I had to back away from Lee Valley Tools, pull a 180, and run like Fekk! Geez I could spend a lot in there😔.
Lots on my wish list too. :thumb:


Stay safe
Bill284 😎
 
Got some preflowers on the OG Kush!
20240802_152840.jpg

Family shot. Been hot here, 90's everyday. Looking forward to autumn.
20240802_152907.jpg
 
Magnesium regulates the voltage of the electricity that calcium provides, and also the amount of nitrogen that can leech into the soil from atmosphere, so that's why every time you hear the word calcium, it's implied that it's in proper ratio with magnesium.
Which is what, ideally speaking?
 
Which is what, ideally speaking?
well there lies the question. It depends who you ask or who you listen to. Most say 2.5:1 - 3.5:1 but some say as high as 7 or 8 to 1. I use dolomite, which is generally about 2.7:1, at 3 cups, then oyster shell flour which doesn't contain mag at 1 cup, and gypsum at 1 cup.

That works really well but the gypsum is cut with some sulfur, and the oyster shell is very slow release.

As near as I can guesstimate, 3.5-4 to 1 overall cal to mg seems to work well.

On top of all that I add a fair amount of EWC that is high in cal. So I just follow the refractometer and the feel of the soil in my hands. If tilth is good I'm good.

I would say 3.5:1 is pretty good.

It's when calcium gets low that problems really start, but where the floor actually is I have no idea.

The synthetic guys may have an answer for that one tho.
 
Which is what, ideally speaking?
An easier way in my opinion is to use a good amount of dolomite to ensure you have adequate mag, then add calcium as needed to keep magnesium in check.

The refractometer will show you the second cal starts to deplete.

If you don't crank your light too high you rarely run out of mag.

If you use CO2 supplementation so you can crank the light up then mag may be needed to be monitored more closely, but for the average grow 3 cups of prilled dolomite in 20 gallons of soil will supply you with enough mag.

Many experienced growers I have learned from in real life, and my personal hippy guru as well, all state that stress causes plants to sweat mag out thru the stomata, and kelp relieves stress in plants really well, so I just ensure they have adequate kelp to eliminate stress. It seems to work.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if a huge dose of kelp would let RVDV keep her leaves? I will have to put that on the list of things to ponder.
 
Adenosine triphosphate. It's the energy source that powers all cells in both plants and animals.

Cells have both the ability to use it and store it.

Plants produce it thru photosynthesis. Certain bacteria also produce it.

It's a molecule made up of nitrogen, sugar, and phosphorus. You don't need to know this stuff tho, it's getting too deep down the rabbit hole, all you need for clarity is to understand that P provides the ability to move nutrients thru the plant and move exudates out, and every day the plant consists of more cells than it did the day before so it needs more ATP to push with, and ATP is nitrogen from atmosphere, so it's free, and sugar which is produced by photosynthesis, so it's free too, and P that the microbes must supply to the plant from the soil. 3 phosphates per molecule of ATP actually, so it is a phosphorous rich molecule.

It is the spark of life. Microbes need it too. They, like us are wired to run on electricity, but powered by sugar, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

Electricity fires the circuitry and signalling that runs the cell that is powered by ATP.

This is why Calcium and P are intimately linked. Calcium sets the stage for P to do the work.

Magnesium regulates the voltage of the electricity that calcium provides, and also the amount of nitrogen that can leech into the soil from atmosphere, so that's why every time you hear the word calcium, it's implied that it's in proper ratio with magnesium.

In humans, if calcium gets low, then in ratio, magnesium becomes high. It screws with our cellular voltage but more importantly it chokes off nitrogen.

Amino acids are made of nitrogen. Proteins are made from amino acids. Therefore low calcium equals poor protein synthesis even if you eat tons of protein.

It's locked out. Just as N gets locked out of soil with low calcium.

That transfers into high carbs on a human's carbs to proteins ratio.

Humans can't expel carbs, they can only burn or store them. So we get fat because of lack of protein that is caused by low calcium. Eating more protein won't fix it, protein is locked out.

Type two diabetes occurs and it's a mathematical thing so you can't run from it.

Your heart runs on electricity so low calcium affects that too. The alter ego to it all is that all unused proteins float around in our bodies. Proteins are building blocks. Think lego blocks.

You can build things with the Lego instructions (RNA) or you can build weird custom things that make no sense at all (cancer).

Low calcium is the main cause of most chronic diseases.

The cool part is we evolved from plants and we still have 1 function remaining from our ancestoral connection. We photosynthesize too.

