CBD Auto EmmyStack In AziSIPs, GeoFlora, Sweet Candy, Dynomyco, Roots Organic Soil +

[InTheShed]

I cannot throw it out!
I guess the best thing to do is to enjoy it, and then maybe I can learn about LOS, and this buys me time until I can get to the farm, and build a compost bin?

I was just jumping back on to say the exact same thing! You've got sunk costs in this stuff so I would give it a go using their feeding schedule and not worry about anything except how the plants are doing. If you later have a chance to build your own LOS using all the correct ingredients and a tried and true recipe, great! Until then, work with what you've spend the money on to amortize your costs.

Carry on El G, and grow well!

 

[CBDMed]

I was just jumping back on to say the exact same thing! You've got sunk costs in this stuff so I would give it a go using their feeding schedule and not worry about anything except how the plants are doing. If you later have a chance to build your own LOS using all the correct ingredients and a tried and true recipe, great! Until then, work with what you've spend the money on to amortize your costs.

Carry on El G, and grow well!

 

[cbdhemp808]

So, if you are asking me for my philosophy, without getting esoteric, I think we are called to create a better world (and a better garden) for our children's children's children to live in, unto the seventy-seventh generation.
I also see Planet Earth as an ecosystem in which every naturally occurring input has been provided for man's wise and prayerful use. If it will lead to a better world, and better tilth for our children's children's children, then I am probably for it. (And if not, I am probably against it.)
Again without getting esoteric, to me, life is about much more than me having fun. Life is about me doing my utmost to turn the world back into the garden it was always meant to be. And there is a lot I do not know about that, and probably a lot I will never know. (The organic farm is only part of what we do.)
But from what I can see, when you mix biodegradable stuff into the soil, it builds the soil. And in contrast, if you only (or mostly) put in salts, eventually the soil degrades--and this can have catastrophic consequences for everyone who lives on the planet (which is one reason why we are supposed to turn it into a big outdoor organic garden--not exactly but that is the idea).

I think the cannabis plant medicine is giving us downloads that help tune us to the frequency required to accomplish this, working together, all over the planet.

RE: LOS

Living organic soil. First, I don't think anyone owns a copyright on that concept! All organic farmers and gardeners are doing it. Probably the core element is compost – decomposed, biologically activated, nutrient-rich humus... Clean ingredients in, clean humus out. If there's some naturally-sourced minerals thrown in there, that doesn't somehow disqualify it as being "organic". So, if I talk about my supersoil, I can call it "living" and I can call it "organic".

That said, I'm actually totally fine just calling my soil custom-made, living, organic potting soil. I started using the term supersoil when I saw that being used on this forum. I think that term has connotations of having enough nutrients to support the plant through its lifecycle, more or less. Of course, there can be a wide range of what people will recognize as living, organic soil, with all kinds of ingredients.

I think my ultimate supersoil wouldn't use any ingredients sourced from off my farm, or from the local community. I call these "external inputs". For now, I am definitely dependent on external inputs. My goal is to reduce this over time.

RE: urine alone won't cut it

Urine has an impressive NPK... around 11% N. (I've googled and found NPK 11-2-4, but some websites are saying N is 18%. Some say above 11%. But it seems there's more that say 11%.) So, urine also provide around 2% phosphorous and 4% potassium. I think urine can totally provide enough nutes via fertigation, in late veg, provided you are starting with a supersoil. This is what I do. But in flower, you can't get enough P & K from urine, without also adding a lot of N, which is probably not a good idea in flower.

 

[SmokingWings]

Even though he recommends Epsom salts, dolomite lime, rock phosphate, and azomite??

All fertilizers are or were salts in one way or another. Do not confuse the fertilizer salts with sodium chloride as there are differences in the make-up of just about every fertilizer salt. I have the feeling that some of the fertilizers are made up of minerals that were extracted from rocks eons ago by natural processes so the salt ions were left behind.

The Epsom Salts are minerals already dissolved in the salty spring water found in Epsom, England which is how it got its name.

Dolomite Lime is made up of several minerals that are found in limestone.

Rock Phosphate can be used to make inorganic fertilizers but if it is applied directly to the soil the plant can make use of it as it is so botanists consider it organic.

Azomite is a water soluble mineral.

It might help explain a lot of this by doing a web search asking:
Are fertilizers salts

Start there and keep researching.

Really want to mess with your mind, ask yourself why does SubCool, and many other organic gardeners, accept the use of Perlite in the base mix for super soils or organic soil mixes?

 

[CBDMed]

I think the cannabis plant medicine is giving us downloads that help tune us to the frequency required to accomplish this, working together, all over the planet.

I agree it definitely helps with tuning in spiritually. It is like it short-circuits a lot of nonsense.

