super soil

So I heard with this supersoil plants autumn off by the end, turning colours like red and yellow. Will this happen with mine, the soil mix is not the same as supersoil, but it is a organic soil mix.

25%EWC
20%coco
10%perlite
25%garden soil
20%compost
Alfalfa pellets
1tsp Epsom salts
1tbs high P bat guano
1tbs bone meal
1/2tbs blood meal
2tbs kelp meal
potash

You don't need the epsom salt. Worm Castings contain magnesium and you'll have plenty of sulphur with those organics. When using coco coir, you can add considerably more perlite than with other soil mixes. It breaks up the coco, helping to keep it from becoming one big tangled chunk, and improves drainage. Since there's no nutritional value in either, you should just go by feel when adding the perlite imo. With perlite you just want to avoid making the soil too gritty which can grind the roots anytime the pot is jostled. Make sure the garden soil you're using isn't too grainy/sandy- you want more of a mulchy texture. The Potash should probably just be used for flowering unless the vegging plants show K def. Looks great.

Thanks mothers finest, I dont think ill add the EWC though, id really like too but you cant buy them where I live. And I can get everything else I need, so I think it will be 50% garden soil instead of 25% garden soil 25% EWC.

And yes I was planning on using potash for my flowering girls.

Well then the salts might be very helpful.

They worked really good in my last grow in the compost tea, I added about a pinch every time I made compost tea. This time ill just add it to the soil, and add any to the tea if I see a def. Should I add any kind of manure too the mix? Sheep manure, cow manure anything like that? My compost from my compost pile will be really good for next year, I turned it alot this year and added lots of shit too it. So many worms crawling in it.

You're using some quality ingredients so I'd steer clear of grazing animal manures. They're acidic with poor drainage characteristics and take a long time to break down. Manures work better outdoors where they'll sit in the soil degrading for a long time, like in your compost pile.

Alright sounds good, I have added manure too the garden(which ill use soil from) and my compost pile over the years. I cant wait too see how these babies grow in this soil.

Also I seen someone saying they used crushed sea shells in their soil? Think this would be a good idea, I have lots of sea shells I could crush to a powder and add to the soil. I also collected lots of egg shells, that I crushed up and added to my garden soil in the garden(from the area I will be taking soil from), and too the compost pile.

I forgot to mention last grow I was using a kind of sea salt that I use with my reef aquarium, I added a pinch every now and then too my compost tea. I figure it must do some good, it has alot of minerals in it as its just salt from the ocean that has the water evaporated out of it. I didnt use it too often, as I was scared of building up salts. But I remember reading somewhere they tested out using ocean water(diluted), and it did wonders for crops.

Here is how ill do my compost tea, this year I did it a little different and used alfalfa pellets instead of fish emusion, next year I want to use alfalfa pellets in the soil with a bit of fish emusion in the tea..

Compost Tea

VEG

Rainwater
Scoop of garden soil
Scoop of compost
1/2tbs molasses
Fish emulsion

FLOWERING

Rainwater
Scoop of garden soil
Scoop of compost
1/2tbs molasses
High P bat guano

We tried crushed oyster shell in our soils for awhile. It does good things for drainage and soil texture but our plants grew better without it for no obvious reason. It could have been from a slight calcium or other micronute toxicity. If you use it, use sparingly, like maybe less than a cup per gallon of soil. It may help to remove the bone meal from the mix when using oyster shell but we'd need more data to know if Ca was in fact the problem.

I'd have to reccomend against using the salts. I highly doubt they'd have enough nutrition to make it worth putting regular salt in the soil. "Salting the earth" is known to prevent most plant growth in an area of land for a long time. I would expect any nutrition in ocean water to be from other dissolved substances and microorganisms rather than the salt. The salt alone is of course much more concentrated than the ocean water with salt in it. You already have a good mix anyway and there's only so much you can do with feeding. Once you give the plant all the food they can use, extra nutrition only risks burning. For others reading this, the Epsom Salt he's using should not contain the actual Sodium Chloride we're talking about here.

I may have mentioned it before, but without knowing what's in the rainwater, you should alternate once in awhile with some distilled/filtered water, especially when flushing. Problems caused by impurities in the water are very hard to diagnose.

Be sure to add the Potash to your flowering tea. Watch your leaf color in flowering as well. If there is yellowing and the Ph is fine, add some Fish Emulsion for N. The compost will supply some but we don't know how much. Try asking some garden and hydro stores or in the forums here where you could get an accurate fertilizer analysis done. I'd love to see what your compost has in it and knowing will help you use it better.