We pulled up our roots and became mobile so we can chase sugars which relinquished our ability to photosynthesize them, but we still use photosynthesis to create Vitamin D, which is required to intake and assimilate calcium.

By natures standards we are supposed to run around naked under the sun photosynthesizing Vitamin D and drinking calcium rich water from streams.

Instead we put on sunscreen and drink purified filtered water and wonder why and how we are fat and dying a slow wasting death, just like a plant that needs calmag.

Cholesterol is created inside us (good cholesterol) or intaken from animal corpses (bad cholesterol), but is vital to life.

Calcium runs the electrical system that signals and regulates cholesterol production.

Low calcium forces magnesium to take over as the main electrolyte in our bodies, but magnesium isn't as powerful as calcium, it's a secondary backup system.

It knows we need cholesterol but it doesn't have enough energy to turn cholesterol synthesis on and off millions of times a day so it turns it on and leaves it on.

No cholesterol and we die in seconds, but too much takes 20-40 years to kill us.

Chemists and big pharma figured this out.

They invented Crestor and Lipitor to lower our cholesterol. Crestor and Lipitor are just highly refined calciums that are instantly available sources of calcium. Calmag for humans.

Nasty hey? Why not just say ditch the sunscreen and eat more calcium?

Are you going bald or having erectile dysfunction? Baldness is lack of available protein as hair is pure protein, so calcium fixes that, and erectile dysfunction is the very first sympton of arterial disease caused by high cholesterol, which is also fixed by calcium. Again, nasty hey?

It's probably just coincidence that Viagra and cholesterol lowering medications are the top 2 selling pharmacuticals. The man wouldn't compromise our health for profit would he?

So if you are fat, bald, and bonerless, go get some calcium and avoid cancer, heart disease, and diabetes before it's too late.

You need calmag. You ACTUALLY need calmag. Please don't drink it tho🤣

Then after you take your calmag go brush your newly grown full head of hair and head off to get laid.

It's actually that simple. When we get sick we go to a doctor but we should actually be going to see a chemist.

That's my rant for the day.
This is amazing, so I should probably supplement Calcium, Vit D and Vit B! I'll have to get some Soy milk too.
Hey @CannabisVibes ✌️👊. Great to meet you. Welcome to Nerdville. We all found the Geespot but we aren't quite sure still if it really exists or how it really works or exactly what to do with it.🤣

If you like SIPing then @Azimuth is kicking around over by the edible crayon drawer, he's among other things, our resident SIP nerd, and for swicking Miss Carmen, @Carmen Ray is our hot nerdy chick who swicks with the best of them. She comes with a warning tho, she's a tabletop exhibitionist. You've been warned, but she will always supply the drinks. 🤣.

Anything not mean goes in here, so talk about anything, photo-bomb us if you just want to share your grow, and if you are having issues someone in here probably knows the answer.

Most in here also run their own journals so if they steer you there it's not a hijack, its freedom of information so please jump to their thread for deeper analysis, or discuss it here with them for all to listen in on.

And of course if you just want a nice drink and to watch ladies doing their thing on the tabletop once again there's Carmen🤣. She also takes really good pic's, so thats always great eye candy.

Oh, and if you want some cool actual real wild-child genetics then Matt @Lerugged is your man.

If you just love plant porn then @StoneOtter or @Gidorah or @Bill284 have you covered. They like monster sized plants.

@g-one-three grows some nice stuff too.

Actually everyone's game is pretty sweet right now

I like to cause problems and then figure out a fix cuz I bore easily, so that's always lurking in here too.

Welcome👊
Thanks for the mention Gee man. Welcome @CannabisVibes. Take a look at the SWICK thread (link in my signature). There's some awesome successful organic SWICKING going on in there.
😂😂 No, I had to go to the store and find it. I like meat and cheese and figure with the soy, I can have my tacos and eat them too
I'm with you on this Gid! lol
 
Ok, cool. My main confrey/nettle crumble input is 4.41:1 so sounds like I'm right in the sweet spot. :thumb:
Mornin' Azi☕👊.

There is one more thing to recognize. That's volume. Having it in ratio is only effective if you have adequate amounts.

I don't know comfrey or nettle at all other than a lot of vegetable gardeners swear by it so it may be absolutely loaded with Ca and Mg, or it may be light on it, but I will definitely take your word on it being ratioed nicely.

So that being said, put a little effort into researching it's volumes of them, then decide if it is better served as a global input, a tea, or a top dressing and then work that into your regiment.

