Plant Alchemy With KNF: Korean Natural Farming And Jadam

[Azimuth]

Spare the rod and spoil the child.

A little bit of droughting is good.

Well, let's not get carried away. I said "a bit less constant water." I do often drought late in flower, but I'm going to stay with the main principles of the SIP which is constant availability of moisture, just lower levels and less frequency while in veg.

 

[JoetheChro]

Well, let's not get carried away. I said "a bit less constant water." I do often drought late in flower, but I'm going to stay with the main principles of the SIP which is constant availability of moisture, just lower levels and less frequency while in veg.

Lol agreed. Don’t know where that came from. Weird analogy on my part but slightly apt still

 

[Gee64]

I'm wondering if it might be better to treat it as a normal plant with a little extra on-board reservoir until late veg, and then turn it loose.

Could be my mix though as it's denser and holds more water than the typical recommended soil mix. But whatever it is the plants look healthier with a bit less constant water.

I double-dog dare you to try 1 sip that gets the res filled ONLY thru top-watering runoff.

 

[Azimuth]

I might do that late veg/early flower just to see, but I already know the pots would be way too wet when they're small without a good root system.

 

[Gee64]

so when they are small you only water to a wee little bit of runoff.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

I double-dog dare you to try 1 sip that gets the res filled ONLY thru top-watering runoff.

The entire tub of soil would be perma-wet, never drying out. You'd end up with fungus and bugs. I attempted a couple top waterings of nutrients in my first SIP - and had fungus gnats out the ass, and nutrient deficiencies.

 

[Azimuth]

so when they are small you only water to a wee little bit of runoff.

And what do you expect the outcome to be?

 

[Gee64]

And what do you expect the outcome to be?

For a seedling, a cup full of feeder roots with a tap into a source. Just keep the source down bottom to a minimum level. It's a backup. Theres no food in it.

Most smaller pots on Walmarts shelves have SIP inserts but no filler tubes, jus sayin....

Maybe a side-by-side?

 

[Azimuth]

For a seedling, a cup full of feeder roots with a tap into a source. Just keep the source down bottom to a minimum level. It's a backup. Theres no food in it.

Most smaller pots on Walmarts shelves have SIP inserts but no filler tubes, jus sayin....

Maybe a side-by-side?

I've got the mother of the twins that's headed to the worm bin so I'm happy to try anything you want with it. I already top water once a week when I give them a top dressing of worm castings, and malted barley, and then wash it down with some swamp juice or fish juice.

From there I just add water to the reservoir through the overflow hole. But, keeping water in the reservoir just seems to leave them looking and acting over-watered. So, I've taken to letting the reservoir go dry for a few days before re-adding to it.

So, give me the watering strategy you want me to employ and I'll implement it. As I said, I don't care much about the outcome since the plant is getting wormed.

 

[Azimuth]

Finishing up week 3 of flowering for the twins and I'm just now starting to get some lightening of the lower leaves on the compost plant. I've been feeding both my fish ferts for about a week or so so hopefully they'll kick in soon.

Since the compost mix had about 20% more compost than the coco version and made it 3 weeks longer before showing deficiencies, that would suggest if I could add another 20% volume of compost I could theoretically get through 3/4 of flower from that mix in my buckets if it's a linear relationship (which it may not be).

In any event I think I'll try that on my next run and replace 20% of the aeration portion with that much additional compost, and add some soil worms as a carbon offset.

Two more weeks in and the plants seem to be stabilizing a bit as the deficiencies in the leaves on both plants look much less angry. The difference is that I added a top dressing of calcium (egg shell powder) and have been watering with my WCA (Water Soluble Calcium) every time I add water either with my weekly top dressing of worm castings, or mid week adds down the fill pipe directly into the reservoirs.

Probably too soon for very much of the egg shell powder to be broken down yet so it's likely the WCA.

