Going from Hydro to Soil (Nutes)

I have always grown in hydro but now I'm moving to soil.

With the hydro I used General Hydroponics nutes. I'm not sure how to use these nutrients with soil.

Would this be a good method...

Have a buckets or containers filled with water and the GH nutrients (separate containers for veg and flower) at a PPM level comparable to the what I was using for hydro (250 PPM up to 1000 PPM or so based on the age of the plants).

Water pumps from the nutrient rich containers feeding drips that water the plants each day.

Ph @ 6.5 - 7.0

Also, when keeping mother plants, do I feed them the nutrient rich mix every day?

when using soil, make sure its well airated with some perlite and drains well. you dont want the fertilizers salts building up in the soil and causing nutrient lock out from toxicity.
since soil already has some nutes in it , youll want to go easy on the fertilizer. I used soil many time in 5 gallon buckets and hand watered until it drained thru. a pain in the arse this method is.
drip systems wont flood the soil and help flush salts out. the heavier the water induction into the soil, the more gravity works and allows the suction to pull oxygen to the roots. you could use the run off for outside plants or contunue to use on your own, but the ph adjusting and adding of nutrients to run off is a bitch. i just threw the old run off outside on the plants. works well.

if the soil you are using is like a 10-10-10 mix, you wont need much nutrients at all. just probably some calmag and a bloom enhancer for the end fruiting/flowering phase. the high nitrogen levels in most premade soil mix cause severe stretching when you all you really want is less tall, more density. by adding vermiculite to store bought soil and not adding any real nutes until later on after vegging is done, you should be able to do ok. just watch your plants and feed what they need. look for signs of overfert or under. soil is much easier than hydro and forgiving. good luck

bioengineered said:

when using soil...

Click to expand...

So I shouldn't use my GH nutes with soil then, right? If I get a good pre-mix (like "Roots Organics") from my local grow shop, should I still mix in some perlite?

I think the Roots Organics have 3 weeks of fert. After a few weeks, should I start sprinkling fertilizer on top of the soil? If so, what's a good choice and how often? Or, should I look for a 10-10-10 mix and just use that without any additional fertilizers for the entire grow (except for the calmag and bloom enhancer)?

Thanks for all the advice

PS: As far as Ph levels, do I need to monitor it like hydro when using house water, or does the soil keep it in the right range?

Sorry for the total noob questions. I had a really easy time with the hydro (I'm very technical), and now I'm trying to unlearn all that for soil.

you can use gh nutes, just not at the level required for hydro, usually about half strength without burning the plants in soil. All i ever used for soil was liquid fertilizers.
the roots organics is fine, i would still add perlite at about 1 part perlite to 3 parts soil. after you feel the soil has been taxed of its nutrients, i would begin hitting with the nutrient solution from the GH you have left over. I would just watch the plants and guess what they need by coloring and growth. at this point you could go pretty strong with the nutes and more so in the bloom type nutes with high potassium and phosphorus. i would water with nutes every watering for 2 weeks and then flush with clean water. repeat the flush every few weeks to prevent the salt build up from those types of ferts. always ph adjust the solution you are going to use before adding it to the soil. you can test the ph by just running a gallon of water thru the medium of a pot, allow the drainage to run and then about half way thru, collect a sampler and test it. if its too high, flush some more with clean ph adjusted water . until its about where you want it. for me that was 6.0- some nutrients are taken at certain ph levels so you can go to 7 one time and down to 5.5 at another to help the plants use up available nutrients in the soil.

hope this helps.

6 mil micro per gl h2o

9 mil bloom per gal h20

No need for the grow as the micro has enough N in it.

Feed....feed......water.

Good luck.

bioengineered said:

you can use gh nutes, just not at the level required for hydro, usually about half strength without burning the plants in soil. All i ever used for soil was liquid fertilizers.
the roots organics is fine, i would still add perlite at about 1 part perlite to 3 parts soil. after you feel the soil has been taxed of its nutrients, i would begin hitting with the nutrient solution from the GH you have left over. I would just watch the plants and guess what they need by coloring and growth. at this point you could go pretty strong with the nutes and more so in the bloom type nutes with high potassium and phosphorus. i would water with nutes every watering for 2 weeks and then flush with clean water. repeat the flush every few weeks to prevent the salt build up from those types of ferts. always ph adjust the solution you are going to use before adding it to the soil. you can test the ph by just running a gallon of water thru the medium of a pot, allow the drainage to run and then about half way thru, collect a sampler and test it. if its too high, flush some more with clean ph adjusted water . until its about where you want it. for me that was 6.0- some nutrients are taken at certain ph levels so you can go to 7 one time and down to 5.5 at another to help the plants use up available nutrients in the soil.

hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that was exactly the info I was looking for.