Conradino23 Keeps On Keeping On Outdoor & Indoor Using LOS/High Brix Methods

[Conradino23]

I've said that before and I'll prolly say it again next summer or maybe here in a few weeks.

Organic soil - most things easier but Its all relative. Only method I know so hard to compare.

Can run soil indefinitely with amendments. If you have a large enough container you can treat it like a vermi-compost bin. I see guys running 200 gal + bins of soil on tables with wheels.

I have raised beds outside - same soil for 20 years still growing strong. Little or no amendments.

I've been using this same soil I'm in now since 2016. I'm going to send out for a soil test and see what if anything I need to amend and what was actually used up. I tested it before I started using it so I have a baseline to compare. Not scientific but give me a good idea.

Organic soil doesn’t go bad or expire if you treat it right. The only problem are diminishing nutrients over time, but this is easy to put under control with top dressings and occasional amendments, mainly Ca, Mg, K and P.

Don't you get undesireable salt buildup? My understanding is that regular flushing is necessary to keep soil from getting contaminated by unwanted salts. That's a natural process outside, but inside, we have to do it manually if we don't drench to runoff.

You can’t get salt buildup if you don’t use salts, so I’d only care about it being on synthetic regimen. But even with more conventional method of growing you can boost microlife to eat the excess of salts if things go bad. Difficult, but not impossible.

When you get your soil tested, do you have to tell them what you'll be growing, or does their info suggest that all soils should be identical to grow all plants? I'm curious to know more about having soil tested and what kinds of information you get back from the labs.

Nope that’s the beauty of it. You send a sample with any generic label and once the results get back to you, you work on imbalance adding this or that. For soilless mixes rate of nutrients is different though, so you should include that info on the label, so lab knows it.

Yes they ask and my reply is "flower garden". I name my tests "raised bed 1" "raised bed 2" and so on. We actually have raised beds outdoors.

No unless you are talking about watering to run off. I do that regularly. It works amazing. But then all the water disappears over night.

The rule of thumb for LOS soil is balanced use. Understand that everything your plants need is already there, so cut down your fertilisation to minimum. I usually don’t fertilise mote than 4 times throughout the grow and with an average cycle that takes 16 weeks, that’s an application of something once in 4 weeks. But mostly I get to boost the soil in flowering. In veg it’s just this or that tea or a mix of both once, which works for me.

However more difficult cultivars will happen! My Bubbas for example posed a bit of a challenge with their insatiable appetite, but if my environment were better that wouldn’t be probably that difficult, so fertilising can be also cut down by handling the temps, RH and ventilation. With the right strain it’s like riding a bike imo, cause most of the problems stem from genetics. Even pests pressure can be squashed with the right practise and I mean prevention, but genetics is hard to circumnavigate.

 

[NorCaliwood]

Azamite/ rock dust... it's got all the minerals growing kids need,,, Suppose to be great stuff in a LOS type gardens, when plants draw heavy every grow on certain ones. And can even deplete soil of something anyways Recharge.

Drive-by

 

[Conradino23]

Yeah azomite, lava rock dust or similar type of grinded mineral will fix your rare minerals deficit when you cook that soil for the first time. I add about 200 g per 10 kg of soil and it’s usually enough for a few runs.

 

[NorCaliwood]

I am planning to switch to organics after a few more harvests. I am under the impression that if the soil is properly amended between rounds and given some down time for the microbes to break down roots, organics and the elements, the soil can can be recycled many times (indefinitely?). If this is true, and because I now mix my own nutrients from salts, I believe if I accumulate enough peat moss, I can make my own Faux Mix (Pro Mix) and amend it to any of the popular soil amendment products on the market as the Guaranteed Analysis (GA) tells me all that I need to know in terms of elemental percentage and products used to achieve such percentages. That said Woody, I'd like to see a picture of that Axamite's GA product you speak of. I'm curious to know if it's more proper to use chelated metals or is complex sulfates cool to use as well, and also what elemental ratios are used successfully.

AZOMITE Natural Trace Mineral Products

 

[NorCaliwood]

I read the list of what's in that shit. Got to be a 100 materials in it.

 

[NorCaliwood]

Hey they even got it in granulated form. Bet that shit sticks around for awhile?? Be great to work in a outdoor plot in you plan on returning for another go. It's like taking your vitamins,, do they work??? 4 outta 5 say. JK

 

[Skybound]

I read the list of what's in that shit. Got to be a 100 materials in it.

After a couple mins cruising their site, this is the closest I can find to an elements list, it looks great for CalMag BTW, but I can't find the list of exotic trace elements.

AZOMITE Natural Trace Mineral Products

Grow everything better, naturally with AZOMITE. A natural source for soil remineralization, 30 million years in the making.

azomite.com

 

[Skybound]

I think this is the right one. LMK if it's the wrong label.

https://www.azomiteinternational.com/resources/coa.pdf

 

[Conradino23]

That’s the one. You should only worry about keeping potassium in place, cause there’s 5% in there, but a lot of this stuff is missing from coco/peat mixes even after adding EWC. It’ll also give you enough boron, which is an element cannabis should always have in soil. Have you been thinking about the base?

