I've been using noobwannabs ghetto sips. There basically just a sip bucket. Perlite in a tub, water, and pot on top. I can't say enough good things about them. I most likely will as well now. When I was first mixing uo my soil, I just wasn't sure about prices and amounts. Now that I've done the research, amazon prime I'd where it's at. Haha
"include specific N and P additions during veg and flower phases." I honestly don't believe that items like bone meal added during the flowering phase of growth will break down sufficiently to give you a "boost" in time to be productive and should simply be added (if wanted) during your initial mix in order to be available for use as nutrition when you're wanting it to be available. These items can take months to break down. In an organic garden we rely on soil microbes and our plants to decide which nutrition should be used at certain times; if a certain element is wanted it will be used and if it isn't then it will sit until it is wanted, so why not just add everything in the initial mix to ensure sufficient breakdown time so that when it is needed that it'll be there? Gardening organically is the main reason I don't need to add specific items at specific times, much unlike bottle/hydro gardeners. Let the plant and soil life decide what is needed and when it is needed instead of us trying to make those decisions. Millions of years of evolution have perfected plants to make those decisions so that we don't have to. IMO a well rounded & balanced soil mix will give you just as good or even better results than us trying to make those decisions for our plants. My thoughts. J
Quoted for emphasis. Provide and maintain a proper environment and let nature do the rest. "Feed the soil, not the plant" and all that jazz... Oh and on topic, my worm bin made the biggest impact other than the introduction of neem related materials. I'd say aloe would be the next biggest thing for me as it changed how I did my propagation a bit, for the better.
That makes complete sense. The only thing that I've been doing is adding in a few teas here and there. This is more to feed the herd than it is the plant, as you said. My teas are usually just a quick mix of kelp and alfalfa meal, ewc, and some molasses. My original mix wasn't the best, and I think these have certainly helped added in a few missing ingredients as well as keep the little microbes happy. I'm hoping my own personal ewc will have a similar affect for me as well. Both inside and out. Gotta keep my veggies happy too
This is one of my favorite threads ever. So many great tips in just 2 pages so far. Im saving this link. Having a proper tea brewing system has been a big imporment for me. There is endless things you can do with a bubbler and some imagination.
Love the compost tea, Buffaloam is my new best friend, that and some roots organic uprising soil amendments every once in a while, neem spray once a month to keep it pest free, a separate t8 system for cloning, and of course, a perfectly tuned 11 band LED grow light, completed with UV and far red IR bands, platinum led is the way, I studied plant biology in college and those lighting systems are prime, less than half of the draw! Thats what I've been doing lately and it's been pretty killer I must say, organics all the way!!
I don't mean to derail a thread but a watt is a watt, as far as the power company is concerned. People keep insisting LED's are cheaper to run but I don't see how.
They are more efficient as far as output, my 368 watt led's match a 800-1000 watt hps in a side by side. Efficiency of power to light output is the trick, and further amplified by the angling lenses on the actual diodes themselves. And they run cool, just have a small recycler fan in my room instead of a 720 CFM inline. it makes my electricity lower all around.
