What soil should I use?

Hey guys, this is my first grow, I've read up on everything I need to so that I feel confident enough to grow!

One thing I have yet to figure out though is what spoil composition I should use.

http://imgur.com/a/JQctA#LHErWC3

The above link is my grow setup, including the soil I intend to use. Any idea on what ratios I should mix them? Also, will that be fine? Is the NPK alright? I want to hear what you guys have to think.

Also, nutes; I have no idea what to do with nutes, and no idea what nutes I should be getting.


So you know, I'm going to be growing an Auto Northern Lights strain.

Thanks for the help guys!

Most growers advise against using miracle grow soil. Do a search on this site for "miracle grow" and you'll see what I mean. I, myself have been using Fox Farms Ocean Forest for some time now along with some added perlite and I am very impressed. Its more expensive than MG but why try to save a few bucks after the investment you have already made? Just my opinion but I know I'm not alone on that. In any event, good luck!

others advise TO use it, and have nice buds to prove. Its preference and what you can get your hands on I'd say but FFOF is reputably the best.

Don't like FF soils! To many bugs come out of it (not all the time, but to many for me) Needs to many things added to it and to much "bark and sticks" in it....

Potters Gold
Dr Earths POTting soil
Black Gold
Root's Organic's (several are good)
The MG Organic should be ok,,,you just want to avoid the "timed release" potting soils. I can't see the label's ingr. If there is NO dolomite lime or oyster shell listed in there - you WILL need to add some! 1 cup Dolomite lime per 1 cubic foot of the soil...

Or make your own
33% Canadian peat
33% Worm castings
33% Perlite
Get this mix DAMP and,,,,
Then you'll need.
1 cup lime (per cubic foot)
4 cups rock dust
Now make a nutrient amendment mix, like this-
2 cups kelp meal
1 cup crab meal
1 cup Alfalfa meal
1 cup dry organic fertilizer ( Dr. Earth "all purpose" or "tomato and vegetable blend" and Down to Earth "all purpose blend" or "tomato tone".) Mix this together and add 2 cups (per cubic foot) of the mix to the above mixture.
You now have to lets this sit for 3-4 weeks (keep damp) and viola! you now have a soil that contains what you need to grow - NO synthetics need be used to grow!

Or maybe do this one:
subs supersoil

Dr. Who said:

Don't like FF soils! To many bugs come out of it (not all the time, but to many for me) Needs to many things added to it and to much "bark and sticks" in it....

Potters Gold
Dr Earths POTting soil
Black Gold
Root's Organic's (several are good)
The MG Organic should be ok,,,you just want to avoid the "timed release" potting soils. I can't see the label's ingr. If there is NO dolomite lime or oyster shell listed in there - you WILL need to add some! 1 cup Dolomite lime per 1 cubic foot of the soil...

Or make your own
33% Canadian peat
33% Worm castings
33% Perlite
Get this mix DAMP and,,,,
Then you'll need.
1 cup lime (per cubic foot)
4 cups rock dust
Now make a nutrient amendment mix, like this-
2 cups kelp meal
1 cup crab meal
1 cup Alfalfa meal
1 cup dry organic fertilizer ( Dr. Earth "all purpose" or "tomato and vegetable blend" and Down to Earth "all purpose blend" or "tomato tone".) Mix this together and add 2 cups (per cubic foot) of the mix to the above mixture.
You now have to lets this sit for 3-4 weeks (keep damp) and viola! you now have a soil that contains what you need to grow - NO synthetics need be used to grow!

Or maybe do this one:
subs supersoil

Click to expand...

I think a beginner (like myself and the OP) are better off with FF or MG. There are other organic soils out there like Espoma. No need to complicate things on the first grow. Get a grow under your belt and advance from there.

I'm confused, from the pics it looks like you already have MG Organic Choice. Not sure why that wouldn't work. It's a little lighter on the nutes than regular MG potting mix and plenty of people have grown well in regular MG. Just be careful when adding nutes, and you can maybe wait a little longer to do so.

I hate guesswork so I use Fox Farm Ocean Forest and Perlite. Easy peasy.

