CBDbud: Outdoor Soil Gorilla Glue Grow Journal, 2021

[CBD BudMan]

Hello @Emilya,
After reading @Autofacade 's grow Journal, and more pertinently your remarks on growing organically, I really want to pick your brain, if I may, on how I can best go about a 100% organic soil outdoor grow.

Over the course of the last 4 grow seasons I have come up with the following for my 100% organic soil grow, no liquid nutes:

“Custom” (Grow) Super Soil

Per each 32 gal trash can:

• 2 bags of “F.F.O.F” (or 17” - old soil)
• 1 bag Worm Gold Plus
• 1 bag Bu’s Blend Compost
• 2 cups Steamed Bone Meal
• 2 cups Fish Bone Meal
• 1 cup Gypsum
• 6 cups Blood Meal
• 3 cups Green Sand
• 5 cups Insect Frass (NOT used in 2020, using in 2021)
• 2 cups Rock Phosphate
• 3 cups grow Bat Guano
• 3 cups Sea Bird Guano (0-11-0) (for 10 gal & above)
• 1 box Kelp Meal(was 6 c)
• 5 cups Neem Meal
• 1/3 cup Magnesium Sulphate
• 1/4 cup Dolomite Lime
• 1/2 cup Azomite
• 1 TBS powdered Humic Acid
• 5 Gal of Perlite
• 3 Gal of R O Water (more as needed)

“Custom” (Bloom) Super Soil

Per each of 5, 32 gal trash cans:

• 2 bags of “F.F.O.F” or “Base Soil” - each bag = 1.5 cubic feet (10 gal)
• 1 bag of “Worm Gold Plus” Earthworm Castings (0.7 cf each)
• 1 bag of Bu’s Blend compost (1 cf)
• 3 cups Bone Meal - steamed (3-15-0)(1 Box=9 cups)(was 2.5 c)
• 3 cups Fish Bone Meal (3-16-0)(1 Box=10 cups)(was 2.5 c)
• 1 cup of Blood Meal (12-0-0)(1 Box=15 cups)(was 3 c)
• 1 Box of Sea Bird Guano (0-11-0)(1 Box=6.5 cups)
• 3 cups Rock Phosphate (0-3-0)(1 Box=? cups)
• 1 Box *Alfalfa Meal (2.5-0.5-2.5)(1 Box=20 cups)(was 8 c)
• 5 cups *Soybean Meal (7-1-2)(1 Box=14 cups)
• 6 cups *Kelp Meal (1-0.1-2)(1 Box=11 cups)
• 3 cups *Green Sand (1 Box=7 cups)
• 2 cups *Bio-Fish (7-7-2) (1 Box=12 cups)
• 1 cup *Gypsum
• 5 cups *Insect Frass (3-1-2)(1 Box=12 cups)*
• 5 cups *Neem Seed Meal (6-1-2)(1 Box=12 cups)*
• 1/3 cup Epsom Salt (Mag. Sulf.)
• 3 TBS Dolomite Lime
• 1 & 1/2 cup Azomite (1 Box=? cups)(was 1/2 c)
• 2 TBS powdered Humic Acid (was 1 TBS)
• 3 Gal of R O Water (more as needed)
• 5 Gal of Perlite (to be added on day of using)

* not in original recipe
* skipped in 2020

The above two recipes are what I've been using for the last two years and has worked quite well for me, with one exception: my Purple Haze seemed to do better during bloom with lower nitrogen levels in the following recipe:

Cstm. Purple Haze (Bloom) Super Soil

Per each of 5, 32 gal trash cans:

• 1 bag “Ocean F.” = 1.5 cubic feet (10 gal)
• 1 bag “Strawberry F.” = 1.5 cubic feet (10 gal)
• 1 bag “Worm Gold Plus” Earthworm Castings (0.7 cf each)
• 1 bag Bu’s Blend compost (1 cf)
• 3 cups Bone Meal - steamed (3-15-0)(1 Box=9 cups)
• 3 cups Fish Bone Meal (3-16-0)(1 Box=10 cups)
• 2 cups Blood Meal (12-0-0)(1 Box=15 cups)
• 1 Box Sea Bird Guano (0-11-0)(1 Box=6.5 cups)
• 3 cups Rock Phosphate (0-3-0)(1 Box=? cups)
• 8 cups *Alfalfa Meal (2.5-0.5-2.5)(1 Box=20 cups)
• 4 cups *Soybean Meal (7-1-2)(1 Box=14 cups)
• 6 cups *Kelp Meal (1-0.1-2)(1 Box=11 cups)
• 3 cups *Green Sand (1 Box=7 cups)
• 1 cup *Gypsum
• 1/3 cup Epsom Salt (Mag. Sulf.)
• 3 TBS Dolomite Lime
• 1/2 cup Azomite (1 Box=? cups)
• 1 TBS powdered Humic Acid
• 3 Gal R O Water (more as needed)
• 5 Gal Perlite (to be added on day of planting)

* not in original recipe

If you are interested and/or able, please let me know any and all thoughts on what I'm doing and how I can improve. I use RO water and I like to make compost tea for my grow as well. I up pot each month, using the "grow" soil, until they're ready to bloom. Then I transplant into the ground using the "bloom" soil.

I'm ready to do whatever it takes to get the absolute BEST, highest potency, densest buds possible in an all soil grow and no liquid nutes if at all possible. So please do not hesitate with any advice, as you will not hurt my feelings in any way. Be straight with me, I can take it... honestly.

Also, I have just purchased some DYNOMYCO mycorrhizal inoculants (I responded to the sponsor listed on this site) and look forward using it for the 1st time in my grow as well.

Looking forward to working together...

 

[Emilya Green]

wow! you really have put a lot of thought into this! The question that comes immediately to mind is how long are you cooking all of this in the trash cans before use and how are you mixing it while it composts? I have decided that the next time I make soil I will use volcanic pumice instead of perlite, for better sustainability of the additive designed to give better aeration and drainage... you are of course planning to use these soils over and over again. It is clear that pumice will hold up longer, and it is heavier, so you can actually get by with smaller containers without your plants tipping over if you are adding 20% of it to your soil.

Lets also talk about your compost teas and what sort of recipes you have found for the various stages of the grow. As you build your containers, are you planning on layering or using spikes of raw nutrient in the build? Are you planning any foliar applications of either nutrient or microbes? Are you going to use any natural organics around you, such as fermented plant extracts or microbial life captured from the forest floor? Are you planning on brewing up any of your own supplements, such as banana peel extract, or lactobacillus serum?

 

[CBD BudMan]

Hi @CBDbud! I have always heard of people planting by the moon and I remember my grandfather was big into that for planting trees and such. I find germinating a seed to be the hardest thing... the uncertainty and the waiting is torture for me. I suspect that planting in the waning moon will give me that edge that I have been wanting, needing even... something to help ease the stress of starting these seeds.

I also always heard that you should plant the seeds pointy end down, with the root sticking up... pointy end down being how nature deposits the seeds into a hole more often than not. I always heard that planting with the logically looking root pointing down, was often times the cause of a J root... and I have seen the roots climb right out of the soil trying to figure this out.

Now I need to research this out again, and see if I have been wrong all this time. After all, I never took a lot of stock in the moon thing, although everything else in my life would seem to make this a natural thing for me to believe in... so maybe I am wrong about the root too. It turns out that we all learn something new, all the time... no matter how long we have been doing this.

Anyway, I look forward to following your grow! Good luck, and lets see how big these things can get!

