Gee64
Well-Known Member
Sorry, very low calcium.
Winter Weedy Wonderland - Auto Grow - Royal Queen Seeds
- Thread starter Lady Cannafan
- Start date
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Sorry to hijack your thread Lady C. That's kinda why we use GeeSpot, to figure it out there instead of bogging down journals, but if you want it in your journal so you know where it is, thats totally OK too. GeeSpot meanders all over and things get lost.
Spoiler alert tho, start talking brix and VPD and it's like leaving lasagne out, nerdy boys will show up in droves
Spoiler alert tho, start talking brix and VPD and it's like leaving lasagne out, nerdy boys will show up in droves
Wow! So close to NoBug Island! A crisp line means you need some calcium maybe via Dolo Water vvv:
But 11 can become 12 pretty easily and then the cycle starts.
Great start!
- Thread starter
- #824
I use about 1/3 of the gallon as a top water/feed. I felt it would be good for the plants to keep moisture and nutes in the upper areas as well as the lower. There are roots everywhere on the plant, not just at the bottom, so I work on that theory and try to get the whole container fed. Make sense?
Gee64
Well-Known Member
See... tag Azi and nothing, but say lasagne just once....
Better have at least one cup of coffee ready lol
I do love lasagna lol how'd you know?Spoiler alert tho, start talking brix and VPD and it's like leaving lasagne out, nerdy boys will show up in droves
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- #827
You aren't hijacking at all. I appreciate learning this, and I KNOW there are others here learning with me.Sorry to hijack your thread Lady C. That's kinda why we use GeeSpot, to figure it out there instead of bogging down journals, but if you want it in your journal so you know where it is, thats totally OK too. GeeSpot meanders all over and things get lost.
Spoiler alert tho, start talking brix and VPD and it's like leaving lasagne out, nerdy boys will show up in droves
I've been lurking your journal for a very long time (the title got me
), so I know how many subjects get hit on. 
You get that grafting project we discussed started yet? I mean...you don't have anything to do to keep you busy......
- Thread starter
- #828
Thanks Azi. Good to see ya again.Wow! So close to NoBug Island! A crisp line means you need some calcium maybe via Dolo Water vvv:
But 11 can become 12 pretty easily and then the cycle starts.
Great start!
I have dolomite in the garage, I think it's a powder. I need to get my Ralphie winter clothes on to go out there though. LOL
I think today I will do a complete top water/feed on the four plants. Next one half n half top and bottom.
Maybe just alternate it that way.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
It does, and it's effective. To me, the reservoir is just something to stay hydrated with between top water feedings and fixings, and I have drippers for that, but as long as you have some top watering to keep the Ca cycling, your good.I use about 1/3 of the gallon as a top water/feed. I felt it would be good for the plants to keep moisture and nutes in the upper areas as well as the lower. There are roots everywhere on the plant, not just at the bottom, so I work on that theory and try to get the whole container fed. Make sense?
Do you have a cheapo single probe water meter that you jab into the soil? It is actually a very valuable tool, especially with bottom watering. It sets O2 straight.
All high brixers rely on one.
A water Stik, an IR gun, and a refractometer. Those are the tools of the trade, and a ppm meter will allow you to make calmag at home from prilled dolomite, which is really cheap, so you win your money back on the cost of the ppm/ec meter.
But with commercial calmag and it's mixing instructions, you don't need the ppm meter.
LOS is self ph'ing if myco and calcium are healthy, so you won't ever use your PH pen again.
Then enter VPD to dial your light in and you don't even need a light meter. Once you have LOS figured into the high brix zone it becomes fairly cheap to run.
So it's a bit complicated to learn, but once you see it you can't unsee it and it gets really easy.
Bottom watering is very compatible with synthetics tho, and Geoflora works pretty good with it too.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
A beautiful thing
No, no grafting yet. I took a couple weeks off at Xmas and all my mothers look pretty ghetto. I need a couple or 3 weeks to nurse them back, and then I'm going to cut some clones to veg into the perfect stalk sizes and start swapping limbs.I've been lurking your journal for a very long time (the title got me
You get that grafting project we discussed started yet? I mean...you don't have anything to do to keep you busy......
I haven't re-engaged the reservoirs yet, but that's coming in a round or two.
I grow in small, 2 gallon, pots with a home grown mix with home grown nutrients so my grow is one big unicorn.
I've had wetness issues with my set-up so I've been trying a few tweaks to try to get things a bit better dialed in.