RE: LOS

Living organic soil. First, I don't think anyone owns a copyright on that concept!

("Give Bill Gates time.")

All organic farmers and gardeners are doing it. Probably the core element is compost – decomposed, biologically activated, nutrient-rich humus... Clean ingredients in, clean humus out. If there's some naturally-sourced minerals thrown in there, that doesn't somehow disqualify it as being "organic". So, if I talk about my supersoil, I can call it "living" and I can call it "organic".

Yes.
Compost is the key. Recycle the plant materials, and put them back in the soil.

That said, I'm actually totally fine just calling my soil custom-made, living, organic potting soil. I started using the term supersoil when I saw that being used on this forum. I think that term has connotations of having enough nutrients to support the plant through its lifecycle, more or less.

Sounds right.

Of course, there can be a wide range of what people will recognize as living, organic soil, with all kinds of ingredients.

Yes, true.

I think my ultimate supersoil wouldn't use any ingredients sourced from off my farm, or from the local community. I call these "external inputs". For now, I am definitely dependent on external inputs. My goal is to reduce this over time.

That sounds like a good goal.

RE: urine alone won't cut it

Urine has an impressive NPK... around 11% N. (I've googled and found NPK 11-2-4, but some websites are saying N is 18%. Some say above 11%. But it seems there's more that say 11%.)

Does it perhaps depend on what you ate, and how hydrated you are?

So, urine also provide around 2% phosphorous and 4% potassium. I think urine can totally provide enough nutes via fertigation, in late veg, provided you are starting with a supersoil. This is what I do. But in flower, you can't get enough P & K from urine, without also adding a lot of N, which is probably not a good idea in flower.

 

[CBDMed]

All fertilizers are or were salts in one way or another. Do not confuse the fertilizer salts with sodium chloride as there are differences in the make-up of just about every fertilizer salt.

Yes, I realize they are different.

I have the feeling that some of the fertilizers are made up of minerals that were extracted from rocks eons ago by natural processes so the salt ions were left behind.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

The Epsom Salts are minerals already dissolved in the salty spring water found in Epsom, England which is how it got its name.

Hm. Interesting. Gracias.

Dolomite Lime is made up of several minerals that are found in limestone.

Yes.

Rock Phosphate can be used to make inorganic fertilizers but if it is applied directly to the soil the plant can make use of it as it is so botanists consider it organic.

Hm. That seems very interesting.

Azomite is a water soluble mineral.

I did not know it was water soluble.

It might help explain a lot of this by doing a web search asking:
Are fertilizers salts

Start there and keep researching.

I think I read an article (from Shed?) months ago about salts. I was wondering if he might want to be so kind as to re-post the link.

Really want to mess with your mind, ask yourself why does SubCool, and many other organic gardeners, accept the use of Perlite in the base mix for super soils or organic soil mixes?

Hm.
Perlite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Expanded perlite.
Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that has a relatively high water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian. It occurs naturally and has the unusual property of greatly expanding when heated sufficiently. It is an industrial mineral, suitable "as ceramic flux to lower the sintering temperature", and a commercial product useful for its low density after processing.[1]

Sorry, gro. I am lost.
Obsidian occurs naturally. Is there some toxicity issue? Or what is bad about volcanic glass?

 

[InTheShed]

I think I read an article (from Shed?) months ago about salts. I was wondering if he might want to be so kind as to re-post the link.

This one?

Salts Don't Kill Plants or Microbes

Fertilizer salts don't kill plants. People fear synthetic fertilizers but they add the same nutrients to soil as organic fertilizers. Find out the truth.

www.gardenmyths.com

 

[CBDMed]

This one?

Salts Don't Kill Plants or Microbes

Fertilizer salts don't kill plants. People fear synthetic fertilizers but they add the same nutrients to soil as organic fertilizers. Find out the truth.

www.gardenmyths.com

 

[CBDMed]

Ok, I did not get time to reread the article yet, but I want to reread it again soon.
Only, I think I am getting a live example...

I see why @StoneOtter likes GF. It is really nice.
I try to level things so that there is just a slight slope from the stem to the outer rim (where I make a small moat) before pouring the tea (and I need to get a different watering can.)
The old GF moves aside easily, but still mostly stays put when I pour.
This is how it levels out after I applied the tea (with a very slight slope to the outside.)
(The Perlite on the fill tube has a special spectator permit.)

In contrast (and for yet ANOTHER variable in El Gringuito's Great Science Experiment), the Terp Tea soil does NOT move easily. In fact, it has kind of moved in and made things hard.
Yikes!! I am getting an eyefull of what "tightening the soil" means!!
It seems kind of reminiscent of concrete baserock fines poured over gravel

I wonder, do I want to use more aeration when I use Terp Tea??

