UK General Store Bought Soils

[BoogerGreen]

I just wanted to get an idea how many people out there are using John Innes #1 soil and having success with it, Ive got 2 plants in it right now that seem to be doing fine, but was thinking about getting light-mix or something like that and then adding nutes to it as I go.

Ive been feeding the stuff in John Innes light solutions of organic nutes, and they seem to be fine so far.

Another question, when people are feeding and talking about nute schedules, do you mix in the nutes every time you give them water, every other time or what? THe plants are still young and dont want to burn them or anything!

 

[VerdantGreen]

hi mate john innes 1 is ok but would be better with some perlite mixed in. the nutes in it are not organic and will also run out fairly quickly.

i tend to use nutes every other watering at half strength unless the plants start showing signs of deficiency.

if you want to go organic then the organic forum here is good. best to mix your own soil from raw ingredients like peat, perlite, coir etc.

V.

 

[Cambium]

I find JI No1,2 and 3 go rock hard! Even watering with a fine rose causes compaction

Something like westlands with added JI is good. With a potting up regime and a good sieve, there is no real need to feed until 2-3 weeks into flower.

 

[foomar]

I use it exclusively and get it cheap in bulk 1 tonne bags , find John Innes No2 is best and add around 20% by volume of silvapearl and a bit more peat.
The base level nutes in there are chempack usually and sufficient for a test run with canna without excessive leaf growth , the soil minerals provide trace elements and i never see deficiencies.
Without the perlite it tends to cake rock hard and waterlog , like the weight to stabilise small top heavy pots and the longer watering interval with soil based.

If you dont want to add perlite then watering by capillary action from below is fussier but will avoid the cakeing and keep air in the compost.

Twenty odd tonnes over the years has certainly improved the garden with the twice used compost and grows huge vegetables with ease.

 

[VerdantGreen]

i use a mixture of peat, westland topsoil, perlite, wormcasts and mushroom compost.
the i add organic ferts like guano.

 

[Blue]

I moved over to westlands a few years ago after talking to mike from Mandala, Like most I add 20% perlite to my mix as well as wormcast, fishblood & bone, epsom salts and maxicrop sea weed & water away!

I found the # 2 to be better then the #1

I have tested next to the so called super soils and to be honest the westlands won hands down... at half the cost & I dont have to go to a grow shop to get it....

 

[DocLeaf]

We like Asda seedling compost (available in spring for 99p) ,, we mix it 50/50 with coco,, and castings and guano

John Innes is usually too heavy, cold, wet, and too acidic (the wrong pH) for ganja.

 

[Ganja baba]

I moved over to westlands a few years ago after talking to mike from Mandala, Like most I add 20% perlite to my mix as well as wormcast, fishblood & bone, epsom salts and maxicrop sea weed & water away!

I found the # 2 to be better then the #1

I have tested next to the so called super soils and to be honest the westlands won hands down... at half the cost & I dont have to go to a grow shop to get it....

hi mate , i am using the westlands at the mo , its called westlands pluss compost with added john immes , looks like its got wood shavings in it , i dont add food till about 3 weeks into flower then start adding canna terra nutes , i have not added any other stuff to the soil , pearl light so on .

i think this soil is great , and more of a real soil than canna terra and bio biz , they seem to light to me and dry out a bit to quick under heavy lighting ,

is this the same one you are using , i have some sea of green in 2 1/2 letre pots , seems flippin good soil so far ,

 

[BoogerGreen]

Right , I just opened this thread, and actually forgot that I started it until I read from bottom to top!

Anyways, so here is an update, after a bunch of thinking about it etc, and having e little experiment transplanting the an approximate 2.5 week old from seed plant. This plant was in a small pot , in JohnInne1 and there were LOTS Of roots, so I made up a mixture out of those Jiffy Peat Pucks (just soaked a ton, and then opened them up, and mized them with some perlite, and vermiculite for the newer bigger pot, which is probably 2-3 litres about. So after doing that, and seeiing the fluffyness of the soil and how much better it looked and felt than the John Innes1 , I was sold on getting something nice, so I went out today and got a bag of plagron light, Ive also got some perlite and vermiculite that Im going to mix in there, and Ive alreaady got Nutes, and Id rather use nutes than the nutes in the JI. So I have one plant left in JI and it is about 1 month old, and the soil never properly dries out and is rock hard, I am going to try and get around to transplanting it tonite or tomorrow, and try and knock off as much JI as possible really! Hopefully wont stress the plant too much! Have thought about mixing JI with perlite, and that would probably be a lot better than it on its own. Im pleased I got the Light Mix, as I wanted to just get something decent that didnt have a lot of stuff in it. Anyways, I do like the idea of throwing some coco in the mix as well, so may try that and some other combos in the future, but Im happy I got the light mix anyways, even though I havent opened the bag and checked it yet! Ha!

