New Grower seeking soil advicd

What would you all consider a recipe for "non-hot" soil? All I have is FFOF but I'm willing to follow a recipe that would be better suited for the seedlings to go into. One thing I need to mention is I am planting auto-flowering strains. I keep seeing that it's best to just plant them in the pot they will go through the whole growth in. Is there a top layer soil mix that would be considered "not-so-hot" that I can put on top of my FFOF? Want to say thank you for all the tips up to this point. I'm learning from it and I appreciate you all taking the time to share it

Truthhurtsdummies1999 said:

What would you all consider a recipe for "non-hot" soil? All I have is FFOF but I'm willing to follow a recipe that would be better suited for the seedlings to go into. One thing I need to mention is I am planting auto-flowering strains. I keep seeing that it's best to just plant them in the pot they will go through the whole growth in. Is there a top layer soil mix that would be considered "not-so-hot" that I can put on top of my FFOF? Want to say thank you for all the tips up to this point. I'm learning from it and I appreciate you all taking the time to share it

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Better to use the FF as a soil conditioner than a medium to plant into. The layer thing won't work bc seedling roots will travel down pretty quick. Soon as they reach hot soil they show signs of burn. Start in a bland mix. Just straight potting soil with perlite. For drainage. Then up-pot when it's time into richer mix. Seedlings are so sensitive.

I skip all the transplanting and start my seeds in 1 gallon pots. That way I also skip past fast and faster and fo straight to fastest growth.

I have heard that starting on too big a pot is bad. Leeds to over watering and makes the plant focus on root mass rather then vegetative growth.

Transplanting just makes me nervous as all hell.. lol.. I keep hearing to keep the soil loose so the roots can get oxygen and all.. so when transplanting do you pack the soil at that time? I see these folks in the middle of their transplant and they are all holding what seems to be soil that is retaining the shape of the container they came out of (without much thinking you can tell the soil is packed somewhat tight to retain that shape). Am I just overthinking this or is there in fact a "correct" way to transplant from a smaller container to a larger one without harming the root system and overall plant's development?

All you do is fill a pot with soil and doont pack it. Pop an empty pot the size of the one your using in the middle at the top 3rd. Fill soil around. Lightly pack with your hands then pull out the empty pot and your ready to transplant. Water you darling and leave her be. The watering will compact your soil enough

Rollinituptoo said:

I have heard that starting on too big a pot is bad. Leeds to over watering and makes the plant focus on root mass rather then vegetative growth.

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Big pot, small pot, you tell when to water the same way. The only difference is that when putting a plant in a much bigger container you wait a lot longer between waterings at first. With seedlings you may want to slightly wet the top 1-2 inches for the first week or so. Google something like "shallow frequent waterings vs deep infrequent waterings". You should find something about how to develope root systems that's pretty much common knowledge with any vegetable, fruit or flower grower but next to no one knows about it in weed growing.

Yes, a plant with a disproportionate amount of space for the roots to develope will focus more on root growth at first. I've done side by sides indoors and out. The ones that are given a bigger root zone always out performed the others. Even if they start out the same size and the one in the bigger pot or bed is smaller at flowering they will almost always overtake the other through the stretch. Also, when a plants root system is impeded by the container growth slows. It happens way before actually being root bound.

Happened to my last crop the 5 gallon pots i had were a complete root mass after harvest. Plopped right out hard as rock almost hehe couldn't even stomp it apart with my steelies on

SchmoeJoe said:

It's not critical if you're planting ungerminated seeds. If they already germinated from a presoak than it really is. One of the reasons I prefer it for starting seeds is that by using the settling action of the water you get a very even and only slightly compressed soil which is perfect a newly sprouted seed.

No offense but going to the extreme of weighing each pot is something that goes into the "way over complicating it" category in my experience.

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It doesn't seem that complicated to me. Now hydroponics, drain to this and that, and all that shit seems complicated. I mean their plants look fucking awesome and grow fast as shit with tree trunks, but way too much work neccesary to get good at it. I'll stick with dirt and weighing my pots. When it's little and just in a cup, the weighing is easy and you probably have a scale right. It's actually a simpler tool than a hygrometer or a pH meter, and no one complains about those. Don't use your bud scale on pots though. Given how many people over water just like I didn't think I was but I was, I think we should just use our brains and stop talking nonsense methods like "just lift the pot man and see if it's heavy". Dats not very scientific

SchmoeJoe said:

I first started with Whitney Farms and Uncle Malcolm's Black Gold. I live in the town that roots is made in so I get much better prices on it. Otherwise I might still use it.

