Emmie's Organic Garden Using Advanced Lighting Techniques

(flower, day 21) [lights at 10.5/13.5]


Today we have started a whole new phase of this grow, now armed with much more information as to how an organic grow is supposed to go. I received The Rev's book, True Living Organics, and totally devoured the information contained there on my first pass through, and realized some major mistakes that I have made so far in this round.

I have learned that I have certainly ruined the 20 gallons of soil that I am now using, but that is ok... I have another 30 gallons of super soil cooking in the other room. Not knowing what to do, I saved my plants from starvation using synthetic nutes, but now it is clear that the downside of that action is that salts are now a part of the container environment. Since there is salt in there, as soon as the soil begins to dry out, the salt effectively dries out all of my microlife too, and with each wet/dry cycle, my entire microherd dies.

It seems however, that this problem is not insurmountable. I can save this current grow, and finish it out as an organic grow... I just have to realize what has happened, and with each watering, replace the entire microherd. I have ordered a strong air pump to be able to brew my own compost teas, and with the last watering last night, I started to be a lot smarter about what I am doing.

First of all, I changed my water. Tap water is no longer going to work, and no longer is allowed in Emmie's garden. Purified water is now being shipped in, without any chlorine products in it that kill off my beneficial bacteria and microlife. I have also learned that FoxFarms BigBloom is very good stuff, mostly bat guano and worm castings, and meeting OMRI standards. I used the last of what I had on hand last night in my watering, along with a good dose of molasses to feed the herd. I am also already brewing more of this mix for the next watering, and will continue to do so, adding new (alive) microlife with each watering till the end of this grow. The clones and new seeds being prepared in the other tent will never see a synthetic nute and from now on no more chlorine. As soon as the pump arrives, they will also be getting their first injection of active microlife.

Last night I also top dressed my containers with some good 2 month cooked supersoil. This morning, it was clear that the plants liked what they got at their virtual sunrise. Here is what I saw when I got up this morning, right after lights off:

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Things are definitely progressing in Emmie's garden and I am learning fast about this organic thing. I think I am even going to start up an indoor worm farm eventually to help feed this living soil that I am creating. I am also going to buy another big gallon of Big Bloom, probably the only commercial nute that will ever hit my plants again.

Be well everyone, may your garden be an interesting one.
 
Look at how happy they are! Thank you so much, Emilya, for sharing everything that's happening in a true spirit of discovery and experimentation. I've been so impressed by the advice you offer other growers throughout this community, because it's rooted in a deep desire to learn as much as you can and share it generously.
 
I love it! The girls are just wonderful. I feel that you did what you had to do at the time and the results show it. Our gardens are an evolving work in progress and it is a just a progression of learning. I just had a moment of truth counting back all the mistakes I made this grow so far. It is very freeing to admit them in front of all my subscribers and realize that admitting them means next time it is going to be even better!
I like the Rev's book and plan on getting some of his seeds. His KOS (Kingdom Organic Seeds) Dark Matter looks like a great strain to me as well as Boggle Dragon. I may combine and get their offspring Dark Dragon. Growing organic it is a good idea to get seeds that are bred on organic soil. So getting the Rev's seeds is a good way to ensure that the plants will grow well in TLO soil. They were born to do it! I have to check and see if any of our sponsors sell KOS.
 
:ciao: Emilya! Hope you don't mind if I sub up and read a little later. I hear from MagicJim you have interesting things going on here.
Looks right up my alley. :)

:circle-of-love:
 
Cannafan said:
:ciao: Emilya! Hope you don't mind if I sub up and read a little later. I hear from MagicJim you have interesting things going on here.
Looks right up my alley. :)
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Thanks for looking in! I am finding it interesting too!

supergroomer said:
Good Morning Emilya. I hope you don't mind me stopping by. MagicJim was saying in the coffee shop that you were doing things with your lighting schedule. I hope it's ok if I tag along and watch. :) :peace:
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The more the merrier SuperGroomer! Yes, I am learning some exciting things about lighting this round... first I will probably use the 12-1 or Gas Lantern Routine from now on, it was so successful...

And now this sliding lighting pattern simulating nature is also proving to be very interesting, as well as is the addition of the second light for 3 hours a day. I was shocked to see the wet/dry cycle change again this week to 2 days instead of 3 in 5 gallon buckets... taking on all the characteristics of growing under very big lights. The lights right now are on 10.5/13.5 at day 25 of bloom.
 
