If you’re asking this question, then we’re guessing you’re probably new to growing – or you’re serious about getting it right. We’re passionate about helping people grow their own plants, and we do so by providing some tried-and-tested tips, tricks and guides on how to find the best soil for weed so you can grow cannabis in South Africa from home.
If you’re looking to find the best soil for growing marijuana, then you’ve come to the right place. By the end of this guide to the best soil for marijuana plants– you’ll be able to pick the right soil with confidence. You can thank us with a snapshot of your yield later!
Contents
Best Soil for Cannabis
Before you get started, you’re gonna need some seeds. The right soil will do absolutely nothing if you don’t have something to plant in it. There are a lot of great places to buy cannabis seeds in South Africa.
Growing cannabis in soil is far cheaper, and a lot easier, especially for beginners. Whether you’re growing your weed indoors, in a small grow tent, or outdoors in the garden, whatever your choice of location, growing in soil is a great and natural way to crop fat, beautiful buds.
What’s more, soil is probably the most forgiving medium for growing. The biggest challenges are managing the watering of your plants, and the potential for problems caused by pests and diseases. Both of these risks are quite easily minimized through good management of your plants, as well as good hygiene.
When it comes to growing in soil, it is very important to choose (or make) a soil that will be best absorbed by your plants. The biggest mistake that growers make when using soil is to ‘stuff’ their soil with nutrients.
Overusing nutrients is not going to somehow yield a super-plant. Cannabis plants actually require different levels of nutrients during different stages of their life. And these nutrients are best absorbed at a pH level of 5.5 – 6.
How to Test the pH of my Soil?
For this, you will need a pH tester kit. These can be bought online or at most garden centers and they are fairly inexpensive. Or you could try this DIY method of testing your soils pH too.
Why is the Best Cannabis Soil Important?
Yes, cannabis is technically a weed, and yes, weeds can grow in a wide range of soils. But do you want your marijuana plant to truly flourish? To produce lots of THC, CBD and other cannabinoids? We thought so. Therefore, your future plants need the right balance of variables in their soil.
These are:
- Good drainage (you do not want muddy, clumpy and waterlogged soil)
- Also, good water retention
- The correct balance of fungi to bacteria
- A soil pH of around 6
- The right texture (as in how does it feel? Yes. It should be loose and not compact or very hard)
Okay, now it’s time to get into the best soils available for you to buy in South Africa for growing your bud:
Best Potting Soil for Weed
So what is the best cannabis soil? Getting a soil that has good drainage, good water retention and the perfect texture, all bagged up along with well-balanced cannabis nutrients in South Africa is the aim here.
Here are some choices of the best soils for marijuana. They can be used alone or mixed up to create the perfect soil for growing cannabis plants:
Freedom Farms Soil Premium Growing Medium
This organic South African soil is formulated mainly for organic growing practices and organic nutrients, which means it’s good soil for cannabis.
Freedom Farms produces a range of craft soils, for the connoisseur-grower and the gardener that requires optimal plant growth that can’t afford to skip a beat in production. According to some local South African growers, this is the best weed soil for sale.
We have done two grow cycles with freedom farms premium organic soil. It has performed extremely well providing the perfect nutrience your cannabis needs. We did not need to add any additional nutrients to the soil during the vegging phase and the flowering stage.
We are currently in our third grow with whit widow auto flower seeds. Just the same as our last grows we have not added any additional nutrients and our plants are thriving!
Ingredients
Coco Coir, Worm Castings, Compost, Perlite (10%), Vermiculite, Bone Meal, Gypsum, Fermented probiotic bran.
pH
Around 6
Used For
- Growing in small pots
- Indoor, Greenhouse or Outdoor growing
- Organic potting soil for vegetables, herbs and general plants
- Growing organic marijuana plants
Where To Buy
You can buy Freedom Farms products from Grow Guru, along with loads of other products that will help you create the perfect plant (but more on that later). This product is like super soil in South Africa!
Red Tractor Compost Potting Soil
If you’re planning on getting your bud on, this is a simple potting soil mix that has worked really well for many weed growers on a budget. Red tractor potting soil is great for mixing up the perfect soil for cannabis.
Where To Buy Cannabis Soil For Sale
Red Tractor has many retail outlets around South Africa, including some Mica shops, Stodels shops and Cape Garden Centre. Alternatively you can order from them directly via phone or email.
Tel: 021 987 1652
Cell: 072 674 2642
Email: redtractor@glcgroup.co.za
Coco
Coco coir is an ideal grow medium because it holds water exceptionally well. The physical properties of coco soil ensure an even balance of water and air in the root zone. It drains very well too which means its great weed soil.
Where to Buy
Coco coir is sometimes also referred to as Coco Peat or Palm Peat (don’t worry they’re all the same thing). There are many online shops which stock a variety of sizes depending on how much you need. It’s not too expensive but you will need to buffer it to ensure it is the perfect environment for healthy root formation.
If you are new to using coco coir keep an eye out to make sure that the product has been buffered and washed.
Buffering coco coir is important to get the right amount of calcium into the coco for the plant and uptake of nutrients.
Making sure the coco has been washed is extremely important. Coco comes from tropical biomes where there is excess salts and sand/grit that if not washed off the coco correctly before your cannabis plant is planted, this fine dust/sand can get in between the roots and coco which can stop the root system getting access to oxygen and prevent your plants from uptaking the correct nutrients.
Online Growshop
If you’re looking to grow cannabis in South Africa, Online Grow shop sells what every home grower needs.
