Dingus, I heavily appreciate the input on your experiences with their soil and also the pictures. You mentioned something that I was originally thinking about with their soil, the lack of lava rock/aeration. Do you use a watering/feeding strategy similar to BJ's? I was practically going to stick to his exact feeding/watering system due to the simplicity and availability of all the products in my area. Just wondering if that's a viable plan with their soil. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
You're very welcome Bham! I'm glad more people are getting into organics and no till, especially in our area! It was hard for me to find info about KIS other than what CC has told me. So it'll be really cool to see you grow in it as well! I think for aeration they only have perlite in there ya, which rises with waterings. biochar adds some aeration as well I think but it's like $10 more per 1.5 cu ft for the biochar one. Itd cost less to buy biochar, charge it and add it to the worm bin. Lavarock is my go to because it won't break down and is nice on the bottom and top of the pots to keep the soil from coming out or compacting as well as keeping it from getting too dry which makeswater run off rather than get absorbed. Lava rock is great stuff. Both large chunks for the top and bottoms like I said as well as little pieces more perlite sized are great throughout the soil. Only thing is it's a bit heavy. I would prefer pumice actually. I am now watering more like blue jay but not exactly the same because I'm using 5 gallon pots. I'm switching to no till beds next run but I'm treating the soil sort of like no till right now; building more soil with fallen leaves as mulch and addition of lavarock, malted barely sst remains, and compost/EWC. I also have a bokashi bucket system and worm bin which I put the bokashi into. Soon I'll have my own vermicompost to add rather than store bought. Hey Coot! I did! Tad and the rest of the staff are very nice and down to earth. Unfortunately though tad seemed to be the only one really informed about soil life and all the intricacies we are all so involved in. I was talking with them cautiously until I got to talking with Tad whom asked me how I found out about KIS to which I told him on ICmag through posts by you and Microbeman. He immediately knew what i needed and was hella helpful. It was nice to not have to talk in lingo beating around the bush cuz it's to grow MJ. I got to meet the chickens as well! Oh yeah while were on this subject I've actually been having some trouble with my plants/soil lately. I've got multiple deficiency symptoms. In my first round with this soil I thought I had a cal/mag issue and in my noobness I added dolomite lime. It didn't help though because of how long amendments take to break down and my problem was more likely with that I was watering like I would when I was still using bottle nutrients. (Which is heavy soaking, letting dry real good repeat, instead of watering, light watering, lighter watering and repeat?) so yeah I think my issue before was not keeping it moist enough all the time. Anyway I'm pretty sure now that dolomite has came back to bite me since amendments take awhile to break down. In attempts to fix the issue the first thing I did was mix together a handful of EWC/compost and a pinch each of neem cake, kelp meal and crab meal. That didn't seem to do anything so I did two SST's. That didn't help either so I did your fix it slurry. The slurry made them hella happy for a couple days but then after that they started losing leaves again. I'm not sure what to do now except just not complicate the issue any more by adding more things so I've been doing just dechlorinated water. Advice? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Dingus Tad and his father, Leon, were responsible for most of the microscope photos in Jeff L.'s Teaming With Microbes and it was Leon who figured out how to use aerated water to extract microbe colonies from humus though you won't find that in Ingham's screeds. Tad's mother has a degree in horticulture from UW Puyallup so there is a solid base of qualified staff you give you correct answers to questions. On the problems with your plants - how thick was the slurry that you applied to the top of your soil? I think that if you did the following you would see immediate changes, i.e. 2 days maximum: 1/4 cup of kelp meal 3 gallons of water Aerate this for 24 - 36 hours and now you have a kelp meal tea. Add 2 gallons of EWC and aerate that for another 24 - 36 hours. Apply this at about 1.5" thick on your soil. See if that doesn't take care of business because just the kelp meal alone will correct any and all nutrient deficiencies. The benefit from the EWC you already understand. HTH CC
Hey CC, Do you mean WSU puyallup? I know there is a research extension wing for WSU in Puyallup but haven't heard of one for UW, just clarifying. Also "teaming with microbes" and "teaming with nutrients" really jump started my interests in organic gardening, i'll have to bring that up when i stop by and see Tad when I grab my batch of soil and watering supplies. Bham
CC I was about to say, IF the UW had a horticulture program I didn't know about I'd shoot myself hahaha. Bham
