We don't typically get much root mass in the reservoir itself. Maybe a little around the edges but they air prune pretty well.
Colombian Andes Greenhouse SIP CBD Auto Grow
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- #282
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Haha, how'd that THUMB get in there??
That was the Tom Thumb view of the reservoir. Sometimes the bobbledly-sticks do hang up on the roots (and this is still a very young grow, just now going into flower).
Hopefully I will end up getting EVA mats someday (or even just carpet, at this point), and then I can take them off of the heat mats, and put them in drip trays.
Fido is making his rounds, watering all of the hydrants, and the re-greening has begun! (although we are hoping for a wee bit darker color, haha!).
And it was so nice to put training stakes!
Hmmm....
Wait a minute... I can correct the N deficiency with dog water now--but what happens when they get bigger? (Drink more water and take a vitamin pill??)
Or what happens if I grow photos in these buckets?
Either way, I think I should put more N in the remaining Jungle Silica Soil, and re-cook.
That way, I don't have to rely on dog water in the fill tube as a primary source of nitrogen.
So how can I know how much I should modify this recipe?
Subcool’s Super Soil Step-by-Step
There’s nothing that compares to the flavor of properly grown organic pot: The subtle tastes and aromas created by using only “Mother Earth” are overwhelming to the senses when it’s done properly. As with vegetables, a rich organic soil can bring out the best in cannabis. Over the past 20 years...
hightimes.com
The Mix
Here are the amounts we’ve found will produce the best-tasting buds and strongest medicines:- 8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
- 25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
- 5 lbs steamed bone meal
- 5 lbs Bloom bat guano
- 5 lbs blood meal
- 3 lbs rock phosphate
- ¾ cup Epson salts
- ½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
- ½ cup azomite (trace elements)
- 2 tbsp powdered humic acid
(SuperSoil - SubCool's Super Soil 100 Gallon Recipe Mix Package. )
I mixed the whole thing 50-50 with rice hulls, and cooked again.
If that is not enough N, then how much more N do I add to the mix, for the re-cook?
I can easily double the blood meal, if that would make a difference. But would that be good for the early days of the reservoir?
And if the soil is on the acid side of the sweet-spot (pH 6.1), how would I sweeten the soil?
And is there a way to do so that also works for root development?
With the disclaimer that I'm not an organic soil grower:
Buds was suppose to use 2/3 LOS and 1/3 regular soil but he reversed them and his plant ran out of steam.
If you cut your amount of soil in half won't you cut the amount of available nutrients to as well?
Buds was suppose to use 2/3 LOS and 1/3 regular soil but he reversed them and his plant ran out of steam.
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- #284
CBDMed
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Well, with the disclaimer that I am a newbie grower, I checked my supersoil after it was cooked, but before adding the rice hulls.
When damp, it basically flunked the "tilth test". I crushed handful of it with my hand, and it sat there like a hard little lump. It did not fall open when prodded.
That told me that I was greatly lacking aeration.
At that time I was gleaning from Bill 284 and RezDog.
Both of them favor lots of aeration.
RezDog said that for SIPs, you want 60-40 soil and aeration.
I figured that 50-50 rice hulls would compact quickly (they didn't, really), and also decompose over time and leave silica. And they use a lot of them (maybe 1/4-1/3) in the local "black dirt" potting mix, because they are cheap here (and they almost never use Roundup on rice), so I went with it.
I don't think that aerating with rice hulls would diminish nutrients any more than would, say, 50-50 soil-Perlite.
About running out of steam, we will see what I can get these little 5G auto girlies to do.
Probably you guys can coax a LOT more out of a seed than I can, but right now I doubt my girls will look like Buds' trees.
I will be THRILLED if they tap out the pots--but at least so far, except for the nitrogen, I have my doubts, because I have a hard time imagining an auto becoming a small tree, like in Bud's grow.
(I was thinking maybe a 3g SIP would be more suited?? But maybe also wrong??)
If the autos do exhaust the bucket during bloom, I have plenty of liquid bloom fertilizer.
Only, I have a hard time imagining them exhausting the +/- 4G of supersoil that the SIP is packed with!
(But then on the other hand, I had a hard time imagining them exhausting the N in the buckets, too!
So maybe I will be pleasantly surprised?)Also, I was adding molasses to the soil before SIP.
Is there some way to add molasses or other sweetners to the grow, either pre-mixing granulated molasses with the soil?
Or is there any kind of sweetener that can be added to the res?
(Sucralose and NutraSweet are out!! Haha!)
Other than some micronutrients, doesn't molasses mostly feed the microbes until they use it all up? You can always add more molasses if you think they're molasses deficient!
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- #286
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Yeah, but how does one do that in a SIP environment, adding only to the soil, or the fill tube?
I am not sure if they have granulated molasses in country (because they don't complicate anything [even if it would help! Haha.]).
I could add it to the res, but is that advisable??
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
what is your N source in that mix? does the fert come with NPK on the label?
Well, that's the thing about designer soils. They follow a recipe. Once you deviate from the recipe you change the results and you're pretty much on your own. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad thing, just that you have to work it out on your own.
