Hi guys and gals what i want to do is for everyone who grows organically i want yous to share ur experiences and ur soil mixes and what natural nutrients u use or what dry amendments you use and what sort of problems u had with ur grow and how u fixed the problem so people that are trying organic grows for the first time can come and look and see what other people are using in there soil mixes and what natural nutrients and what dry amendments are being used in organic grows i think what ever information is put down here would benefit everyone so please share your experiences and knowledge
2 Likes
Ok guys i grow my plant in organics now the substrate i use is Coco coir and peat moss and perlite mix now i don’t have ratios of what i put in ok but i put in my soil a mix of worm castings and worms and I use bat guano and volcanic rock dust also i use organic compost and superworm frass i try to put enough to last one to two months if not i top dress every two to four weeks aswell as giving compost tea and the only thing that changes in flower is i give my plant banana and cucumber skin tea
1 Like
Ooo I likey this thread. By now the old heads all know my story. But for new members…
Hi Im Purp and Ima cheap pothead. 3-4 years in and tryna keep things as natural as possible.
So my base medium is soil. Over the years ive gon theu cheap topsoils mixed into perlite and amendments (guanos, meals, ewc… NEVER FORGET THE DOLOMITE LIME WHEN GOING THIS PATH…) to Black Kow soils (beware the time release versions, others are just a nice topsoil) to now pallets of reused FF soils. On grow 3 recycling about 20 bags of the stuff. Everything is going fine there.
Nutrients: Alaska Fish Emulsions! They have a veg recipe (5-1-1) and a bloom (0-15-15) that I tweak at and play around with throughout the grow. Can tweak ppms as easy as adding/removing a tsp of whichever isnt needed. I also have a few BuildASoil fish hydroxylates. Basically powderd emulsion that I rotate in and out throughout flower. Raw Silica once a week or two in mid/late veg- early bloom. Epsom salts, Tribus & Recharge (microbes) on every watering day. Very rarely ill add a dab of calmag to cover calcium. I also have the BuildASoil ‘micronutrient pack’ used once or twice a grow.
Pots: TEAM FABRIC BAGS ALL THE WAY. From 1 gallons (whole grow was harvested from 1 galls lasttime) to 2 and 3 gallons. They make everything except watering easier.
I wanted to get into Black Soldier Fly insect frass this season but life sucks. @Mrcrabs is the brain to pick about going all organic.
1 Like
I use Subcools recipe and find it better the second time around by simply adding half a sack of composted steer manure. But this round I added half the bag of Humic acid and it’s hot bout 1100 ppm but any seed that lives through germination looks like this Casey Jones did two weeks ago. New ‘Super Soil’ Recipe by Subcool - Makes ~12 ft3
8 – 1.5 ft3 bags of high quality base soil
1 – 33lb. bag of Worm Castings
5 lbs. High Phosphorus Bat Guano
5 lbs. Blood Meal
2.5 lbs. Bone Meal
3 cups. Oyster Shell
3 cups. Kelp Meal
3 cups Alfalfa Meal
3/4 cup Epsom Salt
1 cup Dolomite Lime
2 cups Azomite
2 TBS powdered Humic Acid
4 Likes
I use to put it in the bottom 3rd of the bucket as he suggests, but now I use it 100% but let it ferment in a barrel for a couple months. I used alot of perlite and bacto peat based potting soil.
1 Like
4 parts coco
1 part composted manure/worm castings (2 parts for outdoor grows)
1 part perlite.
The above is seedling and rooted clone friendly. They stay in this for the first month or so. When I transplant, I amend the soil with Happy Frog dry amendments at half strength. I top dress with HF once a month with the occasional tea. I water with plain water every other day or so with a good soak every week or so.
2 Likes
This is goin really well guys keep it up and we will have lots of information for new growers and for old growers and by the way this my plant on my mix i make
3 Likes
@Aussie_autos. You should also start a grow journal we could all follow! You have some good information to share. It would be nice to be able to watch your grow and what things you are doing to raise healthy plants.
3 Likes
To do a grow journal i would have to wait until i start again next grow
1 Like
I am old and KIS (keep it simple). I don’t make a super soil just a base. Local organic soil I sift. Worming casings and perlite much like @oldmarine ’s ratios. I add stuff I have around like ground up eggshells, coffee grounds and dried fan leaves I save. From that point on it is dry amendments. After harvest I recycle the soil making sure to keep all those little roots in the mix.
4 Likes
Do it! It would be nice to find the information you share in one place.
3 Likes
Yah i agree it would be nice to have all this information in one place , i will do a grow journal next round but for now we will keep this thread goin gathering information from all organic growers on this forum
1 Like
Hi
Ime new here and on my first indoor grow and first with fem autos
Times have changed from the worry of checking every plant for males thankgod
I couldn’t purchase the soils like Fox Farms stated by cannabis growing enthusiast so had to make up my own
3 parts good potting soil no slow release in it
3 parts compost
1 mushroom compost
2 perlite
vermiculite
Mixed watered through and left to sit in bathtub for a couple of weeks before transplanting plants
Don’t know if the fact mushrooms are growing out the sides and so forth is good or not but the soil seems light
I’ve only grown weed outside before and previously had a landscaping business and nursery but this indoor cannabis growing with autos etc and the wealth of knowledge now available is a learning curve
Thanks to this forum and members like @Aussie_autos newbies like myself have support and help during our grows
Thanks heaps to all that help each other
Yesterday was first water through since transplanting this Strawdawg on 3/11/21 so soil is damp. The soil does have some small bits of wood in it here and there but I left them in although did remove the unfavourable additive in the mushroom compost bags. 2 rotten plastic bags. 
Fan helps dry the soil out during the 4 hours it is on.
5 Likes
Very nice looking plant debb healthy as
Ok guys now with doin organics you may have abit of trouble with ur ph in ur soil it may be to high or it maybe to low now here is the fun part there are plenty of ways to combat this problem and they are all safe for organics ,i had a ph of 8.5 in my soil and it was to high i wanted to get it around 6.5- 6.9 give or take a little now this what i done used coffee to bring down my ph and it worked great except i used a bit to much so it went down to much so what i did i flushed my plant for a few days with water at 7.0 ph and it brought my ph back up abit so then i used bicarbonate soda to bring the ph back up to 6.9 i used one teaspoon in two ltrs of ph water and it worked.But guys when u do this only use a small amount at first dont do wat i did and use to much coffee ok .so u can use coffee to bring ph down and u can also use lemon juice and u can use a garden lime aswell , Now you can use bicarbonate soda to bring ph back up or you can water with a slightly higher ph water this way will take abit longer and if ur worried about making ur ph to high again when watering with a higher ph the microbes in ur soil will fix it up .so thats all i can think of for now about ph in soil .The only other things i have experienced is abit of light burn or wind burn i did battle with humidity for a bit then i replaced my humidifier but if u have high humidity and u cant get it down place a bowl of bicarbonate soda powder in ur tent it will draw moisture out of the air in ur tent .
1 Like
IME If you have a healthy microbial colony and a decent soil base you should not have to pH adjust. But this may not apply here since I grow in living soil and feed the microbes not the plants. I do not create a supersoil.
I have used baking soda to pH adjust when I was using inorganic fertilizers.
Be aware baking soda because it is Sodium Bicarbonate and can cause problems with the SAR (Sodium Adsorption Ratio) in soil.
Just my two cents. Leave it or research it.
3 Likes
I have never ph’d with organics… if you have to ph that’s because your compost or soil mix wasn’t ready… I use compost that has been well seasoned…
@JaneQP totally agree with ya…no ph’ing
4 Likes