hey blades If youve seen any of my pictures, lately, you will notice much yellowwing and lack of N. Man, i bought a ton of ammendments, and Im pretty sure they all went in.( but the..."oh, i forgot" could enter the picture). I used ground alfalfa instead of alfalfa meal, since we had it for the goats. forgot the azomite but that wouldnt lower N and used it later as topdressing. Cant remember what all was used, which is why now meticulous records will be kept. anyways, bought 16 bags of down to earth soil, before reading LD saying DTE soils suck. also got 2 dte worm castings, 2 1/2 bags of fuck farm, and 5# of azomite, fish bone meal, karanja seed meal, neem seed meal, cottonseed meal, doesnt lava rock have microbes, aereation capabilities and trace minerals? is this a valuable ammendment? woukd it be worth a 7 hour round trip drive to fill up a truck full(for garden too, as well as share with others). Its all the way over in bend.... So, should I mix the fuck farm into the dte soil first to improve it, then ammend...do I need to get anything(crustacean meal> and how long do crab shells take to compost, cuz I can get tons of them in a fwew mionths Hey, thanks for your replies
Thanks, gramps...any specifics? I really want to avoid a trip to the dte store to trade in a dozen of the bags, but if they cant be brought up to par, I d rather start over, esp as I heard they had a "proffessional mix" there.(someone else went, just bought what i asked). Also have around...alfalfa bale, hydrated lime(and food-grade CaOH) bone meal, blood meal, worm dirt(but its the DTE...) but could get other shit if needed. of course, dirt from the woods(douglas firs, etc...national forest) but that shit is mostly clay except the top little bit. Help!!! I did pee on an elec fence when in a cow field at dark one time, lol, 20 yrs ago
Crab shells break down fairly quickly in a compost heap, and are an excellent source of chitin, calcium and other goodies. Lava rock doesn't have microbes, but busted up might be able to provide some housing for yours, I guess...lol it's pretty big to provide any mineral value - minerals/rock dust are ground down to a "flour" - 200 micron consistency. The hard part about trying to amend store bought soils is you don't know what's in them/amounts to begin with. J
I can't speak to DTE. But I am a big fan of worm castings and personally think some worm castings are better than no worm castings. I guess you could make a point of some worm castings being better than others, but pretty much, worm castings is worm castings in my book. Also, I get and feel your apprehension for not wanting to waste money and screw around going back to the hydro store or whatever and waste time on top of it. What I wouldn't do is load up the soil with all of that stuff you got. Converserly, what I would do, if my plants were yellowing from lack of N, is spread 1/4" of worm castings ontop of the soil this will provide a nice release of N over a period of time. In your case, time is important and given what you have on hand this is what I'd also do is make a fast acting tea: One gallon of water 1 cup worm castings 1/4 cup of alfalfa meal less than a teaspoon (small one not the big one) of epson salt same amount of fish emulsion I understand stoner logic, but please try to keep pretty close to the suggested dosage for maximum positive results Put everything into a light tight container, air tight will also help for odor control. Mix the worm castings and alfalfa meal into the water and close container. If you have like a gallon jug it works kewl 'cause you can just shake it up. Which is what you have to do in the beginning and also a few times a day. On the 3rd day, put in the epson salt and fish emulsion. You are now ready to go. When you are finished, throw the gallon jug and the gunk in the bottom away. Yeah, you can recycle it and use it again, but I think the odoriferous ambiance you will encounter upon opening will encourage you to dispose of that gallon pretty darn fast. lmao So the liquid for immediate and the top dressing for a bit longer term and your plants should be loving you. hth
you live by a down to earth store? that's awesome!! i wouldnt say their stuff is superior to the other brands but they do make some amendments that other brands dont make and are hard to find like neem seed meal, crab shell meal, humic acid ore, oyster shell flour, feather meal, etc etc. i always have to order dte products online cuz those specific ones arent stocked at any nurseries or shops around here. i dunno about their worm castings, i would assume theyre good but would understand if they werent.. worm castings are not all the same thats for sure, i used to think they were but surely found out thats not the case. its all about the diet, most casting companys just feed their worms paper and similar products while the better companys like agrowynn feed them a well balanced diet with variety like food scraps and different things. and this makes a huge difference, the worms that are fed a better diet produce top notch castings and they are worth it to get. i used to use whatever castings that were close like eb stone, gardner & bloome and that other company i forget the name.. but now i order agrowynn online and pay extra because the difference that it makes is worth it. if youre gonna use castings, make your own or get the good ones. making your own EWC is probably the best way cuz its cheap and you personally feed the worms the best stuff possible for them. but if you dont make them then source some good ones. theres a company that stocks a lot of nurseries around socal called worm gold and i think they are good ones.. i cant say what their diet is but they look like the good ones and do well in the soil. good luck with everything and i also wanna add that the yelloing is common when growing organically with a living soil. at least i always assumed it was.. my plants always yellow up towards the end and theres nothing i can do but the buds are still top notch so i just dont mind anymore. you can always top dress a high N guano or any other high nitrogen amendment.
