What are the best organic nutrients that I can make or buy?

[critical]

any suggestions would be a big help. :worried

 

[gooey]

to many to name...goto ur local store n ask them to show you everything they carry thats organic...some places to start are...earth juice, certain fox farm things,bio-canna,general organics, humbolt nutrients....the list goes on if you get into non bottle shit...gl with your hunt...look about the forum a bit more...tons of info...gl

 

[Seamaiden]

Or if you're like me and don't have a local hydro, just use good quality locally-sourced organic feeds. Or, go to eBay and find Blue Mountain Organics, buy their all-in-one pack and see how you like it. Their stuff is pretty much fail-proof.

 

[CT Guy]

Don't go to a hydro shop would be my advice. Go to a feed store.

Kelp meal, alfalfa meal, worm castings, etc....there's plenty of good ingredients at 1/100th the price.

 

[Blaze]

Yeah that is a VERY broad question. I can only comment on the products I've used or that people I've worked with have used.

Fox Farm is pure shit IMO, never use anything from them. Virtually none of their products are actually organic either. The are the bottom of the bucket as far as organic nutrients go.

Age Old I've seen some people get good results with and I've also seem it kill plants. Their quality seems to be inconsistent - when the make their products properly they seem to work well. When they don't however, it can and will cause issues. I don't like messing around with nutrients that you never know what the expect so I avoid Age Old now as well.

Earth Juice is just sort of "meh." Nothing bad about it but nothing amazing. Works decently but I've gotten better results with other stuff.

Humboldt Nutrients I've heard good things about but it is expensive. Haven't tried it myself but the cost is quite prohibitive so I do not see using their nutrient line ever.

My favorite so far has been the Botanicare organic and organic based products. They have been consistent for several years in a row now. I have yet to ever get a bad batch from them. Their products work well for the most part too - I've been quite happy witht he yield and quality I've pulled using their products.

That being said I wont be using Botanicare this year. Been slowly shifting to a more sustainable approach and will be using mostly home brewed compost tea, nutrient teas, and bulk soil amendments like CT Guy recommended. I also want to not use guanos and guano products anymore, and many of the Botanicare products are guano-based. The few liquid nutrients I do plant to use to supplement will be bulk OMRI listed ag products - no more getting bilked at the hydro store this year :)

 

[zombywolf]

You are leaving out Pura Vida. Has more consistant quality than Earth Juice, as good or better than Fox Farm at lower cost. Simple to use- 15ml/gallon Grow or Bloom. Add 5ml AN Nirvana in middle of flowering, and use one of the enzymes throughout and you are set.

 

[paulycali]

ROOTS ORGANICS "aurora innovations"

IGUANA JUICE "advanced nutrients"

My two favorites at the moment

Keep them in mind for sure!

 

[primeform]

damn that iguana juice is expensive. You would think they had to raise real iguanas and squeeze it out of them or soemthing!

 

[TacomaComa]

General Organics.

 

[CT Guy]

Critical,

You're going to have to weigh in with more info. if you want useful feedback. Do you want a bottled nutrient line, or are you trying to make your own?

 

[true grit]

Super soil or some teas. Personally Im a fan of Age Old as many ol school organics guys are and have had no issues over time. Just me though and some die hard homies.

 

[Bubblemang]

pretty sure pure vida isn't organic by any definition. pure vida is for sure a little toxic. i ran age old for a decade before switching it up. great results, love the kelp.
Pure Vida MSDS:



But the original question should just be answered simply. I think the correct answer for this sub-forum would be to build yourself a true soil. U Peace can give you a proper recipe.

Here's part of what I will be handing out at the farmer's market next week regarding soil mixes and teas, aka the best way to go in the organic soil sub-forum. re-use soil, your old potting mix, if you can.

Mix well, moisten & let stand for 1-2 wks. www.mattrize.blogspot.com

8 large bags of high quality organic potting soil with coco and Mycorrhizae
25-50 lbs. of organic worm castings
5 lbs. of Blood meal 12-0-0
5 lbs. Bat guano 0-5-0
5 lbs. Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0
¾ cup Epsom salt
1 cup Sweet lime (Dolomite)
½ cup Azomite ( Trace element)
2 Tbs. powdered Humic acid --Subcool's Super Soil
*epsom salts

40 gallons used soil, or organic potting soil
4 cups alfalfa meal
4 cups bone meal
4 cups kelp meal
4 cups powdered dolomite lime
30 pound bag of earthworm castings . . .
That’s the basic recipe . . . However we also like to use:
4 cups of Greensand
4 cups of Rock Phosphate
4 cups of diatomaceous earth. --Three Little Birds Method

Aerated Compost Tea (AACT or ACT) - A process involving adding oxygen to: water, compost (in a large 'tea' bag), and a food source for the biology in the compost. By creating optimal conditions for aerobic microbes, AACT allows you to multiply the biology in the starting compost by over 10,000 times. Many plant pathogens are anaerobic and prefer low to no oxygen conditions. By making sure the tea and the compost itself are well oxygenated and highly aerobic, you can potentially eliminate 75 percent of the potential plant-disease-causing bacteria and plant-toxic products.