And @bluter , don't you ever worry that that MC is going to tighten up your Perlite?

But seriously, what am I going to do with all of this residue??

It seems like nice and natural biodegradable residue.
I think they want you to top-dress with it, but there is not much space to the top of the filler-tube.

I left some space for the residues, but I guess not enough.
I ordered a bunch of corks, and I guess I will plug the fill-tube when I pour the tea.

 

[CBDMed]

This one?

Salts Don't Kill Plants or Microbes

Fertilizer salts don't kill plants. People fear synthetic fertilizers but they add the same nutrients to soil as organic fertilizers. Find out the truth.

www.gardenmyths.com

Good article. I definitely needed to re-read it.

I could be mistaken, but at this point, I am thinking that at least for me, the goal is not to avoid chemical fertilizers, but to work a lot of organic matter into the soil (to re-loosen what gets tightened, and maintain aeration and tilth).

And I am just guessing maybe I might want to use a little more aeration when I use that Terp Tea.
Probably we can know better when we get to the autopsies of the GF buckets, vs. the TT buckets.

Azi, may I please ask, what do you use for soil and ferts now in a SIP?

 

[InTheShed]

(The Perlite on the fill tube has a special spectator permit.)

the Terp Tea soil does NOT move easily.

Sometimes it's better if you scratch the top-dressed stuff into the top inch of soil.

don't you ever worry that that MC is going to tighten up your Perlite?

MC isn't a top dress, it dissolves completely in water and would be just poured into the res for a SIP/bucket for hempy.

the goal is not to avoid chemical fertilizers, but to work a lot of organic matter into the soil (to re-loosen what gets tightened, and maintain aeration and tilth).

Perlite helps a lot with aeration, and @ReservoirDog recommends close to a 40% perlite/60% soil mix for a SIP.

 

[CBDMed]

Sometimes it's better if you scratch the top-dressed stuff into the top inch of soil.

I would like to. The last time I scratched everything, and two of the plants looked droopy, so I thought I was messing with their roots. So because of that I thought to make a tea, instead.

MC isn't a top dress, it dissolves completely in water and would be just poured into the res for a SIP/bucket for hempy.

Perlite helps a lot with aeration, and @ReservoirDog recommends close to a 40% perlite/60% soil mix for a SIP.

I hope @ReservoirDog is recovering well.

I started to spread the Dr. Earth residues, but I really think the buckets will get too full if I spread the residues. This Dr. Earth leaves really a ton of residue.
(I think GF mostly washes down, but this leaves a ton of residue).
So, rather than spread a ton of residue (and then I cannot do any more feedings), I think I should use this mulch on my rooftop garden (like maybe mulch the coca plants on the roof).
EDIT: Then I can give them another ONE bag next week, to make up for not having the mulch.

Hahaha, maybe I should keep a running list of variables in my science experiment?
Maybe my next thread I can title, "El Gringuito's Make-Do, Make-Shift Science Experiment"?

(All I know is, I think if I put this residue, it will overflow the fill tubes (in which case I would not be able to do any more feedings).

 

[Azimuth]

Azi, may I please ask, what do you use for soil and ferts now in a SIP?

** 2024 Grow Mix **

Happy New Year everybody!

And for me the new year brings with it a new soil mix which I think will probably be the basic mix I go with for a bit to see how it will do combined with my Jadam extracts. None of the components are new and all have been used in varying proportions in prior grows so I don't expect there will be many issues.

This mix will bring me mostly full circle as I stated with the Coot's recipe which is equal parts of CSPM, compost, and aeration and works great. I'm just not a fan of CSPM.

GroMix (7L)
30% Old soil from prior rounds
30% Organics (equal parts worm castings, compost, leaf mold, and coco)
30% Aeration (hydroton clay balls)
10% Biochar

 Amendments
2T Eggshell powder
2T Mineral Mix (dusts of stone, sand, char, Azomite, Gypsum, Oyster shell, Dolomite lime)
1T Meals Mix (Malted barley, Neem, Karanja, Crustacean)

And to that I'll add my Jadam extracts. My current veg extract is 40% Fish Amino Acid, 40% comfrey/nettle, and 10% each of water soluble calcium and seaweed JLF, and I'll add that to every watering down the fill tube at a weakish 1:65 dilution rate. In flower I'll add an equal amount of my Fruit & Flower extract for a 1:32 dilution rate.

To that I'll add a weekly top dressing of malted barley and comfrey/nettle crumbles, and some compost as needed. I'll lay off adding the castings every week and see what that does to my bug issues.

