Our 3 Favourite Water Soluble Organic Products
After using multiple products over the past couple years, there's a few products that have made a huge difference in our grow and I would like to highlight. When growing organic cannabis, we try to fill our soil with enough nutrients for the plants to uptake. But there are certain water soluble products that can be used to “spoon feed” the plant rather than it working for all of its food.
1) Therm X-70
Therm X-70 has grown to be my favourite product in the garden. Therm X-70 is derived from the yucca plant that is high in saponins which acts as a wetting agent or soil conditioner. This means that it helps spread moisture throughout the soil and prevents dry pockets. With soil conditioning being its main job, yucca also provides the soil with microorganisms as well as some micronutrients essential for plant health. Yucca extracts can contain micronutrients like iron, zinc, manganese and copper. Another interesting thing about yucca is that it contains antioxidants like salicylic acid and vitamin C, which play a large role in your plants immune system. This helps your plant grow with vigor and resist pests naturally.
Therm X-70 is something I use in every water, incorporating at ¼ tsp per gallon to help spread moisture throughout our 3x3 bed. Another very popular wetting agent on the market is “The Q” by Jay Plantspeaker sold at Build a Soil. This is using a Quillaja extract which has a very potent saponin content and growers are reporting it has incredible defense against pests but mostly fungus gnats.
What wetting agent do you use?
2) Microbial Mass
Microbial Mass is a fairly new product and is made here in Canada. Microbial Mass has been built by understanding the science behind the rhizosphere. The rhizosphere is the area where your roots are up-taking nutrients with the help of microbiology like bacteria. Microbial Mass uses a blend of bacteria that solubilizes phosphorus, calcium and assists in the bioavailability of iron and other compounds. Phosphorus can be one of the hardest things for your soil to break down and make plant available for absorption. Having a sufficient amount of phosphorus in your garden is important in all stages as it helps with tissue stiffness, root growth, flower development and much more. When first starting to use Microbial Mass in our garden, I would notice huge changes in just a matter of days. The plants would perk up more than usual, I would also notice very vigorous flower growth and bulking. After seeing the results happen so quickly, I became a huge fan of this product.
Have you used Microbial Mass? What other products have you used that are similar to Microbial Mass?
3) TM-7 by Bio Ag
TM-7 is a very new product to us but has become very important. When completing our soil test for our current run, we were lacking a lot of micronutrients and had a soil pH slightly higher than we would have liked. With the pH being high, this would have prevented a lot of micronutrients from being available for the plants to uptake. One valuable lesson I have learned from Jeremy over at Build a Soil is that by spoon feeding the plant water soluble nutrients you actually take some of the workload off of them. In this case, I figured that we could find a product to use so that we can water our micronutrients directly into the soil rather than adding them into our top dress. After watering with TM-7 I noticed very good and healthy growth. With that being said, there was a point in mid veg where I saw some deficiencies. From my understanding, this could have been from a multitude of nutrient deficiencies, but I went right to the TM-7. I noticed the new growth to be healthier and the plants perked back up while praying to the light.
Micronutrients are often something overlooked when growing cannabis. A lot of synthetic nutrient companies lack micronutrients in their A & B and organic growers buy soils that are loaded with primary and secondary nutrients, but lack micronutrients. Just like the human body, we don't just need protein, vitamin C or carbohydrates, we need everything in order to live a healthy sustainable life.
This works the same way with our soil.
Some others to mention…
Aloe Vera Flakes
Coconut Water Powder
Molasses
Fish Emulsion
Rootwise
I think adding water soluble organic products is a way to really give your plants a boost in the garden. I think a lot of us organic growers like to take that laid back approach once we get into a groove as growing organically can require a lot less labour. I think adding some water soluble products into your line up can be very beneficial for you and your plants.
Are there any products that you use not listed here? What are some of your favourite products? What products should I add into my lineup of water solubles?
Let me know on Instagram or throw a comment down below this blog!
Until next time.