Hello @Emilya and @Stunger... Welcome to my grow journal.
1st, I used to struggle a lot like each of you with germinating cannabis seeds too. All my experience with seed planting was either lawns where you simply broadcast them and cover with thin layer and our 1 acre vegetable garden on our farm where we used one of those two wheeled things you push along each row that opens the soil a certain depth, dropping a seed or two, and covering them all in one pass. This was before the year 2000. All this hand planting of cannabis was new to me, so I hear you. I feel that because, like many of us, I use the wet paper towel method to germinate, placing the root of the now popped "bean" down works. Every time that I did otherwise, I got roots popping out of the soil or kinks in the main stalk. My local Hydro Shop is the one that helped me with this one.

Hey CBDbud, nice start to your grow and nice tutorials too. Can you clarify again at what point you recommend germinating a seed with the timing of the moon in mind? You said above, to do so 2 days before the New moon, is that still right? My girls are all flowering now and I won't be doing any germinating for at least 6 months but I want to get right in my mind the timing for the moon germination, as it could be something to try next time. Cheers.


I had a horrible experience in germinating a Mexican Sativa this grow, that only 1 germinated out of 5, then it grew upside/down and broke the soil with it's tap root. Then on being righted it's helmet failed to come off and after 'surgery' I feel its root was damaged, it lived for a month with just cotyledons only. I think that was probably a case of a J root you mentioned, I have always tried to point the root down when planting it, and that was the first time I had a root break the soil like that.
I feel in spite of what we do the seeds probably work it out for themselves most of the time but there is still a certain randomness of what results.

As to the phases of the moon... @Stunger, I kinda' goofed on that particular post and in a later post in this journal, I admitted to my mistake. I wish I could go back and change all that, but the time allotment for edits has past. I'm still learning here too.

So, let me set the record straight by saying:
In that later post to this grow Journal, I state that after reviewing the info on "almanac.com", I discovered that the entire waning phase of the moon is good for sprouting/germinating of seeds. So, because I've got the wet paper towel method down pat, I picked a date that's 10 days before the New Moon to place my seeds into the wet paper towels. For me, this is primarily because if I start a day or two ofter the Full Moon, the sun and the moon are still very close to being on opposing sides of planet Earth and you're not going to get much of an increase in gravity. The last week of this moon phase is where you get the strongest build up of gravity, and with each passing day this force gets stronger and stronger. This increase of gravity on the same side of our Earth tugs at the root, helping it out of it's shell. As you may have noticed, I had 5 out of 6 seeds pop open in just 18 hours while in the wet paper towels and the last one took 36 hours. This leaves a week or so for the roots to enjoy the extra energy that this tugging provides, helping these roots to grow a little more than they otherwise would.

This has become 100% duplicatable for me every single time and I swear by it, personally. No more "random" outcomes. I already spend a boatload of cash on my grow; I don't need to be wasting good seeds at $10 to $20 a pop.

I hope this helps, and thanx for stopping by...

 

[Stunger]

If you are interested and/or able, please let me know any and all thoughts on what I'm doing and how I can improve. I use RO water and I like to make compost tea for my grow as well. I up pot each month, using the "grow" soil, until they're ready to bloom. Then I transplant into the ground using the "bloom" soil.

I'm ready to do whatever it takes to get the absolute BEST, highest potency, densest buds possible in an all soil grow and no liquid nutes if at all possible.

I grow organically in LOS. My soil has evolved from a SubCool's approximation to including Coots ingredients and the odd thing that I read about that sounded good too. Without considering the balance of all your quantities, I think you have pretty much the same ingredients that I have. Altho, Bio-char is something additional I have had in my soil for a couple years. There are plenty of worms too living in my containers. I don't feed my plants liquid nutes, just water daily with worm wee, and so far every 4-6 weeks I water also with some Fish Hydrolysate, Kelp extract and humic/fulvic acids as well, about a teaspoon of each into about 10 litres of water (2.5gal). In addition for what it's worth I foliar spray with the same, mid veg to early flowering probably twice a week, they seem to really love it!
I feel this year my soil is the best it has ever been for how well the plants have responded. I actually germinated them 6-8 weeks later so they wouldn't get so big and blow my stealth cover with too much dank smell blowing around the neighbourhood, but they seemed to have liked the soil so much that they didn't get the memo. One of my plants appeared to start quite poorly (rather pale lime leaves) and slow growing (a Strawberry Cough), I had assumed she just didn't like either the soil or the location, but she is now powering along with a good colour.

So, let me set the record straight by saying:
In that later post to this grow Journal, I state that after reviewing the info on "almanac.com", I discovered that the entire waning phase of the moon is good for sprouting/germinating of seeds. So, because I've got the wet paper towel method down pat, I picked a date that's 10 days before the New Moon to place my seeds into the wet paper towels. For me, this is primarily because if I start a day or two ofter the Full Moon, the sun and the moon are still very close to being on opposing sides of planet Earth and you're not going to get much of an increase in gravity. The last week of this moon phase is where you get the strongest build up of gravity, and with each passing day this force gets stronger and stronger. This increase of gravity on the same side of our Earth tugs at the root, helping it out of it's shell. As you may have noticed, I had 5 out of 6 seeds pop open in just 18 hours while in the wet paper towels and the last one took 36 hours. This leaves a week or so for the roots to enjoy the extra energy that this tugging provides, helping these roots to grow a little more than they otherwise would.

Thanks for that explanation, yes I saw you'd revised what you said but I just wanted to be sure I understood it properly. I guess if you trying germinate 2 days before the New moon, that you were still in a the right range, only now something like 10 days earlier would be better. I've book marked the update and will check it in about 6 months when I look to drop some seeds next! I am always rapt to see others growing organically in soil. Cheers.

 

[CBD BudMan]

wow! you really have put a lot of thought into this! The question that comes immediately to mind is how long are you cooking all of this in the trash cans before use and how are you mixing it while it composts? I have decided that the next time I make soil I will use volcanic pumice instead of perlite, for better sustainability of the additive designed to give better aeration and drainage... you are of course planning to use these soils over and over again. It is clear that pumice will hold up longer, and it is heavier, so you can actually get by with smaller containers without your plants tipping over if you are adding 20% of it to your soil.

Lets also talk about your compost teas and what sort of recipes you have found for the various stages of the grow. As you build your containers, are you planning on layering or using spikes of raw nutrient in the build? Are you planning any foliar applications of either nutrient or microbes? Are you going to use any natural organics around you, such as fermented plant extracts or microbial life captured from the forest floor? Are you planning on brewing up any of your own supplements, such as banana peel extract, or lactobacillus serum?

Thank you @Emilya,
I started with the Sub Cool's Super Soil (SCSS) recipe that I found on a grow site out of Colorado. He was growing for various dispensaries and explained everything so well. With the help of my local Hydro Shop, I was able to tailor/adapt it to my needs. In my 1st two seasons my plants kept running out of food, with yellowing leaves during the season and substandard buds at harvest. Things are much improved now, but I still want to do better... much better, if I can.

I do not reuse any of the SCSS, replacing it each year with all new. This is, in part, due to the fact that, originally, I had intended to always keep my plants in pots. The problem I discovered is that, the bigger my plants got the faster they'd go through the nutrients in each up potting. I was completely out of money and desperate to save my plants. So without any foreseeable alternatives available to me at the time, I did the only thing I could think of... I dug holes in my yard the same size as the pots that I would've used for my next scheduled up potting and transplanted everything into the ground with my final batch of Bloom SCSS, using the holes simply as a pot or container for my plants. This turned out to be the best thing I've done for my plants so far.

