In The Lab

Doc Bud (on my thread) said:
If possible, it's best to use at least half of a bale of Promix to cook. Smaller portions just don't work quite right.
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With winter approaching, I am planning for how to cook and store soil.

Currently, I don't have a room temperature place to store that much soil. The main basement is 50-55 in the winter. Everyplace else except the main house and grow areas are cooler.

The basement just outside my grow areas is currently 65-70 degrees.


Could I cook a bale or two of soil at room temperatures and store it at 50-ish degrees all winter?

Alternatively, can I store the cooked soil in multiple 10-15 gallon totes at grow room temperatures (65-80) before use?
 
Radogast said:
With winter approaching, I am planning for how to cook and store soil.

Currently, I don't have a room temperature place to store that much soil. The main basement is 50-55 in the winter. Everyplace else except the main house and grow areas are cooler.

The basement just outside my grow areas is currently 65-70 degrees.


Could I cook a bale or two of soil at room temperatures and store it at 50-ish degrees all winter?

Alternatively, can I store the cooked soil in multiple 10-15 gallon totes at grow room temperatures (65-80) before use?
Click to expand...

I like the 65-70 degree environment....larger masses of soil generate their own heat, so it seems to work better. If you store it in the cooler environment, let it dry out a bit and then a week before it's time to use, water with warm water and keep the bin warm for a week.

Great questions. :thanks:
 
Doc Bud said:
I like the 65-70 degree environment....larger masses of soil generate their own heat, so it seems to work better. If you store it in the cooler environment, let it dry out a bit and then a week before it's time to use, water with warm water and keep the bin warm for a week.

Great questions. :thanks:
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Thanks for all your support. I have a plan in my brain now :)
 
a little input on cooking, (non brix, but still notable)

I mixed up a batch of organic soil and had it in the shed this spring and temps rarely hit 80
Nice hairy stuff covered the soil. The plant I put in that did very well.

That same soil in the shed a few weeks later where temps were in the 80's ad 90's,
No hairy stuff and the plant I put in that it did terrible.
 
Hash Hound said:
a little input on cooking, (non brix, but still notable)

I mixed up a batch of organic soil and had it in the shed this spring and temps rarely hit 80
Nice hairy stuff covered the soil. The plant I put in that did very well.

That same soil in the shed a few weeks later where temps were in the 80's ad 90's,
No hairy stuff and the plant I put in that it did terrible.
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HH, makes sense to me...the Magic doesn't happen when the Micros are cooked(or frozen-chilled- you get nute lockout esp P)...:)
 
DrZiggy said:
HH, makes sense to me...the Magic doesn't happen when the Micros are cooked(or frozen-chilled- you get nute lockout esp P)...:)
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Yep. Without microbial activity, High Brix soil won't really sustain a plant. It's simply got to be alive....no exceptions.
 
Doc Bud said:
Yep. Without microbial activity, High Brix soil won't really sustain a plant. It's simply got to be alive....no exceptions.
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I'm "Searching for my Baby"

t490-microscope-1.jpg
 
Doc has never said that you should be concerned if you don't see evidence of soil life on the surface. S'ok.

But if the soil is moist and warm and there's some organic matter on or near the surface, you'll find white fuzz colonies on top - lines of fuzz and webbing all around the leaf matter and sometimes in humps on the soil.

Other times, not. :cheesygrinsmiley: If it's there, you know for sure it's ~alive~. Sometimes it's so alive that I get spooked thinking about what's going on in there while I'm sleeping. :laugh:
 
DrZiggy said:
Doc, a couple of CAT questions..

1) If I remember theres some Transplant in CAT? if so, is CAT new too?

2) On my large plant the pistils started withdrawing and calyxes forming. What can I expect when I receive my order and CAT her then?

TY
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Cat Drench is still made with the "old" Transplant, so it hasn't changed.

As for what to expect with unorthodox Cat Drenches......I honestly don't know! Please let us know how it works. The only plants I've done this sort of thing to were Willie Nelson, which I grew on nothing but Cat Drench.
 
Doc Bud said:
Cat Drench is still made with the "old" Transplant, so it hasn't changed.