Compost Tea Recipe: ½ cup compost (worm castings), 1½ tbsp organic molasses, 1tsp yucca juice, ½ tsp fish hydrolysate, ½ tsp kelp meal. Per gallon.

Directions: Use chlorine-free water, the best local compost you can find, bubble vigorously 24 to 28 hours. Strain. Dilute 1:20 or more. Spray on your plants and water into the soil during low light conditions.

What is Compost Tea? By Tim Wilson www.microbeorganics.com
Very simply stated Compost Tea is a water-based environment wherein beneficial microorganisms are extracted from compost or vermicompost (worm compost) and multiplied by the millions and billions. Some form of agitation breaks the microbes free from the compost and they multiply because food, like black strap molasses, fish hydrolysate, kelp meal, humic acid, etc. has been added to the water, which at least one type of microbe digests.

When one or more type of microbe begins to multiply in response to the food, other microbes respond to this growth and begin to consume these initial microbes and multiply in turn and so on and so on. For example the initial microbes are usually bacteria which are food for protozoa so the protozoa multiply in response to the bacteria. The end result is a functional feeding cycle or microbial nutrient cycle. I refer to this as a functional microbial consortia. This tea develops over a period of 12 to 72 hours or more and is then applied to the soil and plants.

In the soil there are a number of organisms which function in basically the same nutrient cycle and zone. Once again, simply stated, there are substances released from the roots of plants which feed bacteria (& archaea). Again, the bacteria/archaea become prey to the protozoa and the protozoa excrete substances which are available to the roots as nutrients (e.g. nitrogen) thus creating a feeding cycle.

Other compost/soil microorganisms of great importance are fungi. Fungal hyphae, are long branching strands which grow through the soil and serve to; bind soil aggregates together, help retain moisture, store certain nutrients, provide a source of food to certain other microbes, provide pathways for nutrient and moisture delivery, decompose organic material and displace disease causing fungi.

There are also other types of fungi which do not grow (to my knowledge) in compost or Compost Tea which form a direct symbiotic nutrient exchange relationship with roots. This sort of fungi is called mycorrhizal fungi and there are many different species.

The major microorganisms at work in Compost Tea are bacteria, protozoa (flagellates, ciliates and amoebae) and fungal hyphae if present in your compost. It is best to have a wide diversity of each of these microbes present. There are higher order organisms like nematodes found in compost and soil and occasionally these are extracted into Compost Tea but they do not grow nor multiply in the tea. Of course in the soil there are many other contributors to the nutrient cycle, like insects, earthworms and other animals. In its totality this is often referred to as the soil food web.

 

[dank_]

I use Subcool's SuperSoil. I spent a little over $200 on all the ingredients (8bags of base soil).


^^^Bubblemang - good stuff!

 

[XxShibbyxX]

I made my own super soil this year and man is it cheaper than buying it in bags..

Try finding your local bulk yard an see how much a cubic yard of topsoil is..

I got topsoil from my bulk yard and got all the amendments from a local nursery they came in 3 cubic ft bags. Black forest if im not mistaken.

The cool thing about the amendments i bought was that i only needed 50% of the total weight. So say i bought 2000 gallons of topsoil i only needed 1000 gallons of amendments. I added about 30 cubic ft of composted chicken manure as well.

Basically after everything added i was able to get over 4000 gallons of soil for less than 1800$ i dont have numbers in front of me but its well over 3 or 400 bags of soil if they were being bought at 1cubic ft a piece like most soils are sold.

Your gonna wanna let it sit at least 3-4 weeks though before planting into it..

I used it for my babies im getting ready to put outside and they seems to be adapting very well so im excited.

Do some research i think supersoil is the way to go hands down.

Good luck with whatever you choose though

 

[zombywolf]

Bubblemang,

Before you start scaring the pee out of all Pura Vida users with your selective MSDS sheet, take a look at a couple of things. First, note that that analysis was done by a 3rd party Canadian firm using international guidelines. The majority of the hazards were maybe this and that, with more certainity on burns on drinking the stuff than feeding plants with it. If you look at Age Old and Pure Blend MSDS, you wont find any international 3rd party doing the analysis-the companies put them out themselves. Dont you think that if the same Canadian firm looked at their stuff, they wouldnt say much of the same as Pura Vida? For example, if you read the Age Old MSDS, the composition of their formula is "not applicable". Excuse me? On the Pura MSDS sheet it is spelled out. How can a MSDS be valid if they dont disclose what is in it? Because the company wrote it, not a third party. If you look at the two, you can see a lot more detail in the Pura sheet than Age Old. Go a step even farther and look at Pure Blend-same situation, company generated MSDS. Of course you can argue the organic point- all the major "organic" fert companies do their products differently. You have to look into the formulas to see what makes sense as organic to you. If Age Old is a better organic formula, how come the label lists 1% organic nitrogen to Pura Vida's 6% organic nitrogen? Pura Vida has no animal byproducts, is that a better organic? Is fish solubles and feather meal better as an organic than seaweed, kelp and alfalfa? Not to me. Who knows on the minerals, they both have them. JMO on this.

