Soil

[420ftw]

is it OK for me to use "miracle grow" soil to start my plants?

or should I find something else?

 

[annscrib]

hi there m/g anit bad,,,, but unless you are experience grower i would say get some kind of dirt without the feed in it,,,,, if you use dirt with feed in itand dont know what you are doing,, you can cause toxic salt build up on the plant

 

[godspeedsuckah]

Ann is right. If you get the soil which feeds for 3 months don't plan on using any fertilizer until you are already into flowering stage and then use only 1/4 of what they reccomend.

 

[420ftw]

so just use some non-fertilized potting soil? what about mixing it with peatmoss?

 

[Alistair]

Get soil without the fertilizer already included. I don't know about peat moss. I use Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil myself; it is an organic soil with everything you need to get started. The only thing I add to it is dolomite lime. FFOF soil has nutrients in it, but not in the form of fertilizers, but rather, in the form of organic material from soil and the sea. So, look for potting soil that is organic, but doesn't have fertilizer in it.

Do a search on this site and you will get some good ideas on how to make your own soil mix. Off the top of my head, if I couldn't get FFOF soil I'd get some basic potting soil, vermiculite, perlite, and dolomite lime, and make my mix with that. After making the mix I'd depend upon fertilizers to give my plants the nutrients they need. Some people add stuff like bone meal and blood meal. Do a search and you will see.

 

[la9]

For the best results go and get Pro Mix Organic soil, you can't go wrong and I've always had my best results using this soil. $7.99 a bag.

http://www.premierhort.com/eProMix/Gardening/RetailerLocator/fRetailerLocator.htm

 

[godspeedsuckah]

If you live in an area where all you can get is walmart or lowes soil and do not want to order over the internet than mg soil will be fine for you. Like I wrote earlier, do not use any fertilizers until about the 3 or 4th week of flowering and then only sparingly. I have had grows in it and they came out great, no chemical taste and super smoke. I am fortunate enough to have a grow shop 20 minutes from my house so I use foxfarm now. Fox farm is good, no doubt, but it has its limitations as well. I have found that it stays at a pretty steady ph of 7 - 7.2 so you need to ph your water in order for the plant to utilize all the soil properly. Either way read up on everything you possibly can and dont think more food for my girls is better, cause it isnt.

 

[slowmo77]

so just use some non-fertilized potting soil? what about mixing it with peatmoss?

yes this is correct. if you use peat moss remember to add some lime to the soil as well. i would use any nontime released soil with added lime and perlite unless you can afford a quality soil. jmo

 

[papabeach1]

use organic miracle grow, not the regular m/g
add 50% pertiles in a whole bag of organic soils. 30%to40% of peat moss,

then you got some good fresh soils, dont use nutes until seeding is done, and feed them when they are like 6 to 8 week IMO when cloves appears would be right time to feed nutes/watering

 

[omnigr33n]

I used regular MG on my first grow. I had a few setbacks, but it wasn't that bad. People on these forums helped me out a lot. I am currently using MG potting soil on two of my three plants. The third one is in an organic potting soil with organic nutrients.

 

[TheEnhancementSmoker]

See my sig for what I use.

 

[slowmo77]

the soil i have was mg when i started indoors last year. now i recycle my soil by mixin composted cow poo, wormcastings, lime, and perlite before planting.

 

[bombbudpuffa]

You can go to your local flower shop and ask them to sell you what they use to grow plants with besides MG. They usually have some MG(customers usually buy) and some good soil(they use to plant with). They will sell you a bag of what they use. Thats how I found out about Sunshine Potting Soil. It's like cheap Promix. They had such pretty flowers and I asked what they used and asked if they'd sell me a bag.