Need Help With First Organic Feeding Plz

Hello. This is my first real organic grow. Up until now I have used Fox Farms soils and their trio bottled nutes. This grow I'm using Promix BX for veg and I have a batch of Sub's Super Soil cooking up. It will be cooking for 4 months at least by the time I'm ready to transplant into it. I haven't messed with it since I cooked it up except to stir it a little bit. It is in large plastic storage containers with some holes in the top. I hope it is cooking up well! I also used Sir Sticky's Base Mix instead of Roots, etc. Wel, my seedlings are 3 days old now in party cups. Will transplant later when needed to 1gal, and then to super soil.. I will need to be feeding for the first time pretty soon. I was wondering what I should use? I'm sure quite a few dif things will work. I have all the ingredients to make Sub's Super Soil and I also have Espoma Bio-tone Starter Plus(4-3-3) and Plant-tone(5-3-3). What would you use and what method would you apply? Should I make teas, top-dress, mix straight into the soil? I was thinking when I transplant into 1gal, that I would mix the Plant-tone into the soil prior to planting like it says @ a 25 to 1, soil to fert ratio. For my seedlings in party cups, I am either going to have to top-dress or make a tea with something. I would like to thank you in advance for your time, help, and knowledge!

I have some Biomax shrimp compost, too. And I ran out of EWC making Super Soil.

I know Subcool used Botanicare Pure Blend Pro on his outdoor this year to give his plants an organic boost of nutrients other than what super soil provided... And I know he feeds his plants large amounts of carbohydrates during flowering

I would leave the seedlings be. They won't need anything in a party cup. When you flip them to a 1 gallon container, I would just mix a small amount of the super soil in with the Pro Mix. Maybe 1 part super soil, 4 parts pro mix. I don't think you need to add anything, or hit them with any teas.

Here's what I'd do..

First off, don't worry about feeding your seedling while it's in the party cup. When it looks like it might need some food (cotyledons yellow/brown and a little dried out, bottom true leaves lightening up a smidge), transplant it to the 1-gal. I would take your ProMix BX and cut it with about 15 or 20% "super soil" for the 1-gal pot. This will feed your plants for a while, and also start getting them accustomed to the super soiil. An aerated compost tea would also be beneficial around when you transplant, but don't add any guano or anything crazy to the tea. Just worm castings/compost and molasses (bubbled per the usual routine for making AACT). The tea is optional, not at all required, just a little bonus to kick start your microbes.

There you have it, nice and simple. No liquid nutrients required, just the soil you already made, and the ProMix you already have.

You beat me to it, stowandgrow! Great advice.

Awesome! Thanks for the great replies, peoples!!

Right on. . Great advice. Youll love your supersoil, makes plants happy as hell.

I was gonna say that you cant go wrong with either of the espomas, but yeah...what Spicy said!

Why the transplant into something other than their permanent homes? While root bound plants respond favorably to transplanting, ther is STILL a recovery period. I'd go straight into the sized pots you plan on flowering in and go from there. A "tea" will help add nute if you need them in the pro-mix, but the super soil will take over from there. If you plan on flipping them after they go into the super soil, you "shouldn't" need to feed, only supplement as needed.

Jack Harer said:

Why the transplant into something other than their permanent homes? While root bound plants respond favorably to transplanting, ther is STILL a recovery period. I'd go straight into the sized pots you plan on flowering in and go from there. A "tea" will help add nute if you need them in the pro-mix, but the super soil will take over from there. If you plan on flipping them after they go into the super soil, you "shouldn't" need to feed, only supplement as needed.

Click to expand...

There are lots of theories on whether to incrementally step up in pot size or jump straight to the final size. I go from a small (quart sized?)plastic pot up to 2-3 gallon Smart Pot, then up to the final 10-gal.

Here are the benefits I see to stepping up gradually:

- Small plants aren't able to dry out a big 10-gallon within a reasonable amount of time (say 1 week). Having all that soil in the bottom sit saturated for over a week can (not necessarily will) lead to anaerobic conditions.

- If growing from seed, you can sex your plants while they are in smaller (2-3 gal) pots and avoid "wasting" soil on potential males. Of course us recyclers won't actually "waste" that soil, but you know what I mean... Using Smart Pots in this situation prevents root binding (in the literal sense), and the air root pruning promotes a branchy root system with lots of feeder root tips waiting to explore their new homes.

- Space savings. My veg cabinet is much smaller than my flowering cabinet. I can't fit four 10-gal pots in there, so I stick with the 2-3 gal pots for early veg, then transplant to the 10-gal as soon as I have room in the flower cab. Another couple/few weeks veg in the 10-gal pots and I'm ready to flower.

I transplant VERY gently and don't notice any stress or delay.

See, I knew there was a reason. Makes sense. I just put my clones in the 8" 2gal bags after they root, then veg 'em & move them into the flowering room when I'm ready. I put 72 of the little girls on a 4 x 8 table.