The quest for chem-free buds

[imablackstar]

Fellow growers,

I'm sure all of you reading this organic section have similar reasons why to ditch the chems. I respect Nature, and my body too much to just recklessly stuff chemicals into my food and smoke ...well vapour actually, since I don't do combustion either

Anyway, I do have some growing experience behind me (1 successful, others not so much) but they were all chem grows. Now for the first time I really want to go organic, but every time I go about reading I get lost in too many combinations for perfect soil, etc, but not any efficient easy practical solutions. And NO, please don't call me lazy It's not that I have a hard time trying all this stuff, it's just where I live resources are limited. I guess I could order stuff of of ebay or similar, but yeah, my budget is also very limited

I guess what I'm trying to ask here is....are there any organic growers who had sucess just with minimal investments at first?

For example, this is what I have easiest access to where I live:

• Compo Sana universal potting soil for flowering plants
• Compo Guano liquid fertilizer NPK 4-5-6
• Bioagenasol liquid organic fertilizer - dried distiller’s grains (DDGS grain) with residual molasses, vinasse, PNC, CSL in various concentrations

I could also get my hands on BioBizz but I'd rather not because it's too damn expensive and I think that's just for the branding and good marketing since it is very popular among canna growers. Please prove me wrong here.

OK, so I really need a word of advice from experienced organic growers who could just take a glimpse by clicking on the links of these products i have access to, and just give me their opinion on this. Do you think this combo could be enough for a decent auto grow?

Of course, my ultimate goal would be to make my own mix of soil one day, but hey you gotta start somewhere. Why not here? I would very much like to hear some of you guy's opinions on this and I'll take any guidance you may provide cause I'm starting my indoor grow very soon

 

[Dazed]

Honestly, I've really been pondering using a standard organic compost with some chicken manure, epsom salts and molasses for flower. To that you could add some rock dust (Azomite) and seaweed meal(kelp).

 

[Joe383]

You should look at my current and next grow. My current grow has a lot of stuff but the new mix I have cooking was made to try and cut cost. I still have to buy 2 bags of soil every time but my amendments are not bad. I have started using steer manure instead of blood meal with awesome results which is nice because its only $2.50 a bag and last several grows. I am trying next grow to supplement a few things by replacing them with mushroom compost which is also only $2.50 a bag. I also don't think I need 5 things supplying P and K so I have cut down to only bat guano and later will try replacing it with maybe seabird guano as it is cheaper per pound. This is also one of the things I am hoping the mushroom compost helps a little with.The only thing I am worried about next grow is if I have enough K in my mix but I also am hoping the mushroom compost helps there too. I do a layered soil similar to how people grow photos in super soil. I have a veg mix and a bloom mix. My veg mix is a bag of roots organic with steer manure and lime added. This caries a plant for a long time in a #1 or #2 nursery pot. I then transplant to either a #7 or #15 nursery pot half filled with the bloom mix. I am still figuring things out but so far it is working great for me on most plants. My last auto pulled 78g dried. My current mix I have cooking has 1/2 of a #1 nursery pot in each the veg and bloom mixes so the bag should last quiet a while for me.

 

[imablackstar]

Wow, ok that's a lot of interesting info, @Joe383 . First thing I'm having trouble with here is understanding what exactly is steer manure? I tried googling it but I'm having trouble translating that to my language. Obviously, i can translate "steer" and "manure", but that is not very helpful, is it

As I wrote in my first post I am very limited with materials i can acquire in this country. I could get my hand on some of this stuff on ebay i guess. I also googled epson salt as @Dazed suggested and I also got a bit confused, is that the same thing as bath salts people use for relaxing and welness?

Just to mention, there is also a canna message board in my native language, but people there have very little experience with organic growing and generaly they just suggest to stick with chems because it is "easier and certain". That's not good enough for me and that's why i emabrked on this "quest for chem free buds" ...looks like the first thing to conquer is the language barrier and trying to figure out what exactly all this stuff is, where to get it and in what ratios to mix it in the soil.

