Compendium: Earth-Water-Light-Microorganisms-Ion-Exchange-Nutrients

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Chapter 1

There are 6 important factors that can affect cannabis growth and flowering: nutrients, water supply, light intensity, oxygen and CO².

Nutrients:

Most of the building blocks of plants are present in the atmosphere. Fertilization affects growth by only about 6 percent. Therefore, do not use more fertilizer than necessary, as this could affect growth. The root can only absorb nutrient salts as ions dissolved in the water. For this reason, the soil should be sufficiently moist to allow the uptake of mineral fertilizers and compounds mineralized by soil creatures. The water in the soil splits the fertilizer salts into ions. For example, nitrate of lime (Ca(NO3)2) breaks down into the positively charged calcium ion (Ca2+) and two negatively charged nitrate ions (NO3-).

The nutrient salt ions are found in soil in three forms:

- as freely mobile ions dissolved in the water (very easily absorbable)
- interchangeably bound to negatively charged clay and humus particles (relatively easy to absorb)
- as reserve nutrients in the crystal lattice of minerals or in organic matter that is difficult to decompose (hardly available)

Nutrients can be absorbed in different ways. One possibility is the root suction. The negative pressure in the root area, which results from the evaporation of water from the leaves, means that the plant sucks the soil water to the root hairs. The ions dissolved in the water are sucked in as well. The root suction reaches a few centimeters and only captures freely moving ions. The amount absorbed depends on the concentration of ions in the soil water and the water consumption of the plant. The soil solution in the immediate root area is depleted by the ion uptake by the plant.

This results in the so-called diffusion. Since the ion concentration is much higher further away from the root area, the ion distribution is evened out as the ions or molecules migrate in the direction of the root. This balances out the concentrations. Water is used as the transport and solvent. For this reason, nutrient deficiency symptoms often occur during drought.

Root growth can also promote nutrient uptake. Root tips that come into direct contact with exchangers can literally "graze" on them. The root grows towards the exchangers. The growth rhythm, which is different for each plant species, means that the roots are not always equally active. If you know about the root activity of a plant, this knowledge can be used to choose the best time for fertilization. In times of high root activity, nutrient uptake is particularly good. This saves on fertilization costs and reduces the risk of leaching.

Processes in the root

A prerequisite for the water absorption of the roots is that the salt concentration in the root cells is higher than in the soil water. The nutrient salts must therefore migrate to an area with a high salt concentration when they are absorbed. Since this is not possible, the ions have to be brought into the root hair cells against a concentration gradient, using energy. Since the cell membrane is impenetrable for the ions, they are transported through by special carriers and thus reach the inside of the cell.

The energy for these processes is generated by root breathing. This is also the reason why plants often show symptoms of nutrient deficiency when waterlogged. Loosening the soil helps against this, as it promotes gas exchange and thus leads to increased root respiration and increased nutrient uptake. The root should also be sufficiently supplied with reserve substances.

To a limited extent, the plant can exclude nutrient salt ions from uptake. This is due to the fact that certain carriers are available for certain ions, which are based on the electrical charge and the ion diameter. The potassium and ammonium ions have the same charge and roughly the same diameter. Because of this, they compete for the same carrier.

If there is an oversupply of one of the two ions, the other is absorbed in smaller quantities. This phenomenon can lead to a nutrient deficiency and is called antagonism. This phenomenon also occurs, for example, in soils or substrates that are well supplied with lime. Due to their high concentration in the soil solution, the calcium ions accumulate there at the roots and inhibit the absorption of other ions, such as magnesium and potassium ions.

Pasture water, the indole-3-butyric acid it contains stimulates root formation.

Exchanges

Anions, such as SO42- and NO3-, are usually found freely in the soil solution. Cations, on the other hand, are bound to clay and humus particles. They can only be taken up by the plant if it displaces them from the exchangers by releasing H+ ions. The H+ ions are a waste product of root respiration. With the help of the H+ ions, the plant can release nutrients bound to exchangers and, to a limited extent, reserve nutrients.
The emission of HCO3- ions also has a reason. In order to maintain the prevailing electrical charge in the plant cells even when ions are taken up, one HCO3- ion must be released for each anion and one H+ ion for each cation.

Plants also secrete other compounds that can be used to make nutrient salts available. These include, for example, the so-called chelates, which release fixed ions and release them to the plant roots.
Changes in soil response to nutrient salt uptake

If the cation of a mineral fertilizer salt is absorbed by the plant more quickly than the anion, it releases more H+ ions to balance the charge. This lowers the pH of the soil solution. In this case, it is a physiologically acidic fertilizer. This reaction usually occurs when the cation is monovalent and the accompanying anion is divalent. Typical examples are potassium sulphate (K2SO4) and sulfuric acid ammonia ((NH4)2SO4). In addition, with sulfuric acid ammonia, the ammonium ions (NH4+) not directly absorbed by the plant are converted to nitrate (NO3-) in the soil. Here, H+ ions are released again.

A preferential uptake of anions, on the other hand, leads to an increased release of HCO3- ions. This raises the pH value. In this case one speaks of physiologically alkaline fertilizers. Sodium nitrate (NaNO3) and nitrate of lime (Ca(NO3)2) are examples of this.
Each mineral fertilizer has a certain influence on the soil reaction. When fertilizing with sulfuric acid ammonia, the H+ ions released cause a loss of lime. This side effect is undesirable and must later be compensated for by appropriate liming. Nevertheless, this acid surge also has the advantage that trace nutrients become more readily available.

Water:

Water intake is critical for maximum growth. Plants absorb nutrients in the form of moisture through their roots. The more roots and fine roots, the better. It is extremely important to irrigate with high-quality water, it must be low in salt, so do not use tap water for irrigation. Rainwater or water from reverse osmosis are more suitable. Many types of root rot can be prevented with proper drainage. Therefore, it is important to test soil and irrigation water. Make sure that the water can drain off easily and that the soil mixture in the pot has a drainage layer and the soil is permeable to air.

Nitrification and denitrification are points that I will go into more intensively later. The root can only absorb nutrient salts as ions dissolved in the water. For this reason, the soil should be sufficiently moist to allow the uptake of mineral fertilizers and compounds mineralized by soil creatures. The water in the soil splits the fertilizer salts into ions.

By watering the plants with osmosis water, they can thrive better because they get the acidic substrate they need to grow. The water is freed from all coarse pollutants with the help of the water filter upstream of the membrane.

Essentially, reverse osmosis water has gone through a high-pressure filtration process that removes 95–99% of dissolved salts and impurities. This is accomplished by forcing water through a semi-permeable membrane that acts as a filter. The significant pressure exerted allows pure water to flow through while the minerals, salts and contaminants remain on the other side of the membrane.

Light & Photosynthesis:

Photosynthesis is the process where the energy of light is converted into glucose, i.e. types of sugar. By consuming sugars, plants grow. There are causal relationships between root growth and light.

The photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD for short) is measured with the number of photons in the range of 400 - 700 nm that hit a surface in a certain period of time. In 2009, University of Mississippi scientist Suman Chandra examined three photosynthetic determinants (PPFD, temperature, and CO 2 concentrations) for their effect on the rate of photosynthesis in cannabis.

The center around 480nm is enormously important, the phytochrome is the sensor, the leaves are the power plants, the roots are the lines, but the leaves in particular have additional functions where a broad spectrum is simply important.

He came to the conclusion that at temperatures of 20 to 25 °C an increase in PPFD also led to an increased rate of photosynthesis. The maximum rate of photosynthesis was at 30°C and a PPFD of 1500 µmol m-2s-1. With a higher PPFD, the rate of photosynthesis decreased again.

An increase in CO 2 concentrations also had a positive effect on plant growth. Chandra concluded that the optimal comfort zone for cannabis plants is between 25 and 30°C in combination with light sources with a PPFD of around 1500 µmol m-2s-1.

But, photosynthesis doesn't start at 400nm and stop at 700nm as marketing and paid researchers like to tell us!

Nichia Horticulture Array - 2017

400nm - 700nm = 319,025 μmol/s
380nm - 780nm = 335,920 μmol/s
DLI of Array = 5,576 mol/m2/day

Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide:

CO² is the chemical molecular formula for the molecule carbon dioxide, also known as carbon dioxide, which consists of carbon and oxygen. Carbon dioxide gas is colourless, soluble in water, non-flammable, odorless and non-toxic. Plants need CO2 to produce glucose, and there is enough of that in the atmosphere. Plants need oxygen to breathe. Overwatering depletes the soil of oxygen, leading to root rot, and the processes that lead to root rot are processes that cause blockages in nutrient uptake.

Temperature:

Temperature has a major impact on growth rate. If the temperature is too high (above 30°C), photosynthesis decreases, while if the temperature is too low, growth, fruiting and flowering slow down. The ideal soil temperature should be around 20°C to 24°C. There are processes in the soil that below 18C° can trigger stagnation in nutrient uptake. Soil temperature and leaf (stomata) temperature are separate, but both are important factors in growing cannabis.

Temperature and humidity have effects that can add up!

