Earth Juice Users

[Clackamas Coot]

Tactical – I’m just a new member on this site (What do I know) but I don’t think you’re coming across as a know it all, I feel everything said here has been extremely useful if taken in context. What works for one person might not work for another.

How do you like that AN Piranha? Is it worth the price?

There is this stuff called VAM + Activator by BioAG, Below is a link and a bit of information taken directly from BioAg’s site, I currently use this VAM but it's too early to be able to report results:

http://www.bioag.com/

“This product is a combination of our Humisolve-TM7, which contains the essential trace elements required by soil microbes. The product also contains 4 species of Endo Mycorrhizal Fungi and Trichoderma cultures.

Benefits include:

* Improved nutrient and water uptake
* Improved root growth
* Improved plant growth and yield
* Improved disease resistance
* Reduced transplant shock
* Reduced drought stress

These fungi increase the surface absorbing area of roots 10 to 100x thereby greatly improving the ability of the plants to utilize the soil resource. Estimates of amounts of mycorrhizal filaments present in soil associated with plants are astonishing. Several miles of fungal filaments can be present in less than a thimbleful of soil! But mycorrhizal fungi increase nutrient uptake not only by increase the surface absorbing area of roots. They also release powerful chemicals into the soil that dissolve hard to capture nutrients such as phosphorous, iron and other "tightly bound" soil nutrients. This extraction process is particularly important in plant nutrition and explains why non mycorrhizal plants require high levels of fertility to maintain their health. Mycorrhizal fungi form an intricate web that captures and assimilates nutrients conserving the nutrient capital in soils. In non mycorrhizal conditions much of this fertility is wasted or lost from the system”

Jmansweed – What do you use for to create fungi population in your soil?

loki3xb

I've been using BioAg.com's products for several years. The founder, Dr. John Faust, is a legend in the humic/fulvic acid world. Check the web for his peer-reviewed studies on the application of humic/fulvic acids. It's quite a reading.

What distinguishes BioAg.com's humic/fulvic acid products is in their 'source' as well as their method of extraction - i.e. a cold-water process that maintains the microbial levels as do other cold-water extraction processes using kelp meal as an example (Maxicrop vs. Acadian Seaplants, Ltd. Seaweed Extract, et al)

You've got a world-class product that is FAR superior to ANYTHING sold in a grow store. Most of their humic/fulvic acids are derived from Leonardite - i.e. coal. BioAg sources their acids from peat moss (for the sake of this rather limited discussion).

HTH

CC

 

[Tactical Farmer]

Not the best test but.

Left side: Compost / Oats / Piranha / POM fruit & flower

Right side" Compost / Oats / Piranha / POM fruit & flower / FF Marine Cuisine

1 week in dark closet.

The test mostly concluded that the Fox Farm Marine Cuisine does at least initially slow down fungal growth due to its ingredients.

Im going to leave it "funk out" for awhile to see if it recovers to match the more organic left side.

Used it outside the 2 past summers with pretty good results but going to discontinue using it.

* Its the same stuff Fox Farm uses in the Ocean Forest soil for anyone who may be using that.

 

[loki3xb]

Wow it been a long time.... I hope everybody is doing well.

I'm starting to now get to the point where I might want to introduce more fungi into the mix, im trying to give a bit heavier on the EJ nutes . That BIO AG stuff that I used didn't seem too much too much of an effect, but I went out and picked up some Roots Organic Oregonism XL (http://www.aurorainnovations.org/oregonism_xl.html) which according to the label, has more counts and more fungi/bacteria then the Bio AG VAM + Activator. Has anybody heard of or used this before??

Jmansweeds - What do you do to get a healthy fungi count in your medium? Also earlier you mentioned I could PM you, this site won't let me, any suggestions?

 

[Tactical Farmer]

They haven't found me yet, im still here loki..

I will find Jman - wondering how the new test is going.

 

[loki3xb]

Tactical.

Im glad to hear it, cant lose good people like you guys....

Im going to have to type up whats been up lately, there has been alot happening. Everything from a new fertilizer regiment to one plant Hermi'ing and making sure all the plants have seeds.

