Be careful with your source of alfalfa meal, especially the pellets, sometimes additives and fillers are added. Also a TON of alfalfa thats grown is GMO so make sure its organically grown and non-GMO.
Thanks, I went back into 2006 and found forums that the "rev" posted on before he was the "rev" And actually he grows much as we do here, at least then, but he was no expert in 2006. As a writer the Rev must write something every issue i take it, so sometimes he may stretch into areas where he could harm as much as help. When you read these mags you will note the lack of credible sites that link to peer reviewed research. That should be a clue to read this for entertainment value at best. The Rev does not seem the worst by any means, and I have not read, even once, his mag, just saying. And i am skeptical about his recipe, it just seems way too hot, and would need months of nutrient cycling or it could burn up plants. For pure information on growing ganja we do have some folks that are very knowledgeable on these forums. And most can site references from credible places. The rest of us, like me, have just read a lot and from time to time get things wrong, but have good intentions. So it is best to ask questions as to sources of info, then you can separate the wheat from the chaff yourself. From time to time we have folks post, who also have financial interests in this hobby as well. Again not a bad thing, unless of course, we're being played. So best to keep an open mind, but don't let your brains fall out........MIW
lol yeah its recommended to let this soil cook for atleast a month, BUT, you can use it as early as 2 weeks after mixing, ive used it that early without burning plants, with this soil mix your growing microbes and feeding the microbes, not the plants, the microbes break down the nutrients into plant usable from, this soil mix is also recyclable and reusable. Also Skunk magazine is NOTHING, like ANY other pot magazine THAT EXISTS. They actually have in depth informative articles with links to websites and eternal sources, High Times and Skunk is like the difference between McDonalds and a five star organic restraunt, sure mcdonalds will get you by, but its not the best for ya.
I quit reading High Times and other mags over 15 years ago, not only because of the slough of misinformation, but also because the genre change was more then I cared to tolerate(100 pages of crap, and 2 pages of grow). I've never heard of the Rev before now, but much like Subcool's mix, I would be hesitant to add that much amendment to twice the volume of soil. There's a lot of redundancy in the nutrient profiles and trace minerals as well. I live by the K.I.S.S rule, less is better, live and learn, etc. You can always add, but you can't subtract.
Thanks for that. I'll take your word that skunk mag is top dog. Your information seems very good, so if that's where you got it, cool. When you an opportunity also check out the organic journal section on the city. Possom38, G45, Jerry, chunk, stankie, mx, your grandfather, (and lots more) all have kick ass reading, great pics and great advice and they are all very approachable.....MIW
i agree, skunk magazine is mostly about growing, sometimes they dont have a lot of grow articles but most of the time they have several articles on growing each month. Also if you research into the break down rates of the amendments you'll understand how its not redundant, green sand takes up to 2 years to fully break down, which is why its recommended to recycle your soil mix, the Rev has soil mixes that are up to 4 years old and just recycled all the time. This soil mix is a Just add water, that will supply your plants with enough nutrients right up to harvest, if using AACT every 2 weeks you should even have healthy leaves right up to harvest, and since your recycle the soil mix you save money in the long run. Also subcools mix does not produce as high of quality a final product, im all about producing the highest quality for the least, also a lot of the ingredients can be found for free, like compost, earthworm castings, kelp meal (if u live on the coast) etc.
Just for the nostalgia deal, sitting down with a bag of gunk weed, a copy of High Time Magazines and a couple hits of Oxy and you can really get into their mind(less) set. And if you were to head over to iTunes and pick-up a copy of Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers and a few cuts by Cheap Trick you'd be in stoner heaven circa 1978! LD
are you suggesting we use pharmaceutical opium and read high times lol? Oxy is so bad for you and should only be taken out of total necessity. Its probly better to take pure opium in tiny amounts then to take oxy or demerol.
not familiar with opiates myself, tend to stay away from hard drugs, just weed, mushrooms once in a blue moon. My mom got a tattoo from this guy and he was talking about how a couple of his buddies back in the day went somewhere in asia and went to this Opium den and got kicked out because they were smoking too much and the ppl running it told them they were crazy and they were going to kill themselves smoking so much haha.
Yep, anything less than 5 ruptured discs and it's recreational . When Cypress Hill and Tupac started gracing(or disgracing) the cover of HT it was time for me to move on. I wonder how many gangsta rappers actually grow their own anyways?
Tupac was more then just gangsta rap, he was a really educated extremely intelligent person, i watched this interview of him his last time in jail before getting shot to death and he was soooooo smart, i dont got anything against Tupac or Cypress Hill cuz they have some good tunes with some real messages (they also have songs that arent really about something that matters) so i cant say anything bad about em, but i do think its dumb they would be on the cover of a WEED magazine lol, maybe in an article but not the cover picture, SKUNK MAGAZINE IS THE ONLY REAL CANNABIS MAGAZINE WITH NOTE WORTHY KNOWLEDGEABLE INFORMATION.
And I had three sets of the cutest tartan/plaid pants in 1976.. and boogied all over to the Bay City Rollers. My son gets Skunk Magazine, I like to read the strain reviews Ok, I'm out of the closet....deep breath.
Trader Mike used to say "Mexican Brown is for pikers, China White is for Bikers", while he shotgunned hits thru his handlebars. Life has changed some. I was look at the Rev's articles, from my son's stack, interviewed and photoshot Subcools set up in this edition, I grow lots of TGA stuff out...he's another organic head. The others are recipies, methods, teas, ammendment lists, where to go looking for things. Looks harmless enough, open minded, mostly organic, similar approach as we all have, hates bottles like we all do.
