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Balancing Soil Minerals

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VortexPower420

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Milky, drop-in bombs as usual.

I just gave a sprinkle of borax tonight to get my B up.
1 Tlbs 5 gals, not the most scientific but has always done me well.
 
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reppin2c

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This is that thread.

I could see chasing K in a light weight mix. I am short on K in last year's mix which doesn't bother me as bad as chasing Ca. My P levels where high so I feel like I didn't have enough life to process that. Saturated test told the story
 
FoothillFarming

FoothillFarming

Active member
milkyjoe said:
If Leadsled calculated your Ca then I am sure he added enough. So focus on microbes, get some grass growing in your pots and use Tainio, I never use oyster shell for this reason, stick with 200 mesh hical lime in the future, or Vansil W10 if you need SiO2.

LIke I said, the calcium is complicated. Based off my base soil-less mix, the needed amount of calcium was about 12 lbs. However, the sample on the test shows 16.6 lbs per yard. So I went away from what lead was recommending by what was showing up in the test results. So if that becomes a problem, that is on me. Really any problems are on me, Lead recommended several things I wasn't able to come up with.

As for the oyster shells, I have been going back and forth with this. If I had three months for this mix to sit and "breakdown", then I would stick with the oyster shells for the simple ingredient of chitosan. However I see your and Lead's point on using the lime, it shows up right away. With it showing up right away, you can eliminate many problems, and just supplement fertigation with Sea Shield for the chitosan.

Your problem will be early in the plants life it will take up K instead of Ca which will make for weak cell walls that are open to sap sucker attack. So spray plenty of Ca until you see it come up in the soil.

I don't like to hear this..... Last season battled russet mites. When I went down to the garden, I noticed for the first time some aphids. 2 on many plants, so it's minor at the moment, but spot on with what your saying.

I have been using photomag, micro pak, sea shield, sea stim, sea crop PHT calcium and phosphorus. Also from Tainio micro 5000 (organic), all in my foliar applications. I have a compact PH meter in my cart at amazon, and I am going to break out my brix meter soon to help monitor plant health.

Did you amend micros...MnSO4, etc? Even if yes I would think you would want to spray micros and get a test in a month or so. They are water soluble so it is not hard to fertigate them any time.

I am waiting for Lead to get back to me with my latest recommendations, so I may fertigate some more micros in the soil mix. Yes, up till now, we have amended everything. I usually get an AEA base test with Ec, Mo, Co, Se, Si added plus N03 and N04. The test I posted I only paid for the base test, because the first 6-10 tests the micros started to even out and testing for them again would have been a waste. I will post those tests up if interested.

Watch out for the tips of your leaves curling right or left. That is a sign of Zn def which I am betting you will definitely have. Also watch for tip burn...which is actually a lack of Ca sometimes caused by a B shortage...B is the limo driver for Ca. If it is short Ca will not get to the growing tips.

So far everything else you have said has been spot on, so I will keep an eye. I will remember to talk to Lead about my lack of Zn, and see what he recommends. I have both Zn sulfates and Zn from AEA, so I got options.

As for the Boron, we have added 22grams per yard of Borax. So not sure if I should push that any harder.....Will also consult Lead about this. Thanks for that heads up as well.

That high P may also be tying up Ca in the soil. At some point get a saturated paste test to see if Ca is available or not. The high P will also tie up the micro cations...plan on spraying that the entire time. The micros are really important for health and quality of the plants.

For sure, great advice. I talked to Bill Mckibben about some of my problems with the calcuim showing up, and he was thinking along the same lines. He actually recommended I get a saturated paste test, even though plants are not in the soil yet. He said that is part of the reason the saturated paste test came along, soil-less mediums. However I know Astrea would argue the opposite, right Mr. Astrea?

Once again, I will talk with Lead, but what would you do? Just spray or actually add more sulfates?

I really look at compost/ewc as an a P amendment to soil, not as a part of the formula. Better to just chuck some worms in the mix...that way you know they are eating an Albrecht balanced diet and that their shit will reflect that.

That is part of the reason I went on the journey. I have about 600 gallons right now full of worms. I have a 20ft x 3ft pit run being built right now to expand my current operation. Once I have my soil right where I want it, I will just fill my pit run with Albrecht balanced peat/compost. Can't wait for that day. I hope to be topping with this EWC by trigger of flower for what I consider the most critical point of influence in cannabis.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quality conversation. Anybody else want to jump in please do. I really appreciate all the feedback Milky.:tiphat:
 
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milkyjoe

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Don't add more B, I did not know you had added 22 grams of Borax, that is gonna raise B about 2 ppm. You will be good.

Cool idea on pit. It may not completely be ewc by that time, but it will still be good. Chuck a few of the worms in your pots to.

Take a look at Albion Metalosate Ca, it shows up in sap way faster than pht Ca. Hell I would remove the pht and just use more Sea Shield, that stuff is magic unless you have too much N
 
FoothillFarming

FoothillFarming

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Don't know where else to post this, but congratulations to Milky and Lead for finishing 1st place for CBD strain. You guys are breaking through into the industry like gang busters. Couldn't happen to a better bunch of guys.
 
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Top_shelf_farms

Active member
picture.php

There's about 40 yards of this. I decided to use this spot at the last minute, it is 50/50 soil from last year and soil king big rootz .....
 
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milkyjoe

Senior Member
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So if I were you, I would add per yard...

Epsom salt...1.6 lbs per yard
K2SO4.........0.2 lbs per yard
Borax..........16 grams per yard
CuSO4........1.2 grams per yard
MnSO4........35 grams per yard.

Every one of these can be watered in...so even if the pots are already full no problem.

This will not get you to where you really need to be on micros but it is safe, you definitely don't want to overshoot. You will need to spray a micro product...I use aea micropak.

You have the way too much P problem everyone does. Means you need to spray micros for a long time. And you need to watch Ca availability, get a saturated paste test in a month or so when your microbes are up and running to see if your plants are getting enough Ca.
 
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milkyjoe

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Plus you have a lot NO3, you really don't want to be over 50 or so. That means your plants will take off really fast but also be very susceptible to sap suckers and have too much water in them.

You really should be spraying Ca...My favorite is Albion Metalosate Ca, the organic powder at 6 grams per week. This is a result of the NO3. If you believe Albion NO3 moves through the plant at 20x the speed of Ca. So the fast growth cannot be supported by Ca.

I would also spray PhotoMag to support NO3 --> protein conversion in the plant along with improved photosynthesis.
 
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milkyjoe

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Do you have living plants in there? Without plants feeding microbes liquid carbon then I don't think the sat paste means much of anything. Once the plants are up and running then yea
 
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Dreambig

Member
I plan on adding some Malibu compost and top soil to this mix which is about 50% peat 15-20% ewc 20-25% aeration lava rock/ rice hull and about 5% top soil which is pretty sandy.
I'm also gonna add some fertibor, manganese sulfate
And I'm thinking langbeinite/ sulpomag. Wondering what the professional have to say. Thanks for any advice.
 
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milkyjoe

Senior Member
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Is this old soil that has been amended several times?

For that type of soil several things look very suspicious. The tcec is high, organic matter is low, sulfur is very high, K is low and Mn is higher than I have ever seen.

Unless there is some explanation in how old/what amendments have been used I would ask them to run that sample again.
 
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