Home Depot nutrients - Do any of them work?

I'm heading down to Home Depot to get some bulbs, soil, Pots, etc. Looking at the Home Depot website, They seem to carry Miracle-Gro Plant Food, something called "Hydroponics Grow #1", and random small brands like that. I'm not looking for super advanced special order mixed Fox Farm nutrients or anything. Just something basic that might provide a little more yield. My question is, Am I wasting money buying general nutrients? Since I'm not getting specific types, Am I better off just not using any nutrients? Thanks in advance for any information.

get some earth juice its cheap at your local hydro store or online
foxfarms will put a hole in your pocket.

0011StealTH said:

get some earth juice its cheap at your local hydro store or online
foxfarms will put a hole in your pocket.

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I can't seem to find Earth Juice at Home Depot. Unfortunately I'm pretty restricted to where I go. Lowes is pretty far away and I don't know of any hydroponic stores. Here's a list of what Home Depot has.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Navigation?storeId=10051&categoryID=556251&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&cm_sp=garden_center-_-modal_overlayC-_-product7-_-plant_fertilizers&locStoreNum=3303

You'd be surprised at the places you can purchase plant fertilizers. Most chain grocery stores, pharmacys, hell even some flower shops.

MG products are pretty decent for general all purpose fertilizers. If I were you I would stick to the pre-mixed liquids so theres less of a chance of problems.

http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Garden-Center-Lawn-Plant-Care-Tropical-Indoor-Plant-Fertilizers/Miracle-Gro/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbx7fZ4b3/R-100096794/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Garden-Center-Lawn-Plant-Care-Tropical-Indoor-Plant-Fertilizers/Miracle-Gro/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbx7fZ4b3/R-100208259/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Remember to always start off with a weak mixture until you see what your plants tolerances are.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

...ever thought about growing with organics? HD should have: sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and dolomite lime ....add the peat moss,vermiculite,perlite in an even proportion(1/3,1/3,1/3) then add 2 tbls of lime per gallon of soil and mix well.....now you have a great growing texture for drainage and retaining moister while the lime helps to buffer pH.
...You can make a compost with grassclippings. (watch video)...after a few weeks of working your compost, you can make a compost tea to fertilize your ladies for free with the exceptions of molasses and the equipment needed for your tea brewing.


[youtube]a-JqApyMaP4&feature[/youtube]

trichome fiend said:

...ever thought about growing with organics? HD should have: sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and dolomite lime ....add the peat moss,vermiculite,perlite in an even proportion(1/3,1/3,1/3) then add 2 tbls of lime per gallon of soil and mix well.....now you have a great growing texture for drainage and retaining moister while the lime helps to buffer pH.
...You can make a compost with grassclippings. (watch video)...after a few weeks of working your compost, you can make a compost tea to fertilize your ladies for free with the exceptions of molasses and the equipment needed for your tea brewing.

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This poster is incorrect.
What is described here is a NON-SOIL mixture...unless you really know what you're doing, it would be best to stay with soil.

And using grass clippings might be fine for some plants, but not the best for mj.

Rj41 said:

This poster is incorrect.
What is described here is a NON-SOIL mixture...unless you really know what you're doing, it would be best to stay with soil.

And using grass clippings might be fine for some plants, but not the best for mj.

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I've heard this mix called a soilless mix, you are correct on that..... but take notes:
...this mix has a good CEC (cation exchange compacity [see below])....bacteria,fungi,protozoa and nematodes can live in it...go check the ingredients of your "soil" (mostly petemoss, I bet ya!)

This mix is all organic:

Pete mosss >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphagnum
Vermiculite >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermiculite
perlite >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlite


Cation exchange capacity

All tiny particles, not just humus, carry electrical charges. These particles are called ions. Ions with a positive (+)charge are called cations and negatively charged (-) ones, anions. Positively charged particles are electrically attached to negatively charged particles. This is exactly what happens when opposite ends of magnets attract eachother. When a positively changed cation attaches itself to a negatively charged anion, the cation is “absorbed” by the anion. Even microorganisms in the soil are small enough to carry and be influenced by electrical charges.