My castings and compost are now of the enhanced variety as I've been adding most of the above inputs along with fruits and flowers and so it should be a much more robust version of my prior castings which have worked well even in their more basic form.

So, that's the Plan for 2024. At least to start. I'm sure there'll be some tweaking along the way as that's how I seem to roll, but I feel the heavy lifting is mostly over and I can settle in to the fine tuning part of this journey. My guess is that the tweaking will mostly be to the amendments ratios added at the beginning, but well see how it goes.

 

[SmokingWings]

Hm.
Perlite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Expanded perlite.
Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that has a relatively high water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian. It occurs naturally and has the unusual property of greatly expanding when heated sufficiently. It is an industrial mineral, suitable "as ceramic flux to lower the sintering temperature", and a commercial product useful for its low density after processing.[1]

Sorry, gro. I am lost.
Obsidian occurs naturally. Is there some toxicity issue? Or what is bad about volcanic glass?

There are people who do not understand what Perlite is or how it is made. They will avoid using it because it is man-made in factories and they figure it is not "organic" or "natural" even though it is basically stone that has been super heated.

I guess if they wanted to go completely natural and organic they could substitute 'rice hulls'.

 

[Azimuth]

I guess if they wanted to go completely natural and organic they could substitute 'rice hulls'.

Yeah, don't bring up rice hulls to El G. You might trigger some painful memories.

 

[Azimuth]

I don't see what the organic issue is in using minerals in the mix. They are naturally occurring and add great benefits to soil.

The man made salts I get since over time they can degrade the soil's natural ability to support healthy plants, but that's not true of the minerals. Quite the opposite in fact.

 

[SmokingWings]

I don't see what the organic issue is in using minerals in the mix. They are naturally occurring and add great benefits to soil.

I get the feeling that some people new to 'organic' methods are considering only previously living and now composted plant material as being truly organic. That allows the use of manure since the digestive process is a start to the composting. Basic minerals would not qualify until the plants that fed on them were composted.

Big discussions/arguments on what qualified as organic input back in the 70s, some of the discussions taking place in the Magazine of Organic Gardening and Farming.

 

[Azimuth]

But I think el G's issue is he wants basically a 'back-to-nature' type grow without the man-made chemicals and salts, not necessarily to qualify for some official 'organic' label.

If so, the minerals from the earth are good inputs. Otherwise you're growing in all organic material and missing the inputs that the minerals bring, thereby leading to the need to supplement and around we go.

I think the true organic movement is overall a good thing but seems to me they go a bit overboard, at least as far as homegrowers are concerned.

 

[CBDMed]

But I think el G's issue is he wants basically a 'back-to-nature' type grow without the man-made chemicals and salts, not necessarily to qualify for some official 'organic' label.

Well, I am sure learning a lot!
After re-reading Shed's link and all of the good discussion, yes, it seems like the key is to work lots of organic matter into the soil, to replenish the soil.
It seems like how you do salts and minerals is not agreed upon, but perhaps it should not be a big problem if your goal is to take care of the soil?

If so, the minerals from the earth are good inputs. Otherwise you're growing in all organic material and missing the inputs that the minerals bring, thereby leading to the need to supplement and around we go.

Yes.

I think the true organic movement is overall a good thing but seems to me they go a bit overboard, at least as far as homegrowers are concerned.

Thanks.
i am learning a lot.

 

[CBDMed]

Yeah, don't bring up rice hulls to El G. You might trigger some painful memories.

But I do not think it was the rice hulls. I think it was the All-Mix base soil.
(My guess is that after the used the soil, they "reconditioned" substituting table salt for Epsom salt. )


And for yet ANOTHER variable in my science experiment , I'm running one test bucket of rice hulls, just to double-check.
EDIT: She's the second tallest of the CBDCrack (circled in yellow). I think she has a little bit more sativa than her sisters.
The only other CBDC taller than her looks like a sativa-leaning pheno (circled in blue, against the back wall).
There seems to be a lot of variation (or spectrum) in the legginess of the phenos, but they all look healthy with a good number of bud sites.

Oh, and @bluter, you said to monitor, I am sure the calmag had a big effect.
They have 1" EWC And I use a lot of EWC in my mixes, so that probably got hpthem started.
I added the 1/2 strength down the tube.
The next time I looked at them (like 12 hours later), it was like everything had grown an inch or two.
I did not add any calmag for any water that goes OVER the 1" EWC.
10G of tea filled all of their little bladders up, but any water that goes down the tube in the meantime will get 2tsp calmag and PK-13/14.

Everything is looking much nicer than I expected. Thanks to everyone.
The calcium refractometer is on the way.
At least nothing is turning brown yet this time.
Oh, and @cbdhemp808 , you were right about the lights. I adjusted a few of the lights down.