Indoor How NOT to grow in soil, step by step.

[Stunted]

Step 1: Don't read anything on the front or back of the grow products you are buying.

Step 2: Buy Composted organic soil, Dolomite Lime, Seed Raising mix, Blood & Bone based fert, Vermiculite, Perlite, Diatomacious Earth and lastly you get approximately 20 Lt of ones old soil mix (has to be one that you cant remember what you put in it, and it must be a prefert mix also).

Step 3: Read nothing and get a tarp and shovel, ring the brother to come around and mix the shit (I physically cannot do it)

Step 4: Now you should have about 55-60Lt of a wonderful looking soil mix.

Step 5: Check PH is around 6.3ish (omit this if you have no meter, it really wont mater anyway)

Step 6: Bag up your new soil mix and store it in the shed for at least 4 weeks, use this time to do some cabinet work as I did.

Step 7: Fill your preferred container to within 2" of the top, add 1/2 inch of seed raising mix (has to be loaded with ferts), then top with some Perlite.
For epic failure I suggest using Amgrow Black Label Seed Raising Mix (see - Amgrow Seed Raising Mix Review )

Step 8: Pop beans using paper towel method, then plant in your container.

Step 9: Water a little, I used PHed water but at this point battery acid would suffice.

Step 10: Like a proud little warrior put your container under some lights (I use a 250w HPS) but by now sitting them beside a lit candle will do.

Step 11: Now ignore them for a week while you do some more work on your cabinet.

Step 12: So now you have your little seedlings nicely stunted and a little crispy you should water them with some 700ppm grow nutes (note ignore runoff for best effect)

Step 13: See Step 11, then continue to step 14

Step 14: By now several weeks have past and your little seedlings are now really looking shit, so feed them again with 700ppm grow nutes and ignore them for a few days.

Step 15: About now you should get your soil and liquid testers out to try and find your problem....which I assure you will become apparent very quickly if you have an EC meter or similar.

Step 16: Start panicking as you see some huge numbers on your EC meter, immediately start flushing everything including the toilet...as you have likely crapped your pants by this stage.

Step 17: Open "Notepad" and start typing your tale of woe, then when complete post it for everyone to look and laugh because you were too lazy to check things.

Shit this is a long post....

So how bad was my soil mix really, well I shall tell you after a few minor details:

Cabinet temp: 26.8c (nice eh)
Running a 250w HPS with cooltube.
Water in was set exactly at 6.4, water was tested with two separate electronic testers and both showed a PH of 6.4
My EC meter uses a .7 conversion
Each was checked for PH before watering using a soil PH meter.
Each plant was given 250ml of 6.4 water and the runoff was immediately tested for PH and EC.

So here goes:

Plant 1: BS
Soil PH = 6.4
Runoff: PH = 7.3
EC = 2.7 or 1890ppm

Plant 2: BS
Soil PH = 6.4
Runoff: PH = 7.2
EC = 2.2 or 1540ppm

Plant 3: BS
Soil PH = 6.0
Runoff PH: 7.0
EC = 2.9 or 2030ppm

Plant 4: BS
Soil PH = 6.6
Runoff PH: 7.0
EC = 2.6 or 1820ppm

Plant 5: S60
Soil PH = 6.4
Runoff: PH = 6.9
EC = 2.7 or 1890ppm

Plant 6: BS
Soil PH = 6.4
Runoff: PH = 7.0
EC = 3.1 or 2170ppm

Plant 7: BS
Soil PH = 6.4
Runoff PH: 7.0
EC = 2.3 or 1610ppm

Plant 8: BS
Soil PH = 6.5
Runoff PH: 7.0
EC = 2.4 or 1680ppm

Plant 9: S60
Soil PH = 6.2
Runoff: PH = 7.0
EC = 2.7 or 1890ppm

Plant 10: BS
Soil PH = 6.4
Runoff: PH = 7.0
EC = 2.9 or 2030ppm

Plant 11: S60
Soil PH = 6.2
Runoff PH: 6.9
EC = 3.1 or 2170ppm

Plant 12: S60
Soil PH = 6.0
Runoff PH: 7.1
EC = 5.7 or 3990ppm (NOTE: 5.7 was after second flush, first runoff made my EC meter display - - -, in other words it was off the scale)

Plant 13: BS
Soil PH = 6.0
Runoff PH: 7.0
EC = 3.9 or 2730ppm

Mix components picture:


So I made up two 500ml small pots.
Pot 1:
2 1/2" soil mix
1/2" Amgrow seed raising mix
very thin layer of DE
1/2 Perlite

Pot 2:
3" of Seed raising mix
1/2 Perlite

Each was then tested with my soil PH meter:
Soil Mix pot:
Soil Mix before water:


Soil mix after water:


Soil mix runoff:


Seed raising mix pot:
Seed raising mix before water:


Seed raising mix after water:


Seed raising mix runoff:


Now you can see where the problem is
The END.

 

[Stunted]

I swear I truly suck at soil growing, I am planning to pop 10 more S60 and stay very basic with it and see how I go.
What is really funny is that all 13 plants are still alive....autoflower plants take some effort to kill it seems

Note: All 13 plants were flushed until an EC of 1.0 (700ppm), but with the slow release fert shit that was in the old 20Ltr it may be a waste of time.

 

[Stunted]

Plants 2, 3, 4, 8 and 13 are males and just got ripped out, did a quick test on P3 and P2.
As I suspected the PPM is going up again....

P3: Was at 700ppm and 7.0PH
And now it's 910 and 7.2PH


P2: Was at 700ppm and 7.2PH
And now it's 980ppm and 7.3PH

 

[AndyBotwin]

Hahaha! Classic!
You forgot "Keep your lights high, as close to the ceiling as possible or keep lights as low as possible, preferably touching the leaves"

LOL!

Step 15 - Post a message with no pics and precious few details asking for someone to tell you how to fix your plants. When no one responds within 15 minutes, post a series of increasingly hostile and frantic replies culminating in a demand to have your account deleted.

 

[Stunted]

LOL!

Step 15 - Post a message with no pics and precious few details asking for someone to tell you how to fix your plants. When no one responds within 15 minutes, post a series of increasingly hostile and frantic replies culminating in a demand to have your account deleted.

True Andy, true.
I forgot all about the infirmary, but it would of been considered spam

On a slightly happier note I have two females so far, one BS (P10) and one S60 (P11), both would be lucky if they were more than 2" high.

Now I would appreciate some input as too what I should grow in.
I have bought two x cheap potting mix (no added anything), I also picked up two x Coco-peat bricks.
The other stuff I have available are: Dolomite Lime, Vermiculite, Perlite, Diatomacious Earth

So what would you do or mix in?
Soil mix or Coco peat?

 

[agito]

keep it simple use your potting mix with 10-15% coir then add bloom nutes come flower

 

[Stunted]

Thanks for the input guys,

I can also experiment a little, eg some with potting mix and some with coco etc
But I will be using DE to combat fungus gnats no matter what medium I use, they are hard to control here but since getting some DE it has stopped them so far.

I have 10 BS and 10 S60 in paper towel, should have some popped in a day or two.

 

[GnomeGrown]

I didn't know you could/supposed to check the runoff ppm of soil

 

[Jackal]

Step 16: Start panicking as you see some huge numbers on your EC meter, immediately start flushing everything including the toilet...as you have likely crapped your pants by this stage.

LOL, got a good laugh with this one.

 

[Stunted]

I didn't know you could/supposed to check the runoff ppm of soil

Indeed, it is simple enough if you have electronic meters.
Collect some runnoff and test

@Jackal, with my soil growing skills there is a laugh a minute