Need Some Advice From Serious Organic Growers

Mr.Marijuana420

Mr.Marijuana420

Well-Known Member
ok im planning to go all organic for next year and and need help choosing a line of veg to flower nutrients. i want somthing thats already pretty well adjusted and doesnt need tinkering, i was considering using BMO products, ne one have ne other suggestions concerning what to get?
 
Jack Harer

Jack Harer

Well-Known Member
Look at the Espoma line. www.espoma.com

I have used the Plant Tone, and the Bulb Tone for years with great success. You can get them at Home Depot and Lowes (if you're in the US) and they are inexpensive. I believe that all of their products are OMRI certified. They have kelp, Bone and Blood meals, green sand, just about anything you'll need to grow organically.
I see no need to pay through the nose for good quality organic nutes. They are locally available almost everywhere, no need for internet shopping or shopping at the Hydro store.
 
snew

snew

Well-Known Member
I agree. When I use a ready mix, I use Espoma. Its a quality product at an affordable price.
 
hobart

hobart

Well-Known Member
Jack Harer said:
Look at the Espoma line. www.espoma.com

I have used the Plant Tone, and the Bulb Tone for years with great success. You can get them at Home Depot and Lowes (if you're in the US) and they are inexpensive. I believe that all of their products are OMRI certified. They have kelp, Bone and Blood meals, green sand, just about anything you'll need to grow organically.
I see no need to pay through the nose for good quality organic nutes. They are locally available almost everywhere, no need for internet shopping or shopping at the Hydro store.
Click to expand...
Ditto here also, Im growing organic soil and dwc and my organics are espoma all the way! Plant tone does indeed rock! Now if they'd just make an expanded liquid line-up... I was trying to "brew" some tea and well... Another time. Espoma!
 
L

Legal Eagle

Member
I Agree epsoma is cheap,but high quality.I use their BIO-TONE,STARTER PLUS for TEA'S to inocculate my soil, its 4-3-3 & HAS 7-bennie bac species,& 10 fungus species,LOWES dont carry the epsoma bulb fert in my area,but that is a good choice for flowering,I Also use JOBES products,even cheaper than Epsoma but better in my opinion,a 4lb bag of 4-4-4 all-purpose fert is only $7! AND it only has 4 simple ingriedients FEATHER MEAL,BONE MEAL,COMPOSTED POULTRY MANURE,& SULFATE OF POTASH...IT ALSO HAS 7-bennie bac,& 10 fungus,some of them different f/epsomas,so I end up with like 10 diff bacteria & 15 diff fungus species in my soil f/ combining those 2 products in my tea,plus all the bennies I get outta my compost bin,I add a couple handfulls of compost into the panyhose with the other 2 products. Then throw sum sugar,mollasses,& whole oats into a 5 gal bucket of very warm h2o,put a $5 air pump f/petco,& let it bubble away 4 a day,then pour it liberally onto my soil,& shabam u got soil TEAMING with good life 2 feed ur plants.I JUST PICKED UP F/ LOWES An 8.81oz bag of JOBES FERTILIZER SPIKES for only $5.50,3 INGRIDIENTS are feather meal,bone meal,& sulfate of potash- u get 50 fast breaking down all organic spikes,and its an absolutely PERFECT FLOWERING NUTE w/ a 2-7-4 RATIO!!! Its been a wk and my plants r luving it,I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM TO ANY BODY FLOWERING PLANTS,THEY MAY LAST ME ALL THE WAY through flowering for under 6 bucks w/tax.KANT BEAT THAT NE where.I also am feeding compost tea & mollasses once a wk each alternating,whitch costs me $4 for grammas mollasses,& the compost is free.My plants are so much happier organic,rather than chemical fed.And I hardly ever gotta check PH,which was a constant pain in the ass,and NEVER rite when chemical fed.BUT its gotta b 1 way or the other,combining chem & organic like I was, dosent work 2 well,cuz the chems kill of ur bennies in the soil. HAPPY GROWING MY FRIENDS.
 