 

[Blaze]

Just my two cents, but "organic" is more or less a buzz word - it does not really mean much. Different certification programs have different standards. What may be considered "organic" by one certification may not be considered organic by another, and there is no scientific consensus of what is "organically grown." There are many "organic" products that are actually quite toxic and environmentally unfriendly.

For example, IMHO, guanos have absolutely no place in an "organic" garden because they are pathogenic, toxic, cause massive environmental damage, and must be flow in from thousands of miles away. Yet I see many "organic" growers using them and turning their nose up at amendments like blood meal or natural minerals, which really makes no sense if you look at it logically. By the same token, at times the "non-organic" or conventional alternatives may actually be safer, less polluting, and more sustainable.

One of the biggest problems with many organic certifications IMO is the refusal to recognize natural minerals as an organic amendment. Minerals are absolutely essential to healthy soil and healthy plants - but since they do not come from an "organic" source (ie plants or animals) they are not considered "organic" by many. This is just flat out stupid.

If you are serious about organic growing it is important to be objective about what you are doing. I use OMRI listed products when ever possible, BUT I always keep in mind just because it is OMRI listed, it does not mean it is safe, or non-toxic, or non polluting. I always research what it is I am using and then decide if it really fits into what I consider to be organic and I suggest other growers do the same, rather than blindly following labels and certification programs.

 

[CT Guy]

Blaze,

No offense, cause i really respect your posts on here, but I do think OMRI is a joke. It's a self-created certification agency that really has no bearing on the quality of a product. They're just out to make a quick buck.

WSDA is a much better and recognized certifying agency. There's many others out there. Oregon has a good one as well.

Talk to UP if you want the full scoop.....

BUT, I totally agree with you on the rest of your post. Minerals are overlooked and very important. Guanos are mediocre at best and not something I"ve ever felt the need/desire to use.

But then I"ve never understood why anyone would use a bottled nutrient line either.....

 

[cheap]

I run canna terra with black gold i think its organic idk but its expensive but it works great and simple to mix no extra bugs or iguana bottles to mess wit

 

[Blaze]

Blaze,

No offense, cause i really respect your posts on here, but I do think OMRI is a joke. It's a self-created certification agency that really has no bearing on the quality of a product. They're just out to make a quick buck.

WSDA is a much better and recognized certifying agency. There's many others out there. Oregon has a good one as well.

Talk to UP if you want the full scoop.....

BUT, I totally agree with you on the rest of your post. Minerals are overlooked and very important. Guanos are mediocre at best and not something I"ve ever felt the need/desire to use.

But then I"ve never understood why anyone would use a bottled nutrient line either.....

No offense taken at all, I always appreciate your insights CT. Aren't pretty much all the organic cert programs more or less self created agencies though? I will keep an eye out for WSDA and Oregon Tilth but I do not recall ever seeing those certs on amendments or nutrients here in CA, at least in my area.

Though I agree with you 100% that you can just as good if not better results just with proper soil prep, not everyone has it down to an exact science as well as you do hehe :) Bottles do offer ease and simplicity, though at a much higher price both financially and ecologically.

When you have a deficiency or an imbalance, the bottled nutrients can help give you a quick fix and keep your grow on track. I must say though, I have seen some extremely impressive results in gardens that use a hybrid system of small, regular doses of liquid nutrients in combination with good soil prep and regular applications of ACT.

 

[Seamaiden]

Blaze,

No offense, cause i really respect your posts on here, but I do think OMRI is a joke. It's a self-created certification agency that really has no bearing on the quality of a product. They're just out to make a quick buck.

WSDA is a much better and recognized certifying agency. There's many others out there. Oregon has a good one as well.

Talk to UP if you want the full scoop.....

BUT, I totally agree with you on the rest of your post. Minerals are overlooked and very important. Guanos are mediocre at best and not something I"ve ever felt the need/desire to use.

But then I"ve never understood why anyone would use a bottled nutrient line either.....

OMRI may be a joke, but it's the most easily found, readily available and easily recognizable designation for products at this time. Once other types of certification become as prevalent in the sales landscape as OMRI, then it will be a lot easier to not concern oneself with it.