Yeah, right. And the reason for the Playboy subscription is for the articles.
I think you've got it backwards there, @Gee64, I think you meant to say you learned about soil because you were growing weed.
Keffka's Recycling, KOS Blue Thai, Herbies Seeds Apple Betty, Runtz Punch
I think you've got it backwards there, @Gee64, I think you meant to say you learned about soil because you were growing weed.
They sound like some great strains bud. I wonder if that’s the original Lamdsbread? And that Colombian sounds like that red strain but don’t quote me on it. When are you planning on growing them my brother? CLI just ordered couple of his packs..sad, think I might have to go organic on these girls because so sativa.lol. always wanted his gear, don't even know if I can handle these wild girls tbh..lol..
One seed at a time..lol
Edit: I meant the red one.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Growing weed has definitely taught me about soil. Definitely. I could have probably grown brocolli and learned just as much, but nobody wants to eat their brocolli....Yeah, right. And the reason for the Playboy subscription is for the articles.
I think you've got it backwards there, @Gee6, I think you meant to say you learned about soil because you were growing weed.
I happen to like broccoli but with the cheese sauce, Crème of Broccoli soup too. CLGrowing weed has definitely taught me about soil. Definitely. I could have probably grown brocolli and learned just as much, but nobody wants to eat their brocolli....
- Thread starter
- #145
Alright, here’s a breakdown of all the amendments I used and what their purpose is/was
Coco - is a powerful carbon source, one of the best. Carbon is underrated and not talked about enough in growing. The majority of growers in smaller pots run into carbon issues in their grows without realizing it. What they think are deficiencies and issues are just a lack of carbon.
It’s excellent microbe food that helps to buffer Ph levels. It provides K as it breaks down. It helps with soil structure and CEC values. This stuff is top notch and should be cut into almost ALL soil mixes by at least 10%.
Perlite - aeration amendment. This is one most folks should know already. I cut almost all my mixes and especially bagged mixes with 20% perlite. Oxygen is super important to root growth and powering high levels of microbial activity. Perlite doesn’t break down by the microbes either which is a huge bonus because in this setup, all organic matter breaks down at very rapid rates. The porous nature of perlite also gives the microbiology a safe place to hang out and colonize. It basically acts as coral reefs for your microbes to thrive. Other more natural aeration amendments typically don’t stand up well enough to the amount of decomposition that takes place. I will be looking into using vermiculite as well in the future, it comes highly recommended by multiple growers so we’ll see.
EWC - EarthWorm Castings. Since I am not using my own castings, my use for EWC is fairly simple. I want the microbial life it provides along with micro predators like amoebas, Protozoa, and beneficial nematodes. They play a pivotal role in maintaining a healthy soil food web. They also contain a ton of organic matter broken down into humus. A huge boon to any organic grow.
Once my own EWC farm is established the castings will also begin providing a lot of the nutrients and oomph my other amendments currently provide. You can feed the majority of amendments directly to them and they will fix them in the castings for you. Every casting also comes with a nice calcium carbonate molecule in it which our plants love.
Oyster shells - Slow release calcium is our first benefit from these. Plants and microbes love/need calcium and these provide it in a healthy way. They also help to buffer spike and layer mixes, preventing the PH from falling too drastically when the meals and such start working. They provide calcium carbonate, silicate, and quite a few other trace elements. These things are amazing and help all aspects of the soil
Dolomite Lime - Calcium and magnesium. If you haven’t noticed yet, calcium is pretty important. Magnesium is also very important as well. Dolomite lime is a perfect ratio of both for our cannabis. In this mix it is one of the major sources of both, while also buffering the PH of the soil. Dolomite Lime will help keep the bacteria in the container happy as well by preventing the PH from dropping into Fungi territory.
Soft Rock Phosphate - This one right here is a gem. It delivers very available P (oh yeah!) at a medium to slow release rate. This allows us to give the plant the P it wants without scaring off the myco. It also has a bunch of trace, micro, and secondary nutrients as well. However the real gem beyond the P is its countering ability. When my high N sources like blood meal mix with the Dolomite lime, some of the N is lost after being converted to ammonia and gassing off. The SRP prevents this N loss from occurring and escaping the soil. It also puts beneficial CEC properties into the soil, making stuff like calcium stick in the soil instead of being flushed away when watering.
Oh yeah SRP is that awesome. That’s why I bit the bullet and ordered it anyway.
Gypsum - underrated all around. OG organic growers talk about the slow release sulfur enhancing the natural smells and flavors of the buds. Gypsum brings in slow release calcium (yep, calcium again) and sulfur. While the calcium rocks it’s more about the slow release sulfur. Sulfur is also important and very easy to overlook.
