what happens if I dont "cook" my soil mix?

Yeah, like whoever said organics couldn't burn hasn't really done it. Grown organically that is.

I didn't get impatient, but there WAS 2 buckets of mix that were the same color, one hot, one not AND a fair amount of alcohol involved. that also.

Got some different colored buckets now for when I want to play with my mixes.

Wet

 

But then there is organics and there is organic

 

really your the 1st person to say this? i got a bit of yellowing i'm growing organic and trying to keep it as simple as possible can you give me a tea mix for 1 plant in a 5 gallon container and 1 in a 3 gallon container there both vegin.

 

Do as Microbeman instructed with the worm castings. Add 3-4 cups of castings in a gallon of water, shake the hell out of it and pour it on both plants soil, leaving the castings residue divided between the two plants.

Also, get some kelp meal soaking to both water and foliar spray your plants with. Add an 1/8 to a quarter cup to a gallon of water, or a cup worth in 5 gallons. Aerate this tea or keep mixing for a couple of days, again, watering with it and strain it to spray all over your plants.

These two things are the most basic but very effective things you can do for your plants - yellowing or not.

Hope that helped - and does help.

J

 

no problem i'm on it! and thanks for the kelp meal soak i think i have some avaible if not i'll get some, pretty sure i got bone and blood meal on hand.

 

I wouldn't use bone and blood for a foliar spray...

J

 

Big +10 on that ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Neither of those are really suited for foliar.

Wet

 

Mine got burnt when I didnt let the soil cook. They made it through. they ended up doing fine, but they had me worried and growth definitely slowed

 

I just made my first "super soil" today, just put it in the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of a 3g smart pot. i had only heard of "cooking" verrrry recently, and of course, didn't do that. rest of my soil is just some vermicompost soilless, (basically fox farms ocean forest), high N bat guano, and mycho's. really hoping i dont have burn issues, especially cause i may have overdone it on wood ash for the sup'ed soil.

hopefully i can borrow some of that luck, i guess we'll see D

 

Wood ash should be used very sparingly - especially if you're not going to cycle your soil. Have you ever got it on your hands and then gone to wash it off and noticed the "slippery" feeling? That is pure lye - calcium carbonate, as alkaline as it gets and will burn plants for sure if not used carefully. It can work as a liming agent when used in extreme moderation.

Wood ash does contain a lot of minerals, but not nitrogen.

Be careful using it, as it can really throw your soils pH out of whack - this is what causes the "burning" in plants.

J

 

Perhaps what Microbeman is inferring is that "organic" is defined as a carbon and hydrogen molecule bonded together. "Organics" is a loosely defined termed most often associated with gardening/farming employing practices that involve using plant and animal based residues as plant nutrients.

An intersting point about "organics" is that in their raw or uncycled forms (plant and animal hydrocarbon based) plants can not use the material until the material has been mineralized or cycled into the inorganic elemental and ionic form which allows for uptake by plant roots. Without the "living soil" component of organic horticulture plants will die from lack of "nutrients". Every organic element has the potential to go through a mineralization cycle where the organic form is processed by bacteria and fungi to the inorganic form. For example, one could plant a tomato plant in pure builders sand (no CEC value whatsoever) and apply synthetic (chemically derived) fertilizer and the tomato plant would grow and fruit because the necessary elements are already in the ionic form required by plants. The tomato plant placed in the same environment (sand) and using kelp or alfalfa or blood or bone, etc., would die due to a lack of nutrients because there are no microbes to cycle the organic form into the plant usable inorganic form.

Whereas pH can certainly result in plant burning due to a lock out of needed minerals due to the chemical combinations at play, pH by its definition does not result in burning. When "cooking the soil" occurs it is actually mineralization or cycling that is the result of "the cook". Typically, but not always, when nitrogen is being cycled excessively fast the result often leads to an excess of ammonia gas and that is the most common reason for burning of plant leaves.

"Organic" is simply hydrogen and carbon bonded together. "Organics" is much more than that. It is a lifestyle as much as it is The Way.

 

just buy compost and ewc that is pre cooked

Buy local compost that has already been cooked and if you're making youre own EWC or using homegrown compost it must be cooked

Huh?!?

 

i 2nd that notion.

 

Complexity brought to a new level, the "Pre-Cooked" amendment!

 

Pretty well stated. Do I know you?

I guess my statement But then there is organics and there is organic related to organics burning plants, is referring to using a whole organic or natural growing system where your soil is living and organic matter is added in a fashion close to nature. This is opposed to the use of ammendments because they are organic. I'll try to explain what I mean using alfalfameal as an example.

Suppose I hear that alfalfameal tea is a great source of N for my plants, which it is. I then soak a bunch (too much) alfalfa in water and pour that into my soil. Well alfalfa has some soluble N to it so there is a possibility of burning my roots with too rich of an application.

On the other hand, if I take the same amount of alfalfa meal and lay it on top of my soil, when I water, a small amount of soluble N may be carried to the rhyzosphere but the majority will be held in a sequestered form to be processed/digested/degraded by surface dwelling bacteria, archaea and fungi. They will only pass on the the root system what is required.

In the second example, in my opinion one is growing organically/naturally while in the first one is using something considered or called organic. This can include many products in bottles which are labelled organic, which hypothetically could be used in a natural growing system but could also have the potential to burn.

I have never seen plants burn from properly finished [vermi]compost nor ACT. A test for well made compost is to be able to sprout seeds in it.

 

I think buy cooked, he may have been steralised. You know like an oven. By the way, bad idea.

 

My one yellowish plant is turning around, all I did was put a slurry of ewc on top of the soil.
(my soil is inthegarden gal organic soil for beginners)

It is currently growing fast enough I have to raise the lights daily, about an inch a day. I raised the lights 2 inches this am, just now checked the plant is touching them again, fluorescent tubes.