Making it into a tea when your Ca line is crisp would be a great way to find out quickly if it has a drastic effect. If it is a dense enough input to fortify a global mix then in it's raw form it's also a green, so you will need to keep that in mind, as in if you need a lot of it then you may throw your browns to greens ratio out.

If thats the case then a tea or a top dressing used as a fix or a maintainer may be a better route for it.

Using calcium in it's raw mineral form, such as dolomite, allows room for other inputs such as kelp and alfalfa to be used as greens and then you get the best of both.

Not trying to discourage you here, just the opposite actually. I think using it correctly could really give you a boost in your journey to your end game.

Let the refractometer guide you.
 
As someone allergic to legumes, is there an alternative to soy milk that would be an adequate substitute? I eat yogurt but that's derived from milk.
Any fortified plant based "milk" will work well, as long as your alergy isn't to nuts, as most others are almond based.

Oat is a good one if it's fortified but oat does lack on taste in my opinion.

Even cow milk is heavily fortified with most of the same, it's not as good as most think in it's raw form, so generally speaking, their nutritional values are similar across the board but the carbs and proteins do fluctuate quite a bit from product to product.

If your main goal is to lose weight then fixing your available calcium combined with a proper ratio of carbs to proteins has an immediate effect.

When I figured it all out and changed my eating habits I dropped from 226 pounds to 155 pounds in 3 months.

I told the wife I need to go get tested as I think I may have cancer as I couldn't stop the weight loss.

She started laughing and threw one of my statements in my face. She said," You said when you started this that if it works like you think it should, then your math tells you that you should quickly revert back to your weight at 18 years old. Trust your math stupid!". Damn she was right lol.

When carbs and proteins (browns and greens) are balanced on input our internal composting gets very robust. You extract huge amounts of energy from your food but you don't store any excess carbs.

Our bodies are extremely efficient so once the inputs are balanced and appear to be remaining that way our bodies will burn the stored carbs by increasing our internal temperature in order to get rid of the excess around our waistline. I lost 2 of my 3 chins and 4 full inches off my waistline, which doesn't sound that drastic, but I'm quite tall so 4" was huge on me.

When we were both a full year in we went and had blood pressure and glucose levels tested as we were both starting to get high blood pressure and warned that we were pre-diabetic. We are both poster children for BP and blood sugar levels now. The body adapts quickly just like a plant does.

So to quote a wise SoCal dude, "Love yourself like you love your plants!" 🤣
 
Maybe I'll try almond milk as I'm not allergic to nuts and weight loss is thankfully not something I worry about but we could probably all be a bit healthier.

Here's an interesting dietary anecdote. I have an autoimmune disease which causes my body to react to foods I'm allergic to, to treat them as a threat and it responds by sending cells to wall off the offending food particles with a spider web type structure. Unfortunately these structures are not reabsorbed by the body and therefore they build up over time. Because this happens in my esophagus and the tube narrows and narrows with subsequent incidences, I gradually lose the ability to pass foods into my stomach.

Our famed medical community has two treatments for this. First is a procedure where they stuff a ballon-type instrument down your throat and then inflate it which destroys the web-like structure and you're good to go for a while until the structures rebuild and it becomes necessary to have the procedure again. Insurance companies have stopped covering this procedure since it can permanently tear your esophagus causing even worse issues.

So, their Plan B is steroids since the body's reaction is an inflammatory one and steroids are great for reducing inflammation. However, if you talk to any doctor not connected with treating this issue, everyone of them will tell you that treating a long term chronic issue with steroids is really bad because of the damage that steroids do you your body over time.

BUT, do you know what else is good for reducing inflammation? That's right, cannabinoids. Especially CBD. And no side effects that I'm aware of, at least in the doses I'm taking. But also no reoccurring money flow for the medical machine which is probably just a coincidence as to why it's not an available treatment.

However, since I began taking CBD I've been able to live a normal life and even eat the foods that once triggered my issues which is a good thing since the list of foods I'm allergic to includes grains like wheat and oats, and legumes like peas, beans and soy, and when the stuctures got built I then couldn't pass more dense solid foods like meats and things. Not a lot of food alternatives under that scenario.

I think what is said about cannabinoids working to bring the body back to homeostasis is 100% on point as the CBD is literally the only significant thing that's changed in my life from those days so my body is now working more properly. I also sleep better.

Dr William Courtney was an early pioneer in using the acidic, raw form of the cannabinoids to treat a whole host of chronic health issues, and has stated that everyone should be consuming raw cannabis in their diets as an essential dietary supplement. He advocates for juicing the fresh leaves.