Sand particles are too large to carry electrical charges, but both clay and humus particles are small enough to have lots of negatively charged anions that attract positively charged cations. The cations that are absorbed by clay and humus include calcium (Ca++), potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), magnesium (Mg++),iron (Fe+), ammonium (NH4+), and hydrogen (H+). These are all major plant nutrients, and they are held in the soil by two components of good soil. The attraction of these cations to the clay and humus particles is so strong that when a solution containing them comes into contact, the attraction is satiatedand only about 1% of the cation nutrients remains in solution.

There are anions in soil as well. These include chloride (Cl-), nitrate (NO3-),sulfate (SO4-), and phosphate (PO4-) ----all plant nutrients. Unfortunately, soil anions are repelled bythe negative charge on clay and humus particles and therefore stay in solution instead of being absorbed. These plant nutrients are often missing from garden soils, as they are easily leached away in the soil solution when it rains or soil is watered: nothing is holding them on to soil surfaces.

Why does this matter? The surfaces of root hairs have their own electrical charges. When a root hair enters the soil, it can exchange its own cations for those attached to clay or humus particles and then absorb the cation nutrient involved. Roots use hydrogen cations (H+) as their exchange currency, giving up one hydrogen cation for every cation nutrient absorbed. This keeps the balance of charges equal. This is how plants “eat.”

The place where the exchange of a cation occurs is known as a cation exchange site, and the number of these exchange sites measures the capacity of the soil to hold nutrients, or the cation exchange capacity (CEC). A soil’s CEC is simply the sum of positively changed nutrient replacements that it can absorb per unit weight or volume. CEC is measured in milligram equivalents per 100 grams (meq/100g). What the gardener needs to know is that thehigher the CEC number, the more nutrients a soil can hold and therefore, thebetter it is for growing plants. Thehigher the CEC, the more fertile the soil. You can order a CEC test to be run by a professional soil lab.

The CEC of soil depends, in part, on its texture. Sand and silt have low CEC sbecause these particles are too big to be influenced by an electrical changeand hold nutrients. Clay and organic particles impart a high CEC to soils because they do carry lots of electrical charges: the more humus and, to a point, clay present in soils, the more nutrients can be stored in the soil, which is why gardeners seek more organics in their soils.

There are limits to a good thing. Don’t forget that clay particles are extremely small; too much clay and too little humus results in a high CEC but little air in the soil, because the pore space is too small and cut off by the clay’s platy structure. Such soil has good CEC alone; you have to know the soil texture and mixture.


On another note, grass clippings are fucking PERFECT for any annual !!! Most vegetables, annuals, and WEED prefer their nitrogen in nitrate form and do best in bacterially dominated soils.


....can you provide resources?
....do you even grow?????

Nightly1029 said:

I'm heading down to Home Depot to get some bulbs, soil, Pots, etc. Looking at the Home Depot website, They seem to carry Miracle-Gro Plant Food, something called "Hydroponics Grow #1", and random small brands like that. I'm not looking for super advanced special order mixed Fox Farm nutrients or anything. Just something basic that might provide a little more yield. My question is, Am I wasting money buying general nutrients? Since I'm not getting specific types, Am I better off just not using any nutrients? Thanks in advance for any information.

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Home Depot has bone meal, blood meal, dolomite lime, epsom salts, greensand, (in some areas), and those are great nutrients and cheap to boot. If ace Hardware is in your area, they have gypsum and EWC in bags. Some Ace stores carry the EWC, some do not. Same with kelp liquid. They also have B1 with trace metals at both of those stores and superthrive. Lowes and Home Depot and Ace carry Alaska Fish Emulsion. At Lowes they even have a different fish emulsion for flowering.

Readily available nutrients are readily available nutrients. MG is as good as any if you find the right mix. From what I understand they lack some micronutrients though so watch for that.

some of my first grows used general MG for veg and used the bloom MG during flowering.

The Espoma line is more than excellent. 100% organic.

Usually available at both HD and Lowes.

Wet

Nightly1029 said:

I'm heading down to Home Depot to get some bulbs, soil, Pots, etc. Looking at the Home Depot website, They seem to carry Miracle-Gro Plant Food, something called "Hydroponics Grow #1", and random small brands like that. I'm not looking for super advanced special order mixed Fox Farm nutrients or anything. Just something basic that might provide a little more yield. My question is, Am I wasting money buying general nutrients? Since I'm not getting specific types, Am I better off just not using any nutrients? Thanks in advance for any information.

Click to expand...

Espoma is great stuff. scotts reformulated miracle grow so its marijuana friendly and wont cause nute burn or lockout. Home depot carrys both