Best soil, best fert for soil?

I'm on a budget so i was gonna go with miracle grow, but i am wondering can I use any additional fert if I use something that already has fert in it. I need some opinions on this. If I go with organic soil what would be the best fert to use with it?

You should'nt go with Miracle Grow as a beginner, mainly because it causes alot of problems to beginners, its a decent soil but it messes up beginners who are new to growing. Get fox farm soil, a very popular brand. If you wanna go with an organic grow, you should keep an eye out for Worm Castings [FONT=&quot][/FONT], which contains a good nitrogen content for the vegiatative state, and Molasses, which is for the flowering state. Sweetens the harvest up , and swells the buds about 20%. ( I must of said this like a thousand times) lol



Cheers

what I meant by miracle grow is the enhanced soil they sell, not the nturient solution you spray or pour. Their soils have nutrient capsules that are water soluable and break down over time, releasing nutrients throughout growth. I thought this soil may be a good substitute for having to premix mater with nutrients. I've grown one time before at another apartment and it turned out ok. I got little more than a half pound out of several plants. I cloned the first generation and got six plants out of it. I used lots of nutrients and a special sweet nutrient similar to mollases in the flowering stage. I measured PH and watched temps, but the bud was not as dank as a wanted. This go around I am growing on a budget and looking for alternatives that will pay out without the hard work i put in the first time.

Hey stealth,

THe issue most growers have with MG other than the fact that it's chemical (not even organic-derived if I understand it right) is that those little pellets in the soil are time-release fertilizer, which make it very difficult to dose any nutrients you might want to add later. I've never used it myself but I would imagine this would also make flushing your soil pointless and give your bud a harsh taste. That said, if you don't ever add any nutrients, it might not be so bad...but you risk having problems with nutrient levels and have less control over what your plants are eating.

For the best/cheapest soil, you might consider making your own mix with peat moss, perlite, worm castings, vermiculite, coco, etc. If you look around the forums you'll be able to find a mix that works for you and whatever feeding schedule you decide on.

If you want something that you can use pretty much right out of the bag, there are lots of options. Your local gardening store/nursery will probably have some bagged organic soil (about 10$ a bag around here) or you can pick up one of the fox farm soils ocean forest, planting mix, happy frog (a lot of people, myself included like the ocean forest), but those will probably run you around 20 bucks a bag, although you should probably cut it down with some perlite for aeration and to dilute all that food...
I've only ever used the fox farm liquid ferts (which work great and I would definitely recommend) so I can't really help you much with picking nutrients.

Also, did you maybe grow bagseed last time around? Keep in mind that the quality and yield of your bud depends mostly on the genetics of your seeds and only marginally on your growing skills. You can always fuck up your harvest if you suck at growing, but you can't grow dank buds from shitty beans no matter how green your thumb is....

i use fox farm ocean forest. it won't need ferts for the first 3 months, wiich will bring you almost all the way through your grow if you veg for 30 days.

Ive had several trials and errors when it comes to soil... Mircale Gro hasnt done me any justice. Fox Farm ocean forest has been OUTSTANDING. My tomato plants take off immediately.


Also, beware of the organic bags of soil, every time Ive tried them I get infested with fungus nats.



Good luck bro.

grew with miracle gro soil my first and only time, and had the best bud ive ever smoked. everyone above has warned you about miracle gro. i had a similar experience. all the posts i read scared me, so i used very little additional fertilizer because of it and never got nutrient burn etc.

i support miracle gro. i am sure its easier with organic and possibly taste better, but i would certainly use miracle gro again after having great results.

a few tips if you do use miracle gro:
-do a 2 or 3 times the pot size flush of the soil before you plant, just to get any oversaturated fertilizer out
-always UNDER FERTILIZER. if you under fertilize and your plants start to turn yellow, you know its from not enough fertilizer, and you can add more
-dont even bother buying "vegetative state" fertilizer. the soil has more than enough to get you to flowering, assuming you arent vegging for 3 months. you only need to fertilize come flowering
-i did see some magnesium deficiency with my plant during flowering, so have some epsom salts ready, but only put in a teaspoon if you notice problems!
-finally, buy a pH meter. a good $60 will be perfect, like a Milwaukee (sp?) pH meter.

with all this, you can grow very well in miracle gro

BiG PuFFer said:

i use fox farm ocean forest. it won't need ferts for the first 3 months, wiich will bring you almost all the way through your grow if you veg for 30 days.

