What Amendments/nutes Should I Add During Flower?

[Perception]

That top dress should hold you over through flower. They are trying to sell more product. It will take about 2 or 3 months for all of the kelp meal to reduce to carbon depending on how often you use enzymes or beneficials.

Alfalfa meal is great but be careful. It's hot stuff. It has growth regulator hormones. People tend to think the plant can actually utilize this hormone which isn't true however hormones are amino acids which microbes love! Enzymes!

Cool. I just read that about Alfalfa - maybe will hold off considering hormones. The book Teaming with Nutrients has a good section I just found, on organic supplements and the pros/cons of each. They also recommend POWDERED Kelp, instead of MEAL, if you want a faster uptake. Goes in fast and lasts a month... might be better for short cannabis grows.

Per your last post - my better half is an herbalist, and the amount of medicinal herb waste we create is crazy. I've started feeding it to the worms. So much variety of organic medicinal herbs. Other than that, we eat a large variety of organic veggies, so they are getting lots of different things. I'll check out buildasoil.com as well.

It's is overwhelming, I just but the bullet and picked a line and ran with it. I'm using the CANNA line pretty much following the feed schedule with minor adjustments.

I hear ya. I'm doing my best to push through and try and figure out the details. I always have that apocalyptic voice in the back of my head that says, "what if we go in to a great depression, and all the grow shops close? How will I grow weed?!?", LoL. I've had to humble myself a bit in this process, and accept the fact that it all takes time.

I started using homemade spikes for "timed" feeds. Get the spike material in the soil before the roots grow out. I punch a small 1/4" to 1/2" hole in the soil near the edge of the pot and drop in either a high N spike.

Really like this idea. I just ordered the Rev's book. Any information helps.

 

[TerpyTyrone]

Here's a super soil water only recipe:

1 part spagnum peat moss
1 part EWC
1 part aeration amendment (perlite, rice hulls, pumice)

Mix this up and add the following per cubic foot.

1 cup dolomitic lime
1 cup kelp meal
1 cup espoma veggie tone
1/2 cup neem/karanja cake

Let that cook for a couple of weeks. This is the time when microbes begin to populate and go into a feeding frenzy. The soil literally gets hot as hell.

Try starting a tomatoe plant to see if your soil has stabilized if you'd like.

I started using homemade spikes for "timed" feeds. Get the spike material in the soil before the roots grow out. I punch a small 1/4" to 1/2" hole in the soil near the edge of the pot and drop in either a high N spike.

1 part Kelp Meal
1 part Bone Meal
1 part High N guano
1 part Feather Meal
1 part Blood Meal

Or a high P spike

1 part Feather meal
1 part High P guano
1 part Kelp/Alfalfa 50/50
1 part Bone Meal

I like the top dress approach as well. I get the spikes in either at planting or at transplant. It's not much material and it gets to cook for a bit before the roots get there. This came right out the The Rev's book not my recipe.

The rev book?

 

[Bajocas]

The rev book?

"True Living Organics" I've adjusted many of the recipes to suit my own needs but the book gave me an easy reference guide.

 

[TerpyTyrone]

"True Living Organics" I've adjusted many of the recipes to suit my own needs but the book gave me an easy reference guide.

Wow! Evrrything in one place!! I couldnt sleep last night!! Thanks fellow farmer!

 

[Perception]

Just wanted to follow up on this, since it's been a year and I've learned a lot. First off, the True Living Organics (TLO) book was GREAT! Really a game changer for me (thanks for the recommendation @Bajocas ). it filled in ALL the blanks that I was missing. I've done one grow using The Rev's methods, and it worked great.

Secondly, my grow from a year ago (per my original post) totally ran out of nutrients and plants struggled towards harvest. The plants still produced, but they were so yellow and starving by the end (leaves dying and falling off). The single top dress of Kelp Meal & EW castings was not nearly enough. It astounds me how hungry cannabis plants are.

