The Gee Spot - You Finally Found It

[Azimuth]

So my soil PH. It's low. To be honest, once flower starts I rarely do anything other than some LST and the odd brix check, so it is entirely possible that every grow lowers PH at this point, but I haven't seen it. If this is the 1st time, its pretty much gotta be the mulch.

So heres my dilemma....

I purposely don't use mulch until flip so the roots don't get up into the top 1.5" or so of the pot. All the EWC and topdressing from veg is there. Some of it leaches down, but a lot of it is still there. It's my stretch battery.

So if I remove the mulch I will injure new feeder roots for sure, right at stretch. If I leave it alone, maybe it lowered my PH or maybe the plant/myco system did because thats what the plant dictated.

I am leaning towards letting it be and watching.

The plants aren't perfect, but they are generally healthy and brix is slowly creeping back up with the added light.

They are drinking well and increasing their water intake every day, and every time I turn up the light they say thanks. They just aren't praying yet and they should be.

Drinking is my main concern. If its good the plants are usually good.

So do I strip the mulch or let them be?

The mulch is composted Douglas Fir bark and wild salmon guts. So nutritionally speaking, its Da Bomb. Outdoors it works wonders. This is my 1st time using it in a pot.

What say you all?

My stash is very large so I don't need the weed, and if it goes south I do need the worm food so thats not a factor, should we watch and do bi-weekly soil PH's, or strip it?

Why not a side-by-side? Replace the existing mulch on one plant with say, compost, another with straw, etc.

I know you have this paranoid thing about keeping outdoors outdoors, but @StoneOtter uses bark chunks from his yard that he sterilizes in the oven if that helps you get over the creepy crawly problem. You'll kill off a lot of the benefits of the compost if you bake it, but it sounds like you've got the perfect setup for an experiment especially since all you really want is worm food.

Plus, with your high brix levels, plant pests shouldn't be much of an issue.

 

[Azimuth]

Sorry Azi, I forgot to mention you. Whether your interested in KNF or not, Azi's thread is an encyclopedia of what inputs contain what nutrients and so forth, so it has value in composting and/or worm farming too. Its a good read.

That's OK, I get overlooked a lot.

Something about my quiet, shy personality I guess...

 

[Azimuth]

Hey, @Gee64 congrats on your nomination! I couldn't vote for you last time since I nominated someone else in that month's contest but I have no restriction this time!

 

[Gee64]

Why not a side-by-side? Replace the existing mulch on one plant with say, compost, another with straw, etc.

I know you have this paranoid thing about keeping outdoors outdoors, but @StoneOtter uses bark chunks from his yard that he sterilizes in the oven if that helps you get over the creepy crawly problem. You'll kill off a lot of the benefits of the compost if you bake it, but it sounds like you've got the perfect setup for an experiment especially since all you really want is worm food.

Plus, with your high brix levels, plant pests shouldn't be much of an issue.

I considered this actually, but really my dilemma is to disturb roots at stretch or not. I don't like straw indoors. It holds too much water. Bark nuggets are my goto but I'm out and so is my supplier, hence the Seasoil. Bark nuggets are the best I have found so far. The roots actually attach to them.

 

[Gee64]

That's OK, I get overlooked a lot.

Something about my quiet, shy personality I guess...

Sorry, did you say something? I didn't see you there....

 

[Absorber]

bark nuggets?

 

[Gee64]

bark nuggets?

Yeah Douglas fir is a thick woody bark quite often several inches thick. It breaks up into gumball sized nuggets and is a great mulch.

 

[Absorber]

Yeah Douglas fir is a thick woody bark quite often several inches thick. It breaks up into gumball sized nuggets and is a great mulch.

So not barkers eggs AKA bark nuggets (dog shit)
Glad that's cleared up

 

[Gee64]

Day 8 of Flower.

A morning webcam shot. They are almost praying. Lets get the funk behind us.

I used the Photone App to map out the entire tent yesterday.

I was taking readings from the center and using those, but now I realize that the centers of the plants aren't near what the center of the tent is, and there isn't a plant in the center of the tent so now the center is 1150 PPFD, but over each plant it is 1000 PPFD.

They seem happier this morning. We will run a temperature/VPD check this afternoon.

 

[Graytail]

Did I understand that correctly? Your soil pH is rising?

How?

Your soil calcium should completely buffer the pH. No?

 

[Gee64]

Did I understand that correctly? Your soil pH is rising?

How?

Your soil calcium should completely buffer the pH. No?

It dropped to 5.8, usually its at 6.2. The only change I made was using a different mulch.

