One major challenge marijuana growers face is providing correct types, amounts, ratios of essential nutrients to their plants. Feeding mistakes happen constantly without growers realizing it, harming plants and harvest rewards. It’s become very complicated, and there are several generic methods for feeding marijuana plants:

  • Grow plants in soil, soilless mix, or other solid media that already has a full season’s worth of nutrients on-board at the start of the grow season.
  • Grow plants in solid root zone media that has to be repeatedly amended or fed.
  • Grow plants in water culture systems that contain zero nutrition in the root zone so all nutrients have to be added repeatedly. The same is true for totally inert root media such as rockwool.
  • Grow plants in “living soil” that contains on-board nutrition and a beneficial soil ecosphere that includes bacteria and fungi that ally with roots. Soil amendments are added every couple of weeks.

None of these approaches is always easy or reliable. Growing plants in rich, fertile soil with enough on-board nutrition and microbial ecosphere to feed plants from start to finish is the easiest method—all you do is add pure water.

Unfortunately, it’s been almost impossible to find high quality fertile soil. In fact, most of the commercial soils sold in marijuana grow stores are seriously defective; many come with root aphids, bad pH buffers, and other harsh problems.

Growers relying on inert media or water culture must purchase expensive technology (pH/EC meters, etc.), use reverse osmosis water (costly to install and run municipal water through), and rely on flawless performance of their technology, including pumps, timers, and electricity supply.

In high-tech water culture or drip-irrigated rockwool system, an electrical outage of only a few hours will kill plants. Problems with pH and nutrients density happen often, and may not immediately kill plants, but decrease growth rate, yield, and bud potency.

Growers seeking to grow in soil or soilless mix and amend those media must procure quality dry powders that are properly sourced, manufactured, configured, and dose-packaged.

The long-time growers on this magazine team have tested various brands of full-spectrum and solo compound soil amendments for decades—we’ve never found a suite of feed products that create ideal root zone and nutrients supply conditions, especially in bloom phase.

The closest we ever came to ideal soil was by following Subcool’s “supersoil” recipe, but that recipe cost a lot, took forever to mix and cure, and ran out of nutrition by mid-bloom.

Now the good news: there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Although we’ve yet to test these products, growers we trust tell us they use a brand of blended and solo amendments called Gaia Green, with impressive success.

We queried Gaia Green about their product line and were grateful to receive a very detailed reply from an anonymous spokesperson. Note that no other soil amendment companies we queried answered product questions honestly and in detail. Gain Green is the unicorn, and it makes us have faith in them.

This interview transcript is slightly edited for clarity and brevity—the answers are in italics.

Q: If there are any third-party studies proving that the brand can be used as a stand-alone feed program for an entire cannabis season in Pro-Mix HP or similar soilless mix, please provide. 

There are no white paper or university level studies on this topic, but Gaia Green Organics are commonly used as the only source of inputs in cannabis gardens.  You find many gardeners on Instagram and YouTube using only Gaia Green Organics from start to finish.

Q: Dry amendments often need several weeks in situ to become bioavailable. How bioavailable are Gaia products, especially in initial mix? 

Growers commonly report seeing increased growth within 3 days of applying Gaia Green Organics products.  Many of the components of our All Purpose and Power Bloom nutrients are fine powders, which become available more quickly.  The mixes also contain larger granules that break down over time.

Q: If there are comparison tests between synthetic or synthorganic nutrients versus Gaia in cannabis gardens, please provide. As regards growth rate, floral development, cannabinoid density, and harvest weight, how does a Gaia program do versus a hydro synthetic chemical nutrients program? 

We do not have specific comparison trials between different nutrient brands, and we’re not here to attack our competitors.  The only time we sling mud is when we’re digging in the garden.  Since organic nutrients are more forgiving and easier to use than soluble mineral nutrients, many growers have better results with Gaia Green Organics. 

Commercial growers often have higher yields with soluble mineral nutrients if they are educated and experienced in commercial growing operations and are comfortable with precision measuring, dosing, pH adjustment, EC adjustment, runoff testing, etc.  Many home growers prefer to keep it simple while still having respectable yields, and that’s when Gaia Green Organics is the best choice.

Q: What is the cost comparison between using Gaia versus using hydro nutrients? What is the comparison in amount of time/effort needed to conduct the feed program between Gaia and hydro nutrients? 

Costs can vary widely depending on brand, and there are too many brands in this industry to offer price comparisons between all of them.  We always try to keep our prices low and priced better or similar to other dry organic nutrients.  We don’t look at soluble hydro nutrients when checking market prices, just dry organic competitors.  When comparing Gaia Green Organics prices to other organic-approved brands of dry nutrients, you’ll find we offer great value. 

Regarding time and effort, growers only need to apply Gaia Green Organics once every three weeks.  In contrast, hydro nutrient batches should be replaced frequently (in recirculating systems and standing reservoirs) and monitored daily with the use of digital meters, which is significantly more work. 

If your hydro nutrients are too strong by even 20%, you can seriously damage crops but if organics are applied at 20% over the ideal dosage, it makes very little difference.  The interactions between soil organisms and root systems can allow plants to choose when to use more or less of the organic nutrients that are available in the soil, making organic gardening simpler than conventional gardening. This topic can be better understood by studying the soil food web.

If you have water with pH above 7.0 or below 5.5, Microbe Life and BioBizz both offer pH adjusters that are gentler than the harsh chemicals found in other brands. 