 

[Skybound]

That’s the one. You should only worry about keeping potassium in place, cause there’s 5% in there, but a lot of this stuff is missing from coco/peat mixes even after adding EWC. It’ll also give you enough boron, which is an element cannabis should always have in soil. Have you been thinking about the base?

I was looking at Faux Mix which is a DIY ProMix for about $40 to make 4cu.ft. I didn't know EWC had micros in it, but that's good I suppose. This Azomite stuff has a very wide variety of exotic trace elements, stuff that I search the web hard for as I wanted to try adding some of it into my micro blend, but I was only able to track down the 6 most basic micros. I can add B on top of the Azomite if need be, as well as Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and Mo.

How many plants can one grow in the amended 3.8 cu.ft. of soil? I want to run 9 perpetually in 1-2 week intervals to keep the harvests steady and the trimming light. I'll have to gather supplies, then mix and store while running out the hydro and building the new space.

 

[Conradino23]

I’d have to convert to metric, so maybe someone else could answer that

 

[Morglie]

Is that compressed cubic feet? I'm used to dealing with a compressed bale of promix that's that size. I can get 8-10 5 gallon buckets worth out of that amount. If it's uncompressed, I'm thinking about 3-4. It depends on your pot size as well though. I use 5 gallon buckets, but I've seen it suggested to go to at least 7 or more in soil to be able to keep a healthy microbe population. It can be done obviously, in smaller pots, although it can be more challenging.

 

[Skybound]

60cm x 60cm x 30cm

 

[Skybound]

Is that compressed cubic feet? I'm used to dealing with a compressed bale of promix that's that size. I can get 8-10 5 gallon buckets worth out of that amount. If it's uncompressed, I'm thinking about 3-4. It depends on your pot size as well though. I use 5 gallon buckets, but I've seen it suggested to go to at least 7 or more in soil to be able to keep a healthy microbe population. It can be done obviously, in smaller pots, although it can be more challenging.

I have 4 - 7gal air pots, but I was planning to get 10 or 15 gal fabric pots. 8-10 big buckets from one bale is a lot. That's what I was asking, but damn, I didn't think there was that much stuffed in there. Will a bale fit into a 50gal drum?

 

[Conradino23]

In metric I get 110 L/kg of stuff with this volume. But you have to add amendments to that and they can get roughly to 40% of the current volume, so about 155 L in total I guess maybe even 160 L. 7 gallon is about 26,5 L, so you’d get 6-7 full pots in the end roughly.

 

[dr.h00k]

...I get nine 5 gallons(Plastic pails) or six 7 gallon fabric pots...that;s adding 30#'s of EWC and other amendments...Using the "kit", I went with one plastic 15 and three fabric 10's...cheerz... ...h00k...... oh...will fit in that 55 drum, but a large tote is easier to work with...

 

[Graytail]

How many plants can one grow in the amended 3.8 cu.ft. of soil? I want to run 9 perpetually in 1-2 week intervals to keep the harvests steady and the trimming light. I'll have to gather supplies, then mix and store while running out the hydro and building the new space.

It'll get you 40+ gallons of soil. You could do nine at 5 gallons apiece.


[Edit] ... like everyone else said.

 

[bobrown14]

I’d have to convert to metric, so maybe someone else could answer that

I run 1 plant per cubic foot which is 7.5 gallons of soil already mixed.

I can run in 4 gallons but the yields are always 1/2 of a 7.5gal container.

Takes up the same floor footprint so I try and use the 7.5gal size most of the time.

In soil, bigger is usually better. Lots of folks running LOS in much larger containers than I do.

I get away with decent yields cause I have automated watering. There was a test done and reported on recently that automated watering increase yields 20% - that was in a professional grow op in Oregon.
They ran a side by side everything the same in organic soil. Hand watered vs bluemats (I think). This was a pro grow so paid employees doting over plants all day long hand watering.

 

[Skybound]

Did the automated watering run off digi timers? I would think a mech timer @15 min intervals would be way too much for a soil pot. If need be, I can dust off the Arduino and some relay strips and program feedings in fractions of a gallon as needed. Did you try automated times bob?

 

[Conradino23]

I run 1 plant per cubic foot which is 7.5 gallons of soil already mixed.

I can run in 4 gallons but the yields are always 1/2 of a 7.5gal container.

Takes up the same floor footprint so I try and use the 7.5gal size most of the time.

In soil, bigger is usually better. Lots of folks running LOS in much larger containers than I do.

I get away with decent yields cause I have automated watering. There was a test done and reported on recently that automated watering increase yields 20% - that was in a professional grow op in Oregon.
They ran a side by side everything the same in organic soil. Hand watered vs bluemats (I think). This was a pro grow so paid employees doting over plants all day long hand watering.

How much water do you set per plant a day? Every day or you give them a break? I don’t like to keep the soil wet all the time even in bloom, not that great for sugar production. I just water more frequently. Some plants are not that water friendly though... like Bubbas for example They’ll refuse to take big amounts of water. Just now I’ve finished saturating the pots over 2 days giving small amounts in the morning and in the evening. Well they seem to be back on track, so now I can start finishing them dry.