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First 3 months? The guy at the hydroponic store and everything I have read says that it lasts for the first 3-4 weeks or so since it has a lot of nitrogen and the plants love that during veg. During flowering dont you need something with more phosphurus or is it potassium? but I heard tiger bloom is good for that point.

if you use miracle grow i would invest in a PPM meter. Its the best money ive ever spent. You can get a TDS meter for under 30 bucks and it seriously eliminated 90% of my problems cause i can measure it exactly and WOW does it make a difference.

I am on a very tight budget, but even a broke mofo needs his herb as you all know. I like the idea of getting soil and fert in the same bag for one low price... I know that Foxfarm makes a superior product but it is somewhat expensive also. My plan is to use the MG in my grow box which is currently under construction and can be viewed here:

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/219696-grow-cabinet-build-log-pics.html

I have invested my money in the grow box which I am building by hand, and the 150 watt sun systems light I just purchased. I am using bagseed this first go around and if that does well I will buy some seeds from a reccomended vender listed on this site. I think the MG will work ok if I flush it a bit before I put my baby plants in it. I'm going to sprout them in styrofoam cups and then transplant to a larger pot of some kind. I will probably dilute the MG with a bit of perlite as well. During flower I was going to add some molasses to my water with hope that this will gimme extra juice for some dank shiz.

+rep for all who contributed to this thread. I feel somewhat better about using MG now; although, I do still want a couple of bags of Foxfarm soil, but that will wait until I have more dough.

BTW my last grow was with millennium bud (a white strain) that I got from Dr. Greenthumb if any of you have heard of him. I got 50% females from 10 seeds and all sprouted, but the quality was low which I mentioned already. Can anyone recommend a good seed vendor that sells quality seeds? I grew Greenthumb's seeds under a 8 bulb T5 array and I flowered them under a 400 watt HPS. I bought lots of expensive chemicals and tried to regulate the environment well. Alas I did not get the stone I was looking for from it. This time I best get crazy high or I might hurt someone.

u maybe right. i had clones that were already vegged for a month. then i transplanted into ocean forrest, then vegged for a few more weeks(3) then flowered(5weeks). The last month, i could tell the nutes were runnig low. So for 2-3 weeks i added a little mollasses with the h2o,as a suppliment. Then i used that all the way to the end, with the last 2 watering being just h2o, for the flush.. you want ALL the nutes out at the end anyway. it worked very good for me, and it was easy enuff for my first grow.

trufaiz said:

First 3 months? The guy at the hydroponic store and everything I have read says that it lasts for the first 3-4 weeks or so since it has a lot of nitrogen and the plants love that during veg. During flowering dont you need something with more phosphurus or is it potassium? but I heard tiger bloom is good for that point.

Click to expand...

to the OP, i know you said you are on a budget, but i do suggest getting a $60 (how much i paid) pH meter. it will make the world of difference. if you have been on the board a while, you see how many problems people post about and anyone who tries to help you says "whats the pH of the soil?" or "what is the pH of the water you are giving it?" pH will make or break you. i bought so much unnecessary shit for my first grow, and if i were to do it over, i would get the following if i wanted to do it barebones
-soil - MG $8
-seeds (obviously) (free or spend money on good genetics)
-lights (up to you)
-a pot to grow in ($5)
-molasses - $2
-flowering nutrients - $6
-pH meter - $50-$60

and you will get to use the meter on every subsequent grow. i didnt know it, but our city's tap water is about pH of 8.5, which would have been way too high to consistently give my plant. i always had to bring the pH down, as an example.

Wow am I seeing double's ?

my internet sux here in china so something went wrong