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Advancing Eco Agriculture, Product Science

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
I actually like to keep a yard of soil in the corner og the grow room with cover crop in it. Then when clones root I can stick them straight into truly living soil. Then when I transplant the soil I dig out goes into that pot. Never let "living" soil sit bare and dry

great way to save on mycorrhizae... nice move.
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
yea that Na is an issue .. Spectrum extra... teas, proper watering... AEA foliar can be a band aid until you get your microbes working and the soil unlocked.. first thing get the microbes stimulated and working on cycling nutrients.. Ive noticed that if you dont water properly all season then finally water the correct amount your plants are at a much higher risk for fungal disease. The plant is starved from the soil being locked up by drought, the plants become weak.. you water enough to properly saturate the soil, then first you get burn from the salt build up becoming mobile then shortly after fungal infections set in.

some growers incorrectly blame overwatering when it was truly underwatering that was the root cause. I know guys who underwater all season out of fear of fungal infections... They still get fungal infections but the plant doesnt succumb to fungi and still yields well by our standards. Obviously a fraction what is possible but still pulling down underwatered 8-10lbers with fungal infections isnt much motivation to water properly...

Milky your thoughts on the subject please....


Respect,

FE
 

milkyjoe

Senior Member
Veteran
Is this un amended native soil? Or have you been adding something?

Obviously you need sulfer most of all...gypsum...and how do you feel about ammonium sulfate. Yay or nay? You gotta get some N also.

I wouldn't bother with micros...they are just gonna be tied up anyways...you will need to foliar.

I see spectrum extra in your future...like this fall with a crop of oil seed radish
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
Spectrum Extra

Spectrum Extra™ is a special formula designed to reduce mineral solid contamination in the soil. For best results, use Spectrum Extra™ with Pepzyme M™ or Pepzyme Clear™ to enhance the performance and speed of the microbes.


But Where Does it all Go?
Inevitably we are asked, where do the mineral salts go? To show that they do not just leach further into the ground, a container test was conducted, where there would be no way for the mineral salts to escape.
Water was taken from an irrigation ditch, which was highly contaminated with mineral salts, and put into a barrel. Spectrum Extra™ was added, the water was aerated, and left for 60 days. This chart depicts the results.
The microbes in Spectrum Extra™ digested and significantly reduced the salt levels, even in an enclosed container.
Mineral_salt.jpg
 

milkyjoe

Senior Member
Veteran
One other thing. If you are doing acres I assume you have a business plan. How much is budgeted per acre for fertility?
 

chef

Gene Mangler
Veteran
Wow guys. Above n beyond the call o duty already ;) thx again.

I hit'em today with 1/2 strength N & P (hydrolized fish & 0-4-0 superbat) & 3Tbl of endo & endo/ecto mycobac. They liked it. ;)
Going to bump up N & P, to get the ratio more in line with the K.
Most of these strains dont mind "hot" at all.

My holes are about 200gallons of worked & amended soil.

I'm ordering Spectrum Extra & getting that longterm process started.
Kinda stumped one the Na? My 5yr old holes are cleaner than my 2nd year holes? Anyways, im on that ;) thx, cool stuff.
You already had me wanting to try Pepzime, from your other posts.
What was it? 5 drops a week per plant, to keep the herd happy?

What about micro5000 foliar spray from Tainio?
The place i was ordering the Spectrum from, has it too.
http://www.blazing-star.com/zencart/index.php?main_page-=index&cPath=15_13

Ill have to reread & see what I missed? :) on my iphone
 

jd123

Member
Watering is the most Important factor I've seen for large plants. I focus on getting a plant established until the entire container is filled with roots and then getting a schedule dialed in that maintains it. I'll do 40-20-10-40-20-10 or something like that. My irrigation kicks on 3 times per day. I always have people trip out like "bro aren't you afraid of root rot?" But I've never had it. Even, daily watering's have always been my ticket.

I never understood the drown your plants every 3 or so days and then once they can breathe, drown them again. I hear of a lot people doing this and its bizarre.

Over water, let the soil dry out too much to the point where roots die (usually only in smart pots I see this) Then dump water on again but now there's less roots to drink it and the cycle repeats itself. If you get root rot in a smart-pot you should probably just hang it up and do something else that's more productive with your time than growing weed.

People don't realize how much water they waste as well. See how much your pot, box, hole, bed uses (watch run-off) when you water X amount of gallons and then know that's a deep watering and adjust accordingly. When I had holes, I watered for a week and would dig down each day to see how water was being used so as to not let it pool up on top of the clay 18" underground and cause me problems.
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
right.. I dont think you can drown plants in properly built soil... unless you have holes lined with clay or it somehow wont drain...

I also still follow tom hills watering advice indoors and out...
 

jd123

Member
Yes. The only time I see issues is holes that are hard-packed granite or clay. The biggest plants I've ever seen were in shitty draining holes. The plants were just so damn big the moisture retention served the guy in a positive way. I always here people talking about rot like its the crazy thing just pops out of no where, when plants usually let you know somethings fucked up long before that point.

People treat growing like its a one size fits all too commonly..mostly new outdoor guys. "My friend waters 40 gallons so yeah...Ill water 40 gallons"

Like Tom said "coax, don't push"

FE I wanna see some pics of your outdoor. You should toss some up on here or make an album.
 

chef

Gene Mangler
Veteran
In ground water management is a mofo :( there's nothing more difficult IME.
30" auger


On the Sulphur? Where I'm a little low on Ca too. Top/till dress some Azomite maybe? I need to watch that vid you posted FE ;)

I like me some clover too :biggrin: was 8-20-13, w/no issues lol
Sowing 5lbs of crimson, red, pink mix, after the drip is laid in a few days.
 

milkyjoe

Senior Member
Veteran
picture.php


These things have virtually gotten no added N but a ton of minerals. What I like it that branching has been so good and node spacing is staying consistent. No evidence of actual stretching so far. Now we will see if I can keep enough energy in them to fill them out.
 

milkyjoe

Senior Member
Veteran
picture.php


The in ground plants attract weeds that benefit them when microbe activity is high enough. Never seen these broad leafs on this property before. I assume they are fixing N.
 

milkyjoe

Senior Member
Veteran
In ground water management is a mofo :( there's nothing more difficult IME.
30" auger
[URL="https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=9595&pictureid=1253949&thumb=1"]View Image[/URL]

On the Sulphur? Where I'm a little low on Ca too. Top/till dress some Azomite maybe? I need to watch that vid you posted FE ;)

I like me some clover too :biggrin: was 8-20-13, w/no issues lol
Sowing 5lbs of crimson, red, pink mix, after the drip is laid in a few days.
[URL="https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=9548&pictureid=1128401&thumb=1"]View Image[/URL]

The easiest thing to get sulfer and Ca is gypsum and it is one of the cheaper inputs also. I forget the exact number but I think Logan said you needed somewhere around 500 lbs per acre Ca. So gypsum is like 20% Ca...so 500/0.2 is like 2500 lbs gypsum per acre. Truthfully I would probably split that between CaCO3 (ag lime) and gypsum cause that is gonna be a whole lot of sulfer.

So ag lime is 40% Ca...so 250/.4 is 625 lbs per acre lime...and cut the gypsum in half.
 

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