I'm ladyluckybean and I got some Q's Educational Goals for this thread: Continue to learn about CEC and C:N ratio How to make phosphorus available and how does it affect root growth Potassium, Potassium, Potassium, sources of and how potash affects pH Hormones in different parts of growth, what they do and how they work IPM using EM5 and how to make fish hydrolysate using lacto serum How rock minerals work, how to do the kits yourself to save money and why microbes love minerals. How to read a soil test Strain: UW Purpx Afghani indica– tastes like mild cloves/nag champa/spice with a smooth floral lavendar exhale. Very unique flavor! Set Up: The room is 5x7 with 10' tall ceilings. The bloom room has a 100 gallon bed and 4x4 scrog with 1000w total (600w hps and 400w MH) in a Raptor Dual Bulb hood. Room will flip in a week or two when the scrog fills out. bed contains red wiggler worms and living mulch of crimson clover and hay. The soil recipe i used is the famous Coots Mix, all mixed by hand, sourced from places less than 45 minutes away. 1/3 peat, 1/3 Oly Fish Mountain compost, 1/3 expanded shale and coco chips. PER CUBIC FOOT: ½c each kelp meal, crustacean meal (crab is ok too), neem meal 1c each glacial rock dust, basalt, oyster shell flour, gypsum TOP DRESSING: kelp meal, crustacean meal, mosquito bits, fish bone meal EWC, crimson clover, 2†of hay Total cost per cubic yard: $230 If you go to a livestock feed store or agricultural amendment store, you can find the nutrients and rock minerals CHEAP CHEAP!! Remember, you're going to be using this for years, the stuff doesn't go bad if sealed, price per pound is cheaper than anything you can find online which reduces carbon footprint. This has always been a topic of discussion in the past but it seems that this message has gotten lost somehow. Carbon Footprint is one of the major topics Coots preached about promoting the sourcing of local amendments. People would even go as far to include travel/mileage into their posts in almost a competition to see who traveled the least!! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am fairly new to this. I use reliable resources to find information from universities along with highly respected growers. I still have questions though as you should too, because this is a continual learning process. If you want to offer constructive advice, you're more than welcome.It's a learning process for everyone ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q#1: So why is everyone using sst?? So when you read about no till, you often find the watering schedule which has SST from barley seeds usually. there is alfalfa which has TRIA and corn which contains cytokinins you could use as well. I always find some short version that doesn't really explain why so many people swear by it until now! http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1299862-no-till-gardening.html/page-16 I'm not going to bother to tell you the watering schedule or directions on how to make an SST (Super Sprouted Tea) because this is easily found all over the net. One of the best pieces of advice that was given to me when i was new: experienced growers can sometimes get irritated when you ask questions you could easily find yourself that everyone asks repeatedly. So take responsibility for your own education, pull up your britches and read, read, read. Use Davis University which has great information on IPM and other stuff. Rely on yourself and you will have confidence along with reputable info instead of getting grow advice from some shmuck like me Peechur Time!!!When the soil was finished cooking about 10 days ago were transplantedAfter a few long days, aching backs, and many, many bowls, Puppy and I sit back and admire our hard work! I really enjoy going out to my grow room, listening to my wind chime (people play music, i ding wind chimes ) while gazing upon the best plants i've grown yet. It's been an incredibly long journey from the beginning till now which at many points, I've enjoyed immensely!! ]
Great intro! I'll follow and hopefully learn with you! Wind-chimes tho?! What the philosophy behind having those in the garden? Good luck this season **edit-If I had to guess, I'd say simply for irie vibes? haha Take care
Some people like to play music; something about vibrations or something...I think it's relaxing, soothing, just something I like. It's not obnoxiously ringing but only at the swing of the oscillating fan that barely moves it. Maybe it's zen like lol. I go out there and sit in the room but now it's so full, I'm trying to give plants away but everyone's maxed out on space. So now I sit outside the room Thanks for watching! In month or so I will have 3 more strains: Cali-O x Sour Bubble, Gorilla Bubble, and Legends Ultimate Indica x G13 HP. They'll be in my 4x8 tent in 2 100 gallon beds. I also have GG#4, Vanilla Kush, Animal Cookie (male), Critical Kush, and Bubba's Widow. I have 2000w in the tent with a 4x8' scrog.
Nice! I just threw that lil edit in my last post to guess before you responded haha. But funny enough, my brother is really into metaphysics and chakras and that sorta thing, and he's bringing me some quartz stones the next time he comes over Talking about the vibrations and what not lol But it sounds like the party is at your place 100gals is where I'd like to be! Enough room for me and all the roots I need haha Best wishes this season
I'm a bit skeptical but there's some pretty interesting stuff on that. Some have attached crystals to a stick to stir their compost teas before feeding. Clockwise turns is female and counter clockwise is male energy. I think it's the same beliefs that the Vortex brewer uses. There's a guy I know who has crystals EVERYWHERE in his room. He's always telling me to get some. Lol Maybe I will.
