First attempt - is this soil acceptable?

I've been doing a good deal of reading up to prepare for a very small first attempt. This site has been a great resource.

However, I am still a little confused by soils and nutrients. I originally picked up a fairly generic bag of soil. I have started 3 seedlings and I have a few more seeds germinating that I will start in the next day or two. Before I start these new seedlings, I want to make sure the soil I am using is acceptable.

I'm not sure exactly what to look for in an acceptable soil. This is indoor potting soil that is supposed to feed plants for up to 9 months. I'm assuming I will still need nutrients on top of this though or everyone would just be using this 9 month self feeding soil and there wouldn't be so much discussion of nutrients

The ingredients of the mix are peat moss, compost, perlite, a wetting agent and the plant food.

Let me know what other information I can provide about this soil to know whether it is an acceptable growing medium.

Sounds like miracle grow, dont put that shit anywhere near your babes. Just spend the xtra loot and get you some happy frog or fox farm ocean forest and you'll be way happier later, trust me

Thanks for the fast reply Shotty! People here are so helpful, must be our common interest

So its a bit too late for the first 3 seedlings, but not for the next 3! However, as this is a first attempt I want to keep it very small. As a result I'm not going to be ordering anything and will work with what I can find locally. If I head back to Home Depot, Wal Mart, etc what should I look for? A medium with no plant food in it so I can add nutrients manually?

SHOTTY6868 said:

Sounds like miracle grow, dont put that shit anywhere near your babes. Just spend the xtra loot and get you some happy frog or fox farm ocean forest and you'll be way happier later, trust me

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If MG is all he can get then it is a damn good choice. Everybody knocks it but I've smoked a lot of great bud grown in MG. The company makes a lot of different soils and some of them are junk but their premium potting mixes are great.

I would find my local hydroponics store, they will ahve the soil u need along with some low cost nutrients. Shit at walmart and places like that may work, but you could do so much better with just a few more dollars

MightyThumb said:

Thanks for the fast reply Shotty! People here are so helpful, must be our common interest

So its a bit too late for the first 3 seedlings, but not for the next 3! However, as this is a first attempt I want to keep it very small. As a result I'm not going to be ordering anything and will work with what I can find locally. If I head back to Home Depot, Wal Mart, etc what should I look for? A medium with no plant food in it so I can add nutrients manually?

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Soil should have nutrients in it. MG grow premium potting mix will feed your plants for three to five weeks without supplement depending on your lighting ect.

You want a light fluffy mix that holds water well.

mighty, hay from my personal growing miracle grows peatmoss all ready crumbled up and there perlite mixed together works fine. i dont add nutes until they get ther second set of true leaves, unless theres yellowing then mild root stimulator and nitrogen.

Hey thanks for the reply apprentice420. Your posts in one of the first beginner threads that lead me here gave me a lot of useful information.

What I am gathering is that the MG will/can work, but for max results there are better options. If this is the case I am ok with sticking with this soil for what is largely an educational grow. Ultimately I want to learn the process while deciding if I am interested in doing a more involved grow with this first try. if I get a little smoke out of the deal, that's icing on the cake.

MightyThumb said:

Hey thanks for the reply apprentice420. Your posts in one of the first beginner threads that lead me here gave me a lot of useful information.

What I am gathering is that the MG will/can work, but for max results there are better options. If this is the case I am ok with sticking with this soil for what is largely an educational grow. Ultimately I want to learn the process while deciding if I am interested in doing a more involved grow with this first try. if I get a little smoke out of the deal, that's icing on the cake.

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Max results!?? I've used FF and Happy Frog, both great soils. If you take care of your plants you will get "maximum" results.

This is a hijack at a week and a half in MG soil . . . . that is pretty solid growth for such a short period of time if you ask me.

Soil is a VERY important part but there are many other factors, often new growers us MG because it is easy to get. New growers also often fuck up and blame it on MG. I refuse to stay quiet now when the anti-miracle grow bandwagon starts up.

Sorry I was on a rant, pics might help.

ya mighty i would get my skills honed in before i spend 25 dollars a bag for soil. even in a small grow thats some money just on dirt. right now spend the money on better tooling your garden. then when u know what time it is spend that money and get it on.

im using seed starter from them ,im gunna transplant to all purpose potting soil prety soon since i got no good soil here.

Hey NG nice thread. I got a question for you: whats a good ppm for water to be at after pHing? My tap water is about 40-50ppm so its good to use, but 8.0 pH makes it so its up to 120-150 after I pH it.

Why are ph at 8 thats way to high im sure you now that. Is that ppm with or without nutes. I think 200 or less with out nutes is the highest you want.

dbo24242 said:

Hey NG nice thread. I got a question for you: whats a good ppm for water to be at after pHing? My tap water is about 40-50ppm so its good to use, but 8.0 pH makes it so its up to 120-150 after I pH it.

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Try adjusting the Ph of your water after you add the nutes. THe nutrients will usually drop the Ph quite a bit. My tap water is 100ppm and ph is 7, after i add nutes it usually drops it down to 6.3-6.5.

BTW- This is not my thread I've just been tired of hearing people knock MG over and over.

im in the same boat as you, this is my first grow mainly as an educational experience, and ive been using MG with great results.

NewGrowth said:

Try adjusting the Ph of your water after you add the nutes. THe nutrients will usually drop the Ph quite a bit. My tap water is 100ppm and ph is 7, after i add nutes it usually drops it down to 6.3-6.5.

BTW- This is not my thread I've just been tired of hearing people knock MG over and over.

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Oops sorry for jacking the thread, I posted that q in the wrong window when I did. Well if your tap water is fine at 7 and 100ppm I think mine is ok at 40ppm and 8.0.