Chunk: haha, I should have specified... the ecological and sustainable horticulture production degree (thats a mouth full) from OSU is practically a greenhouse/nursery management degree, thats more up my alley. so dont you worry, I wont shoot myself haha. Curriculum for UW degree: http://www.cfr.washington.edu/academicPrograms/undergrad/esrm/esrmChecklist.pdf Curriculum for OSU degree: http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/system/files/u2947/ApprovedEcologicalSustainableHorticulturalProductionOptionChecklist.pdf <----for some reason this link wont work in this post... so here: "As a student focusing on the Ecological and Sustainable Horticultural Production option at Oregon State University, you will gain the skills and knowledge necessary to manage integrated and organic fruit, berry, vegetable, nursery and/or greenhouse production systems. You will gain knowledge and experience in integrated pest management, plant propagation, plant nutrition, soil science, ecology, economics and business." Bham
A huge advantage from choosing OSU is the Horticulture ARS (Agriculture Research Service) research program established in Corvallis. USDA ARS was set-up several decades back which are attached to state universities to assist the staff. The majority are centered around that state's agricultural production. However a few schools in states which have large commercial nurseries the ARS Horticulture came to be and OSU was one of the earliest to have one established. Dr. Robert Linderman headed the OSU ARS for almost 40 years. His work in the area of endomycorrhizal was comprehensive and it was Dr. Linderman which proved conclusively that phosphoric acid was detrimental to these fungi. In the nursery sector producers live and die using phosphoric acid. He also proved that even with organic phosphorus uber levels were equally counter-productive. Obviously the grow store industry doesn't keep up with actual science relative to phosphorus or much of anything else for that matter. CC
Huge shoutout too Bluejay and Coot! I love this thread! I find myself reading the first 6-8 pages every week. You have made my life a lot easier and stress free!
Oh I had no idea they all were so knowledgeable, but I do remember now reading in Teaming with Microbes that they helped out in a couple of sections of the book. I don't know who the other two people i talked to were but they just had me direct my questions to Tad which gave me that impression. I think the slurry was about half an inch thick. I think maybe what I did wrong was that I didn't add enough ewc/compost or its because i didn't move the mulch layer before applying, i thought that if i just put it on top of the fallen leaves it would be chill because it would help break those leaves down as well. But it makes sense that it didn't help as much because it wasn't touching the rootzone area right? I used a 1 gallon fabric pot to measure out just one gallon of ewc and compost. Thanks again Coot you're knowledge is invaluable forreal!! I'm with Da-Lu!
im so close to mixing up my first no-till soil but one ingredient eludes me..... PUMICE.... The local hydro stores only carry perlite, Home Depot or similar stares don't carry it either. I really can't afford to buy 4 cu ft of it online with the shipping costs. Does anybody have an idea of where else to source this or maybe a good alternative??? I'm in the Lake Tahoe area about 2 hrs from Sacramento and 1 hr from reno.
Go back to Home Depot and pick up some lava rock. Place it inside some dog food bags and run it over with a truck about a million times. Don't bother trying this unless you're on asphalt or concrete. Or forget crushing it and use it as is...that's how Blue is rocking it. As for myself I use 75% uncrushed lava rock and 25% pea gravel for my aeration component.
What rancho said - no need to pull the drive over your bag of rocks stunt, unless you want to confuse your neighbors that might be fun! Stocked up on wood in the house - it's going to be a COLD week!! 14th cycle in this one - boy I had no idea this body of soil would be hangin out in the same spot for so long now! Few days into 12/12
Hi Deflecto! I found these: http://www.moananursery.com/ I wouldn't pay a super high price for this, but you might check it out: http://www.glassmountainpumice.com/index.php?id=5 I don't have a lot of time to dig, but I would call the landscape supply companies, nurseries, and garden centers in your area. HTH P-
Hey Blue - Beautiful plants as always. Are there any techniques that you employ to keep those plants so short and bushy?
Thanks Rancho! I'd prefer they be a little taller at this point but then again the stretch in the next few weeks is often overwhelming anyways lol - as far as bushy, well I certainly didn't top anything. Gentle training by tying down the main top to the side so the lower side branching can gain some dominance combined with the few regular inputs (notably fresh coconut water) encourage explosive branching so there's not much more to do on my part! I meant to run this cycle with no training but I just couldn't help myself . I didn't train a TO at all and it's proving time well saved. Last cycle I left several Gonzos untrained and those also yielded well over expectations which lead me to think training might be completely unnecessary with these cultivars......I'm almost certain I'll refrain from any training next cycle!
So I'm wondering, How many worms should I introduce to each pot for the first cycle(reds and euros)? I figure the more the better initially to get things jump started, but I'm not sure if there's a point where I can add too many or not enough. I'm thinking about running 3 45 gallon smarties and 6 10 gallon smarties. Thanks all, Bham Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
If you're using compost or castings you know has worms / baby worms then that pretty much covers it - otherwise (and to get some adults in there from the get go) a handful is plenty in the 45's and a small handful in the 10's . You can't over do it as worms will regulate their population.