Jack Harer

Jack Harer

Well-Known Member
You da man! All I know about Jobes is the plant spikes. I just figured them to be a "lazy mans" cheap and easy way to garden and never even gave them serious consideration. They have a full line?I'm offto Google them now. 'Preciate the info.
 
canefan

canefan

Well-Known Member
If you are serious about going organic and you are setting up now for next year then you have time to do the "true" organics. Ok, what I mean by that and not to be a smartass, is you have time to get compost and soil ready for your grow and spend these huge fortunes on things that come out of a fancy bottle. Really doesn't matter where you live if you want the best you have to make it, living in an apartment would require additional space but most people can find a 8 x 8 foot space from someone. Do some reading on making compost and of composting manures. Look for ways to obtain manures if you are city types, usually a short trip to the nearest farm outside of town. You can buy manures which are dehydrated and composted at many garden supply stores. Sometimes you have to go gather this yourself but I can promise you the results are worth your effort.
Gathering your greenmanures for the compost pile is as easy as using your lawn debris and cuttings, there again apartment dwellers just need to check in some neighborhoods for this kind of stuff. You will also need some brown material like dead leaves and such which can be obtained in the same manner.
To get started growing organics from having nothing can be a bit time consuming but also; very educational in learning what makes soil work, how plants feed. Today it is possible to be labeled organic just by going to the store and buying everything you need, however I truly believe you cannot buy a soil equal to what you can build. Many say that they just don't have time to do it this way and my response is then you probably don't have time to grow plants either.
Just my two cents sorry for the rant, must be the early morning pipe. Happy growing and welcome to organics
 
poplars

poplars

Well-Known Member
canefan said:
If you are serious about going organic and you are setting up now for next year then you have time to do the "true" organics. Ok, what I mean by that and not to be a smartass, is you have time to get compost and soil ready for your grow and spend these huge fortunes on things that come out of a fancy bottle. Really doesn't matter where you live if you want the best you have to make it, living in an apartment would require additional space but most people can find a 8 x 8 foot space from someone. Do some reading on making compost and of composting manures. Look for ways to obtain manures if you are city types, usually a short trip to the nearest farm outside of town. You can buy manures which are dehydrated and composted at many garden supply stores. Sometimes you have to go gather this yourself but I can promise you the results are worth your effort.
Gathering your greenmanures for the compost pile is as easy as using your lawn debris and cuttings, there again apartment dwellers just need to check in some neighborhoods for this kind of stuff. You will also need some brown material like dead leaves and such which can be obtained in the same manner.
To get started growing organics from having nothing can be a bit time consuming but also; very educational in learning what makes soil work, how plants feed. Today it is possible to be labeled organic just by going to the store and buying everything you need, however I truly believe you cannot buy a soil equal to what you can build. Many say that they just don't have time to do it this way and my response is then you probably don't have time to grow plants either.
Just my two cents sorry for the rant, must be the early morning pipe. Happy growing and welcome to organics
Click to expand...
to add on to this great post:

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/brewing-compost-tea.aspx

this is what you do with the compost after you make it ;)
 
L

Legal Eagle

Member
Jack Harer said:
You da man! All I know about Jobes is the plant spikes. I just figured them to be a "lazy mans" cheap and easy way to garden and never even gave them serious consideration. They have a full line?I'm offto Google them now. 'Preciate the info.
Click to expand...
By the way,I forgot 2 mention that i break up the spikes in a sock w/a hammer,they turn into powder very easily,4 a more uniform fertilizing...
 
snew

snew

Well-Known Member
poplars said:
to add on to this great post:

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/brewing-compost-tea.aspx

this is what you do with the compost after you make it ;)
Click to expand...
That was a good link. I've read a few Fine Gardening mags, but not looked at there web site. They also had a negative article on compost tea. Which I found interesting. I use compost tea more outside in my vegetable garden and yard than I do inside on MJ. I can see my yard green right up when I sprayed it. None the less, I do use a lot of compost and my own EWC in my soil inside and find this still to be my primary way of feeding.
Now if all of those weeds in my yard would magically go away.
 
symbiote420

symbiote420

Well-Known Member
Espoma does make great organic products I've used them for years with excellent results, BioTone, PlantTone, etc. What most people don't realize about organics is how simple and cheap it can be. Fox Farm has the same kind of products under the Peace Of Mind & Happy Frog labels, my fav is their 3-8-8 Bulb Food. One of the pluses to alot of these dry organics is the fact that mycorrhizae fungi and benificial bacteria have been added to them.

I now use castings and no longer use bat guano in my teas because I learned it has to be heated to some degree to be properly effective, and it can lead to e.coli when handled improperly. The castings tea just seems to work better for me anyway.

With hydro you're coming out more $$$$ for everything: system, pumps, gallons of nutes, pH/ppm/TDS meters, & electricity to run all that shit. All I need is pots, soil, and nutes all can be purchased for well under $100, The only argument I hear from hydro guys is my buds are bigger.....so what mine are better, and better for you.
 