Seems to be helping especially with the coco plant. That totally makes sense as I know that coco growers usually have to supplement cal/Mag but for some reason it never occurred to me that I'd be in that boat. Doh!

So, I'll focus more on the calcium aspect in future rounds and supplement that which my castings bring in which seems like maybe it's not quite enough.

 

[Gee64]

I've got the mother of the twins that's headed to the worm bin so I'm happy to try anything you want with it. I already top water once a week when I give them a top dressing of worm castings, and malted barley, and then wash it down with some swamp juice or fish juice.

From there I just add water to the reservoir through the overflow hole. But, keeping water in the reservoir just seems to leave them looking and acting over-watered. So, I've taken to letting the reservoir go dry for a few days before re-adding to it.

So, give me the watering strategy you want me to employ and I'll implement it. As I said, I don't care much about the outcome since the plant is getting wormed.

I would be curious to see how a plant in a sip responds to being top watered to mild run-off and letting the run-off fill the res to whatever level you feel is right at the time.

 

[Gee64]

Two more weeks in and the plants seem to be stabilizing a bit as the deficiencies in the leaves on both plants look much less angry. The difference is that I added a top dressing of calcium (egg shell powder) and have been watering with my WCA (Water Soluble Calcium) every time I add water either with my weekly top dressing of worm castings, or mid week adds down the fill pipe directly into the reservoirs.

Probably too soon for very much of the egg shell powder to be broken down yet so it's likely the WCA.

Seems to be helping especially with the coco plant. That totally makes sense as I know that coco growers usually have to supplement cal/Mag but for some reason it never occurred to me that I'd be in that boat. Doh!

So, I'll focus more on the calcium aspect in future rounds and supplement that which my castings bring in which seems like maybe it's not quite enough.

Calcium works best if it's in your global mix.

Any way your knf/jadam can fortify the mix before planting?

Then preventatively maintain from above to avoid deficiency?

 

[Azimuth]

I would be curious to see how a plant in a sip responds to being top watered to mild run-off and letting the run-off fill the res to whatever level you feel is right at the time.

Done. Yesterday was my topdressing/watering-in-from-the-top day so I guess we have already started.

And I imagine it'll work great as that's the way @Krissi Carbone does hers. She uses the cousin pots to the ones I build, and available at Lowes and Walmart. They have a smaller reservoir and air chamber built in.

I use those for some of my houseplants. I have a holiday cactus in one of those14" pots and that thing is a beast!

I'm starting to think the real advantage to SIPs doesn't kick in until they are well established and growing strongly. Start too early and the plant struggles to get its footing. But, once it gets going, the larger reservoir provides much more water than a typical pot. And that's especially true in flower.

I know my plants at least seem to respond that way. But my soil mix is heavier than most so that probably plays a role as well.

 

[Azimuth]

Calcium works best if it's in your global mix.

Any way your knf/jadam can fortify the mix before planting?

Then preventatively maintain from above to avoid deficiency?

The knf/Jadam stuff is mostly liquids applied for ready uptake by the plant so I would think it's probably better to add the raw ingredients in various forms to your starting mix and let it sit for a month or two.

By various forms I mean some as raw powder, some as powder run through a compost pile, some through the worm bin, some as powder run through the compost pile and then through the worm bin, etc. That way there's minerals readily available but also some in various stages of breakdown constantly streaming in. So, some should always be in a prime zone for uptake even over a longish cycle.

I could moisten my mix prior to planting with WCA, but that's just one stage (finished) and it's supposed to be readily uptaken by the plants so I wouldn't think you'd get much longer term benefit doing it that way.

Instead, I'm adding small amounts weekly as a top watering so maybe that's similar, it's just all readily available and requires routine additions to achieve your global affect.

Maybe?

I've also started adding the eggshells to each of the abovementioned sources, but have just started so it will be months before I see any results to verify my theory.

 

[Gee64]

The knf/Jadam stuff is mostly liquids applied for ready uptake by the plant so I would think it's probably better to add the raw ingredients in various forms to your starting mix and let it sit for a month or two.