Planting lots of comfrey. I now have an endless lifetime supply of free, high quality organic nutrients. J
I'm very happy with the way things are going as well. I looked around for a while and just didn't see anything that had straight forward grow changing tips as well as the reasoning behind them. What type of setup do you have? I bought a pretty decent bubbler from Amazon, but had some back flow issues that allowed water to get down into the power control switch. When I get a day off sometime, I plan on taking it a part and making up a quick circuit to control the pump again. It all works, I just can't adjust the output right now. What benefits have you been seeing from the buffaloam? What method do you use to apply it? How do you run your UV lights? A few minutes every hour towards the end of the grow? You're 100% right that A watt is a watt, but the HID lights don't use all of that power to create usable light for the plants. Some is lost to heat, some is lost to frequencies that the plant doesn't utilize, etc. I have not yet used an LED but from all the journals and reviews I've been seeing, if you use a good brand of light you can use far less actual wattage to get (more or less) the same growth. Gimik, this is pretty much the same thing that I was saying. You can use less power to give the plants the same things they need. If you haven't, I would check out the grow journal that loki is doing with photoperiod lights and LEDS. Also pokesmot and snoopdog are both doing a grow log with some brand new (not even released) LED lights. Snoop is even doing a side by side with the LED and HID lights. Did you use the sterilized version of comfrey or just the regular one? Where have you been using it the most? Teas? Compost? Foliar feeding? Keep the great tips coming guys. I totally agree with mjmamma. Let's make this thread AWESOME
I have an ecoplus 5 air pump and large round airstone. I know there are fancier setups but I love it. I keep the pump up on a table or somewhere higher than the water level to keep it from backflowing into the pump. Been doing compost teas with a little coconut water. Kelp and alfalfa teas. Anything my plants desire.
The buffaloam is just a nice pure organic compost tea, I just dump two TBS in water most of the time and make a slurry with some fresh soil and worm castings, but I really should be bubbling it with an airstone for the best results. Its my go too if I have slight nute burn since its a 1-1-1 with some essential micro-nutrients, I used it as an everytime I water organic fertilizer and give them some meal blends and such once a month. Seems to work beautifully. The UV lights are built into my platinum LED grow lights, I have the p600 which replaces a 800-1000 watt HPS depending on how many grams per watt you pull with your method. The lights are 11 band spectrum with the highest amount of USABLE light by the plant, specific band diodes mean there is no "white noise" that you get with full sunlight projecting light into spectral bands like green that the plant doesn't use as much. Plus it boosts the UV and far Red lights, they aren't far UV so they aren't heavy in radiation, they are just past the visible spectrum (400-720 nm) the 11 bands are as follows : <span>380 / 415 / 440 / 460 / 480 / 615 / 630 / 660 / 720 / 740 / 760nm. So its just past visible, giving the plants a more complete spectral input. I used to really be skeptical of LED as the industry standard was HPS and MH for so long, but technology, especially agricultural tech, has EXPLODED since legalization in states like colorado and the demand for the most high end efficient commerical growing equipment has popped up. It has driven the industry in a great direction for your average med card holder </span>
Ahhh .... Guess you guys never had a fish tank. You can get one way/backflow valves for your air lines that keep that from happening. Cost is less than $1 each. Cd
I have two of them actually but never needed to install them. It just seems like it would slow the flow of the air having to go through a another small part. Regardless, it hasn't been an issue so they are sitting on top of my dresser unused still.
I have to agree, didnt even think of that angle....I was thinking more along the lines of "my worm bin processes all this material" rather than how I get that material to begin with....freaking comfrey and nettles FTW. Comfrey + leaves = a happy garden(er)
"Did you use the sterilized version of comfrey or just the regular one? Where have you been using it the most? Teas? Compost? Foliar feeding?" Yes, we use one of the Bocking versions of Russian Comfrey - don't remember which one. I dig deep holes that I fill with the good stuff; homegrown compost, kelp, neem stone flour, etc and by actually prepping the planting holes I'm able to grow huge comfrey plants, usually 4' by 4' that I can harvest around 3 times a season. Our horse gets a bunch as a bone supplement and I use most in my compost but also really like using a 50/50 mix of fresh comfrey and vermicompost to use as a top dressing/mulch for my cannabis garden and veggie garden. Plants really dig that thigh comfrey mulch. We also dry lots of it for winter use. If I had to guess I'd say that the mix my cannabis garden is growing in right now is 25% composted comfrey and maybe more. It's amazing stuff. J
Can someone help me and tell me what I bought and WHT I can use it for. Please. I was told it was for cannabis then I was told I got the wrong one. Thank you.
That will work just fine. I've used the MycoGrow for a bit over 7 years, and the BioAg for a bit over 3 years. Still keep and use both products. Mainly depends on what and how I'm transplanting. Cd