I'll have to sub along as I loves playing with lighting schedules myself :)
 
Hey Emmie, I finally made it. :laughtwo: I'll catch up on the back pages later, but I wanted to snag a seat in this room that's quickly filling up with all my friends. I'm on vacation now, so it may be a few days before I catch up. You mentioned something about soil concerns? I'll start to reading up tomorrow, after I get my friend past the recovery of the angioplasty.

You have some impressive plants growing here.

It's good to finally get to your grow. I've heard good things girl. :Love:
 
well sue, I went into this organic grow with great expectations, but with my learning curve still way down at the bottom. I got to the 1st week of bloom just fine, but then the nutritional needs changed to more complex requirements, and I had neglected to understand the importance of the microherd and had not done one thing to establish it. Of course, because of this, my plants began to starve to death... it was obvious what was happening with all 4 plants rapidly yellowing from the bottom, and I freaked... and ended up heavily dosing my plants with the Jack's duo to keep them alive.

That worked, and the plants showed very strong growth with the strong nutrients, but I knew that I had just shot myself in both feet... I now had salts stuck in my soil. So here we are today, hoping that I can now turn this around and get it back working like a true organic soil. I have learned about teas, and thanks to The Rev's book I have 3 or 4 recipes for teas for various phases of the grow. I have ordered a good 793 gph air pump that will arrive on Friday. Yesterday I drove to the big city and spent over $200 at the hydro/grow store on things I needed for my teas, and got some more good stuff too... 7gal smart pots for the next run, a big bag of earthworm castings, alfalfa and kelp meals, ancient forest humus, liquid seaweed, both kinds of bat guano, Great White mycorrhizae, a couple of big bags of Roots Organic soil... I should be set for the rest of the winter.

For now, and for watering tomorrow, I have been brewing my first true tea (not counting the big bloom bubble I did earlier in the week) but I know I don't have enough air going through this bucket yet. I have added all the good stuff and assume that there will be at least some active microlife in this tea by tomorrow night, and indeed, even with just a medium sized aquarium pump and 3 big airstones, it is bubbling up nicely... just not like I see in the pictures of what a true brew should look like. This brew now also has lots of nutrients in it too, so I am hoping that it will make the plants happy while we work harder on getting a true colony in there.

I think that I understand that with the salts left over from the synthetic nutes, every time I let my soil dry out, the micro life contained there will die. I am attempting to water more often, making certain that the core of the rootball never fully dries out, and I plan on hitting this grow with a fresh batch of AACT each week until the end.

My question to the more experienced in these things is this: am I wasting my efforts here? Should I just continue with synthetic nutes on this run, or can it be saved? Anyone out there have experience in this, in saving an organic grow that stepped over to the salty side? Time will tell I guess... but I refuse to just keep throwing synthetics at this highly enriched soil if I can help it.

Any and all comments are welcome... I am a complete newb when it comes to organics.
 
My best recomendation would be to get yourself over to the soil discussion thread in my signature and hand this dilemma over to the talented and knowledgable men who work those pages. I can tell you that if you can return the Great White do so. It's a self-defeating step for you. It contains a broad spectrum of myco, including ones that will eat up the very ones you want in the soil. Eventually your beneficial myco will establish themselves, but not before they are pushed close to elimination. That's the crib sheet version of what will happen.

I wish I'd found you before you spent all that money Emmie. Could have saved you some expense, in all likelihood. Please take my advice and ask those talented cultivators that grace my thread with their expertise. I'm a newbie myself, to be honest. I was lucky enough to find the Clackamas Coot's recipe just as I was beginning my first grow. It's an excellent recipe for no-till gardening and eliminates any concerns for deficiencies. I built my soil using a kit from my favorite soil-building supplier, intending to study the components and learn how to build from scratch. Then my husband died and I've been in survival mode ever since, which left little focus for that project. It's one of my goals for the next year.

It's entirely possibly a thorough flush and a recharge can save your soil. I simply am not the person to be able to answer that question authoritatively.
 
Its to my understanding that microheards simply hibernate in dry conditions, soon as soil is re wetted they spring back to life.

And Em.. If i can do it so can you! Im confidant you can save this round without synthetic crap. (i dont even have half the goodies you just purchased..you can do this!)

Also, im very confused about the airpump action. I have the smallest/cheapest i could find, i think it does its job quite well. Tho, im only brewing 1-2gal at a time..?

Edit, think im with sue. A good flushing should remove the majority of salts. Unfortunately probably a good anount of microbs too, but their easily replaceable (again to my limited knowledge) bubbling molasses only, for 24hrs is a sufficient way of re-adding the herd. Add a bit of compost for many more..
 
DankWolf907 said:
Its to my understanding that microheards simply hibernate in dry conditions, soon as soil is re wetted they spring back to life.

