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Club Bio Box
- Thread starter LadyLargely
- Start date
Hey you good people! 
Do you know much about biochar?? If not you should check out my Terra Preta thread on my sig... I was thinking it might be really cool to use lumps of biochar in place of the hydroton or lavarock!?
Whaddya think bout that LadyL??
It would be lighter, cheaper, greener (fuck Al Gore btw) and holds all kind of excellent microlife... only one way to find out i guess!
Do you know much about biochar?? If not you should check out my Terra Preta thread on my sig... I was thinking it might be really cool to use lumps of biochar in place of the hydroton or lavarock!?
Whaddya think bout that LadyL??
It would be lighter, cheaper, greener (fuck Al Gore btw) and holds all kind of excellent microlife... only one way to find out i guess!
Some updates from my grow thread here: http://icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=135017&page=5
Just in the bucket this AM
Just in the bucket this AM
I'd be interested in replies also. This perked my ears up a few months ago but I did no further research
big_daddy
Member
HigroMite
HigroMite
Greetings.......first post on ICmag......great topic/thread. Just an idea in keeping with the organic theme........using HigroMite in place of the Hydroton.
I've used DE in my organic soil mixes, and Higromite in hydro DWC with good results. Thought I'd throw in a suggestion for consideration.
http://www.higromite.com/how.htm
HigroMite
Greetings.......first post on ICmag......great topic/thread. Just an idea in keeping with the organic theme........using HigroMite in place of the Hydroton.
I've used DE in my organic soil mixes, and Higromite in hydro DWC with good results. Thought I'd throw in a suggestion for consideration.
http://www.higromite.com/how.htm
Could one of these be turned into an awesome fast composter?
McDanger
Member
Hey all,
I was away for the weekend, came back yesterday and checked the plants. Largest one is a male dammit. I pulled it right away, today I will check out my airstone to see how it fared with the bio- activity. I dumped the used medium into some more medium I mixed up dry last week that is just sitting dormant for the time being. Roots were all thru the medium (sorry, no pics) but I did not notice any in the res at the bottom. I think I followed all the directions to ensure females (tomato blossom set spray and foliar spray in veg) but still got balls.
I just checked on them again, another male. I don't know what is causing it but now I only have 1 left in an OBBT. If that goes male I have wasted 2 months. I cannot believe this, I had a high N diet with no wind directly on plants, treated with cytokinen and I get more males that I ever have. I hope the rest of you have better luck than I am. I may try another round to see with only preloaded nutes and no foliar spray.
I was away for the weekend, came back yesterday and checked the plants. Largest one is a male dammit. I pulled it right away, today I will check out my airstone to see how it fared with the bio- activity. I dumped the used medium into some more medium I mixed up dry last week that is just sitting dormant for the time being. Roots were all thru the medium (sorry, no pics) but I did not notice any in the res at the bottom. I think I followed all the directions to ensure females (tomato blossom set spray and foliar spray in veg) but still got balls.
I just checked on them again, another male. I don't know what is causing it but now I only have 1 left in an OBBT. If that goes male I have wasted 2 months. I cannot believe this, I had a high N diet with no wind directly on plants, treated with cytokinen and I get more males that I ever have. I hope the rest of you have better luck than I am. I may try another round to see with only preloaded nutes and no foliar spray.
I think the feminisation is a touchy thing. I'm about to find out also. I really would have thought the hormones would have done the trick. I wouldn't think the foliar could have been a bad thing.
That's good info on the lack of roots in the water layer.
Really sorry to hear about your males. Really
That's good info on the lack of roots in the water layer.
Really sorry to hear about your males. Really
McDanger
Member
Today I looked closer at the res section. There are roots in the hydroton that look very healthy, I just didn't notice them when I removed the medium.
I think the foliar veg spray is good(my soil plants love it).
But after what LL and DM were saying about getting all females I was surprised by getting 2/3 male, and the 3rd plant has not shown sex yet.
I will be picking up a 1.250" hole saw tomorrow to put in the uniseals. And I started more seeds in water today.
The cheap airstone I was using has started to lose some grit so the next setup will be with the bubblewands.
One other thing I noticed. When I tried to blow into the air line before I took the bucket apart it was hard to blow into, so I'm not sure how much air was getting into the bucket. That was the main reason I took it apart. I should try that on the other 2 just to see.