The other reason I never incorporated everything into the native soil in my yard, like many of us outdoor gardeners normally would, is because it is simply the hardest, deadest, most neglected soil that I have ever heard of. It's almost like pavement. This is because I live in a mobile home park that was built in the 1950's and each lot was drenched in ground kill herbicide then covered in black plastic and gravel. It's been this way for around 70 years. I have removed most of the plastic 'n gravel but I've been reluctant to do much else with the ground. Sorry for the long explanation.

Now to answer your Q's:
I cook each batch of SCSS (grow or bloom) for about a month outside in the sun, but I haven't been turning it once in the trash cans. What do you recommend?

The only quality compost I'm aware of is the composted cow manure listed in my SCSS. My Hydro Shop has always recommended to make tea from this and use it to water the soil/plants. I've heard of using this as a foliar spray, but have been extremely reluctant because of the horrible PM and bud rot that I've endured in previous grows. The only foliar spray I do now is with things like: Monterey B.t., Monterey Garden Insect Spinosad spray and Actinovate® biological fungicide. I have found that, if I use these preemptively, I can achieve a clean garden completely free of these pests.

I don't know what "fermented plant extracts" are. And the microbial life from the forest floor... isn't that in Fox Farms O F ? That's the only source I know of. I have heard of using banana peels but never heard of lactobacillus serum. Any help with these are welcome.

Finally, I want to commend you on your wealth of knowledge in this area and I am absolutely floored that someone like you is willing to help little ol' me. OMG, thank you!

I can already tell that 2021 is going to be a great year for many of us and this is in no small part due to so many good people like you and so many others here at 420 mag.

Thank you so much...

 

[CBD BudMan]

I grow organically in LOS. My soil has evolved from a SubCool's approximation to including Coots ingredients and the odd thing that I read about that sounded good too. Without considering the balance of all your quantities, I think you have pretty much the same ingredients that I have. Altho, Bio-char is something additional I have had in my soil for a couple years. There are plenty of worms too living in my containers. I don't feed my plants liquid nutes, just water daily with worm wee, and so far every 4-6 weeks I water also with some Fish Hydrolysate, Kelp extract and humic/fulvic acids as well, about a teaspoon of each into about 10 litres of water (2.5gal). In addition for what it's worth I foliar spray with the same, mid veg to early flowering probably twice a week, they seem to really love it!
I feel this year my soil is the best it has ever been for how well the plants have responded. I actually germinated them 6-8 weeks later so they wouldn't get so big and blow my stealth cover with too much dank smell blowing around the neighbourhood, but they seemed to have liked the soil so much that they didn't get the memo. One of my plants appeared to start quite poorly (rather pale lime leaves) and slow growing (a Strawberry Cough), I had assumed she just didn't like either the soil or the location, but she is now powering along with a good colour.

Thanks for that explanation, yes I saw you'd revised what you said but I just wanted to be sure I understood it properly. I guess if you trying germinate 2 days before the New moon, that you were still in a the right range, only now something like 10 days earlier would be better. I've book marked the update and will check it in about 6 months when I look to drop some seeds next! I am always rapt to see others growing organically in soil. Cheers.

Hello there @Stunger,
Yeah, I'm sold on Super Soils too. These days I'm aware of many types of Super Soils like Coots and others. In the beginning, Sub Cool's was the only one I knew of at the time, so I went with it. Any organic soil grow is far more desirable for me over bottled nutes. This is NOT to say that other ways aren't successful; far from it. I'm just an old timer that grew up on a small family farm and I simply prefer working in harmony with nature.

Thanx for reminding me about Bio-char. I've been meaning to try this. Perhaps in this years grow? Who knows. I haven't tried including worms yet though. With the high heat, I've noticed that when I find a few worms and bring them home, they die in the pots. I believe this is due to the summer heat, but I don't really know.

I have found that when I start early in the season and in alignment with the waning moon phase, my plants do much better. Then, to keep them at 6 feet, I fim the top cola late in the veg cycle. This keeps them hidden behind my fence.

You are quite welcome about the moon phase thing. I learn from so many people here, so I'm always happy to return the favor.

Come back by anytime my friend...

 

[CBD BudMan]

Hello @Emilya,
After reading @Autofacade 's grow Journal, and more pertinently your remarks on growing organically, I really want to pick your brain, if I may, on how I can best go about a 100% organic soil outdoor grow.

Over the course of the last 4 grow seasons I have come up with the following for my 100% organic soil grow, no liquid nutes:

“Custom” (Grow) Super Soil

Per each 32 gal trash can:

• 2 bags of “F.F.O.F” (or 17” - old soil)
• 1 bag Worm Gold Plus
• 1 bag Bu’s Blend Compost
• 2 cups Steamed Bone Meal
• 2 cups Fish Bone Meal
• 1 cup Gypsum
• 6 cups Blood Meal
• 3 cups Green Sand
• 5 cups Insect Frass (NOT used in 2020, using in 2021)
• 2 cups Rock Phosphate
• 3 cups grow Bat Guano
• 3 cups Sea Bird Guano (0-11-0) (for 10 gal & above)
• 1 box Kelp Meal(was 6 c)
• 5 cups Neem Meal
• 1/3 cup Magnesium Sulphate
• 1/4 cup Dolomite Lime
• 1/2 cup Azomite
• 1 TBS powdered Humic Acid
• 5 Gal of Perlite
• 3 Gal of R O Water (more as needed)

“Custom” (Bloom) Super Soil

Per each of 5, 32 gal trash cans:

• 2 bags of “F.F.O.F” or “Base Soil” - each bag = 1.5 cubic feet (10 gal)
• 1 bag of “Worm Gold Plus” Earthworm Castings (0.7 cf each)
• 1 bag of Bu’s Blend compost (1 cf)
• 3 cups Bone Meal - steamed (3-15-0)(1 Box=9 cups)(was 2.5 c)
• 3 cups Fish Bone Meal (3-16-0)(1 Box=10 cups)(was 2.5 c)
• 1 cup of Blood Meal (12-0-0)(1 Box=15 cups)(was 3 c)
• 1 Box of Sea Bird Guano (0-11-0)(1 Box=6.5 cups)
• 3 cups Rock Phosphate (0-3-0)(1 Box=? cups)
• 1 Box *Alfalfa Meal (2.5-0.5-2.5)(1 Box=20 cups)(was 8 c)
• 5 cups *Soybean Meal (7-1-2)(1 Box=14 cups)
• 6 cups *Kelp Meal (1-0.1-2)(1 Box=11 cups)
• 3 cups *Green Sand (1 Box=7 cups)
• 2 cups *Bio-Fish (7-7-2) (1 Box=12 cups)
• 1 cup *Gypsum
• 5 cups *Insect Frass (3-1-2)(1 Box=12 cups)*
• 5 cups *Neem Seed Meal (6-1-2)(1 Box=12 cups)*
• 1/3 cup Epsom Salt (Mag. Sulf.)
• 3 TBS Dolomite Lime
• 1 & 1/2 cup Azomite (1 Box=? cups)(was 1/2 c)
• 2 TBS powdered Humic Acid (was 1 TBS)
• 3 Gal of R O Water (more as needed)
• 5 Gal of Perlite (to be added on day of using)

* not in original recipe
* skipped in 2020

The above two recipes are what I've been using for the last two years and has worked quite well for me, with one exception: my Purple Haze seemed to do better during bloom with lower nitrogen levels in the following recipe:

Cstm. Purple Haze (Bloom) Super Soil

Per each of 5, 32 gal trash cans:

• 1 bag “Ocean F.” = 1.5 cubic feet (10 gal)
• 1 bag “Strawberry F.” = 1.5 cubic feet (10 gal)
• 1 bag “Worm Gold Plus” Earthworm Castings (0.7 cf each)
• 1 bag Bu’s Blend compost (1 cf)
• 3 cups Bone Meal - steamed (3-15-0)(1 Box=9 cups)
• 3 cups Fish Bone Meal (3-16-0)(1 Box=10 cups)
• 2 cups Blood Meal (12-0-0)(1 Box=15 cups)
• 1 Box Sea Bird Guano (0-11-0)(1 Box=6.5 cups)
• 3 cups Rock Phosphate (0-3-0)(1 Box=? cups)
• 8 cups *Alfalfa Meal (2.5-0.5-2.5)(1 Box=20 cups)
• 4 cups *Soybean Meal (7-1-2)(1 Box=14 cups)
• 6 cups *Kelp Meal (1-0.1-2)(1 Box=11 cups)
• 3 cups *Green Sand (1 Box=7 cups)
• 1 cup *Gypsum
• 1/3 cup Epsom Salt (Mag. Sulf.)
• 3 TBS Dolomite Lime
• 1/2 cup Azomite (1 Box=? cups)
• 1 TBS powdered Humic Acid
• 3 Gal R O Water (more as needed)
• 5 Gal Perlite (to be added on day of planting)

* not in original recipe

If you are interested and/or able, please let me know any and all thoughts on what I'm doing and how I can improve. I use RO water and I like to make compost tea for my grow as well. I up pot each month, using the "grow" soil, until they're ready to bloom. Then I transplant into the ground using the "bloom" soil.

I'm ready to do whatever it takes to get the absolute BEST, highest potency, densest buds possible in an all soil grow and no liquid nutes if at all possible. So please do not hesitate with any advice, as you will not hurt my feelings in any way. Be straight with me, I can take it... honestly.

Also, I have just purchased some DYNOMYCO mycorrhizal inoculants (I responded to the sponsor listed on this site) and look forward using it for the 1st time in my grow as well.

Looking forward to working together...

Boy, I keep goofing with typos here, ugh... It's supposed to be 2 cups Blood Meal in the Custom Bloom Super Soil and 1 cup Blood Meal in the Cstm. Purple Haze Bloom Super Soil. Talk about being in a purple haze!

Oh well...

 

[Stunger]

I'm just an old timer that grew up on a small family farm and I simply prefer working in harmony with nature.

I'm the same, I just started my 61st orbit around the sun last week, which is a bit depressing when considering the useful time remaining!

Thanx for reminding me about Bio-char. I've been meaning to try this. Perhaps in this years grow? Who knows.

I have added some to my soil each year over the last 3 years, tentatively at first because I didn't know how it would go, and bio-char can raise the alkalinity a little. I think it is like rock dust, in that it will last years in your mix, so I am not sure whether I will add any more or just declare that there should be enough in the soil now for it to not need more from this point.

I haven't tried including worms yet though. With the high heat, I've noticed that when I find a few worms and bring them home, they die in the pots. I believe this is due to the summer heat, but I don't really know.

I am sure you are right about that, I will find a few dead worms on the tiles if my pots dry out too much. My pots are heavily drilled out, they dry very quickly especially too as they sit on stone tiles that heat up and give off a lot of radiant heat. I measured the temperature once at 6:30pm in the evening and it was still over 36C/97F. Last year I introduced a mulch layer to them which I feel for my particular growing environment is a good thing, as it keeps a moist layer at the top of the soil which was previously bone dry and held virtually no roots, now there are thousands of roots growing right to the top which I feel must be allowing the plant more access to nutrients in the soil. And the worms I feel get more protection to their environment too. I don't know if it's right or wrong, I mostly just go by whether the plants look happy or not.

Here is a post where I added worm castings and a pea straw mulch layer to my pots.

Stunger's Last Stand: Banned To The Balcony!

Man I love looking at them in the sunshine!

www.420magazine.com

And here is a post from just the other day of lifting the mulch to show a couple of worms underneath, there were a bunch of them but most ducked for cover while I tried to get my camera working with one hand.

Stunger's Last Stand: Banned To The Balcony!

Bud update I think the CBD Express is ready and I will chop her any day soon. I am also waiting for a dry day to carry out a pollination attempt on the 3 photos girls. Here's a couple of bud closeups of each of the 4 plants, a sort of bud porn but they are still too early in flowering to...

www.420magazine.com

I have found that when I start early in the season and in alignment with the waning moon phase, my plants do much better. Then, to keep them at 6 feet, I fim the top cola late in the veg cycle. This keeps them hidden behind my fence.

You are quite welcome about the moon phase thing. I learn from so many people here, so I'm always happy to return the favor.

That's interesting.

Boy, I keep goofing with typos here, ugh...

I am finding the same thing, my brain's missing out whole words and the auto spell is then changing them to be nonsense

 

[Emilya Green]

Thank you @Emilya,
I started with the Sub Cool's Super Soil (SCSS) recipe that I found on a grow site out of Colorado. He was growing for various dispensaries and explained everything so well. With the help of my local Hydro Shop, I was able to tailor/adapt it to my needs. In my 1st two seasons my plants kept running out of food, with yellowing leaves during the season and substandard buds at harvest. Things are much improved now, but I still want to do better... much better, if I can.

I do not reuse any of the SCSS, replacing it each year with all new. This is, in part, due to the fact that, originally, I had intended to always keep my plants in pots. The problem I discovered is that, the bigger my plants got the faster they'd go through the nutrients in each up potting. I was completely out of money and desperate to save my plants. So without any foreseeable alternatives available to me at the time, I did the only thing I could think of... I dug holes in my yard the same size as the pots that I would've used for my next scheduled up potting and transplanted everything into the ground with my final batch of Bloom SCSS, using the holes simply as a pot or container for my plants. This turned out to be the best thing I've done for my plants so far.

The other reason I never incorporated everything into the native soil in my yard, like many of us outdoor gardeners normally would, is because it is simply the hardest, deadest, most neglected soil that I have ever heard of. It's almost like pavement. This is because I live in a mobile home park that was built in the 1950's and each lot was drenched in ground kill herbicide then covered in black plastic and gravel. It's been this way for around 70 years. I have removed most of the plastic 'n gravel but I've been reluctant to do much else with the ground. Sorry for the long explanation.

Now to answer your Q's:
I cook each batch of SCSS (grow or bloom) for about a month outside in the sun, but I haven't been turning it once in the trash cans. What do you recommend?

The only quality compost I'm aware of is the composted cow manure listed in my SCSS. My Hydro Shop has always recommended to make tea from this and use it to water the soil/plants. I've heard of using this as a foliar spray, but have been extremely reluctant because of the horrible PM and bud rot that I've endured in previous grows. The only foliar spray I do now is with things like: Monterey B.t., Monterey Garden Insect Spinosad spray and Actinovate® biological fungicide. I have found that, if I use these preemptively, I can achieve a clean garden completely free of these pests.

I don't know what "fermented plant extracts" are. And the microbial life from the forest floor... isn't that in Fox Farms O F ? That's the only source I know of. I have heard of using banana peels but never heard of lactobacillus serum. Any help with these are welcome.

Finally, I want to commend you on your wealth of knowledge in this area and I am absolutely floored that someone like you is willing to help little ol' me. OMG, thank you!

I can already tell that 2021 is going to be a great year for many of us and this is in no small part due to so many good people like you and so many others here at 420 mag.

Thank you so much...

