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Soil matters...

Need2Know

Need2Know

New member
I was wondering... since plants in pots need us to supply fertilizer, what's the reason for buying expensive purpose made for cannabis soil when I can get much cheaper tomato bag soil or potted plants soil? I mean there are a lot of top shelf weed being grown by the hydro technique. They use no soil at all. So, the question is, why use expensive soil when using a cannabis intended fertilizer?
 
To constructively answer your question it would help to have a little context. Indoor or outdoor, the amount of soil you're considering using, and what is expensive?
 
As long as the NPK ratio is correct at the PH levels given the stage that the cultivar is at, it doesn't matter. But the 5 dollar bag of mystery marvel soil from Wally world don't and neither does MG. The reason a bag of "good" soil is 2000 pesos is people will pay it.
 
Premix/bagged soils are time sensitive. Autoflower dope is time sensitive.
Let's say you have a bagged soil that provides 6 months of veg nutrients. That's pretty much what potting soil is. Full range soils like Miracle-gro with the pretty vegetable pictures provide everything, all the time. Autoflowers don't need but, maybe, perhaps 2 months veg nutrients at the very most before wanting only flowering nutrients.
Me, personally, in my experience that is, soil is for feminized and photoperiod. Coco can be used for fem or photo, but is especially good for auto because you give it veg nutes in veg and flower nutes in flower.
There are also things like fewer bugs and no flushing necessary with coco. And if you keep it clean and oxygenated, you cannot overwater coco, that I've witnessed, anyway. You can mismanage nutrients, but figure coco is hydro and hydro is always watered.
 
hey dabber, i'm using good black composted soil for my grow which is both auto and photo, everything is starting in a pic. window and they're all seedlings, do you think i should consider adding nutes or just let them grow natural? i plan on moving them outside to 5 gal. pails if it ever warms up and stops raining
 
Seedlings need nothing but good water until about their first set of leaves. Fresh, bagged soil, and perhaps your compost can be too hot for seeds. Flushing soil is good practice before planting seeds in soil.
Soil is compost is soil. Here's a thing. Buy a bag and it tells you what it has in it, nutrient wise. You probably know how many banana peels went into your compost, but not its nutritional value. Could be your compost outperforms anything you buy in the store. But it's still soil and has the same nutrient retention issues soil has. Should you add nutes to your compost? No idea. Don't know what's in it. Is your compost good for outdoor plants? Probably fem and photo, but same issues with auto.
Here's a question to the peanut gallery: Is compost living soil?
 
o.k. now you got me thinking, what the hell was composted in that pile? as for flushing, i had filled 10 pails with holes in the bottom and it sat in the rain for a week so to me that seems flushed if that's what you mean. as for living soil, i would think compost is considered living soil. the worms seem to enjoy it. most of the seedlings are getting their first set of true leaves but need more light as they're leggy compared to the pics. of seedlings i see grown under lights
 
Need2Know with the proper care/nutes you do not have to buy new soil every grow. I’m about to start grow number 4 on the same soil, I test and amend in between grows. If purchasing soil not for mj you do need to watch out for extended release soils. Too much nitrogen during flower is a bad thing. Like dabber said a short burst of nutes to carry you through veg is great and then you dial in the flower nutes yourself. I hope this helps
 
Cool! Alright. Thanks for all the input. It looks like I will need to buy a soil test kit. The soil has to be high in nitrogen during veg and then high in potasium and phosphorus during flowering. The veg grow bag I'm looking at doesn't have any NPK data and it's not on the internet, Verve Vegetable Growbag. I'm using this stuff for some tomatoes. I've taken note of what bdeegan and DabberDog said about soil care. Most growbag soil only has nutrients for 6 weeks, so if the nitrogen is depleted, then the flower fertilizer is all that's needed for the rest of an 'Auto Grow'. For a 'Photo Grow', it looks like nitrogen needs to be added till flowering outside or stopped when starting 12/12 inside. It seems you just got to get the right NPK to start the veg off right when buying or reusing soil.
 
Dropping a thumb on this one. Just got done with my third use of coco. After enough use, seems to me soil would be as inert as coco.
 
Cannabis specific mediums and pretty much any of the general information you get on growing dope is geared towards fem/photo. Unless directions you are reading say 'This is for auto', figure you are looking at fem/photo info.
 
And another thing.
How composted is your compost? Compost that is not fully composted is, well, is still the garbage you have been throwing in the pile. It is still bait for garden bugs that eat plants.
 
fine line between compost pile/garbage pile. the pile i took dirt from was used for about 15 yrs. and had not been used for at least 5 as that spot was full. a new spot is being used now. there's prob. 10 yards of black worm filled soil for the next grows
 
I’ve wondered about that. I think the difference could be in how soil vs coco buffers the nutes. I’ve never grown in coco but don’t you typically feed every watering because the coco doesn’t hold the nutes? With soil I’m feeding once every 2-3 weeks, top dressing, and initially adding all kinds of goodies to the soil. If not using dry and giving them the bottle, I’d still be feeding only every 3rd watering after the initial nutes ran out.
 
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