The stomata are specialized cells in the leaves that open and close. In this way, they limit the amount of water vapor that can evaporate. As the temperature rises, the stomata allow more evaporation because they open. It is difficult to measure the opening of the stomata.

Humidity:

If humidity is too low or too high, it can stunt plant growth. When the humidity is too high, plants' ability to evaporate water through the leaves is impaired, resulting in reduced uptake of water and nutrients through the roots. It also increases the likelihood of fungus taking hold. If the humidity is too low, your plant may show signs of scorching, which can lead to a loss of chlorophyll.

Nutrient/water uptake and transport

The roots of a plant are connected to the shoot axis and the leaves by a system of tubing. This conduction system consists of vascular bundles that run through the entire plant.

Vascular bundles consist of either xylem or phloem, or both together in various configurations. The main elements in the xylem are the so-called tracheids, together with the so-called tracheae in the covered plant families. Tracheae are elongated, dead cells that are lined with a special substance (lignin) for reinforcement. The partition walls between the individual cells have been dissolved, creating a coherent system of lines. The tracheae are accompanied by the tracheids. Their peculiarity is that they are connected to each other by perforated walls (so-called pits). Tracheae and tracheids are found inside a stem and form the xylem or wood. Gymnosperms only have tracheids as a conduction system, angiosperms have both cell types.

Unlike the xylem, the phloem consists of living cells. These are the sieve elements such as sieve tubes and sieve cells. Sieve tubes are incompletely formed cells that are alive but lack important components of a living cell, such as a cell nucleus or a vacuole. They are therefore only viable in connection with the neighboring companion cells. Companion cells have the function of loading the sieve tubes with assimilates (sugars and amino acids). In contrast to the sieve tubes, they have all the necessary components of a cell and probably arose together with the sieve tubes from the incomplete division of a cell. The sieve tubes and their companion cells are found only in angiosperms. Sieve cells are only found in gymnosperms. They have remnants of a cell nucleus, other cell components such as the vacuole are missing. They are also connected to one another by perforated cell walls (screen panels). The cell walls lie at an angle to one another.

At the upper end of the pathways are the leaves. They have small openings (stomata, or stomata) that they can open and close "as needed." Gas exchange takes place via these stomata: carbon dioxide diffuses into the plant (important for photosynthesis) and water vapor diffuses out (important for cooling the leaves, among other things). Occasionally, water is also actively released in the form of drops (guttation). The water escaping at the top of the leaves creates a suction that draws water up the stem of the plant. This creates a negative pressure in the plant and also in the roots. Consequence: Water is "drawn" from the roots upwards and from the soil regions into the plant (transpiration suction, negative water potential).

Another trick is the accumulation of substances (e.g. polysaccharides such as starch) in the root cells. This creates a higher concentration of sugar in the root cells than outside and in the course of the diffusion equilibrium, water flows into the cell (osmosis, root pressure).

With the water, dissolved nutrients also get into the root cells, from where they are transported further. In order to get as many nutrients as possible from the environment, the fine roots release protons (hydrogen ions, simply positively charged) into the soil water (so-called acidification). The protons displace the nutrients (nitrogen in the form of ammonium (NH3) or nitrate (NO3-), calcium (Ca2), magnesium (Mg2), phosphorus in the form of phosphate (PO4-), potassium (K), sodium (Na ) and sulfur (S2) from soil particles (so-called exchangers such as clay minerals, humic substances), so that the nutrients dissolve and are absorbed with the soil water.

Home remedies

Improve root growth in general and for cuttings. Yeast, dissolve 100 g of dry yeast in a liter of lukewarm water. Put cuttings in leave for a day, then rinse thoroughly.

Aloe vera juice, put 1 tablespoon of aloe vera gel in a glass of water. Root shoots appear after a week.

Sources and literature:

Hortipendium (German Language)

Plant research (German Language)

Research on cannabis

LED Inside Nichia

 

[Plookerkingjon]

Thank you for taking the time to share with us. I for one enjoy learning

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Thank you for taking the time to share with us. I for one enjoy learning

I'm just starting, there's more to come and I'm constantly adding to the start post. ;-)

In cannabis there are causal relationships (synergism) between light intensity * light quality * medium * volume of medium * time * genetics * nutrients.

 

[Creeperpark]

Any grower that reads this thread will benefit greatly. Thanks

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Chapter 2

Floor and floor structure

Depending on the parent rock, relief and climate, the living organisms in and on the soil, and the duration of exposure to soil-forming processes, a very specific soil type develops at each site.

Our soil is formed by the weathering of rocks and the

decomposition of organic matter through physical and biological processes. This process is called humification.

1. nutrient humus: it includes organic matter that degrades quickly in the soil (essentially all organic residues). Its function is primarily that of a food source for soil organisms as well as a certain aeration-promoting role for materials incorporated after harvesting. However, nutrient humus also provides the building blocks for the humic substances of permanent humus.

2. permanent humus: only slowly degradable substances, formed with the help of soil organisms, which constitute the main mass of soil organic matter. It is responsible for the black color of topsoil ad has a determining effect on soil properties (soil fertility, structural stability, heatability).

3. mulmhumus: as a clay-associated substance (clay-humus complexes), it is resistant to erosion and has a positive effect on the soil structure (crumb structure).

4. musty humus: as unbound humus particles, it is usually located between loose sand particles and is of particular importance for the water and nutrient balance.

5. raw humus: this is the term used for the acidic, low-nitrogen layer in forest soils. It is valuable in itself, but has largely only a soil-covering function, since the conversion to nutrient humus proceeds rather slowly (cf. needle litter). It is therefore largely removed from the tree-soil cycle.

The black soil:

Its parent rock often consists of loess rich in minerals and lime. The high proportion of lime ensures a favorable pH range with high nutrient availability. Grasses and forbs provide sufficient decomposable organic material in spring and early summer, but their decomposition and mineralization is significantly slowed during hot, dry summers and long, cold winters with little precipitation.

The brown earth:

Belongs to the typical soils of the mid-latitudes and are characterized by a wide variation of the parent rock. For this reason, they rarely extend over large contiguous areas.

Their profile depth is up to 1.5 m.

Besides soil density, soil consistency is one of the most important physical soil properties and can be tested directly by finger test. It describes the degree of cohesion between the soil particles and is based on the storage density as well as the mechanical strength of the soil body.

Soil consistency plays a decisive role both for the rootability and colonization of the soil body and for measures for its treatment.

Decisive parameters for the consistency of soils are their clay and water contents, which result in a certain cohesiveness. Overall, soil consistency depends on the current water content, the soil type or grain size distribution, the content of organic substances and the structural form or stability (see soil structure).

Soil types

denote the mixture ratio of a soil of mineral components of different sizes.

These are:

• Clay with grain sizes smaller than 2 thousandths of a millimeter
• Silt with grain sizes between 2 thousandths and 63 thousandths of a millimeter
• Sand with grain sizes between 63 thousandths and 2 millimeters
• Gravel and stones over 2 millimeters

Sandy soils

Sandy soils are called "light soils" or "heated soils". They are mixtures of quartz, feldspars, mica and rock fragments in varying proportions. There are hardly any problems in working them. Despite hardly any structure formation, there are enough large cavities. These provide good aeration and water mobility. Sandy soils have a low water holding capacity, due to a lack of micropores and a low sorption surface. As a result, ions (especially bases and plant nutrients) and colloids are rapidly washed out. Their ability to store nutrients is low, due to their weak sorption capacity (few clay minerals, little humus). In sandy soils, the risk of nitrate leaching is very high. An increasing content of silt and clay and an underlying clay layer improve the site conditions.

Sandy soils usually have low humus contents and tend to dry out. With sufficient moisture and good

Sandy soils can be improved for agricultural use by: Irrigation and sprinkling, liming, groundwater regulation (bilateral, ditches, drains).

Sandy soils have great importance as a habitat for drought-loving plant and animal species (dry grasslands) and for groundwater recharge.

Clay soil

Clay soils can occur in all parts of Germany and Europe. Due to glacial soil shifts, there are also locally limited occurrences directly next to absolute sandy soils. Very often, clayey soils occur in former glacial stream valleys of rivers and in glacial end zones of the ice ages. The glacial valley of the Elbe, the Magdeburger Börde and the Alpine foothills are examples of areas with a large proportion of clay soils.

Loam, a mixture of clay and sand, was formed in Europe predominantly by the abrasion of rock by glaciers and the natural weathering of primary rock. Due to the transport of finest clay particles by the wind, some of the clay even originates from distant steppe regions.

Loamy soils with some sand content basically provide very good conditions for horticulture. Clay soils can store nutrients, additional fertilizer and water well. On the other hand, aeration is sometimes poor and warming is rather slow. Insufficient soil aeration can lead to poor oxygenation of plant roots. This occurs especially in excessively wet loamy soils with high density. Prolonged poor oxygen supply and waterlogging can also lead to root rot and plant death. In addition, clay soils can become very hard, especially during drought, making them difficult to work. Walnut trees, peonies and delphiniums do very well on clay soil. Many fruit trees also produce good yields on the clay soil type. These soils are unsuitable for rhododendrons, blueberries or daffodils, for example.