Your Grandfather gave you excellent advice on what to do for your plant in the short term. Are you asking about what you should do with the soil/amendments that you have? Here is a copy of what the DTE website says about their soil ingredients: Rich in pure Earthworm Castings, Bat and Seabird Guanos and our organic fertilizer, Down To Earth Potting Soil provides a long lasting supply of nutrients to nourish your plants. The addition of Coir Fiber creates a superior texture that is ideal for developing root systems. Here's what I would do if you can't return the soil: take the DTE soil that you have, and add an aeration amendment (perlite, rice hulls, etc.) at the rate of about 20-25% aeration amendment/DTE soil. Then add some kelp meal (this is a must-have), extra EWC, and your azomite. You can add a little bit of alfalfa meal/powder if you want, but it's probably safer to just add the kelp and EWC. This, plus the amendments already in the soil, should provide plenty of nutrition for your plants. If you can return the DTE soil, take it back. It will be easier to start from scratch. You don't have to return your amendments, just the DTE soil. Buy some peat moss and build your soil from scratch: 30% peat moss, 30% aeration amendment (perlite, rice hulls, etc.), 30% compost/EWC. Now get a container and mix up your amendments (kelp meal, alfalfa meal, fish bone meal, neem meal, karanja meal, etc.) in roughly equal proportions. Add 2 cups of this amendment mix per 1 cubic foot of soil (if I'm not mistaken, 1 cu ft of soil is about 7 gallons). Add 2 cups of azomite/rock dust per cubic foot of soil. Let this soil sit for several weeks so that the microbes can begin to break down the nutrients. Now you will have a high quality organic soil, and you will know exactly what's in it. Crab shells are a great organic amendment, once you get your crab shells you can compost them and add them too! Also, I would not advise that you drive 7 hours for lava rock. Stick with the azomite/glacial rock dust. Also, check out some of the threads in the organic section on building your own soil mix. Hope this helps!
Dank you all. So, for the short term, this is what happened: The last 4 bubbas came down inside, to make room for 16 royal purple kush under 1k and 12 og kush under another 1k. took 1 1/2 bags(1.5 cu ft each) dte soil and half a bag of fuck farm, added 1/4 cu ft of EWC(theyre from canada, even though its dte) and 1.5c of thorvin kelp meal. did this twice for the girls potted up today everything else is so close, like a week out, some of them in the greenhouse are ready now. or hella close that is the same formula used last time. home depot peat, 30%, perlite, 30%, and ewc plus some waterhold coco shit, all black gold home depot shit, then DTE ammendments here are a couple of pics of the yellowing..more severe than usual. The nutrient regimen has been EWC/ molasses/ guanos/ kelp teas, bubbled for a day in veg and 2 1/2 days in flower. Not new to growing, but somewhat new to mixing nutes, new to mixing soils, and the science behind it. Learning a lot.
hey man don't feel bad. I'm seeing some nice fade in the cola in the back row. You wouldn't want green sugar/sun leafs all the way to the end. Yeah, a few look like they are a bit hungry but at this point in the grow, not really much you can do. Plant is focused on bud production and not interested in Nitrogen. Enjoy your harvest, looks dank.