Is there a certain soil/nutrient line you would recommend?
This is Halman 9000 to Joshket
I am a newbie and growing Wildflwers and vegatables from seed .
I just restarted my garden after failure .
This time I am focusing on NPK and PH .
So far it is looking like Both NPK ( balanced ; like 5 - 5 - 5 ) I make it very diluted , The smaller the plant the more diluted I make it . I now am adjusting the PH of my water and grow medium , for the first time . My tap water is a PH of 8 to 8.5 . I add very dilute Tap water with very small amount of Vinegar until my until my meter shows a PH of 7 for the water I will use on my plants. My sprouts are already looking better .
They say the two mistakes new growers do , is putting too strong of nutrients in the soil and not adjusting the PH .
One way to get good at nutrients and PH is to grow some Wildflowers or Mint plants or Pepper Plants in a small experiment and try different nutrients and PH adjustments , If you think your Fox Farms is burning your plant roots , then you can mix the Fox Farms with some PH neutral grow medium and try growing some house plant either from seeds , or a small plant from the nursery , and take extra time to get the PH more neutral , and not too acidic or to alkaline . Also try using some of the grow medium your using and mix it with a neutral grow medium , like neutral Organic garden Coir . So when I grow seedlings , I focus on using only NKP , very diluted , and I focus on adjusting the PH of the grow medium .
If my plants make it healthy for a month , I start thinking about secondary nutrients .
I have been having a lot of trouble growing roots , so I make a very diluted NPK solution , and spray it on the plant . My theory on doing that is that N , P , K and fairly mobile , and hopefully the NPK is traveling down the plant into the interior of the roots . I also feed the grow medium with diluted NPK . Some people say it is ok to have strong nutrients in the soil at the seedling stage even though they can't take them up into the plant . I am not experienced enough to try strong nutrient levels in my seedling grown medium .
I think if you see a deficiency in your new growth , you might have a deficiency in a immoble nutrients . It is more likely that your lights are too close and excessive heat is present on the top part of your plant .
I think my problem with growing roots after the seed sprouts , is that I was watering with PH 8.5 tap water , and also I was not feeding the seedlings with NPK balanced ( like some of each ; I am using 6-12-6 , but I thinkj 1-1-1 or 5-5-5 would work ) .
Also , buying some large house plants , and learning how to get them to look perky and shinny . These were old houseplants and the soil smelled spoiled and so I did a little flush with water , and I feed them with water and very dilluted 6-12-6 , and some of the plants started flowering a week later . Also the leaves reached out and looked erect , and also the house plants became shinnier .
This is my redo of my garden . all the pots have seeds planted and they are starting to sprout . The two big plants are survivors from my last failure .
I also am adding very diluted Calcium , Magnesium and Two basic Amino acids to help calcium uptake .
The 6-12-6 is an indoor plant fertilizer that has NPK of 6-12-6 , but the back label says it has some secondary nutrients and some small amount of some Elements . It has some Sulfur in it whcih is good because I think a small amount of sulfer is good for seedlings . I forget why a tiny bit of sulfur is good for seedlings . So I guess that some of the indoor plant food also has small amount of secondary nutrients , some elements , and perhaps some small amounts of micronutrients . They key for me is giving the seeds and seedlings very dilluted balanced nutrients to feed the plant with . Also I am learning that giving a little water at a time works good , treating water like a nutrient and not to over water and make sure you give some water if the soil is dry , implying the plant has been neglected by someone and bringing an almost dead plant back to life . I took 3 old plants that were neglected and almost dead , and brought them back to good health .
Halman9000