so lets say... im using Sunshine #4 in my mix as a peat source... it says there is dolomite lime in it as a liming agent... im have not fully understood the why's and how's of the Liming needs in a living soil... to my understanding... Bacterial life needs a different Ph then fungal life... from this i concluded that, the reason everyone said that in no till or living soil we should not Ph our water is due to the fact that each organisme will regulate the Ph of its environment... Correct me if im wrong, im still in the learning curve and have alot more to learn
Heh heh, yeah... I love that statement about throwing out your pH meter with living soil. The soil consultants I’ve talked to were baffled by the stoner science in that one. IMO, the biology will monitor the pH swings as best it can, but it can easily be overthrown by extreme levels of water impurities and over/ under applying amendments. I’ve had my ass handed to me due to sub par water quality in the past. For me, in my situation, water testing, RO systems, and pH meters are all part of my arsenal. YMMV...
I'm on my first grow in my homemade living soil and have yet to use a pH meter. I took it off the list of things you need. I don't use one outside, so I don't need one inside. ☮️
“You need...” makes that sound like a blanket statement. Sure, I’ll bet you have perfect 6.5 water that come out of the tap with less than 75 ppm alkalinity and low levels of bicarbonate dontcha’? Undoubtedly that’s not the case for many growers, including myself. IMO... don’t expect the same conditions to be found in indoor container gardening vs outdoor either. Good luck to you, indoor living soils can be quite a journey!
Have you looked at a water report for your tap water or have you had your well water tested? It could very well be that you don’t need a pH meter. Your water could also have issues such as alkalinity, salinity and sodicity. With a water report in hand it can be determined if your water supply is suitable for container gardening or not. There is also a distinction between container gardening inside and growing outside in the ground. The main difference being soil volume and perhaps more importantly natural rainfall and leaching. Many well respected universities have determined the parameters that deem water either suitable or unsuitable for container gardening. By comparing these water quality charts to your own water report/test you can make an informed, educated decision on what/if anything should be done to your water supply. R
I'm lucky to have good water. Chlorine is the only problem. I bubble the water overnight so chlorine evaporates. ☮️
What did you compare your water report to? The plants liking it on your very first run tells you almost nothing. These issues tend to build up over time. RD
ERD, Can you point me to a good resource? Couldn't find anything that specific. You do searches for anything having to do with water, and you get a lot of junk. Thanks, ☮️
@ElRanchoDeluxe sent me a couple of these papers from Penn state to help me understand what was going on with my crazy water. There’s a couple of them... RD can fill in the gaps, Understanding your Turf Irrigation Water Analysis Report (WT01) (Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences) Interpreting Irrigation Water Tests Tons of great info from these folks!
Alright... Time for full disclosure... It’s been 2.5 weeks since I posted those pics of nice healthy plants. Right after those pics were taken I applied my last round of IPM foliar using essential oils. This was to be the last round of foliar, I was in week two of flowers. I’ve been dealing with a manageable herd of mites and some stubborn thrips so I wanted to hit them hard. I usually use 2 tsp of oils per gallon of water but this tome I went with a full tbsp. I’ve used this in the past with neem and other combos and didn’t see any stress, however, this time I used a combo of thyme and peppermint in about a 3:1 ratio. I admit, it seemed a bit heavy handed ( and I should have tested it on one plant... right RD?) bit I sprayed the whole room. And I did it right too... under side of leaves, top sides till dripping, stems and all. As I was leaving the room I glanced around and said to myself “ huh, are those couple of leaves just drooping with the water weight or do they look pissed off?” I woke up the next morning with a bad feeling and I had to check the room... Disaster! I was met with a full room of ugliness Every plant was in full arrest, some worse than others. The Hugel bed , interesting enough, took the beating the best of all the beds. One of the Cherrie Queens got hit pretty hard, but the other one and the Clusterfunk saw about half the stress of the first one. The Dr CBD in the topsoil planter got annihilated, as did three other plants in the main beds. They were toast Here’s a pic of the damage that first morning.
Here is a shot of the room a few days later And here are the three in the Hugel bed after a couple of weeks. Now in week five, I’ve been trimming off the dead and damaged leaf matter every few days and checking for Herms. None so far, and the buds seem to be forming well enough. I basically did a massive defoliation after the event, stripped 95% of all fan leaves and most of the secondary leaf set as well. They were straight up fried from the oils. No sign of herms yet, I thought I would’ve seen them by now. Maybe I dodged a bullet and will have a harvest after all! Cherry Queen #1 was the worst hit Cherry Queen # 2 , not bad Clusterfunk, least damage of the three Anyway, I feel lucky that they are coming around. Here’s the rest of the room, a little thin but still productive I know what some of you are thinking. Why didn’t I chop it all down and start a new run? I simply did not have any veg plants ready. They were all still too small to go into the flowering room with out losing time. I’ve been nursing the room back while I’m waiting for them to get more mature. My plan was to watch for herms and if they showed up, or the plants just never recovered I’d have them ready to go. Seems like they are moving along so now I’m left with a bunch of beautiful veg plants ready to go. I’m gonna put them in 25 gallon smarties and cram that room full. I need a wall of cannabis coming at me ASAP. I’ll have a dispensary open by July and I need more inventory. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time !
Nice save. At least it looks like your still going to pull a nice crop out of this lesson. And thanks for sharing it for all of us to learn from.