Yeah I know right?! It's like the more I learn about these things, the more I want to learn you know! I do know that there is more to life than we can perceive tho lol. This all starts with that and goes sooooo much deeper haha! But anyways, let me not clutter up your thread because this might go on throughout the season haha! Take care
The Unconventional Farmer also has some answers for you in regards to a few of your questions Enjoy indulging
Sweet another 100gallon grow i bet that scrog will fill out nicely! i am also growing in 100g smarty but im going SOG style with many small plants. just a little request if you can use larger font? i couldn't read most of your 1st post since the font is really small and the grey color makes it hard to read that's a cool idea with the chimes btw, i would love to add some myself but i really need to keep it on the low down. but crystals are silent, at least to humans lol...would be cool to see a side by side with crystals lol! peace!
sorry! I was trying to be all fancy. I will edit it right now. thanks for joining up!! I love the unconventional farmer! I was trying to get this kid in a third world country to harvest terra pretta and make vermicompost but he didn't want to make stinky ferts and have stinky stuff in his house so now he's doing hempy buckets. heh heh trying to source a ph and ppm meter right now. lol
Ha! Well you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink lol. I've NEVER checked for ppm lol, and after my very first growing experience I realized just how irrelevant pH is in terms of organics. Over the years it seems the more I left the plants alone, the longer they stayed green from top to bottom
or a horticulture? lol I think ph is irrelevant if you're using a good recipe. at least that's what I've been reading. I was told to read the second chapter of The Ideal Soil book. I copied some stuff down and tried to explain it but I just think I'll leave that up to someone else I think there was instructions on how to read the report and then reapply stuff based on that. well, if you don't add enough or too much calcium or magnesium then you make the soil unbalanced. so the plus and minus signs next to each one means a math equation of sorts so in the end each side +/- is happy all paired up. I just started learning about this though so that's why I copied most of that stuff. its better they explain than I. grab your bong cause it's kinda long https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DAUdqa8kst6OF1547R5pcC5fazpcRmiG0ofLEL0_Kok/edit?usp=sharing
Yep yep! I've learned that in organics, our pH is buffered by the humus content in our soils! So I know when I start with a soil mix, I need to be sure that the base of my mix is complete before I go adding anything to it! With a nice diverse base, I know that my pH will be irrelevant, and that I'll be supplying all the "life" i need in the soil, via my soil base! Def. a nice read there Have you come across Teaming with Nutrients by Jeff Lowenfels? Or Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels? TWM helps break down the soil food web in laymen terms, while TWN does the same in regards to how all the essential nutrients work with our plants. I think both books are worth buying, but you can find them several places on the internet and download the PDFs. I think reading those two books over and over for a couple months, brought me the majority of my understanding. Those and worshipping the words of the Legendary Clackamas Coot lol It seems over the years the "gurus" have gotten more and more simple in the way of gardening, adding A LOT less to soil mixes in terms of amendments and all that. There are several amendments that serve several purposes, like Kelp for example, which allow us to cross a number of needed elements of our lists, with just that one amendment. And I've yet to have a soil test done in the past 4 years that I've been working, but I've been working on such a small scale that I haven't really needed to ya know, but I know that day is sure to come. So I figure when the time comes, I'll get around to it haha! Like you tho, I'm still learning everyday in regards to many of these things, so I'm looking forward to learning here PS, why isn't the EWC, or some vermicompost a part of your base?
what hormones will u be using LLB? i been thinking about getting some bio root or root juice to see if it will actually fill my jiffy pots with roots. ive never used anything like that before and i do know that my jiffy pots have never had a full pot of roots like i see on some ppls pics. that could be due to my soil from the past since i was using miracle gro potting mix lol this year im using 3 differnt soils to test what i like the best. 1 happy frog 2. FF ocean forest & 3. Bas living organic soil. i still want to try a root booster though just so it will ease my own mind and i dont have to question my self anymore with the "What If".
because I was mixing a cubic yard and oly fish mountain is $7 a cubic ft while the worm farm charges $17. I figured, the compost can be part of the soil base and I can top dress with EWC and use teas periodically if they look like they need something. I dunno. I just play along as it goes lol. I also have worms digging and pooping in my bed so that's another reason I decided to skimp on costs with the EWC but the compost is really good.
You don't need to go and buy "bottled nutes" or whatever kinda "juice" lol. Kelp and Alfalfa will supply you will all the hormones you need. And B.A.S will FLEX all over Miracle Grow, Happy Frog, and FFOF! It's not even funny how much better the buildasoil mix is than all of that..NOT EVEN CLOSE! And forget a root booster, use mycorrhizal fungi for that...You don't need to spend you hard earned money on these bottle concoctions that claim to do this and that. Nature did this and that wayyyyyy before man did! I know you weren't "chatting" to me, but I just thought I could offer some input buddy
the only root booster you need is an EWC tea. since you're guerilla, just pack out some water and EWC and a jar of grandmas molasses. put it in a bucket then add the water till its a slurry like pancake batter, then just pour it around the base of the plant. if you're digging a hole in the ground and adding your dirt, maybe the worms will help ya out? I planted a girl outside last year and just gave her the hose with two EWC teas all summer and she was very healthy. there were thrips everywhere and while she had thrips covering her, they didn't damage her at all. I didn't see one bite anywhere. this summer I'm going to do something I think. just for kicks. two bucks says your happy frog only will run out of nutrients, the ocean forest might be alright, and the mineral soil mix would probably be the best. good to see Ky been a bit since I've talked to you. glad you're learning!
Ok cool cool, well EWCs are good sources of N and Ca for sure! A topdressing is the organic "cure-all" lol. Worms in the bed should get the job done as well haha I'm due for trying that out! And in regards to the teas, the only place you need information from about ACTs is microbeorganics.com! All of his work is backed with evidence, so when I need a tea, Tim's the go to for the recipe! He's also really active online, so having him as a resource is as good as having a tutor Check your inbox
oh yeah and hormones....lol hrm, I don't really want to try to use hormones to do weird science project stuff. I have this plant, Durban bubble that 2/3 times has stunted and will not stretch when flipped. a guy was telling me about negative feed back loops and saying that when you transplant, the hormones will shift into focusing on making roots and when the roots are established, then the plant will start to grow new growth, auxin this or that, then that is when you flip the lights and not right at transplant which will cause mixed signals and stunting. he also mentioned root bound and underwatered plants he has noticed will not perform either. I thought it was interesting so I wanted to learn how that all works.