LadyLargely
Member
Yes. A gardening buddy and I are actually looking into that right now. We theorize that after a finished medium has been 'cooked' in a high-oxygen environment the benefits of air injection subside. We're building a 30 gallon simplified OBBT. Just an overflow drain, no lower flush drain. The idea is to fill the bottom couple inches with rock and water as usual. Build the medium and flop it on top. This will provide for a super-rapid composting action. He's going to carefully remove the finished medium and place it in many smaller pots to do a moderately-sized SOG grow. I will be updating about how well it works.
Thanks for the info brah. In theory any low-density rock could work very well in the OBBT bath.
Hey you good people!
Do you know much about biochar?? If not you should check out my Terra Preta thread on my sig... I was thinking it might be really cool to use lumps of biochar in place of the hydroton or lavarock!?
Whaddya think bout that LadyL??
It would be lighter, cheaper, greener (fuck Al Gore btw) and holds all kind of excellent microlife... only one way to find out i guess!
My good man, I think you are onto something. When I saw that you where one of the early OBBT adopters I made a point to read up on some of your previous posts. Your work with Bio Char is very impressive. The idea of using pure chunks of it in the bath is very interesting. The possible results are too complex for me to pass judgement on but I think its definitely worth trying out. I think powdered bio char mixed in with the medium as you've done for ages could do nothing but good though.
McDanger:
Very sorry to hear about your sexing. This is why I have taken time to make the voodoo stipulation. Sex control worked for me, but its too complicated a process to easily replicate. I'm sure there where a lot of environmental factors and other things that contributed to my feminizing successes that I was unaware of at the time. I am now convinced my sexing voodoo is nowhere near bulletproof. I will be toning down my emphasis on that practice and concentrate more on proliferating the Bio Box method. I made some big claims concerning other aspects of my grow style and it has led only to dissapointment. Sorry it hasn't worked for you, I will definitely be toning down my emphasis on my voodoo in the future.
Just a mini update here. The ICmag photo uploader is being a kunt to me, I've got some great pictures but can't get them up. You chaps will just have to settle for a little preview till I get it figured out:
Stay tuned
I mean make a composter using the idea of the bio-box, to help super charge the microbes breaking down the feedstock.
That's great. Glad to see some experimentation. Rapid composting could really improve a lot of organic gardening materials. EWC is great, but I like a mix of composts. Actually a bio-box could probably support some types of worms pretty well. I wonder.....
LadyLargely
Member
Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly the sort of thinking club Bio Box needs. This is such a young, unproven, untested technique. A lot more experimentation needs to occur to develop it properly.
The age-old active compost pile is a perfect example. Good ones need to be turned or flipped often to get air in them. Why not just inject air all the time? This was the general theory (a long with a lot of ganja smoking) that guided DM and I to this method. It seems that, in general, air + organics = awesome.
I think that Bio Box could be adapted to some sort of rapid composting device. Organic teas are nice, but it would be the shit to add whatever organic material to soil you want, cook it up and just have it all pre-loaded for slow consumption by the plants. Combining this with the principals of the worm bin could be even more awesome.
Stick around my good man, I like the way you think. Keep us updated on any more ideas, lets fill this space with all the Bio Box possibilities.
I really recommend the 3" Airstones
Whoa! I've got to give this a try. And the idea of turning this into a compost bin? Brilliant! I can't wait to see what you find out about worms in these. It may take me a few weeks to get the materials collected, but expect a few pics when I do.
Mmmmmm. I love that tingly feeling in my brain when I stumble across a new idea!
Mmmmmm. I love that tingly feeling in my brain when I stumble across a new idea!
LadyLargely
Member
Haha! Snagged another one! Welcome to the fold buddy!
Try the "OBBT Grow Show" link in my sig for a pretty decent step-by-step on how to put one of these things together. rrog's "my OBBT bucket build" thread has become a great repository for condensed info concerning this grow style.
Give them a once-over. And remember that those threads represent the epitome of current OBBT construction practices. You could get away with a much simpler design, fewer ingredients and a less aggressive setup overall. I'm actually waiting for a user to come to us who wants a smaller, simpler rig. I think OBBTs could be streamlined down to quite a compact little system.
When you get closer to assembly swing back through here. Tell us a bit about your grow situation. Size, temps, lights; the full run-down, and pics always help.
Unless of course you think you got this shit on lock-down, in which case by all means just come back when you've got it finished. This is basically what RipVanWeed did. He took one look at DM's description of the process and went "no problem". With very little extra assistance (I hadn't shown up yet through a lot of his grow) and guided only by his green-thumb's intuition ole RVW pulled a harvest that any stoner would envy.
Keep us updated mate, great to have you here!