I've watched some of Sub's videos, and he seems to be a likable guy. With that accent it sounds like he's originally from somewhere around my neck of the woods. Maybe not though.
Okay, I guess it was time to throw my hat into the ring. This will be my first soil mix design since becoming a member here. Call it 1.0 if you like. I hope no one is in a hurry to see how this turns out. It's a process. As a few folks here know, I had a somewhat developed sense of indoor organic growing before landing here at GC. What I had really worked out was how to mix container soil components well, and the tools involved. So luckily, I don't have to buy much, other than raw ingredients. Where I had picked up all of my beginning knowledge in indoor organic gardening, had led me as far as it could so the transition here was pretty smooth for me. My 1.0 mix is strongly based upon Lumperdawgz2's latest mix, http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/951816-what-soil-recipes-do-you-guys-use.html#post12965316. What I've done though is to modify it it to meet my needs and available resources. At this point I want to say that this is as advanced as anything I have done in soil building. This can/will evolve and comments are welcome. =THE GOALS= Make approximately 360 gallons (48 cuf) of 1.0 to fill 4, 100 gallon Smart Pots (or equivalent). This will be a no till garden, to run 3-5 years (we'll see about this guess), indoors in an urban setting. The urban setting strongly influences the design considerations for the soil mix, as does the long term run planned. One of the concerns in a long term run is compaction. Looking at soil horizons (or layers, pg 33 of Teaming With Microbes), I used that as a bit of a guide. The top layer would be the mulch (fibric soil), the next layer would be humic soil, following would be sapric soil. These first three layers described are in the O horizon. At the very bottom should be the thickest layer (this is where the roots mostly are), called only the A horizon in TWM. As I layer in ewc's and compost over time, I'm trying to do what I can to maintain these layers, although I don't think what I am building is quite the same as what we find in the wild. By any measure. Due to this long term use, I've decided on a soil mix that is in various stages of decomposition. Compost, leaf mold compost vermi-compost for example, rather than immediately available (like LD's mix cited above) As I keep top dressing and adding mulch, I will probably have to harvest some of my upper layers periodically, in order to maintain a fairly constant volume (within 20 cuf) of soil mix in my air pots. Maybe I'll start my own bagged soil mix company. However I do want to do minimal tilling/soil disturbance, so the lower layers of A (maybe all of A) will probably never get disturbed. Hopefully this will help maintain a good, undisturbed fungal network for the roots to tap into. =THE FORMULA= this is one tumbler full X 3 to aprox. fill 4, 100 gallon sacks 16 cuf (48 cuf total) of base mix consisting of; 12 (36 cuf total) cuf of Sub-base: ~3.6 (10.8 total) cuf leaf compost ~2.4 (7.2 total) cuf compost. This will be my old compost from previous grows, http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/920810-my-own-way-mixing-bagged-compost.html ), then from my thermo compost pile. ~2.4 (7.2 total) cuf coir fibre ~2.4 (7.2 total) cuf sphagnum peat moss ~1.2 (3.6 total) cuf pumice. and 4 cuf of ewc's (probably enriched with 1 cup Oyster Shell Dust, until my own worms start producing mad ewc's). Bunch of amendments; ~80 cups =5 gallons (240 cups = 15 gallons total), of rock dust (probably whatever I have left of my green sand as well) ~24 cups =1.5 gallons (72 cups = 4.5 gallons total) of neem/kelp/crab meals ~8 cups = .5 gallons (24 cups = 1.5 gallons total) each of Hi N and Hi P bat guanos (just burning through what I have left) ~ 1cup (3 cups total) each of So Pol Mag, EB Stone Sure Start, dolomite lime, and humic shale oar (again just to burn through what I have already on hand). Obviously the first air pot loads won't be so layered as described above as the layer modality is to be implemented over time to deal with compaction and adding fresh toppings. Speaking of toppings, I'll have a cover crop of white clover in place before I drop my plants. I'll make my batches (3) probably all in the same day, fill the sacks, then water throughly and sprinkle the clover seed on. Allow to sit for at least two weeks (a month would be better) before planting my cannabis. This will be for 8 plants, 2 per 100 gallon sack. I can't begin to explain how much work it took me to design this. I hope it works.
This would make a good journal Wee dude. Are you filling the pots inside? What kind of room, (there going to be heavy as fuck) and lights? MIW
Thanks MI W. Yeah, the journal is forth coming. I have a few different interrelated topics I need to flesh out and then create an index page/sig file link, for my work, to keep it all in one spot. I like to keep things organized. I'm just throwing this out there for feedback and as it helps the development of what I am doing by externalizing it somehow. I still have to make my first ever thermo compost pile and document that. I also created a word document of my post and printed it out, as it was my best write up on that particular process yet. Pots are indoors and will have 2400W over 4, 600W hoods on short travel linear rails. 2 plants per pot, 2 pots per tray so two trays, 8 plants. SCRoG grow. The weight concerns me. My trays are nicely elvated, but probably not quite robust enough for this methinks.
1 plant in 50 gallon pot could still fill a big scrog screen, and be easier to maneuver and such, and half the weight. And a fifty should be plenty big for no till.....MIW
Oh man, don't do that to me. I so want to do at least 150 gallons like ot. However the maneuverability of 50 gallons over 100 is considerable. Something like a 1/4 ton compared to a half ton. The reason for the high plant numbers is to fill the screen really quickly (I've played with plant numbers under the screen). The cost of that much power usage (per month! ) is nothing to sniff at. I'll be vegging them under a 400W MH for a bit (in smaller pots) before putting them into the big room.