Potting mix soil problem

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GreenPeace22

Active Member
Hello! I'm a new but very passionate grower! I'm trying to grow some autos indoor in something labeled as "nitrogen-rich potting mix". The problem is that the plants don't grow as they should. Their roots don't grow quite well, and this medium remains wet forever after wattering, it never dries out, which is frustrating, because I can't figure out when should I water again and feed them. What am I missing? How is this "potting-mix" supposed to be used? Should I mix it with real soil or anything else? Why does it never dry out? I've heard is because of the peat moss in it that retains moisture, but for that long? Please help me out to understand how to use this medium.

This is the medium, for more info:

CANNA Terra Professional is a nitrogen-rich potting mix for plant cultivation. Your plants grow best in a nitrogen-rich potting mix. CANNA Terra Professional potting mix is unlike anything you will find in a garden centre. It contains a blend of upgraded black peat, granulated peat moss and perlite. If you are going to grow indoors or outdoors, this is the potting mix you want to use.
 

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StareCase

StareCase

Well-Known Member
According to their site, this stuff can be used on it's own but from your description, it sounds like it's only an amendment and should be mixed with soil or compost. So the problem you have now is that your roots won't dry out. And as a result, they won't uptake enough oxygen which is essential for good root development. Are you able to make a 50/50 mix of this Canna stuff with some soil, add a smidge more perlite (to help with both drainage and air flow through the root zone) then do a transplant?
 
Hawaiifire420

Hawaiifire420

Member
Canna coco can work great, if you use canna nutrients also. Get you some peat moss and a few bags of fox farm ocean forest or sunshine #4 and mix all together and re plant them. Not sure how big of pots you are currently using but just get bigger size to transplant into
 
rob333

rob333

Well-Known Member
GreenPeace22 said:
Hello! I'm a new but very passionate grower! I'm trying to grow some autos indoor in something labeled as "nitrogen-rich potting mix". The problem is that the plants don't grow as they should. Their roots don't grow quite well, and this medium remains wet forever after wattering, it never dries out, which is frustrating, because I can't figure out when should I water again and feed them. What am I missing? How is this "potting-mix" supposed to be used? Should I mix it with real soil or anything else? Why does it never dry out? I've heard is because of the peat moss in it that retains moisture, but for that long? Please help me out to understand how to use this medium.

This is the medium, for more info:

CANNA Terra Professional is a nitrogen-rich potting mix for plant cultivation. Your plants grow best in a nitrogen-rich potting mix. CANNA Terra Professional potting mix is unlike anything you will find in a garden centre. It contains a blend of upgraded black peat, granulated peat moss and perlite. If you are going to grow indoors or outdoors, this is the potting mix you want to use.
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did you mix it with perlite like the site says ? also i have used this a dozen times and its great even with perlite i may water once every 7-10 days
 
rob333

rob333

Well-Known Member
Hawaiifire420 said:
Canna coco can work great, if you use canna nutrients also. Get you some peat moss and a few bags of fox farm ocean forest or sunshine #4 and mix all together and re plant them. Not sure how big of pots you are currently using but just get bigger size to transplant into
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ewww fox farm i would rather mix my own poop in the fox farm hahaha
 
Hawaiifire420

Hawaiifire420

Member
rob333 said:
ewww fox farm i would rather mix my own poop in the fox farm hahaha
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Lol I can’t say I’d use anything fox farm except Fox Farm ocean forest is decent starting soil. Use it to start all my seedlings and they love it. Has some basic nutrients in it already.

Depending on if Im trying to feed organic or not I use sunshine #4 and bunch of horse shit from horses on farm . Throw in some perlite other organics and works great.
 
rob333

rob333

Well-Known Member
Hawaiifire420 said:
Lol I can’t say I’d use anything fox farm except Fox Farm ocean forest is decent starting soil. Use it to start all my seedlings and they love it. Has some basic nutrients in it already.

Depending on if Im trying to feed organic or not I use sunshine #4 and bunch of horse shit from horses on farm . Throw in some perlite other organics and works great.
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every single time a have used ff it has trashed my plants
 
rob333

rob333

Well-Known Member
Hawaiifire420 said:
Lol I can’t say I’d use anything fox farm except Fox Farm ocean forest is decent starting soil. Use it to start all my seedlings and they love it. Has some basic nutrients in it already.

Depending on if Im trying to feed organic or not I use sunshine #4 and bunch of horse shit from horses on farm . Throw in some perlite other organics and works great.
Click to expand...
could be also it sits on our shelves for 20 years before any one buys it i pick it up at 65% off and it kills my plants shit is prob gone bad so its my own fault
 
G

GreenPeace22

Active Member
StareCase said:
According to their site, this stuff can be used on it's own but from your description, it sounds like it's only an amendment and should be mixed with soil or compost. So the problem you have now is that your roots won't dry out. And as a result, they won't uptake enough oxygen which is essential for good root development. Are you able to make a 50/50 mix of this Canna stuff with some soil, add a smidge more perlite (to help with both drainage and air flow through the root zone) then do a transplant?
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I grow autos, transplanting is out of the question for autos imo, I'll just start a new seed trying to mix this Canna with some soil as you advice. I'll come back with the result. I so hope you're right. I want it to work so damn much! Still not sure about mixing it, some people say it should work on its own, but I'm getting tired of trying to figure it out, so I'm willing to try anything...
 
