I was hoping to get some input on the soil I'm using

RicinBeans · Sep 23, 2021

My soil was given to me by a friend, and he described it as follows: "Ocean forest soil w/ some chitin/worm castings, bone & blood meals, perlite, and super manure."

I'm having some issues with my grow, which is about 5-weeks in, and I'm starting to think that the reason is the soil. I have a grow diary that I'll link here if anyone is curious about the details of the rest of the setup. The main symptom is that growth seems to have all but stopped. One of the two plants seems to have grown some over the past week, but the other has not progressed at all.

A couple of leaves on the bottom of each died, but I'm told that's normal, so I didn't sweat it when it started to happen. The grow has had gnat problems since day-1 though, and I think that may have something to do with it. The other possibility is overwatering, and I'm beginning to suspect that both are kind of happening, and that the soil is the culprit in both.

The reason I believe that is that I let the plants go without watering for 3-days straight now, and the soil is still damp on top. That doesn't seem normal. I don't think it's the conditions in the tent either, as I've had some water overflow from the pot saucers (before I got caddys with compartments underneath to catch water), and the water that dropped onto the tent floor dried pretty quickly. Furthermore, I have two fans in the tent that are blowing on the plants and soil, which the tent floor does not have.

So the theory I'm working with at the moment is that the soil is retaining too much water, which is a) causing the plants to be overfed and b) exacerbating the gnat problem, which could be partially or completely responsible for the stunted growth at this stage.

If you look at my diary, you'll notice I started off in large pots, and though I was watering frequently at first, I was using tiny bits of water at a time, which is why I believe there were no problems for the first few weeks. I think the water had a lot of room to move, and so was soaked up elsewhere in the soil.

If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it. I'm considering scrapping these and starting from scratch with new seeds, but I'm going to give it another day without water (today will be the third waterless day) first and see if it won't dry out a bit.

TSD · Sep 23, 2021

Pics? Sounds like maybe a drainage issue or not enough perlite maybe? How big are the plants? They definitely need to dry out between waterings.

RicinBeans · Sep 23, 2021

TSD said:
Pics? Sounds like maybe a drainage issue or not enough perlite maybe? How big are the plants? They definitely need to dry out between waterings.

There's a link to my grow diary in the OP with timestamped pictures, I'll link it again here. #1 is the one that appears completely stunted, whereas #2 has grown more overall, and appears to have grown a little bit over the last week, whereas #1 seems to be exactly as it was like 10 days ago. I'd say #1 is about 2" high right now, and #2 is about 3-4" high, and larger horizontally as well.

I thought there might be a drainage issue with #1's pot, even though it's identical to the other and even though they both have the same number of holes, mainly because there was no water seeping through that one, whereas #2's pot was letting water through. The last couple of times I watered though, I used more water than usual, and both pots did drain. It's why I'm wondering if it's some property of the soil that's doing it. Of all the aspects of growing I've been reading about, I know just about nothing about soil, and was content to let my friend just throw a mixture together for me. I'm regretting it now, as I'm thinking it might be what's causing me issues right now.

TSD · Sep 23, 2021

RicinBeans said:
There's a link to my grow diary in the OP with timestamped pictures, I'll link it again here. #1 is the one that appears completely stunted, whereas #2 has grown more overall, and appears to have grown a little bit over the last week, whereas #1 seems to be exactly as it was like 10 days ago. I'd say #1 is about 2" high right now, and #2 is about 3-4" high, and larger horizontally as well.

I thought there might be a drainage issue with #1's pot, even though it's identical to the other and even though they both have the same number of holes, mainly because there was no water seeping through that one, whereas #2's pot was letting water through. The last couple of times I watered though, I used more water than usual, and both pots did drain. It's why I'm wondering if it's some property of the soil that's doing it. Of all the aspects of growing I've been reading about, I know just about nothing about soil, and was content to let my friend just throw a mixture together for me. I'm regretting it now, as I'm thinking it might be what's causing me issues right now.

They are pretty small still and those are pretty big pots... I think they could honestly go several days, like 4 or 5 maybe more in between watering if you saturate them, depending on temps... they don't have the root system or the size to use up that much water yet. 10 days in the grand scheme is nothing really, don't stress over progress or over mother them. I had some that looked close to death or runty when they were small and they are thriving trees in my garden now, despite several set backs. When they were in pots inside this spring I let them get almost completely dry in between, like the pots were super light, I usually only watered once or twice a week most of the time. I also transplanted like 3 times before they went in the ground, seedling pots, quart pots, then gallon or 3 gallon depot on size, then ground. It's harder to regulate the water in giant pots. I have one clobe I made in a 17 gal tub outside and I'm forever wondering if I've watered it correctly.

I always mix peat and perlite into my soil because making sure the roots are able to dry out and breathe is super important.

ComfortablyNumb · Sep 23, 2021

Responded in your other thread.

RicinBeans · Sep 23, 2021

TSD said:
They are pretty small still and those are pretty big pots... I think they could honestly go several days, like 4 or 5 maybe more in between watering if you saturate them, depending on temps... they don't have the root system or the size to use up that much water yet. 10 days in the grand scheme is nothing really, don't stress over progress or over mother them. I had some that looked close to death or runty when they were small and they are thriving trees in my garden now, despite several set backs. When they were in pots inside this spring I let them get almost completely dry in between, like the pots were super light, I usually only watered once or twice a week most of the time. I also transplanted like 3 times before they went in the ground, seedling pots, quart pots, then gallon or 3 gallon depot on size, then ground. It's harder to regulate the water in giant pots. I have one clobe I made in a 17 gal tub outside and I'm forever wondering if I've watered it correctly. I always mix peat and perlite into my soil because making sure the roots are able to dry out and breathe is super important.

Thanks very much! I'm going to take that suggestion and let it go even longer without watering. I had tried doing that earlier in, but the leaves started browning after the first time I skipped two consecutive days of watering, and I kind of panicked and went back to more frequent watering, and just tried to make sure I was only giving it a little at a time - after giving them one healthy watering to compensate for the two days I left them alone. I've seen places suggest that leaves browning on the bottom is a symptom of a problem, where my friend told me it was normal. I wasn't sure what to do, so I panicked and opted for more water haha. Especially since my outdoor one was doing very well even through heavy rain, at least until the plant got too heavy for the pot, blew over in the wind one day and died. I'll take your advice though, and go another day or two without watering and see what happens.

Does it seem strange for the top of the soil to be very moist after three days though? I know the top of the soil in my outdoors plant appeared dry even later in the day after a watering if it was sunny out. It's why I was thinking there might be something about this soil my friend provided me. Based on his description and comparing it to yours, I'm wondering if maybe the absence of peat is something of a problem. Honestly, I have to admit that I don't even know exactly what that is... I'll be reading up on it tonight when I get back from a quick errand though. It's a bit embarrassing but there is just SO MUCH to learn and read up on, and about so many aspects of growing, often with vague or conflicting descriptions. I decided to just get a grow going and learn as I go haha. Maybe it was the wrong move. We'll see.

Thanks again, and I'll be sure to post an update in here when there is something to report!

*edit*
Also, when I brought this up today to my buddy who provided the soil, he was wondering if maybe the "super manure" was unhelpful in terms of moisture and/or gnat population. Just thought it might be worth mentioning. I definitely need to learn more about potential mediums for my next grow, and take more of a hands-on approach in that regard.

Choppr · Apr 14, 2022

At that size - they drink a maybe 1ml per week - (2 ml max

I was hoping to get some input on the soil I'm using

RicinBeans

TSD

RicinBeans

TSD

ComfortablyNumb

RicinBeans

Choppr

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