Loess soils are a soil family

The collective term 'loess soil' summarizes various soils that can develop from loess and its rearrangement formations, such as: pararendzina, black soil, brown soil, colluvisol and backwater soil (pseudogley).

Loess is a dusty wind deposit deposited during glacial periods. Loess layers are formed when silt (painful particle size) and the finest sand are blown out of river meadows, glacier foothills and bare mountain areas in the absence of vegetation cover during the cold periods and are deposited again after long transport. The wind transport sorts the material according to its grain size. It consists of about 70% by mass of coarse silt. These are soil particles with a diameter between 0.02 and 0.06 mm.

Looking through a microscope, it becomes clear that loess consists of angular pieces of limestone and rock. These ensure stable storage, as we know it in loess hollows and loess walls, for example on the Kaiserstuhl (Germany).

Loess can store a lot of water for plants to use. Loess and decalcified/weathered loess can store 350 to 380 liters of water up to a depth of 1 m, of which 150 to 260 liters can be used by plants. This usable water storage capacity ensures that plants have sufficient water supplies even in dry seasons, especially in the oceanic climate of Western Europe.

Not only the high water storage capacity makes loess soil so fertile. About 50 to 80 percent of loess consists of the finest quartz grains, it contains 8 to 20 percent finely divided lime fragments and minerals such as feldspar and mica. Loess weathers quickly and then forms clay minerals and oxides. It is easy to root through and sufficiently aerated for root growth. In addition to water, loess and loess loam can also store sufficient nutrients and release them back into the soil solution. Loess are easily workable.

Loess soils have been inhabited in Central Europe since the Stone Age. The first large-scale forest clearings probably took place here and cultivated steppes for agricultural use and pastureland were created. Pararendzinen, black soils, parabraunerden and colluvisols develop on loess. These soils are particularly important for agriculture: it is estimated that around 80 percent of the world's grain, apart from rice, grows on loess soils. In Germany, they are also used to grow sugar beets and maize. In the Rheingau, in Rheinhessen, in the Palatinate and in the Kaiserstuhl, loess soils are also used as vineyard soils.

In the loess pararendzines develop rapidly, i. H. within a few decades. Loess is populated by plants and animals. Their dead biomass is converted into humus (humified) and broken down into nutrients (mineralized). Gradually, a humus-rich, dark-grey topsoil develops over the light-yellow to light-brown loess.

In the soil estimate, pararendzines from loess are shown as 'sL 3 Lö', often they have over 60 soil points. Despite its high storage capacity for water available to plants, its productivity is lower than that of neighboring loess brown soils.

In the lignite mining areas of central and western Germany, loess is excavated separately and temporarily stored when open-pit mines are set up. During the final recultivation, the loess material is uncovered again as the top layer, at least 2 meters thick. Here, too, pararendzines of tipping loess develop rapidly. If the soil is used and cultivated sparingly in the first 10 years, high-yield arable sites will develop.

Black earth from loess

Black earth is formed from calcareous loose rock, preferably from loess in regions with hot and dry summers and cold winters (subcontinental to continental climate), mostly in the leeward locations of the low mountain ranges under steppe vegetation. The resulting litter of grasses and herbs cannot be completely broken down due to the drought in summer and the cold in winter. Humus-rich soils with a 40 to over 100 centimeter thick humus topsoil develop over time. Ground-burrowing animals such as hamsters, ground squirrels and earthworms ensure that the soil is constantly mixed.

Black earth can store a lot of water and nutrients and has therefore been a particularly productive field for thousands of years. Larger areas of black earth can be found in the Börden around Hildesheim, Magdeburg, the Querfurter Platte, around Halle and Köthen and in the Thuringian Basin. In the soil estimate, black soils from loess are shown as 'L 1 Lö', often they have over 90 soil points.

Parabraunerde from loess

Brown soils from loess develop in the Central European climatic area within a few millennia. After the loess has been decalcified, clay particles in the coarse soil pores are swept down during heavy rain and deposited again as clay wallpaper. The result is a lighter soil area depleted in iron and clay over a brown to reddish-brown soil area with increased levels of iron oxides and clay particles. Brown soils are ideally suited for agricultural and horticultural crops. They can store over 180 liters of water usable for the cultures at a depth of up to 1 meter and have sufficient ventilation for root growth. The soil estimate classifies parabraunerde from loess as 'L 2 Lö' with over 80 soil points and field numbers over 90.

Loess (Pseudogley) backwater soils

Pseudogleye (backwater soils) dam the seepage water through a less permeable soil area. Below the humus-rich, dark-grey topsoil follows a light-grey and rust-stained backwater aquifer. Underneath is a bluff body marbled with gray and rust stains. The moisture status of these soils changes from wet to moist to dry depending on the distribution and amount of precipitation. They are typical forest and grassland sites.

Colluvisol from loess

Photo of Kolluvisol from more than 2 m thick humic deposit (humos), Lower Rhine Bay Kolluvisol from more than 2 m thick humus deposit (humos).

In Central Europe, colluvisols arise primarily as a result of agricultural use in mountainous and hilly landscapes. Soil material is eroded by rainwater in the form of channels or areas on slopes during heavy rainfall events and accumulates at the foot of the slope or in the valley. This results in predominantly humic to strong brown, loose accumulation soils, the colluvisols.

Loess soils are use-sensitive

Loess, our most valuable parent rock for high-yield agriculture, is endangered above all by intensive soil use and heavy land use for settlement and traffic areas.

Loess soils tend to silt up and on slopes to erosion. Raindrops break up the soil aggregates at the soil surface and the silted soil material can easily be washed away (eroded) from the slopes by water.

In this way, thin loess covers on the upper slope and on the shoulders of the slopes with calcareous pararendzines and thick colluvial covers of relocated loess in the hollows and valleys with high-yield colluvisols were created and are still being created in hilly loess landscapes.

Reference

The Soil Structure ABC

Vineyard Soils

Wikipedia

Floor of the year 2022 (German Language)

The loess soil - soil of the year 2021 (German Language)

Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (German & English Language)

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Chapter 3

Leveling & Fertile soil

The living component of soil, the food web, is complex and has different compositions in different ecosystems. The soil food web is of enormous importance for agriculture, especially against the background of climate change and the more restrictive fertilizer and pesticide regulations. It ensures the nutrient cycle and nutrient availability, improves the soil structure and water retention capacity, breaks down pollutants in the soil and ensures plant health. The aim of the work must be to use the soil life through targeted measures for cultivation management.

Healthy plants are resistant to insects, fungi and pathogenic germs. This in turn requires a healthy soil and an intact soil food web. John Kempf summarized the four levels of plant health in the plant health pyramid.

• Miss Dr. Ingrid Hörner
• Christoph Felegentreu

You can then see the different layers, the horizons, on the soil profile. These zones are divided into topsoil (A horizon), subsoil (B horizon) and bedrock (C horizon).

A - horizon - topsoil

Here, organic matter (humus) mixes and combines with mineral components. The organic matter consists of decomposed animal and plant parts. Drainage is broken down and rebuilt by fungi and bacteria and mixed with the mineral components by the tireless activity of the earthworms.

B - horizon - subsoil

Here we mainly find weathered rock. Substances washed out of the top floor change the color and texture of the subfloor. The further down you go, the less humus this layer contains.

C - horizon - parent rock

It contains almost exclusively unweathered rock. This subsoil forms the replenishment for soil development.

If you dig into the ground, different layers appear depending on the depth: The litter layer consists of fresh leaves, foliage or small twigs. It is home to soil animals such as spiders, harvestmen, snails or slugs. The 10-20cm thick topsoil underneath is usually dark in colour, rather loose and rich in humus. Most soil animals such as springtails, earthworms or isopods live there. These break up rotting plant matter. These animals are therefore counted among the decomposers. Bacteria and fungi further break down the crushed material and form the humus, which is rich in nutrients.

The humus produced sticks to the sand and clay of the soil, forming a loose soil with lots of crumbs. This enables optimal ventilation of the soil and good transport of water and heat. Plants thrive in such soil. In deeper layers one finds the denser subsoil rich in clay and minerals. It is yellowish to brown, there are only a few soil animals. The groundwater collects here. At the very bottom is the weathered parent rock, which can consist of boulders or sand. Depending on the needs and the plant, the roots penetrate the soil at different depths.

In the international soil classification World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), black soils are divided into chernozems (typical steppe climate: long grass steppe), chestanozems (drier steppe climate: short grass steppe) and phaeozems (humid steppe climate: steppe with tree groups).

Chernozems and chestanozems have secondary carbonate as another diagnostic feature in addition to deep dark topsoil. The minimum thicknesses for the humic A horizons are lower compared to the black earths of the German Soil Systematics.

