thecannacove
Well-Known Member
Although this could be put in organic forum I thought it was probably a "newbie as hell" question. In fact, it's one I feel pretty stupid for asking. However I don't care much about ego lol.
So on with the question/background.
In my current grow I have two Holland's Hope, that although grew fantastic during veg, fizzled out in flower. All other plants have done fairly well throughout the grow, but not these two notoriously decent yielders..
However, I think I know why. All plants started in solo cups, they were transferred into #3 pots at about 3 weeks old. The pots had tga super soil on bottom 1/3, and regular tga organic for the top 2/3. They stayed in these pots for longer than I expected and became pot bound. (I didn't have needed equipment or space for flowering right away so they vegged for about 3 months).
When I transplanted to #5 pots for flower I did put some super soil (bottom 1/4 of pot). However, since the #3 pots I had were not AS narrow as the #5 it created an interesting challenge to prevent air gaps in soil. As a result, all plants likely have somewhat of an air gap between the super soil I put in the bottom of the new containers and their existing root mass.
Previously I thought the gap was the problem with the lack of vigor in my two HH plants, but now I think it may not be the problem itself but it may be causing the roots to not explore the new super soil. So the problem would be lack of bloom essential nutes caused BY the air gap. I came to this conclusion with the logic that these 2 plants had probably the best veg growth of the 11 plants i started with (now 9 since i threw 2 out). Which makes me believe they used most of what the original super soil had to offer them and now, the roots aren't migrating into the new super soil (hypothesis not fact).
But, one might ask why are just these two stunted and not all plants? Well the Hollands hope are two that had best veg growth like I mentioned, the G13 and ice plants (highest yielders currently) are smaller in stature and may not have used all of the nutrients from their original super soil.. s do they still have some "fuel in the tank" so to speak.
With that info in mind I made a hasty decision to buy some jacks classic bloom nutrients. In retrospect I'm pretty sure I should have made some organic teas instead of using synthetic fertilizers. Although I haven't caused any apparent damage (and I have actually started to see some improvement in rather limited time), I'm concerned/curious if others use syn. ferts in organic soils.. Seems kind of counter intuitive to me and I really feel kind of dumb for choosing what I did.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe it will hurt my girls, it just makes the formerly organic growing medium no longer organic...? Kinda like, might as well use a soiless mix in the future if I plan to use the jacks classic in next grow. Am I correct here?
Edit: I guess I should well.. point out the question(s) I'm seeking advice for since my post here turned into a novella, lol..
1) is my logic regarding the super soil being "used up" sound?
2) does using syn. fertilizers cause potential harm to the plants?
3) if I plan to continue to grow with the jacks classic, should I reevaluate the growing medium I choose?
So on with the question/background.
In my current grow I have two Holland's Hope, that although grew fantastic during veg, fizzled out in flower. All other plants have done fairly well throughout the grow, but not these two notoriously decent yielders..
However, I think I know why. All plants started in solo cups, they were transferred into #3 pots at about 3 weeks old. The pots had tga super soil on bottom 1/3, and regular tga organic for the top 2/3. They stayed in these pots for longer than I expected and became pot bound. (I didn't have needed equipment or space for flowering right away so they vegged for about 3 months).
When I transplanted to #5 pots for flower I did put some super soil (bottom 1/4 of pot). However, since the #3 pots I had were not AS narrow as the #5 it created an interesting challenge to prevent air gaps in soil. As a result, all plants likely have somewhat of an air gap between the super soil I put in the bottom of the new containers and their existing root mass.
Previously I thought the gap was the problem with the lack of vigor in my two HH plants, but now I think it may not be the problem itself but it may be causing the roots to not explore the new super soil. So the problem would be lack of bloom essential nutes caused BY the air gap. I came to this conclusion with the logic that these 2 plants had probably the best veg growth of the 11 plants i started with (now 9 since i threw 2 out). Which makes me believe they used most of what the original super soil had to offer them and now, the roots aren't migrating into the new super soil (hypothesis not fact).
But, one might ask why are just these two stunted and not all plants? Well the Hollands hope are two that had best veg growth like I mentioned, the G13 and ice plants (highest yielders currently) are smaller in stature and may not have used all of the nutrients from their original super soil.. s do they still have some "fuel in the tank" so to speak.
With that info in mind I made a hasty decision to buy some jacks classic bloom nutrients. In retrospect I'm pretty sure I should have made some organic teas instead of using synthetic fertilizers. Although I haven't caused any apparent damage (and I have actually started to see some improvement in rather limited time), I'm concerned/curious if others use syn. ferts in organic soils.. Seems kind of counter intuitive to me and I really feel kind of dumb for choosing what I did.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe it will hurt my girls, it just makes the formerly organic growing medium no longer organic...? Kinda like, might as well use a soiless mix in the future if I plan to use the jacks classic in next grow. Am I correct here?
Edit: I guess I should well.. point out the question(s) I'm seeking advice for since my post here turned into a novella, lol..
1) is my logic regarding the super soil being "used up" sound?
2) does using syn. fertilizers cause potential harm to the plants?
3) if I plan to continue to grow with the jacks classic, should I reevaluate the growing medium I choose?
I think what I was really conflicted about is synthetic fertilizers potential harm to the medium more than the plant itself. My post was long and in the end confusing to even myself. Nonetheless, it yielded great encouraging answers. Thank you everyone