, but may not help as much) and assuming you plant into at least 3 gallon containers, that drain freely (drill a shitload o holes) with quality dirt (fox farms, roots orgainics, any quality mix) spend the cash on dirt its really one of the cheapest componants. No sence breaking the bank of nutrients if the dirt is crap. Then for nutrients i really like the general organics GO box. Its a good price and everything in it is good. Its very well suited to carry you threw several small grows for under 40 shipped. Other options are the roots organics boxes, but it gets confusing since they have 3 differant boxes and ive found each box lacks a nutrient or 2 from the other boxes i really want, forcing me to buy the other boxes. Granted im picky, each box on its own is good im sure. If you go the chemical nutrient rout make sure to use 1/2 or less the dose the package claims. There are several quality chemical nutrients, and IMO the more expensive ones are pure hype and preform about identically to the cheap general hydroponics 3 part coolaid (grow, micro, bloom)

I dont like to remove fan leaves, some do. I think of them as nutrient storage depots, get the light to the buds via training and proper lighting IMO.

Any questions just ask.

^^^^what he said!!!

growingforfun said:

Ok, so your goal of a qp is reasonable.
You are right when you say the low watt cfl screwed you, it did nothing but life support and prepare your plant for a sub optimal (retarded is the correct term, but dont get pc on me lol)
So assuming you start the plants under the 400 mh, (the hps wont hurt ya, but may not help as much) and assuming you plant into at least 3 gallon containers, that drain freely (drill a shitload o holes) with quality dirt (fox farms, roots orgainics, any quality mix) spend the cash on dirt its really one of the cheapest componants. No sence breaking the bank of nutrients if the dirt is crap. Then for nutrients i really like the general organics GO box. Its a good price and everything in it is good. Its very well suited to carry you threw several small grows for under 40 shipped. Other options are the roots organics boxes, but it gets confusing since they have 3 differant boxes and ive found each box lacks a nutrient or 2 from the other boxes i really want, forcing me to buy the other boxes. Granted im picky, each box on its own is good im sure. If you go the chemical nutrient rout make sure to use 1/2 or less the dose the package claims. There are several quality chemical nutrients, and IMO the more expensive ones are pure hype and preform about identically to the cheap general hydroponics 3 part coolaid (grow, micro, bloom)

I dont like to remove fan leaves, some do. I think of them as nutrient storage depots, get the light to the buds via training and proper lighting IMO.

Any questions just ask.

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I don't LIKE removing fan leaves either.. it makes the plant look raped. That being said...I have had strains of Kush side by side and they required a 'balding' and tie up support if you wanted them to get that full 300gm-500gm build under the 1000watt.

Kevin Pickford said:

I don't LIKE removing fan leaves either.. it makes the plant look raped. That being said...I have had strains of Kush side by side and they required a 'balding' and tie up support if you wanted them to get that full 300gm-500gm build under the 1000watt.

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Everyone grows differantly. I havent noticed ANY benifit in my rooms by taking off energy stores, but i run high light density. My current room is 111 watts/sq ft.

growingforfun said:

Everyone grows differantly. I havent noticed ANY benifit in my rooms by taking off energy stores, but i run high light density. My current room is 111 watts/sq ft.

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The one time I removed fan leaves I regretted it...but if one or two get in the way I clip em but only one or two..

Jgray766 said:

View attachment 3889175 View attachment 3889176 I started using fox farms ocean forest. It's awesome. But u have to make sure u are keeping ph correct so I mixed in about 3/4 cup of Pelletized dolomite lime. It's good for calcium and it brings up ph. No nutes for a month. Smart pots are good too. Just let her get dry before u water..

Click to expand...

I'm not a beginner.. but I don't use anything else as my base for growing mix! Fox Farms is the truth!

FFOF is great until you get a bad bag of it and it will make you pull your hair out. The bags that were fine worked wonderfully though. As a small grower I can't afford "time" to get to week 3-4 and the soil is badly mixed. I may switch to happy frog or go soilless with my natural nute lineup, I just don't know yet.

Jgray766 said:

The one time I removed fan leaves I regretted it...but if one or two get in the way I clip em but only one or two..

Click to expand...

The photo you showed had lots of yellow leaves? Don't B Scurd.. Give um a snip son as they turn.. And if it's a healthy looking plant you can take off more.. That was day 17 after 12/12 and I took off all of the fans (She is so healthy) they've almost grown back but the buds have doubled in size now at day 23..6 days later

Kevin Pickford said:

I'm not a beginner.. but I don't use anything else as my base for growing mix! Fox Farms is the truth!

Click to expand...

...and the light lol!

Kevin Pickford said:

The photo you showed had lots of yellow leaves? Don't B Scurd.. Give um a snip son as they turn.. And if it's a healthy looking plant you can take off more.. That was day 17 after 12/12 and I took off all of the fans (She is so healthy) they've almost grown back but the buds have doubled in size now at day 23..6 days later

Click to expand...

Yeah man defol is such a funny topic some are hardcore for it and some are way against it....I say whatever makes ya happy!!