Review: Kellogs potting soil

[Gingerbeard]

I have to write a bad review for Kelloggs potting soil because I can't grow shit with it. Thanks for wanting to make suggestions and recommend soil. I'm going back to my old ways.

Every seedling I've planted since using the stuff has been a runt, if it grew. I'm talking about 20+ seeds, Luckily, most of them were 'freebies.' Anything that grew was super sickly. 8 weeks, 5 inches. Y'all may remember a few of my past grows. I know what's what with what to get something to grow.

With different seeds, I changed the amount of perlite and DE from the original, to half, to none. Nutrients, too. Same results. The plants got worse every time I watered or added any ratio of nutrients. Funny thing is, the roots of the plants looked fantastic for the plant's they were growing.

When I transplanted from gallon pots to five gallon in my last grow, the plants seemed to have stopped growing. Maybe only two inches during the flowering stretch. I recall similar issues with nutrient burn or deficiency I am, now.

Been kicking myself about what might be going on. The only thing I can put my finger on is the damn soil. My current attempt at sprouting is going well. I mixed, maybe, 50/50, K-soil to FFOF. They will be getting foliar spray to help circumvent any hinderance of nutrient uptake through the soil. They're nice and green and looking forward to getting blasted.

The soil I was using for my first grows was Black Magic. Good success, with that. I like adding my own nutes instead of relying on the soil to take care of things. I haven't seen it at my local orange hardware store. Might have to order it.

[SoOrbudgal]

Now that's friggin shameful. I've used Black Magic as a base and used my coco coir and my other organic soil to mix with it. But it's good soil, sorry about the poor grows.

[crucialbunny]

Kellogg has a processing plant about 7-8 miles from me and when you drive near it, the smell of steer manure is very strong. Just like you I used it once on 5-6 plants and they lived but never thrived in that stuff. Ended up spreading it over my lawns and my grass responded well. Nasty stuff for our girls though. One of the reasons I began making my own soils was the fact that MG & Kellogg command the local nursery markets. MG has taken to re-labeling many of their products under new organic sounding names but the same time released crap is still in them. When I need to use supplemental soil I found some stuff at of all places Target, called EcoScraps that I like. It's comparatively cheap too.

[SoOrbudgal]

crucialbunny yes i've smelled those feed lots driving along I-5 also a mushroom plant or there was on smell up north on I-5 near JDU stinky worse than cow poo.

[Gingerbeard]

Orby, you have never driven past a dairy farm.

[JDU]

We're pretty clean up here Budgal- it mighta been Springfield...... Nothin bout that town smells good plus they have the Kingsford charcoal plant.... Oh but Gingerbeard- a Dairy farm smells like sunshine!!

[SoOrbudgal]

I have tooo Gingerbeard smelled it and walked thru one even milked a cow by hand. < so there Naw JDU that's skunk weed.

[Gingerbeard]

Yeah. Your friendly neighborhood gingerbeard is a definite not liker of bird poo.

[JDU]

Right?!?!

[SoOrbudgal]

I enjoyed milking cows, my uncle had a dairy/tobacco farm in Tennessee.

[Gingerbeard]

There is a sea salt farm a couple blocks away JDU . The different evaporation ponds are separated by berms and little islands. The berms and little islands are nesting places for greater terns. Many tens of thousands of these birds make many more tens of thousands of pounds of poo. Terns are fish eaters. When in nesting season, and the wind blows from the west, my little community smells like a greater tern's greater asshole.
Later, we can get down with a little talk about the smell of the overflowing TJ River which dumps millions of gallons of untreated sewage into our ocean, every year.

[JDU]

Oh Lordy!!!! That sounds damn near unbearable. I'll take my dairy farms - hell even a PIG farm- over that ANY DAY!!!!

[crucialbunny]

I had my boat docked for many years in a marina that had a large floating barge in the channel. Dozens of 400 lbs. sea lions used it to sleep on and as their toilet. When the wind was right the smell would make your throat close up, your eyes water, and paint peel.

[JDU]

Crucial Bunny wins.
I took some of my grandkids to Sealion Cave..... NONE OF US went down the stairs!!!! It was wrong. Just..... wrong. I can't believe someone has the NERVE to CHARGE MONEY for ppl to see/smell THAT!!!!

[Gingerbeard]

Well, hell. Thought I'd share this picture of me taking in the view on a seagull frequented rock, a few communities up the road. Since we've started talking about bird chit, and all. A wee farther south is an area called 'The Children's Pool' which has been overtaken by seals mating, birthing, and pooing. Seal poo is something else entirely. If we're going to get into seal poo.

Notice from the background houses, it is not my community. Yes. Those are single family.

[JDU]

Indeed & agreed!!!

[SoOrbudgal]

JDU the seal lion caves are just dark damp dank stinky slimy ripoff of a tunnel.

[Gingerbeard]

Man! It is so obvious and official. KPS is toxic to weed. Everything that was grown in it is gone. Even the plants I shook soil off when transplanting to FFOF. At the very end of my 8 week old, 8 inch plant, there was heavy magnesium deficiency, even using Cal-Mag. There were symptoms of other issues, but the final one was the Mag.

I'll tell you a little secret. Just between us, yes? K. Before I tossed my runts, I took the main stem of each plant and put them in aloe for a week to see if I could grow only in aloe. Keeping the aloe from getting gooky was impossible so the main goal of just growing roots was achieved but the long term growth isn't in my current setup. For whatever reason, part of the stem of one top, rotted. Another just didn't make it. Three others are in soil and doing well. That's all I'm saying about my current grow. It is possible I saved some Black Domina.

[crucialbunny]

Sorry Gingerbeard. Another lesson learned the hard way.

[Gingerbeard]

I'm usually aware when I'm learning a lesson, CB. This one came out of nowhere, bit me in the ass, and cost me a lot of money. You can do what you want to my ass, but don't mess with my money. My money is personal.