The next big thing in home growing of cannabis appears to be “water only” soils. Several companies are now making them and some are formulated specifically for cannabis. Living in prohibition land and having both multiple supply delivery worries and storage space concerns (garage too damn hot), the simplicity of water only has appeal to me.
Some of the quality brands in this space will tell you to plant in at least a 15 gallon pot to make it through harvest. If using a smaller pot, the addition of nutrients would be involved. Any suggestions for organic options for nutrients and how to implement? Start early in grow with weak nutrient supplement and increase strength as soil gets depleted or wait until you start to see a deficiency, then begin the nutrient program in full? Any suggestions for dry organic nutrient for top dress application? Or liquid organic nutrient for either top or bottom feed in water?
It will be interesting when they come out with strain specific soils. Not all cannabis plants like the same Ph levels or nutrient levels. I can definitely see companies striving for the “water only” soil for Cannabis that any 70 year old with arthritis can grab at the hardware store and grow some dank with. But also for experienced growers like me, I’d love to only water and get big colas.
You wouldn’t want to wait until you saw a deficiency, that would be getting at the problem too late. I’m not a fan of top dressing dry amendments unless you are using them while mixing your soil. If put on top and then watered, they tend to make the soil hydrophobic fairly quickly. In the organic liquid realm, I have used some Roots Organics products and Biobizz is another popular line used by growers here.
With living soil you buy to put into a pot for three months, it’s a crapshoot if it will sustain the needed nutrients for the entire run IMO.
You can do it.. I have ran a 2×4 tent with a 2×4 smart pot soil bed. I have ran it for over 3 years just adding water.. I use a simple blumat soaker hose conected to a 5Gal black tub that sits ontop of my tent. Its easy enough to dump %gallon buckets into and you are able to mix mild nutrients and supplements in your water as well. I keep a small fountain pump running in the tub to keep it all stirring. My soil mix started from a bag of fox farm happy frog and a bag of fox farm coco loco. It was what I had easily accessible and it made for a good cheap base mix to start. After that I use the top dress mix from BuildASoil and their cover crop bland. Im not a crazy “organic” grower and I dont think I know it all. I have tried a lot of things and listened to everyone geek out about inputs.. I found out that you can get great quality from a 2×4 grow bed with minimal effort or equipment.
1-Mars SP250 / 3000 or 2- SKCloset Cases (Importent for Heat!!!)
1-Tent / 1-InfinityFan (set to smart) <Infinity SMART feature controls the speed and temp gradually which helps humidity spikes)
1-5galUtilityTub / 1-Blumat Soaker System (You will need to rig this up to connect your blumat)
1-Bag CoCo mix bland / 1-Bag PEAT mix blend (ie: CoCo Loco and Happy Frog)
Thats my set up that has been rocking for 3 years on 12/12. I still get to add my treats with this system and keep my critters and soil happy. I have worms and mites running all over and NO GNATS… I add Frost, Avalanche, Ruby Fulvic, Mammoth P, Enzymes, to my water without issue. I hand water recharge when I first put my girls into the tent and everything stays happy. Check it out on my IG or CannaBuzz profile. I had to take it all down to call the landlord so now ill be rebuilding it all once thats over..
Growers Love!
-GFK
Here’s a crap ton of info for ya:
http://www.dudegrows.com/notillfornoobs
And more info here:
https://growerslove.com/pages/classic-soup-articles
And also
http://www.buildasoil.com
water only soils being “The next big thing” totally made me LOL and almost fall out of my chair.
Plants have been growing on their own in “water only soil” for literally BILLIONS of years. Humans have been farming and growing plants this way for hundreds of thousands of years.
“Water Only Soil” is old school! (like REALLY OLD school. Straight up biblical! Lol)
All this other stuff with bottled fertilizers and synthetic grow mediums is the “next big thing”. All these “modern” grow styles are examples of humans arrogantly thinking we can do better than billions of years of evolution.
Dude and Scotty used to make me feel like a weirdo for being the “organic guy”.
I’m not weird! The rest of you are weird! 😂