Os, About that aloe, I have an aloe plant and was thinking of taking a good chunk and blending it up to make some aloe water. Do you have any quantity guidelines for about 2 litres worth? It is nearly impossible to source any of these organic tea ingredients locally. It is really sad because I know for sure the Bay of Fundy is (this bay is the #1 bore tide in the world and You know which is #2 im sure!) a big producer of kelp products. I went to the local health food and brew your own with no success. There is a feed place that sells 50 lb bags of alfalfa pellets but not sure what I'd do with all of that ....
I drove up and down the #2 today. Are you telling me the East Coast Canadians don't use barley in their home brew? Check for kelp at the feed store. I have never overdone it with aloe, its pretty forgiving. A couple tips. If you want, you can chop off half of a leaf at a time, it may drip for a bit. I typically store what I don't use in the fridge wrapped in plastic cause it drips. For 2 liters try to picture how much of the inner aloe fillet it would take to fill 2 tablespoons. If I spray it in a foliar, I skin it and just blend the insides. If making new soil, seedling mix, or soil drench, I throw the whole part of the leaf in the blender. You would use part of your 2 liters of water in the blender with the aloe fillet. I use the smallest amount that I can, to get the best blend. I then add more water to the blender after its all liquefied. I throw a whole giant leaf in the blender, if I am mixing up a ton of new peat. Add that to piping hot water and you have instantly hydrated peat. No screwing around. hth cheers os
It's my girlfriend's birthday this weekend. I guess a few weeks ago she told her friend she was looking for an aloe plant (didn't mention it was for me) so her friend got her one. She doesn't want it, so she brought it over for me last night! woo! It's just a baby in a 4" pot, but it's in nice oceany-smelling soil. I think I'll wait a month and then move it into a bigger smart pot.
I went to the brew (beer) store yesterday. They were actually unloading a truck at that time. They had the dark malt barley but the post I read said that isn't the one we want. So I asked and he said it would at another 2 weeks and possibly longer. There is a wine place but I worked today and that place closed before I could get there. I will say where I live is almost like the place that time forgot. I've been here 12 years now and when I first arrived they still had the old Sunday "blue laws". There was nothing open on Sunday's except some small grocery stores and a few restaurants. After 3 or 4 years they were finally repealed. Most places stock miracle grow as if it was fishing tackle in Alaska(everywhere). There are a fair number of places set up for hydroponics. Most of those places seem to look down on lowly dirt farmers, yield is everything to them. Most all of any true organic stuff is concentrated in the centre of the province which is the farming hub, or around Halifax which is the largest city/port. I'm faced with mail order even in my own province. The health food place had alfalfa meal or whatever in capsules for $33.00 for whatever number, and they had seeds I think. That was it. I did score a nice tub of blackstrap molasses though. I'm about ready to settle for a concentrated liquid seaweed and the sea meal which I have. I fully believe the average person in this province is totally ok with just "regular amendments and miracle grow". It's been around forever and gets results for them. Pretty sad really. Jian PS thanks for the detailed instructions and I will be using them. We also have tons of horsetail in our area. Can we just pull it up and make a tea or dry and crumble it?
Simple horsetail tea. Fill a bucket with horsetail and cover the horsetail with a rock or brick so it won't float. Add piping hot water for a tea ready in days, room temp water for tea ready in 2 weeks. I would make a batch both ways. Add a cup of the horsetail tea to a gallon of water and use as a soil drench. You can probably use a much stronger concentration, but start light. I feel for ya, I grew up in a place that often seemed like time forgot. Its a farming area and you can't buy anything organic there hardly at all. There were feed stores, but kelp was a little to expensive for the average farmer to buy for livestock and the brew stores only had kits and no real ingredients. Start with peat, perlite, and compost or bagged manure (or both). Add to that what you can get your hands on, and you will do ok. When you travel or have money for mail order, try to get a thing or 2 on your bucket list of amendments. cheers os
Last night I jarred up my dried Haze XXL auto shown on the previous page. She weighed 150 grams and the quality was outstanding! Big solid buds that smell incredible. cheers os
I've been impressed with those XXL strains from Dinafem (I assume that is what this was). Yields and bag appeal for the autos! Had a little Dutch Haze X this morning, sandlewoody spicy soulwarming goodness! Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I feel Dinafem has done a really good job with all of their breeding. They have definitely put the time in. This next fall/ winter I plan on making my way thru a few more of their stains. I think the cheese strains will be some of my next candidates. I have grown any cheese varieties. cheers os
Can I ask a question about them worms again lol so it’s very hot here and I wanted to know how hot can the worms handle ? I have them in the gh under aluminet shade cloth (40%) and I keep the soil moist.