Black soils have basically good conditions for arable farming:

The soil type is silty with relatively high clay content

• Easy to warm up
• Loose and advantageous structure (crumb structure)
• High water conductivity

Optimal distribution of total pore volume (45% by volume) with one third each of coarse pores (seepage rate), medium pores (plant-available water) and fine pores (nutrient exchange)

• High nutrient holding capacity (KAK)
• Very high natural nutrient content (parent material, hardly any leaching)
• High base saturation and thus high pH values around pH 5 (hardly any decalcification)
• Rich soil life
• Much humus (in Germany around 6 %, in Siberia over 12 %) in optimal quality (gauze)
• Tight C/N ratio around 12

Thus, they provide good growing conditions for plants and are easy to work at the same time. In Germany, their soil value score is often well above 90, with the highest-yielding soils in the country being found on the black earths of the Magdeburger Börde (100 out of a possible 100 points).

They are also high-yielding and fertile by global standards, which is why black soils, rainfall distribution permitting, are almost always under agricultural use and make a significant contribution to feeding the world's population (American Corn Belt and Grain Belt, wheat-growing areas between Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan).

Humus and soil life

In the cycle of nature, no waste is produced, everything is reused (recycled). Here you can see the decomposition of dead animal and plant remains (humus) by various soil organisms.
The remains of animals and plants serve as a basis for food and are broken down by them (humification), mixed with the soil and converted into nutrients (mineralization). The nutrients, in turn, are used for plant growth.

Terra Preta

Terra Preta means "black earth" in Portuguese and refers to a fertile, deep black soil in the Amazon region. When researchers discovered it in the 1960s, they were faced with a riddle. After all, rainforest soil is actually considered poor and lacking in nutrients. And in fact, terra preta is not a natural phenomenon, but arose from centuries of cultivation. The Indians enriched the soil with a
composted or fermented mixture consisting of plant residues, manure as well as human feces and containing charcoal from the hearths.

This ancient practice has fueled a veritable boom in this country: for some years now, various manufacturers have been offering so-called "Terra Preta" substrates. Modeled on the Brazilian black earth, these products containing vegetable charcoal are supposed to help build up humus and significantly increase soil fertility. Due to its porous structure, the charcoal has a large surface area. "Microorganisms can settle here, and water and nutrients can be stored," explains Dr. Ines Vogel of Freie Universität Berlin. She adds that the charcoal develops these properties particularly well when it is added during composting.

Original Terra Preta has been around for many thousands of years and up until now nobody has succeeded in replicating this Terra Preta in the original. The two most important approaches to making Terra Preta yourself are the following two:

Composting in the open air and Fermentation under the exclusion of air, Bokashi.

Research project at Free University of Berlin

The scientist is basing her findings on experiments conducted as part of "TerraBoGa," a project at Freie Universität Berlin. Its goal is to make organic waste from the Botanical Garden usable as fertilizer on site. Among other things, this is done by pyrolysis: Branch cuttings and trunk wood are chopped up and carbonized in a carbonization plant at temperatures between 450 and 600 degrees Celsius. Compared with combustion, this also has a climate-friendly effect: more carbon remains bound in the charcoal. Incorporated into the soil, this can then be stored over a longer period.

In trials with various crops, the researchers observed a tendency for the charcoal to have a positive effect: most plants grew better on a charcoal-containing compost than on compost without any addition. However, the experiments also show that not all plants benefit from charcoal to the same extent. For some, yields increased only in the second year of cultivation. For acid-loving plants, such as rhododendrons, charcoal is only suitable because of its high pH value if it is acidified beforehand.

Marianne Scheu-Helgert of the Bavarian Garden Academy has observed something similar. She sees plant charcoal as one, but not the most important way to improve the soil. "More important is a finely structured and not too nutrient-rich compost with a high-fiber mixing partner, such as wood fiber or bark humus of very high quality," says the garden expert. There are such substrates ready-mixed in the trade. According to Scheu-Helgert's observation, plant charcoal is particularly suitable for sand-rich, humus-poor soils. "Finely structured charcoal particles partly take over the function of humus - especially water storage," Scheu-Helgert explains. Jörg Hütter of the Demeter Association also emphasizes the soil-improving properties of vegetable charcoal. However, he considers the ready-made Terra Preta substrates to be overpriced.

If you want to use charcoal in your own garden, you can buy it separately and add it to the compost. Here, just as with finished substrates, one should pay attention to quality. Vogel recommends products that meet the requirements of the European Biochar Certificate (EBC). "That guarantees that the charcoal is low in pollutants and that no pollutants get into soils with it." Barbecue charcoal, on the other hand, is not suitable for the vegetable patch: "With such products, you don't know anything about the pollutant content."

According to Vogel, it is also problematic to use coal over which sausages have already sizzled. That's because uncontrolled combustion during grilling can produce larger amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are harmful to health. In pyrolysis plants, this process can be better controlled and the formation of harmful substances reduced to a minimum. EBC-certified coal must comply with strict limits for PAHs and heavy metals, for example.

Bokashi

Making bokashi makes sense if we collect our biomass over the winter and then compost it in the spring. With the addition of biochar, nutrients are stored and thus the quality of the future compost is increased.

Bokashi comes from the Japanese and means something like "fermented all sorts". So-called Effective Microorganisms, also known as EM, are used to produce Bokashi. It is a mixture of lactic acid bacteria, yeast and photosynthetic bacteria. In principle, any organic material can be fermented using an EM solution.

The so-called Bokashi bucket is ideal for processing kitchen waste: You fill your organic waste into this airtight plastic bucket with a sieve insert and spray or mix it with effective microorganisms.

Valuable liquid fertilizer for plants is produced within two weeks. After two weeks, you can also mix the fermented food scraps with soil to improve the soil, or add them to the compost.

Biochar

Biochar (also biochar) is produced by pyrolytic carbonization of plant raw materials. A traditionally very common form is charcoal.

In conjunction with other admixtures such as bones, fish bones, biomass waste, faeces and ash, for example, it is part of terra preta. Biochar is approved in some countries (e.g. Austria, Switzerland) in agriculture as a soil conditioner and carrier for fertilizers and as an auxiliary substance for composting and nutrient fixation of liquid manure. Biochar is also used as a feed additive and dietary supplement. When used as a soil conditioner, it is said to have great potential as a means of compensating for carbon dioxide emissions in view of global warming.

Biochar has numerous other possible uses, for example as an insulating material in building construction, in waste water and drinking water treatment, as an exhaust gas filter and in the textile industry. Examples of current areas of application are:

Ground biochar is used as a food coloring E 153 without a maximum quantity limit, e.g. B. as a coating of cheese. In medicine, it is used as medicinal charcoal to treat diarrheal diseases. Similar to charcoal, vegetable charcoal can also be used as activated charcoal.

In addition, biochar is used as an energy source by producing biochar from biogenic residues and later burning it in power plants, combined heat and power plants or industrial plants to generate thermal or electrical energy. It can also be burned directly as a substitute for barbecue charcoal, although it is considered too valuable for that. The carbon dioxide balance is different when biochar is burned than when it is stored in the ground, since carbon dioxide is released during combustion.

Enrichment of coal with nutrients through composting or fermentation

In the process, dissolved nutrients are permanently bound into the carbon structure. This work is done by the microorganisms, which paste the nutrients into the charcoal by means of chelation.

The special thing is that these nutrients are hardly washed out, but can (only) be released again by the fine hairy roots of the plants. The key to success here are the microorganisms that metabolize the organic matter and convert it into permanent humus and build it up.

Nitrogen-rich nutrients

• Worm castings: Provide a quick-release source of nitrogen for your plants while also introducing healthy bacteria; contain many micronutrients depending on where they are sourced from.
• Crustacean meal: A little slower to release than worm castings, crustacean meal adds nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and chitin to your soil. Chitin-eating microbes will help keep nematodes at bay.
• Bat guano: Bat guano provides the highest levels of nitrogen and phosphorus of all three; it does wonders for sustained plant growth while diversifying the soil’s bacteria and microbes.

Phosphorus-rich nutrients

• Bone meal: Bone meal generally comes from cattle bones, and it helps to keep phosphorus levels up. Keep in mind that your soil needs to be at a pH below 7 for bone meal to be most effective.
• Chicken manure: Chicken manure is a great way to introduce both phosphorus and nitrogen. Choose a high-quality manure that is fully processed and make sure to amend the manure into your soil with enough time to let hot manure cool off.
• Rock dust: Rock dust is a very slow-releasing phosphorus source that can be effective in soil for years, but it does not perform well in soils with a pH above 7.

Potassium-rich nutrients

• Kelp meal: Kelp meal is a great source of potassium that promotes microbial diversity in the soil. A water-soluble amendment, kelp can be applied with water or by hand directly into the soil.
• Wood ash: Wood ash can be used to increase the potassium levels in your soil, but be aware that it generally raises the pH so make sure to test your soil’s pH levels regularly.
• Compost: Your compost bin can be an excellent source of potassium for your garden, especially if it contains fruit rinds and banana peels.