Greensand - Greensand is probably one of the best amendments you can use for cannabis. If I could choose only one amendment, I’d go with greensand. Heck, my original recipe called for soil, coco, EWC, perlite and greensand. It really shines when recycling and helps to remineralize the soil. It contains Fe, K, Si, O, Mg, Al, Na, and H. It also contains over 30 other trace minerals and micronutrients. It affects soil structure and increases aeration. This stuff is green gold in a bag.
Kelp meal - Most people are aware of Kelp meal already. On top of the organic matter it provides it also brings in 60 minerals/elements, 12 vitamins and 21 amino acids. Kelp meal is good stuff but needs to be cooked in for maximum and safe effectiveness.
Blood meal - Cannabis and the microbes love N. Blood meal is big N. It also contains Fe as well as various micronutrients and trace elements. It’s blood. It’s a veritable powerhouse all on its own. I love this stuff
Bone meal - Bone meal is another favorite of mine. It has slow burning P along with calcium and N and serves as a buffer
Fish bone meal - Just like bone meal it has nice P that is bonded with calcium making it a slower burn so we don’t scare off the myco. Also a buffer and contains a bunch of micro and trace elements.
All Purpose 4-4-4 - Does what it says. It’s all purpose. Its main job is to provide equal amounts of as much as possible to accommodate different needs. It’s also usually a decent diet filler if other nutrient sources run low.
Coco - is a powerful carbon source, one of the best. Carbon is underrated and not talked about enough in growing. The majority of growers in smaller pots run into carbon issues in their grows without realizing it. What they think are deficiencies and issues are just a lack of carbon.
It’s excellent microbe food that helps to buffer Ph levels. It provides K as it breaks down. It helps with soil structure and CEC values. This stuff is top notch and should be cut into almost ALL soil mixes by at least 10%.
Perlite - aeration amendment. This is one most folks should know already. I cut almost all my mixes and especially bagged mixes with 20% perlite. Oxygen is super important to root growth and powering high levels of microbial activity. Perlite doesn’t break down by the microbes either which is a huge bonus because in this setup, all organic matter breaks down at very rapid rates. The porous nature of perlite also gives the microbiology a safe place to hang out and colonize. It basically acts as coral reefs for your microbes to thrive. Other more natural aeration amendments typically don’t stand up well enough to the amount of decomposition that takes place. I will be looking into using vermiculite as well in the future, it comes highly recommended by multiple growers so we’ll see.
EWC - EarthWorm Castings. Since I am not using my own castings, my use for EWC is fairly simple. I want the microbial life it provides along with micro predators like amoebas, Protozoa, and beneficial nematodes. They play a pivotal role in maintaining a healthy soil food web. They also contain a ton of organic matter broken down into humus. A huge boon to any organic grow.
Once my own EWC farm is established the castings will also begin providing a lot of the nutrients and oomph my other amendments currently provide. You can feed the majority of amendments directly to them and they will fix them in the castings for you. Every casting also comes with a nice calcium carbonate molecule in it which our plants love.
Oyster shells - Slow release calcium is our first benefit from these. Plants and microbes love/need calcium and these provide it in a healthy way. They also help to buffer spike and layer mixes, preventing the PH from falling too drastically when the meals and such start working. They provide calcium carbonate, silicate, and quite a few other trace elements. These things are amazing and help all aspects of the soil
Dolomite Lime - Calcium and magnesium. If you haven’t noticed yet, calcium is pretty important. Magnesium is also very important as well. Dolomite lime is a perfect ratio of both for our cannabis. In this mix it is one of the major sources of both, while also buffering the PH of the soil. Dolomite Lime will help keep the bacteria in the container happy as well by preventing the PH from dropping into Fungi territory.
Soft Rock Phosphate - This one right here is a gem. It delivers very available P (oh yeah!) at a medium to slow release rate. This allows us to give the plant the P it wants without scaring off the myco. It also has a bunch of trace, micro, and secondary nutrients as well. However the real gem beyond the P is its countering ability. When my high N sources like blood meal mix with the Dolomite lime, some of the N is lost after being converted to ammonia and gassing off. The SRP prevents this N loss from occurring and escaping the soil. It also puts beneficial CEC properties into the soil, making stuff like calcium stick in the soil instead of being flushed away when watering.
Oh yeah SRP is that awesome. That’s why I bit the bullet and ordered it anyway.
Gypsum - underrated all around. OG organic growers talk about the slow release sulfur enhancing the natural smells and flavors of the buds. Gypsum brings in slow release calcium (yep, calcium again) and sulfur. While the calcium rocks it’s more about the slow release sulfur. Sulfur is also important and very easy to overlook.