Hey, just noticed your MG perlite also has nutes. If you want to change anything, I would change the perlite.

MG organic is good soil. Just remove the big pieces or bark from within the bag. The roots tend to hit these big pieces of bark and stunt it's development. Not much but it does. Everything looks good. Glad to see someone doing the space bucket idea!
Cut that MG organic soil with roughly %30 of perlite. you won't REALLY need nutes until roughly the last few weeks of flowering. By then the leafs should be yellowing and you should be near harvest time anyways...

TIP. Get some plain soil or something without nutes for the seedling. After about 1-2 weeks transplant it into the space bucket with MG organic soil. The MG soil is probably too "hot" for seedlings and will cause burns

Dr. Who said:

Don't like FF soils! To many bugs come out of it (not all the time, but to many for me) Needs to many things added to it and to much "bark and sticks" in it....

Potters Gold
Dr Earths POTting soil
Black Gold
Root's Organic's (several are good)
The MG Organic should be ok,,,you just want to avoid the "timed release" potting soils. I can't see the label's ingr. If there is NO dolomite lime or oyster shell listed in there - you WILL need to add some! 1 cup Dolomite lime per 1 cubic foot of the soil...

Or make your own
33% Canadian peat
33% Worm castings
33% Perlite
Get this mix DAMP and,,,,
Then you'll need.
1 cup lime (per cubic foot)
4 cups rock dust
Now make a nutrient amendment mix, like this-
2 cups kelp meal
1 cup crab meal
1 cup Alfalfa meal
1 cup dry organic fertilizer ( Dr. Earth "all purpose" or "tomato and vegetable blend" and Down to Earth "all purpose blend" or "tomato tone".) Mix this together and add 2 cups (per cubic foot) of the mix to the above mixture.
You now have to lets this sit for 3-4 weeks (keep damp) and viola! you now have a soil that contains what you need to grow - NO synthetics need be used to grow!

Or maybe do this one:
subs supersoil

Click to expand...

LOL Dr. Who
You say theres "too much to add" to FF soil but look at the grocery list you have with your concoction! I never add anything to FFOF for the first 4 or 5 weeks and things are fine...to each his own I suppose

Thanks for the help guys! One of you guys said the Dolomite Lime is a MUST, is this true? I've really hit the cap on my budget, so I'd like to avoid spending any more. I'm not looking to grow the best bud, I'm just looking to grow some in general xP I jsut wanted to know if what I had was mediocre, and sufficient enough to get the job done!

One of you also said that I should start of with some regular soil for the first two weeks of the seedling, otherwise the plant might burn. This is a good point, so I was wondering if maybe I could (I know his sounds crazy) but just dig up some soil from my backyard . It's winter, so I don't know if that's a good idea or not, but if its viable, then I'll do it. Other wise, do you think I could safely risk it?

As far as nutes go, do you have any actual suggestions on the nutes? I'm really absoloutley clueless when it comes to the nutes, except that I should gradually work my way up on using them.

Thanks so much for all the help guys, I'm loving it!

Klimmit said:

Thanks for the help guys! One of you guys said the Dolomite Lime is a MUST, is this true? I've really hit the cap on my budget, so I'd like to avoid spending any more. I'm not looking to grow the best bud, I'm just looking to grow some in general xP I jsut wanted to know if what I had was mediocre, and sufficient enough to get the job done!

One of you also said that I should start of with some regular soil for the first two weeks of the seedling, otherwise the plant might burn. This is a good point, so I was wondering if maybe I could (I know his sounds crazy) but just dig up some soil from my backyard . It's winter, so I don't know if that's a good idea or not, but if its viable, then I'll do it. Other wise, do you think I could safely risk it?

As far as nutes go, do you have any actual suggestions on the nutes? I'm really absoloutley clueless when it comes to the nutes, except that I should gradually work my way up on using them.

Thanks so much for all the help guys, I'm loving it!

Click to expand...

Soil from the back yard is fine. The grounds frozen where I am so I'd TRY to get a decent amount and bring it to warmer temps to defrost it for about 48 hours and use that for the seedlings.

