Official Gaia Green Grow Method

GiovanniJones

Well-Known Member
Hey all,

I think that this is an important topic and I haven't seen a thread that's really dedicated to this.
Whether you use Gaia Green or another similar brand (like Dr. Earth), it would be great to have a place we can consolidate our process info.

I'll start here. Throw darts at it and let's come up with a process that can work well in most cases.

Germinating and Veg:

  • Mix your starting soil with Gaia Green All-Purpose Fertilizer 4-4-4 (or similar) according to the package directions.
  • Use this in your red solo cups and in your one-gallon pots.
  • After three weeks in one-gallon pots, top-dress with a tablespoon of 4-4-4. At this point the plants are around 5-6 weeks old.
  • A week later, up-pot to your desired pot size with soil that has been amended with 4-4-4.
Flower:
  • A week after transplanting to larger pots, top-dress 1 TBSP per gallon of soil. At this point in time, use half 4-4-4 and half 2-8-4 Power Bloom.
  • Every three weeks, top-dress at 1 TBSP per gallon of 2-8-4 Power Bloom only.
There it is, a starting point to throw darts at. If we can come up with a great process as a community, even if it takes a while, I'll retype it as a set of instructions to guide growers with this method of growing. Is this a good idea for us to do?
 

stonerlibrarian

Active Member
I'm a newbie but I'm using gaia green for autoflowers with promix hp mixed with extra perlite and and 20% worm castings and some dolomite lime. I mixed 2 tablespoons of 4-4-4 per gallon and germinated directly into my final 3 gallon pots so i don't accidentally transplant shock and stunt the autoflowers. At 4 weeks I do 1.5 tbsp per gallon of 50/50 444/284

I'm at 4 weeks now in my 2x4 tent with 4 autoflowers and they are just starting to stretch and i'm about to top dress 50/50 of all purpose and bloom tomorrow. Every two weeks I've been doing a earthworm casting and kelp meal tea steeped in water from my rain barrel for 24-48 hours (more determined by my schedule than any reason to let it steep). 2 of my autoflowers are fast flowering and this is their last feeding for the other 2 xxl strains I will give them another tea in 2 weeks and another feeding in 3ish weeks with 1 tblsp per gallon of 284 bloom.

I sort of mixed and matched this method from mr canuks grow on youtube, and a blog called marijauanamama420 http://www.marijuanamama420.ca/my-nutrient-schedule/ and my own experience using pro mix to grow fruit and veggies in my garden.
 
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Zephyrs

Well-Known Member
Well, what if ya live in the U.S.? Gaia Green line seems difficult to obtain here. I have seen many Killer grows wi it up North. But in the state's, basically roots organics uprising line is about as close to gaia, dry nute wise I mean.
 

stonerlibrarian

Active Member
Earth dust isn't the same company and it isn't the same stuff. It has a different NPK ratio.

Gaia Green is a division of Greenstar so it is the same company as: Grotek, U-Cann, Earth Safe, and Supergreen.

From what I've seen Dr Earth is quite similar they have a 4-4-4 and a 3-9-4
 

FRICKITYFRICKTYFRESH

Well-Known Member
Earth dust isn't the same company and it isn't the same stuff. It has a different NPK ratio.

Gaia Green is a division of Greenstar so it is the same company as: Grotek, U-Cann, Earth Safe, and Supergreen.

From what I've seen Dr Earth is quite similar they have a 4-4-4 and a 3-9-4
Hmm, well, I've been using Earth dust and have been extremely happy with the results. huge frosty organic nugs.
 

Relic79

Well-Known Member
I have a 4x8 area with 3 plants on the full line up of Future Harvest nutrients, and 4 plants in Gaia Green. The Gaia Green plants are keeping up with, or in some cases are doing better than the synthetic plants. This is just barely anecdotal evidence as this is my first grow in a very long time so skill and knowledge should be considered.

I didn't think the Gaia in coco would/should work due to the coco being an inert medium. I was told it shouldn't work, I understood why, but my father mixed Gaia with coco after seeing it done on youtube, and I saw first hand through him that it did in fact seem to work well with such minimal effort and ingredients.

Using Botanicare Coco-Gro prewashed/preloaded coco mixed with perlite 70/30, I mixed the all purpose 4-4-4 at 4tbsp/gal and diatomaceous earth at about 8tbsp/gal (which I later learned doesn't do what I think it does in that way when wet, but can be a source of silica?). I pre-watered and mixed this for about 2 weeks as I read it takes a couple weeks to start to break down and become available to the plants.

While that was going on, I had already started the seeds in plain coco, and when it was ready I transplanted them up from clear plastic cups inside solo cups to 1gal pots with the all purpose coco. I dusted the roots with Myco Jordan mycorrhizal inoculant and have been watering with tap water. I transplanted up to 3gal pots with the same all purpose soil.

While vegging these under a 600watt mh lamp, I premixed power bloom 2-8-4 in the same way as the 4-4-4 above, I then lined 7gal pots with this soil, and transplanted the 3gal plants into these a week before I flipped to flower.