Greensand - Greensand is probably one of the best amendments you can use for cannabis. If I could choose only one amendment, I’d go with greensand. Heck, my original recipe called for soil, coco, EWC, perlite and greensand. It really shines when recycling and helps to remineralize the soil. It contains Fe, K, Si, O, Mg, Al, Na, and H. It also contains over 30 other trace minerals and micronutrients. It affects soil structure and increases aeration. This stuff is green gold in a bag.
Kelp meal - Most people are aware of Kelp meal already. On top of the organic matter it provides it also brings in 60 minerals/elements, 12 vitamins and 21 amino acids. Kelp meal is good stuff but needs to be cooked in for maximum and safe effectiveness.
Blood meal - Cannabis and the microbes love N. Blood meal is big N. It also contains Fe as well as various micronutrients and trace elements. It’s blood. It’s a veritable powerhouse all on its own. I love this stuff
Bone meal - Bone meal is another favorite of mine. It has slow burning P along with calcium and N and serves as a buffer
Fish bone meal - Just like bone meal it has nice P that is bonded with calcium making it a slower burn so we don’t scare off the myco. Also a buffer and contains a bunch of micro and trace elements.
All Purpose 4-4-4 - Does what it says. It’s all purpose. Its main job is to provide equal amounts of as much as possible to accommodate different needs. It’s also usually a decent diet filler if other nutrient sources run low.
big pots will be your friend. long running sativas require a little more than the indicas.
not at all. the name has been copywritten by the marley family and they have farmed it out to sketchy breeders and sellers.
you can get the real genetics, but you need an actual contact on the island and it is only a reg photo plant. as a sativa it is super stable in that version.
All Purpose 4-4-4 - Does what it says. It’s all purpose. Its main job is to provide equal amounts of as much as possible to accommodate different needs. It’s also usually a decent diet filler if other nutrient sources run low.
That's great and u can run that to the end. But definitely would cut that N after 6 or 7 weeks in flower.
- Thread starter
- #148
There’s nothing to cut. It’s all in the pot and decided on by the plant. I’ll only be using water (50 ppms dolomite lime) and the occasional tea/fish fert
- Thread starter
- #149
I will also be mulching the containers but that’s a little later.. I’m thinking about lacing the mulch up with something though. In that case then yeah I’d cut off N in mid flower @GainesvilleGreen since I replace every 30 days
So you're not going to top dress in flower? Ok makes sense..
Just don't want to harvest a green plant..I like my bananas
yellow not green or brown..lol
That’s a shame and they shouldn’t be allowed to do that.Smh CL
- Thread starter
- #152
So you're not going to top dress in flower? Ok makes sense..
Just don't want to harvest a green plant..I like my bananas
Since I mulch the containers roots grow above the top of the soil and into the mulch so top dressing becomes really tough by flower
But still coming from Swami you know it’s still gonna be awesome. CL
- Thread starter
- #154
Soil cooking up.. it already looks twice as healthy.. I turned it in it’s own bin last night and will be dumping all three out in the next few days depending on weather. I gave them a little bit of bti water since the tops were drying a little. It’s warm and dry in this room currently. I’ll be setting my tea station back up so I can start aerating my water again. Loves me some dissolved oxygen if for no other reason than it makes me happy lol.
All I'm saying is not water until runoff..(I know you know that in organic soil but 2 weeks before harvest I would have a little runoff to kill some of N.
Think you would appreciate the smoke a little more imo..is your game though
I'm not saying flush last 2 weeks btw, just a little runoff..but everyone is after the yield..I get it..
Damn, no response from you little organic freaks in 6 hrs lol..just playing, must have made sense or Gee on vacation..j/k
- Thread starter
- #158
Didn’t need a response I agree with you lol. Don’t really want any runoff during the grow. The last couple weeks are fine if you’d like and will probably happen any way while you’re looking for signs of her slowing down.
Also, her bed of roots going to be so big because of your soil definitely want to get deep in those final weeks..
Great journal K
- Thread starter
- #160
Checked in on the soil today.. still storming so I haven’t been able to mix the bins together yet but I’ve been turning the soil inside the bins. Each day it smells earthier and earthier while feeling nice and fluffy. Picking up some Azomite this weekend.
I’ve been aerating 2 gallons of bti pure water and will be pouring a bit of it on the mix when I mix the bins together. The soil is drying out at a fairly decent rate but I want to keep it moist.
I’ve been aerating 2 gallons of bti pure water and will be pouring a bit of it on the mix when I mix the bins together. The soil is drying out at a fairly decent rate but I want to keep it moist.