Feeling Overwhelmed - Basic Nute Questions

Damn there's enough scattered information on soils and nutes in this place to really blow your mind and confuse your more than answer your questions lol.

What would happen if you grew a plant it's whole life without nutes, just in a dull soil? Would it die or just not yield worth a shit?

Also, is there soil that wouldn't require adding any nutes? Just water for life? I know it's far fetched but I'm lazy and don't want to shell out a ton of money on nutriants.

What is the most SIMPLE system for feeding them? Is there like one bottle I add during veg, and another I can add during flower and call it good? Or do I need to order a bunch of bottles of stuff?

I've been researching for over an hour now and I've just managed to confuse myself more than help myself

Where are the best places to buy the soil? Home Depot or Lowes or Ace or someplace?

Sorry for so many terrible newb questions but I've really overwhelmed myself. I currently have 3 plants about 2 weeks old in Miracle-Gro Moisture Control soil. I'm already seeing some browning tips and small brown spots on my leaves. I'm planning on replanting all of them into larger pots and new soil tomorrow and I'm not sure I want to stick with this soil anymore. Hence this post lol. Below is a pic of the info on the soil bag. It's very low in nutes since all of the nute numbers are all 0.something. See my sig for my CFL grow.

If you are experiencing burn in MG, you are watering too much. MG has time released water activated nutes. When you transplant add 1/3 inert perlite this will cut down on the nute content. If you can only find MG perlite, this too will have nutes in it. How much wter are you giving and how often? There are a lot of MG nay sayers here on RIU. But I don't have any issues with it. This plant is about 6 weeks from seed in MG potting soil with MG perlite. Best of luck

I've been keeping track on a calendar of when I'd watered. Once I filled it out I saw I've watered 3 times including the time when they were planted. Each watering has been 6 days apart. I read about not overwatering with MG so I've been really careful. I'm gonna take a pic of the burns here in a sec

I apologize in advance for the large pictures. Each pic is of a differtn plant and it's about all there is

How much water have you given when you watered?

Yea I know exactly where your coming from, there thousands of different forms of fertilizers made by all sorts of different manufactures for all sorts of purposes. When I first started growing I liked to keep it simple as possible and budget was a factor. You can walk down to any hardware or garden store and buy a simple container or water soluble all purpose fertilizer. It has the the same three numbers, something like 12-12-12 or 20-20-20. Its just a blue powder and you just mix so much per water. Start off with a low dose and see how the plants respond. Your soil probably has to much nutrients for little seedlings, they dont need any nutrients for the first 2-3 weeks of their life.

stonerman said:

Yea I know exactly where your coming from, there thousands of different forms of fertilizers made by all sorts of different manufactures for all sorts of purposes. When I first started growing I liked to keep it simple as possible and budget was a factor. You can walk down to any hardware or garden store and buy a simple container or water soluble all purpose fertilizer. It has the the same three numbers, something like 12-12-12 or 20-20-20. Its just a blue powder and you just mix so much per water. Start off with a low dose and see how the plants respond. Your soil probably has to much nutrients for little seedlings, they dont need any nutrients for the first 2-3 weeks of their life.

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With MG, no nutes are needed for several weeks. I will not add any nutes to my new girls until the 3rd watering in flowering.

yep... thats definitely MG moisture control for you...

you will get those spots due to an adversely hot soil...

water very very infrequently...

i might also add that you might want to just go ahead and rinse the soil off of the roots as well as possible and just take a high mix of perlite to well the soil you got if thats what you have to deal with :/

say 1/4 perlite to MG moisture control... also the soil will get super acidic due to the fact that it is moisture controled soil by having a ton of bark peat and other crap in it that will acidify the soil over time...

well... in a "hot" minute really...

so just transplant into the new substrate mix of the 1/4 perlite to mgmc soil that is FRESH... DO NOT ADD MORE WATER TO THE SOIL

the fresh soil right out of the bag should have plenty of nutes released and plenty of moisture for the roots to get their legs goin...

like said before water only when soil gets significantly lighter in weight... you'll be suprised how well that soil doesnt need to be watered and will stay moist for days...

now once the plant reaches maturity as in during flowering you will have HAD to flush extremely the soil extremely well... because this is where the "time release crap" will really screw things up for you...

and then you are more free to water when she looks thirsty and soil will dry out much faster due to her drinking up more as she gets thirstier latter on in the lifecycle

good luck and enjoy the grow...

bkbbudz said:

How much water have you given when you watered?

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I wait until the soil is good an dry, then I would pour a little bit of water in at a time until I can see some in the drip tray then stop. I've heard this is good practice with MG.

bkbbudz said:

With MG, no nutes are needed for several weeks. I will not add any nutes to my new girls until the 3rd watering in flowering.

