green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
For what it’s worth I see less bugs in healthy soil grown plants. Something about the plants natural defense being the strongest when it’s living in symbiosis with soil microbes.
Can you get “Hydro” to have the same quality as “Soil”?
- Thread starter Milky Weed
- Start date
Markshomegrown
Well-Known Member
I guess you could spend loads on a soil grow, I use very basic dry fertilizers (chicken manure, lime, sea weed meal, fish blood and bone etc, cost £50) and its going to do 200-300, 20ltrs pots), I reuse the soil a couple of times(cheap compost from my local garden center). don't think i can go any cheaper than this.
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
I reuse my coco many times and salt nutes are cheap. I think after you account for labor they may be around the same cost.
mudballs
Well-Known Member
Dont need the pots
waterproof808
Well-Known Member
Its not the medium that makes flowers dank, it is the grower. One medium will not automatically produce better flowers than the other...a bad grower will grow garbage in both dirt and hydro systems.
Markshomegrown
Well-Known Member
lol your stretching.
A good quality pot will last years and there cheap to buy, in any case, everybody grows there plants in some kind of pot, something has to support the root mass and block the light.
mudballs
Well-Known Member
Oh idk, id just have piles on the floor, then I'd have one minion with a shopvac sucking up the runoff in the corner and another minion measuring the pH of what the other minion was vacuuming up....seems logical to me
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
I see you are in the UK. B&M Bargains have Westland Big Tom grow bags at £1 for 55L. It is a while stocks last type deal. I have been mucking about with locally sourced organic composts recently, but when I saw that I figured it was too cheap to ignore. I got 220L of decent compost for £4.
Westland Big Tom Peat Free Tomato Planter - Westland Garden Health
This Westland Big Tom Peat Free Tomato Planter is a nutrient-rich compost for growing strong, healthy tomatoes. Find your local stockist!
www.gardenhealth.com
I only use garden centre stuff too, normally I just use local organic compost (£5 for 50L) and rotted manure (£1 for a huge bag). I have been using Tomorite and Epsom Salt for additional feeding. I was using Tomorite at full strength for flowering and it worked fine, but I have discovered that Poundland sell a PK 13/14 (500ml for £1), my mate reckons it works well as he has been using it for a while. I plan to feed Tomorite @ 50% and PK @ 50% and see how it goes. I will give them a dose of Epsom Salt weekly
I am going to start using dry feeds next year. I grow Autos in a Poly Tunnel during the summer and I do all of my experimentation on them. The wife already uses fish, blood and bone, and chicken manure in her veg garden. So I am just going to do what she does with Tomatoes, Lettuce, Cucumbers and the like on some weed plants.
I moved over to garden centre stuff in the first lockdown. I was using the Plant Magic Old Timers range and I couldn't get it. The only places I could buy stuff was the garden centre and the supermarket. So I just used some of the wife's compost, manure and tomato feed. It worked very well.
I found out that most of these cannabis specific nute lines were a rip off when I needed some Plant Magic Oldtimers Organic Magnesium. I read that you could use Epsom Salt with tomatoes and such for some extra magnesium. Imagine my surprise when I got a big bag of Epsom Salt from Home Bargains for £1 and I opened it and discovered all Plant Magic had been selling me was Epsom Salt in a fancy tub, with a fancy name and a cartoon character on the label, I will say it is a handy tub for keeping Epsom Salt in. 1KG for £1 or £6 for 300g, robbing bastards.
Before I was spending hundreds a year on fancy pants compost and fancy pants nutes, plus other stuff. Mycorrhiza, Great White from the Grow Shop, £12 for 28g or the same stuff in a bag from Amazon £15 for 1KG. The cannabis fertiliser industry is a complete racket.
I doubt I am spending more than £50 a year on grow consumables.
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Markshomegrown
Well-Known Member
I used to grow lots of different veg in my greenhouse and peas up the side of the fence, every veg needs a different soil mix, for example carrots are easy to grow, they seem to do well in 30% sharp sand and 70% Sieved compost(basic) and 1tbsp seaweed meal(every 10trs).I see you are in the UK. B&M Bargains have Westland Big Tom grow bags at £1 for 55L. It is a while stocks last type deal. I have been mucking about with locally sourced organic composts recently, but when I saw that I figured it was too cheap to ignore. I got 220L of decent compost for £4.