There is not much to fertilizing your plant... since you will be using MG soil with those green nute balls in it, i'd hold off on even thinking about giving it some nutes until you start to see some deficiencies.. Which, could never happen. I have never grown a Auto before so I can't comment on it's fertilizer needs. But, when you come upon that fork in the road i'd get some jobe's fertilizer with myco in it. So that way in the future if you want to grow anything outside just apply it as per direction on the back/side and you will grow NICE veggies/fruits. They have some near me at home depot/lowes. They have a limited selection during winter but maybe you will get lucky! Stay away from the frozen liquid fertilizer... I prefer granules over liquid as it's time release and I feel it evenly feeds the soil over time ... I could be wrong though.

Jobes at home depot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Jobe-s-8-lb-Organic-Heirloom-Tomato-and-Vegetable-Plant-Food-09028/202737659


you could even check you local nursery.. They might have more then what you need at a good price too!

WDIK said:

Hey, just noticed your MG perlite also has nutes. If you want to change anything, I would change the perlite.

Click to expand...

Everything Miracle Grow sells has fertilizer in it, soil, perlite, peat moss, etc. Scotts is a fertilizer manufacturer so they find a way to sneak it in everywhere. There's not enough in the perlite or moss to matter much, IMO.

I love Roots Organic myself. I've had good success with Gardeners Gold from Coast of Maine as well. Check your local nursery or if there are any organic farms within a drive they may sell soil and or compost as well. Watch out for MG's perlite as it has nutes on it too. You can grow in MG, people do it all the time. No matter what your choice is just pay attention but remember it's a process that can't really be rushed. I've had zero bug issues with Roots as opposed to when I used FFOF or MG in my beginnings of doing this solo.

Good Luck and Happy Growing.

Do you guys let your soil "cook" for a month before planting?

ReadySTL said:

Do you guys let your soil "cook" for a month before planting?

Click to expand...

If it's home made yeah. Have yet to do so. Don't see the reason to do so with bag'd soil but I could be missing something.

ReadySTL said:

Do you guys let your soil "cook" for a month before planting?

Click to expand...

What do you mean by cook?

I need a bit of help understanding soil and pH. I am primarely a hydro grower and have some understanding of how pH works, but soil seems a bit mor complicated to me. I don't ive in the US so I don't have any of your soil mixes available. I also don't have access to dolomite lime (no one has even heard of that in any of our garden centers). Most od the soil mixes we have available have pH of 5-6 or 5,5 to 6,5 at best. Could I get away with just using 5,5 to 6,5 soil and watering it with pH 6,5 water?

Hey man,just to say,I mixed my soil with hydroton after getting a bit mixed up when given advice but its worked really well.Heres my first grow,a 50 day old auto,Im sure youll agree its looking good!
I got mg soil that was "expanding",and due to not reading the label I duly killed four seedlings;I dont know for sure but I think the soil was too compressed,so just make sure you break your soil down and water it well and test it before starting your grow.
Best of luck mate

In soil PH doesn't matter unless it's greatly off the 6.5 mark..

First time I used this: Organic bagged + Mushroom Compost + Perlite at equal ratios and supplemented with Roots Organics Budha Grow Bloom. Had to feed every two waterings.





Now I use Roots Organics Original Potting Soil 1.5 cu. ft. per plant. Ingredients: Coco fiber, peat moss, perlite, pumice, premium worm castings, bat guano, kelp, fish bone meal, soy bean meal, feather meal, greensand, leonardite and alfalfa meal.



I cook the soil a month or two before use. "Cook" means putting it into a container with water or nute tea and letting the microbes get busy. Good drainage too. No other feeding is required to harvest.





Here is the difference. Notice the yellowing and fade of the plants using bloom foods. AK47 and Pineapple Exp



Now look at these plants, green to harvest and never feed any food. Just what is in the soil.





5 week flower frostiness



Lot a ways you can grow plants with soil. I like my method. It's easy as it gets, organic, and the plants are happy.