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may not be okay to add that soon or may be better to wait till about a month and a half to 2 to start to add nutes... unless you hardly water with that soil then you might get away with it...

MG is HOT soil and will only continue to build up if not controlled with either dolomite lime as a pH buffer...

thats why most people dont use it because the soil is just not a good controllable substrate for growers...

as MG will have enough food in it for the plants entire cycle... it has actually an exorbitant amount of osmocote in it and would roughly feed for about 3 months... but highest peak concentration of nutes for mg soil will be roughly a month into it then slowly taper down each successive week...

ZipDriveX said:

I wait until the soil is good an dry, then I would pour a little bit of water in at a time until I can see some in the drip tray then stop. I've heard this is good practice with MG.

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Believe it or not that is too much. She is still a seedlingand in that soil she only needs maybe a 1/2 to a cup only as far as the roots go. If you moisten the entire pot until it is draining you are activating too much nute. Cut back on the amount of water and check her for moisture every 5 days or so as you have been doing. Best of luck!

you are going to have to closely watch your pH throughout your grow as well... another reason why MG is just really a pain in the arse...

those spots are classic MG and you may even end up getting some really f-ed up leaves that will look almost like they are "cauliflowering"...

that means you soil is 1.) too hot(concentration of nutes)... 2.) too acidic...

testing the run off is only one part of the equation as will NOT be indicative of what your "soil's" pH really is... so a good soil pH meter is essential

cannofbliss said:

may not be okay to add that soon or may be better to wait till about a month and a half to 2 to start to add nutes...

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I like to veg longer then most, a good 8 weeks. That gives me about 2-3 weeks before I will add nutes. And even then I only do 1/4 dose water, water, feed. But thanks for the good words!

So how about talking some nutes now that we've figured out I'm overwatering and am done using MG!

What's the most simple method and easy to find nutes for cheap?

Also what would happen to a plant with NO nutes out of curiosity?

A plant that is not fed will wither and die. There are many good flowering nutes available. You will want to find something with a lower N and a higher P and K value. For flowering. Whatever you get start small and adjust up until she is done. i.e. 1/4 dose, water, water, 1/4 dose, water, water, 1/2 dose, water, water...and so on.

If you are dead set against continuing with MG, I suggest Fox Farm soil. This grow I used MG becuse of the holidays I did not have the $26.00 it costs for a bag. But, if you can find it in your area, I have always used Happy Frog soil and the recipe for success nute system from Technaflora. I add inert perlite at a 3:1 ratio. I do not add any nutes for about 6 weeks. I transplant into the final pot at week 3, then I go another 3 weeks as the soil has enough nutes for those 6 weeks. Then I follow the nute recipe starting at 1/2 dose on the water, water, feed schedule. Never had any issues of any kind. No over feed, no under feed, mold, pests, no fungus. If you go to the Fox Farm web site you can find the retailer closest to you.

http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/

With NO nutes in lackluster soil ... the plant will grow a few sets, slow down and begin to yellow. It will then die badly.

Imo the best way to do what you want, Zip, is to start the plants in a milder soil (like Seed Starter if you like MG) and frequently repot, each time adding fresh "hot" soil to the periphery. The perlite is a splendid admixture, and I would also add dolomite lime to keep pH issues out of sight/mind. This way the only nutrient issues you might have will be toward the flowering part of the cycle, and high-P foods like good ol' 15-30-15 can be used then. cn

<edit> Took too long composing this post and got left behind. I have a lovely grow going in Fox Farm Happy Frog ... delightful soil imo and enough nutes to see me through veg. For repotting FF Ocean Forest is hotter and good for more mature (late veg, beginning flower) plants. At that point only a "bloom" food might be needed.

Use subcool's supersoil mix, and you won't have to worry about the silly nutes anymore. Organic baby.

Here is the way I figure it all...sometimes seedlings have some issues with your soil choice...all you can do is keep moving forward. I have continually been confused by nutes, and really have just now started to really get my head around it...but all ferts have 3 numbers 0-0-0, or N-P-K...during flower you want the first number to be the largest... as it is Nitrogen and necessary for healthy vegetative growth...during flower you want more K which is potassium...Nitrogen is super easy to OD on...so watch out...umm the middle number is for phosphorous which helps the most with root development...I got a box set of General Organics called the GO Box and I like it pretty well so far...Easy to figure out and what not...

bkbbudz said:

If you are dead set against continuing with MG, I suggest Fox Farm soil.http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/

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I'm not dead set on anything. I grew my last plant entirely with nothing but this soil and it didn't turn out TOO bad.