Keffka's Stonington Soil, Bag Seed, 2022 Setup Indoor Grow

[Gee64]

Cooking your own soil, like The Revs method for example, kills most if not all myco spores and becomes microbe heavy, so you need to add the myco back. Dont add it until planting or the microbes will get it. I usually cut soil about 1 part soil to 2 parts coco for seed germination, and blend in half a teaspoon of myco per cup of mixed soil. Mix each cup individually to ensure all the myco for each cup is actually in each cup. Then I only add water, no microbes or EWC, until 1st uppotting. That allows the fungii a couple weeks to establish dominance and gain the ability to defend themselves against the hot soil. At harvest time if you pull on a stump and it pops right out still in the solo cup shape, the soil was too hot ( hot being microbe intense) and fungii lost the battle. The plant usually still does quite well surprisingly enough, so that small amount of fungii-o-sphere from the solo cup must be extremely powerfull to feed a plant to finish. Always tug your stumps, it tells you alot. If there is no sound of ripping roots and the whole pot lifts, and I use 30 pound 10 gallon pots, then the roots were fine. If the stump tears out hou had a myco problem. In hindsight you will see that the runts problem was usually a myco problem. If you want to really make your grow worthwhile, but you are also lazy and a procrastinator like me, then at least get the myco good early and you will soon have a lazy mans water only grow.

If only myco could trim........

 

[Keffka]

Yeah I just started digging into the science of myco.. endo, ecto, Hartig nets etc. I can see creating an environment that sustains the fungal growth. It seems to me the fungus is intelligent, and if it were given the time and resources it could only become more efficient in its environment. I imagine the cannabis symbionts would reveal themselves fairly quickly and that in itself should increase efficiency.

I need more space or more bins lol

 

[Gee64]

You should see my grow space, aka The garage! Its got alot of bins in it and I still want (need) more!

 

[Keffka]

@Gee64

Grabbed it yesterday and started reading it.. We’ve already discussed a lot of this, which is awesome because it makes it that much easier to fully absorb it. I’m glad I found this before I went any further in to growing.. It’s really easy to grow synthetically, and it’s really easy to just give up and use synthetic nutes, but that completely defeats the entire purpose in my mind of growing the stuff myself. I have no business or desire trying to profit off of nature.. It’s a disgusting concept I want no part of.

A lot of Humans have this really perverted outlook that we are somehow masters of nature and can bend her to our will, and nothing could be further from the truth. We are completely at natures mercy, and have no control over her at all. Any time we think we’ve exercised control over her she bitch slaps us back into reality with famine, disease, and destruction. This arrogant view that we are masters and not symbionts has trickled down to everything and it’s ruining our species.

We are meant to be symbionts with nature, not her master. So the more we can learn to work with her symbiotically the better we’ll be and the better our results will be. It’s an insanely simple concept that has been perverted by humans lust for power and control.

 

[Gee64]

Its a great read. He is a bit witholding on alot of things such as he doesnt put quite enough emphasis on myco but his recipes are great and he wants us to figure a bit of the synergy out. I love the guy as he gives you so much info in a very entertaining fashion and is quite up front about the fact that its not a book of quantity (yield), its about quality. His genetics are a ton of fun too I always have some of his seeds on hand and grow at least 1 every grow with my durbans. Im not sure how old you are Keff but if you were around it the late 70's early 80's before California Redhairs saturated the market, when Colombian, Mexican, Cambodian, Thai,Vietnamese, Hawaiian, Jamaican, Panama Red... were the strains, which were all pure sativas, then you will love his seeds. The black one I showed you was one of Rev's seeds. The old school stuff wasn't quite as flashy as the designer weeds of today but the buzzes were incredible! He has managed to preserve alot of the old genetics. If you like Skunk weeds he has some nasty stinky strains. I enjoy pheno hunting above all else because in the old genetics almost anything can pop up, the genetics have only been crossed once or twice just to put his mark on the strain so anything from the parents lineage could pop up. His sativas are VERY sativa tho so you can get paranoid off smoking too much and they can get huge in the tent. I DO MEAN HUGE! I grew one of his Cherry Malawi's and it filled my tent, which is 5x5 and 8' tall. I have 6'9"" from light to floor to work with and I had to put the plant in one corner, bend it diagonally across the tent to the opposite upper corner, then flex it back across the back wall so probably 9' tall. The buds were, no word of a lie I swear, 4 inches wide and 32 to 40 inches long. Another word of warning: Old school sativas are whispier than todays chunky weed, and as a result, in 72 hours of hang-dry time I over dried the whole thing. I have a Source Turbo oil still so I had to make oil from it and it was incredible! Red fire. I have a pic of it I will dig around and find it. If you ever had old school hash oil from back in the day, the kind that was like cold tar in the one gram vials, well here it is again. Let me go look for the photo. As for your philosophy on natures way I couldn't agree more. We were trusted with the universes most precious marble and look what we did.

