Hi mate.
Ive came over as i saw you won the journal of the month competition. Very well done.
So i went to page 1 and sae this journal was started in 2015 and over 100 pages long. I just dont have the time to read through 100 pages. So this is very rude but i have no idea on your set up, what you grow in or anything really lol. I know its on me to read that info and i will go back a dozen or so pages and flick tbrough. Ive always found it difficult to involve myself in journals that i havent seen from the beginning. I dont follow lots of journals these days as i have quite a busy schedule and sometimes i struggle to make sure my own pages are getting the updates required. However i have mad a concious decision to try involve myself in other peoples journals to both share my knoledge and get a feel for what everyone else does, i can get quite wrapped up in my own work sometimes and dont have patience with other growers and im trying to fix that.
Would you mind giving me a brief description of what you are doing, id be grateful as it will save me alot of reading. I know iys a little rude to ask as the info is there but im interested in what you are doing.
Thankyou.
First off happy new year.... thanks for stopping by. Just look at the pictures as far back as you feel like.. I like looking at the pictures I think its the best part!
Everybody does things a little different as far a growing techniques go I think.
I can give a brief description for sure
Lighting is all Timber Vero 29 V7 Cobs - I've got 12 of em in a 8x5 space 10 are 3K and 2 are 1750K - they are on one side only and give some of the pics that orange color. Jury still out on the 1750s - pulling about 1250 watts at the wall. Including fans.
Soil - organic soil - "Coots" style.... Clackamas Coots soil mix... it's a recipe of sorts
Water - filtered reverse osmosis into a 70gal reservoir
Containers are AutoPot XL - 7.5gal (1 cu ft) - automated watering system, waters from the btm up, plants drink as much water as they want.
soil mix is:
1/3 Peat moss - Canadian... I use the cheapest I can find that's from Canada. I don't use ProMix its over priced I do use the same exact product from the same company Premier that also make ProMix... not that ProMix isn't good, it is but its $40 where I live and the Premier is $10, same stuff.
1/3 Aeration - I use Perl-lite
1/3 Hummus - this is where the goodness comes from. We make our own Vermicompost. We have 2 bins in rotation, we fill one all growing season and harvest the other one all growing season to include outdoor and indoor gardening.
So the hummus portion is about 2/3 vermicompost and 1/3 worm castings we get from our local forest (harvest our own or store bought depending on timing). If we use the "wild" castings, the soil mix will have a lot of worms in it eventually. They will be the European Night Crawlers - those big ones folks like to use for fishing. In our Vermicompost bins we have both the Euros and the red wigglers. The Euros dig deeper and the red wigglers stay close to the surface. Both make their way into the soil mix....
Then a list of amendments - this gets mixed into the soil when mixing and also will add a cup of this and a cup of EWC at up-pot.
We run #3 nursery pots in VEG for 6 weeks or so then up-pot and amend to the 7.5gal final pots and into flower
Amendment mix - this is where "Coots" comes in and the person I got this mix from - credit goes to Coots and this mix can be purchased at several online stores as well as many nurseries on the west coat USA or buy ingredients and mix your own:
Per cubic foot of soil mix:
Malted Barley 1/2 cup
Crustacean Meal - (aka crab meal/Lobster meal/shrimp meal) - 1/2 cup
Kelp Meal - 1/2 cup
Neem Cake - 1/2 cup
Karanja Cake - 1/2 cup
Basalt 2 cups
Gypsum - 1 cup
Oyster Shell Flour - 1 cup
I only recommend substituting the Basalt IF I was going to sub.... it's para-magnetic rock so sub appropriately. When we were working on this recipe - we tried a bunch of different rock dusts. Ended up with the Basalt ....its cheap but can use what's available locally.
Apply at a rate of 2 cups amendment mix per cubic foot of soil mix and 1 cup at up-pot after the first round.
1 cubic foot = 7.5 gallons
This Soil mix will last in containers a few years so I would say 8 runs then I re-cycle it and do another mix. At up-pot I take about 1/2 of the container of soil out and put in a bin to use later.
To the hole I add in mycos - 3 different types and a cup of EWC - loosely mix the mycos and the EWC:
1tsp of VAM, 1 tsp of Sustainable Agricultural Technologies Endo Mycorrhizae, 1tbs of Mykes brand Mycorrhizae
put in the new root ball from the #3 nursery pot - on top of the EWC/mycos mix and pour a cup of the amendment mix around the root ball mixed in with some soil from the large tote I use for extra soil. Fill in around the root ball with soil from my tote that is the soil mix above.
Top water and into flower in the base of the Auto-Pot system.
IPM is part of my routine
IPM Recipe:
Weekly I spray all plants with:
1gal water
1 tbs - Monterrey Garden spray (spinosad) - 2-3 tbs IF I have mites... and I usually do in the spring.
1/4 cup of Horsetail Fern Tea (can water this in as well)
1/4 cup of Kelp Tea - sometimes I make it from Kelp meal or make a mix from Maxi-Crop I use both
1 tsp - Pro-Tekt - Silica
1 cap full of Fulpower (fulvic acid - organic)
Spray plants top to btm and btm to top and do it again.
Early on I will make an ACT - aerated compost tea with 1cup of EWC and 1/2 cup of Kelp Meal.... I don't usually add BSM but it's good to add to your ACT to feed the micro-organsms. I use a professional size air pump ( Elemental 951 GPH Air Pump) not an aquarium pump. The name of the game here is disolved oxygen - we can't get enough of that will a small aquarium pump in a 5 gal bucket of water.... maybe in 2 gal is OK for a smaller pump.
I'll make 4-5 gallons of ACT - I don't use it all in the containers. We have outdoor gardens so a cup or 2 per container, the rest goes outside.
Can spruce up the ACT with a 1/4 cup of alfalfa meal... some compost if you have it... I've been adding in 1 oz of ground Malted Barley instead of molasses.
So summary:
Make compost... you can purchase this - coast of main lobster compost is good. Nothing beats home made and it's good practice and sustainable.
mix soil - can cook it but it's really ready to go. I usually top dress the mix with some Bokashi and let that sit for a week or so and ready to go....
Seedlings and/or cuts --> #3 nursery pots --> up-pot to final 7.5 gal container + mycos & amendments --> into flower and repeat
No-til organic soil - RO water
Very little work is actually done here. Mostly all I do it take pictures and post them here and look for evidence of pests.
...cheerz...h00k...
