Gardenfaerie Outdoor Organic Summer 2014 Flux and LST in Ground

gardenfaerie said:
The temps range between 77 and 84. One time it went up to 89, but only for about ten minutes during a test I was doing. I never saw a plant show the underside of its leave to the light like that. Interesting. Once I get the piece of plywood cut I will space the plants better and get them into their final pots. I think I'll go with 7 gallon, but no less than 5. I think I'll order some eco felt and make the pots, but I can't find it cheap enough yet.

Canna, if you are reading this, what did you use to make your pots with?
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Catching up today here Victoria. :) I used Eco Felt. You can get it at any major fabric stores. The basic instructions for the pots is in my signature. Change them up any way you like. The Eco Felt is really holding up well, third grow with plants in them and they show no real wear.
Hope that helps.
:)
 
Cannafan said:
Catching up today here Victoria. :) I used Eco Felt. You can get it at any major fabric stores. The basic instructions for the pots is in my signature. Change them up any way you like. The Eco Felt is really holding up well, third grow with plants in them and they show no real wear.
Hope that helps.
:)
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Random internet fabric store
Eco Felt made from recycled bottles in 19 colors!!
$8/yd:woohoo:
 
I think Eco felt pricing goes up at this time of year because of "costume making" for Halloween. LOL

I got mine at Joann fabrics.
 
You must do all sorts of PH adjusting. But only for cannabis. Its unlike any other plant and requires expensive bottles of NPK, which in turn must be flushed out before harvest. The nice companies make expensive bottles to aid in flushing as well.

JK ha haha, I am on a roll today.

KJC seems quite the expert on diagnosing problems and deficiencies, and I am sure he is on the money with the Leaf twisting and PH fluctuations.

I understand you to be growing your plants in an all natural living soil from your posts I've read. What could be causing PH fluctuations that would cause leaf twisting? I don't think its a big deal at all but now I'm curious. Could you post your soil mix or a link to it if previously posted?

I was wondering if you cooked the mix or not?
 
gardenfaerie said:
Is that saving money to make your own at 8 dollars a yard? I guess I need to know how wide it is. I found one random store online, but didn't like that price. AND, they don't give you how thick it is. I'll go check it out. Again.
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72" / 6' wide. .. how thick the fabric?, I don't know, but I'm assuming structural integrity.

1x2yd is probably three or four 5-gal pots for $8.
 
COorganics said:
You must do all sorts of PH adjusting. But only for cannabis. Its unlike any other plant and requires expensive bottles of NPK, which in turn must be flushed out before harvest. The nice companies make expensive bottles to aid in flushing as well.

JK ha haha, I am on a roll today.

KJC seems quite the expert on diagnosing problems and deficiencies, and I am sure he is on the money with the Leaf twisting and PH fluctuations.

I understand you to be growing your plants in an all natural living soil from your posts I've read. What could be causing PH fluctuations that would cause leaf twisting? I don't think its a big deal at all but now I'm curious. Could you post your soil mix or a link to it if previously posted?

I was wondering if you cooked the mix or not?
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I can't do a link to my mix because they are not sponsors, but the guy who created this mix is a friend of mine and a huge name in the organics community, nation wide. It is called Ladybug Brand Vortex Potting Mix.

Here is the representation:

Vortex™ Potting Soil

High performance formula consisting of a blend of five beneficial compost, mineral sand, expanded shale and perlite. We add Biozome to further increase microbial activity. The Vortex™ Potting Soil is modeled by the research done by the Soil Food Web, Inc. The Vortex™ Potting Soil can be used for all your container gardening needs.

If you should decide to start seeds, please be sure to screen the Vortex due to the expanded shale and mineral sand. You can successfully grow house plants, annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables, citrus, succulents, and cacti in this potting soil. Vortex Potting Soil is compost based and will produce a leachate of compost tea. We recommend that you protect sensitive surfaces from staining.

