Vancouver Island 2022 Organic Grow

[KeithLemon]

Thanks bro, I am extra happy I live right in front of it too. Can’t beat that, well you can if you put the grow tent next to the bed

It’s a “lease” space and the owner already talking next year expansion. We got a honey bee project coming very soon, right there next to the cannabis.

Must be nice to wake up and look out your window and see that. Honeybees are a must have for everything that grows plus the honey is great for you.

 

[Danishoes21]

Got some work done this afternoon; sliced opened and crumbled all the substrate with wine cap mycelium, spread on the tomato beds, brassica beds, the two 10 gal pot for the 2 phenos I just up potted today with a rather interesting layering; also went with the phenos outdoors top dressing with mycelium and a fresh batch of compost soil, made the mounds bigger and covered with hay for moisture retention, we are on semi drought weather conditions no forecast rain, nothing…
This is the outdoors bunch

Powerful living soil mix with mycelium for top dressing

This is the 9pm light on the plants, they also showing a glow to them, days after the Willow non diluted foliar feed. They all got watered with tea.

 

[Danishoes21]

For the pots I’m trying out these layers;

-Pine and/or maple wood sticks, stuff I pick up from the ground.
-Sawdust
-Crumble substrate mycelium
-Fermented seaweed and garden weeds
-Composted soil with various soil amendments. Hay

The Autos;

Let’s see where this goes.

 

[TwelveCoffee]

For the pots I’m trying out these layers;

-Pine and/or maple wood sticks, stuff I pick up from the ground.
-Sawdust
-Crumble substrate mycelium
-Fermented seaweed and garden weeds
-Composted soil with various soil amendments. Hay

The Autos;

Let’s see where this goes.

Fuck ya brother you got this will you perform the auto dance to help @Bill284 get legendary autos?!

 

[CaptainLucky]

Thanks bro, I am extra happy I live right in front of it too. Can’t beat that, well you can if you put the grow tent next to the bed

It’s a “lease” space and the owner already talking next year expansion. We got a honey bee project coming very soon, right there next to the cannabis.

Hey bro did you ever think about keeping worms? Lots of benefits for your plants. CL

 

[Danishoes21]

This is a 1996 organic gardening almanac; this information is been around for decades.

@cbdhemp808 @Azimuth

 

[Danishoes21]

Hey bro did you ever think about keeping worms? Lots of benefits for your plants. CL

Bro the compost pile has many worms, I don’t harvest the worm casting as I don’t have the setup needed. Nonetheless I use composted soil with all the worm casting and juices and plenty worms get mixed in the soil lol… I gotta try one day to make a worm bin.

Worm castings is by far one of the best organic fertilizer period.
Love that stuff

 

[Danishoes21]

Fuck ya brother you got this will you perform the auto dance to help @Bill284 get legendary autos?!

I can perform a dance for sure, probably a rain dance at this point lol

 

[KeithLemon]

For the pots I’m trying out these layers;

-Pine and/or maple wood sticks, stuff I pick up from the ground.
-Sawdust
-Crumble substrate mycelium
-Fermented seaweed and garden weeds
-Composted soil with various soil amendments. Hay

The Autos;

Let’s see where this goes.

This should be interesting.

 

[CaptainLucky]

For the pots I’m trying out these layers;

-Pine and/or maple wood sticks, stuff I pick up from the ground.
-Sawdust
-Crumble substrate mycelium
-Fermented seaweed and garden weeds
-Composted soil with various soil amendments. Hay

The Autos;

Let’s see where this goes.

Great looking roots. CL

 

[CaptainLucky]

Bro the compost pile has many worms, I don’t harvest the worm casting as I don’t have the setup needed. Nonetheless I use composted soil with all the worm casting and juices and plenty worms get mixed in the soil lol… I gotta try one day to make a worm bin.

Worm castings is by far one of the best organic fertilizer period.
Love that stuff

I think it was Azi who made one but it didn’t look like it would take much work. CL

 

[BuzzzD]

the Willow non diluted foliar feed.

Everything looks great Shoes, - I have made two batches of willow tea, one just willow and one with worm castings. Do you use it straight or diluted?? Thanx.

 

[Azimuth]

I think it was Azi who made one but it didn’t look like it would take much work. CL

I have a series of stacked 7 gallon totes as my worm factory. Doesn't have much of a footprint (maybe 12x18"?) and gives me a harvest every 2 months.

