You are pretty much righ on the dot right there. This thread is not just for me, its for the people who actually search and find this thread like people tell me to do. >.>
I have found a feeding schedule on the fox farms website and it says I should start out right from the git-go. But my soil has a bit of nutes in it. Using light warrior and ocean forest in a 1:2 ratio respectively. What I would like to know is if I should follow the feeding schedule as it says, or wait a few weeks before I start feeding.
Fox Farms soil has enough nutrients in it for the first 3-4 weeks. After that is when I begin feedings. What is printed on their websites may not be for any specific plant and just a generalized schedule. From what I've read and gathered marijuana needs only an NPK ratio of 3-1-2 during the vegging stage, 1-1-2 during flowering, and 0-1-2 during final flowering, then you flush. I read that somewhere, but I don't know how true it is. I am still doing research on it myself. Along with CalMag (lime). I don't go by any set schedule, and I am using the Fox Farm lineup of Grow Big, Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom. I am getting into organics and going to be fazing out the Fox Farms stuff. So there are really many Avenues & Alleyways to cross in the simple and easy nutrients. I will try to find comparable products you can use from Lowe's or Home Depot in the same manner as Fox Farms. So for simple and easy here we go...
Fox Farm's Big Bloom- mix into a gallon following the directions on the bottle. Water your plants as needed. It says it is safe enough to use every watering.
(Watering: when the top layer of soil is dry and you burrow down with your finger a bit and it's still dry and the plants still look good and are not droopy, that's when you water.)
This can be used in veg stage or in flowering stage. It has earthworm castings, bat guano and other high test organic ingredients that offer a full range of nutrients.
Norwegian kelp improves nutrient uptake and increases yields. Rock phosphate helps transfer energy from one part of the plant to another, which means bigger buds and more fragrant flowers.
Or so they say.
I don't really know anything on the market comparable to this, just mix up some kelp, seaweed, earthworm castings, bat guano and
rock phosphate in a gallon jug and you'll get this. I guess. Most of the Espoma line can be used for this.
Most all the ingredients are there,
Kelp Meal 1-0-2,
Rock Phosphate 0-3-0,
Garden Manure 4-2-2.
but I know some stores are seasonal on their fertilizers. It is easier to find them in say, March. Now nobody wants to do any outdoor
gardening, so they have no need to stock any of that stuff, just whatever they have left right now. It sucks.
Fox Farm's Grow Big- mix into a gallon following the directions on the bottle. Water your plants with the mixture every other watering.
If you see brown, crunchy bits on the ends of your leaves you have mixed it too strong. Give the affected plant a heavy flush of pure water to run off.
For use primarily in the vegging stage.
The cheap version of this you can buy in Lowe's or Home Depot or Wal-Mart would be,
Espoma Plant-tone 5-3-3 and
Bio-tone® Starter Plus 4-3-3.
Fox Farm's Tiger Bloom- mix into a gallon following the directions on the bottle. Water your plants with the mixture every other watering.
If you see brown, crunchy bits on the ends of your leaves you have mixed it too strong. Give the affected plant a heavy flush of pure water to run off.
Use Tiger Bloom at the first sign of flowering and into the last couple weeks of flowering. Last two weeks you should use pure water, no fertilizers at all.
The cheap version of this you can buy in Lowe's or Home Depot or Wal-Mart would be,
Espoma Garden Food 5-10-5
Some plants like a stronger batch, others like just a weak batch. The more you grow with the same strain the better you will get. What they need, when
they need it, BEFORE they need it, etc. So that's my simple and easy routine. It's like many out there, everybody gets different results.
Cheers.