I am reading your comments and responding to the points as they come up. The previous supersoil runs where you ran out of food toward the end of the grow, probably has to do with the short amount of time that you cooked the soil, and the lack of mixing it while it was cooking. There just wasn't enough of the raw inputs "baked in" after just a month of cooking in that environment. 2-3 months minimum, and with at least a couple of times a month turning over and mixing the composting soil, and it will work much better for you. If you had sent your soil back to the bins for more cooking rather than throw it away, you would have likely found the soil to have been twice as good next time, especially if you threw all of your plant debris from harvest and trimming back in the pile to compost back down into soil.

Local compost came up in your response. Be careful with this stuff... it is not supersoil and at best it should be used in layers in your container... very thin layers. Relying on raw compost tea to provide microbes for your organic grow is not optimum either... I know several people proclaim that this is the best way to do things, but it is simply a bad shortcut with several downsides. You need to be a little more picky about the microbes you bring home to introduce to your tender young girls. Some microbes are bad and some are so aggressive that they eat the good microbes. In order to make proper teas for growing our plants, you should target the tea for the growth period. If you are in veg and the primary needs for the plant are Nitrogen, then you need microbes that specialize in processing Nitrogen. The best way to do this, without also growing bad microbes, is by developing actively aerated compost teas. This takes a good air pump (not an aquarium pump) and then a good recipe using a bit of N producing inputs to feed the correct microbes and starve out the bad ones. The massive amount of air being pumped in to "brew" the tea, eliminates the ability for non oxygen breathing microbes to thrive... without the air, all sorts of nasty stuff will grow. Making a good compost tea is an art, and we have several good recipes using the same stuff you built your soil with as inputs, but it must be done right. There are also shortcuts available if you don't want to go down this path of brewing a messy and smelly tea at least once a week.

Once you have a non lethal tea, it is teaming with microbes and a bit of raw nutrient. It can also be sprayed onto your plants. Plants love foliar feeding and it is just another route we can use to get nutrients and microbes working in the plant. Also, instead of using pesticides, natural or not, a common trick is to spray lactobacillus serum (a very beneficial bacteria) on the leaves to increase uptake. You can make a very effective serum out of milk very easily at your own house. You can also make a very good calcium, magnesium and phosphorus (plus several other things) out of eggshells and apple cider vinegar. You can make a very effective super fertilizer, for several different stages of the grow, out of the dandelions in your yard... dandelions being one of the best superaccumulators of nutrients that we know of.

There are lots of things we can do naturally around the home to enhance our organic grows. You can start up a worm farm and use that as a base for your "compost" teas. We can gather beneficial bacteria from the trees and woods around us and add them to our grows, especially with your grow going outside at the end anyway. By intelligently building our containers, not just with 1/3 supersoil in the bottom, but then also using layers of raw nutrient in places, different combinations of base soil and supersoil in other layers, and also drilling vertical spikes in 4 or 5 spots in the container and funneling in some special mixes of raw nutrients, you can allow the roots to specialize in those areas of the container to better have access to them. There are lots of tricks and techniques in the organic world, and it can all seem very intimidating. I sat on the fence for over a year before I jumped in because I didn't feel I understood it enough... especially the tea part. Then I found a book that changed everything for me. It is called TLO, True Living Organics, by The Rev. Find this book. The revelations and insights in that little book gave me the confidence to jump into this thing and I still use it as a reference as to how best to do a lot of things in the plant world. It will really start you on your organic learning path in a very easy to understand way. Also, please check out my tutorials, the link being in my signature lines.

 

[Stunger]

I am reading your comments and responding to the points as they come up. The previous supersoil runs where you ran out of food toward the end of the grow, probably has to do with the short amount of time that you cooked the soil, and the lack of mixing it while it was cooking. There just wasn't enough of the raw inputs "baked in" after just a month of cooking in that environment. 2-3 months minimum, and with at least a couple of times a month turning over and mixing the composting soil, and it will work much better for you. If you had sent your soil back to the bins for more cooking rather than throw it away, you would have likely found the soil to have been twice as good next time, especially if you threw all of your plant debris from harvest and trimming back in the pile to compost back down into soil.

Local compost came up in your response. Be careful with this stuff... it is not supersoil and at best it should be used in layers in your container... very thin layers. Relying on raw compost tea to provide microbes for your organic grow is not optimum either... I know several people proclaim that this is the best way to do things, but it is simply a bad shortcut with several downsides. You need to be a little more picky about the microbes you bring home to introduce to your tender young girls. Some microbes are bad and some are so aggressive that they eat the good microbes. In order to make proper teas for growing our plants, you should target the tea for the growth period. If you are in veg and the primary needs for the plant are Nitrogen, then you need microbes that specialize in processing Nitrogen. The best way to do this, without also growing bad microbes, is by developing actively aerated compost teas. This takes a good air pump (not an aquarium pump) and then a good recipe using a bit of N producing inputs to feed the correct microbes and starve out the bad ones. The massive amount of air being pumped in to "brew" the tea, eliminates the ability for non oxygen breathing microbes to thrive... without the air, all sorts of nasty stuff will grow. Making a good compost tea is an art, and we have several good recipes using the same stuff you built your soil with as inputs, but it must be done right. There are also shortcuts available if you don't want to go down this path of brewing a messy and smelly tea at least once a week.

Once you have a non lethal tea, it is teaming with microbes and a bit of raw nutrient. It can also be sprayed onto your plants. Plants love foliar feeding and it is just another route we can use to get nutrients and microbes working in the plant. Also, instead of using pesticides, natural or not, a common trick is to spray lactobacillus serum (a very beneficial bacteria) on the leaves to increase uptake. You can make a very effective serum out of milk very easily at your own house. You can also make a very good calcium, magnesium and phosphorus (plus several other things) out of eggshells and apple cider vinegar. You can make a very effective super fertilizer, for several different stages of the grow, out of the dandelions in your yard... dandelions being one of the best superaccumulators of nutrients that we know of.

There are lots of things we can do naturally around the home to enhance our organic grows. You can start up a worm farm and use that as a base for your "compost" teas. We can gather beneficial bacteria from the trees and woods around us and add them to our grows, especially with your grow going outside at the end anyway. By intelligently building our containers, not just with 1/3 supersoil in the bottom, but then also using layers of raw nutrient in places, different combinations of base soil and supersoil in other layers, and also drilling vertical spikes in 4 or 5 spots in the container and funneling in some special mixes of raw nutrients, you can allow the roots to specialize in those areas of the container to better have access to them. There are lots of tricks and techniques in the organic world, and it can all seem very intimidating. I sat on the fence for over a year before I jumped in because I didn't feel I understood it enough... especially the tea part. Then I found a book that changed everything for me. It is called TLO, True Living Organics, by The Rev. Find this book. The revelations and insights in that little book gave me the confidence to jump into this thing and I still use it as a reference as to how best to do a lot of things in the plant world. It will really start you on your organic learning path in a very easy to understand way. Also, please check out my tutorials, the link being in my signature lines.

Cheers for that Emilya, I am enjoying reading the questions and answers! I don't make a very good sponge but I try to soak it up all the same!
Yes it does seem intimidating making the jump to doing some of these things and take it to the next levels like you're doing, making the lacto serum is one of those things for me that I should probably investigate.

 

[CBD BudMan]

I am reading your comments and responding to the points as they come up. The previous supersoil runs where you ran out of food toward the end of the grow, probably has to do with the short amount of time that you cooked the soil, and the lack of mixing it while it was cooking. There just wasn't enough of the raw inputs "baked in" after just a month of cooking in that environment. 2-3 months minimum, and with at least a couple of times a month turning over and mixing the composting soil, and it will work much better for you. If you had sent your soil back to the bins for more cooking rather than throw it away, you would have likely found the soil to have been twice as good next time, especially if you threw all of your plant debris from harvest and trimming back in the pile to compost back down into soil.