And Em.. If i can do it so can you! Im confidant you can save this round without synthetic crap. (i dont even have half the goodies you just purchased..you can do this!)

Also, im very confused about the airpump action. I have the smallest/cheapest i could find, i think it does its job quite well. Tho, im only brewing 1-2gal at a time..?

Edit, think im with sue. A good flushing should remove the majority of salts. Unfortunately probably a good anount of microbs too, but their easily replaceable (again to my limited knowledge) bubbling molasses only, for 24hrs is a sufficient way of re-adding the herd. Add a bit of compost for many more..
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The molasses does nothing but feed the bacteria in the soil. It adds no life at all, other than what may have fallen in. Negligible. A small handful of vermicompost or earthworm castings with molasses added, is the best way to reintroduce micro herd.
 
SweetSue said:
The molasses does nothing but feed the bacteria in the soil. It adds no life at all, other than what may have fallen in. Negligible. A small handful of vermicompost or earthworm castings with molasses added, is the best way to reintroduce micro herd.
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Thats not what i read, at all!,lemme see if i can find that read again:nomo:
..damn ive done so much reading n sesrching. Cant even remember what search pulled this info up.

Edit. Mkay my searching has been interrupted, and i havent found what i wanted yet. Go with Sues words..for now..

Sue, explain why molasses with water thats NOT bubbled lasts 4-6days, when bubbled its gone bad after 24hrs. Air going into the water adds microbs, when left for longer then 24hrs not being aerated, they breed/multiply/convert/make my water go bad...(this is my understanding)
 
I do remember from my reading that the molasses only feeds the herd... feed the herd, they feed the plants.

I have thrown a handful of earthworm castings as well as a handful of the ancient humus into the mix, along with high p and high n bat guano, a dry organic 5-5-5 fert, kelp meal and molasses to feed what comes out of all this. I am convinced that I am on the right track with this... but I am always finding that I convince too easily when it comes to my own skills.

The questions on my mind tonight, and which will be repeated on Sue's thread when I get some responses are first:

it looks like I need to flush and I hate the idea of flushing out some of the good stuff in my super soil, but if it is going to be mandatory to do this to fix my mess, so be it. My question at that point is what sort of damage would I do if I flushed in the bathtub with chlorinated water... if I follow up with RO or better yet an AACT to 20% additional runoff, will this flush the chlorine?

Second question is how fast does the microlife get going? Is it immediate or is there a ramp up time when the herd is breaking down the raw elements, before the feeding circle can be completed? I think with these extremely rich teas I will be ok even if there is a ramp up time, but then again, there I go thinking again. :)
 
This is the definitive authority on teas. Familiarize yourself with this invaluable resource for organic gardeners.

Microbe Organics
 
SweetSue said:
This is the definitive authority on teas. Familiarize yourself with this invaluable resource for organic gardeners.

Microbe Organics
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Thanks to the earlier reference to this link in your soil thread I have already devoured that site and several others, and recently read The Rev's book through and through... still have my questions though. :) It's the way I am... always wanting more.

Also Sue, sorry to hear about all the personal drama in your life these days... I send light and love in your direction. :Love:
 
Emilya said:
I do remember from my reading that the molasses only feeds the herd... feed the herd, they feed the plants.

I have thrown a handful of earthworm castings as well as a handful of the ancient humus into the mix, along with high p and high n bat guano, a dry organic 5-5-5 fert, kelp meal and molasses to feed what comes out of all this. I am convinced that I am on the right track with this... but I am always finding that I convince too easily when it comes to my own skills.

The questions on my mind tonight, and which will be repeated on Sue's thread when I get some responses are first:

it looks like I need to flush and I hate the idea of flushing out some of the good stuff in my super soil, but if it is going to be mandatory to do this to fix my mess, so be it. My question at that point is what sort of damage would I do if I flushed in the bathtub with chlorinated water... if I follow up with RO or better yet an AACT to 20% additional runoff, will this flush the chlorine?

Second question is how fast does the microlife get going? Is it immediate or is there a ramp up time when the herd is breaking down the raw elements, before the feeding circle can be completed? I think with these extremely rich teas I will be ok even if there is a ramp up time, but then again, there I go thinking again. :)
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It's easy to overdo the teas. You, my dear, have fallen victim to a common belief that more is better, when in fact, with compost teas the opposite is really the way to go. The link to Tim's site will answer this question for you.

To answer the second part, it can take as long as three to four months to establish a healthy myco population, and they're the most important part of the equation, IMHO. That's why it's important to avoid adding competing types. The other members of the micro herd establish more quickly.
 
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