Questions Nutrifield Nutrients and Additives

I guess this is the same question but not as specific to nutrient manufacturer >  

Do soil growers need to add nutrients through the grow? 

My soil is currently a packaged premium potting mix supplemented with compost and mulched with rice hulls.

I am watering with homemade worm tea, and outdoor plants are looking great, all green foliage.  Indoor plants not so happy but there's more issues in there...

I've heard you can't use too much worm tea, but is it too much to only use worm tea as a total watering substitute?

Is it advisable to use say PK additives to soil for bloom?

I've been looking at soil test kits for NPK.  It would be good to know if the soil is deficient, especially because I don't have the experience to go by eye.  Are these worthwhile?

Posted by: @brewer76

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Is it advisable to use say PK additives to soil for bloom?

Yes mate, unless its living soil you will most likely need some pk booster when flowers start to grow 

@brewer76, I hear ya man, I have been using worm and compost teas and though they say you can use it for every watering I think mine may have gotten too potent, so I think yes too much of a good thing is not good. I wasn't diluting mine, oops my bad.

  Then I've been trying to find out how to check the NPK of my soil and there are a few kits out there from the garden stores and on line, I have one that uses capsules that fairly easy to use. Don't know how accurate it is but it's better than just staring at the dirt. Ph can be measured but adjusting it can be next to impossible sometimes and not many people seem to check it away. I just checked my runoff tonight and it's PH 7.78 and the input PH was 6.0 or under, and if the PH was correct I wonder what the plant would be like.

  I was introduced to True Living Soil, look it up and that's where I found amendment amounts and additives and why. So it's not gospel but it is very informative and even in this vast info they don't talk about measuring anything after mixing or cooking, it's just assumed to be good after cooking and all amounts are now correct, and PH is never mentioned except for the water going in.  

 A company called Down to Earth seem to be a good source for organic amendments and True Living Soil with The Rev can get you started putting them together. I come from the hydro side of town and really like my numbers. lol good luck, get some sea bird poop for flower. lol 🖐️  

@brewer76 A quick skim of the site looks like they are liquid feeds for soil, its just a different delivery method rather than using a dry amendment. I think it will depend on your starting soil quality as to how much and of what you will need to be adding. If your making a super soil like TG's method then you will find little need for these other than a boost of pk, even then TG mentioned most strains get almost the entire way through a run on water alone. It will really depend on what the concentrations are in the soil you start with. I don't use amendments in soil runs other than some compost / worm teas and pk for flower as Macky mentioned. But in saying that I know some people do use liquid nutrients in soil with varying levels of success. Personally i would be going light with the fed ratios and feeling it out over a few runs to see how it reacts with your chosen soil recipe and add more if required, as with any liquid nutrient line less is almost always more. Good luck and keep us updated though, will be interesting to se what you find using this line as I have never used it, I use Green Planet or Canna.

Thanks for taking the time guys, much appreciated.

I'm considering my soil is living soil given its amended with compost, watered with worm tea & I've been adding Mykos, Azos & Micro Thrive products. 

Today's Super Soil podcast was timely for my journey and full of great detail.  Awesome work as always guys!

My soil didn't get Blood & Bone Meal, Dolomite Lime or Magnesium sulphate in the mix that @TempleGrower detailed.  Furthering my concerns that my soil could be low in nutrients.

@Woodi2, It took a bit but I found what you are referring to - True Living Organics by The Rev.  I'll get onto that fur sure, thanks so much for the reference.

What do I make of your soil analysis?  N -super high, P - virtually nothing (or its settled out?), K - very low ?  I'm going to go ahead with one of these too, looks good to get a handle on macro nutrients. 

I've got a decent pH meter that I use for brewing, so have been keeping an eye on runoff pH for inside grow, its been sitting ~6.5.

Meanwhile, outdoor grow is going great by the looks to me.  The outdoor grow soil is the same compost worked into the natural clay type soil.  I guess the biggest difference from the indoor grow is these get rainwater as well as the worm tea and obviously the benefits of actual sunlight.

I've been trying to take cuttings to clone the outdoor for the next indoor grow, so far I've lost every clone to stem rot.  But read about H202 & the importance of sanitation in cloning so am working on that.  Assuming I can get clones to root, I'm looking forward to making up some super soil for next grow after the hermies are done.

Indoor - Week 6 of Flower (Hermied)

Outdoor - Week 14 Veg

As I get caught up on your earlier post, I love that you are into a living soil approach.

I am not an expert but keep in mind that super soil is just meant to get you through the grow, but living soil has everything it needs to get you through any seasons with little or no inputs.  With all of the beneficials you are using, your approach sounds great to me. They help to liberate the nutrients that are in the soil and make them plant available.  If you are using good compost, then I would just keep an eye on things and apply if/when needed. If you bump into trouble, you could always apply an organic liquid feed.  I use Neptune’s Harvest on my plants when needed. My main source is Down to Earth organics, but they are dry ingredients and do not become available for quite some time.

Hope that helps!