From hydro to indoor organics

need4weed · Nov 25, 2020

So I'm an old school hydro grower and have been doing it the same way for many years. I'm interested in going completely organic indoors. I'm reading a lot about home made teas etc. But I'm wondering if it's as easy as buying organic soil blends from the grow shop and feeding with plain water from start to finish. I'm probably going to get roasted here but none the less I would appreciate straight forward, no nonsense advice on this. Simple but effective methods is what I'm looking for

Ibechillin · Nov 26, 2020

Fox Farm Happy Frog and Ocean Forest soil blends (used seperatley or mixed together) fed with General Organics bottle nutrients is simple and has made many new growers Ive helped very pleased.

Chunkypigs said:
the flowers that I won the cup with were grown in Happy Frog with the entire line of GH organic ferts and they were killer.

just make it easy and switch to their organic line of nutes and use it once a week in veg and as much as needed in flower.

Chunkypigs said:
General Organics line works great, I won the '15 cup using it and I'm still trying to find a water only soil mix that can match the results of GO's full line up of products.

The buds that won the cup, OGKB 2.0.
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Forum grown with Gen Organics.
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62 days.
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important thing for me is the loudness they bring out in the genetics, can you smell this???
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mexweed · Nov 26, 2020

if you're going to buy a full lineup of bottled nutes just stick with hydro

what you want to do is get a good bagged soil and dry amendments to mix in with transplants and/or top dress when the plant needs it, this could be something like alfalfa meal/guano/kelp meal or a 'general purpose' that contains multiple ingredients from a place like dr earth, down to earth, fox farm, stay away from things that are designed like hydro nutes where you need to buy a veg bloom and micro

there could also be 'super soils' available at local garden shops where you don't have to mix anything in or local compost you can mix in/top dress, teas are cool but ultimately an unnecessary pain in the ass

noknees · Nov 26, 2020

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792

choose a mix.

fish and seaweed recipe for veg/small containers. cheap, easy and quick growth.

blood-bone-kelp recipe for flower/final container.

being able to brew good tea is always good. def worth adding to your game even if you're not using it full-time as primary feed.

Lester Beans · Nov 26, 2020

Check out dank.frank's thread, Distinguished and Nurtured Kind. The first page has his soil mix recipes and amendments list. There is a wealth of info in his thread.

If you are looking for easy, stick with the hydro. A true water only soil mix takes dialing in and growing pains.

need4weed · Nov 26, 2020

Ibechillin said:
Fox Farm Happy Frog and Ocean Forest soil blends (used seperatley or mixed together) fed with General Organics bottle nutrients is simple and has made many new growers Ive helped very pleased.

This is along the lines of what I'm thinking, although those brands are unavailable in the uk. I believe biobizz is the equivalent. They do a soil mix but I'm told the nutrients added to the mix dont last the full cycle so amending it with bone meal, bat guano, worm castings would be ideal. Use straight water and perhaps once ir twice a week feed with liquid fertz

need4weed · Nov 26, 2020

mexweed said:
if you're going to buy a full lineup of bottled nutes just stick with hydro

what you want to do is get a good bagged soil and dry amendments to mix in with transplants and/or top dress when the plant needs it, this could be something like alfalfa meal/guano/kelp meal or a 'general purpose' that contains multiple ingredients from a place like dr earth, down to earth, fox farm, stay away from things that are designed like hydro nutes where you need to buy a veg bloom and micro

there could also be 'super soils' available at local garden shops where you don't have to mix anything in or local compost you can mix in/top dress, teas are cool but ultimately an unnecessary pain in the ass

I agree with you in the respect that I dont want to buy the full line up of bottles. Amending and top dressing is fine. Making teas I need to look into

need4weed · Nov 26, 2020

noknees said:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792

choose a mix.

fish and seaweed recipe for veg/small containers. cheap, easy and quick growth.

blood-bone-kelp recipe for flower/final container.

being able to brew good tea is always good. def worth adding to your game even if you're not using it full-time as primary feed.

This link is priceless, it appears more simple than hydro. I'm also starting to think it's much much cheaper to feed

bleepboop · Dec 9, 2020

Most of the UK bagged soil hasn't quite caught up to the standard of water only organic soil/no till raised beds you read about on here. Glad you liked the look of that soil mixes thread.

If you wanted a bagged soil off the shelf:

Indoor organics have been doing great but expensive living soil for a while and joined up with Ecothrive to put out a soil mix called ecolife that was a bit cheaper and distributed through hydro stores at £30/45L.

