Switching from synthetic to organic during flower

I am wondering about switching from synthetic to organic nutes halfway through flower, in order to create an "organic" product. Theory being that the synthetic ferts would be used up and assimilated early and given the last month or so of flower would be organic, would there be any detectable difference between plants grown in this way and those grown strictly organically?

I know the purists here would not agree, but I am more a realist than an idealist. I am much more organically oriented, but have switched to trying synthetics in order to rectify production issues. I would be much happier to be able to call my product organic though.

Anybody studied this?

It's a really up and down situation.

Your feed feeding synthetic at the moment, I guess it soil ?

Maybe like transplant in a bigger pot add some organic root powder, and see how that goes. It's maybe that you have destroyed or the beneficial bacteria in the soil already mate!

Add some beneficial things to the soil like alpha meal and fish mix to condition the soil. Also before you start in the same pot, use a flush agent to remove all chemical build up in the soil, try it in one plant and see how that goes.

If you want to start fully organic try to avoid bottles pesticides and try to introduce beneficial insects.


was it worth it !!!!

I don't think it will work for you. From what I have seen in organics it takes time for the organics to start working. What I mean by this is, organic gardening is like building a whole food chain in your soil. You can't just feed it teas and expect it to start working. It takes about a month to get the soil built up to start giving your plants what they need. Synthetic is an instant food for your plants. I don't know what the Nutes you have been using in your soil have done to it or how it will effect the microbes you will be trying to grow in your soil. If I were you I would stay synthetic at this point and flush your soil 2 weeks before harvest.

not any good idea. The beneficial bacteria takes a some weeks to fully develope. I go the other way when i grow. I start with nothing more than good soil add dolomite, ph water and molasses. They grow very good to around 6 week in VEG then switch to synthetic. ( sorry for going of topic) / Flodas

spiritmedicine said:

I am wondering about switching from synthetic to organic nutes halfway through flower, in order to create an "organic" product. Theory being that the synthetic ferts would be used up and assimilated early and given the last month or so of flower would be organic, would there be any detectable difference between plants grown in this way and those grown strictly organically?

I know the purists here would not agree, but I am more a realist than an idealist. I am much more organically oriented, but have switched to trying synthetics in order to rectify production issues. I would be much happier to be able to call my product organic though.

Anybody studied this?

Click to expand...

Your right, a purist would say your fooling your self and so would my government lol. I have organic certified feilds and if even the overspray from non organic source landed on them they would be uncertified. There are lots of "organic" nutrients that are relatively fast acting so yup, if you want to switch and call it organic then have at'er but don't tell customers (if you have any) that it is, you would be lying .

use a hybrid fert like urban farms vegetable and garden of Eden, they use synth and organic ingredients in combination

spiritmedicine said:

I am wondering about switching from synthetic to organic nutes halfway through flower, in order to create an "organic" product. Theory being that the synthetic ferts would be used up and assimilated early and given the last month or so of flower would be organic, would there be any detectable difference between plants grown in this way and those grown strictly organically?

I know the purists here would not agree, but I am more a realist than an idealist. I am much more organically oriented, but have switched to trying synthetics in order to rectify production issues. I would be much happier to be able to call my product organic though.

Anybody studied this?

Click to expand...

I think this is the funnest noob thread I read on RIU yet

keep it up

maybe thrump jnr reads this too..?

spiritmedicine said:

I am wondering about switching from synthetic to organic nutes halfway through flower, in order to create an "organic" product. Theory being that the synthetic ferts would be used up and assimilated early and given the last month or so of flower would be organic, would there be any detectable difference between plants grown in this way and those grown strictly organically?

I know the purists here would not agree, but I am more a realist than an idealist. I am much more organically oriented, but have switched to trying synthetics in order to rectify production issues. I would be much happier to be able to call my product organic though.

Anybody studied this?

Click to expand...

I've seen a lot of evidence to say some microbe activity can still survive in synthetic previous or ongoing environments but you likely won't be able to build up the microbe web in time to see a big benefit. A lot of people were growing ''organically'' with no attention payed to microbes and while some had success, possibly getting lucky on the microbe front, others had bad results, possibly getting unlucky/anaerobic.

You could try compost teas to add microbes+nutrients, I suppose those would be your only worth while choice right now. I think the issue may be that if you start using liquid organics with no microbe web you may just offer up free food for troublesome microbe/critters. You may already have some of those in the medium as is, as they seem more able to survive in more adverse conditions, in contrast to beneficial/synthetics.