So the moral of this story is your diet is important and listening to the interconnections @Gee64 is explaining connects a lot of seemingly unconnected dots.
 
Any fortified plant based "milk" will work well, as long as your alergy isn't to nuts, as most others are almond based.

Oat is a good one if it's fortified but oat does lack on taste in my opinion.

Even cow milk is heavily fortified with most of the same, it's not as good as most think in it's raw form, so generally speaking, their nutritional values are similar across the board but the carbs and proteins do fluctuate quite a bit from product to product.

If your main goal is to lose weight then fixing your available calcium combined with a proper ratio of carbs to proteins has an immediate effect.

When I figured it all out and changed my eating habits I dropped from 226 pounds to 155 pounds in 3 months.

I told the wife I need to go get tested as I think I may have cancer as I couldn't stop the weight loss.

She started laughing and threw one of my statements in my face. She said," You said when you started this that if it works like you think it should, then your math tells you that you should quickly revert back to your weight at 18 years old. Trust your math stupid!". Damn she was right lol.

When carbs and proteins (browns and greens) are balanced on input our internal composting gets very robust. You extract huge amounts of energy from your food but you don't store any excess carbs.

Our bodies are extremely efficient so once the inputs are balanced and appear to be remaining that way our bodies will burn the stored carbs by increasing our internal temperature in order to get rid of the excess around our waistline. I lost 2 of my 3 chins and 4 full inches off my waistline, which doesn't sound that drastic, but I'm quite tall so 4" was huge on me.

When we were both a full year in we went and had blood pressure and glucose levels tested as we were both starting to get high blood pressure and warned that we were pre-diabetic. We are both poster children for BP and blood sugar levels now. The body adapts quickly just like a plant does.

So to quote a wise SoCal dude, "Love yourself like you love your plants!" 🤣
Fascinating. I have been dabbling in food choices and nutrition for the past 10 years and stay away from fast and processed foods. Diet is still meat and potatoes and not enough greens I'm sure. In your humble opinion, if one was to keep this same intake but add 1 to 2 cups of soy milk a day to boost calcium, would it have any positive effects? Sounds to good to be true so baby steps for me. So many more questions, but will ask as they come up, thanks for sharing your story, I'm inspired
 
Maybe I'll try almond milk as I'm not allergic to nuts and weight loss is thankfully not something I worry about but we could probably all be a bit healthier.

Here's an interesting dietary anecdote. I have an autoimmune disease which causes my body to react to foods I'm allergic to, to treat them as a threat and it responds by sending cells to wall off the offending food particles with a spider web type structure. Unfortunately these structures are not reabsorbed by the body and therefore they build up over time. Because this happens in my esophagus and the tube narrows and narrows with subsequent incidences, I gradually lose the ability to pass foods into my stomach.

Our famed medical community has two treatments for this. First is a procedure where they stuff a ballon-type instrument down your throat and then inflate it which destroys the web-like structure and you're good to go for a while until the structures rebuild and it becomes necessary to have the procedure again. Insurance companies have stopped covering this procedure since it can permanently tear your esophagus causing even worse issues.

So, their Plan B is steroids since the body's reaction is an inflammatory one and steroids are great for reducing inflammation. However, if you talk to any doctor not connected with treating this issue, everyone of them will tell you that treating a long term chronic issue with steroids is really bad because of the damage that steroids do you your body over time.

BUT, do you know what else is good for reducing inflammation? That's right, cannabinoids. Especially CBD. And no side effects that I'm aware of, at least in the doses I'm taking. But also no reoccurring money flow for the medical machine which is probably just a coincidence as to why it's not an available treatment.

However, since I began taking CBD I've been able to live a normal life and even eat the foods that once triggered my issues which is a good thing since the list of foods I'm allergic to includes grains like wheat and oats, and legumes like peas, beans and soy, and when the stuctures got built I then couldn't pass more dense solid foods like meats and things. Not a lot of food alternatives under that scenario.

I think what is said about cannabinoids working to bring the body back to homeostasis is 100% on point as the CBD is literally the only significant thing that's changed in my life from those days so my body is now working more properly. I also sleep better.

Dr William Courtney was an early pioneer in using the acidic, raw form of the cannabinoids to treat a whole host of chronic health issues, and has stated that everyone should be consuming raw cannabis in their diets as an essential dietary supplement. He advocates for juicing the fresh leaves.

So the moral of this story is your diet is important and listening to the interconnections @Gee64 is explaining connects a lot of seemingly unconnected dots.
Great to hear!
 