Again, what does Subcool recommend?
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- #289
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Oohhhh, good question!
I looked it up, It is blood meal. But here my blood meal is not organic! So it could hypothetically have whatever in it (although most cows are allowed to range here, in the traditional natural sense).
Ay ay ay!! I wonder if I can find organic!! (Prolly not!)
What other sources of N are organic, and don' potentially contain stuff Reggae Shark no want in his intakes, mon?
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- #290
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Siiii....
Well, it looks like Subcool recommends bloodmeal.
I took a look at my bloodmeal, and it is not certified organic.
Most cows aren't "McDonald's cows" here, rather, most of them wander in farmer's fields by day, and are corralled up at night.
Too bad there's not really any way to know.
About departing from recipes, I wondered if you might have some thoughts that you might like to share on the following, which recommends substitutes and departures from Subcool, on each ingredient.
Regarding N:
- 5 lbs blood meal - More slaughterhouse waste and sure to be unclean. Why use the blood from McDonalds cows when you can add nitrogen so easily through alfalfa meal, fish meal and or worm castings. Show your soil some better love.
Super Soil Mix Perfected - A Closer Look At The Super Soil Recipe
Subcool's Super Soil was something that gave me good results to begin with, but a closer look at the recipe and some research of my own, there's definitely a better solution. Let's breakdown The Super Soil recipe.
buildasoil.com
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
Looks like blood meal is NPK 12-0-0, same as feather meal. Both are byproducts of the slaughterhouse. The dog water is 11-2-4 in concentrated form. The high-N bat guano that I use is 7-3-1. Fox Farm GROW BIG is 6-4-4, and the N is from ammonium and potassium nitrate (chemical form, not organic).
I don't think it's a problem to mix in other N sources, provided you aren't throwing the pH outta whack.
I don't think it's a problem to mix in other N sources, provided you aren't throwing the pH outta whack.
Jeremy knows his stuff. I've seen that article before and his comments make sense to me. I agree with the slaughterhouse issues as we've discussed before and, since I'm using it for medicine, I like my product to be as organic as it can be.
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- #293
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Good information, thank you!
I really like the idea of mixing all the nutrition into the soil, and then just adding water, and making any adjustments that need to get made.
I don't mind adding dog water when needed, but it would be nice to try to adjust the N so that the dog water is a backup.
I noticed that Buds Buddy needed to add N, and Azi said he needed to add N. Does anyone have a guess what percentage of N has to get augmented? (I would have a hard time trying to estimate the quantity of N from the volume of dog water applied over time, although I am sure someone will set up an equation, and try to figure it out! Lol.)
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- #294
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I am brand new to Jeremy, but I bookmarked his page, and hope to come back to it as I get time (joke).
I also want all my inputs to be as clean and organic as possible, but short term I live in a world of compromises.
Long term we want to slaughter our own animals, and the slaughterhouse products in that scenario should be organic and clean.
I have feelers out for a 25kg sack of kelp (or other human-edible seaweed).
In the meantime I've just got to do the best I can. (I think we are all kind of in that same boat.)
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- #295
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
A BIG thank you to everyone for all of your help!
This is one of the older girls who is recovering nicely with the dog water. Her green color is for the most part back (with a few straggler older leaves).
EDIT: I looked this up, and it said N and heat sress are the usual suspects.
I am back on deadline, but I got the EVA foam yesterday, and hopefully I can redo the grow room in 2-3 days.
In the meantime, the girls are off to the races with "Gatorade", so it will have to wait.
In the meantime, they are all still growing!
This is one of the older girls who is recovering nicely with the dog water. Her green color is for the most part back (with a few straggler older leaves).
EDIT: I looked this up, and it said N and heat sress are the usual suspects.
I am back on deadline, but I got the EVA foam yesterday, and hopefully I can redo the grow room in 2-3 days.
In the meantime, the girls are off to the races with "Gatorade", so it will have to wait.
In the meantime, they are all still growing!
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
I think worm castings can often be very low in nitrogen, NPK 1-0-0. In some cases, maybe up to 5-X-X. What I have read from the experts is that worm castings are not a good source for macro-nutrients; however, they are great for other reasons... microbes, humates, fulvates, micro-nutrients, enzymes.
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- #297
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Hmmm.....
I dunno, but it sez here that NPK can vary widely, depending on what they ate....
>> "Worm castings are rich in micronutrients, containing iron, sulfur, magnesium, zinc, copper and calcium. They also provide macronutrients and have a nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) ratio of 1-0-0 to 5-5-3. The NPK value is widely variable and dependent on what the worms were feeding on and how the material has been stored."
Composting Series: Worm Castings
A Composting Series fact sheet about worm castings.
lsuagcenter.com
Which is completely unhelpful unless you know which yours is!
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- #299
CBDMed
Well-Known Member
Siiii.... is there perhaps a cheap and easy way to test? (
)
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
You should be able to calculate N based on the particular recipe of the supersoil, and also account for your modifications. Do you know the recipe of the supersoil you are using?Siiii.... is there perhaps a cheap and easy way to test? (