Reference

Cannabis Nutrients - leafly.com

Wikipedia

NABU (German Language)

Free University of Berlin (German Language)

Soil course humus farming 2023 (German Language)

 

[Plookerkingjon]

Oh my German friend if you only knew what folks on the east coast of the United States would charge folks for learning what you're showing and teaching them in these posts, super appreciative of your sharing is wealth of knowledge there is that caveat though that a lot of people that grow may not want to be patient enough to sit and read these posts if I'm fair with you I have to reread This Thread once a week to keep it fresh in my mind

 

[Switcher56]

Guten Morgen mein Herr,

There is no way I can assemble what is written here. I have dementia and I'm doing the next best thing. Cut and paste into a tangible (on hand document). With your permission of course

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

There is no way I can assemble what is written here. I have dementia and I'm doing the next best thing. Cut and paste into a tangible (on hand document). With your permission of course

Thank you for your positive feedback. Most of this is school material for biology, geography and information for farmers that my government provides publicly and free of charge.

I'm still revising it, adding material and more chapters. Much will complement each other, some will be repeated more intensively and you will then also clearly see the causal relationships of the 6 main factors.

It should help you with home remedies or things from nature to get healthy cannabis and food.

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Chapter 4

Composting

Composting is a natural process in the cycle of organic matter is of essential importance. So the leaves that fall from the trees in autumn exposed to natural aerobic biodegradation. There remain humus-like Residues and non-degradable inorganic substances such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

Among other things, the humic substances ensure that the fertilizers are retained so that they do not the groundwater seep, which would otherwise lead to significant pollution would. Through this cycle, a forest can survive for centuries without external influences exist.

This natural process must be a model for a composting process the organic waste of different origins are treated in such a way that the Fertilizers that were present in the substrate were reused as much as possible can become.

The composting processes in nature and in a composting facility differ, among other things, in that in a composting plant there is one many times higher substrate supply is available, which among other things affects the rotting temperature and the pH value.

Due to these and other influencing factors there are significant nitrogen losses during composting what about also leads to environmentally harmful emissions. In addition, the natural phosphorus deposits severely limited, and the production of Nitrogen fertilizer is very energy intensive.

It must therefore be a goal of composting to preserve the fertilizers in the compost and the composts again in agriculture and in gardening and use landscaping. In addition to the problem of pollutants (e.g. heavy metals), research must be stepped up on the nitrogen dynamics during the composting and then putting the results obtained into practice.

Compost as fertilizer

Mature compost is the ideal fertilizer. Compost is the epitome of ecological fertiliser: its microfauna activates soil life, and the humus improves the soil's air and water balance and the nutrients optimally supply plants. Read our tips for good compost and how to create a compost here.

Everything organic can go on the compost. Except for cooked leftovers, meat and bones - they would attract bugs. Shrub cuttings and plant remains are chopped up, mixed with lawn clippings, vegetable waste, old flowers, weeds, leftover fruit, old potting soil and coffee grounds.

Incidentally, the leaves of some trees rot very slowly and should therefore not necessarily be put in the compost. Read here what you should also consider when removing leaves in the garden.

Pay attention to the balance between carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) when making your compost, as this guarantees good decomposition. Wood chaff or fallen leaves are rich in carbon, but bacteria need a lot of nitrogen to multiply. That's why you sprinkle a handful of horn meal or horn shavings on every 30 centimeter thick layer.

Create compost

The compost rots best in the shade of trees. Mostly at the end of the property - but easily accessible - you can create the compost. Sufficient space is required for turning and sieving. Privet hedges offer fast-growing privacy protection towards the house and terrace.

In a normal garden there are always weeds. The advice here is often not to dispose of the offending plants on the compost where they can set up new roots or scatter seeds and spread again in the garden. But you can use a trick to compost even stubborn weeds:

The composter is stacked in the sun and covered with black foil over the summer months: weed seeds and root remains die off from the heat.

If you are creating compost for the first time, a commercially available compost starter* can be of help. Compost starter is often offered as granules, it activates the microorganisms and thus promotes the rotting process.

D.I.Y.

If the compost gets too full and to get the rotting processes going, you can also make a compost accelerator yourself.

1) First, dissolve a cube of fresh yeast and about 750 grams of sugar in a saucepan of lukewarm water.
2) Dilute the mixture with enough water so that you end up with 10 liters of compost accelerator.
3) Pour the mixture into a watering can and let it sit for 2 hours.
4) Then spread the mixture evenly over the compost pile.

If you have already established a compost, you can also simply use finished compost as a compost accelerator*: Simply sprinkle finished compost about 1 centimeter thick over each 30 centimeter thick new layer. This inoculates the layer with the necessary bacteria and starts the important rotting process faster.

What do I need to consider to get good compost?

The compost should be well aerated. For this, it is helpful if small materials are mixed with large ones - that is, it is best to process structurally weak material such as lettuce or lawn cuttings with shrub cuttings.

In addition, the moisture level in the compost pile should be right. Very wet material needs to be mixed with dry. In summer, when it is dry for a longer period of time, the compost should be covered. Water may need to be added. If there is a lot of kitchen waste, some fresh, humus-rich topsoil can be mixed in. If there is a lot of grass cuttings, they should be dried beforehand (leave them to dry before raking).

Wood residues and coarse shrub cuttings should be shredded and chipped beforehand. The fibrous structure improves the attack possibilities for the microorganisms. All compost should be turned at least twice a year. This ensures good mixing and aeration.

What happens when composting, what is the nitrogen cycle?

Nitrification and Denitrification

Nitrification is the biological conversion of ammonium and nitrite oxidation to nitrate. In the natural cycle of substances, ammonium ions are converted into nitrite ions by nitrosoma bacteria. Nitrobacter oxidizes nitrite ions to nitrate ions.

In this way, the soil is enriched with nitrate and this is available to the plants as a mineral salt ion for metabolism. The two groups of bacteria use these processes to generate energy. Enzymes of a shortened respiratory chain produce ATP from the energy gain.

Denitrification is also used by some anaerobic bacteria to generate energy (nitrate respiration) by converting nitrate ions into nitrogen. By converting nitrate into atmospheric nitrogen, they close the nitrogen cycle in nature.

There are three forms of nitrification:

Aerobic (autotrophic) nitrification by nitrifying bacteria with energy gain, anaerobic (autotrophic) nitrification by nitrifying bacteria with energy gain and the heterotrophic nitrification. This is the oxidation of reduced nitrogen compounds to nitrite or nitrate by heterotrophic microorganisms (some bacteria and fungi); no energy is gained. This nitrification is probably a side reaction in metabolism. The turnover rate is much lower than that of autotrophic nitrification.

Nitrification

Although plants also take up ammonium ions image, most of these ions are converted to nitrate ions image by bacteria in the presence of oxygen via nitrite ions image. This process is called nitrification. In autotrophic aerobic nitrification, the following metabolic steps occur. First, ammonium ions are oxidized to nitrite ions by bacteria of the genus Nitrosomas:

This process occurs stepwise in a truncated respiratory chain of the bacterial membrane with energy gain. Bacteria contain the same enzymes as cells as an electron transport chain, but not all enzyme complexes. Other bacteria, the Nitrobacter, oxidize nitrite to nitrate:

This process also takes place step by step, utilizing electron transport with energy gain on a shortened respiratory chain. The resulting nitrate ions are available to the plant as a nutrient and can thus be converted into organic substances, which in turn are available to animal organisms.

Nitrification plays a particularly important role in the purification of polluted waters. There, nitrifying bacteria are added in elaborate procedures to optimize the process. Aquarium owners also use this method to clean the water.

Denitrification

A group of anaerobic bacteria is responsible for denitrification, e.g. Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Flavobacterium, etc. These bacteria, which lack oxygen for growth, obtain their energy (ATP) by breaking down nitrate (nitrate respiration) to nitrogen. In denitrification, electrons from glucose or other organic compounds are transferred to nitrate or nitrite via the electron transport chain rather than to oxygen. Nitrogen is formed via nitric oxide and dinitrogen monoxide.

Denitrification is thus a form of respiration that serves the bacteria for energy production. In nature's nitrogen cycle, they ensure that decomposition of organic material produces elemental nitrogen from nitrate again, which is released into the air.

Nitrogen cycle simply explained

The chemical element nitrogen (symbol N) occurs in the biosphere (living environment) in various forms. In our air, for example, it is present as elemental nitrogen. Nitrogen passes through four key steps in the so-called nitrogen cycle:

- Nitrogen fixation
- Nitrification
- Denitrification
- Ammonification

Molecular nitrogen is not usable by most organisms. Therefore, it is converted in the nitrogen cycle into other forms such as ammonium ions (NH4+) or nitrate (NO3-). It is essential for plants in particular, as they would otherwise have no nitrogen-containing proteins available. They need them for their growth, for example.

The nitrogen cycle (also nitrogen cycle or N cycle) describes the constant migration and chemical conversion of elemental nitrogen in soils and waters. The first step of the nitrogen cycle begins with the nitrogen contained in the air. You call it nitrogen fixation.

By this you mean the fixation of nitrogen in other compounds. For this, the nitrogen bond must first be split from the elementary nitrogen. You can distinguish between abiotic and biotic nitrogen fixation.