My grow last year did great with just rainwater the whole way through, and I never did see any problems on my leaves, no burning or anything, I was really happy. But next year I will take your advice and find some bottled water that has a good Ph, and alternate waterings with that.

Should I add the potash to the soil, or to the tea, or both? I havnt seen a burned plant from nutrients before, as I was lucky with my first grow, and I dont want to see any burning next year.

As for leaf colour should I keep them green all the way to the end? Ive heard lots of differend things, like people saying its a better smoke if you let the leaves get yellow for the last week or so, like having them autuam off. I was planning on keeping my girl green till the end this year, but im not sure about next year.

Ill look around for the fertilizer analysis.

Ideally, your soil and your tea would both have the exact proportions of all nutrients plants of a given strain would need in the phase of growth you prepared them for. For example your flowering soil and your flowering fertilizer mix would both be equally nutritious. A good soil mix can have enough fertilizer for more than 6 weeks of growth in a 5gal bucket; less the smaller the container is. In 5gal buckets, which aren't necessary in many cases, we start giving weak nutes just after a month of growth and keep increasing the strength until the lowest leaves show signs of burning. Some famous growers use no fertilizer in the soil and only add nutes as they go. It's just a matter of preference. You can get more control over exactly how much of each nutrient the plant receives by only adding ferts but you have less work when mixing them into the soil. When using organics that need to be made into teas for instant release, I find it's easiest to mix in as much as possible and then take a break from tea making for 6 weeks. And don't worry to much about burning. If the lowest leaves aren't burnt a little by the time a plant is done, I could have given it more ferts and had a slightly better harvest.

Yes green till the end. In the last two weeks or so of flowering, it's ok to start using your finishing moves like cutting down/off the Nitrogen &/or all ferts, lengthening the dark period, lowering the temps, flushing, etc. It's important to give the plants all the nutrition they can use until you are satisfied and ready to completely stop bud growth. Afaik all of the techniques to speed up ripening or make a smoother dried smoke will decrease size and/or potency when used much sooner.

There's probably a site that you can mail a sample of your compost to. I'll keep an eye out.

Searching Google for "soil nutrient analysis" seems to yield results.

http://soiltest.uconn.edu/

Looks like they have great services and prices.

Thanks alot Mothers finest, You think a 2 gallon pot will be big enough to harvest say around 3 oz a plant? This will be a guerilla grow, all personal smoke, so I dont mind getting a small harvest for each plant. I want them to stay small, so they are hidden. Was planning on starting seedlings in 1/2 gallon pot, then stepping up to 1 gallon pot for veg, and 2 gallon pot for flowering.

Thanks for the website.

Pot size doesn't directly relate to yield. Flowering time is a better variable to base the flowering pot size on. Aside from wasting time and nutrients by using too much, the only worry regarding pot size is whether there is enough room to prevent root binding before harvest. You can always use too big of a pot. It'll be a waste but it won't hurt the plants if you still water and fertilize properly. Five gallon buckets will support at least 80 days of flowering. If you don't have an estimate on flowering time for your plants, I'd suggest using 4 gallons of soil to make sure they can finish. This should be enough room for almost 2.5 months of flowering. Without knowing how long they'll take to flower, any pot under 3 gallons would be a big risk imho.

For small plants in more of a sea of green setup, 3oz each trimmed and dry could be a tough goal to reach. Once you know the flowering times, you can figure out the minimum pot size. Then you can begin pruning, tying or whatever training method you prefer to get the most colas within the pot diameter without needing any space between the pots.

Start seedlings in an inert medium like seed starter soil because they can't handle most fertilizers. Because the little ones need to start in soil with no nutrients, you want just enough starter soil to grow a root and the first single-bladed leaves. We use those red & white plastic cups. Just don't use any clear containers as pots without covering them. They then need to be transplanted into fertile soil to grow any further without drawing nutrients from previous leaves. Here I think I have a writeup on starting seeds.....

