Is soil really too hot for autos?

[Stroke]

Roots Organic, Fox Farm soils, all need the same thing. Beneficial microbes and Bacteria, Streptomyces, and the list goes on. In soil grows one feeds the soil, and not really the plant though you can supplement feeds with chemical nutrients. A healthy soil will be diverse in microbes, and those microbes must be feed and kept happy. They will inturn care for the plant through a symbiotic relationship, just exactly what occurs in nature. What you are experiencing is your nutrients that are in the soil ran out of steam, that and as the plant matures and goes through hormone changes its requirements also change. When you grow in a pot with soil think of it as a small eco system diverse with life and your plant happens to be there, there are beneficial microbes in the soil (which can be inoculated) which protect your plant from pathogens and virsus's which IMO are more common then people think. When you add soil, fill the pot under 2/3rds full...Why? So you can add topsoil at say day 20 and again at day 40 in anticipation of the soil losing its steam, and also add nutes such as CalMag especially if under LED lights, AUTO's love it and will show deficiencies if they don't get what they want.

When a soil is too hot it will fry a seedling, which I have done, weird growth, crispy leaves and they check out, we lost some CBD strains trying to come up with a soil that would last with just water.

There are many great microbe products, we tend to favor the Blacksmith Bio Science line, but a good overall product that many should consider using is all growers Recharge.
Soil might play some role in a 'dwarfed' auto however this is probably due to over feeding..... When you feed in a soil it is slower reacting then hydro, so don't expect to see results right away.

Which brings me to BioBizz light mix...…. I am currently conducting a test grow with this medium and going to rely on the new formula of Megacrop. I have stuck with Fox Farm Ocean Forrest and Happy Frog because of it SIMPLY working, in my small grows, in my large grows, and I get it rather inexspensive. With that said I can be stubborn as I have been doing this for 4 decades and really wanted to simplify what we do. I tried KIND soil and this fried 2 plants (Mephisto's) once the roots hit the soil. That soil needs to be cut with coco and maybe Happy Frog and retested but I haven't gone there yet. BioBizz is a weaker mix or less hot or however you choose to phrase it, it will need nutrients sooner, which MegaCrop according to the claims of the Manufacture should be enough, we shall see, however in the 1st few weeks I will be focusing on building a microbe population with this mix, hopefully the results I get will be satisfactory enough for us to consider using it in our medical grows. I love learning, and never think I know it all, sometimes Iearn from the newest of newbies, because they don't have stubborn old habits like I might.

Thanks for the feedback and validation. I have megacrop and recharge. I also just ordered a bag of Bio-Bizz light yesterday. I also purchased another ph pen to check my other ph pen. I'm so determined to get this right.

I will do a beginners grow diary and tag the pros here to help me see it through in about two weeks. Trying to choose which strains to run. I'm thinking two cbd dominant autos and two thc dominant autos.

We shall see what happends.

 

[Stroke]

Hope you don't mind if I tag along, your grow is VERY basic, simplistic in its nature, and oh so interesting!!

I don't mind at all. It might be wishful thinking, but I think the more perspectives I read, the better I get. In a perfect world I will be able to get decent yields with a simple process.

I'm to lazy and cheap to be a master grower. I don't need football sized nugs. A bunch of golf ball sized nugs would make me happy

 

[Time]

I don't mind at all. It might be wishful, but I think the more perspectives I read, the better I get. In a perfect world I will be able to get decent yields with a simple process.

I'm to lazy and cheap to be a master grower. I don't need football sized nugs. A bunch of golf ball sized nugs would make me happy

I'm trying lazy and cheap. I don't know how it will turn out but the link to my grow journal is in my signature.

 

[pop22]

If your feeding bottled nutes to plants in organic soil like that, you over feeding them. I've grown autos in every fashion you can imagine, and have never had an issue with organic soil, but you need to grow start to finish with it. I've nor used roots Organic but I have used FFOF and Happy Frog. I add some garden lime as a ph bufffer, and a little Azomite for added micro nutrients. Don't mess with teas until you learn to work your organic soil. Top dress with a dry nutrient like Doctor Earth or Jobes about a week or two into flower. PH your water to 6.5.
"
Here's a Blue Dragon, 48" tall in a 2 gallon pot of my own mix of organic soil

 

[Waira]

I don't think it's the Roots soil, in general it's one of the more reliable and stable for quality, pH, etc., from what I've experienced myself, and from feedback here...Original is fairly mild, 707 is hotter.... Quality, it can depend on where it was made, local sourcing and all that... Fox Farm soils I'd avoid for this reason in particular,... I'd say OF is the [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] problem soil I see in here, almost always an off pH issue, badly acidic.. I have measured several bags over the last few years, and all were in the low 5's right in the bag = ... undercooked, urea-aged mulch, sticks and stones crap, bugs ... Some folks still get OK bags though... ... I hear good feedback on BlackMagic soil, a few folks said the Dr. Earth soil works well,.. My go-to is the new addition from Royal Gold brand, King's Mix, their first true soil (they are coco folks mainly)... very nice performing soil, a lighter mix than Roots or Happy Frog, it dries more quickly... pH stayed in range all through, using both organic and synthetic nutes, not being too fussy about checking/adjusting final pH before feeding, though I do test often... Usually you get a feel for the mix you make and know where pH will end-up roughly, but that's also an experience based evaluation, I still recommend new growers staying with the discipline on testing inputs!
So, T and RH% are in reasonable ranges for sure? T looks good, RH% that's best changes stage to stage though, higher during seedling/early veg, to lower during later stages of bloom.... What has yours ranged? And night temps especially, I found after getting my first real tent how much that matters! Staying in upper 60's at least made for a big jump in size...
....Have you read up on vapor pressure deficit, VPD? There's a good article and video in the Reference section, which will connect some great dots on how T, RH%, air movement and transpiration interact..
Nutes and supp's.... good brands, what were your dosages, frequency? Mind MC for bloom, the overwhelming opinion here is that MC doesn't give the best results alone for bloom, too much N for that stage, generally not enough P,... growers like Dabber used MC alone for some runs, then noticed the bud: leaf ration on familiar strains were not up to par, and that often caused by too much N, out of proper ration balance with P and K for bloom; he reduced the MC, added in a PK booster, and got better results, as have many others here...
FF nutes, as long as you use Tiger as the base bloom nute, you good,.. some folks tried the Big Bloom, thinking it was as it says in name, but it ain't! total misnomer, IMO,.. look at the NPK#'s, all in the decimal range, beyond weak; it's great stuff, but it's not really a sufficient fertilizer per se,...
Inoculants are great, check on that.... ... molasses is OK for Ca and Mg, has a little K and Fe too, but mainly it's the carb's in there that feed the soil herd, ramping them up, which in turn benefits the plants,... If you have actual Ca or Mg issues, I'd still use a dedicated Ca-Mg product for treatment,....
Lights seem OK, minding your distances properly? What schedule were the auto's on? I know Sweet's F1FV's very well, but they are still fully "photo's", and need those reduced light hours for blooming,... auto's under that same sched' will not do well at all,...