They offer some of the best soil for growing cannabis and achieving maximum yields (which is the end goal after all). If you’re looking for grow mediums, they have it all.
Best Soil for Growing Weed Indoors
When it comes to the best soil for indoor weed, the soil you use will be fairly similar to the soil used outdoors. Light, water and nutrients are everything. So go and get yourself some Seagrow (not for your germinating seeds or seedlings just yet) from your local Spar or garden centre, and ensure your plants get enough sun and/or light!
For indoor growing it might be a good idea to look at investing in a grow light. These can help create some artificial sunlight for your babies, especially if you’re using a grow tent and natural vitamin D is lacking.
How to Grow Marijuana in South Africa
So how does one go about mixing up the perfect soil for growing weed? Well, if you’re going with something like Freedom Farms premium growing medium (see the ingredients), you will notice that it has everything your plant may need, you’ll just need to top it up as your plant happily eats through the nutrients in the soil.
The Germination Phase:
During this phase, nutrients, drainage, sunlight, etc. don’t have a say – they only feature once we’ve successfully helped our babies through this phase first.
Here are two methods you could try for this phase:
A: Gently plop your seeds between two wet paper tissues (or cotton buds) and place them in a plastic container. This is done indoors, and try to place the container in a spot where there will be higher humidity levels inside the container (put the lid on top of the container, BUT DON’T CLOSE IT). Temperatures in the container should be around 23 °C, and moist, but not overly wet. End goal? You’re waiting to see the first few millimeters of the root breaking through. This can take a few days, so be patient.
B: Fling your seeds into a glass of drinking water and wait a day or two until seeds have cracked. Keep waiting until you see the first few millimeters of the root. Place your cup somewhere where light doesn’t reach it, but it will still be warm.
The Seedling Stage:
Your marijuana plants will never be as vulnerable as they are in their seedling stage, and this is often when people think they should jam-pack its diet with nutrients. Nope, don’t do that. ‘Nutrient stuffing’ is a mistake that can easily end your plant’s life before it’s even properly started, and some well meaning nutrient supplements could easily poison your seedlings.
Instead, plant seedlings in very small individual containers, such as a peat pot, or even a Jiffy pellet. However you can’t keep them in this forever, as their roots will outgrow the small space. Both of these mediums need to be directly planted into the soil/bigger pot when the seedling is established and ready to move on.
If you provide your seedlings with nutrients when they are too young, they might have a sort of nutrient overdose. So as long as your initial potting soil for weed is of a high quality, you shouldn’t need to worry about adding any more until after a minimum of a few weeks.
The Vegetation Phase:
The vegetation phase comes after the germination and seedling phases, the stem grows thicker and taller and will begin to develop new nodes. These nodes will produce more leaves and even some new branches.
For this important stage of your plant’s life, high quality organic soil that is “minimalist” when it comes to pre-added nutrition works best.
So here’s how you do it: Bottom half of the pot: equal parts coco, perlite and worm castings
Top half of the pot: 70% worm castings, 25% coco and 5% perlite (used for aeration and water retention).
Another good addition to the mix is Seagro for your weed plant.
During the vegging phase your cannabis plant requires macronutrients in the form of NPK or Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus. A good ratio for vegging cannabis is (3-1-2) meaning 3 parts nitrogen, 1 part potassium and 2 parts phosphorus.
Keep this in mind if you will be adding nutrients to your grow. Also watch out for nutrient burn on the leaves, this can take the form of the leaves curling and becoming crunchy. If this happens don’t stress dial back the nutrients, now you know where your cannabis strains limits are.
Molasses and Other Flowering Weed Nutrients South Africa:
Your plant will naturally eat through what you are growing it in, so as the plant grows – soil levels will drop. Therefore, in this stage, you should be topping your soil up with pure worm castings and feeding it with balanced water PH and Bio-Bloom or Molasses.
Bio-Bloom should be mixed at around 4 ml per litre. When watering your plant, alternate between using normal water and the Bio-Bloom mixture.
Another great tool to have is an EC or electrical conductivity meter. This will help you get the exact nutrient measurements for your flowering cannabis plant.
A good flowering ratio for your plants is a 1-3-2 NPK ratio, being 1 part nitrogen 3 parts phosphorus and 2 parts potassium.
In addition, blackstrap molasses is a great nutrient to offer your plant during mid-to late-flower. One of blackstrap molasses’ best known uses is as an agent to deliver important nutrients to plants, such as carbohydrates, amino acids, and minerals. The benefits of blackstrap molasses will also help you bulk up the size of your buds.
Simply add between ¾ and 1 tablespoon of molasses per plant (depending on plant size, most will be fine with ¾ of a spoon) into your watering regime once a week, and stand back to watch the results.
You can buy blackstrap molasses here, and it’s one of the most beneficial organic nutrients for your plant, that also happens to be one of the cheapest. Your plants won’t be disappointed with a little added sugar.
Final Thoughts on the Best Soil For Marijuana
This guide on the best soil mix for cannabis should give you an idea of what to look for when purchasing your soil. And remember that when growing marijuana; sun, water and nutrients are your best friends, so you may as well start getting to know each other!
We hope you have gained some knowledge on cannabis nutrients in South Africa after reading this post.
We will be happy to see your thoughts.
3 comments
Pingback:Trophy Seeds South Africa Review - 10 Best Marijuana Seeds | Cannabis Connect
Having read this I thought it was extremely informative.
I appreciate you spending some time and effort to put this article together.
I once again find myself spending a lot of time both reading and commenting.
But so what, it was still worthwhile!
Usefull
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