Hey guys, I’m about to start my second grow, I’m working with Bruce banner, black widow, and Skywalker. I’m using 600 watt hps lights. What is the best growing medium for these? My last grow I used black gold, and found a lot of fungus knats in the soil. Any help would be great. Cheers guys!
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@Jrock9435 A lot of us really enjoy using promax because it has just enough to get you started and then you get to control the nutrients a lot of people like using Foxfarm ocean you can almost get through veg without feeding with that stuff. Promix is very cheap compared to others
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I’ve used Fox Farms Ocean Forest, it’s good stuff. Maybe a little hot for seedlings but great after transplant. I’m using Promix Bx right now with a super soil and I love the Promix. I’ll start seeds in it from now on. The Bx that I have has mycorrhizae in it to promote root development.
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I’m growing skywalker og and Bruce banner in amended ffof in 10 gal containers. I added 15% perlite, bone meal and dolomite lime. So far the skywalker is loving it, banner is craving more cal/mag.
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I’m wrapping up my first grow and have had great success with 50/50 coco coir and perlite. No bugs and has the feel of a soil grow.
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I think I may try some happy frog. Anybody use them before?
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Currently in my second grow, reusing same happy frog soil. No complaints, grew some stuff really strong. Was my best weed yet
I use promix and would recommend it.
There’s people on here that use FFHF and like it.
I’m a promix user. Amazing control over what my plants get and when. Totally recommend it.
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I make my own soil and you can to. here are a few recipes copy and paste for future reference.
Soil LESS Mix
Mixing ammounts will veary dependeds on how much you make. read instructions on each package for amounts.
Myself I mix 2 different batchs
1.) Seedling mix
2.) Vegg. mix and Flower mix / with my flower mix being placed on the bottom half of the 5 Gal grow pot
with the vegg. mix on top.
1.) Pro Mix BX
Then add-----
2.) ( Mexican Bat Guano )
(10-2-1) This type of guano is very high nitrogen. This makes it perfect for the vegetative stages of growth.
Even when the plant is young it can be fed a dilute mixture if the soil happens to contain very little nutrients.
This type of guano can be used throughout the vegetative stage of growth.
( PLEASE NOTE )
( Jamaican Bat Guano (1-10-0.2) This type of bat guano is high in phosphorus. It is perfect for the early-mid
flowering cycle once females are well established. )
3.) WORM CASTINGS
(because this stuff is so nutritious, the more the better).
Worm poop is gardening gold. Properly known as “worm casts”, what worms leave behind is actually
vital to the soil food web and is one of the key substances to maintaining healthy, nutrient-dense
soil for your plants. To quote from Sustainable World Radio:
“Research has shown that fresh earthworm casts are five times richer in available nitrogen,
seven times richer in available phosphates, and 11 times richer in available potash than the
surrounding upper six inches of soil. […]
Plant roots often seek out available earthworm casts. They follow the worm Burroughs and feed
on the nutrients in the available vicinity even if it means that the roots have to grow upward.”
While growers often spend a significant chunk of change on fertilizers throughout the grow cycle,
adding worm castings to your soil inundates them with the vital, natural nutrients they most desire.
4.) BONE MEAL
This additive is a nice way to get some additional phosphorous and calcium to your plants. An abundance of phosphorus
is especially important once your plant has reached flowering phase. To again draw from Gardening Know How:
“Using bone meal will help your flowering plants, like roses or bulbs, grow bigger and more plentiful flowers.”
As a flowering herb, the added phosphorus from bone meal helps your plant produce buds that are nice and big.
5.) BLOOD MEAL
Blood meal is yet another source of nitrogen. It’s also not vegan/vegetarian-friendly.
Blood meal is made from the dried blood of slaughtered animals, most predominantly cows.
Though the idea behind the fertilizer is a little unpleasant, its well-known natural gardening product.
Because it’s so nitrogen lush, it will help produce extensive growth during the vegetative phase.
6.) FISH MEAL
7.) Kelp and/or humid acid
There are a lot of things that growers do to increase
their yields that actually helping to build healthy soil microbiology. Adding kelp meal and humic
acids are some of these tasks. Both of these natural products are fungal foods. The interaction
between your plants roots and soil fungus helps the plant produce the nutrients it needs to thrive.
