With top dressing, you can provide your cannabis plants with many different nutrients. With this fertilisation method, the nutrients are distributed on the top layer of the soil. It is an effective and easy way to promote plant growth with organic fertilisers.
While foliar fertilisation is a way to quickly eliminate nutrient deficiencies, top dressing is a good way to prevent deficiency symptoms.
Advantages of Top Dressing
- You can add nutrients with top dressing throughout the grow.
- It is not very time-consuming and very easy to use
- The nutrients are slowly supplied to the plant and therefore there is no nutrient burning
- Top dressing can reduce the need for other fertilisers
- Top dressing promotes healthy and active microbiological life in the soil
Apply top dressing correctly
Nutrients that are supplied via top dressing need time until they can be absorbed by the plants. They should therefore not be applied only when a nutrient deficiency is already visible in the leaves or other indications.
You should supply the required nutrients in advance. During the growth phase the plants need a lot of nitrogen and during flowering a lot of phosphorus and potassium. How often top dressing needs to be applied depends largely on the condition of the soil. If the soil is poor and has few nutrients, top dressing can be applied every 3 weeks. However, if the soil is already pre-fertilised or very rich by itself, top dressing once during the growth phase and once before the start of flowering may be sufficient.
Make a top-dressing mixture
Top dressing has the advantage that you can make your own mixture. With this fertilisation method you can add nitrogen from several different sources and thus control the rate of uptake. At the same time you include trace elements and important macronutrients.
For example, the following ingredients can be included:
- Worm dung
- Seaweed
- Guano
- Bokashi
- Compost
- Neem flour
- Fishmeal
- Palm ash
- Algae meal
- Seaweed powder
- Nutrihemp
- Micro Mix Soil
- Alfalfa flour
- Barley malt
Always follow the manufacturer's instructions and recommendations when applying organic fertilisers or other mixtures. After the top dressing has been applied, you should water the plants vigorously so that the nutrients can seep into the soil better.
If you fertilise exclusively with organic fertilisers and organic top dressing, flushing 2 weeks before harvest is not necessary.
