Should I Do Anything to Prepare my Soil for Planting

[SweetLeafGrow]

Greetings Farmers and Cultivators!

This may be a dumb question but I have not been able to find anything about this on the forum so I thought I would put it out there and see if anyone has experience preparing soil for planting.

I recently bought 3 bags of Roots Organics Lush soil that I plan on using for my spring outdoor grow, but I am also using it for an indoor grow that is just starting. The soil came with a hole in the bag and I noticed that it's very, very dry...dusty even. I have some seedlings in this soil right now and a couple of them are not doing well and I wonder if it has anything to do with it. The soil is what I think they call hydrophobic and not accepting the water very well.

Too late to do anything with the seedlings, but for future reference, should I be conditioning/preparing the soil prior to using it? If so, how?

Thank you!

 

[BorealCuring]

How big are your seedlings? Are you growing in pots or in the ground?

 

[Grapefruitroop]

should I be conditioning/preparing the soil prior to using it?

Well in my opinion the whole deal of buyng soil its because you dont have to do nothing else than plant in it.....
But its true that the way and how long the bag has been stored can affect thequality of the mix....
Yeah dusty soil is very bad, you should hydrate it properly before plant in it...

Be more careful when buy....take it from newly arrived pallets....but again its a lottery, once i bought a whole pallet of shitty anaerobic soil, a good reputable brand but it took me 2 weeks to get the plants back on track....
I mix my own and recyle it FOREVER, i feel like after payn all that cash for the bagged ones i shoulnt have to worry about how and for how long has been stored.....so....i prefer mix it by myself..

 

[Moe.Red]

Well in my opinion the whole deal of buyng soil its because you dont have to do nothing else than plant in it.....

That's my thought too! If you gotta mess with it, just make your own.

 

[BorealCuring]

Just put your soil in a wheel barrow or something and add a gallon of water to rehydrate it. Mix it well. Add more water after a day if you need to.

If you seedlings can be transplanted before they go in the ground, make your own soil. If your plats start getting big, start topping each branch.
So you can cook your soil. It would supply everything your plant needs. just add water start to finish.
Here's an easy soil to make. (takes 28 days)

or

Store bought soil is fine, but you'll have to add amendments to it when you plant it.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

How big are your seedlings? Are you growing in pots or in the ground?

They are in pots and are almost one month since sowing seed to soil.

Be more careful when buy....take it from newly arrived pallets....but again its a lottery, once i bought a whole pallet of shitty anaerobic soil, a good reputable brand but it took me 2 weeks to get the plants back on track....
I mix my own and recyle it FOREVER, i feel like after payn all that cash for the bagged ones i shoulnt have to worry about how and for how long has been stored.....so....i prefer mix it by myself..

I hear you. We are a very rural community and literally everything I use for my grow has to be bought online and shipped and sometimes it's a crapshoot! Perhaps I can get into mixing my own soil such as you suggest but that will have to be experience I gain in the future. I am where I am, but I don't plan to stay there forever! Do you have any suggestions on how I should go about getting this soil ready for spring?

Here are a few photos showing the two affected plants. The others are fine.

Thanks guys!

 

[mysticepipedon]

The soil likely has a pH problem — I'm guessing too high, but it could be the other way, as well.

The reason I say this is the plant has an immobile nutrient deficiency symptom — the yellowing on the tops. This is likely an iron or zinc deficiency (or both). So:

• check pH
• foliar spray with a fertilizer that contains a lot of micronutrients
• try to adjust pH as best you can by making sure your irrigation water is a little on the acidic side (or basic side, if the pH is low)

You don't want to put them into flower under these conditions.

 

[mysticepipedon]

In case it wasn't clear, the issue is only with the plants on the left and right, front row, and in the last two pics.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Thank you, I will be home from work later tonight and try to get a foliar feeding plan for these two young ladies.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

I did a foliar feeding on all the plants this morning after lights on. I noticed that all or most of the other plants were starting to exhibit the same deficiencies so I decided to do them all. I mixed a very weak solution using the Humboldts Secret nutrients A, B, and Golden Tree, which is their basic feeding regimen, and sprayed all the surface area of all plants, top and bottom of leaves. They seem to have taken it well and perhaps even perked just a tad bit (wishful thinking maybe?). Anyhow, I foliar fed again about an hour later. How often should I do the foliar feeding?

I did not ph the soil because they had been watered recently and I did not want to water again or pull any soil out for a slurry test. Water I am using is slightly acidic at ~8.5 ph, again, not sure what the runoff is at this time. If it's ok to do, I can foliar feed a few times more and when they are ready for water, perhaps in a day or two, I can give them a light feeding using the Humboldts Secret nutrients for veg stage as well as do a top dressing with some microbe Recharge and/or Roots Organics Microbe Charge before watering.

I have a feeling this soil was so dry that its become hydrophobic and the waterings aren't ideal yet so they are not getting the nutrients they need. This soil is supposed to be top of the line so I think it may be that it's just not been properly stored and so I am dealing with learning a valuable lesson here on soil and prepping it for planting.

Advice and help always appreciated, thank you!

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Edit: I checked back on the PH pen and I didn't let it settle enough. The correct PH of the water I am using is 6.7.

 

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Hope this helps .