 

[Gee64]

Here it is. I had a few fingers of it. It was so strong it was almost unusable. I gave most of it away to my BUDdies.

 

[Keffka]

Taking a quick break from this amazing book that I should’ve read sooner. To be fair though, a lot of this would’ve gone over my head if I wouldn’t have already been well into flower.. It’s written with the assumption (and says so in the foreword) that you have a basic understanding of cannabis growing.

Here’s pics from today.. I just realized my original math giving her 28 days left was only for an 8 week flower. With her obvious sativa genetics, I should actually probably push her 2 more weeks.. so she has 26 days left until I hit the final 2 weeks.

 

[Gee64]

Shes hungry Keff. Its tea time. Keep your tea dates and find the frequency so you can get ahead of it. Shes out of carbon and thats throwing the synergy off so she appears light on nitrogen. Get brewing and put a topdressing on today. Make sure it has ewc. It will open the soil(calcium magic) and get the ground ready for tea. Watch for the crusting and break it up. She should have eaten likely the day before yesterday so use Nov1 as the date when building your tea schedule. This is why I said to cut the tea with water...Shes gonna drink alot of tea so less more often is better. Lolol you know the drill.

 

[Gee64]

She got hungry really quick so your in full on rescue now. Give her fish fert today even if shes still wet. Get it in and let her dry a bit while the tea brews. Also, in flower you shouldnt let your soil go dry between waterings. She wants consistency now shes concentrating hard and doesnt like distractions or change. Think sauna for soil moisture...wet walls but no puddles on the floor, just heavy moist air. The flowers will transpire it no problem.

 

[Gee64]

Its pretty darn amazing how much you have coming out of that little pot! Very cool

 

[Keffka]

Shes hungry Keff. Its tea time. Keep your tea dates and find the frequency so you can get ahead of it. Shes out of carbon and thats throwing the synergy off so she appears light on nitrogen. Get brewing and put a topdressing on today. Make sure it has ewc. It will open the soil(calcium magic) and get the ground ready for tea. Watch for the crusting and break it up. She should have eaten likely the day before yesterday so use Nov1 as the date when building your tea schedule. This is why I said to cut the tea with water...Shes gonna drink alot of tea so less more often is better. Lolol you know the drill.

Just hit her with a tea last night.. she’s really ramping up right now so I’m just barely keeping up with her but am still slightly behind.. I’m gonna top dress EWC tonight and lightly water it in with fish fert just to keep her moist.

 

[Keffka]

Its pretty darn amazing how much you have coming out of that little pot! Very cool

These smart pots, they’re incredible.. they really let you push the limit on pot size, and I’m not even fully dialed in yet

 

[Keffka]

I finished Revs book and have my shopping list together.. I’m excited to get my next grow started right from the beginning.. At this point on my current grow as we both know, I’m just playing catch up

I do have those bamboo stakes in my pot I was thinking of pulling one or two out and spiking some EWC with perlite

 

[Gee64]

Just hit her with a tea last night.. she’s really ramping up right now so I’m just barely keeping up with her but am still slightly behind.. I’m gonna top dress EWC tonight and lightly water it in with fish fert just to keep her moist.