Ingredients: A blend of five superior compost, Super Natural Expanded Shale, Biozome

Two bag sizes: .5 cu. ft. and 1.5 cu. ft.

To that, I add the appropriate amount of a product called Urban Farms and here is its representation:

BioActive 5-4-4, from Urban Farm Fertilizers, is a professional, handmade organic fertilizer specifically formulated for vegetables and flowers. It contains mycorrhizae and humic acid, which help release more nutrients from soil and aid in drought tolerance. Crab meal contains chitin, a substance documented to combat nematodes.

The Urban Farm Fertilizer Co is a small, family-run business dedicated to the crafting of high-performance fertilizers for the backyard gardener. We began in hydroponics, and have now taken our knowledge of specific plant nutrition and applied it toward the production of highly accurate and balanced fertilizers for soil, containers, and hydroponics.

I use Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed as a foliar spray at half strength, regularly. Humidity is around 50% w/82F, 18/6 under Top Led x2 48*3 panels. I use rainwater which is 6.9 pH.
 
It is a mystery. I took the pH of the soil and it is neutral...well, 6.9 so close and actually quite perfect. I do not check run off and all of that. I will next time I water just to see what happens. I know John is proficient in this and I was not questioning what he said, but I wanted to know how that could happen in a container under such constraints. That is what needs fixing if indeed pH is fluctuating too much.

Tomorrow I'm redoing the closet. I have a better shelf and this and that. Fuss, fuss, fuss!

And Fifi, I discovered today that Mika, the two toothed parrot (that's what I call her beak) was in the pot plants chewing away! I never saw her do that before. Interesting.
 
Plants under LED look great. Defol'g soon? I agree w/ KJC about the pH, but the lights might be pretty intense for new growth. A lil small for 6 weeks. I wonder if raising the lights a tad & little defol wouldn't make them explode?
Very healthy looking though. Nutes seem dialed in.
 
I have the lights about 12 inches above plant tops. Should I move them up more? The plants are small, but they've only been under the LEDs for however long I've had them. Prior to that they were under CFLs. They are really shooting up now fast and the Money Maker is a small plant. Something in the pheno on that one because in or out, ground or container, they all were small. The MM that is.

So, the pH again. How is the pH in a container off or changing around? AND, what do I do about it? Nothing?
 
gardenfaerie said:
How is the pH in a container off or changing around?
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"Plants remove substantial amounts of nutrients from the soil during their normal growth cycle and many long-term environmental changes occur as a result of this process. Effects on the soil go considerably beyond the straight removal or depletion of nutrients. Charge balance must be maintained in the plant-soil system during nutrient uptake. Charge balance is usually achieved by the excretion of proton and/or hydroxyl ions by the plant to replace the absorbed nutrient cations or anions. For example when plants are fertilized with ammonia, they acquire most of their nitrogen in the form of the ammonium cation, rather than from the usual nitrate anion. Because nitrate is the only anion used by the plant in large amounts, the net result of this change is that during normal nutrient uptake the proton excretion will far exceed that of hydroxyl ions. In the case of vigorously growing plants, the amount of excreted protons can be sufficiently large as to decrease the pH of the soil by several pH units. Changes in soil pH of such magnitude can have large implications for a number of soil processes such as soil structure, nutrient availability and leaching of nutrients."

Plant Physiology Online: Symptoms of Deficiency in Essential Minerals
 
I understood every word. I cannot justify or find how it is remotely possible for pH to change in a soil I prepared to withstand the entire life cycle of any plant using every applicable need to provide ample cation and anion exchange, along with nutrients which are not synthetic, thus no ammonia, etc. There are not conditions associated which would cause pH to change that dramatically in soil within a six week period, and actually less because I only transplanted them about 4 weeks ago.

So, back to the drawing board. I haven't noticed any additional twisting or curling over. It's like the leaf is bending in half with the stomata facing the light? Weird. I never saw that before.
 
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