From my notes, it looks like I've top dressed twice since the transplant with 2-8-4 at 2tbsp per gal. Once around end of week 2, and once at beginning of week 5.

One of the heavier feeding plants I have seemed to be showing some Cal-Mag issues (but I also am very poor at diagnosing problems), so I watered in some Organical (Future Harvest OMRI certified). I'm Mid-Week 7 now and am still very happy with what I am seeing!

I don't know if pre-watering the mix had any benefit, or if the Myco Jordan's even worked since I only used it twice during transplants, of if microbial life just forms because life grows everywhere, but something is getting the food into these plants even without an living medium.

I am considering for my next round:

- Plain 70/30 coco with Happy Frog for seedlings.
- Plain 70/30 coco with FFOF or Gaia's Living Soil for early veg.
- Premixed Gaia 4-4-4 coco with FFOF or Gaia living soil for late veg transplants.
- Premixed Gaia 2-8-4 coco with FFOF or Gaia living soil for flower.
- Top dressing with Gaia as needed.
- Blumats with pressure reducer and city tap water. (My tap water comes out at 6.8 to 7.0 and has very low PPM. Chlorine is used here as well but also very low).

Thanks!
 

GreenHighlander

Well-Known Member
I have been using Gaia Green products for a number of years now and have been so happy with the results I will never consider anything else.
I have also compared between the organic and non organic https://www.pthorticulture.com/en/products/pro-mix-hp-mycorrhizae/ . I prefer the non organic .

I use just the pro mix hp for seedlings and sometimes add some EWC , but usually just the pro mix. I transplant into the pro mix HP with the added Gaia Green products just before , or just as the feeder leaves start to yellow.
I use the same mix for ALL new strains and tweek for individual strains once I get to know them and their needs better.

To each 7 gal of Pro mix HP I add the following.

2 cups of EWC
1/3 cup of Fishbone meal
1/3 cup of power bloom+
1/4 cup of Alfalfa meal
1/3 cup of crushed oyster shells

I water the 7gal with Blackstrap at 1tbs per gallon before planting in it. I also water with the same rate of blackstrap molasses at flipping to flower and again around week 4-5 .

The costs compared to running bottles , especially AN is ridiculously low and the finished product is not even comparable. The key to keeping the costs down is buying in the largest size bags available which are 20KG .

I cannot recommend Gaia Green products enough to people. Really great quality stuff that doesn't break the bank.

Cheers :)
 

Dontjudgeme

Well-Known Member
Hey all,

I think that this is an important topic and I haven't seen a thread that's really dedicated to this.
Whether you use Gaia Green or another similar brand (like Dr. Earth), it would be great to have a place we can consolidate our process info.

I'll start here. Throw darts at it and let's come up with a process that can work well in most cases.

Germinating and Veg:

  • Mix your starting soil with Gaia Green All-Purpose Fertilizer 4-4-4 (or similar) according to the package directions.
  • Use this in your red solo cups and in your one-gallon pots.
  • After three weeks in one-gallon pots, top-dress with a tablespoon of 4-4-4. At this point the plants are around 5-6 weeks old.
  • A week later, up-pot to your desired pot size with soil that has been amended with 4-4-4.
Flower:
  • A week after transplanting to larger pots, top-dress 1 TBSP per gallon of soil. At this point in time, use half 4-4-4 and half 2-8-4 Power Bloom.
  • Every three weeks, top-dress at 1 TBSP per gallon of 2-8-4 Power Bloom only.
There it is, a starting point to throw darts at. If we can come up with a great process as a community, even if it takes a while, I'll retype it as a set of instructions to guide growers with this method of growing. Is this a good idea for us to do?
This is exactly what I do with roots organics “ grow “ and “ bloom “. I do however feed kelp and guano during flowering to boost my P and K. But pretty straight forward.
 

Dontjudgeme

Well-Known Member
Some people will top-dress at 1 TBSP per gallon each month. Maybe 1/4 TBSP per gallon each week is more consistent. What do you guys think of one versus the other?
I never actually thought about doing that, pretty much the same concept as a monthly feeding. Takes time for the amendments to break down and become available for the plant to use, so a weekly top dress would be more of a consistent feeding. I might have to try that. Good idea.
 

FRICKITYFRICKTYFRESH

Well-Known Member
I never actually thought about doing that, pretty much the same concept as a monthly feeding. Takes time for the amendments to break down and become available for the plant to use, so a weekly top dress would be more of a consistent feeding. I might have to try that. Good idea.
I would defiantly learn towards the 1/4 tbsp a week. The only tricky part about using dry amendments ive noticed so far is the timing inbetween top dressings. They are all slow release and break down faster or slower depending on the microbiology in the medium. Id think topdressing a 1/4 tbsp per week would help mitigate potential deficiencies. If you topdress heavy once a month you could end up frying your plants.
 
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