 

[Danishoes21]

I have a series of stacked 7 gallon totes as my worm factory. Doesn't have much of a footprint (maybe 12x18"?) and gives me a harvest every 2 months.

It might be too much to ask but, could you give us a link to your build or describe how to build a worm bin to harvest the castings? Like the one you have?

 

[Danishoes21]

Everything looks great Shoes, - I have made two batches of willow tea, one just willow and one with worm castings. Do you use it straight or diluted?? Thanx.

Thanks BuzzzD

Right on with the Willow tea, at this time around I’m using it straight no dilution. I’m convinced that even non diluted it can’t hurt the plants. I haven’t seen any side effects from direct foliar spray of non diluted Willow, I go as far as non diluted compost tea. I have tested the strength before, now I go straight with it. I do have to say I leave my teas on a perpetual fermentation, I keep adding organic material and rain water as the season progresses.

My compost tea is more a green manure tea, it’s now become a seaweed and weeds bucket filled with rain water that has been fermenting for close to two months. The more refine teas are separate that is Willow and Horsetail/comfrey. Now for these last 2 teas I use let’s say a pound of fresh organic material and the rain water is actually liquid from my green manure tea… full circle.

Try out spraying with some dilution, if you see a negative effect, stop and reassess, if you don’t see any negative effect up the dose or spray non diluted.

Hope this helps.

 

[Azimuth]

It might be too much to ask but, could you give us a link to your build or describe how to build a worm bin to harvest the castings? Like the one you have?

Mine is pretty simple. I have three, 7gal totes nested in each other and all sitting on another one with a lid that has a pvc pipe frame inside to hold the weight.

This bottom one has holes in the top lid to let excess liquid drain through and a spigot at the bottom which I leave open with a catch pan container to catch the drippings. I use this leachate to prime my compost pile.

The three nested totes (wish I had a fourth) are all the same and labeled so I can note any changes to inputs, etc. They each have many holes in the bottom big enough so the worms can easily migrate up and down through them. They also each have many smaller vent holes in the upper few inches of the sides to help with air flow although that's really only needed for the uppermost one in the series since when they nest there is enough side air between the totes. I also use inverted plastic cups in the bottoms of each container to prevent the material from fully compressing with the weight from the totes above.

The top one has a lid to keep it dark and the moisture in but you could easily use a wet piece of burlap or newspaper or something like that instead.

That's pretty much it.

I harvest every two months which means each tote sits for six months for the material to break down. Sometimes not everything has broken down so adding a fourth bin would allow for an extra period for more fully finished castings.

To harvest, I dump the contents out on a tarp in a pile in bright, indirect light in the breeze which causes the remaining worms to huddle in the middle bottom in a pile which makes it easy to move them to the new upper container without having to go through the castings in small handfuls.

The breeze helps to dry them out a bit making them easier to process which I do by running them through a colander to screen out the bigger stuff. A second smaller sift would allow you to screen out the egg capsules if you wanted to separate them for some reason.

They're pretty mucky at harvest, so I mix and fluff the pile with my hands periodically and once they're dry enough to go through the colander without clogging it up I screen them and store them in a container for use.

Feeding the worms is dead simple as well. We collect kitchen scraps throughout the week in a countertop composting container and I dump those contents on the top of the uppermost tote, level them out with a garden trowel, add some amendments like rock dusts, malted barley, neem meal, etc. and then cover that with a layer of compost or leaves, or something like that.

Running your kitchen scraps through a blender with some water would be better and make for faster and more finished castings but I'd have to get a dedicated blender for that which I don't have yet.

The kitchen scraps are mostly water so you won't get much of a harvest from just them, but it's the other brown organic matter you add along with them that gives you the bulk at harvest.

To start a new tote I just line the bottom of the empty container with some brown material for bedding like leaves, compost, CSPM, coco, etc., dampen it, add some starter worms and then fill as I go.

My grow is pretty small all the way around but this concept could easily be scaled up to handle larger amounts of inputs leading to a correspondingly bigger castings harvest as well.

 

[Danishoes21]

Mine is pretty simple. I have three, 7gal totes nested in each other and all sitting on another one with a lid that has a pvc pipe frame inside to hold the weight.