Excellent!! Yeah shes a beast I love her stacking. Shes a beauty

 

[Gee64]

I finished Revs book and have my shopping list together.. I’m excited to get my next grow started right from the beginning.. At this point on my current grow as we both know, I’m just playing catch up

I do have those bamboo stakes in my pot I was thinking of pulling one or two out and spiking some EWC with perlite

Google your soil and see what its ingredients are. Likely similar to Rev's. Pay attention to the ratios of carbs to proteins ( browns to greens). You know your current soils effect on a plant, so switching to Rev's, if you see a difference, then knowing your current soils ingredients compared to Revs will help you understand the effect that the 2 different mixes have on the plants. I say this because your going down more than a rabbit hole now, and the next natural step will be to mix your own with whats cost effective and available in your hood, so being able to recognize effects, good or bad, will save you alot of time and money in the future. Not to mention heartache and despair. Also you will get lots of suggestions for inputs and they will likely all be sound suggestions, but they may not all work with balance in your future mixes. Soon you will see similarities and commonalities of certain key core ingredients.

 

[Gee64]

Spiking after roots are there is a big no-no. It will hurt. Even EWC. The root needs to grow into the spike but the spike can never touch the root. Topdress it, you want the calcium up top raining down.

 

[Keffka]

So I went and checked my soil makeup, and while it’s fairly similar to Revs there’s a few differences, mainly the manure and meals.. I can see where my soil would be lacking the power to flower in a smaller container based on the more mellow meals used. Unfortunately it is also peat based so I’m going to have to find a different potting mix for a base if I want to recycle.

Although I now know quite a bit more about my soil and why it’s reacting the way it is, I will finish off the soil I have left using Revs quick no cook formula of 50 soil 25 perlite 25 castings for my next grow. I’ll be using the coast of main fertilizers in spikes along with additional castings in spikes and I’m gonna try a 3 gallon run again using Revs methods with my on hand stuff. I’ll also be boosting the myco in the grow as well to make sure the fungus isn’t overwhelmed this time

I went and priced out all of the stuff I will need to eventually transition to The Revs style of doing things.. It’s not too expensive but it’s definitely something I’m gonna have to piece together as I go.. They have everything I need for cheaper than I can find online however My wife won’t go for me dropping another 200$ on grow stuff right before Christmas

Here’s the list of everything I’ve figured out so far.. The green sand will be replaced with something cheaper and not as large so that 32.99 will be more like 15$

 

[Gee64]

Too be honest Keff I tried alot of variations of home cooked soil and a few runs of Revs. Not about to discourage you here, just give you some food for thought. This is how it went for me. The Revs soil definitely works but its very robust. The microbes that do all your cooking kill the myco so its only soil. Very nutritious but fungii stripped. Trying to get the myco that you add to set itself up in his soil is tough. 50% at best for me. Its meant to flower clones, not seeded plants and in small containers it still ran out of carbs. I got frustrated so I went back to what I knew worked just to be able to grow, which was Bluesky Supersoil because it grew great weed but it was $35 a bag after taxes (a bag is 10 gals) and I had to drive 60 miles to get it. So... upon switching back I figured why not try 1 of the 9 pots with Revs layers and spikes but in the Bluesky soil. It was and still is the best plant I have ever grown. It was a combo of the soil/spikes and a lucky seed pheno but next grow I went all 9 pots with Bluesky and spikes. Boom Baby! not as good as the 1 extremely good plant but still incredible! I have since dialed it back from 4 spikes to 2. 1 veg spike and 1 flower spike, each spike being 3 full tbsp. I use his high nitro bottom dust religiously as well. It works fantastic. Then I went to 6 gal pots (wife sewed me cubes out of landscape fabric to fit milk crates) and it wasnt quite as good but still sweet, just needed a few teas to finish it. Then I monkeyed around for a few grows but finally gave up on the 6gal grows. Last grow I had extra soil all mixed with EWC and didnt really want to tub it so I went with a 6 gal with the high nitro dust but I put in 4 spikes. 1 veg 3 flower. It out performed the 10gals. I now believe its his spikes and layers that are the true magic so next grow in the spring I will run 2 10 gals, 1 with 2 spikes and 1 with 4, and 2 cubes with 4. Im not trying to discourage you at all I highly endorse you giving it a try and if you journal it Im in from day 1. I just wanted you to know how it went for me so you can have a comparison.