I don’t work for those brands, so I don’t want to make any specific claims other than they work, but the good news is you can skip those additions altogether and still get great results with Gaia Green. 

Please avoid phosphoric acid and potassium hydroxide when gardening with Gaia Green or any other brand of organic nutrients.  Those chemicals are unfriendly to microorganisms that help make nutrients available to your plants.  I also recommend using reverse osmosis or rainwater.  Unfiltered tap water will work with Gaia Green Organics, but growers see better results when chlorine is reduced or eliminated from their water source.

Q: What else should growers know when considering switching from hydroponics nutrients to Gaia Green?

I’ve tested dozens of different nutrient brands over the years, and used to operate a research greenhouse to test new products for a former employer.  There are brands that tell you to use 20 different products to grow a plant. In my experience, those brands work well, but the manufacturers could combine multiple products into just a few bottles, saving growers time and money. 

If I wanted to maximize profits with little regard for grower’s wallets, I could tell you to buy every Gaia Green Organics product and use all of them to grow your plants.  But the truth is we already blended them together in our All Purpose product for vegetative growth and (in different ratios) our Power Bloom flowering phase nutrients. 

Anyone wanting my products should just get those two nutrient blends and some Gaia Green Worm Castings.  That’s all you need to grow some really impressive plants.  Growers could add some of our other products, or products from different brands, but they don’t really need to. 

A grower might use 20 different bottles to grow their plants, and if that makes them happy, they should keep doing that.  But for any grower who wants to simplify their gardening efforts while growing heavy harvests that are free of deficiencies, I know from experience that Gaia will get it done.

There are also growers who only want a specific input, which is why we offer things like Glacial Rock Dust and Super Fly Insect Frass.  Maybe your soil is nutrient-rich in most areas and only needs a phosphorus additive.  In that case, you use our Mineralized Phosphate.  But if you’re already using Gaia Green All Purpose or Power Bloom (plus some worm castings), there’s no need to spend more money on our other offerings.

 Q: If someone follows Gaia’s generic pre-mix and top dressing menu, is the resulting root zone media too hot for seedlings? 

We’ve had growers plant seedlings directly into soil that has Gaia Green Organics All Purpose nutrients and Gaia Green Organics Worm Castings incorporated into it with great results.  It’s difficult to burn plants, even young ones, when following our label directions.  Follow the pre-mix instructions and don’t top dress for the first three weeks.  This will save you time and money—your seedlings don’t really need the top dressing at first.  

Personally, I plant seedlings into our Gaia Green Organics Living Soil, which already has some of our best amendments added to it.  I’ve seeded a wide variety of plant species directly into our Living Soil, and none of them burned.  Once those seedlings have fully rooted in a 3.5 inch container, that’s when I move them to a larger container and add more All Purpose to the soil along with worm castings.

 Q: Anything truly unicorn in points of difference, brand superiority, and especially in cannabis growing outcomes that boost your brand, feel free to share. 

Many organic brands only use minimal inputs required to achieve their desired NPK levels.  We use multiple sources of inputs to get the best results from our favorite plants.  It costs us more, and requires quite a bit of material sourcing, testing, and blending labor, but your crop results are well worth it. 

We focus on high-performance calcium sources in our All Purpose and Power Bloom nutrients, since calcium is one of the most common deficiencies seen by gardeners.  There are cheaper calcium sources we could use to achieve the same guaranteed analysis, but the cost savings would result in lower performance, and we find that unacceptable. 

We’ve also rejected low-cost inputs that fail our lab tests if their nutrient concentrations are too low or other compounds, which we consider contaminants, are too high.

Here is our reaction to what Gaia Green’s spokesperson told us:

  • Gaia Green gets a boost in creds just for answering the questions. We’ve sent questionnaires to all major hydroponics, dry powder, and soil companies, and Gaia Green was the only company to respond honestly and comprehensively. Most of their competitors didn’t answer, or their answers were marketing propaganda with zero science or ethics to back them up.
  • The price of hydroponics nutrients is skyrocketing. In comparison to the hydro feed programs we currently use, Gaia Green will likely cost a lot less.
  • We’re tired of having to buy a new probe for our pH/EC meters every few months, tired of pH Up and pH Down, tired of the unforgiving nature of hydroponics nutrients. The Gaia Green living soil and/or soil amendment approach is likely a lot easier, flexible, safer, and time-saving compared to hydro feed programs.
  • As you see in this article, we have yet to find a legit manufacturer of soil microbes that work well for cannabis.
  • We note with relief that the spokesperson didn’t make the false claim often spouted by non-hydro growers and products manufacturers, which is that organic or “naturally-grown” marijuana tastes better, smells better, and is safer to consume than marijuana grown with “chemicals.” It is not.
  • It would be easy for a fertilizer manufacturer to team with a university and do proper testing to demonstrate efficacy of its products and approach, and to compete their products against other products and gardening methods. Third-party science is the gold standard for verifying product claims and quality, but is woefully absent from the cannabis cultivation products industry. Manufacturers expect us to take their word for it, just hand them our money without any objective proof their products work. Some think we’re naive and stupid, apparently.

We’ve requested samples from Gaia Green, and will test their gardening approach if they provide them. Until then, watch the videos embedded here, query the company to see if their products could work well in your specific grow op, do your own test grow. If Gaia Green is as effective as growers say it is, it will be a beautiful blessing!