One thing I am a bit afraid of is experimenting with all this, as with my investment in seeds i already spent most of my budget. That's why I am trying to find most secure solution, recipe, call it what you will. In my original post i listed the materials I have easy access to. Maybe combining this with some of these salts, meals or whatever could do the trick. I guess I am searching for an answer that is hard to get as probably no one reading this tried Bioagenasol or Compo Guano... or am I wrong?

What to conclude..should I just mix something and experiment? I am really not sure

 

[Dazed]

I have no experience with the products you listed but looking at them I think they would work fine. You may have to add some epsom salts to a few feedings or just mix some in with your soil before you start. The feeds you listed seem to cover all bases, it's always going to be trial and error when using new products, organic or chem. I can vouch for Biobizz soil, I love it, but it's what works for you. If you could get some Biobizz Allmix, that would see you through the first 4 weeks of an auto with no additional feeding needed, you could then use the feeds to see it through flower.

 

[lilm00re14]

I use the Aptus line with Earth juice sweet and heavy as my base NPK.

So far I'm really happy with them used in conjunction with one another. The flavors and aromas are quite robust.
If your looking for cheap organics the General Organics Go Box is less then 40$ and is not a bad kit

 

[Joe383]

Steer manure is cow poop. You could use other manures instead. Old horse poo would work better than cow but I have easy access to cow. You want the manure to be at least a year old though. Fresh burns the plants too easily. Yes the Epsom salt I get in the medicine section of my store. Its what people soak there feet in. I would not use my current mix but would follow tell I fine tune it more as its still not perfect. One plant in it is doing good and another is not liking it. I used too much manure this round.

Some of the things you might have on hand are wood ash for potassium and to raise PH of soil after you have added something acidic like a manure. You can add a little used coffee grounds to your soil, leaf mulch and crushed egg shells. A little is better than too mush on every thing. You can always add but its hard to take away.

I have had great success with the steer manure and lime in my soil. You could start there and then just get a good bloom nutrient. This will get you past the veg stage and eliminate the need for the veg nutrients. The only problem is I know it works in my soil and I don't know how well it will work in yours. My soil is low PH out of the bag so some of the lime I add is to also raise the PH of the soil it self. If your soil PH is fine than I would start at 1/4 gallon steer manure and 1 table spoon lime to your bag of soil mix let it sit for 3 to 4 weeks before using it and if all goes good than add an extra 1/4 gallon next time and 1 more table spoon of lime. After a few grows once you got your base mix figured out and no longer need veg nutrients than start worrying about the bloom side of your soil mix.

 

[Joe383]

The stuff you posted looks pretty good. I would use them.

 

[imablackstar]

Hey thanks for all the info. This is how I decided to go about things: (this plan may change as I learn more stuff here )

I will buy some generic conpost and mix it with a bit of cow manure (i can get "ripe" cow manure from the store) Not sure how much manure to put in though, probably a small amount, since the compost will probably be pretty "hot" by itself. Then I would add a bit of dolomite and epsom salts. (not sure yet where to buy those 2).

Then I guess the next best step would be to measure the pH of this mix. Not sure how to do that, should I mix it with water and then measure the pH of that water?

Next step, depending on the measured pH I would add sawdust, ash, baking soda, etc. I'm guessing this will require A LOT of experimenting

Later, deeper in the flowering stage, I would add those 2 liquid fertilizers I mentioned, guano and that fermented wheat with molasses. Not sure weather to mix them in very small amounts and add every week, or maybe to rotate them, one per week.

This all sounds like A LOT experimenting and I am a bit sceptic, I must admit, as I put most of my budget in buying the seeds and really don't want to screw it up

Would very much appreciate any comments on this from all you guys!

 

[Jraven]

I'm just getting started on this myself, but I can tell you I've spent about as much on soil building supplies as i did on the seeds. I maybe could have spent less but it's something to think about...