Nutes for my next grow, General Organics or Fox Farm?

[Organic357]

I am trying to grow my girls as organically as possible as they are for my medical use. My first grow was with Fox Farm soil (Happy Frog) and nutes. I had good results but wanted to try a more organic grow. So I moved to the Botanicare nutes with FF Strawberry Fields soil. I had good results. My last grow was with Nectar of the Gods #4 soil and General Organics nutrients which were well reviewed on this site. Everything was fine until sometime during flowering. Without adjustment our water has a pH of the high 7’s to low 8’s. With the General Organics Go Box nutes my pH was running in the mid 5’s which I understood was okay with these organic nutes. My initial effort to correct this was a good flush and pushing the pH up to the mid to low 6's. When this did not help I went back to my Botanicare nutrients. What happened is that the plant essentially stopped growing for six weeks to a month before harvest. I pulled less than 1 oz per plant. The only good thing was that with no extra foliage the harvest was easy. I am wondering if this could have been caused by a free sample of Mammoth P that was given me by the owner of our local hydro store and which I started using during flowering. After using it a few times I noticed it was out of date. Let me say that I have had several similar issues with this store.

What I am thinking I would like to do with my next grow is try Fox Farm Happy Frog soil again with the General Hydroponic’s organic nutrient line, possibly getting a new General Organics Go Box using a link from GWE so that this site gets some credit with Amazon. My second choice would be to go back to Fox Farm, probably getting another Dirty Dozen box. A third option would be Nectar of the Gods #4 soil with their Simple Starter Pack of four nutrients. These would be grown under two Viparspectra 600 watt LED lights that would allow me to adjust both channels, flower and veg. I do check and adjust pH but don't check PPM. Any feedback from you guys would be appreciated.

[Canuck147]

Not sure if Green Planet nutes are organic but they work great for me. One thing that I do use that is totally organic is Foliar Essence - Use that once a week when they are young and all you will get back in the long run is big buds.

[Organic357]

Canuck147 you have me curious now. I saw that Green Planet has the following all organic line on Amazon: Green Planet Nutrients - MEDI-ONE One Part, Start to Finish, All Natural Organic Garden Nutrient. Is that what you have used? It got good reviews so I am very tempted to try. On their website they also have a 1 Part Medi One Kit which is the Medi-One with 4 supplements. I think I will give this a try unless someone can give me a good reason not to.

[Canuck147]

No, I use their GP3 series.

[kingfish]

I believe the only way to be totally organic is to make your own Super soil. My $.02.

[Organic357]

You are right Kingfish. It is just that time and other constraints keep me from building my own Supersoil for this grow. Have you made Super soil and if so what were your results using it?

[Organic357]

Canuck147 you have convinced me to try the Green Planet nutes and the Premier Horticulture PRO-Mix HP High Porosity. I saw a picture you posted on 05/30/2019 and that was a very frosty and nice looking cola.

[Canuck147]

Don't forget the Foliar Essence.

[Organic357]

Will do. Wish it was sold on Amazon. Contacted the company to find out where it can be purchased.

[Organic357]

Canuck147 the person I spoke to at Green Planet Nutes recommended Royal Gold Tupar soil. I am probably going to stick with your recommendation of the Premier Horticulture PRO-Mix HP High Porosity but may do a first crop with the PRO-Mix and a second with the Royal Gold Tupar. BTW the if you buy the Medi One from Green Planet they have two choices. The one with the brown label is their newest formulation. The one on Amazon may be the old formulation which may be out of date unless the sellers did not change the picture and are in fact selling the new formulation.

[Cali]

Damn too bad you went with bottled nutrients. Check out my last posts I just recently finished my first cycle in living soil. On my second grow now and going strong with just water and some teas here and there. If you want organic specially for medicine don’t use bottled nutrients. Your already having problems why not keep it simple and just grow organic soil and forget about ph,ph pen,ppm, no mixing chemicals in bottle when you can get the same npk from your back yard literally just look up Clackamas Coot on YouTube you’ll be pulling your hairs wondering why you chasing a magical bottle when they’re all the same with different labels. Have you read the labels? That’s my opinion.

[Organic357]

Cali I have not purchased any nutes or soil yet. So when you say water I understand. I have a friend who does compost teas. My reason for going with nutes and soils for this grow is that I am extremely busy which is why I was not planning on making a living soil. So I am interested in doing a living soil but as for the teas my admittedly limited understanding is that these are something that one puts an air pump in to aerate. So I have had success with nutes and soil before. I am growing for my own medical needs. My planned grow in September needs to be successful as my current supply of Cannabis will be running out at that time. So I would be leaving the 'safety' of a tried and true regime for the 'unknown' benefits of living soil. I am thinking of doing a side by side if you will. One rationalization is that if I can build a good living soil I would do more work up front but would save the issues with mixing nutes, adjusting pH and flushing. Can you enlighten me about the 'tea' and send me a link to your recipe for living soil? I am really interested and have a friend who might help me. I heard about the Weed Nerd's Super Soil years ago but in the midwest town I live in there are not a lot of places to find all of the ingredients for any of the well known living soils. I have also heard of Clackamas Coot.

On a side note the Cannabis growing community is a lot like a health group. People have things that work well for them that don't work for others. I have friends who think that the only way to grow is with hydro and HID's. I never argue with them if they are getting the results they want. What I appreciate from what I have seen in this forum is that people seem to respect other's growers different regimens.