G

GreenPeace22

Active Member
Hawaiifire420 said:
Canna coco can work great, if you use canna nutrients also. Get you some peat moss and a few bags of fox farm ocean forest or sunshine #4 and mix all together and re plant them. Not sure how big of pots you are currently using but just get bigger size to transplant into
Click to expand...
I'm growing autos, so no transplant. Also, I don't live in US, Fox Farm and other typical brands you guys are used to cannot be found where I live, I have to work with what I have. Also, as I already mentioned, I'm a newbie, It's actually my first "pro" attempt to growing something, I don't really know anything about mixing and making my own soil, so for now I'll just go with the pre-made comercial soils I can find here untill I will grow at least one healthy plant from seed to harvest to learn about the growing process.
 
G

GreenPeace22

Active Member
rob333 said:
did you mix it with perlite like the site says ? also i have used this a dozen times and its great even with perlite i may water once every 7-10 days
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once every 7-10 days? really? isn't that too many days? The idea here is not to have wet-dry cycles, so the roots can both get nutrients when wet and oxygen when dry? 7 days isn't too much in water for them to get any oxygen? I'm a newbie, but I covered the basics about growing, and everyone and everywhere it says you should water every 2-3 days untill some runoff comes out of the pot, so this implies that in 3 days the soil should be dry if it has proper aeration. That's the standard as far as I'm concerned. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm willing to learn everything I can about growing.
 
rob333

rob333

Well-Known Member
GreenPeace22 said:
once every 7-10 days? really? isn't that too many days? The idea here is not to have wet-dry cycles, so the roots can both get nutrients when wet and oxygen when dry? 7 days isn't too much in water for them to get any oxygen? I'm a newbie, but I covered the basics about growing, and everyone and everywhere it says you should water every 2-3 days untill some runoff comes out of the pot, so this implies that in 3 days the soil should be dry if it has proper aeration. That's the standard as far as I'm concerned. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm willing to learn everything I can about growing.
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nope for 1 there a weed and sites like this have really changed that ;0 for 1 cannabis is a dry plant thru out veg and most of flower they love dry periods as you move more into flower you water cyles will go up but yea 7-10 days for me and they love it
 
rob333

rob333

Well-Known Member
GreenPeace22 said:
once every 7-10 days? really? isn't that too many days? The idea here is not to have wet-dry cycles, so the roots can both get nutrients when wet and oxygen when dry? 7 days isn't too much in water for them to get any oxygen? I'm a newbie, but I covered the basics about growing, and everyone and everywhere it says you should water every 2-3 days untill some runoff comes out of the pot, so this implies that in 3 days the soil should be dry if it has proper aeration. That's the standard as far as I'm concerned. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm willing to learn everything I can about growing.
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cannabis have a root ball so outside can be dry but the ball itself can be like mud
 
StareCase

StareCase

Well-Known Member
GreenPeace22 said:
... everyone and everywhere it says you should water every 2-3 days untill some runoff comes out of the pot ...
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During veg, you can wait 7 days to water. Their appetites are less in veg, especially early in veg, and there is no fan on them quite yet. I do find that the substrate stays damp longer at that point. But once they get large enough and you have the fan in the mix to get air flow around the root zone, the substrate does dry out faster.

Flowering is a different kettle of fish. I agree with what you have heard and find that watering is best when it's done every 3rd or 4th day with feedings every other watering. 1 imperial gallon of water/feed in a 20L bucket every 3rd day and there is a very small amount that comes out of the bottom.
 
RobMac315

RobMac315

Well-Known Member
GreenPeace22 said:
once every 7-10 days? really? isn't that too many days? The idea here is not to have wet-dry cycles, so the roots can both get nutrients when wet and oxygen when dry? 7 days isn't too much in water for them to get any oxygen? I'm a newbie, but I covered the basics about growing, and everyone and everywhere it says you should water every 2-3 days untill some runoff comes out of the pot, so this implies that in 3 days the soil should be dry if it has proper aeration. That's the standard as far as I'm concerned. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm willing to learn everything I can about growing.
Click to expand...
Hey bro. Did you sus this out or....
 
G

GreenPeace22

Active Member
RobMac315 said:
Hey bro. Did you sus this out or....
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I was overwatering my plants at that time. Since then I learned that I have to wait for the soil to get dry and then water. My roots were rotting because of the overwatering there was no oxygen for the roots to breath. Now I am watering only when top inch soil is dry and never saturate the soil, wet, but not damped. As a rule, I water only 20-30% of the pot's volume and I never saturate the soil this way. But this is for soil only, in coco there's a different story. Hope this helped you. If you have further questions I'm glad to help...
 
RobMac315

RobMac315

Well-Known Member
Thanks for that. I'm using the canna pro as well and had the same scenario. But after cutting back on water and upping foliar misting everything seems to be back on track
 
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