This bottom one has holes in the top lid to let excess liquid drain through and a spigot at the bottom which I leave open with a catch pan container to catch the drippings. I use this leachate to prime my compost pile.

The three nested totes (wish I had a fourth) are all the same and labeled so I can note any changes to inputs, etc. They each have many holes in the bottom big enough so the worms can easily migrate up and down through them. They also each have many smaller vent holes in the upper few inches of the sides to help with air flow although that's really only needed for the uppermost one in the series since when they nest there is enough side air between the totes. I also use inverted plastic cups in the bottoms of each container to prevent the material from fully compressing with the weight from the totes above.

The top one has a lid to keep it dark and the moisture in but you could easily use a wet piece of burlap or newspaper or something like that instead.

That's pretty much it.

I harvest every two months which means each tote sits for six months for the material to break down. Sometimes not everything has broken down so adding a fourth bin would allow for an extra period for more fully finished castings.

To harvest, I dump the contents out on a tarp in a pile in bright, indirect light in the breeze which causes the remaining worms to huddle in the middle bottom in a pile which makes it easy to move them to the new upper container without having to go through the castings in small handfuls.

The breeze helps to dry them out a bit making them easier to process which I do by running them through a colander to screen out the bigger stuff. A second smaller sift would allow you to screen out the egg capsules if you wanted to separate them for some reason.

They're pretty mucky at harvest, so I mix and fluff the pile with my hands periodically and once they're dry enough to go through the colander without clogging it up I screen them and store them in a container for use.

Feeding the worms is dead simple as well. We collect kitchen scraps throughout the week in a countertop composting container and I dump those contents on the top of the uppermost tote, level them out with a garden trowel, add some amendments like rock dusts, malted barley, neem meal, etc. and then cover that with a layer of compost or leaves, or something like that.

Running your kitchen scraps through a blender with some water would be better and make for faster and more finished castings but I'd have to get a dedicated blender for that which I don't have yet.

The kitchen scraps are mostly water so you won't get much of a harvest from just them, but it's the other brown organic matter you add along with them that gives you the bulk at harvest.

To start a new tote I just line the bottom of the empty container with some brown material for bedding like leaves, compost, CSPM, coco, etc., dampen it, add some starter worms and then fill as I go.

My grow is pretty small all the way around but this concept could easily be scaled up to handle larger amounts of inputs leading to a correspondingly bigger castings harvest as well.

Thank you very much for that detailed description, for taking the time to elaborate and share your findings. I will proactively build something like this in the short future. I have a compost food scraps only bin I can start at any time, I got worms around, a drill, just need the proper containers to be able to stack them up. I got some stackable ones but dont wanna drill holes to them, I will find something at the second hand store today.

I'm sure many will benefit from you sharing this rather easy and inexpensive way to make worm castings.

 

[Azimuth]

Thank you very much for that detailed description, for taking the time to elaborate and share your findings. I will proactively build something like this in the short future. I have a compost food scraps only bin I can start at any time, I got worms around, a drill, just need the proper containers to be able to stack them up. I got some stackable ones but dont wanna drill holes to them, I will find something at the second hand store today.

I'm sure many will benefit from you sharing this rather easy and inexpensive way to make worm castings.

You could do it all in a single, large bin. To harvest, you would only feed one half to get most of the worms to migrate over to that half and dig out the other.

 

[Danishoes21]

Remember the 3 phenos I gave away to my buddy… lol the got hammered by the sheep, talk about natural stress. The got forced topped lol

I hope my buddy gets his grow on because the phenos I gave him aren’t bad at all, the pink kush is more of a Sativa looking pheno.

Personal Sativa

Super lemon haze

The pink kush is right of my foot.

Well it is what it is… if I would have charged him he probably would have taken better care. Free stuff gets neglected. Anyway he is a bro, we laughed about.

 

[KeithLemon]

Remember the 3 phenos I gave away to my buddy… lol the got hammered by the sheep, talk about natural stress. The got forced topped lol

I hope my buddy gets his grow on because the phenos I gave him aren’t bad at all, the pink kush is more of a Sativa looking pheno.

Personal Sativa

Super lemon haze

The pink kush is right of my foot.

Well it is what it is… if I would have charged him he probably would have taken better care. Free stuff gets neglected. Anyway he is a bro, we laughed about.

That really sucks. Dam sheep.