Not to sure brother, hope you get the answer you're looking for. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
If you have a good soil mix then you can grow with water only. I done a few runs like that. I experimented with SSTs, ACTs and various meals teas and came to the conclusion that they weren't necessary. It didn't seem to make a noticeable difference with the final results so I stopped all that. I still use ACTs but only when I need to jump start the micro-herd. I add ACT when I first mix up my soil and need to moisten it. I've added it after about 3 runs with recycling my soil. I never use it to 'feed' the plants. What I do use now is row 6 malted barley that I get from a brewing store. I take 1 tablespoon per gallon and grind it to powder in a coffee grinder. I put it in a bucket and aerated/bubble it for 4-6 hours. I apply it full strength to the soil. I do this about once every 2 weeks. What I can confirm is this enzyme tea will reduce the time to maturity by about 10 days. What I think but haven't enough data to confirm is it improves the quality of the cured buds. Work on getting good quality EWC/compost and find Canadian sphagnum peat moss. Those will make up the bulk of your soil mix. Adding the amendments and minerals along with some aeration material is what will produce a great crop. You don't need anything else to be successful. Thinking that you need to add kelp, EWC, or other types of teas (except maybe enzyme tea) is buying into the bottled nutrient mind set. It took me a while to realize it when I switched over to mixing my own soils.
That was pretty much why I did the teas, was for the micron boost. I dug into the layer of a horse manure compost pile that has sooo many worms, you take a handful and have a handful of wiggles, it's beautiful stuff. I took a combo of the worms in the compost they were eating, along with some of the black gold layer behind it, added that, along with some cocoa and pumice and some of the amendmebts I explained before...I did not have time to wait it out and cook this batch, but I think i pretty much have the good stuff anyway...I then wanted to experiment with a casting tea as a microb boost to prevent bugs and such. But I just don't get why I'm showing some deficiencies, mainly potash. My only thought is, bc of the set up of my room, and this tundra we are having, despite my thermostat that says 69-70 degrees, I have no doubt my soil is 65 degrees.
Did you use alfalfa meal in the amendments? If you did then you really need to let is sit for about 4 weeks before using it. The reason is it allows the micro-herd to start processing those amendments and breaking them down into the nutrient ions that the plants need. If you put young plants into a soil that hasn't been through the 4 week period then you are probably going to have trouble with them. Don't try to rush this because letting the soil do it's thing for those first few weeks is an important step in the process of soil mixing.
No alfalfa meal but some bunny poo that was fed alfalfa. I'm hoping that with time it will start to kick in? I have another bucket of soil mixed that I ammended a bit stronger knowing I could give it time..
Bunny poo or any manure that hasn't been broken down will be similar to alfalfa or any other green material like lawn clippings. These materials need time to begin to decompose. As they decompose they generate heat and this heat is not good for your roots. The typical amount of amendments (total and not each) is 2-3 cups per cubic feet of your base soil mix. For minerals you can use 4-6 cups per cubic foot of your base soil mix. Adding more than that isn't the way I do it. I mix 4 cubic feet at a time so my amendments are: 2 cups each of: kelp meal alfalfa meal neem cake crab meal fish bone meal I mix my own minerals using this recipe 6 parts basalt 3 parts glacial rock dust 1 part bentonite 1 part oyster shell flour 1 part gypsum 1 part soft rock phospate. My base soil mix is equal parts of Canadian sphagnum peat moss (Alaska brand) EWC/compost pumice I create my own EWC and thermal compost so the quality is excellent. I moisten the soil with an ACT that I bubbled for 24 hours or so. This works great for me.
So there are many that use a no till system...as the roots break down from previous plants and the newly added amendmebts break down, how would they have success? I am planing a no till system.
I don't do no till with the girls but I do that in my vegetable garden. What I've read is the no till growers drop some kelp meal into the hole and then top dress with EWC. The whole mixing your own soil is predicated on having the highest quality EWC that you can get. The amendments will last quite a while and I've heard the no till growers run many cycles through the soil. The minerals are even slower to break down than the amendments. Most of them don't even dig up the main stem. They just plant around it. You need to run at a minimum a 7 gallon pot for no till. The bigger the better. I run in 5 gallon pots and no till is just not practical in my situation. So I recycle my soil and add a 1/2 each of neem cake, kelp meal and crab meal to each of the 5 gallon pots I dump. I sort out most of the roots and feed them back into my worm bin but the main stem I toss into the woods. I have 4 32 gallon plastic garbage cans that I rotate the soil through. After 3-4 runs I may moisten them again with an ACT.
Cheers!!! Subscribed. Going to read through may have some questions for you. Whether you're for marijuana or not. No one should ever have to go to jail for it.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I thought bunny poo was a cold fertilizer, meaning no compost required.
You can use fresh bunny poo but it does contain/attract bacterial action and this can heat up. Small amounts won't get hot though. I don't compost bunny poo. I feed it to my worms and let them process it. So I vermicompost bunny poo. It's not the thermal compost that I do outside though.
When you say organic, are you referring to soil based growing? Because you say you switched from hydro (I'm assuming hydroponics) to organic.
Also, if you are good with hydroponics check out my website. I'm open to criticism. www.ehydroponicweed.com
touge240 - if you're asking me I was going to switch to hydro from bottled nutrients with ProMix. I came to the forum to learn about hydro. Came across information about growing in your own mixed soils. Found to made sense to me and changed my mind and switched to mixing my own soils. I'm sure glad I did.
Just curious anyone tried finishing with metal halide the last week or so?? Have heard some ideas that you can get a good push for a dense finish. Grow journal aero 4400 watt scrog
I've flowered all the way through with mh in the past. I run mixed now. Didn't really notice any change between the two. ..
Thank you brother appreciate the tip. I'll be using mh for the last two weeks. I'll then do an entire run with just sodium. I'll keep everything besides lights the same and I'll post my findings. First run about 4 to 5 weeks out second another 6 after that. Perpetual harvest scheme should be close to that time frame. Grow journal aero 4400 watt scrog
It's what I've heard too. Actually, I've both read and heard that adding blue spectrum to the red sprctrum dominant HPS helps density ofr sure. I decided to go with 54w high output t-5 @5900K. I have 3, 4ft. tubes in my 4x4x7 ft. plywood box.(homebuilt)I also run a Hortilux enhanced spectrum HPS. They have a big spike in the blue spectrum.=) I even Veg with it. =) Goos stuff, Plaid
Looks like a great place to be! Pulling up a rocker in the corner if that's ok Jerry. Gotta go back and review a bit though. Glad I found the place!