MJCanada
Well-Known Member
I needed to share this experience, 2 reasons... what I saw really shocked me, and I hope it helps a newbie in the future.
I really wish a took pictures but I just didn't think of it at the time.
So, I am 3-4 grow cycles into this and I've got quite a few things locked in, so I thought it was time to experiment, because isn't that why we do this?? My main goal was to be able to switch to readily available products as my previously selected products seemed to always be out of stock.
I was growing 2 clones in 2 gallon pots and it was time for transplanting to their 5 gallon flowering pots.
I ran out of my good soil mix and the local store didn't have any in stock so I got some $7.99/bag promix, just standard potting soil for house plants.
I potted one of them straight up with this soil.
Then as I was about to prep the other, I remembered I hadn't used any vermicompost in a while so I went to my bins and harvested about 1-1.5 gallons of good quality worm castings.
I put some of the cheap soil at the bottom, then layered in some vermicompost(didn't mix it very well), put the plant in and filled the remaining space with the cheap soil.
About 2 weeks later, I had to go on a 4 day business trip so I (had thought) slightly overwatered both of them so they wouldn't dry out when I left. Well, I come back 4 days later and they are still pretty damn heavy. I leave them for another 2 days and there was nearly no change, still really heavy. This went on for another week or so until I started watering again, but they just didn't look healthy anymore.
Fast forward to 1 month later. All hell is breaking loose, both plants aren't doing well, they look to be suffering from overwatering, and multi-nutrient lockout.
I could figure out what was going on, but my local store brought in some foxfarm soils... I didn't have my good tried tested stuff from previous grows, but this was the next best thing.
I decided to repot both plants.
The first one, which turned out to be the one without worm castings(I didn't label them so lost track) the root ball had barely stretched out into the new soil. I could clearly see the 2gallon pot rootball and not more than 1" of new root growth. This was very apparent as I flipped the pot upside down and most of the new soil just fell out of the pot(not bound to the roots at all).
I get to the second pot, and I found that this was the worm castings pot. The root ball was essentially the same as the first(not really extended past the original root ball from the 2 gallon pot) EXCEPT for the layer of worm castings. The roots were fully formed into the worm castings layer. A big disc shape that extended to the entire width of the 5 gallon pot where the worm castings were. This disc was FULL of roots. There was a very distinct transition between the worm castings layer and the rest of the cheapo dirt.
So... moral of the story, don't cheap out on your soil, it really does make a difference. My ladies didn't even set foot into that shitty soil.
My guess is the PH buffering was outta wack(could be because of the wet conditions which triggered the buffering agent into overdrive) and it made the soil PH out of range of what healthy roots look for, so they completely avoided the crappy soil.
The ladies are starting to look healthier and I'm pretty sure I'll be flipping to flower in another week(2 weeks or so after repot).
Hopefully this helps somebody out in the future.
I really wish a took pictures but I just didn't think of it at the time.
So, I am 3-4 grow cycles into this and I've got quite a few things locked in, so I thought it was time to experiment, because isn't that why we do this?? My main goal was to be able to switch to readily available products as my previously selected products seemed to always be out of stock.
I was growing 2 clones in 2 gallon pots and it was time for transplanting to their 5 gallon flowering pots.
I ran out of my good soil mix and the local store didn't have any in stock so I got some $7.99/bag promix, just standard potting soil for house plants.
I potted one of them straight up with this soil.
Then as I was about to prep the other, I remembered I hadn't used any vermicompost in a while so I went to my bins and harvested about 1-1.5 gallons of good quality worm castings.
I put some of the cheap soil at the bottom, then layered in some vermicompost(didn't mix it very well), put the plant in and filled the remaining space with the cheap soil.
About 2 weeks later, I had to go on a 4 day business trip so I (had thought) slightly overwatered both of them so they wouldn't dry out when I left. Well, I come back 4 days later and they are still pretty damn heavy. I leave them for another 2 days and there was nearly no change, still really heavy. This went on for another week or so until I started watering again, but they just didn't look healthy anymore.
Fast forward to 1 month later. All hell is breaking loose, both plants aren't doing well, they look to be suffering from overwatering, and multi-nutrient lockout.
I could figure out what was going on, but my local store brought in some foxfarm soils... I didn't have my good tried tested stuff from previous grows, but this was the next best thing.
I decided to repot both plants.
The first one, which turned out to be the one without worm castings(I didn't label them so lost track) the root ball had barely stretched out into the new soil. I could clearly see the 2gallon pot rootball and not more than 1" of new root growth. This was very apparent as I flipped the pot upside down and most of the new soil just fell out of the pot(not bound to the roots at all).
I get to the second pot, and I found that this was the worm castings pot. The root ball was essentially the same as the first(not really extended past the original root ball from the 2 gallon pot) EXCEPT for the layer of worm castings. The roots were fully formed into the worm castings layer. A big disc shape that extended to the entire width of the 5 gallon pot where the worm castings were. This disc was FULL of roots. There was a very distinct transition between the worm castings layer and the rest of the cheapo dirt.
So... moral of the story, don't cheap out on your soil, it really does make a difference. My ladies didn't even set foot into that shitty soil.
My guess is the PH buffering was outta wack(could be because of the wet conditions which triggered the buffering agent into overdrive) and it made the soil PH out of range of what healthy roots look for, so they completely avoided the crappy soil.
The ladies are starting to look healthier and I'm pretty sure I'll be flipping to flower in another week(2 weeks or so after repot).
Hopefully this helps somebody out in the future.
