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@Mikeygrows, well than welcome! It's a great community. Honestly havent met a single troll/a$#hole on here yet. Only great people trying to help out fellow growers. Been a part of some toxic communities so this is by far my favorite. I'll be following your grows as well.
@Mikeygrows, thanks man, glad we cleared it up. Respect on standing up for the dude. Thanks for trying to keep the platform civil. Also providing ots of great information to this guy. Solid dude for the community. Keep it up.
@donnie700, I wrote up this example soil recipe for someone else earlier ill share it with you.
This is a basic soil recipe:
To make 15 gallons of soil
(1/3) 5 gallons- compost/wormcastings
(1/3) 5 gallons- coco coir and or peat moss
(1/3) 5 gallons- aeration (perlite or popped glass)
This right here will be the bulk of your soil, now you need to add your nutrients
Some simple math 1 cubic foot = ~7.5 gallons---->15 gallons = 2 cubic feet
Add two cups per cubic foot of lime or calcium to your soil, for this example would be 4 cups
now in a 1:1 ratio mix your nutrients in a bucket EXAMPLE (fish meal, kelp meal, neam meal, crab meal)
You would mix 1 cup all of those nutrients in a bucket. After you mix them together, add ~1 cup of the mix per cubic foot to your soil. For this example you would add two cups of the mix into your soil.
Blend all of these ingredients together thoroughly on a tarp. Add water to it or even better compost tea as you are mixing. After finished mixing and getting it wet, your soil is almost complete. you should allow 3-4 weeks for your soil to "cook". This means letting the micro-organisms multiply and begin to break down the nutrients and organic matter. After 4 weeks there will be sufficient nutrients available for plants to immediately use. Once your plant is introduced the soil food web will be complete and everything should thrive. This is a water only soil recipe, compost tea and clean water free of chloramine is all you need to get all the way to harvest.
Books: Teaming with microbes, teaming with fungi & teaming with nutrients
Author of these is very smart avid gardener and cannabis advocate. If you want to understand how to grow not just pot but anything, these books will teach you how to understand soil and how it funcions.
Podcasts: Cannabis cultivation & science podcast with Tad Hussey and Shaping Fire with Shango los. Both of these guys interview really smart and interesting people. You can learn a lot from listening to their conversations
GL happy growing
@donnie700, great thats a start to helping you get to where you want to be. I just looked up whats in fox farm happy frog. Seems like its good stuff, compost and beneficial microbes, but this is just one part of a soil. It is labeled as a mulch so if your using this as your soil entirely im not surprised your plants look like they do. Bat guano is high in nitrogen and has some calcium phosphorus, microbial activity, all good stuff but like i said before but it is just one part of the whole system.
If your willing to learn I can lead you to proper soil recipes, and information to help you with your soil.
btw I dont want to come off as saying what your doing is wrong just trying to help you out, I have a degree in horticulture and soil is my passion. :sunglasses:
@donnie700, Its hard to say specifically what to look for to tell if your ppm is too high or low but common things like leaf curl, color of your leaves, rate of growth...I make a living soil and I never have to feed my plants check pH or ppm (unless I see a problem). everything the plant will ever need is in the soil and I create a environment for microbes to thrive, which in turn feeds the plant. This is how nature does it. From seed to flower all I do is water and use compost tea every once in awhile. Ussually when people think they dont have enough nutrients it is actually the opposite. Too many nutrients will cause them to become "locked" . Depending on whats in your soil there is only so much space for nutrients CEC (cation exchange capacity). I would take bulbis suggestions, maybe use a compost tea and top dress some worm castings.
What kind of nutrients did you use that you said you over did? are you using bag soil?