Thanks everyone for your input!
Its good to here odd combinations of stufff that arent common as well!
Peace

 

[Blue]

@Doc do you find it to heavy? hmm I suppose each to their own I guess but one thing I have found with the westlands there can be a huge difference in bag's some can have loads of bits of a straw like material in them while some are pure soil but at £2 a bag who cares some times i'll mix some soiless in aswell.. also Doc can i ask you where you got your burdock roots from bro.... mmm burdock

@Babba I used to use the one you are talking about but I moved to the number 2 as it's lighter then the multi purpose mate & yeah it has some sort of straw/shavings in it I grow small plant's in 5lt pots 15 in a 1m square garden

 

[DocLeaf]

Blue.. Yes. Most shop bought soils are heavy,, so we mix them with coco fibre.

I n I grow burdock and collect burdock seeds for the fritillary seed collective

peace

 

[jaded1]

have read somewhere(think it was ot1)that soil with john innes is better for cannabis as it is loam based instead of peat.I totally agree as used it on 2 plants(otherswere in canna terra plus)and the growth both above and below is much more vigorous,i added30% coco,cant stand perlite

 

[bongoie]

Folk's are steering away from peat , and it's impact on the enviroment .
I go 30 % perlite with JI . Use seedling soil on seeds and clones .

 

[Blue]

@ doc I have never seen the seeds for sale myself but then again I have only just started to look for them as I want to add a little bit of something to my home made scrumpy I think burdock would be a nice thing to add....

 

[EvilSkuzzi]

I cleaned my local asda out of their potting compost last autumn. 75% compost 25% perlite and your laughing. It was going for 50p for 20ltrs due to it being the end of season stock!

 

[BoogerGreen]

Yeah I just seen that the Local Wilkos is selling 15 liters of their mix for like 78 p, not as good as 50p for 20litres, but still man, thinking that getting that stuff and mixing it with Perlite, Vermiculite, maybe Coco Fibre, and maybe some higher grade light mix if there is any of that left over or not, how does that sound really

Plagron Light Mix
Vermi
Perli
Little Bit of Wilko Potting Mix

Man, buying the light-mix sortve strayed away from my low budget ghetto ass setup, but I just wanted to make sure that as many variables as I could afford to cover were covered!

My main thing is trying to keep organic, which I believe using Light-Mix with organic Nutrients would be keeping it organic,
but the Wilkinsons Compost/Potting Mix or whatever the super cheap version wilkos or asda or something like that, or the westlands with added John Innes has a little bit, or potentially a lot of chemical (Chempak? am I correct? Is that a brand?) nutrients/fertilizers in them making the grow, or whatever plants are grown in that mix wouldn't be strictly organic would they?
But on the other hand, making up a nice combination mixture out of the said above ingredients would in theory be quite a nice mix and make the expensive light-mix that I bought go quite a much longer way than just using it on it's own , or should I just use the light-mix on it's own?! I believe I have been rambling a bit on this, which I would like to apologize for! Any advice or thoughts on this? Cheers guys, Im glad I opened this thread, and I hope it keeps going with peoples special mixtures of soils/growing mediums! Awesum Possum!!!!!

 

[Blimey]

I use J. Arthur Bowyer's Multi-Purpose Compost (15 Litres for £1 at Poundland), cut it 50/50 with Perlite, add a handful of Westland Fish, Blood and Bone, and mix very thoroughly.
This will last me through a couple of weeks of veg, so I don't feed until week 2 of flower.

I used to use vermiculite, but I find it a bit fiddly, and optional if you've already added perlite.

 

[VerdantGreen]

the thing is about JI as well is that the nutes in it arent organic - i buy westland topsoil instead as well as peat/coco and perlite. none of these have extra nutes added so i can mix it together and add my own. i agree with Doc that JI / topsoil on it's own would be much too heavy.

 

[BoogerGreen]

Yeah when I used the JI #1 for a plant, I left it in there for about 3-4 weeks, the soil never dried out properly and was hard as a rock! Just didnt look like nice stuff, felt so much better about putting that plant into a nicer feeling mix!

 

[bongoie]

Yea i tried Levington's compost , had read great thing's about it / paid over the odd's for it , and in comparison to other cheaper brand's it wasnt as good , i mix thing's up in a massive bucket and it's lumpy woody . Plant's not performing as well ! Any body want 120 litres of levington's ?

love it or hate it
Try source your perlite in bulk , it's a lot cheaper , you'd be surprised .
100 litre's for 25 ish quid