In the case of biotic nitrogen fixation, nitrogen-fixing bacteria perform the cleavage of the nitrogen bond. An example of this are the so-called nodule bacteria. They enter into a symbiosis (coexistence) with the plant roots. This means that the nodule bacteria supply nitrogen to the plants and in return receive nutrients that are important for them. This is how indirect nitrogen uptake by plants occurs. Indirectly because they get nitrogen in the form of ammonium ions (NH4+) or ammonia (NH3) from the bacteria.

Sunlight or a lightning strike can cause the elemental nitrogen in the air to react to form ammonium ions (NH4+) or ammonia (NH3). This is what you call abiotic nitrogen fixation.

Reference

Make your own compost (German Language)

Compost Soil (Wikipedia)

Composting (Wikipedia)

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Chapter 5

Water and water filter:

The five layers of our homemade filter are made of the following materials:

The larger pebbles:

Pebbles serve as the coarsest filter to fish smaller leaves out of the water, for example. Rougher stones are better for this purpose because less dirt sticks to smooth surfaces.

Gravel:

Gravel, on the other hand, is somewhat finer. This filters out solids up to 1 mm. No dead insects can get past it, for example.

Sand:

Finer algae and smaller dirt particles, as well as suspended particles, remain stuck in the sand. Optimal would be several times sieved and cleaned sand, but on the lonely island it works also with the sand from the beach.

The charcoal / activated carbon:

The heart of the filter is the (activated) charcoal. Beech wood is best suited for your self-made filter. To activate the activated charcoal, it must first be heated very strongly. This process turns the charcoal into activated carbon. Because of its very large and porous surface, it binds even tiny bacteria. Pressed, a 1 square cm cube of activated charcoal block has a surface of a soccer field. Insane or?

The substance:

Here you can really take anything that looks like fabric. No matter what. It simply prevents carbon from getting into your freshly filtered water.

How do I make biochar?

A simple but ingenious invention finally allows each farmer and gardener, everywhere in the world, to produce for themselves a sufficient quantity of high quality biochar. With reasonable investment and some know-how of the charmaker’s craft, farmers can produce in one afternoon a cubic meter of high quality biochar. This democratization of biochar production will be a key strategy to closing the agricultural production loop for small farmers.

The production of biochar is simple - but there are a few things to consider. Therefore, you will find step-by-step instructions for the production of biochar here. The first step is to choose what to burn. Above all, we recommend burning old branches, for example from fruit trees. Most of the time, a lot of wood is produced when the trees are cut. You don't have to throw it away, you can easily use it to produce biochar. It is important that the biomass is dry before starting the process

With a few small branches and paper, the fire can be started in a heat-resistant container. However, it is also possible to use ecological lighters if starting the fire turns out to be difficult. We use a so-called kiln as a heat-resistant container.

After firing properly, more biomass can now be gradually added. You should start slowly and keep adding new wood. Then you should wait until a slightly white layer of ash has formed. Only then can biomass be refilled.

Depending on the surface on which the kiln is placed, it is advantageous to keep the area wet. It can happen that charred pieces of wood fall onto the lawn when the kiln is very full. Therefore, it can be helpful to moisten the soil beforehand.

After each layer further biomass can be added. It is very important to always let enough of the biomass burn off. When all the biomass has burned, the fire can be extinguished with plenty of water. The use of watering cans or buckets is very helpful here. The process of extinguishing the fire is very important, otherwise it will not produce coal, but useless ash. Depending on how the container is constructed, the resulting seepage water can simply be collected and used to water plants.

Why?

Plant carbon is a habitat for microorganisms and a storage medium for nutrients and water.

Vegetable charcoal is used in the garden for soil improvement: it loosens and aerates the soil. If it is worked into the soil with compost, it promotes microorganisms and causes the enrichment of humus. Within a few weeks, a fertile substrate is created. If it is composted together with manure, it forms an excellent long-term fertilizer. Plant charcoal, like charcoal, can store carbon for a long time and at the same time bind nutrients and water. These properties make charred biomass an interesting alternative fertilizer for agriculture.

The potential of plant carbon is huge. The biggest advantage: it stores an enormous amount of water and nutrients. Charcoal stores about five times its own weight. Another advantage is its microbial activity. Due to its pore volume, charcoal has a large surface area and thus offers very good retreat possibilities for microorganisms during dry periods. On average, one gram of charcoal has a surface area of about 300m².

In addition, the carbon it contains serves as a food source for microorganisms. Microorganisms such as earthworms, bacteria and fungi are important for our soils and their vegetation. Their increased activity also enriches more humus. In summary, vegetable carbon improves both light and heavy soils in the long term.

When using plant charcoal compost enriched with about 20 volume percent charcoal, the storability increases significantly in vegetable, fruit and berry cultivation. The plant ingredients and especially trace elements are richer. Not only do the plants grow healthier, they are healthier for us.

For bedding plantings in ornamental and vegetable gardens, 10 l/m2 of plant charcoal compost is needed the first time. For continuous annual application 3 l/m2. For balcony and planters, the existing soil should be mixed with 1/3 plant charcoal compost. The procedure should be repeated every two to three years.



Build your own WATER FILTERS with VEGETABLE CHARCOAL



How To Make Activated Carbon from Charcoal



How to Make a FREE and Simple DIY Garden Water Filter



Reference

Make your own biochar (German Language)

Make your own Kiln

Biochar Kon-Tiki

 

[Three Berries]

2-5 gallon buckets stacked on top of one another with the layers of gravel, sand and charcoal will do the same thing.

 

[Plookerkingjon]

Can crushed aggregate like they use in driveways can that be a viable medium for the bottom of a container for allowing good aeration and water flow if that makes sense?

 

[Three Berries]

Can crushed aggregate like they use in driveways can that be a viable medium for the bottom of a container for allowing good aeration and water flow if that makes sense?

I would make sure it is inert and not limestone.

 

[Plookerkingjon]

If it were at the very bottom of the container just allowing for runoff can that leech its way back up into the medium? I only ask this because the local municipality I think scraped an old driveway somebody had and screened and sifted it and then left it in a huge pile and then the the owners just left it there they don't want it they're not going to do anything with it I'm not dude I'm up weird free pile guy who's always looking for stuff that I can get for free to utilize instead of having to pay for it so I apologize with my weird questions.

 

[Three Berries]

The roots are going to go into what ever is on the bottom. Limestone would be good for veg but not in flower.

 

[Nannymouse]

There was a thread many years ago, where someone was having problems with their buds being 'inverted' in growth. Looked very odd. What they thought was the problem, was that their 'lights out' temp was warmer than the 'lights on', by a few degrees. If i recall, it was warm weather, and with no venting during the night, the room/closet was warmer at night than when lights were on. So, the cure was to keep the night time temps a few degrees cooler. They just needed to run the exhaust during the night, also. Evidently, the fan was on the same timer as the lights, so they just needed to give the fan its own power source.

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

I will go into more detail about the temperatures. The chapters are structured in such a way that important factors are repeated, and usually with each repetition they are dealt with in greater depth. So more learned remains in the memory.

When I'm done, I will ask a moderator or admin to move the discussion in between, so that only the chapters remain, ideally I can continue to edit them so that they remain current?

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Chapter 6

Temperature and degradation processes:

Most recommendations for ideal temperatures in indoor cannabis cultivation are 24°C to 30°C (75.2°F to 86°F) during the day and no lower than 18°C (64.4°F) during the dark phase.

However, it is not quite so simple because it depends on the genetics and the cultivation methods, hydro or soil.

When growing in soil, the temperature in the pot should not fall below 18 °C during the dormant phase. Different microorganisms have different temperature requirements. Personally, I have found that if the temperature in the resting phase drops only to 20 °C (68 °F), the start of the day and the start of energy production by photosynthesis is faster.

Especially under LED it takes forever when pots that have cooled down too much have to come back to a higher temperature.

The soil temperature has a decisive influence on all chemical and biochemical processes in the soil. For example, on the mineralization of post-mortem soil organic matter by soil organisms and humification, on plant growth and weathering. The higher the soil temperature, the more rapidly and intensively many processes take place in the soil. This fact is particularly evident in the comparison between high mountain soils (climate-induced slow mineralization, accumulation of organic matter) and soils of the tropics (climate-induced rapid mineralization and rapid decomposition of organic matter). The temperature of the soil is the result of heat input and heat loss depending on its heat capacity and thermal conductivity.

According to van't Hoff's equation or reaction rate-temperature rule [RGT rule or van't Hoff's rule (after Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff (1852-1911), the Dutch physical chemist and chemistry professor who received the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901], the rate of biochemical processes is increased two- to threefold for a temperature increase of 10° Celsius, but with respect to soil, this applies only to the temperature range between approximately 0° and 50° Celsius. This means that for soil organisms, the temperature increase must naturally occur within the tolerance range of the respective organism.

For most terrestrial soils (soils outside the influence of groundwater), semi-terrestrial soils (soils influenced by groundwater), semi-subhydric soils (soils under the influence of tides) and peatlands, heat input is almost exclusively via solar radiation. The maxima of the supply are in the midday hours and in the summer months. Temperature fluctuations are much more pronounced in the topsoil than in the subsoil.