 

[Gee64]

Im not home right now but the webcam shows them loving the extra light today. Almost a full praying. Thats better than the last 2 weeks has been. Thank Goodness, I was getting perturbed.

 

[Jon]

Ok I know Jon, Carmen, Stone, and Keff have journals going. I'm not sure about the rest of you. Can anyone with a current journal going please post a link in here so we can all tag along. Organic, synthetic, it doesn't matter.

Can do.

Jon's Final Florida Journal For Real

@ViparSpectra Hello fellow 420 growers! Welcome to my final journal in the state of Florida. When this is done I finally get to move back to PA, as our legal situation has been settled. Yay! I appreciate you stopping by, and I’ll do my best to show you something cool and different and...

www.420magazine.com

 

[Graytail]

It dropped to 5.8, usually its at 6.2. The only change I made was using a different mulch.

Ok, so it's falling.

How?

The soil calcium should hold pH rock-steady. In our mix, it's virtually impossible for soil pH to change. You can dump whatever you want into it and it returns to 6.2 or wherever it sets (forgot what it is - 6.2 sounds familiar). It's fully buffered.

I rely on our brix black-box, but it's clear that you have a better understanding of the processes, so the idea that your pH drifts is shocking to me. Ours will drift upward over repeated grows, but never during a grow, and certainly not within a week. Ours is loaded with limestone calcium.

Do you start with less of a mineral load? Or you supplement calcium in an different way?

 

[Gee64]

Here is my recipe GT.


20 gals recycled soil
2 gals coco
7 cups prilled dolomite
1 cup blood meal
.5 cup bat guano
.5c rock phosphate
3 cups feather meal
3 cups bone meal
1.5 cups greensand
.3 cups SRP
2 cups organic basmati
.75 cups gypsum
3 cups kelp meal
2 cups alfalfa meal
2.5 cup oyster shell flour


Worm farm amendments
per 4 gallon tray
kitchen scraps/coffee grounds
2 oz cannabis bud
2 oz cannabis leaf
2 tablespoons kelp meal
2 tablespoons alfalfa meal
1 tablespoon greensand
1 tablespoon rock phosphate
1 teaspoon SRP
1 tablespoons oyster flour
1 tablespoon glacial rock dust
2 gals coco or 2 gals used soil alternating between trays
1 gal perlite

Spikes - 4 per pot, 1/4 cup each spike
1 part feathermeal
1 part bat guano
1 part bone meal
.5 part kelp meal
.5 part alfalfa meal

 

[StoneOtter]

So I have an idea I would like to fly by you all.

As a group, lets charge admission. Toss out a picture of what you got going on, even if you don't have any weed growing at the moment but you have a pepper plant or a cactus or whatever, and try to track it over time like say weekly, in a manner that relates to its lighting. Even a grow thats hurting is good input. How shorter days on the windowsill effect it or how turning your led up effects it or anything like that.

If you can include your thoughts, beliefs, or hard science, and especially your knowledge on it, we get a lot of light info all at once. Crowd sourcing.

I need to learn light, as my last led was awesome, but it never had a volume dial and it was only 540 watts. I never really needed to understand much about light until now.

@Jon explained to me a lot, and mostly that I needed to calibrate the Photone App, which I had tried many times before but without it being calibrated it made no sense, so if Jon is willing to help anyone get started, you should all download it and check things out.

Im almost starting to think light may be important. Grab an IR thermometer too if you can, and compare ppfd and leaf temps and light intensities, and maybe we will find that a lot of growing problems are actually lighting problems.

Then once a week or so toss another picture in and we can all analyze the week to week stuff.

It would be a really easy fix if your grow was less than stellar and the only adjustment you needed was in lighting.

I could use to cal my photone app I'm sure!

Here is the inside of the Goliath. There are 4 quadrants to the light board. 2 Drivers per quadrant, 2 faulty quadrants so 4 drivers to replace.

I googled the model number but got no hits. Anyone know where/how to find replacements? Is it even worth it?

Give LED Drivers by TRC Electronics | Top Rated Lighting Drivers | TRC Electronics a contact with the information on this driver. Im positive they will have a drop in replacement for you.

So my soil PH. It's low. To be honest, once flower starts I rarely do anything other than some LST and the odd brix check, so it is entirely possible that every grow lowers PH at this point, but I haven't seen it. If this is the 1st time, its pretty much gotta be the mulch.

So heres my dilemma....

