Lp_jr said:

I think you are right.
I'm going to use some of the Dr Earths dry ferts as topdressing. Saw a great video by Stealth Grows where you can just use their vegetable and flower ferts.

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Theindoorfarmer said:

Doing my first grow now with dry amendments and loving it honestly. I put more in than I have too but I am pretty sure if I would just water would be good also. In flower at the moment and no big issues since the start of the grow. Will be starting week 3 soon and they are filling up and looking great. I heard dr earth and Gaia are pretty much the same thing. If you have any questions that I can help with just shoot anytime! Good luck with the grow!
I have 4 different strains in the pics atm.
View attachment 1234614
View attachment 1234615

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AZsunfarmer said:

Are you just using their gaia green all purpose and power bloom?

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Theindoorfarmer said:

Yes, the 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 but I am adding some microbes in the mix and bio worm and silica si bloom and the original version. It’s all organic btw. It I don’t need all that I’m pretty sure I would be fine with just the 2-8-4 and the 4-4-4. I just like to micro manage everything. That might be me coming from the liquid nutes in coco but just watering was not enough I needed more lol :)

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Lp_jr said:

Nice! With the dry ferts, its 2 tbs per gallon of soil every 3 weeks. I was planning on maybe cutting that in half to see how they grow.

Do you remember how much you were using?

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Theindoorfarmer said:

So no stress with this method. You usually would start in a propagation pot for 3-4 weeks or when you see the plants are looking hungry (yellowing of the bottom leafs) no stress there you wanna see that. Then it’s time to pot up. 1 to 1.5 gal same here with the ratio of dry amendments you have 3-4 weeks of food but let your plant tell you( don’t worry she won’t die and these bottom leafs will be gone anyway in not too long (defoliation and lolipoping) then it’s time to flower. Then get that 5-7 gal (I like 7 :) ) do the 50-50 mix but this time you don’t want to see her hungry that’s why I like better 7gal, more amendments available. You can also top dress a bit early and less but every week you choose how you do you. I ph my water some don’t but this way my head is clear that what is going in is good. I use TNB natural ph up as this is a natural product and it won’t harm the microbial life in your soil. But if you have a good source of water at 6.2-7ph you should be good .
Sorry for the long post X)
Cheers!

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Lp_jr said:

Thanks buddy!

It sounds sooo much easier than having to add everything to coco.

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Theindoorfarmer said:

Y’a, no you don’t want to transplant autos. There you just need to remember to water the plant and not the pot.

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Lp_jr said:

Growing in soil is very different. Much less watering.

I had some weird things happening to lower leaves, indicating mobile nutrients. I chalk it up to just low nutrients, so I mixed 2 tbs/gallon of soil to top dress along with some worm castings. Hopefully it fixes the issue.

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oldskol4evr said:

i wouldnt get too wrapped up in the living soil thing, i say that for this reason, living soil just cant be maintained in small containers, far as a tent goes 7 gal is ideal ,but thinking that even a said advertisment claims it will just be water only,well it will at first up until you wash all out from runoff .
living soil is as one person mentioned ,the great outdoors, it will live if the soil has no end.
outside the moisture stay on top of the 6 to 8 inchs ,it has no bottom for the water to settle ,just keeps going down,
in containers the moisture resides in the bottom 6 inch of the conatainer ,because it has well the bucket stopping it from draining completly
this in my opinion also makes me feel that with the so called knuckle tip for watering is crap inside in tents,the moisture is in the bottom of pot and you cant feel that ans water and wind up over watering ,drowning your roots and also making the best house for knats , instead use weight as your judge,outside the knuckle tip works best.
the best way to figure this all out is to let the plant droop and then feed.
so with the living soil you really pay more attention to feed the Soil not the plant,living is a colony of life in the zone,so some top dressing you buy even though it claims OMRI certified does mean it organic but doesnt say it is imediate available , so it really isnt helping right then right, so look more to feeding your colony instead of your plant.
sounds complcated ,but it really isnt

Soil Mixes Part 6: When to irrigate | Nursery and Flower Grower

When should container plants be irrigated? How much water should be applied? In this post, I describe the first step of irrigation scheduling, when, and the next post covers how much. First some background describing soil tension, available water, and the moisture release curve.

ucanr.edu

Soil Mixes Part 2: Water and Air Porosity | Nursery and Flower Grower

Container soils must have the right balance of air-filled and water-filled pore space. This is especially important right after irrigation. I showed in the previous blog that field soils shouldn't be used in containers because they don't drain well and create a saturated root environment.

ucanr.edu

Click to expand...

oldskol4evr said:

i wouldnt get too wrapped up in the living soil thing, i say that for this reason, living soil just cant be maintained in small containers, far as a tent goes 7 gal is ideal ,but thinking that even a said advertisment claims it will just be water only,well it will at first up until you wash all out from runoff .
living soil is as one person mentioned ,the great outdoors, it will live if the soil has no end.
outside the moisture stay on top of the 6 to 8 inchs ,it has no bottom for the water to settle ,just keeps going down,
in containers the moisture resides in the bottom 6 inch of the conatainer ,because it has well the bucket stopping it from draining completly
this in my opinion also makes me feel that with the so called knuckle tip for watering is crap inside in tents,the moisture is in the bottom of pot and you cant feel that ans water and wind up over watering ,drowning your roots and also making the best house for knats , instead use weight as your judge,outside the knuckle tip works best.
the best way to figure this all out is to let the plant droop and then feed.
so with the living soil you really pay more attention to feed the Soil not the plant,living is a colony of life in the zone,so some top dressing you buy even though it claims OMRI certified does mean it organic but doesnt say it is imediate available , so it really isnt helping right then right, so look more to feeding your colony instead of your plant.
sounds complcated ,but it really isnt

Soil Mixes Part 6: When to irrigate | Nursery and Flower Grower

When should container plants be irrigated? How much water should be applied? In this post, I describe the first step of irrigation scheduling, when, and the next post covers how much. First some background describing soil tension, available water, and the moisture release curve.

ucanr.edu

Soil Mixes Part 2: Water and Air Porosity | Nursery and Flower Grower

Container soils must have the right balance of air-filled and water-filled pore space. This is especially important right after irrigation. I showed in the previous blog that field soils shouldn't be used in containers because they don't drain well and create a saturated root environment.

ucanr.edu

Click to expand...