The first tweak was shelving the SIP container for the moment, and top watering using the water stik as a guide. I've made some recent changes to my mix and I'm going to try a poorly wicking substrate (hydroton) in my connector pot for my SIPs and give that a go.
My small (and shorter) pots means my perched water table is higher (relatively speaking) than it would be with say a 5 gallon bucket, and Gee reminds us daily that good O2 is one of the Big 5 for high brix.
I'm a very accomplished overwaterer so this has been a focus for me, hence the use of the water stick. Plus, my diy mix has a lot of compost, worm castings, and leaf mold in it so I'm also adjusting those components.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Azi is being pretty humble. He has a long term project going to create high brix from only ingredients found on his own property/neighborhood, in a SIP.
When he gets it fully worked out it's going to be a system to make weed almost free to everyone, and then he has his KNF/Jadam, which has the potential to fix just about anything, so overall it's a huge undertaking but the results could be pretty incredible. Pretty much the perfect system. All done in a stealth-grow environment.
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- #833
I have 2 soil PH meters, and cannot yet locate my moisture meter. I've been looking for a couple weeks. I believe it was a moisture/ph combo. Double prong thingy. It will turn up soon, probably in a tool cabinet drawer.
If you all saw my tool cabinets and benches in my garage.....you'd be jealous. Rare occasion that I don't have a tool I need.
I have PPM meters as well, and water PH testers.
What we've found over in the Geespot thread is that making up a big storage bottle of diy dolo water concentrate with more than enough of the lime in the water to over saturate it, will make the doses you take from it consistent.Thanks Azi. Good to see ya again.
I have dolomite in the garage, I think it's a powder. I need to get my Ralphie winter clothes on to go out there though. LOL
I think today I will do a complete top water/feed on the four plants. Next one half n half top and bottom.
Maybe just alternate it that way.
It really doesn't matter a whole lot what the ppm's of that concentrate are because what you do is use as much of it as needed to bring your watering bucket up to a set threshold. I use rain water with ppm's in the single digits so I know how much of the concentrate I need to bring the watering jug up to 50 ppm's ish.
One note of caution however, one you add the concentrate to the feed water, the ppm's will keep rising if you don't use it all and try to store it for your next watering, so it's best to make it fresh from the concentrate each watering.
My theory on the rise is that the concentrate is maxed out on soluble calcium, but there is plenty more in suspension that didn't dissolve so when you dilute it with more water in your watering jug, the excess calcium starts to further dissolve.
Calcium is great stuff as Gee mentions but, since it's involved in the electrical charge of your mix, too much juice will fry your plants (ask me how I know lol).
So, just something to be aware if you go the diy route.
Gee says the powder is not as good as the prilled, but I used the powder to make my batch.
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- #835
Thanks Azi! I am getting my worm bins going again in the spring, and I'm thinking hard on the compost pile. Been years since I tried the compost thing out here, but it's do-able. I don't want the compost in the house, but I do have a place for the worm compost bins to keep them warm in the house. Properly managed, they shouldn't have a smell. We'll see. LOL
- Thread starter
- #836
Okay prilled dolomite.
Now, can someone direct me to a proper fish fert that I can get on the zon that is used for our plants? Something affordable, of course.
Now, can someone direct me to a proper fish fert that I can get on the zon that is used for our plants? Something affordable, of course.
What’s wrong with all the composted leaves in the bush?
And under the leaves is probably a couple inches of worm castings
Just like gold you gotta look for it
What’s in the corral is there no composted
manure left in there?
Them coyote dens probably got tons of bones around them that you could use for bonemeal
When worm castings are made, they get excreted in a calcium carbonate slime that dries and hardens around the goodies. So, they make time release calcium if you top dress with them and can help with the top up of calcium from above which is where you want it since it's heavy and falls through the soil mix.
A super easy (and small) compost pile can be made with a 30 gallon garbage can. Drill a bunch of holes around the sides for air, a few bigger ones on the bottom to allow the worms to find you, add a piece of inch and a half pvc pipe drilled all around for air and stuck vertically in the middle of your compost and you have a no turn pile working for you.
I have one that I use for onions, peppers, and stuff like that that I don't want in my worm bin I haven't done anything but add stuff to it for decades, it all magically disappears. But, put a couple/three side-by-side and you'd be able to have one actively working that you add your kitchen scraps plus browns to, and another one or two that are finishing.
Dump out the finished compost, run it through a 1/2" screen and you've got a self-sustaining system sufficient for a few plants on an ongoing basis.
Gee64
Well-Known Member
Powdered dolomite didn't treat me well, but many have had good success with it.