For red wigglers, idea is 55-77F. If bedding gets to 84F it can start killing them. Similar temps for Euros. Last year I killed a pound of them on a hot day. They were in a black 5 gallon bucket in the shade. This year I am keeping them inside. hth toaster
Keep them shaded. I wouldn't risk storing them in the greenhouse. A lot of folks will put a bin on the north side of a building or under a shady tree. Brief cool nights won't phase them a bit. But like Toaster said, 1 hot day will kill them all. cheers os
I can’t find the post now but @Organic sinse I thought I recalled you writing that you don’t use mbp until preflowering but using it too late in flowering will cause foxtailing. What week would you consider as the cutoff date to use it? Also can you confirm that you don’t recommend using it until preflowering occurs? Growing a couple autos in no-till for the first time and I’m trying to reconcile the differences with respect to mbp use in the no-till thread (which is probably more geared toward photo period growing) vs your recommendations here.
I meant to say in the soil already sorry. I fed them the other day and dug up some would ( barely an inch ) and saw them feeding. I am going to make a worm bin hopefully this week and keep them shaded. I am just not sure where. Most likely under my patio
You are correct, I don't recommend using mbp until preflower or until preflower is desired. This is contrary to what they say for photos. I also use it only for say 2 weeks (or 2 times). I can't say this based on anything scientific, but based on observation and careful note taking I have noticed the following trends. The mbp's enzymes seem to accumulate in the soil over time. So with a no till, by the 3rd or 4th run, you may not need them at all, and are more likely to cause foxtailing by using them too late into to flower. The same applies for accidently making the turn to pre flower too early thru the use of mbp. So too put it simple. With new soil, you can use more often, start earlier, and apply it later into flower. With a brand new soil, I would use blue corn sst 2x, and mbp 2x. I don't think you get much extra benefit after that. If you were doing just mbp, 3-4x total would be plenty. I would always err on the side of doing less. I usually do something like 1 blue corn sst, and 1 mbp sst. The plant I am running in my greenhouse this round will get 2 applications of each. These plants will also grow a long time compared to indoors. The total grow time is also another thing to consider. If you are pushing out 60-70 day plants, 1 each should be plenty, as flowering is really only 4 or 5 weeks. hth cheers os
Hey guys. Harvested my last grow and now I'm just getting ready for my next, which will be my first organic grow, very excited! So I've got my fully wetted, composted soil mix in my 7 gal containers, with some of OS' seed starter recipe in the middle. I've then put a light layer of straw mulch over the top of the containers. I'll put them under lights for 24 hours prior to planting to get the soil temperature up. So I have some probably dumb questions about mulch cos I've never really used it before: When I plant the seeds I'll move the straw away from the middle so I can get to the soil; should I then move the straw back over the planted seed or will that prevent it from coming up? Or leave the planted area clear and just brush the mulch back around the seedling once it's popped? I also have some clover seeds I want to use as well, can I plant those through the straw mulch and expect them to come up? Should I plant them at the same time as the weed?
I'm really excited for you! It is best to wait for the seedling to emerge and grow maybe 2-3 sets of true leaves before pushing mulch back around the seedling. If not, it will still probably push through, but If the soil stays too wet you risk damping off killing her. If you top water, that should move the straw into a good position with good timing without you having to do anything else. Start with the mulch pulled back to the edge of the starter-mix plug and you will be good. The clover should fall through the mulch, at most you might want to tussle it/scratch it in a little to help it get down there, but it will wash down during watering even if you don't do anything. I would wait until the cannabis has grown ~4-6 inches before planting the clover. It grows really fast, and it will be a pain in the ass to keep it trimmed below the cannabis canopy if you start it at the same time. Make sure you get some rhizobium bacteria to inoculate the clover seeds. You can buy it (there are specific strains for different types of legumes: Johnny Seeds) or you can find some clover growing wild, dig up some of that soil, and mix it with the seeds when you plant them. The clover roots will have nodules that look like this. I would probably mix in a few of the actual nodules, too. For those who don't know, if legumes don't have enough nitrogen in the soil, and these specific rhizobium bacteria are present, the plant will form nodules on its roots, which act like perfect homes for the bacteria. Those bacteria are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by the plant. If you have mycorrhizal fungi, you would do well to mix some of that with the clover seeds as well. Then your clover and cannabis can share resources, including water, to the benefit of both. What kind of clover do you have? White, crimson, red are most common.
Hey toaster, thanks for the great post. Really helpful info. Interesting stuff about the rhizobium bacteria and those nodules. I don't think I can find any to buy, I had a look online just now and didn't find any good UK sources. So it would be enough to find some clover in the wild (any kind of clover?) and dig them up, harvesting the soil around the roots and the nodules from the roots themselves? I love this kinda thing, harvesting from the wild. I have crimson clover. I don't have mycorrhizal fungi either, I did buy some online but further research told me that you need a specific kind; I had the wrong kind. I plan to plant the weed in a few days, I don't think I can find the right kind in time. So hopefully I can find the right kind by my next cycle.