I purposely don't use mulch until flip so the roots don't get up into the top 1.5" or so of the pot. All the EWC and topdressing from veg is there. Some of it leaches down, but a lot of it is still there. It's my stretch battery.

So if I remove the mulch I will injure new feeder roots for sure, right at stretch. If I leave it alone, maybe it lowered my PH or maybe the plant/myco system did because thats what the plant dictated.

I am leaning towards letting it be and watching.

The plants aren't perfect, but they are generally healthy and brix is slowly creeping back up with the added light.

They are drinking well and increasing their water intake every day, and every time I turn up the light they say thanks. They just aren't praying yet and they should be.

Drinking is my main concern. If its good the plants are usually good.

So do I strip the mulch or let them be?

The mulch is composted Douglas Fir bark and wild salmon guts. So nutritionally speaking, its Da Bomb. Outdoors it works wonders. This is my 1st time using it in a pot.

What say you all?

My stash is very large so I don't need the weed, and if it goes south I do need the worm food so thats not a factor, should we watch and do bi-weekly soil PH's, or strip it?

The Rev puts a few grains of fast release dolomite lime in a gallon of ro and waters to keep soil ph up. Maybe you can try something like that?

 

[Gee64]

I could use to cal my photone app I'm sure!

Give LED Drivers by TRC Electronics | Top Rated Lighting Drivers | TRC Electronics a contact with the information on this driver. Im positive they will have a drop in replacement for you.

The Rev puts a few grains of fast release dolomite lime in a gallon of ro and waters to keep soil ph up. Maybe you can try something like that?

Drivers and dolomite! Nice Stone Thanks! I will give both when I get home.

 

[Jon]

Here is my recipe GT.


20 gals recycled soil
2 gals coco
7 cups prilled dolomite
1 cup blood meal
.5 cup bat guano
.5c rock phosphate
3 cups feather meal
3 cups bone meal
1.5 cups greensand
.3 cups SRP
2 cups organic basmati
.75 cups gypsum
3 cups kelp meal
2 cups alfalfa meal
2.5 cup oyster shell flour


Worm farm amendments
per 4 gallon tray
kitchen scraps/coffee grounds
2 oz cannabis bud
2 oz cannabis leaf
2 tablespoons kelp meal
2 tablespoons alfalfa meal
1 tablespoon greensand
1 tablespoon rock phosphate
1 teaspoon SRP
1 tablespoons oyster flour
1 tablespoon glacial rock dust
2 gals coco or 2 gals used soil alternating between trays
1 gal perlite

Spikes - 4 per pot, 1/4 cup each spike
1 part feathermeal
1 part bat guano
1 part bone meal
.5 part kelp meal
.5 part alfalfa meal

Where can I find stuff about your spikes? What they do, why, how to create them in a pot - all that good stuff? I’m sure you covered this before, yes?

 

[Graytail]

Here is my recipe GT.


20 gals recycled soil
2 gals coco
7 cups prilled dolomite
1 cup blood meal
.5 cup bat guano
.5c rock phosphate
3 cups feather meal
3 cups bone meal
1.5 cups greensand
.3 cups SRP
2 cups organic basmati
.75 cups gypsum
3 cups kelp meal
2 cups alfalfa meal
2.5 cup oyster shell flour


Worm farm amendments
per 4 gallon tray
kitchen scraps/coffee grounds
2 oz cannabis bud
2 oz cannabis leaf
2 tablespoons kelp meal
2 tablespoons alfalfa meal
1 tablespoon greensand
1 tablespoon rock phosphate
1 teaspoon SRP
1 tablespoons oyster flour
1 tablespoon glacial rock dust
2 gals coco or 2 gals used soil alternating between trays
1 gal perlite

Spikes - 4 per pot, 1/4 cup each spike
1 part feathermeal
1 part bat guano
1 part bone meal
.5 part kelp meal
.5 part alfalfa meal

Thanks, but it's greek to me.

I'm just trying to understand why your mineralized soil doesn't buffer enough to hold a stable pH. I sure don't know.

 

[Gee64]

Thanks, but it's greek to me.

I'm just trying to understand why your mineralized soil doesn't buffer enough to hold a stable pH. I sure don't know.

Yeah I'm not sure. 1 pot today is at 6.3, one at 6.2, and 2 at 5.8. I scraped back some mulch to check for roots and 2 big earth worms literally dove for cover. I guess I startled them.

I think I'm going to watch for another few days. Theres no sign of deficiency yet, and if it doesn't correct itself I will take Stones advice and use some dolomite water.

I gotta get a heater in there, its down to 72F. Winters coming.