New grow trying Organics

R

ReeferBen

New member
So for all my grows I’ve been in some type of hydro and mostly coco grows. I got the itch to try An organic soil grow.

So to start I ordered a few things.
4 x 4 tent
HLG 550 V2 with the red supplement
4-7 gal pots and saucers
KIS organic water only Biochar soil mix
Soil moister and pH pen.
2 oscillating fans and a new exhaust fan/controller

For seeds I am gonna run a canuk seeds blueberry, a Barney’s farm liberty haze, a Barney’s farm obi wan and a in house genetics slurricane.

Plan was to start the seeds in a smaller container and transplant up to the 7 gal containers. Was thinking I’d get away with just watering with my well water which is usually 6.0 pH and use
some ACTs once and awhile but I have no idea what I am doing with soil or organic growing.

What else should I be thinking about with this?
 
Sounds good, Ben. Two things come to mind: 1) expect slower growth in soil than you experienced in hydro or coco, and, 2) you might want to raise your water's pH a bit, say to 6.5-7.0. Of course that depends on how much lime your soil has. Might be fine.
 
So the owner at KIS says that for his system 7 gal pot is minimum and will require top dressing. That’s fine but now got me thinking should I be using a larger pot or a fabric pot?

Also should I be mixing perlite to help aerate the mix? I asked the KIS that in my email as well but didn’t get that answer. How about adding a layer or gravel at the bottom of the pots?
 
The owner from Kis had said this,

Yes I would plan on topdressing in 7 gal pots. I think you would be better off using a larger pot or going directly into the ground if possible. If not though you should still be okay using that program.
Click to expand...

So got me thinking I’d be better off with a larger pot, but get how that might end up being a pain. FWIW I am only running 4 plants at a time.
 
Ben, Tad told me 7 gallons for water only start to finish, 5 gal. with a short two week veg.. I'm surprised if he's hedging now. Anyway, the best soil I've used in 15 years. By far.
 
~gnomer~ said:
I suspect your advisor is referring to outside growing Ben. Seven gallons would be suitable outdoors. I've experience with cloth, as well as plastic grow-bags. Moving your plants around in them causes root-damage so best to plant in place, and not move until harvest. Cloth bags can dry the sides of the root-ball causing it to shrink away from the bag - water runs down the side instead of flowing down through the soil. Plastic is better but still has limitations. I'm not familiar with your soil, but find that the larger I go in pot-size, especially in depth, the more perlite or roughage I need to add. Deeper pots have a deeper wet-zone at the bottom, and dry out slower (and tend to be overall drier towards the top) - shallower have a shallower one, and dry out faster (but tend to stay wetter near the top) with a more pronounced wet and dry cycle. Putting gravel in the bottom will make your deep pot a shallow pot, that's all. Charcoal chunks might be a better option. I top-dress with a low Nitrogen compost as the plant goes into flower/mid flower.
...also you'll find you'll need to feed much lighter than soiless.
Happy to answer questions if you have any.
Click to expand...

I thought bags would be great too,but did wonder about root disturbance if/when moving.Also the medium used will pull away from the side of the bags like gnomer says,then it is hard to effectively water.

Thank you for the post gnomer.
 
Thanks everyone.

So the nursery pots I had already ordered were Gro Pro Premium Nursery Pot, 7 Gallon and they are 12” tall 14” wide.
Once I get everything set up I’ll update the thread with more questions.

I don’t have a local grow shop with in 45 min that’s worth going to so I’ve been ordering all online. Recently used hydro builder but wondering if there’s some other sites you have all used that you would recommend?
 
So the seeds I was planning on popping didn’t all make it past the border. So stupid being legal in both areas but not to cross the border lol. Anyhow lots of the grow stuff came in so I put 2 sugar cane, 1 slurricane, and 1 tart pops in paper towels to start cracking. Seeds are all from in house genetics. The tart pops were freebies, fem and breeder made it clear they were untested and should be watched closely. In any case by Monday I should have an update.
 
I switched recently to Felt Pots and HUGE diff in growing and plant health.. has to do with air trimming the
roots.. I started with 2gal pots as I grow mostly Autoflower, used 3gal this last grow and it packed my
little 2x2 tent and they take forever to dry out... very heavy felt and better for outdoors IMHO. going back
to my 2gal pots.. water every other day and had a nice cycle.

Sounds like your setup from gear to seeds is impressive... hope it all comes together for ya man..
 
KIS Organics recommends automatic watering with the tropf blumat system. Anyone try this? Or do you all use some other way to water, watering can, wand on a pump?
 
ReeferBen said:
KIS Organics recommends automatic watering with the tropf blumat system. Anyone try this? Or do you all use some other way to water, watering can, wand on a pump?
Click to expand...

The method I used for the Biochar was very sophisticated. If they pots were heavy, I didn't water. If light, water using a spouted can of about 40 oz of water for my 3 gal. pots.. gnomer's advice "watering very lightly until roots establish" is right on with this heavier soil.

Edit: I should mention that Joe Dirt has the most experience with this soil. I gave it a try after following his threads.
 
Thanks, the 4 plants were started in smaller pots and transplanted up to their 7 gal pots. 3 of them are doing awesome looking nice and green. One seems stunted, lower leaves going yellow. Thinking it’s a soil pH issue?
 
i thinartman may bebright about the fabric pots..they do dry out faster though..i only have 5 gal .

i am the sameb right now..i have 12 gallon pots in want to do an organic grow

my plan is 20% worm castings, 30% composted sheep manure and 50% either perlite vermiculite or 50% left over promix..will flush the promix first

i welcome comments

i intend to water with dry mixable fulvic acid ,amino acids and kelp powder

ps i like the just water biochar thing..
 
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Sorry haven’t logged in for a bit. Been running smooth so far. Plants still in veg, only additions was some xtreme gardening azos and myco. Also watered once with some bokashi earthworks microbe fertilizer brewed as a aact. Gonna flip the plants in a week or so and will update with some pictures when I do. A week into flower I will add the top dressing nutrient from KIS Organics. Will also do some aact with earthworm castings and some of the bokashi earth works a week or so after that. Hopefully shouldn’t need much more but water at that point.
 
I’ll try to attach some pictures. I am overly excited with this grow and hope it turns into good things. 5C697587-C72A-431A-AEDC-7C50E17CA99C.jpg You can see the Nila wafer is the small one. Looks fine but being it was a week later in the start and the stall after transplant.

I made the fungal, bacterial, bokashi adds just to feel confident the soil is staying alive lol, and were minor. The suggested pots are a bit bigger than what I am using and was suggested to me to track my EC run off. Kis recommends their top dressing if you veg longer or use a smaller then recommended pot. Reading the Teaming with series from Lowenfels has my thinking about all that soil life.
 
As with most of what I do, user error is the probable explanation, but I didn't have much luck top dressing with KIS when N def. showed up in early flower.

Since I love Biochar but am still small scale (3 gallon pots), next round I'm going to start in with Neptune's Harvest Rose and Flower after the first few weeks of flower to see if I can't stay ahead of small pot exhaustion.
 
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FWIW 2 of my 4 plants are showing nitrogen deficiency 24 days into flower. I did the KIS recommended top dressing with their nutrient pack after 1 week of flowering but seems it didn’t do enough.
 
5897CA93-64A6-49A4-9DA5-D0720679B389.jpgBC616E4E-73A5-4716-BC6B-7FB631ACC852.jpg. Two different plants. Both showing lower leaf issues. Makes me think it’s a mobile nutrient issue, nitrogen, magnesium or iron? What do you think?
 
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