Official Gaia Green Grow Method

LawnXweeds

LawnXweeds

Active Member
swedsteven said:
If you reuse your medium test your soil amazon sell cheap npk and ph tester all togethers and easy to use
After the third cycle with my medium it became hot
Now this cycle i will top dress at half the streng.
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I realize this comment is a few months old, but I am harvesting some plants and am not sure how to best reuse the soil (pots, not beds). Is it better to pull the root ball and reclaim as much soil as possible off of it or leave the root ball to decompose in a more no-till fashion, thereby rendering that pot useless until it does break down?
 
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stonerlibrarian

Active Member
stonerlibrarian said:
I'm a newbie but I'm using gaia green for autoflowers with promix hp mixed with extra perlite and and 20% worm castings and some dolomite lime. I mixed 2 tablespoons of 4-4-4 per gallon and germinated directly into my final 3 gallon pots so i don't accidentally transplant shock and stunt the autoflowers. At 4 weeks I do 1.5 tbsp per gallon of 50/50 444/284

I'm at 4 weeks now in my 2x4 tent with 4 autoflowers and they are just starting to stretch and i'm about to top dress 50/50 of all purpose and bloom tomorrow. Every two weeks I've been doing a earthworm casting and kelp meal tea steeped in water from my rain barrel for 24-48 hours (more determined by my schedule than any reason to let it steep). 2 of my autoflowers are fast flowering and this is their last feeding for the other 2 xxl strains I will give them another tea in 2 weeks and another feeding in 3ish weeks with 1 tblsp per gallon of 284 bloom.

I sort of mixed and matched this method from mr canuks grow on youtube, and a blog called marijauanamama420 http://www.marijuanamama420.ca/my-nutrient-schedule/ and my own experience using pro mix to grow fruit and veggies in my garden.
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So just to update this for anyone who read my above recipe. I got around 180g out of 4 plants in my 2x4 using this method, but I had a lot of PH/cal-mag issues with the above recipe. So I added some worm castings and jobes 444 and put all that soil into a some raised beds I have for tomatos and peppers.

For my current grow I splurged and bought a few bags of Gaia Green Living Soil (not cheap at $32CAD per 30gal). I added some worm casting just a tiny bit of gaia green 444 and some dolomite lime. my plants were much happier and I haven't had any ph issues and mag cal issues. Leaves are much more green and much happier. BUT with promix I never once had an issue with fungus gnats or aphids and I've struggled with both this round with living soil. It could have been me bringing them in from outside not being careful, but it's been a bit of a bummer since It cost me $60 to fill a few fabric pots.
 
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myke

myke

Well-Known Member
What I want to know is how much 444 do I mix?
I know @swedsteven use a cup per 5 gallons. So is it the same for rooted clones? Or less. Thx.
 
swedsteven

swedsteven

Well-Known Member
LawnXweeds said:
I realize this comment is a few months old, but I am harvesting some plants and am not sure how to best reuse the soil (pots, not beds). Is it better to pull the root ball and reclaim as much soil as possible off of it or leave the root ball to decompose in a more no-till fashion, thereby rendering that pot useless until it does break down?
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No till fashion untill you plant new plant in the pot top dress only its enought from there .here you go living soil !
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
stonerlibrarian said:
So just to update this for anyone who read my above recipe. I got around 180g out of 4 plants in my 2x4 using this method, but I had a lot of PH/cal-mag issues with the above recipe. So I added some worm castings and jobes 444 and put all that soil into a some raised beds I have for tomatos and peppers.

For my current grow I splurged and bought a few bags of Gaia Green Living Soil (not cheap at $32CAD per 30gal). I added some worm casting just a tiny bit of gaia green 444 and some dolomite lime. my plants were much happier and I haven't had any ph issues and mag cal issues. Leaves are much more green and much happier. BUT with promix I never once had an issue with fungus gnats or aphids and I've struggled with both this round with living soil. It could have been me bringing them in from outside not being careful, but it's been a bit of a bummer since It cost me $60 to fill a few fabric pots.
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I here ya,Ive been at war with them for 3 weeks in my veg room.Dunks ,sticky traps and soap spray and Im finally noticing a difference.I have to many pots :wink:
 
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stonerlibrarian

Active Member
That sucks. fortunately it happened when my ladies were still pretty young and small so i was able to check under every leaf and I think I nipped the aphids before they spread too bad. Then I added a lot of sticky traps and then after a good soaking I covered the top with diatomaceous earth. Then I didn't water for 5 days and let it really dry out. That seemed to help, but I am still seeing some gnats so I just bought some of those pot popper beneficial nematodes and added them to all my pots.
 
@EastCoastGenetix

@EastCoastGenetix

Well-Known Member
GiovanniJones said:
Hey all,

I think that this is an important topic and I haven't seen a thread that's really dedicated to this.
Whether you use Gaia Green or another similar brand (like Dr. Earth), it would be great to have a place we can consolidate our process info.

I'll start here. Throw darts at it and let's come up with a process that can work well in most cases.