Maybe I'll try almond milk as I'm not allergic to nuts and weight loss is thankfully not something I worry about but we could probably all be a bit healthier.

Here's an interesting dietary anecdote. I have an autoimmune disease which causes my body to react to foods I'm allergic to, to treat them as a threat and it responds by sending cells to wall off the offending food particles with a spider web type structure. Unfortunately these structures are not reabsorbed by the body and therefore they build up over time. Because this happens in my esophagus and the tube narrows and narrows with subsequent incidences, I gradually lose the ability to pass foods into my stomach.

Our famed medical community has two treatments for this. First is a procedure where they stuff a ballon-type instrument down your throat and then inflate it which destroys the web-like structure and you're good to go for a while until the structures rebuild and it becomes necessary to have the procedure again. Insurance companies have stopped covering this procedure since it can permanently tear your esophagus causing even worse issues.

So, their Plan B is steroids since the body's reaction is an inflammatory one and steroids are great for reducing inflammation. However, if you talk to any doctor not connected with treating this issue, everyone of them will tell you that treating a long term chronic issue with steroids is really bad because of the damage that steroids do you your body over time.

BUT, do you know what else is good for reducing inflammation? That's right, cannabinoids. Especially CBD. And no side effects that I'm aware of, at least in the doses I'm taking. But also no reoccurring money flow for the medical machine which is probably just a coincidence as to why it's not an available treatment.

However, since I began taking CBD I've been able to live a normal life and even eat the foods that once triggered my issues which is a good thing since the list of foods I'm allergic to includes grains like wheat and oats, and legumes like peas, beans and soy, and when the stuctures got built I then couldn't pass more dense solid foods like meats and things. Not a lot of food alternatives under that scenario.

I think what is said about cannabinoids working to bring the body back to homeostasis is 100% on point as the CBD is literally the only significant thing that's changed in my life from those days so my body is now working more properly. I also sleep better.

Dr William Courtney was an early pioneer in using the acidic, raw form of the cannabinoids to treat a whole host of chronic health issues, and has stated that everyone should be consuming raw cannabis in their diets as an essential dietary supplement. He advocates for juicing the fresh leaves.

So the moral of this story is your diet is important and listening to the interconnections @Gee64 is explaining connects a lot of seemingly unconnected dots.
Glad all is well in your world Azi
 
There is one more thing to recognize. That's volume. Having it in ratio is only effective if you have adequate amounts.

I don't know comfrey or nettle at all other than a lot of vegetable gardeners swear by it so it may be absolutely loaded with Ca and Mg, or it may be light on it, but I will definitely take your word on it being ratioed nicely.
Since I haven't had my stuff lab tested the figures I use for the various elements come from a book called "The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments" by Nigel Palmer. In it he goes into detail on the why's and how's of plant extracts, including those using brown sugar, water, vinegar, and alcohol. The plants he had tested are not my plants so there's a bit of blind faith that the numbers for my same plants will be similar.

In the back of the book he has tables showing the ppm's of various plants and their makeups.

I use 2:1 comfrey to nettle which gives me the following which I compare to both fish and dandelion which are more common inputs in the gardening world:

.................................P.............K..........Ca..........Mg..........Fe.........Si...........S.............Cl...........Na.........Al..
Fish (FAA)...........836.8......1,013....718.8.......105.7.....2.57.....0.29....127.2......1,000.....109.3.......1.31

Comfrey(x2).......270.8.......1,025....31.52......34.15.....2.06.....15.4......8.32............80.......0.58......0.31
S.Nettle...............35.34..........376.......861.........141.....1.57.....24.6.....70.17.....1,050.......0.55........0.9
(av).....................192.3.......808.7.....308.0......69.8.....1.9......18.5....28.9........403.3.....0.6.......0.5

Dandelion.............128..........485........143.......53.4......3.17.......28.......33.5......1,340.......3.25.......2.51

I've never paid much attention to ppm or ec but for a plant based concoction it seems to compare pretty well with the highly thought of fish and also the commonly used dandelion.

Compared to fish it's generally about half to two thirds of the values and generally better on many fronts than dandelion. Fish can burn your plants so i figure having lower values of things like calcium may be a good thing.

P is lower for me which is why I add flowers to my crumbles, but overall I think the numbers stack up pretty well compared to the standard of fish. So, I don't have a frame of reference to determine "adequate amounts" but we know fish works pretty well and top dressing with these crumbles produces healthy looking plants so they seem to meet the bare minimums required, though my low brix levels certainly indicate there's room for improvement.
 
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