Advice on organics please

[Artificial Emotion]

I'm not so sure you should be adding stuff like worm castings and coco to PM Soil Supreme. Someone mentioned they were going to do this and OT1 said in no uncertain terms that PM Soil Supreme is designed to work as is i.e. any changes and you are altering the designed properties of the medium. It is designed by people with good knowledge of the horticultural science and changing it might be playing with fire.

I might be wrong and I wanted to do something vaguely similar before I read OT1s advice. If I am wrong it would be great if someone could say as I wouldn't mind doing something like this if it's at al possible.

Don't get me wrong mate, I'm certainly no expert! I was just letting others just my current setup, it worked fine for me on my last grow so thought might as well share.

The only thing I've not tried out of that was the Worm Casts but my thinking was that the PM's compost has very little nutrients in so adding a little worm casts would just save adding liquid nutrients for a few days and I read that it doesn't burn plants at all. I also thought it would liven the soil up a bit and work as a kind of soil conditioner, adding benifical bacteria and trace elements etc.

That last grow was 50% PM's Soil Supreme and 50% Canna Coco Plus, it worked completely fine for me, was an excellent medium, great drainage properties, very light and airy mix that was spongey to the touch. It was watering 5ltr pots 1ltr every 2 days, so wasn't to dry if you know what I mean.

I'm sure that PM's compost is great on its own though but I've had problems in the past with poor composts compacting on me and restricting root growth so I thought I'd air on the side of caution this time and try adding the inert coco to make a more airy light mix but still having the compost there for the microherd to thrive in. I just mixed the two 50/50 and it looked and felt nice to the touch so decided to give it a go and it served me well.

This time I've deciding to go for slightly less Coco and add the worm casts to the mix instead. So this time I'm going to start with 50% PM's Soil, 40% Canna Coco and 10% Plagron Worm Casts with a dash of Rock Dust and then as the plants establish them selves I'll most likely reduce the coco and increase the compost ratio.

OT1 is the guy in the know so to be on the safe side your best off following his advice... maybe though he was just saying that there's no need to add anything to it as it's a great stand alone medium and adding anything to that could compromise it. It was an experiment at the time and seemed great for me but maybe I'm wrong though and they wern't as good as they could have been.

Best of luck finding something that suites your needs mate.

Thanks for replying to the concerns I had. I hope you don't mind me saying that if I were going down the route you're taking, I would can the worm castings and replace it with loam. Loam is a great home for the microherd and I would then use the castings to make an AACT and add this to the loam as a soil drench. The AACT would provide a greter number of microorganisms than straight worm poo and the loam would provide a great environment for them.

Also, just for the record I've never had issues with PM Soil Supreme compacting but I can see why this would be a concern for you as this is an issue with some mediums.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Artificial Emotion

[George123]

Hi guys I'm aware I'm 8 years too late to the thread but I'm new to the grow game and I'm after better results than this year!

im just checking that I am right in thinking that potting in straight compost is adequate? I don't need to mix compost with garden soil or topsoil?

cheers

Edited February 27, 2018 by George123

[Muppet]

Yup, throw them in straight compost. 

[MyDisplayName2000]

John Innes no 3 was mentioned, takes me back a bit that one, but before all the fancy soils, supposedly designed for cannabis, John Innes was often the base of a DIY soil base.

 

What put a lot of people off was the fact garden centres often stored bags outside and it was not too uncommon for you to get pests in there. As we all know, all it takes is a few pests in an indoor grow and they will breed away and infest unless your looking over those leaves with a small microscope.

 

I've used a lot of the cannabis specific soils and to be fair, the main reason they sell is down to a clean soil that is often linked with specific fertilisers, Canna, Plagron and Bio Bizz etc. Follow the feeding schedule and the beginner grower is more likely to succeed first time. That's why these soils sell plus many growers now just start off that way and give little thought to the gardening basics which helped the first growers put out decent weed.

 

I'd always advise a new grower to go the easy route first time. I may cost a bit more but generally speaking, it will get you set up and at a point were the gardening knowledge will grow through experience and tons of reading.

 

Good luck!

[Percygrower_420]

16 hours ago, George123 said:

Hi guys I'm aware I'm 8 years too late to the thread but I'm new to the grow game and I'm after better results than this year!

im just checking that I am right in thinking that potting in straight compost is adequate? I don't need to mix compost with garden soil or topsoil?

cheers

dude have a look into using these four things and the results should improve if everything is dialled in correctly.

worm castings mixed with KELP & Rock dust. Then fish emulsion to feed em a little. BOOM tastier bud

 

 

[MyDisplayName2000]

Agree with the above, especially worm castings. A litre of castings per 10 litre of soil will do those plants the world of good. I've used higher ratios plus ground up castings in a mixer then used it as a nice treat by mixing it in with plain water. (first let it steep in a couple of litres of warm water)

 

Wish I had the space for a worm farm.

[medhead]

On 27/02/2018 at 7:02 PM, George123 said:

Hi guys I'm aware I'm 8 years too late to the thread but I'm new to the grow game and I'm after better results than this year!

im just checking that I am right in thinking that potting in straight compost is adequate? I don't need to mix compost with garden soil or topsoil?

cheers

depends on your compost really. i personally mix 50% vermiculite and/or perlit with my compost i find it gives much better growth than strait compost. worm castings or insect frass can be mixed to aid the microbiome. you dont want to add any garden soil or topsoil.