I grow outdoors. this season I will be switching from growing in my soil to growing in containers, for a myriad of reasons. I would like some opinions on the best possible commercially available growing mediums available locally that are readily available. Price is not a consideration but effectiveness is. I don’t need anything exotic but I would like something that contains all of the basic nutrients that I’ll need for the growing cycle already in place, with the understanding that I will be supplementing the plants nutrients at the various stages of plant development.
I begin germination this week depending on the weather and how fast I can get the new roof on my shop.
{coastal region Southeastern United States}
With outdoor growing season in Southern US I don’t think it’s very likely you will find anything good that will sustain cannabis completely on it’s own for the duration. Time release nutrients will be sense to watering/rain and likely be less than ideal anyway. And super soils or heavily amended mixtures still usually require some maintenance over several months.
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I guess I must have implied that I wanted the soil to be care free? I’m sorry for the confusion. I will have to maintain nutrient levels throughout the growing season, of course, among a myriad of other things.
I simply meant a, or that is to say, the best soil based growing medium that would have all the right levels to start with.
I’ve grown indoors and outdoors both hydroponically with state of the art everything and outdoors as primitive as planting thousands of seeds on miles of logging roads every time break time came around. If it wasn’t for the fukin elk…
But I digress.
This year I’m going to start germinating in rockwool with the eyedeer of transplanting into soil containers with the goal of more control over those nutrients than I had in the ground last year. I was just a tad past the logging road technique with my extreme limits on time and hardware last year.
I’m now loaded for…elk.
I’ve had a npk meter on a wish list for months and after reading the tips here this am I’ve decided to upgrade my poc ph meter for a 5-way digital ph tester for Water TDS/EC/Salt/Temp/PH Pen, PPM m eter water tester for Drinking Water.
I really do NOT want to go back down the hydro chemical highway again by trying to get back as close to natures way as possible. That leaves me one thing I can control and one I can’t. The sun does what the sun does with it’s healing ways. My childhood wish, when the nuns would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, was to be omnipotent. That has yet to come to fruition so it’s not likely that I’ll be able to control the Sun anytime soon.
The soil on the other hand…
I’m not adverse to chemical fixes if situations deem them but hope to limit them as much as possible by controlling the proper nutrient levels with organic alternatives I have on hand…guano tea, composting and fish emulsion.
I’m glad you brought up rain.
I went to buckets precisely so I can contain the water for measuring. I have been considering, prodded by a local friend with over a decade of experience of commercial hydro experience to cover them from the rain…I get it.
Covering them will be a huge damn it man for me because the tap water here, despite being some of the highest quality municipal water anywhere, I’ve seen what it does to the garden plants when the summer droughts come.
If I’m containing and covering them with little effort collecting the water AFTER it rains I don’t see the advantage in covering them, then collecting the rain water only to put it on the plants ANYway?
No matter how you grow, where you grow or what you grow in the amount of success you end up with for
the most part and every step of the way boils down to the water…and no, I’m not going to boil it either.
{insert laughy face with tears of joy here}
ANYway…back to the soil…I picked rock wool because I have some and I’m not adverse to starting off with my hydro past but I could easily be talked out of that as well, going with soil from the start. It’s just that I have some and have been using it for my starter vegi plants for years going from the rockwool in trays directly into the garden without any litigation of any kind from bell pepers and eggplants. If they don’t like it, they don’t show it.
Soil soil soil…I suppose I could experiment with making my own but I don’t want to roll that many dice. I’d be happy to spend a few bucks to save the time and worry.
The season here is already upon me…breathing hard and more than wiling to leave me behind.
Having absolutely no commercial interest whatsoever. my production goals are merely enough to stay supplied for one season to the next…room for lots of error here.
I’ve turned down more than one chance to go commercial but the last thing I want out of growing is another fukin job.
If commercialization of your weed fixation is your thing fire up that capitalism beastthat dwells within and go big or go home…or to jail.
Neither sounds like much fun to me and I’m only here to enjoy the ride and as it looks like were all 11 months away from goin to hell anyway, I’ll stick with fun.
After all what good will all those fun tickets be in hell…after ya get outta jail?
catman…Tymll
Chester catman Travirca
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When I buy soil I use roots organics original blend. Imo it’s the most consistent from bag to bag or readily available stuff and typically around same price as other names you will hear often. It’s pretty airy and will typically maintain a plant for about 4 weeks under normal conditions.