So, lesson learned: When flipping to flower, they need nutrients! Especially a good boost of nitrogen. I always though that nitrogen should be lessened when flipping to flower, but they really seem to require lots of N for the first few weeks of flower.

Good luck all!

 

[Perception]

Here is a photo of the same plants that I posted before, but 6 weeks in to flower (from summer 2017). They looked ok here, but got way worse (yellow, leaves dropping) towards harvest. I think i actually deleted my photos of it they were so bad!

 

[OldSmokie76]

Here is a photo of the same plants that I posted before, but 6 weeks in to flower (from summer 2017). They looked ok here, but got way worse (yellow, leaves dropping) towards harvest. I think i actually deleted my photos of it they were so bad!

I'm glad to see you followed up on your original post. I've run a few grows in a soil I built a year ago. Nutrient deficiencies set in after the first grow went ok. I attempted to amend between grows, but soil couldn't keep it together the entire grow. Since then, I've recycled the soil and used heavier amounts of amendments with some success.
My new philosophy is gonna involve better timing of transplanting, using freshly amended (and properly cooked) growth stage specific soil mixes. Also planning to use growth stage specific teas. (Just purchased a small 3 gal brewer.)
I also found a PDF of that living organics book by the Rev. I scrolled thru and gained some great knowledge.
Time to gather some info from around the farm regarding building a better soil with Happy Frog.

 

[Veemaclean]

I definitely agree with the other posts recommending worm castings during flower. The microbes in the castings are needed more than ever to deliver plant nutrients. Top dress weekly during flowering with 1/2” local (fresh) worm castings.

 

[SecretGarden432]

Good morning to you all I am a beginner and have read alot of post/threads and none really brake down the Simplicity or beginner's guide to growing so starting with a organic soil mix what would be a good brand of amendments plus fertilizers to use

 

[tomatoesarecooltoo]

I just get the feeling that my plants want a little more Nitrogen. I know this goes against common practice of reducing N in flower, but they look light green. I am guessing that vigorously feeding vegetative plants in FFOF will maybe suck a lot of the available N out? Just a guess.

I do my last veg topdress right at the beginning of flower to feed the stretch, then switch to flower nutrition at 2-3 weeks.

Lots of of dry amendment mixes out their with the ingredients you mentioned. Down to earth, dr earth, gaia green etc.

 

[zigzagtop]

(I feel like this topic is better suited to the organic soil forum, rather than nutrients forum)

I'm on my 4th indoor grow now, and have been mostly using FFOF potting soil, from seed/clone all the way through harvest, with very few amendments. I had initially read that FFOF had enough nutes to take you through flower, but after several grows now, I don't feel like this accurate. All I've ever added was Big Bloom and some compost teas.

What I'm having trouble figuring out is: What kind of organic amendments should I add on flip and during flower?

On every grow I've done, around week 3 of flower, my plants seem to lose their vigor. The leaves get a little more pale, and they just don't look as vibrant. I feel like the plants are screaming "hey, give me some more effing food!!!!". I'm still a relatively new grower. But I feel like I'm seeing it in the plants.

Am I right in assuming that I should be feeding more in flower?

Canna PK 13/14…use once, three weeks into flowering with your usual nutrient regimen.

 

[wilinski]

Here's a super soil water only recipe:

1 part spagnum peat moss
1 part EWC
1 part aeration amendment (perlite, rice hulls, pumice)

Mix this up and add the following per cubic foot.

1 cup dolomitic lime
1 cup kelp meal
1 cup espoma veggie tone
1/2 cup neem/karanja cake

Let that cook for a couple of weeks. This is the time when microbes begin to populate and go into a feeding frenzy. The soil literally gets hot as hell.

Try starting a tomatoe plant to see if your soil has stabilized if you'd like.

I just took a screenshot of your recipe thanks

 

[KG1]

I just took a screenshot of your recipe thanks

Seems a little rich on the earth worm casts, stuff can be like mud too.