Please expert soil growers only!!!

[Roullette]

I'm getting so fed up with this soil . I've done hydro and have been successfull. I'm looking for a less maintainable grow. So I figured soil is the way to go. I've been listening to a close buddy of mine with success with a few soil grows.

Here's the problem. It's 100% ph issue I'm not a noobie grower. My friend told me to use miracle grow moister controll. He had a great grow with it so I used the same. I started getting nute burn after 2-3 weeks in veg. I checked the run off and it was at 4.0 or lower with tap water of 8.0 going in.

I flushed several days with 6.0 ro water still getting 4.0 or lower run off.
Then I trans planted them with organic top soil, commercial grade perlite, organic lobster & peat humus compost, organic cow manure, worm castings, and coca coir.

Now Im getting a run off of 7.5+ and have been flushig with 6.0 ph ro water.

I'm beside myself I can't figure this out. I'm using top quality seeds and I'm getting very discouraged. Please, can a expert soil grower help me make the ultimate soil mixure and what am I doing wrong??

 

[buraka415]

I've never used MG products for soil. I had a friend who said you could, but I think if you poked around on RIU, you'd find it's frowned upon b/c of the lack of things it possesses when compared to other mixes, such as FoxFarm, FlowerPower, RootsOrganics, etc.

Also, a few soil grows, I mean, what was his yield, was it REALLY good? My point is, our girls are WEEDS.. they can take a LOT of abuse. dig? it does take time to get a new method dialed in. You went from hydro to soil, it may not necessarily be seamless. I just switched from soil actually, over to pure 100% coco. LOVING IT

What kind of nutes are you using? to what strength? how often were you feeding?

Pics?

I think a big concern on the PH should be the focus of what's going in vs what's coming out. I dunno. do some searching on that one to double check. The new mix you use sounds OK. i havent done any research on the NPK and release times for cow manure, and worm castings, and the other stuff you mentioned.

 

[darkdestruction420]

The miracle grow soil is the problem. The moisture control is the worst of them all pretty much, I would never ever consider using it again. I get bored easy and like to experiment so I've tried it just to see how it goes with it and lots of other soils and that stuff is total garbage, I threw the rest of the bag away. My experiment plant had all the same problems you had/have. Get yourself some fox farm happy frog or ocean forest if your serious about growing. Mix it with 25% pearlite. (so your medium is 75% soil and 25% pearlite.) Your not doing anything wrong other than following bad advice from your friend. That miracle grow moisture control is still fucking up your ph and all that with all its time released nutes and etc.

 

[the fall guy]

if you can get hold of the canna range of soil growing products then you should, there "canna profetional soil" has all the perlite, compost etc at the correct ratios, im sure theres a load of good soils out there but ive only used them as it comes at a 5.5 ph to start with, and if youre not growing organically there nutrients and additives range for "terra" means that it is easy to mix a tank of feed up keep it heated and airated for a week or so, if youre feed is kept at 5.9 ph all the time then the soil should maintain close to that ph aswell, so break out the ph meter and ec truncheon, age youre water or use RO water bassically do the same as you would have previously with hydro but raise the ph a little for soil, i,e if you were setting a 5.5 ph in youre hydro tanks you will need to raise that to between 5.9 to 6.3 for soil and also reduce ec levels in comparison to hydro, steer clear of miracle grow for any stage .
It does sound like nearly as much hastle as hydro but once the tank of feed is mixed up, BINGO easy life,.....as far as growing organically goes, ive no idea there are organic nutes that are ec testible and all but apparently no where near as acurate, hope this helps, cheeers

 

[jimbizzzale67123]

Fox Farm Ocean Forest is what u need my friend.

Miracle Grow and Marijuana are like Oil and Water.

 

[buraka415]

yeh the FF Ocean Forest is good stuff. I have actually used that quite a bit, and really like it. The last time I did soil though, the local store was out of FFOF, so I got the Happy Frog.. I think that stuff is WAY too compacty and solid. I had some left over this time, and ran out of the coco i was using, so for a test control, I put a few girls into a perlite/FFhappy Frog mix -- my same opinion holds true - the FFHF just seems too solid for good root growth. I put quite a bit of perlite in there too. at least 25%. I'm sure some will argue with me saying FFHF is the bomb[d0t]com but IMO I just dont like the way I see the soil getting.

That said, the coco is KICKING the soil's ass.

 

[darkdestruction420]

Lol, I guess I'm the guy you were talking bout. well, except i dont llike to argue. I've had good results with happy frog/25-35% pearlite myself, but ive heard bad things about it on occasion too. This is my opinion, not saying that anyone else's opinion is not a valid one or anything.

 

[StonedBlownSkiller]

I am no expert but I am curious now that the MG was mentioned. My soil mix was Basic potting soil but I mixed 1/3 soil, 1/3 perlite, and 1/3 sphagnum peat. the perlite and peat are both MG products and say "enriched with MG plant food". Is this no good too. My one plant is 6" and keeps falling all the way over sometimes when the light comes on after 5 hour nap. any ideas? Its my first and Im pretty much going by the book here as far as I know. my source grew dro for 20 years but hes helping me grow soil. I have a 400w MH i got for 50 bux, bulb for 30 but other than that Ive spent no money other than soil and all plus two sylvania sun stix.

 

[Roullette]

The miracle grow soil is the problem. The moisture control is the worst of them all pretty much, I would never ever consider using it again. I get bored easy and like to experiment so I've tried it just to see how it goes with it and lots of other soils and that stuff is total garbage, I threw the rest of the bag away. My experiment plant had all the same problems you had/have. Get yourself some fox farm happy frog or ocean forest if your serious about growing. Mix it with 25% pearlite. (so your medium is 75% soil and 25% pearlite.) Your not doing anything wrong other than following bad advice from your friend. That miracle grow moisture control is still fucking up your ph and all that with all its time released nutes and etc.

ok heres the other thing i started a C99 in the new mix i made. the runn off is like 6.0-6.8 and im using 6.0 ro water. looks like the lower 1st set of starter leaves (shreaded) are starting to turn yellow. like the pigment of the whole leaf is changing not like its getting sick from ph issues. im going to kill all of these and start fresh i think. thanks for the tips guys any other advise would be great

 

[Roullette]

oh im using a 4 rail 54 hid floros and have 4 65K cfls on for 24 hrs.. if the 24 hr thing is an issue please let me know.

 

[buraka415]

Lol, I guess I'm the guy you were talking bout. well, except i dont llike to argue. I've had good results with happy frog/25-35% pearlite myself, but ive heard bad things about it on occasion too. This is my opinion, not saying that anyone else's opinion is not a valid one or anything.

I didnt really mean "argue argue" haha. I've just noticed that with FFHF alone, and even mixed with perlite, it just seems so compact. I like FFOF better, if I had to choose. Probably even doing a FFLW mixed with FFHF + perlite wouldn't be so bad?