Wow @ElRanchoDeluxe Talk about a field of dreams!! Looks absolutely amazing sir! And seriously..."the other room"
Peat, Teufels Compost, lava rock Neem, kelp, crab, oyster and glacial rock dust. No worm castings or worms. I won't be topdressing at all this round. Probably not the next either the way things are going. There's over 7 gallons of dry amendments in each bed already. I will be adding approximately 1lb of worms to each of the 16 beds as soon as possible. There is a reason I sound like a broken record and promote growing in large beds. It just works! No need for babying plants to harvest w coconut, fulvic, SST, BIM, LAB, FPE, etc. Just build the soil and maintain the compost/VC/mulch layer. If done right it will be a water only affair for years to come. RD
I understand now! That’s badass man! I’m in 20gals in my 2nd cycle and the plants are already telling me to back off lol. I like to push them but I have a fully loaded soil mix, so it’s been an interesting experiment. 3rd round will most likely be just water with Tonic and my Banana FFJ once a week.
I hear you. You almost have to push them w 20's. It just is what it is. My second room was actually vegged in 20's for a lil bit. I prefer to let the plant take what it wants from the soil. All the hard work is done up front and then it's time to chill. The rate of growth in these 500g beds was pretty shocking even to me. Glad I have pics to look back on. RD
Not sure if you can see it? Root hairs poking out just an inch into the mulch layer. Same deal with the other pic except instead of roots...there's mycellium. Both are good to see.
RD Going back to your pine bark mulch. Do you use fines or nuggets? I've always used straw but was thinking about adding pine bark fines, more so just a double shred, when it's time to shape the mulch up. Much cheaper. Just curious about the worms. Why did you opt not to use them? Did I make a folly adding them off the bat?
It already looks good from where I'm sitting sir! Will be cool to see those rooms almost done in all there magnificence though!
20’s are as much as I want to/can carry from veg to Flower and vise versa. After my house is paid off and I don’t have to worry about my land lord (doing a rent to own) I want to use beds or huge pots. Rocking a 200gal as a worm farm right now. But I really want to put a light above and 4 plants in it when it’s finished vermicomposting. Did you custom build your beds or store bought?
I need to climb the ladder to take the canopy pic. Not sure I'll be able to kick the lights up to 1200w because the plants are so tall... whoops.
I throw down a bag of fines and then a bag of small nuggets on top for each bed. It would be cheaper for me to use straw, but I can get it for 2-3 bucks for a small bale. It does need to be topped off more than bark, which is a big part of why I use pine bark. Pythium resistance being the other part. Worms! It's almost embarrassing man! I let my worm farm slip away... almost. I would need 8-16 lbs of worms to get things going. I just don't have that many yet. Not a chance that you would find me buying worms either. You just reminded me I should contact a local horse lady that uses wigglers to keep her manure pile down and gives it away for free. RD
I still hear ya. I think it takes more skill to no-till in smaller pots to be honest. I built all my beds w 2bys, plastic fencing, landscape fabric, and plastic cap nails for roofing. To save time I didn't build bottoms for the beds, I placed them on 1/2" foam insulation. RD
I'm becoming increasingly interested in the use of beneficial insects. Been checking out Evergreen Growers Supply. Looks like I need to take notes too. Hard to remember all those names. So far I've introduced beneficial nematodes and I have some green lacewing on the way. Spider mites destroyers and the californicus predator mites look interesting. Kinda want to get some praying mantis just because I think they are badass! Too bad they eat other predators. Curious to hear anything about using this sorta biowarfare! RD
For gnats rove beetles are boss. You can purchase them at arbico organics or as I think we have discussed in passing a lot of mountain composts have them such as oly mnt. I got mine from blue ridge organics super compost. They're local. Once those bastards establish gnats don't stand a chance. I've seen them try to grab adults lol. I have hiapsis miles but I think they take a liking to springtails and don't do much to the gnats.
Nice dude! I got some fungus gnats around. Teufels is full of em. Not too worried about them but would like them gone. Robe beetles are on the list! I remember reading about them last night. They stick around pretty well from what I read?
Lol yah. They will feed on all sorts of arthropods and springtails. I was looking because I need something and I found these. They kill for sport. Assassin Bugs, Zelus Renardii - General Predator
Funny too. My buddy was raving about Oly Mtn today. Told me I was a lowest common denominator grower. I'm the kind of guy that will just have to take that as a compliment. Oly just became available locally. It's almost twice the price as Teufels for less than half the amount of compost.