They're on the second version of it this year and it's very good.

If you wanted to mix your own base soil then add dry fertilisers that's become way simpler in the UK the last 2-3 years with a bunch of folks doing good value premixed packs you can dust a little on as a top dress throughout/at the end of each round/combine with your soil mix/use in aerated teas.

Dry amendments online:

Dr Forest - best dry amendment mix packs about and do some bottled KNF stuff. eBay/own site.

Green Hand Organics - lots of individual components, also do 25L all in one deal that's good value.
eBay/own site.

Indoor Organics - very comprehensive, most components can be gotten elsewhere for cheaper.
own site.

Indoor organics and Ecothrive also collaborated on a dry amendment pack called 'life cycle' that is pretty well distributed through the growshop supply chain thanks to Ecothrives popularity with charge/biosys/coir mixes. Much more so than the ecolife soil.

Maybe try order a bag of ecolife to try before going all in? Everything should be premixed in it to do one water only round before it needs topping up with owt. Start plants in something simple like 50/50 castings and coir.

There's a good 'UK organics suppliers' thread stickied in this forum too that's got some gems.

'blumat tropf' passive drippers make for tidy water only automation too.

I tried to stick to more straightforward stuff here rather than going off the deep end with all the different soil mix component suppliers but more certainty about how much of that you want to do will probably come after a first go with a known quantity.

Worth mentioning that perlite will break down over time in these soils hence everyone going sick for pumice and biochar.

moses wellfleet · Dec 9, 2020

Seeing that you are coming from hydro why not try a sip/wicking bed? You would use it with a dry amendment water only soil mix. I recommend the recipe by dank frank. You should be able to find all the ingredients or equivalents in the UK.

need4weed · Dec 13, 2020

bleepboop said:
Most of the UK bagged soil hasn't quite caught up to the standard of water only organic soil/no till raised beds you read about on here. Glad you liked the look of that soil mixes thread.

If you wanted a bagged soil off the shelf:

Indoor organics have been doing great but expensive living soil for a while and joined up with Ecothrive to put out a soil mix called ecolife that was a bit cheaper and distributed through hydro stores at £30/45L.

They're on the second version of it this year and it's very good.

If you wanted to mix your own base soil then add dry fertilisers that's become way simpler in the UK the last 2-3 years with a bunch of folks doing good value premixed packs you can dust a little on as a top dress throughout/at the end of each round/combine with your soil mix/use in aerated teas.

Dry amendments online:

Dr Forest - best dry amendment mix packs about and do some bottled KNF stuff. eBay/own site.

Green Hand Organics - lots of individual components, also do 25L all in one deal that's good value.
eBay/own site.

Indoor Organics - very comprehensive, most components can be gotten elsewhere for cheaper.
own site.

Indoor organics and Ecothrive also collaborated on a dry amendment pack called 'life cycle' that is pretty well distributed through the growshop supply chain thanks to Ecothrives popularity with charge/biosys/coir mixes. Much more so than the ecolife soil.

Maybe try order a bag of ecolife to try before going all in? Everything should be premixed in it to do one water only round before it needs topping up with owt. Start plants in something simple like 50/50 castings and coir.

There's a good 'UK organics suppliers' thread stickied in this forum too that's got some gems.

'blumat tropf' passive drippers make for tidy water only automation too.

I tried to stick to more straightforward stuff here rather than going off the deep end with all the different soil mix component suppliers but more certainty about how much of that you want to do will probably come after a first go with a known quantity.

Worth mentioning that perlite will break down over time in these soils hence everyone going sick for pumice and biochar.

Ok, I've come across these sites whilst researching. What I've decided to do is start with biobizz all mix as a base soil. I've amended it with elixir fish, blood and bone meal, alfalfa meal, insect frass, molding coffee grounds and seabird guano. I also purchased some leaf mold. I have lined the bottom of pots with leaf mold. Then 1/3 filled with amended biobizz soil and the rest with straight biobizz. I will feed with teas and top dressing along the way

St. Phatty · Dec 13, 2020

I switched from Rockwool with GH Nutes, to soil, in 2008.

Partially related to taking a class in Hot composting at the local junior college.

They're BOTH great !

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From hydro to indoor organics

need4weed

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Ibechillin

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mexweed

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noknees

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Lester Beans

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need4weed

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need4weed

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need4weed

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bleepboop

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moses wellfleet

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need4weed

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St. Phatty

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