Jack Harer

Jack Harer

Well-Known Member
canefan said:
If you are serious about going organic and you are setting up now for next year then you have time to do the "true" organics. Ok, what I mean by that and not to be a smartass, is you have time to get compost and soil ready for your grow and spend these huge fortunes on things that come out of a fancy bottle. Really doesn't matter where you live if you want the best you have to make it, living in an apartment would require additional space but most people can find a 8 x 8 foot space from someone. Do some reading on making compost and of composting manures. Look for ways to obtain manures if you are city types, usually a short trip to the nearest farm outside of town. You can buy manures which are dehydrated and composted at many garden supply stores. Sometimes you have to go gather this yourself but I can promise you the results are worth your effort.
Gathering your greenmanures for the compost pile is as easy as using your lawn debris and cuttings, there again apartment dwellers just need to check in some neighborhoods for this kind of stuff. You will also need some brown material like dead leaves and such which can be obtained in the same manner.
To get started growing organics from having nothing can be a bit time consuming but also; very educational in learning what makes soil work, how plants feed. Today it is possible to be labeled organic just by going to the store and buying everything you need, however I truly believe you cannot buy a soil equal to what you can build. Many say that they just don't have time to do it this way and my response is then you probably don't have time to grow plants either.
Just my two cents sorry for the rant, must be the early morning pipe. Happy growing and welcome to organics
Click to expand...
Cane, I agree that "true organics" is the way to go if you're truly SERIOUS about organics. I collect Bunny Poo from local breeders, I save all my coffee grounds and egg shells, and collect more from the local waffle house, and I have a great compost pile. I mix my own "soils", and have a bio-char oven. I DO buy my worm castings (Gotta draw the line somewhere or I'd be breeding Bats and bunnies)
But what we dedicated organics growers must keep in mind is that not everyone is as dedicated (fanatical) as we are, especially those who are just getting their feet wet. I started out with organics using the Espoma line. When I saw how fantastic the results were, I started getting deeper into it. The deeper into organics you go, the more work is involved, and the more resources that come into play.
I wouldn't want to "sour" a grower new to organics by overwhelming that grower at first. Let them feel the success and savor the end results. And for some folks, the store bought organics is enough. Hopefully, they'll get really into it, but hey, at least they're into organics at some level.
Also, when you live in an apartment, space is at a premium, and what space can be spared, they have most probably already dedicated to the plants. Composting on a balcony CAN be sort of smelly and offend the neighbors.
Whenever I post to the newbies or the beginner organic growers, I try and bear that in mind.
 
poplars

poplars

Well-Known Member
Jack Harer said:
Cane, I agree that "true organics" is the way to go if you're truly SERIOUS about organics. I collect Bunny Poo from local breeders, I save all my coffee grounds and egg shells, and collect more from the local waffle house, and I have a great compost pile. I mix my own "soils", and have a bio-char oven. I DO buy my worm castings (Gotta draw the line somewhere or I'd be breeding Bats and bunnies)
But what we dedicated organics growers must keep in mind is that not everyone is as dedicated (fanatical) as we are, especially those who are just getting their feet wet. I started out with organics using the Espoma line. When I saw how fantastic the results were, I started getting deeper into it. The deeper into organics you go, the more work is involved, and the more resources that come into play.
I wouldn't want to "sour" a grower new to organics by overwhelming that grower at first. Let them feel the success and savor the end results. And for some folks, the store bought organics is enough. Hopefully, they'll get really into it, but hey, at least they're into organics at some level.
Also, when you live in an apartment, space is at a premium, and what space can be spared, they have most probably already dedicated to the plants. Composting on a balcony CAN be sort of smelly and offend the neighbors.
Whenever I post to the newbies or the beginner organic growers, I try and bear that in mind.
Click to expand...
completely agree, I am a first year organic user myself, and this first outdoor grow using organics (roots line) has run me a good amount of money, but the results in veg have been amazing, just started bud season so I am stoked to see the rest of the results, by what has happened so far I can only await the best of results.....

I have rabbits and chickens, save coffee grinds, adn try to compost when I can.... I haven't got a good compost pile setup yet I tihnk I still have a good amount of reading to do about them, but from what I read they only need 3 major types of compost, in a specific ratio, and need to be flipped every few days to keep the aerobic bacteria going and the fungus at bay... but I don't have the hands on experience making compost piles so that's what limits me... I do know how to make compost teas which I hear is essentially what these organic nutrients are, super potent organic teas.... maybe you could sum up for me and the thread in the simplest of terms how to make a basic compost pile and build upon it?
 
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