Germinating and Veg:
  • Mix your starting soil with Gaia Green All-Purpose Fertilizer 4-4-4 (or similar) according to the package directions.
  • Use this in your red solo cups and in your one-gallon pots.
  • After three weeks in one-gallon pots, top-dress with a tablespoon of 4-4-4. At this point the plants are around 5-6 weeks old.
  • A week later, up-pot to your desired pot size with soil that has been amended with 4-4-4.
Flower:
  • A week after transplanting to larger pots, top-dress 1 TBSP per gallon of soil. At this point in time, use half 4-4-4 and half 2-8-4 Power Bloom.
  • Every three weeks, top-dress at 1 TBSP per gallon of 2-8-4 Power Bloom only.
There it is, a starting point to throw darts at. If we can come up with a great process as a community, even if it takes a while, I'll retype it as a set of instructions to guide growers with this method of growing. Is this a good idea for us to do?
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I love this thread. I'm in the states and I only use Dr. Earth's Tomato blend and Flower girl. I do use additives for Bio-stimulants but mainly I just top dress every 3 weeks. I use to grow in small pots 1gal for Veg and 3 for flower but now I'm in No-Till beds for flower and I use slightly smaller pots in veg. I use a DIY SIP planter for Veg. I'm actually pretty hands off with my grow now. I water the beds weekly and refill the reservoir for the planters every 2 weeks.
 
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stonerlibrarian

Active Member
@EastCoastGenetix said:
I love this thread. I'm in the states and I only use Dr. Earth's Tomato blend and Flower girl. I do use additives for Bio-stimulants but mainly I just top dress every 3 weeks. I use to grow in small pots 1gal for Veg and 3 for flower but now I'm in No-Till beds for flower and I use slightly smaller pots in veg. I use a DIY SIP planter for Veg. I'm actually pretty hands off with my grow now. I water the beds weekly and refill the reservoir for the planters every 2 weeks.
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I've heard good things about Dr Earth. It's rare to find up here in Canada (but we have lots of Gaia Green). A local garden center in my city has the all purpose, and the tomato blend but they don't have the flower girl or else I'd try a grow with Dr Earth.

That's awesome. I'm in a mix of 2, 3, and 5 gallon fabric pots going in a small 2x4 tent (I only grow for me, my wife doesn't smoke) but I've been reading up on No-till living soil beds, and considering moving that way sometime soon.
 
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2TokesTommy

Member
This thread is gold. Thanks to everyone who contributed so far!

One thing I don't see mentioned is ph targets for organics and what you use to adjust up/down without killing your bacteria.

I'm moving from coco and liquid nutes to Gaia and promix hp. Any suggestions for target ph and what I should use to adjust? Thinking citric acid for down for now as my tap water sits right around 7.

Thx!
 
swedsteven

swedsteven

Well-Known Member
2TokesTommy said:
This thread is gold. Thanks to everyone who contributed so far!

One thing I don't see mentioned is ph targets for organics and what you use to adjust up/down without killing your bacteria.

I'm moving from coco and liquid nutes to Gaia and promix hp. Any suggestions for target ph and what I should use to adjust? Thinking citric acid for down for now as my tap water sits right around 7.

Thx!
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I use straight tap water 140ppm 7,3ph i never ph my water when my promix get acid I topdress dolomite lime to my pot each 6 month

The promix hp already have lime in it to buffer the ph .
 
2

2TokesTommy

Member
Fantastic. Wow. Just de-chlorinate and water. Such a huge change from coco with so many water variables for me to mess up (and I did).

Thanks for the replies! Much appreciated.
 
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stonerlibrarian

Active Member
swedsteven said:
I use straight tap water 140ppm 7,3ph i never ph my water when my promix get acid I topdress dolomite lime to my pot each 6 month

The promix hp already have lime in it to buffer the ph .
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I use tap water that averages 7.8-8 and has a high amount of chloramine so I add a bit of ascorbic acid which apparently both lowers the ph and neutralizes the chloramine.
 
JustBlazin

JustBlazin

Well-Known Member
2TokesTommy said:
This thread is gold. Thanks to everyone who contributed so far!

One thing I don't see mentioned is ph targets for organics and what you use to adjust up/down without killing your bacteria.

I'm moving from coco and liquid nutes to Gaia and promix hp. Any suggestions for target ph and what I should use to adjust? Thinking citric acid for down for now as my tap water sits right around 7.

Thx!
Click to expand...
i use citric acid for ph down, i use pro mix also and put dolomite lime,crushed oyster shell plus oyster shell flour but I'm to afraid to not adjust my ph lol, i think my water is high 7 to 8 ph
i should just try and water one plant with straight water and see what happens but i have been to lazy to do it.
i have also read on the giant blumat thread that you don't even need to de chlorinate your water, people use the pressure regulator right off the tap with no ill effects to the organic soil apparently it only affects very small part of the soil, this I have done a couple times due to time constraints but am scared to do it constantly
 
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2TokesTommy

Member
JustBlazin said:
i use citric acid for ph down, i use pro mix also and put dolomite lime,crushed oyster shell plus oyster shell flour but I'm to afraid to not adjust my ph lol, i think my water is high 7 to 8 ph
i should just try and water one plant with straight water and see what happens but i have been to lazy to do it.
i have also read on the giant blumat thread that you don't even need to de chlorinate your water, people use the pressure regulator right off the tap with no ill effects to the organic soil apparently it only affects very small part of the soil, this I have done a couple times due to time constraints but am scared to do it constantly
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That's what I've been hearing regarding chlorine too. I'm still leaving the water out at least overnight anyways just in case.

 
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