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10-11-2007, 11:45 PM #2
Senior Member
NutrientsI
I wouldn't recommend using any fertilizer this early in the game. Generally, your soil should contain enough nutrients to get the plants through the first few weeks of life. The fertilizer that aides root development would be the only thing you should use, if you decide you must add nutrients. Even then, I'd only use about 1/4 of what the directions recommend. Young sprouts are easy to overfeed, and you probably won't have much time in between the plants looking healthy & the plants looking completely wilted/dead. By that time, it's too late to do anything for them. You could try flushing the entire soil mix with copious amounts of water...but even if they survived, they'd most likely be stunted.
You want to use a fertilizer that's higher in nitrogen during the vegetative stage, and a fert that's higher in phosphorus (lesser in nitrogen) during the flowering stage. I don't recommend using Miracle Gro, as it's generally pretty heavy on the chemicals. Try to keep it as organic as possible.
I've noticed that adding bone meal (and only a small amount) to the to the potting soil before sowing does seem to add a vigorous start to the life of the young plants. Besides earthworm castings, this is just about the only nutrient addition I'll make to the soil until they've moved into larger pots/stronger lights/etc.
Take it from someone who's made all the necessary mistakes before he finally learned his lesson: Don't love your plants to death! Be patient, and you'll be rewarded in the end.










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