Temperature fluctuations also occur there, but with a time delay. The intensity of the heat supply depends on the geographical latitude (climate), on the time of year and day, on the currently prevailing weather, on the position of the soil in the terrain [compass direction (= exposition), plain, slope], on the type of soil cover (vegetation, litter, humus layers), of the soil color [very dark colored, humus-rich soils have a low albedo, a low reflectivity (from Latin albus = white)] and, in the case of semisubhydric or subhydric soils, also of the radiation-dependent water temperature.

A locally limited supply of heat, for example, to terrestrial or semiterrestrial soils occurs in areas of increased volcanic activity (e.g., Iceland) from the Earth's interior and, in general, to a very small extent by oxidation processes in the course of weathering and by the respiration of microorganisms.

The heat capacity determines the total energy absorbed by a soil. It is defined by the amount of heat in joules that results in a temperature increase of 1° Celsius per unit volume of soil (or bulk density) at constant pressure. The heat capacity of a soil is the sum of the heat capacities of its components (mineral, organic matter, water, air, ice). Water in the soil has the greatest heat capacity. Solid soil components such as clay minerals are warmed by half the amount of heat by the same amount.

Therefore, moist or wet soils warm up only slowly, while porous, dry soils warm up quite quickly. The heat capacity of a soil therefore depends on its water content.

The thermal conductivity (= heat flux that flows through a cross-section of 1 cm² in one second at a temperature gradient of 1° Celsius/cm) and the heat diffusivity or thermal diffusivity (speed at which temperature spreads through the soil by conduction) depend on the type of composition of the solid soil components (texture, structure) and also on the water content. This dependence is strongest at low water content.

Since air is an exceptionally good insulator of heat (double window, down jacket), in this case heat is conducted almost exclusively through the soil matrix (solid components) and the soil water in contact with it (as a thin film on the surfaces of the soil matrix and as small menisci around points of contact of grains).

If a soil is completely dried out, the contact points between the components of the soil matrix represent the bottlenecks restricting a heat flow. Increasing wetting of the soil after drying leads again to a widening of the heat flow cross-section. The thermal conductivity is less dependent on the water content than the heat capacity. Therefore, a maximum value for the heat diffusivity results at an average water saturation.

Aerobic and anaerobic processes

Aerobic and anaerobic processes are used for degradation processes. Photosynthesis is a build-up process, biomass is produced here. Countless bacteria (from the Greek "bakterion" = rod) live in the soil. They ensure nutrient turnover, stabilize the soil structure, improve water storage and promote plant growth.

Together with fungi, they make the greatest contribution to the decomposition of organic matter and use it to provide vital nutrients that are absorbed by plants. One gram of soil can contain 100 million bacteria with 4,000 to 7,000 different species.

Bacteria are single-celled organisms. Since they do not have a true nucleus, they are scientifically called prokaryotes (from Greek "pro" = before and "karyon" = nucleus). Bacteria can be spherical, rod-shaped or helical in appearance. On average, they reach sizes between 0.1 and 20 µm (µm = micrometer or the millionth part of a meter).

In the biological systematics of living organisms, bacteria form the domain "Bacteria" (bacteria) alongside the Eucaryota (living organisms with a cell nucleus) and the Archaea (unicellular microorganisms without a cell nucleus, which differ from bacteria in their structure).

Bacteria live primarily in the thin film of water surrounding soil particles and on root surfaces. Depending on the species, they can move actively by so-called flagella or passively with the soil water. Most species feed on dead organic matter and the excreta of organisms.

They decompose organic waste by secreting enzymes. Since bacteria have a very large enzyme spectrum, they are the most important decomposers in the soil. There is no organic compound found in nature that they cannot decompose. What is left over? Carbon dioxide, water and various mineral salts - new food for the plants.

An enzyme is a substance, or more precisely a protein, that accelerates or causes a chemical reaction. Enzymes do their work not only in the soil when decomposing organic substances. For example, there is an enzyme called lactase. It is found in the mucous membrane of the small intestine in humans. Humans need this enzyme to trigger a chemical process that breaks down the milk sugar (lactose) in milk and converts it into easily digestible components. At the end of its "work", the enzyme is unchanged again. This is why it is also called a catalyst (from the Greek "kataklao" = to break and "lyein" = to dissolve).

The work of the bacteria can take place in an oxygen-containing environment or in the absence of oxygen. We therefore speak of aerobic and anaerobic conditions. In the absence of oxygen, fermentation and putrefaction processes usually take place. Anaerobic bacteria include, for example, the genus Clostridium. Some species of this genus can cause life-threatening diseases in humans. For example, tetanus or lockjaw caused by Clostridium tetani and gas gangrene, a bloody wound infection with gas development, caused by Clostridium perfringens.

Soil bacteria can be systematically divided into four groups:

Slime bacteria (= myxobacteria): These are mostly rod-shaped organisms that feed primarily on other bacteria.

Blue-green bacteria (= cyanobacteria): These are so-called autotrophic bacteria that, like plants, perform photosynthesis and produce oxygen in the process. They live freely in the soil or, for example, together with fungi, forming lichens.

Eubacteria: Most species live heterotrophically. They decompose organic compounds by respiration in an oxygenated environment or by fermentation in the absence of oxygen.

Actinomycetes: These are unicellular organisms that form a disguised, filamentous network (= mycelium or pseudomycelium).

Aerobic decomposition of biomass, or decomposition, is a process composed of humification and mineralization, in which decomposer organisms of the macro-, meso- and microfauna physically and chemically alter and break down dead biomass. In contrast to the anaerobic decomposition process, this takes place under oxygen supply.

In the first phase of the aerobic decomposition process, enzymatic reactions of organisms' own substances take place, in which highly polymeric compounds are first broken down into individual building blocks inside the cell by hydrolysis and oxidation processes under the influence of enzymes: Starch is converted into sugar, amino acids are split off from proteins, chlorophyll is converted into phaeophytin and mineral nutrients such as iron, potassium or magnesium are released.

In the second phase of the decomposition process, the biological plant residues are physically broken down, primarily by the decomposer organisms of the macro- and mesofauna, and incorporated deeper into the soil by bioturbation, but are not significantly altered chemically.

Subsequently, the shredded plant residues are digested by earthworms, bristle worms, and millipedes with the cooperation of the intestinal flora and intensively mixed with the soil particles. In the third phase of the decomposition process, both the comminuted plant and animal residues, as well as the excrement of the soil animals, are further decomposed by destructives, i.e. microorganisms, specialized bacteria and fungi.

Animal residues, which often consist of low-molecular-weight carbohydrates, pectins and proteins, can be decomposed much faster than cellulose- and lignin-rich plant residues. Microbial degradation eventually results in the complete loss of the original molecular structure of the biomass, and the originally organic material is converted into inorganic material (see Mineralization).

Since soil microorganisms use the organic matter contained in the soil as a source of energy, the amount of organic matter built up or degraded is closely related to microbial activity. This activity is reflected in the level of CO2 partial pressure. For example, carbon conversion processes, which increase with activity, increase with increasing temperature and may be limited by nutrient-poor conditions and water content (water supersaturation and water deficit).

Anaerobic fermentation processes

Anaerobic fermentation processes occur during the decomposition of organic substances in the absence of air. In the anaerobic decomposition process, polymeric substrates such as carbohydrates, fats or proteins are first broken down by the process of hydrolysis by microorganisms into dissolved polymers in the form of mono- and polysaccharides, such as simple sugars, glycerol, fatty acids and amino acids.

Anaerobic fermentative microorganisms convert these intermediates into predominantly short-chain fatty acids, lactic acid, alcohols, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Through the process of acetogenesis by anaerobic acetogenic microorganisms, these substances are transformed into acetic acid, hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

In the final stage, the process of methane formation occurs predominantly from the acetic acid formed, but also by conversion of hydrogen and carbon dioxide by anaerobic methanogenic microorganisms. Anaerobic fermentation processes occur in this form, for example, in organic decomposition under anaerobic conditions, such as those prevailing in bogs, or also in biogas production.

What does this mean for indoor cannabis?

Avoid any rotting in the pot, this is caused for example by not completely decomposed pieces of wood or biomaterial that starts to rot in a highly compressed and too moist soil and can partially block nutrient uptake. All the processes known from the compost heap must be avoided in the pot.

On the other hand, feeding the microorganisms with organic material, such as yeast, dissolved with brown sugar or pureed aloe vera, organic fruit, etc., i.e. everything that the microorganisms and soil fungi can quickly convert into sugar types and make available to the plant via the root system, is positive. For this, the right temperature is important and the right soil moisture.

Reference

Soil temperature Ahabc (German Language)

Life in the soil Ahabc (German Language)

CARLOS - CARbon Learning Online System

 

[[Maschinenhaus]]

Chapter 7

Antagonism and synergism

Synergism: Positive interaction of the different nutrients. One substance helps the other to be better absorbed or metabolized by the plant.