Local compost came up in your response. Be careful with this stuff... it is not supersoil and at best it should be used in layers in your container... very thin layers. Relying on raw compost tea to provide microbes for your organic grow is not optimum either... I know several people proclaim that this is the best way to do things, but it is simply a bad shortcut with several downsides. You need to be a little more picky about the microbes you bring home to introduce to your tender young girls. Some microbes are bad and some are so aggressive that they eat the good microbes. In order to make proper teas for growing our plants, you should target the tea for the growth period. If you are in veg and the primary needs for the plant are Nitrogen, then you need microbes that specialize in processing Nitrogen. The best way to do this, without also growing bad microbes, is by developing actively aerated compost teas. This takes a good air pump (not an aquarium pump) and then a good recipe using a bit of N producing inputs to feed the correct microbes and starve out the bad ones. The massive amount of air being pumped in to "brew" the tea, eliminates the ability for non oxygen breathing microbes to thrive... without the air, all sorts of nasty stuff will grow. Making a good compost tea is an art, and we have several good recipes using the same stuff you built your soil with as inputs, but it must be done right. There are also shortcuts available if you don't want to go down this path of brewing a messy and smelly tea at least once a week.

Once you have a non lethal tea, it is teaming with microbes and a bit of raw nutrient. It can also be sprayed onto your plants. Plants love foliar feeding and it is just another route we can use to get nutrients and microbes working in the plant. Also, instead of using pesticides, natural or not, a common trick is to spray lactobacillus serum (a very beneficial bacteria) on the leaves to increase uptake. You can make a very effective serum out of milk very easily at your own house. You can also make a very good calcium, magnesium and phosphorus (plus several other things) out of eggshells and apple cider vinegar. You can make a very effective super fertilizer, for several different stages of the grow, out of the dandelions in your yard... dandelions being one of the best superaccumulators of nutrients that we know of.

There are lots of things we can do naturally around the home to enhance our organic grows. You can start up a worm farm and use that as a base for your "compost" teas. We can gather beneficial bacteria from the trees and woods around us and add them to our grows, especially with your grow going outside at the end anyway. By intelligently building our containers, not just with 1/3 supersoil in the bottom, but then also using layers of raw nutrient in places, different combinations of base soil and supersoil in other layers, and also drilling vertical spikes in 4 or 5 spots in the container and funneling in some special mixes of raw nutrients, you can allow the roots to specialize in those areas of the container to better have access to them. There are lots of tricks and techniques in the organic world, and it can all seem very intimidating. I sat on the fence for over a year before I jumped in because I didn't feel I understood it enough... especially the tea part. Then I found a book that changed everything for me. It is called TLO, True Living Organics, by The Rev. Find this book. The revelations and insights in that little book gave me the confidence to jump into this thing and I still use it as a reference as to how best to do a lot of things in the plant world. It will really start you on your organic learning path in a very easy to understand way. Also, please check out my tutorials, the link being in my signature lines.

Wow! I am floored with all of this great info! Thank you @Emilya. As I read, I must admit that I am a bit overwhelmed. That not a critique. It's just that I simply had no idea how much I have yet to learn. So much for me thinking that this year was going to be easier for me. LOL.

The worm farm is something I've always wanted to do, but I just don't feel I have the space in my present location. There are no dandelions in my yard, ever. You may remember how dead the soil is in my yard from my earlier post.

And I realize now that I wasn't clear about the source of compost that I use. It's a bagged compost that is commercially available in many nurseries and at my local Hydro Shop... Bu's Blend Biodynamic compost by: Malibu Compost. So, no "local compost" here. I used to make my own compost from leaves and lawn cuttings, but it would get full of those green shiny beetles and their grubs that they would lay/hatch in it. I was told that these grub looking things could eat the roots of my tender girls, so I stopped making it. Plus there was a lot of mold in the compost and when I stopped using it, the powdery mildew really slowed down a lot.

I really do want to focus on some essential things like compost tea and some other key things that would be easier for me to get going this season. I do make compost tea and I do have a very good air pump. I have always noticed that my plants really do better when I give them compost tea. Take a look at this video of my pump in action, bubbling my tea for 24 hours. I do have some questions about making this tea though:

While I never wrote any notes on this, I do remember discovering that my tea would be very low ph sometimes. I got pretty good at balancing this to 6.3 . Some people say never ph compost tea, others say it's good to ph. My very 1st year (5 or 6 years ago, I think) growing cannabis, I tried using FF liquid nutes and burnt the roots badly because I didn't ph before hand. It was low on the ph. Everything died that year so I've always been very cautious about ph ever since. What do you have to say about this? I only want the best for my green girls when it comes to things like tea.

Here are the recipes that I've used so far:
Compost Tea
gardenteacompany[dot]com/compost-tea-ingredients
gardenteacompany[dot]com/compost-tea-recipes

Basic Recipe:
4 gal R O water, PH to 7.0, then add:
4 cups Compost
1 Tbsp Fish Hydrolystate
1 Tbsp Kelp Meal
1 Tbsp Azomite
1 Tbsp Rock Phosphate
1/3 cup Black Strap Molasses (unsulfured)

My 12 Gal Recipe:
12 gal R O water, PH to 7.0, then add:
7 cups Compost
2 Tbsp Fish Hydrolystate
2 Tbsp Kelp Meal
2 Tbsp Azomite
2 Tbsp Rock Phosphate
1 cup Black Strap Molasses (unsulfured)

Compost Tea Recipe:
15 gal water
7 cups Compost
1 cup Black Strap Molasses (unsulfured)

This last one is the one that my plants liked the most so this is the one that I used most often. Where the recipe says "Compost", it was always the Bu's Blend that I spoke of in this post, above.

Sprays: While I do like the idea of foliar sprays, I will be using the natural pesticides and fungicide for this years grow that I spoke of before. This is simply because I want to take smaller steps until I become more confident with new things. If I make too many changes all at once, I feel I'll loose my way with all of this. I want to get there. Just let me take smaller steps for now.

I am all for the things that you mentioned like the egg shells 'n vinegar, and other things that I can add/feed/water/whatever into the soil. This makes a lot of sense to me and I think (hope) I can jump right in with those.

I will certainly be getting that book by the Rev as you've suggested. I've heard do many good things about it, and now with your recommendation, I am doing this for sure.

Finally, I want you to know that you are heaven sent. The timing of all this is simply amazing to me. The Universe seems to be conspiring to help me with my grow this season.
Thank you...

 

[Emilya Green]

I need to do some traveling and wont be able to get online most of the day today, but let me think about this a bit and how best to get you going with some simple basic stuff... like cooking your soil a bit longer. Also, there is no need to pH adjust your teas, and you will be killing your microbes by doing so. Don't stress over pH, we mostly don't worry about it in the organic world. Unless you are creating things in the 3's and 4's and so acidic it would actually start burning your skin (or a plant) or so base it is in the 8's or 9's, then you would of course have a problem... but within the wide range of pH centered around 8 to 5, it is not a worry. The only reason we pH adjust in a synthetic grow is so the nutes are in the narrow range where they are mobile as opposed to being locked (chelated) while in the bottle. The plants dont care if the pH is in that range, nor does the soil. The only reason we pH adjust so carefully is for the manufactured nutes.
So no, never pH adjust your compost tea. Anyone telling you to do so doesn't know what they are talking about. There are a couple of places in the organic world where your pH meter will come in handy though... such as in fermentations. When a fermentation has taken place, the liquid will swing mildly acidic, an indication that the fermentation has actually occurred. I will be excited to talk to you later about all the stuff in The Rev's book... for now, here is a tease of some of the recipes, bookmarked here and provided to us by one of my earlier students, @StoneOtter who also was recommended to get the book. Enjoy!