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Lucky

I've had good luck with a 2:1 ratio of Pro-Mix:Earthworm Castings as a base soil and the only thing bottled I use is calmag.

Calmag is a band-aid/duct tape for damn near anything systemic.

I top feed from there. Add only water for the life of the plant.

and, so if you want to put your seeds in wet soil, I would weigh the cup with dry dirt first, write it down, then wet the soil and then plant the seed. But for gods sake, I've planted pre soaked sprouts in a dry hole and watered it immediately after and there was no problem. It's a weed. And I'm worried if you wet the soil you're going to wet it too much, which is quite a bigger problem.

raggyb said:

It doesn't seem that complicated to me. Now hydroponics, drain to this and that, and all that shit seems complicated. I mean their plants look fucking awesome and grow fast as shit with tree trunks, but way too much work neccesary to get good at it. I'll stick with dirt and weighing my pots. When it's little and just in a cup, the weighing is easy and you probably have a scale right. It's actually a simpler tool than a hygrometer or a pH meter, and no one complains about those. Don't use your bud scale on pots though. Given how many people over water just like I didn't think I was but I was, I think we should just use our brains and stop talking nonsense methods like "just lift the pot man and see if it's heavy". Dats not very scientific

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My "bud scales" couldn't handle weighing 15 or 7 gallon pots and I'm not about to spend the time and effort on weighing the 24 7 gallon pots in one flowering room one day, 24 15's from the other room the next plus the dozens of 4" starter pots.

Once you've done it for a few cycles, it a couple of decades depending on your learning curve, you should be able to get familiar enough to go by feel. I don't know about you but after a point I can eye anything from a gram to an ounce within a tenth or two. You should be able to water plants without busting with a digital scale.

Prince Vegeta said:

Lucky

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The local stores started scaling back their 20% discounts but I have a friend who works there. Down To Earth is in the same town. I've been using their products on vegetable gardens since middle school.

Nectar of the Gods is from across the river. They just opened a retail store a few blocks down from my usual store but I haven't tried their products since they were under the name Oregons Only Organics. I think that's the company name now and they started Nectar as a brand name.

SchmoeJoe said:

My "bud scales" couldn't handle weighing 15 or 7 gallon pots and I'm not about to spend the time and effort on weighing the 24 7 gallon pots in one flowering room one day, 24 15's from the other room the next plus the dozens of 4" starter pots.

Once you've done it for a few cycles, it a couple of decades depending on your learning curve, you should be able to get familiar enough to go by feel. I don't know about you but after a point I can eye anything from a gram to an ounce within a tenth or two. You should be able to water plants without busting with a digital scale.

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Ok you're not reading what I said. I don't want you to do it. I want him to do it. And I said use a digital on a cup, I specifically said DO NOT use it on a pot. You can't even read.

raggyb said:

Ok you're not reading what I said. I don't want you to do it. I want him to do it. And I said use a digital on a cup, I specifically said DO NOT use it on a pot. You can't even read.

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I'm just pointing out how ridiculous the idea of having to weigh every pot is. Whether or not it's actually over complicating things will depend on whether or not you can water plants without needing to go the distance of weighing the pots before and after.

In short, it makes total sense for you to do it. It's a waste of time for 99% of the rest of us.

SchmoeJoe said:

The local stores started scaling back their 20% discounts but I have a friend who works there. Down To Earth is in the same town. I've been using their products on vegetable gardens since middle school.

Nectar of the Gods is from across the river. They just opened a retail store a few blocks down from my usual store but I haven't tried their products since they were under the name Oregons Only Organics. I think that's the company name now and they started Nectar as a brand name.

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I live in bourbon country all we bake is bourbon.
I'm sitting across from a bourbon barrel making plant as i type lol
WISH it was a soil town

Prince Vegeta said:

I live in bourbon country all we bake is bourbon.
I'm sitting across from a bourbon barrel making plant as i type lol
WISH it was a soil town

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All craft brews and weed here.

I was thinking about going to my local nursery this morning and getting these two items,(please see picture I am attaching with this post), mixing them together and starting the germinated seed with a pot full of the mix.

Truthhurtsdummies1999 said:

I was thinking about going to my local nursery this morning and getting these two items,(please see picture I am attaching with this post), mixing them together and starting the germinated seed with a pot full of the mix.

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You shouldn't need to add anything to a starter mix. Starter mixes should already have extra drainage so you shouldn't need the perlite.