Mix up some Maxicrop at about 1/3 strength. Plain water can also be used. Pour some of this solution into a small cup (a white coffee cup works well, white so you can see seeds easier) and toss in the seeds. Throughout the process, the little ones should be kept at or just above room temp. Leave them to soak in a warm, dark place for 24hrs, stirring occasionally or whenever convenient (stirring more than once or twice is not absolutely necessary but speeds up the process). After 24hrs give them one final stir and allow the mixture to settle- inviable seeds will float while live seeds will sink. Fold one single paper towel 3 times and place on a plate. Wet the paper towel with the MC solution (if unavailable use plain bottled/filtered water). Tilt the plate and
allow any excess water to run off. Place your hand gently on the paper towel while the plate is tilted to squeeze out a little of the water
being held by the paper towel. Never use any chemical fertilizer on seeds or sprouts. Open the last fold of the paper towel and place all
live (sank to bottom of cup) seeds inside (not touching each other). Any seeds still floating may be left to soak for another 24hrs, once in
awhile one or two more will sink but not often. Put the plate in a warm, dark, draft-free area. Do not allow temp to go above 85 or below 65. Should the towel start to dry out, add fresh MC solution and drain as before. The paper towel should always be moist but not soaked. Once the root starts poking out the seeds cannot be submerged in water, needing some small amount of air. After the roots poking out of the seeds are at least 1/4in but no more than 1/2in long it is time to plant them. Prepare plastic drinking cups by poking drain holes in the bottom and filling with either seed starter soil or some other fairly inert medium like peat or vermiculite, etc no higher than an inch from the top of the cup. Moisten the soil with the same soution used to germinate the seeds untill a handfull of soil leaches just a few drops of water when lightly squeezed. Poke a hole in the soil of each cup with a toothpick and place the stem coming out of each seed into the hole, being careful not to touch the root. Gently push the soil snug around the root. Cover the cup with a piece of plastic wrap and poke two finger sized holes in it for ventilation. Place the seedlings no closer than 7 inches to a florescent light. Once the seeds stand up and begin shedding their shell remove the plastic wrap, wait 24hrs then move the plants to the "normal" distance from your floros.

Ok well I didnt mean pot size to yeild, I was trying to say pot size to the size of my plant. I need them to stay small, so I was thinking by restricting root growth she will maybe stay a big smaller, this along with topping, FIM, and LST, I hope I can keep them small.

I was planning on starting my seeds same way I did last year, germinate in soil mixture, which is soil from the garden, mixed with perlite. Once she sprouts and has her singe points, she will be transplanted into her veg pot, then once she is bigger and sexed, into the final flowering pot she goes.

Sorry, by yield I meant the plant's final size at harvest, not the amount of bud. What we do with mother plants to keep their roots from binding is root trimming. We check the mother's roots regularly and when they start to swirl around the bottom of the pot, the roots need to be trimmed. The plant is pulled out and using a very sharp, straight-edged knife, the bottom and sides of the root ball are cut off. It's repotted in the same container with fresh soil. The point is that the size of the plant doesn't necessarily correspond to the size of the root ball, and therefore the size of the pot needed. Watering amounts and frequency, genetics, the amounts of air available to the roots and even soil makeup all affect root growth.

You can't restrict root growth during flowering. Even in veg, doing so risks root binding and the plants will grow faster in flowering, binding more quickly. Once a plant is root bound, it very often dies. You have to catch it at the first signs of trouble if not prevent it altogether. Root restriction is an advanced training technique used only in veg that I wouldn't reccomend to anyone without either a great deal of experience or expendable plants. If you want to experiment with it, the most important thing to remember is not to completely restrict all root growth. You have to provide an outlet for them to grow somewhere while holding back root growth everywhere else. You then allow just enough root growth in that one small spot to keep the plant alive- which is the hard part. It's just like bonsai trimming but the mirror image under the soil. And just like bonsai, if you restrict all growth entirely, you kill the plant.

Check the Ph of the seedling soil as the young ones can't handle much stress. Seedlings do fine in plain water and Ph 7 soil. A smidgen on the acidic side is ok too. We use about 4" of soil for seedlings and I wouldn't reccomend more than 6" deep. You want them to just start poking roots out the bottom when they begin to need weak nutrients. Then the roots have already reached the next soil you transplant them to. We always trim the roots just before moving into the flowering pot but only because we have a long flowering strain that needs the extra root room. This technique can be used anytime a grower needs room for the roots to grow a little longer in the flowering pot but it's a bit of a shock and the plants will require a little extra time to recover before switching to 12/12.

Think I could keep a girl small outdoors in a 3g pot? I think ill either top/FIM at first, let her heal, then do some supercropping. Possibly some LST too, but I need to have some strings that are really hard to see, as this will be a guerilla grow. Hopefully the soil supplys enough nutes I dont have to visit them too often.

I'm not much of an outdoorsy grower but from what I've seen, outdoor could be even harder to use smaller pots with. Plants commonly grow bigger outside. All that sunlight and fresh air can be a pain in the ass. It's also easy to over or underwater using pots outside because they don't handle intense weather or weather fluctuations as well as the ground. Keep an eye on the soil's moisture level and make sure the soil mix drains well.

Pots will be buried in ground, so hopefully that will help with the temp fluctuations. And I will def keep an eye on the moisture level and ill test the soils drainage before I plant in it.

And yah it will be hard to keep em small, im gonna have to find a good patch of bushes to hide them.