Kelp also adds a significant amount of potassium and copper to your soil mix.
8.) Epsom salt
A lot of people use Epsom salt to increase magnesium in their soil. As mentioned earlier,
you want to be careful not to add too much. You don’t want to over do it with the magnesium.
However, if your plant is showing signs of a magnesium deficiency, this is a very quick and
easy way to add some back in. Magnesium iscrucial to the absorption of other key nutrients,
like nitrogen and phosphorous.
All about microbes
Subcool’s soil mixture is definitely a good one. As is probably obvious by the various additives
in this recipe, this soil is extremely nutrient-rich. It’s chuck full of natural fertilizers and
makes it easy on the plant to have its favorite nutrients right at its root tips, so to speak.
Many of the extra or leftover additives can then be diluted with water and sprayed on during
the grow cycle as fertilizer.
If there’s one downfall to this recipe, it’s that it relies heavily on organic additives over
encouraging microorganism growth. In a plant’s natural environment, they get vital nutrients
from synergistic interactions between the plant and other organisms in its ecosystem. Plants
photosynthesize sunlight into sugars, and these sugars are in turn secreted by the roots. This
is a much more consciousprocess than commonly believed.
A plant can make an extremely wide variety of sugars and secrete them to attract specific types
of bacteria and microorganisms to its roots. These bacteria then eat these sugars, called exudates.
Through the bacterial metabolic process, essential nutrients like nitrogen are created for the plant
to use. Yet, nitrogen isn’t the only nutrient created through this process. This is how much-needed
vitamins and trace minerals make it into your plant.
9.) Dolomite lime
Recommended amount: 1 cup
Dolomite lime adds calcium and magnesium to your soil. Like rock phosphate, dolomite is also
a kind of mineral rock. It’s used to counteract mineral leaching. It also helps keep the
soil from becoming too acidic. Be careful not to add too much, though. It has high calcium
to magnesium ratio, and you may risk adding too much magnesium to your plants.
Azomite (trace elements)
Azomite is a brand of trace minerals. It’s mined from volcanic rock and contains over
70 minerals and trace elements. This particular brand is mined in Utah and is used to
re-mineralize soil. The product contains everything from gold, silver, and selenium
to potassium, choline, copper and calcium. Adding a few trace elements into your
increases the diversity of nutrients available to your plantss.
10.)
Marijuana growers are very smart gardeners. There are a lot of things that growers do to increase
their yields that actually helping to build healthy soil microbiology. Adding kelp meal and humic
acids are some of these tasks. Both of these natural products are fungal foods. The interaction
between your plants roots and soil fungus helps the plant produce the nutrients it needs to thrive.
Kelp also adds a significant amount of potassium and copper to your soil mix.
.
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You can use this or use the mesurement as a guide
Will
.3125 lb. - 5 oz. Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0
.3125 lb. - 5 oz. Steamed Bone Meal 2-14-0
.625 lb. - 10 oz. Bat Guano 0-7-0
.3125 lb. - 5 oz. Blood Meal 13-0-0
.3125 lb. - 5 oz. Feather Meal 12-0-0
1/16 cup Soluble Kelp Powder 0-0-17
1/16 cup Mycorrhizal Fungi (300 spores per gram)
3/4 tsp. Powdered Humic Acid (90%Pure)
.375 lb. Colloidal Rock Phosphate 0-3-0
3/32 cup Epsom Salt
1/16 cup Sweet Lime (Dolomite)
1/16 cup Azomite (67 Trace Elements)
1 tsp. Potassium Sulfate 0-0-53
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What does everyone think about Fox Farm Happy Frog as opposed to ocean?
I like frog and coco coir together
what does the coco coir do?
Hi just wanted to know where can I buy the promix will a garden center have it ?
I order promix from Amazon.
@Drinkslinger what do you prefer led or hps lights?
I’ve never used hps, only various forms of led and cfl. At the moment I’m giving the thumbs up to quantum boards/light strips. Eventually I’ll try cobs (not the cheap amazon ones, I’ve got 2 Roleadro 2nd gen cob lights and while they do ok, my diy “quantum boards” are kicking their ass).