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Any recommendations for soil to grow #weedstr in pots next year?

If I were going to grow in pots next year, starting fresh (i.e. I don't have my own compost, or good soil within my property limits, I would do the following:

1. Buy 15 gallon (or larger) felt pots. Thicker walled brands (like Dirt Pot) are better, and worth the cost.

2. Buy bags of organic soil. Where I live, local soil mixes are better than commercial, but I'm in a cannabis capital, so YMMV.

3. Buy organic fertilizer that covers the needs for NPK along with Calcium and Magnesium. That could be as few as bat guano, bone meal, and langbeinite; but I could be missing one. Nutrients are a whole subject in themselves, but starting simple works just fine. Mycellium is important too. Lactobascillus has super powers.

4. Mix your soil and fertilizers.

5. Plant carrots, brassicas, turnips, or other winter crops.

6. Grow food while developing a soil biome of microbes.

7. Harvest food, amend the soil with a bit more fertilizer, mostly nitrogen, and get your girls going.

8. By the time they start to flower, most/all of the amendments in the soil will be used up, so it's time to make a tea that is high in phosphorus and potassium.

9. When it seems like you're a couple of weeks from harvest, quit giving tea, and do "water only" for a flush.

In between all of that is topping, pruning, leafing, etc, but even those aren't required, just very rewarding for optimal output.

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Discussion

kidwarp 4mo ago

Can I use much smaller felt pots?

I used 5 gallon pots with 3 gallons worth of soil to try and keep em kinda smallish?

Troy 4mo ago

Yes. You can go total bonsai-bonghitter if you want. Larger plants are more forgiving though. If you don't have much space, then do what you have to do. The larger the rootzone, the more nutrient uptake you will have.

If you can, grow sideways more than tall. The top branches get the most light, and the thickest/densest colas. This makes harvest WAY easier than processing a bunch of smaller nugs. When dried, the size shrinks to about a third of what it was when it was alive and wet.

A wider pot is better than a 5 gallon bucket. The bucket method will make a "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" sized plant (although I hope it's more lush!). The same volume of soil that allows for a wider set of surface roots will give you a heartier plant that will have significantly more output.

kidwarp 4mo ago

Grow sideways? By topping?

Troy 4mo ago

Yeah, that's one way. If you can make a hedge, you're on the right track.

Topping, training branches with wire, or trellis (depending on the size of your garden), and pruning, are all opportunities to shape the plant as it grows.

It may be tricky to determine what a cut here, today, makes the plant look like later, until you've been through a season. The good news is that cannabis is very forgiving, once it gets going.

A total stoner method of "growing sideways" is to grow a plant in a pot until it's 2'-4' tall. Then transplant it into it's final home/pot, but at a severe angle. The tip will curl up, and all the side banches that are facing up will stretch to compete for the tallest position.

That's another trick making your plant "turbo boost" for a few day. Take the tallest cola, and gently bend it at the base. Continue bending gently, but increase the distance you move it. Eventually, you'll b# able to bend it so it is pointing downward, and below the other "top colas". They will now compete to be the Queen Cola, and stretch taller.

Also, it is possible to grow too big. Once a cannabis plant gets larger than 10'-15' diameter, the percentage of THC decreases with increased size. I've seen plenty of monsters that dwarf 10' diameter plants, but size doesn't equal strength.

kidwarp 4mo ago

I appreciate all the information you provided thank you.

Troy 4mo ago

For sure! If you couldn't tell, I love sharing what I know. Feel free to ask me more question, DM, or whatever. It's all fun, can be simple and easy, and can be taken to complex levels. Once you grok some basic concepts, the rest builds off of it easily.

Troy 4mo ago

I've even seen people take a bag of soil, drop it (flat) where they want the plant, cut an X across the label (which is facing up, at this point), and plant a clone. It worked just fine, even if it wasn't peak optimization. 😜