What really impressed me about the spikes is the way the roots surround the spikes. Its unbelievable how many roots and how dense they were trying to nibble the spikes. All that being said I found that an 8 week indica uses about the same amount of food as a 10 week sativa so spikes and layers will grow anything that I have tried. It is however cheaper for me to run 10gals with 2 spikes instead of 6gals with 4 spikes as spikes get costly quick and 10gals hold my vpd better being in a desert. They hold more moisture. Your regional RH I believe you said was 45-50 and mine is 30-35 so 6gals may work for you. I also found Commercial smart pots (vivosun i believe, i will check tonight) made for milk crates and they really worked well so if you decide on 6gals I can get you some pics and details. I think they were 20 dollars for 4 so not too bad and they are extremely well made.
Again not trying to discourage you I would love to see you figure it out so I can use it too. All info for you to campare to.

 

[Keffka]

Too be honest Keff I tried alot of variations of home cooked soil and a few runs of Revs. Not about to discourage you here, just give you some food for thought. This is how it went for me. The Revs soil definitely works but its very robust. The microbes that do all your cooking kill the myco so its only soil. Very nutritious but fungii stripped. Trying to get the myco that you add to set itself up in his soil is tough. 50% at best for me. Its meant to flower clones, not seeded plants and in small containers it still ran out of carbs. I got frustrated so I went back to what I knew worked just to be able to grow, which was Bluesky Supersoil because it grew great weed but it was $35 a bag after taxes (a bag is 10 gals) and I had to drive 60 miles to get it. So... upon switching back I figured why not try 1 of the 9 pots with Revs layers and spikes but in the Bluesky soil. It was and still is the best plant I have ever grown. It was a combo of the soil/spikes and a lucky seed pheno but next grow I went all 9 pots with Bluesky and spikes. Boom Baby! not as good as the 1 extremely good plant but still incredible! I have since dialed it back from 4 spikes to 2. 1 veg spike and 1 flower spike, each spike being 3 full tbsp. I use his high nitro bottom dust religiously as well. It works fantastic. Then I went to 6 gal pots (wife sewed me cubes out of landscape fabric to fit milk crates) and it wasnt quite as good but still sweet, just needed a few teas to finish it. Then I monkeyed around for a few grows but finally gave up on the 6gal grows. Last grow I had extra soil all mixed with EWC and didnt really want to tub it so I went with a 6 gal with the high nitro dust but I put in 4 spikes. 1 veg 3 flower. It out performed the 10gals. I now believe its his spikes and layers that are the true magic so next grow in the spring I will run 2 10 gals, 1 with 2 spikes and 1 with 4, and 2 cubes with 4. Im not trying to discourage you at all I highly endorse you giving it a try and if you journal it Im in from day 1. I just wanted you to know how it went for me so you can have a comparison.

What really impressed me about the spikes is the way the roots surround the spikes. Its unbelievable how many roots and how dense they were trying to nibble the spikes. All that being said I found that an 8 week indica uses about the same amount of food as a 10 week sativa so spikes and layers will grow anything that I have tried. It is however cheaper for me to run 10gals with 2 spikes instead of 6gals with 4 spikes as spikes get costly quick and 10gals hold my vpd better being in a desert. They hold more moisture. Your regional RH I believe you said was 45-50 and mine is 30-35 so 6gals may work for you. I also found Commercial smart pots (vivosun i believe, i will check tonight) made for milk crates and they really worked well so if you decide on 6gals I can get you some pics and details. I think they were 20 dollars for 4 so not too bad and they are extremely well made.
Again not trying to discourage you I would love to see you figure it out so I can use it too. All info for you to campare to.

