i leave in a small town with no hydro store its winter so home depo dosent have much, i want to transplant all my grand daddy purp clones into dirt from a hydro/nft system having to many problems wat can i use to make a simple soil mix no plant stores carry worm casting or bat gauno all i can find is horse manure, jiffy seedlings starter soil, vermiculite, perlite, and miracle grow soils. what can i do i have tons of nutes from my hydro system can i use jiffy seedling soil with some perlite then just water with nutes??
You can always order soil from the internet, but the shipping can be ridiculous.
Now although people say Miracle Grow is not good, it can be used.
More than likely you will get some gnats with them, but they can be dealt with
Here is a simple soil recipe you can use that can carry you from start to finish.
You may have to use some type of bloom fertilizer depending on how long they take to flower
2 cubic- feet Miracle Grow Organic Choice (green bag)
3.8-4.0 cubic feet- Promix/Sunshine Mix #4 (If not, it can be substituted with Peat Moss)
1 Cup Miracle Grow Blood Meal
1 Cup Miracle Grow Bone Meal
1/2 cup dolomite lime (1 cup if you're using peat moss)
30% perlite (chunky perlite is preferable)
Mix the soil well and just plant or transplant into it.
It can be seedling or clone friendly, but if you're dealing with seedlings, I'd start them in small containers with this mix minus the bone and blood meal.
This mix can last up to 20-30 days veg and throughout all of flower WITHOUT adding any nutrients in your feedings at all. All you need to do is water them from your tap and you do NOT need to PH at all. That's probably the most noob friendly it can get.
No, you may not use the Miracle-Gro Sphagnum Peat Moss. I forgot to warn that most of the peat moss you find in Home Depot or Lowes have a significant amount of fertilizer already added. This is REALLY bad to add to the recipe, as the fertilizer is non-organic and can really burn your plants!
Try to find some peat moss that has NO additional fertilizer to it. You MIGHT be able to find some at Home Depot or Lowes, however, I can assure you that you can find some at a local nursery. You can also find some dolomite lime at your nursery as well. Keep in mind, that you should use 1 cup of dolomite lime in your recipe if you're going to substitute with peat moss.
Also, you do NOT need to add any kind of fertilizer to your water or feedings. You are using PLAIN water throughout the plant's life, and does not need any PH adjustment. The water can be from your faucet, hose, water bottle, etc. It doesn't matter, just as long as you water properly and not over/under water your plants.
These are all peat based mix....
Promix, Bcuzz hydro mix, Sunshine mix, and plain peat moss can all be used!
These are the optional soils to use with the peat based mixes above.
Mg organic, Foxfarm ocean forrest, Black gold,
You can mix and match any of the above mixes to achieve similar results.
Example Promix with mg organic or Pro mix with ocean forrest or bcuzz hydro with m organic or visa versa so on yada yada.
Here are the key points I will make. It doesn't matter much which way you go with it, What matters is that the soil is mixed with the peat based mix to create about a 60/40 mix 60% peat 40% soil. Then you add your perlite and ammendmants. I usually use 3.8 cf bales of any of the above mentioned peat based mixes, With 2cf of ocean forrest or mg etc!
I recommend chunky perlite, I also recommend using ocean forrest over mg organic, I had fungus gnats with mg organic and once I mixed the mix, and went to transplant the babies and pull out a handful of soil and it was loaded with maggots, So I no longer use MG organic.
1-1&1/2 cup blood meal 1-1&1/2 cup bone meal 1/2-3/4 cup dolomite lime, Or pulverized limestone. Depending on how your strain feeds if its a heavier feeder go with the 1&1/2 blood and bone meal if its a light feeder then use the 1 cup.
If your vegging less than 30 days 3 gal bags are fine. If you plan to veg for 30 or more you need to use 5 gal bags or else you could be nute deff during flower. If you want to add castings that's fine, I recommend just top coating with it during the latter stages of veg before the flip.
You can use sweet if you would like also, I'm kinda tired and high so I will go back over this post and thread later and if you have any questions feel free to ask. On a side note I have used everyone of the above mentioned products all with similar success mg organic is the only one which can bring along fungus gnats etc.
Now this is not my recipe.
I am using it but have substituted, the miracle grow with fox farm ocean forest.
I actually drove two hours to get some.
Now one further note rather than drive two hours one way I have chosen to start a worm bin and recycle my soil, thus making my own good soil.
Hope this helps
