Looking for a new, GOOD soil.

[brutus3]

Go to Lowes and get some Sta-Green Nursery Blend Planting Mix. Add some perlite and you're ready to go. At $7 for 2 cubic feet you will not find a cheaper yet effective soil.

-Funk

Hey Funkbomb. I went to Lowes and was gonna pick up a bag of sta green. The only one I saw that was a nursery mix was for trees and shrubs. Is that what you use? The other one they had was for bedding flowers and vegetables but didn't say nursery mix.

 

[hashberry]

I'm a Moonshine's mix guy all the way
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=23970

just mix the 3 bags together, add some more perlite, and some lime, and all you need to add during growth is water,...watch the Ph, and (depending on your water) if you add lime when you blend the soil you don't even need to adjust the Ph of the water,....at ALL.

easy, not that expensive (a batch runs me about $50= enough for 9 five gallon buckets)

I've used happy frog instead of the red potting mix with "ok" results, I've also used Power Flower instead of the red potting mix with spectacular results, but I always stick with the OF/LW-something bat guano/worm castings

Here's some Grape Ape I harvested a few months ago

on these I supplemented 2tbs/gal BS molasses during the first 4 weeks of flower, but that's it, just water (filtered, NOT RO), for the entire grow, using moonshine's mix (with perlite & lime added)


if you can't spend $50 to grow a couple thousand dollars worth of bud, somethings wrong with your logic. (even if you never sell it)

Looks great dude..

I've been wanting to try some grape ape for a long time, years in fact, but being that as far as I know it's clone only, I can't.. I'm on the east coast and there's just nothin around here..

any legit F1 GA beans?

 

[Lisdexik]

Im suprised nobody rec building a soil.... It's cheap bc you can buy nutrient powders in bulk for .50 - 1.00 a pound.

Heres what I use as a base and it is well balanced, and can be ammended with whatever you like:

1 Part Peat
1 Part Coco
1 Par Worm Castings
1 Part Perlite or Pumice

Here's what I ammend with (Per Gallon):
1.5 TBSP Alfalfa Meal
1 TBSP Cottonseed Meal
1 TBSP Fish Meal
2 TBSP Rock Phosphate
1.5 TBSP Kelp Meal
1 TBSP Greensand
2 TBSP Dolomite Lime

HTH

Lisdexik

 

[FunkBomb]

Brutus - The nursery mix and the planting mix are the same. I don't know why Sta-Green does that, but I assume it's a marketing thing.

-Funk

 

[brutus3]

I defineatly like the look and feel of the sta green. Very rich looking compared to miracle gro and shultz, and drains really good. I'm gonna be doing some plants in different soils. Gonna get some fox farm and was wanting to try the roots organics too but don't see it in my hydro store catalog. Also, 2 plants in pea gravel in a homemade dwc tub. I'll post results and pics when all is done.

 

[brutus3]

Alittle reason I asked this question and started this thread. Imo. Miracle gro and Shultz are crap!! They've changed. The consistency from bag to bag sucks. Just wanted to post these pics. The small sickly ones are in Shultz dirt, under a 600hps, almost 3 weeks into flower. The green ones are in sta-green soil, under a 1000hps, almost 2 weeks into flower. Both taken from the same mom, 2 weeks apart, fed the same nutes. Thanks for the info funkbomb. The plants in the sta-green, are green!!!

 

[Smoking Now]

I would encourage you to look up Blazeoneups mixture, works very well

 

[brutus3]

I would encourage you to look up Blazeoneups mixture, works very well

I'm willing to try anything at this point bro! I have some in dwc too. I'm trying it all and gonna see what works best. I'll keep up with pics to show what works over my way. I'll look that up too. Is that available at specialty places? Iv'e never heard of it yet?

 

[ogwax818]

Fox Farm Ocean Forest will bring you great yields with their nuts as well.

 

[Chem&M]

Agreed. I've made my own soil in the past and then made the switch to the Root's Organic. I love how well it drains but also the good stuff included in it.

ROOTS BABY!!

It says it's more amended than it is thought. I any organic line in it is butter.

 

[macha-v]

hey peeps , im a uk grower and i use a compost called plant magic soil suprme(just google the name)

fairly new companny but great great products i use feed and few additives aswell , here is one of my girls still in veg (long story)
soon to be in flower tho

and a birds eye view

 

[enter sandman]

Premiere Pro-Mix BX...you can order a 3.8 cu ft block online for around $60 shipped. It is compressed, so you will get more soil than you need...or go with the 2.8 cu ft bale. I reuse all my soil with absolutely no problems. I only add lime to it about every 4 months.

 

[Greenheart]

Pearlite. The more the better.

There are alot of recipe's and soil mixes out there in the end make use it is light and drains quickly.

I started out with MG Potting mix (too heavy on its own) and moved on to Sunshine #4 (Good stuff). After using up my sunshine mix I thought Hmmm... this stuff is mainly Peat and Pearlite so lemme just buy those and mix about 2/3 pearlite to 1/3 peat. Works well enough but stay away from Greensmix brand ($8) it was cheap but I found out why. I'm thinking its worth the $60 for a big bale of sunshine and large bag of pearlite.

 

[LEGI0N]

To me.. the soil is the medium. It channels the nutes, houses the bacteria and fungi and it also a pH buffer among other things. Almost any soil will work as long as you know how to treat your plant as it grows.

There are soils out there like Power Flower (off the market right now) that are very strong and have to be mix with something. An there are mediums like ready grow that need to be watered four times a day with a hydroponic type nutrient so that it gets all the micros.

Some Good soils:

Ocean Forest, it's always good and ready to use right out of the bag.

Happy Frog, not as good as Ocean but a little cheaper in that you get a bigger bag. Plus Myco's That's a plus. I use to mix Happy with Power Flower + some coco chunks.

Roots Organics SOIL, GREAT soil. Smells like good soil should smell.

Roots 707, bigger bag not as much punch as Roots Soil but it's a great one too. More like a better Sunshine #4.

Under the radar soils:

MJR: Some people love it. 1cf bags for like 7-8 bucks. Pumice instead of perlite. kinda heavy but good never the less.
Vital Earth: This is some new stuff that I'm trying out with an all organic grow of Chem D4. So far it's been great. I was turned on to it by someone I know that has a lot more experience then I do. You have to be careful not to over water as it holds water very well. But that's good for me. Water every 2-3 days and take a break.

Also, in my book, the newer you are to gardening the more perlite you use.

There are many many great soils out there put out by small company or even from local nurseries. I'd stay a way from anything that has slow release nutrients or moisture control. So no MG soil or any of those mega companies aiming for stay at home moms growing house plants.

 

[vonforne]

Make your own. It is more fun and gives you some exercise. Follow the link in my sig for detailed instructions if you wish.

 

[GMT]

Anything thats good for veggies is good for canna really. So just look for something thats got a pic of a tomato or something on it. Pick the bag up and feel the weight of it, too heavy and its full of sand (not great). As disco said, some bags contain wood chips, (again not great) and you should try to avoid those. I tend to spend around £1 - £2 per 20 litres of soil, which I use per plant normally. But then I dont add any nutes at all. If you go to a grow shop and ask for good soil, they'll try to sell you the most expensive, and so the expert opinion is that you need to spend money to get good soil, but its just not true. The most important thing to make sure of though is dont get anything that says good for roses, as if it keeps a rose happy, your plants will hate it.