Otterfarm Flooded! NextLight Mega Responsible!

Highya SO, Emmie, guys, Love the picture of the barrel on wheels! Such a great design! I don't envy mixing all that dirt, lol! I just set my little girls in the coldframe a couple days ago, and they're looking great. I used to use a cement mixer to mix up sheep feed. Worked great! Was fun...

www.420magazine.com

 

[StoneOtter]

Earlier and still Em! Always here! Enjoy your trip.

 

[StoneOtter]

Hey CBDbud, sweet grow you're on the verge of. Big fan of your soil and tea recipes!

 

[CBD BudMan]

I need to do some traveling and wont be able to get online most of the day today, but let me think about this a bit and how best to get you going with some simple basic stuff... like cooking your soil a bit longer. Also, there is no need to pH adjust your teas, and you will be killing your microbes by doing so. Don't stress over pH, we mostly don't worry about it in the organic world. Unless you are creating things in the 3's and 4's and so acidic it would actually start burning your skin (or a plant) or so base it is in the 8's or 9's, then you would of course have a problem... but within the wide range of pH centered around 8 to 5, it is not a worry. The only reason we pH adjust in a synthetic grow is so the nutes are in the narrow range where they are mobile as opposed to being locked (chelated) while in the bottle. The plants dont care if the pH is in that range, nor does the soil. The only reason we pH adjust so carefully is for the manufactured nutes.
So no, never pH adjust your compost tea. Anyone telling you to do so doesn't know what they are talking about. There are a couple of places in the organic world where your pH meter will come in handy though... such as in fermentations. When a fermentation has taken place, the liquid will swing mildly acidic, an indication that the fermentation has actually occurred. I will be excited to talk to you later about all the stuff in The Rev's book... for now, here is a tease of some of the recipes, bookmarked here and provided to us by one of my earlier students, @StoneOtter who also was recommended to get the book. Enjoy!

Otterfarm Flooded! NextLight Mega Responsible!

Highya SO, Emmie, guys, Love the picture of the barrel on wheels! Such a great design! I don't envy mixing all that dirt, lol! I just set my little girls in the coldframe a couple days ago, and they're looking great. I used to use a cement mixer to mix up sheep feed. Worked great! Was fun...

www.420magazine.com

Thank you @Emilya,
This will be interesting to see. I remember there were times when I brewed compost tea it was below 4.0 and other times it was in the 8's. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the molasses I was using had sulfur in it. It was a plastic gallon of watery something that they were calling molasses and was much cheaper than the grocery store people food stuff. When I went back to the type of molasses that you buy in the grocery store for people, it didn't get that low. I can see now, because of what you're saying here, that this should not be a problem. Other places online said that compost tea is simply compost and water with some real molasses to feed the micro organisms, and that when we add other things like you and the Rev are suggesting it is fertilizer or nutrient tea. Please understand, I'm not challenging anything you're saying here, only communicating to you the limited info that I've had before now.

Just for my peace of mind, I will be checking the ph of future teas that I brew to see what the numbers are. When I am convinced that the #'s are not extreme and that I can duplicate this time and again, then I will be able to rest easy. I've had too many troubles before and stressed my green girls way too much to not at least test the ph for a while. Here's some pics of what I use to test the PH of my teas:

PHtestFluidLabel.jpg

• CBD BudMan
• Mar 13, 2021

PHtestFluidChart.jpg

• CBD BudMan
• Mar 13, 2021

I'll be mixing up some new "grow" soil tomorrow, so I'd like to see what you thought about me adding some DYNOMYCO and/or compost starter from Dr Earth to help cook my Super Soil more effectively within the time that I have now. What I mean is that, I'll be needing some soil much sooner that the 2 or 3 months that is recommended to cook it. Would those inoculants help things along any faster? Unless it'll hurt the plants, I'm anxious to give this a go. Pic of compost starter:

CompostStarter.jpg

• CBD BudMan
• Mar 13, 2021

Peace 'n pot to you and yours @Emilya...

 

[Emilya Green]

Thank you @Emilya,
This will be interesting to see. I remember there were times when I brewed compost tea it was below 4.0 and other times it was in the 8's. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the molasses I was using had sulfur in it. It was a plastic gallon of watery something that they were calling molasses and was much cheaper than the grocery store people food stuff. When I went back to the type of molasses that you buy in the grocery store for people, it didn't get that low. I can see now, because of what you're saying here, that this should not be a problem. Other places online said that compost tea is simply compost and water with some real molasses to feed the micro organisms, and that when we add other things like you and the Rev are suggesting it is fertilizer or nutrient tea. Please understand, I'm not challenging anything you're saying here, only communicating to you the limited info that I've had before now.

Just for my peace of mind, I will be checking the ph of future teas that I brew to see what the numbers are. When I am convinced that the #'s are not extreme and that I can duplicate this time and again, then I will be able to rest easy. I've had too many troubles before and stressed my green girls way too much to not at least test the ph for a while. Here's some pics of what I use to test the PH of my teas:

PHtestFluidLabel.jpg

• CBD BudMan
• Mar 13, 2021

PHtestFluidChart.jpg

• CBD BudMan
• Mar 13, 2021

I'll be mixing up some new "grow" soil tomorrow, so I'd like to see what you thought about me adding some DYNOMYCO and/or compost starter from Dr Earth to help cook my Super Soil more effectively within the time that I have now. What I mean is that, I'll be needing some soil much sooner that the 2 or 3 months that is recommended to cook it. Would those inoculants help things along any faster? Unless it'll hurt the plants, I'm anxious to give this a go. Pic of compost starter:

CompostStarter.jpg

• CBD BudMan
• Mar 13, 2021

Peace 'n pot to you and yours @Emilya...

Many people get confused about the teas, thinking that they need to have this or that in them because of course you need to feed the plants... but all they are really for is to provide microbes. The nutrients in the tea are to cause the correct microbes to grow and the others to die away... but the nutrients are not there in any amount that would be beneficial to the plant. Remember that in an organic grow it is assumed that the needed nutrients are cooked into the soil... you don't need to feed.

Your search for a shortcut in cooking your soil is commendable, but useless. Think about it... if there was a shortcut we would all be using it. There would be no more talk about the need to cook for 3 months. All who have tried to rush the cooking process that ONLY time can make happen, failed at some point in their grow. The compost starter is just that, the microbes and stuff that gets the process going... but no matter how much you put in there, time is the only thing that makes it happen. The dynomyco is fungus and it is extremely useful when building your containers, but it has no function in the composting process. You will be wasting your money by using it in this way.

Good catch on the molasses, and yes, stay away from the sulfured stuff. A word about your pH tests though... test strips don't work on colored fluids. Unfortunately, almost any organic fluid has some color to it, especially a compost tea. There is no way you can get an accurate reading. Get a digital meter if you insist on thinking this is important, but again, outside of making sure something isn't so base or acid that it would physically burn you or your plant, the only reason we worry about pH is so that we can put synthetic nutes into the range where they break free of their salt bonds and become available to the plant. They are shipped in the bottle outside of this range so they don't break apart and start interacting with each other, and adjusting the pH of your watering fluids is how you activate them. In an organic compost tea there simply is not this need to be in any sort of range.

