I want to change my growing medium as westland + JI didnt work for me on my last grow. In fact it was a disaster.
My new girls are sticking out of some root riots with the seed shells still encompassing them. So early days. After reading oldtimers stickys i have decided to use JI#2 now and #3 for final pots. Can i use #2 say like tommorow when i put the babys into small pots or is this to early. Also a friend highly reccommended using perlite with JI as JI can be a bit compressed. If this is the case how much perlite to compost ratio would i be looking at ?, Should JI#2+3 be mixed at any time as some do. I was thinking of just using #3 on my final pot which would probably be 2 weeks before flower. What dyu think ?

One last non compost related question. How soon do you put your new borns under your enviros. I have an uncanny nack of leaving it to long so they always fall over leaving me to use supports and some have suffered from thinning where the stem meets the soil way after they where tall and gangly.. This is like when they are 10" plus. So for once i want to get it right.

I asked a question about lighting the other day and in compostvertes' reply to me, he said "If you actually want to start them growing in there. put some 20 watt CFLs at one end .. though I wouldn't use them beyond 14 days - or perhaps 7 days with rooted cuttings - at which point they want your 'flowering' lamp."

So by going with this, i'd assume once you pot them up, i'd go 7 days, give or take, but i could be just as well be wrong. Hope this is atleast some help for you though

Well i am or will be using a 200 watt enviro which is relativly harmless. I just dont want to put them in to early but then i cant do another round of stretchy failures.

All JI composts have a tendancy to compact. Using a gentle watering rose helps prevent this. Using perlite and other neutral substances simply takes away nutrients from the plant, it cannot eat perlite! So if use 25% perlite, you've taken away 25% useful compost. May as well have used a smaller pot and a lighter compost!
My own choice would be to avoid JI altogether, its a hard compost to use. But if used well, it works very usefully. I'd go straight into No. 3 and ditch the No.2 during the potting up stages of the plants life, if I was using JI.

What compost would you advise then arnold because i have read on other posts that JI is maybe not the best medium to use.

My top 2 choices:
No.1 - "Nature's Own Potting Compost". 100% Organic, a little tricky to work with but worth the effort. Downside: Hard to source and can take months to be delivered. £13 for 40L, delivery included. Or that was the case last year, anyway.
No.2 - "J. Arthur Bowyers Multi Purpose Potting Compost with added John Inness". Using it at the moment. Its an excellent compost, and produces excellent results. It is not, however, Organic. Cheap as chips from your local Garden Centre.

If I really must, I will use Levington's Multi-Purp. But its very peat rich, and not at all eco-friendly suff. Best avoided, really. I need to be desperate to use this stuff. Cheap, and widely available. Yields good enough herb, but taste and smell are less than they could be. Plants need careful attention as they seem more prone to disease and pests invasion, IME.

well personaly i've been lazy, once my clones root, i jumped right under my main lighting and doing better. my first grow i was waiting for my hid to get here so was living off super cheepie grow lights. had some streaching on mine to start but thankfuly was able to get things going in time. I'd say stick them under that light right now. it's not as bad as 3 600 hid's so you should be more then fine on that aspect. atleast imo.

Thanks, Option #2 sounds good. Can i use this from start to finish ? Why are some composts harder to work with and is a lot of peat an issue with composts.?

I will possibly chuck them straight under the enviro tonight. Thanks MH.

I use B&Q Seedling Compost to start things off in. But once cuts are rooted and seedlings establisehd, its straight into the JAB+JI.


Many reasons. Some, for example, have a dense structure that makes for a compacted pot. So one has to usea very delicate watering method to try and avoid this, as it does not allow for a really well settled rootball. Roots like a nice loose crumby strutcure, a tilth even. And the better the rootball, the better the yield
But others, or even the same ones too, can have poor nutrient content, so a careful eye needs to be kept on the plants for all and any signs of hunger.
Then there's the problem of pests and diseases which may be prsenet in a less than helpful compost.
And so on, and so forth ....


Peat is almost always taken in an eco-unfriedly way. Levingtons being a very good example. Search the web on peat extraction, there's tons. It's bad news. Except for "Moorland Gold" peat (used in my No.1 choice compost). Again, Google be your friend.
Hope this helps.
Be interesting to see other folks experience on composts. There's so many I have not tried.

this is what iv used for the last 3 grows ,and for now im sticking with it

I'm yank so I have to offer may not be valuable to you

I mix two commercial composts and coir fiber along with high strength additives. Details in me grow diary. I would write more but on an iPhone and need to get to bed

i mix levingtons with JI#3, JI has the feed and minerals, but shit structure the levvy has the structure i'm after, also can control the strenght of it by differening the amoun of JI used, or use a weaker JI.

i find westlands is really good on it's own, though a little hot. i use perlite as well, especially if i was using JI on it's own. it may remove nutrient providing compost, but it does add good airation and drainage to composts that hold too much water, and it holds onto nutrients in the soil water in plant available form.

although some ratios people suggest i find a bit extreme, 25% perlite is a LOT of perlite, i add <5% usually

to add, my other half just waxed her top lip, now it's all red and she looks like she's got herpes, fucking hilarious