By various forms I mean some as raw powder, some as powder run through a compost pile, some through the worm bin, some as powder run through the compost pile and then through the worm bin, etc. That way there's minerals readily available but also some in various stages of breakdown constantly streaming in. So, some should always be in a prime zone for uptake even over a longish cycle.

I could moisten my mix prior to planting with WCA, but that's just one stage (finished) and it's supposed to be readily uptaken by the plants so I wouldn't think you'd get much longer term benefit doing it that way.

Instead, I'm adding small amounts weekly as a top watering so maybe that's similar, it's just all readily available and requires routine additions to achieve your global affect.

Maybe?

I've also started adding the eggshells to each of the abovementioned sources, but have just started so it will be months before I see any results to verify my theory.

Just for a reference point. And this is for a mix that I hope will go from seed to harvest, so 18 weeks.

Dolomite - .175 cups/gal soil
Oyster flour - .125 cups/gal soil
Gypsum - .0375 cups/gal soil

These are my ratios for 10 gallon pots. Think your ratio's are similar?

 

[Azimuth]

Just for a reference point. And this is for a mix that I hope will go from seed to harvest, so 18 weeks.

Dolomite - .175 cups/gal soil
Oyster flour - .125 cups/gal soil
Gypsum - .0375 cups/gal soil

These are my ratios for 10 gallon pots. Think your ratio's are similar?

Ok, time for another 'Fun with Math' segment in Azi's journal.

.175 + .125 + .0375 = 0.3375 cups per gallon of soil.

A cup is 8 oz, so 0.3375 x 8 oz = 0.6 oz which is just over a tablespoon (2 T per oz). I did 1T per gallon of soil in my various forms so each of them is at about your ratio, but I'm not sure how that translates to the various composted forms merged together.

I would think (hope?) any excess would be tied up in the bodies of the various microbes, but I guess we'll see by mid-year.

What do you recon?

 

[Azimuth]

My first Blueberry CBD clone taken from the second node (clone nodes) was potted a week or so ago and the roots have developed nicely so she gets to continue on her path to flower. And now that she's getting some nutrients from my castings her color is improving nicely.

 

[Azimuth]

I made up a new batch of soil today with yet another new recipe. This version is:

10 L
1P Leaf Mold
2P Worm castings
3P Compost
3P Old soil
1P Biochar
8T Stone Dust
2T Mineral mix (Azomite, Gypsum, Oyster Shell flour, Dusts of sand, stone, char, and eggshell)
2T Meals mix (Crustacean, Neem, Karanja, Malted barley)
2T Powdered Eggshells
8T Brown rice

And I'll dust the plant roots at planting with some Great White Myco (if I remember )

And please, no one tell @ReservoirDog that there's no perlite or any other aeration aggregate in the mix. He's got enough going on that I don't want him worrying about my plants.

Edit: But I'm not an idiot, I recognize that aeration is an important component so, after consulting with Mother Nature, I'm going to try using a half dozen worms to serve that function. Who knows, it might be even better as they tunnel around leaving air channels throughout the mix.

What it does do, however, is free up space for more compost in place of that aggregate in my small buckets and hopefully will get me further along into flower before deficiencies start showing up.

That's the plan.

 

[Gee64]

Only 1 way to find out

 

[Gee64]

Ok, time for another 'Fun with Math' segment in Azi's journal.

.175 + .125 + .0375 = 0.3375 cups per gallon of soil.

A cup is 8 oz, so 0.3375 x 8 oz = 0.6 oz which is just over a tablespoon (2 T per oz). I did 1T per gallon of soil in my various forms so each of them is at about your ratio, but I'm not sure how that translates to the various composted forms merged together.

I would think (hope?) any excess would be tied up in the bodies of the various microbes, but I guess we'll see by mid-year.

What do you recon?

0.3375 x 8 = 2.7