I’m not good at growing things. Can you help me?
We make it simple. Fill a small pot with our Featherweight Champion soil-less mix. Plant either a start or a seed and water every 3 days. When the plant is 3-6″ tall, transplant into “The Bomb“. Grow like a pro with nothing but water.
Do I need to do anything special when I water?
If you are using tap water we recommend that you let it sit for 12 or more hours before using it or using an aerator pump to evaporate chlorine.Chlorine can kill your beneficial soil microbes.Depending on your water you also might want to adjust pH or get a filter if you have lots of solids in your water. pH is how acidic or alkaline the water is and can be measured with a simple test solution that does hundreds of tests for less than $10. You can fill a trash can with water and adjust the pH up or down with citric acid or potassium bicarbonate before you water. You are trying to get the water between 6 and 7. Or you can just water 🙂
How often should I water?
Roughly every third day. You want to let the plant come close to drying out then soak it again.
What’s a Smartpot?
A Smartpot is a cloth pot for growing almost any plant bigger. The soil pressing on the bag gives it shape and the fabric gets more air to the roots, making the root ball grow better. All of this results in a 20-30% increase in yield. We like to put smart pots on pallets. They also work great as liners for expensive pots so different annuals can be swapped out when they are flowering.
I use liquid nutrients and that’s how I like it. Do you have anything for me?
Try our Pro Base or Featherweight Champion mixes. With Pro Base you have to add all the macro nutrients yourself. With Featherweight Champion there is a light compost feed built in.
Can I reuse my soil?
Definitely. The coco peat takes much longer to break down than bog peat. The large number of good microbes will help clean bad organisms from your soil if you help them. Try a watering with Hygrozyme after you are done growing for the season. Also a watering with diluted molasses every 2-3 months will feed microbes. We then recommend you plant a cover crop like our PSC Nitro Vac blend. It will keep your soil microbes alive and pull lots of nitrogen out of the air for nest season. Some growers leave that cover crop grow for a whole season before planting again. If you grow again right away it’s the best to at least plant a different crop. With “The Bomb” or Daisy Cutter soils the large amount of solid nutrients will continue to break down and provide a time release feeding for 2 or more seasons.
What are the tiny white worms in some PSC soils?
Don’t be scared! They are your friendly workers. We inoculate with beneficial nematode Stiener Nema F. as well as the Stratiolalapse S beneficial. These great micro-arthropods will patrol your soil looking for pest insects to devour and provide the crucial final layer of the soil food web delivering the organic nutrients to your plants. They consume fungus gnat larvae as well as most other pests that have a portion of their life cycle in the soil.