Westland Big Tom Peat Free Tomato Planter - Westland Garden Health
This Westland Big Tom Peat Free Tomato Planter is a nutrient-rich compost for growing strong, healthy tomatoes. Find your local stockist!
I only use garden centre stuff too, normally I just use local organic compost (£5 for 50L) and rotted manure (£1 for a huge bag). I have been using Tomorite and Epsom Salt for additional feeding. I was using Tomorite at full strength for flowering and it worked fine, but I have discovered that Poundland sell a PK 13/14 (500ml for £1), my mate reckons it works well as he has been using it for a while. I plan to feed Tomorite @ 50% and PK @ 50% and see how it goes. I will give them a dose of Epsom Salt weekly
I am going to start using dry feeds next year. I grow Autos in a Poly Tunnel during the summer and I do all of my experimentation on them. The wife already uses fish, blood and bone, and chicken manure in her veg garden. So I am just going to do what she does with Tomatoes, Lettuce, Cucumbers and the like on some weed plants.
I moved over to garden centre stuff in the first lockdown. I was using the Plant Magic Old Timers range and I couldn't get it. The only places I could buy stuff was the garden centre and the supermarket. So I just used some of the wife's compost, manure and tomato feed. It worked very well.
I found out that most of these cannabis specific nute lines were a rip off when I needed some Plant Magic Oldtimers Organic Magnesium. I read that you could use Epsom Salt with tomatoes and such for some extra magnesium. Imagine my surprise when I got a big bag of Epsom Salt from Home Bargains for £1 and I opened it and discovered all Plant Magic had been selling me was Epsom Salt in a fancy tub, with a fancy name and a cartoon character on the label, I will say it is a handy tub for keeping Epsom Salt in. 1KG for £1 or £6 for 300g, robbing bastards.
Before I was spending hundreds a year on fancy pants compost and fancy pants nutes, plus other stuff. Mycorrhiza, Great White from the Grow Shop, £12 for 28g or the same stuff in a bag from Amazon £15 for 1KG. The cannabis fertiliser industry is a complete racket.
I doubt I am spending more than £50 a year on grow consumables.
I would buy the Big Tom grow bags too, if i saw them for £1, but its only good if remove any lumps, add 20% sand etc.
I live up the road from B&M, there garden range is really good in the spring, often I find Gro-sure seeding and cutting compost in there,
think you get 2 bags for £5.00 (good quality compost)
I use it for my plants in veg, but do add perlite and sand etc.
PK 13/14 (500ml for £1) sounds good for a pound no question there, I have been using Westland Sulphate of Potash(0.0.49, top dress 1/2 tsp.
its very strong so I take it easy, but it keeps my plants happy, also add 1tbsp of westlands fish, blood and bone 3.9.3 (each 20ltr pot)
so adding the two together gives the plant a ratio of 3.9.12 npk, add this to a cup of sand(stops any hot spots burning the roots) before top dressing the plants, great for mid/late flower.
For my final pot, I do add chicken manure, its really good for late veg and early flower and its meant to last a few weeks, but its not great in mid/late flower as a top dress (NPK 4.5-3.5-2.5)
All the bottle nutes in the grow shop are a total rip off but they do work really well, so I can understand why growers buy them.
but as you are finding out, you can get the same results with cheap plant food.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
I always work any compost through my fingers to remove any lumps when I mix in the perlite
I am going to add you ideas to the notes I have been keeping. Mixing the FB&B and the Sulphate of Potash with sand is a brilliant idea, it makes so much sense. Thanks for the tip.
I have just discovered that the Wife also uses sharp sand with her Carrots. Do you think sharp sand would be an alternative to Perlite?
You are right about grow shop nutes working really well and I bought them for ages because that is what the people that helped me get into growing did and they are easy to use. But TBH I prefer to work things out by doing basic research and engaging with other growers on sites like this.
Thanks again.