My cannabis nutrient feeding routine

[NickSkyland]

This is the nutrients and schedule I use growing cannabis in cheap generic potting soil.

Every plant is different, and some need more, some need less. I also learn as I grow and change it up as I do. I'll post updates as I do.

Germination
Water only.

Nitro
Once 2nd or 3rd node grows, I switch to 10% fish water, 90% filtered water.

After topping, and the branches form nice robust looking growths, I switch to about 25% fish water, 75% filtered water.

At preflower I ramp up closer to 33% fish water, and end of stretch gets a single 50% fish water, then I ramp it back down to 0 by end of week 6 flower.

Potassium
I boil 2 banana peels in a half gallon of water. Remove peels and cool off, then mix with a half gallon of filtered water, and add a tablespoon of molasses or honey.

I start feeding them this when I see flowers everywhere, and stop at week 6.

Phosphorus/Calcium/Magnesium
I'm trying something new and top dressing 1 tablespoon of bone meal with 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt, once cotyledons turn yellow. I'll add a second tablespoon of just bone meal at flower switch.

I used to mix 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt in its own gallon, using it as foliar spray, and pouring a healthy dose in my nitro gallon, but I think top dressing will be less work.

Quantity
They get about a cup of appropriate nutrient water every day, or every other day. It's largely dictated by the soil of the plant. I don't feed to run off often because I don't like cleaning my drip pans that much; however, I do feed to run off at least once in veg and once in flower to make sure nutrients are reaching all nooks and crannies in the pot.

Dry
Anytime I feed to run off, or flush, it gets a day or 2 with no water or feed to dry out.

I check the soils in the morning, while I wake n bake. If they are dry, they get fed, if moist, not getting fed until next morning.

Flush
Once a week they get a regular water. At switch I water to run off. At week 4 I water to run off.

I'm not trying to remove nutrients. I'm trying to push them down and around. To disturb idle nutrients and positioning them anywhere in pot besides where they are at.

 

[NickSkyland]

This stuff is essential too. Its not a nutrient, but in same group of things.

Ever see those nasty little fruit fly looking things that get impossibly stuck on those gorgeous sticky flowers? Fungus gnats. Fungus is everywhere, even inside your plants. This kills the gnats before they get their wings. It slices them to death and does not hurt plant.

I drizzle a little over the soil one time, earlier in veg, and don't have to worry about it again.

 

[NickSkyland]

With love 3 footer in 2 gallon pot

 

[Zill]

Nick,

What do plants derive from banana peels and molasses?

 

[NickSkyland]

Nick,

What do plants derive from banana peels and molasses?

Banana peels contain primarily potassium, with small amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and magnesium.

Keeping it simple, plants need NPK. Banana peels are my K.

They also make excellent compost soil. By boiling it, I'm speeding up the process of breaking down the peel to raw material. Being organic, it's already in a form the plants can convert. It smells really good, works good, is basically free, and no chemical worries. My kids could literally drink it and it be healthy for them too.

The molasses/honey tablespoon is to add many micronutrients, readily available carbs, and to feed microbes

Molasses - An Effective Soil Amendment & Fertilizer Ingredient

Earth Smart Solutions products are formulated using naturally occurring ingredients and sustainable sources including macro and micro nutrients, enzymes, carbohydrates and amino acids. One of the naturally occurring ingredients that we use in many of our formulations is molasses. Molasses...

www.earth-smart-solutions.com

 

[Zill]

Nick,

If banana peels are your only source of K your plants are deficient in K. Banana peels are ~90% water. Therefore all else, minerals etc. are in very low concentrations. A plant can have as much as 100x K concentration as the soil. In order to absorb against a concentration gradient the plant spends energy to transport. It doesn’t give rats patootey whether or not it’s “organic”. It absorbs K+ not carbon bound K.

Molasses - below is a list and the concentration of minerals in 100 gm of molasses - not much bang for the buck. I see many mentions of using molasses to kick start the soil microbes. Sure it will. I’m feeding the microbes high octane free fuel. They devour the stuff and the population explodes. But the downside is this - after they consume the molasses 99% of that population will die out. They are predisposed to eating high octane fuel when that is gone most of the bugs are as well. Yes, of course not all die. The survivors will induct enzymes and go back to eating stuff in the soil. It’s tough out there.

But wait, if you’ve got a proven way to grow plants and you’re pleased with results. Don’t change a thing. Just saying.

Calcium	205 mg
Iron	4.72 mg
Magnesium	242 mg
Manganese	1.53 mg
Phosphorus	31 mg
Potassium	1464 mg
Sodium	37 mg
Zinc	0.29 mg

 

[NickSkyland]

They are doing good, I'm super happy with them. I don't think they are deficient in K though. I can burn them with banana peels if I don't water it down, or feed too much.

In fact I typically push them just to the point of a slight yellow tip before burn, then give water for a few cycles.

 

[Zill]

There you go. If it works do it.

Good stuff Nick!

 

[NickSkyland]

Banana Bloom Booster

20 minute boil:

Done:

Mostly Potassium:

Add about a tablespoon pour of molasses after it cools:

Funneled into a gallon jug. Was about 1/3 full. Filled the rest with filtered water.

Or so the legend goes..

 

[Zill]

Fresh batch. Just for giggles I wonder what a component analysis would like.

 

[Natep]

Make banana fpj. I think it works fantastic. Also aloe Vera fpj is a great one.

 

[NickSkyland]

Growing old in the new world (order)

Saving this data for future use:

Potash has 5% potassium, 2% calcium, 2% phosphorus, 1% magnesium. Can raise PH if used excessively instead of lime. Good for veg and flower.

Currently testing a dozen different organic combination/formulas.

How To Use Wood Ashes To Power Your Vegetable Garden!

See how to use wood ashes to help recharge and power your vegetable garden - and even help many of your flowers, bushes and trees too!

oldworldgardenfarms.com

 

[Zill]

Wood ash. Great source of K, potassium. I love this stuff. I apologize ahead of time.

Soap was not known to ancient peoples. The Greeks and Romans used oil as a cleaning agent. Sounds odd but oil will dissolve grease and help remove grime. Naturally, any substance that would help the oil do this would be much in demand. The ancients showed their desperation in that they sometimes added sand or other gritty material to the oil, for the aske od scouring action, but that has obvious disadvantages.

A more suitable additive was eventually found in the ash of wood. The ash would be stirred in water, which dissolves out some of the substances in the ash. The water with all the dissolved substances would be poured into a large pot. The water was then boiled off and the dry residue strongly heated. The powdery material was called potash. The two syllables are run together. Pot ash. The Arabs called the residue alquili “plant ash”.

When oil was mixed and heated with potash a kind of soap was formed, saponification, and a new cleaning material was developed.

The British chemist Sir Humphry Davy isolated a hitherto unknown metal in 1807 and because it occurred in potash, he gave it the name Latin-sounding name, potassium. The Germans oddly enough gave it a Latin sounding name derived from the same substance. But they used the Arabic word and called the metal, Kalium. For that reason, the chemical symbol is K. Even in countries that call it potassium.

Potash is one of a group of substances that share properties opposite to those possessed by acids. Such opposite-to-acid compounds are called alkalis, a work that descends from the Arabic word “potash”.

K is a major plant nutrient. Duh.