Antagonism: Just the opposite - one nutrient can block the other, or reduce its availability to the plant.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen (symbol: N for Latin nitrogenium) is very important for the structure of the plant itself and has the best plant availability in a neutral to alkaline soil (pH about 6.5 to 8.5).

It can be in the form of ammonium or nitrate, the latter being more available to plants. Nitrate, in fact, is the variant dissolved in the soil and thus freely mobile, whereas ammonium is firmly bound to soil and clay crumbs and must first be converted into nitrate by microorganisms and dissolved in water.

In order to fulfill its function in the plant, nitrogen must be accompanied by sulfur and the latter must therefore be available in sufficient quantities. Here, then, is a synergism between nitrogen and sulfur.

The classification into weak, medium and strong growers is based on the nitrogen requirements of the plants. Highly nutritious plants, such as cabbage varieties or tomatoes, therefore have a particularly high nitrogen requirement.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus (P) has a fairly broad tolerance spectrum in the soil to pH, which should ideally be between 6 and 7, and is available to plants in dissolved form as phosphate.

However, too much phosphorus in the soil can hinder the uptake of the important micronutrients iron and zinc. Here we have a nice example of antagonism between phosphorus and the aforementioned micronutrients. Too much calcium, in turn, can bind phosphorus tightly in the soil, making it unavailable to plants for extended periods of time.

Since overfertilization with phosphate is quite common and there is usually enough of it for pretty much all plant species in our gardens anyway, calcium (or even better: liming in the form of compost) can be helpful here.

Potassium

With potassium (K), the lower the pH, the worse its plant availability. From a value of 6, this is optimal. Nitrogen helps with potassium uptake; however, it competes with magnesium because potassium hinders magnesium uptake.

Too much calcium, in turn, inhibits potassium uptake. Potassium is generally the same as phosphorus: we often have too much of it in the garden soil rather than too little. It also has a positive effect on storability, for example in root vegetables.

Calcium

Calcium (Ca) is best absorbed in the alkaline range and raises the pH value. It also has a stabilizing effect on the soil structure, which can be particularly beneficial in sandy soils, which usually have a fairly low pH. Microorganisms also think calcium is great, which is why it promotes soil life.

Nevertheless, you should be very careful with calcium and only fertilize when there is a deficiency, because on the one hand it competes with many other nutrients and can either block their uptake or bind them so tightly in the soil that they are no longer available to plants. In addition, it has the property of releasing nutrients in the short term when administered in larger quantities, which is why, however, they are also washed out very quickly - and this results in a depleted soil.

Magnesium

Magnesium (Mg) also has the best plant availability when the soil pH is in the alkaline range. However, too much calcium directly at the root blocks magnesium uptake, and the same is true with potassium.

Interestingly, the reverse is not true: too much magnesium does not block potassium uptake. So when fertilizing with potassium, it definitely makes sense to also administer magnesium to prevent an imbalance from developing. Cannabis & magnesium supply, especially on sandy soils you should keep an eye on the content.

Sulfur

Sulfur (S) is present in the soil in organically bound form, for example as humus, plant residues or in microorganisms. However, it can only be absorbed in inorganic form (as sulfate) and for this purpose must first be converted into sulfate by an industrious troop of microorganisms by means of mineralization. As already described above, sulfur is the most important companion of nitrogen, because it significantly favors its plant availability.

Interactions of magnesium with calcium, ammonium and Aluminum

Cations such as magnesium (Mg²⁺) and calcium (Ca²⁺) are taken up into the plant root via non-specific transporters. These can be used by all cations.

The monovalent cations ammonium (NH₄⁺) and potassium (K⁺), which are very similar in their properties, are primarily taken up into the root via specific transporters (carriers), which serve exclusively for the uptake of ammonium and potassium, respectively.

With a high supply of potassium and with ammonium-emphasized fertilization as well as a simultaneous high supply of calcium (on limed soils), the non-specific uptake channels are occupied by the cations K⁺, NH₄⁺ and Ca²⁺ and can thus hinder Mg²⁺ uptake. For optimal nutrient uptake, a balanced cation ratio in the root zone is therefore required.

Why is magnesium uptake often affected by antagonisms? In plant nutrition, nutrients can influence the uptake of another nutrient into the plant, its availability in the soil or its functions in the metabolism. This is referred to as "nutrient interactions" or "nutrient interactions". Depending on whether the uptake is positively or negatively influenced, there is either synergism (positive interaction) or antagonism (negative interaction).

In addition, magnesium in the soil solution is mainly about the mass flow delivered to the root. This is a passive movementtion with the water absorbed by the plant. The recordingalso takes place passively along an electrochemical gradient with the water flow.

For this reason, too, magnesium is Uptake in the plant of strong competition with other cations exposed. Here it can be stated that the efficiency of a potassium fertilization is significantly improved if the potassium fertilizer is added significant magnesium content.

A relationship is ideal of potassium to magnesium of 3:1.

Despite sufficient Mg supply to the soil, Mg deficiency can occur in plants. This is due to the fact that magnesium competes for uptake into the plant with potassium, manganese and calcium. Particularly with the application of farm fertilizers (high K content), magnesium can be displaced at the plant root.

Magnesium has a small ionic radius, but carries a comparatively large hydrate large hydrate shell. As a result, the binding strength in the soil is low and there is a high risk of leaching. In addition to potassium, other cations occur when the plant absorbs it in competition with magnesium. This applies in particular to calcium, with neutral and limed soils and even with light ones acidic conditions, the quantitatively most frequent cation at the exchanger in the ground.
The table below shows how young barley plants are used as an example strong the absorption of magnesium due to the addition of calcium and Potassium is depleted despite sufficient magnesium in the diet solution or in the soil solution.

No other cation is so strongly affected by antagonistic effects like magnesium. For this reason, a magnesium containing
Liming first induce magnesium deficiency, since the carbonate bound magnesium only after a longer dissolving process
becomes available to zen. In contrast, Ca carbonates dissolve faster.

An application by Dolo with CaMg(CO3)2 when the magnesium supply in the soil is low thus increasing the magnesium deficiency rather than reducing it, since everyone administration significantly more calcium than magnesium is administered. This is too the case in fertilizers, where a large part of the contained therein Sulfur is bound in CaSO₄. Despite the slower resolution in However, the Mg:Ca ratio is negatively influenced on the ground.If there are unfavorable cation ratios in the soil, which limit intake, only the use of pure magnesium nesium fertilizers remedy. Water-soluble magnesium enables one rapid transport to the roots in all soil layers.

An ammonium-emphasized fertilization thus leads to a very strong reduction in magnesium uptake, whereas an increase in potassium only slightly impairs magnesium uptake. Further data from the same experiment showed that the nitrogen form had only a minor effect on potassium uptake. However,
this only applies to a certain range of ammonium concentrations. Unlike magnesium, ammonium and potassium are very similar in terms of charge, size and hydration energy. These are indispensable properties for membrane transport.

Moreover, some K-specific transporters also appear to be suitable for NH₄⁺ uptake. A predominant uptake of the macronutrients nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, and calcium as cations would lead to strong charge imbalances within the cells. The plant balances these by releasing more protons (H⁺ ions) into the soil solution.

The release of protons causes the pH value in the area close to the roots (rhizosphere) to drop sharply. Since in ammonium fertilization H⁺ is not only is formed not only during uptake by the plant root, but also when ammonium (NH ammonium (NH₄⁺) is nitrified by bacteria to nitrate (NO₃- ). pure ammonium fertilizers are referred to as physiologically acidic fertilizers. fertilizers with a physiologically acidic effect. Soil acidification also has a major negative influence on magnesium uptake.

Soil pH influences root growth via auxin

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00106/full

Auxin is one of the phytohormones that controls growth and differentiation processes in vascular plants in various ways. Researchers have now found that soil pH stimulates auxin production.

When soil pH drops below 5.0, plants shut down their metabolism. In the acidic environment, the solubility of heavy metals such as Al3 and Mn2 ions changes, so they are increasingly taken up by plants and have a toxic effect on them. Acidification of the soil also affects root growth because the passive flow of protons from the apoplast into the cytosol disrupts the proton gradient.

Root cells counteract the passive influx of protons by proton pumps localized in the plasma membrane. These slightly acidify the area around the roots by actively releasing hydrogen protons. Important nutrients, but also harmful elements such as the heavy metals mentioned above, are dissolved and can be absorbed by the plant roots.

An optimal extracellular pH is typically between 5.5 and 6.5, whereas the intracellular neutral pH is very well buffered. Acidification of the apoplast is most likely critical for length growth of plant cells. This process is promoted at the cellular level by the plant hormone auxin. Auxin is a weak acid and is partially protonated at low pH values such as those found in the apoplast. In this state, auxin can enter the cell interior by passive diffusion.

Reference

The Role of Mineral Nutrition on Root Growth of Crop Plants

The Roles of Plant Growth Promoting Microbes in Enhancing Plant Tolerance to Acidity and Alkalinity Stresses

Ca vs. Mg (German Language)