Oh I get exactly what you’re saying, and from what I’ve read so far (I’ve read the book twice now and am on my 3rd go through) I think you’re right about the spikes and layers. That seems to me to be the most critical aspect one needs to nail over everything else. You can tool around with a variety of different soils and soil makeups and you’ll probably see some efficiency differences here and there, but I’m fairly confident it’s the layering and spiking that exponentially improves your quality and yield. You’re giving the plant the exact tools to make its own decisions.

That’s why I decided to just finish off the Stonington soil and amendments/fertilizer I have for my next grow but use Revs layering and spiking method. I figured the CoM amendments are balanced against the Stonington soil so they probably provide exactly what the soils weak points are. It’ll give me a chance to get comfortable with the style with a low cost hurdle (I only need to buy perlite, I have castings, soil, and the amendments from CoM and the entire lineup is OMRI and dry). It’ll also give me a chance to see where to start my shopping at.

 

[Keffka]

Too be honest Keff I tried alot of variations of home cooked soil and a few runs of Revs. Not about to discourage you here, just give you some food for thought. This is how it went for me. The Revs soil definitely works but its very robust. The microbes that do all your cooking kill the myco so its only soil. Very nutritious but fungii stripped. Trying to get the myco that you add to set itself up in his soil is tough. 50% at best for me. Its meant to flower clones, not seeded plants and in small containers it still ran out of carbs. I got frustrated so I went back to what I knew worked just to be able to grow, which was Bluesky Supersoil because it grew great weed but it was $35 a bag after taxes (a bag is 10 gals) and I had to drive 60 miles to get it. So... upon switching back I figured why not try 1 of the 9 pots with Revs layers and spikes but in the Bluesky soil. It was and still is the best plant I have ever grown. It was a combo of the soil/spikes and a lucky seed pheno but next grow I went all 9 pots with Bluesky and spikes. Boom Baby! not as good as the 1 extremely good plant but still incredible! I have since dialed it back from 4 spikes to 2. 1 veg spike and 1 flower spike, each spike being 3 full tbsp. I use his high nitro bottom dust religiously as well. It works fantastic. Then I went to 6 gal pots (wife sewed me cubes out of landscape fabric to fit milk crates) and it wasnt quite as good but still sweet, just needed a few teas to finish it. Then I monkeyed around for a few grows but finally gave up on the 6gal grows. Last grow I had extra soil all mixed with EWC and didnt really want to tub it so I went with a 6 gal with the high nitro dust but I put in 4 spikes. 1 veg 3 flower. It out performed the 10gals. I now believe its his spikes and layers that are the true magic so next grow in the spring I will run 2 10 gals, 1 with 2 spikes and 1 with 4, and 2 cubes with 4. Im not trying to discourage you at all I highly endorse you giving it a try and if you journal it Im in from day 1. I just wanted you to know how it went for me so you can have a comparison.

What really impressed me about the spikes is the way the roots surround the spikes. Its unbelievable how many roots and how dense they were trying to nibble the spikes. All that being said I found that an 8 week indica uses about the same amount of food as a 10 week sativa so spikes and layers will grow anything that I have tried. It is however cheaper for me to run 10gals with 2 spikes instead of 6gals with 4 spikes as spikes get costly quick and 10gals hold my vpd better being in a desert. They hold more moisture. Your regional RH I believe you said was 45-50 and mine is 30-35 so 6gals may work for you. I also found Commercial smart pots (vivosun i believe, i will check tonight) made for milk crates and they really worked well so if you decide on 6gals I can get you some pics and details. I think they were 20 dollars for 4 so not too bad and they are extremely well made.
Again not trying to discourage you I would love to see you figure it out so I can use it too. All info for you to campare to.

What are you using for your 5-5-5 all purpose? I was looking at Gaia Greens 4-4-4 all purpose but I don’t think it’s OMRI