Top dressing recipe for a 3gal fabric pot

[CannaR05]

Hi,

I am an orgnaic grower and right now this is my top dressing for veg and flower:

Veg every 2 weeks:
Down To Earth All purpose (4-4-4): 6 Tbsp
Earth Worm Castings: 4 Tbsp

Veg every 4 weeks:
Down To Earth all purpose (4-4-4): 6 Tbsp
Earth Worm Castings: 4 Tbsp
High "N" Bat Guano (9-3-1): 3 Tsp
Kelp meal (1-0-1): 2 Tbsp

Flower every 2 weeks:
Down To Earth all purpose (4-4-4): 6 Tbsp
Earth Worm Castings: 4 Tbsp
Langbenite (0-0-22): 6 Tsp

Flower every 4 weeks:
Down To Earth all purpose (4-4-4): 6 Tbsp
Earth Worm Castings: 4 Tbsp
Langbenite (0-0-22): 6 Tsp
High "P" Bat Guano (0-12-0): 3 Tsp

Note: these are the full doses of each amendment. I start off with the lowest dose, then half, then full dose. I also follow the application directions on the boxes and bags for each amendment.

Are these figures accurate for top dressing every 2 weeks and every 4 weeks for the each stage of growth?

Should I be using anything different, less or more when top dressing?


Any and all advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks!

 

[ritoMox]

The more I study the more I see that a lot of hydro tech has bled over to organic growing. For example, overdriving your plants with light and CO2. That's really hydro tech due to the fact that you can force-feed your plants in hydro. With living organics you are limited to how hard you can drive your plants due to the fact that the soil microbiome is feeding the plants, and you can't exceed the soil microbime's capacity to keep up with the plants needs without causing your plant problems. Hydro is a numbers game for many reasons such as uniform reproducibility. Organics is not nearly as constrained due to the fact that the soil microbiome/plant interactions, etc., do what they want to do. So the bottom line from my 2¢ point of view is to toss out the numbers in your organic grow and look to your plant for it's needs.

 

[Blastfact]

Looks awful strong to me and almost as complicated as mad scientist bottle madness. Down To Earth was to much futzing around for me. Earth Dust seemed better than DTE but settled on Gaia Green 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 then use Diatomaceous Earth and Recharge in mix. I mix at 70% 4-4-4 / 30% 2-8-4 for seedlings/veg. 50% 4-4-4 / 50% 2-8-4 for late veg/early flower. 30% 4-4-4 / 70% 2-8-4 for flower.

 

[CannaR05]

The more I study the more I see that a lot of hydro tech has bled over to organic growing. For example, overdriving your plants with light and CO2. That's really hydro tech due to the fact that you can force-feed your plants in hydro. With living organics you are limited to how hard you can drive your plants due to the fact that the soil microbiome is feeding the plants, and you can't exceed the soil microbime's capacity to keep up with the plants needs without causing your plant problems. Hydro is a numbers game for many reasons such as uniform reproducibility. Organics is not nearly as constrained due to the fact that the soil microbiome/plant interactions, etc., do what they want to do. So the bottom line from my 2¢ point of view is to toss out the numbers in your organic grow and look to your plant for it's needs.

So I shouldn’t go by the figures in my top dress how do I know what my plant needs. In organic growing you really can’t wait until a deficency appears because you can’t fix it quick enough. So can you explain further by “what the plant needs?”

 

[CannaR05]

Looks awful strong to me and almost as complicated as mad scientist bottle madness. Down To Earth was to much futzing around for me. Earth Dust seemed better than DTE but settled on Gaia Green 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 then use Diatomaceous Earth and Recharge in mix. I mix at 70% 4-4-4 / 30% 2-8-4 for seedlings/veg. 50% 4-4-4 / 50% 2-8-4 for late veg/early flower. 30% 4-4-4 / 70% 2-8-4 for flower.

See how do you top dress with percentages? Like how much from each amendment do you put in your mix and how do you come to the number?

 

[ritoMox]

So I shouldn’t go by the figures in my top dress how do I know what my plant needs. In organic growing you really can’t wait until a deficency appears because you can’t fix it quick enough. So can you explain further by “what the plant needs?”

Not advising what you should do. My take is simply that organics are a different beast than hydro/type grows. If your style/preference is precision then by all means I would say rock on. My thoughts are simply that if you're growing organically that a more intuitive approach is the way to go. Obviously you need a basic grasp of what your plants need, but understanding how your plant grows gives the added benefit of being able to stay ahead so you can avoid/deal with any issues

 

[CannaR05]

I appreciate your input sir thank you! Do you grow organic?

 

[ritoMox]

I appreciate your input sir thank you! Do you grow organic?

Not growing anything now, but when I have it was always the organics approach. I just really enjoy the unpredictable complexity of the flower that organics brings to the table.

 

[CannaR05]

And how did you feed your plants through the growing cycles?

 

[ritoMox]

And how did you feed your plants through the growing cycles?

Did I use a feeding regiment for starts, veg, etc.? No, none. I dropped my first bean in yard dirt when I was 9 with no guidance. Needless to say I bombed until I got a little guidance a few years later at which time I started amending my soil with cow/horse shit, canned sardines, left over veggies, tree leaves, pretty much whatever, and just watering. I never tried to drive my plants so I never needed to do the regime stuff with store-bought this and that that I read so much about people using today, yet my successful grows were always fine smoke. Mind you, my grows were small and few compared to what I see people doing today, but that was life back in the 100% illegal days. My conditioning from those illegal days and my 2nd class citizenship these days does not lend well to my ease of growing, despite the generous laws in my neck of the woods. Wars leave scars, and I have some deep ones. Thus, until things change for me, I will continue to live vicariously through others

 

[CannaR05]

Nice, Thank you for the advice. Does any one else have any good top dressing tips or recipes?

 

[CannaR05]

Also how do you guys get the measurements for the different dry amendments for a top dressing or a super soil? I see a lot of different super soil recipes online but how do people come up with the measurements for the dry amendments? Do they just look on the box and follow the application rates? do they go through multiple grows through trial and error?

 

[ritoMox]

How long have you been growing? How long have you been using the recipe that you listed in your first post above? Folks here like info and pictures which should get you more feedback. If you're not familiar, BuildASoil seems to be a popular organics channel on YouTube Link: BuildASoil