 

[CBD BudMan]

Hey CBDbud, sweet grow you're on the verge of. Big fan of your soil and tea recipes!

Hey there @StoneOtter,

Thank you for the kind words. After checking in on what you're all about in your grow journals, this means a lot to me. You're all in with this LOS. This is so trippy for me 'cause back in 2016 when 1st joined up here, I foolishly thought people here were only into bottled nutes, so I never did much of anything here, until now. Boy was I wrong. Don't misunderstand me, I will never say the other methods don't work well, because I know that they do... I've seen far too many excellent grows and top shelf buds on liquid nutes. It's just that, since I was 13 years old, I've always been an organic farmer/gardener. That's just me.

The soil recipe that I use has been the result of a lot of trial 'n error with difficult losses and setbacks along the way. I came real close to giving up once, but thought better of it. This was primarily because of the fact that I simply could not find any high quality, top shelf, CBD rich bud in my area. So, I sold my old clunker of a car for the cash to get me started. That was my only car. With only a bicycle and a child trailer in tow, I'd go to my local Hydro Shop and pick the owner's brain. I was hell bent on building up soil and so the journey began.

As for the teas, it appears that I've still got a lot to learn on that front. I feel that I'm in good hands here now. Everyone is just so helpful... it's quite humbling, to me anyway.

I am really looking forward to this current grow, and hoping it succeeds. It does look like one of my girls is just not up to the task. This is because I used a different soil to start my sprouts in this season and didn't realize that, because of the Coco Coir that's in it, it takes a lot more water than FFOF does and I nearly killed them all for lack of water. Live 'n learn. So, even though it's not the right moon phase to be doing this, I'm going to pop one CBD Cheese & Cream bean and put it in the place of the one Gorilla Glue weakling that I have. It's just too weak and scrawny for me to justify all the time, money 'n energy that goes into a grow. I mean it hasn't budged in days. 4 of the others are 3 X's the size and the 5th is somewhere in-between. I'm thinking I'll keep that 5th one. I'll post pic 'n updates tomorrow.

Well, it's time to Tok up a good buzz...

 

[CBD BudMan]

Many people get confused about the teas, thinking that they need to have this or that in them because of course you need to feed the plants... but all they are really for is to provide microbes. The nutrients in the tea are to cause the correct microbes to grow and the others to die away... but the nutrients are not there in any amount that would be beneficial to the plant. Remember that in an organic grow it is assumed that the needed nutrients are cooked into the soil... you don't need to feed.

Your search for a shortcut in cooking your soil is commendable, but useless. Think about it... if there was a shortcut we would all be using it. There would be no more talk about the need to cook for 3 months. All who have tried to rush the cooking process that ONLY time can make happen, failed at some point in their grow. The compost starter is just that, the microbes and stuff that gets the process going... but no matter how much you put in there, time is the only thing that makes it happen. The dynomyco is fungus and it is extremely useful when building your containers, but it has no function in the composting process. You will be wasting your money by using it in this way.

Good catch on the molasses, and yes, stay away from the sulfured stuff. A word about your pH tests though... test strips don't work on colored fluids. Unfortunately, almost any organic fluid has some color to it, especially a compost tea. There is no way you can get an accurate reading. Get a digital meter if you insist on thinking this is important, but again, outside of making sure something isn't so base or acid that it would physically burn you or your plant, the only reason we worry about pH is so that we can put synthetic nutes into the range where they break free of their salt bonds and become available to the plant. They are shipped in the bottle outside of this range so they don't break apart and start interacting with each other, and adjusting the pH of your watering fluids is how you activate them. In an organic compost tea there simply is not this need to be in any sort of range.

Oh, all the wonderful things I'm learning here... I agree with you 100%, but how do I move forward? I need soil. I have plants growing. I need to do "something". I was just trying to help the soil out, so that even a little help would be better than just using soil that hasn't cooked for 3 months.

I understand about "test strips". I don't use them as I have a pretty good digital meter. I just don't like sticking it into compost tea. I goofed one up that way. All kinds of microbes were growing in it even though I'd rinse it off each time. The bottle of pH solution in the picture comes with a vial. Fill it half full, then 4 drops of the solution, tap the vial and I can easily see the color. It works flawlessly and I'm not ruining an expensive meter (again).

I am more than willing to make these changes. It does seems to me, however, that I've put the cart before the horse here. If I knew these wonderful things ahead of time, I would've started cooking the soil 3 months ago. I simply had no idea. So what do I do now?
********************

Oh wow! It's now morning and I'm finding that I never posted this yesterday. I came back to this 3 times yesterday and thought for sure that I had posted this. God, I hate this C-PTSD stuff! I'll stop there 'cause I don't want to "go down that rabbit hole". Taking a small toke now... Oh... that's so much better... should've done this sooner, LOL.

Well, let's see what the day brings...

 

[Emilya Green]

So what do I do now?

I strongly suggest that you continue to wait on the soil. Supersoil not cooked for 3 months is less than super and oftentimes it will fail you mid grow. But in the meantime while you wait, you could start your grow in regular potting soil, and veg it for 2 months in smaller containers, feeding it with some traditional VEG nutes of some kind. I would suggest @GeoFlora Nutrients for a cheap and still very organic system that will work just fine leading into the supersoil part of this. By the time you get a large plant ready for the flip, the soil should be ready if you time this right, and then in your final container you can use your supersoil and change over to a supersoil method of growing... simply flush all the synthetic nutes out of the previous container before you transplant if you used them, and you will be ready to go.

 

[CBD BudMan]

I strongly suggest that you continue to wait on the soil. Supersoil not cooked for 3 months is less than super and oftentimes it will fail you mid grow. But in the meantime while you wait, you could start your grow in regular potting soil, and veg it for 2 months in smaller containers, feeding it with some traditional VEG nutes of some kind. I would suggest @GeoFlora Nutrients for a cheap and still very organic system that will work just fine leading into the supersoil part of this. By the time you get a large plant ready for the flip, the soil should be ready if you time this right, and then in your final container you can use your supersoil and change over to a supersoil method of growing... simply flush all the synthetic nutes out of the previous container before you transplant if you used them, and you will be ready to go.

I must say @Emilya, coming from such an avid TLS enthusiast like yourself, this was both a shock and rather educational at the same time. I mean that supportively, of course. When I saw this earlier today, I had to step back and really think things over for most of the day. I did my own research and discovered how @GeoFlora Nutrients does things. While I am fully aware that this is not Living Soil, I must say that what I'm reading about @GeoFlora Nutrients , reads far better than I expected.

As I was muling things over throughout the day, I almost decided to simply continue as I have done before with my underbaked soil. After all, it's been working quite well for me for the last two seasons. But I also weighed all of your wisdom around growing these precious plants too. And 2 things came up for me.

1) Coming from you, it's GOTTA mean something... and it must be good or you wouldn't be recommending this. and...

2) Right now I find myself financially strapped for cash. And making all this soil brand new each season is NOT cheap. Plus the fact that I have other obligations and projects around the house that I MUST get done this summer, like replacing the siding on the south side of my house because of water damage and some termites. Plus, doing some work in my kitchen so I can have a dishwasher, among other things. So, going this route, as you are suggesting, would be much easier and cheaper for me this season.

If it wasn't for these things I wouldn't even consider this. Also, I'm now trying to come up with a design for a box, or some such thing, so I can actually turn my future TLS regularly as the Rev and you are saying must be done. This is because I just can't get far enough down into the soil with my shovel using those trash cans.

You've got my head spinning, in a good way...