As for what to expect with unorthodox Cat Drenches......I honestly don't know! Please let us know how it works. The only plants I've done this sort of thing to were Willie Nelson, which I grew on nothing but Cat Drench.
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How did Willie turn out? I've got a Malawi in soil that seems to N heavy so I've been alternating trans and cat only during flower to see if the leaves will uncurl a bit.
 
Morglie said:
How did Willie turn out? I've got a Malawi in soil that seems to N heavy so I've been alternating trans and cat only during flower to see if the leaves will uncurl a bit.
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It turned out just fine....if you like hairy and ugly buds.....that smell like angel's breath and make you feel like you could do anything, but you'd rather just walk around and smile.
 
Doc Bud said:
Hello fellow growers, medical users and Cannabis aficionados!

I thought I would start a journal of a slightly different format. It's going to be an informational journal, where I'll demonstrate what I do, from seedling to harvest, step by step.

I won't be posting as often, as plants take time to grow, so in between posts I'll be happy to answer questions about my methods. I'll also dish out unsolicited advice, tell fish stories and generally have a curmudgeon-like negative opinion about most topics....so take it all with a grain of salt!

So, the first thing I do is mix up soil. This is very boring. It involves putting soil in a cement mixer, adding amendments, and turning the damn thing on for about 10 minutes. After that, the soil goes into rubber garbage cans, seen in the photo's below. I let it "cook" there for about a month before using the soil.

So, here we have the cooked soil placed in 1 gallon pots.
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Here's my method for starting with clones:

1.)place soil in the pot, compress by hand and make a little "pooch" in the soil large enough to accommodate the cutting.

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2.) put a liberal coating of Root Zone inoculate in the hole, especially on the bottom. You can also dust the actual roots of the cutting if you wish, but I find I waste product this way. It just works better to put it in the soil.
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This product that I'm using is designed specifically for High Brix growing. It contains all the right mycorrhiza, some pre-digested rock powders and a few other doodads that really make healthy roots and colonize the soil to prepare for a hyperactive soil biology.

3.)Here's a gallon of water, mixed with one ounce of "Transplant," which is made by adding one ounce of "Transplant" to one gallon of water. This is a concentrated organic nutrient broth, with everything in the right ratio. It is designed to be used specifically with the Root Zone product and basically contains about 2 weeks worth of nutrition for the soil.

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4.)Carefully fill in around the cutting and gently pack it in place.
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5.)The final step is to water each cutting with 1 pint of transplant water, made in step 3.

The plants are now ready to go under the T5 lights and will live there for 1 to 4 weeks, depending on space in the garden.

A word about "hardening off" clones and cuttings:

In the past, I would transition cuttings from the clone dome to pots by venting the dome, taking the lid off a bit, etc. The idea was to get the cuttings ready to leave their warm, moist little clone dome and prepare to live in the big bad world of the garden.

Well, since going High Brix some very nice things have developed!

Daily spraying with "Stress" makes for very healthy cuttings, faster rooting, and zero need for hardening off. They literally go from the under the unvented dome one day, to the T5 the next...and they take off!

Here's what a healthy, High Brix clone looks like 10 days after being cut from the parent plant

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So, I did this today. It took about 20 minutes.

Next installment: watering technique for vegetative growth.
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Hi Doc and gang,

I'm am currently working on improving one of my weaknesses....caring for and growing the plants while they're in the one gallon containers. So I figure I would start at the beginning of this journal and review Docs techniques a-z. I see the monsters You (Doc) grow in the one gallon containers on IG and am amazed at the size and health of them.

I have a project coming up with a regular run of C99 seeds and the limited release Cindy Haze reg seeds, and will need to brush up on my 1 gallon plant care.

Is it still proper to dust clone transplants with Roots powder, and water with the TP Drench (1oz to 1 Gallon of RO H2o) st 1 pint to each clone? As outlined above?

I usually start off good in 1 gallon pots, but after 3-4 weeks things go down hill, so I usually then move to bigger pots, and a week later I'm back in business. The more the soil the more forgiving it is. But that's no excuse for me to not identify my issue, so I'm studying Doc's early instructions to pick up things I missed.

With the formulas changing, I'm not sure if these early instructions are still advised. I've read in past posts from some to NOT to use TP when doing a transplant...something about Roots! being reformulated.

Thanks for the help
DL
 
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