Expect something soon from me

 

[Sackushman]

Earth Juice

Earth Juice

I love me some earth juice ! Its all I use outdoors in my greenhouses. I also use the Catalyst with everything i do indoors also. I use advanced indooors but I get it for almost nothing , actually I do get it free form a friend so I use it indoors in Cococoir but catalyst is awesome. I use the entire lineup outdoors in the grenhouses and get huge yields with it. Maybe better than anything else on the market. I do wish they would comeout wiht something like Advanced Nutes Bud Ignitor. Busd Ignitor really does work to get you a bunch more flower sites but besides that Earth juice is awesome stuff. I would reccomend it to anyone. I actually used it on tomatoes last year and got the biggestr tomatoes I have ever seen. I will post a pic when I can find it. It was like a small pumpkin.

 

[loki3xb]

I think I speak for everyone when I say we would love to see those pics.. Also you should give a bit more detail on your grow, we love to compare and see the different methods people use with their EJ.

 

[Zendo]

TF- I didn't do a full read of this thread yet, but I have a suggestion for your fungal boost experiment.

I use 3-4 tbsp of powdered baby oatmeal to 1 cup of *damp, not wet* earth worm castings in a standard tupperware container, as recommended in the "Teaming with Microbes" book.

I then put a loose fitting lid on, and set on a heating pad on low.My heating pad has a safety setting to turn off after 2 hours, so I reset it whenever I think of it over the course of 48hrs..It probably only ends up being on for 4 hours a day. If it didn't , I'd leave it on low 12hrs a day.

by 48 hours, there is a TON of fungi...looks like Santa's beard. If you did a comparison vs those two it would blow both of them out of the water. I'm at work, so no picture.

$3 box of powdered baby oatmeal has lasted me 2 months..Beats the heck out of those overpriced AN and FF..AN Piranha is $190 lb, AND IS THE EXACT SAME THING as whats in rooters and oregonism, which is $40 a lb.........

I keep a container going at all times, and use a heaping cup for my 5 gallon teas.

 

[Tactical Farmer]

Cool - Some new action.

Finishing up some God Berry & Green Devil real soon, must say the juice came though again BIG time.

Gonna get my ass moving on a new fungi culture, that "santa's beard" is trich / Trichodermia.

Gray, webby, sets up fast - great for pot but #1 enemy for shroomers.

* Extreme caution should used with seedlings & clones - a highly active fungi mix will eat seedlings & clone stems for breakfast. The trich grey webbing will kill small plants fast...


_________________________________________________________

Check out the wiki trich micro pic - looks like trippy snowflake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichoderma

Good stuff

 

[loki3xb]

Some new info for everybody to chew over

I recently noticed that the Fox Farm Ocean Forest didn't smell right / feel right (Didn't have that rich smell that it normally has) and asked my grow shop what the deal was with this, and the guy I spoke with told me, fox farm's made some changes to their outside packaging but he didn't know if they changed their formula, but agreed with me on it not being "right". Soon after that breath, He recommended this soil, Just Right Xtra (http://www.ncwgs.com/just_right_xtra.php) after reading the pamphlet I decided to buy and test it out. The thing about it that really grabbed me was the fact that it is made in line with the book "Teaming with microbes" By Jeff Lowenfels. So I'm sure this is going to be a great alterative to FF OF or even better.... A replacement ***The link above is the same as the pamphlet and the company's website that makes it***


A few other notes... I'm stopping my Bio-Canna and moving fully to Earth Juice (Hope it works ) and I stopped using the BioAg VAM + Activator, and in exchange started using Roots Organics Oregonism XL, which I think is the better product, not only did it have every strain of Fungi / Bacteria that the BioAg had, but included a bunch more that the VAM did not.


So I'm hoping with the Roots Organic, the Just Right Xtra, and the full line of EJ I should have a pretty solid foundation for some killer harvests. I do have to say that brewing the EJ in a tea with Guanos and EWC (Earth Worm Castings) has yielded some amazing results, I've just never went FULL EJ, so I'm a bit nervous. Ive always mainly used Bio-Canna and then just EJ Teas sometimes.

Ill going to write something a bit more detailed at a later date.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

 

[ravvysan]

hey all, this being my first ever post here i wanna say thanks to everybody here on this site, i've soaked up gobs of info just reading ya'lls conversations, now its time to jump in myself! so this is my first time using earth juice products, i've got the grow, bloom, meta-k and microblast, also have some molasses and fish emulsion to add in as needed, and i'm bubbling these in a tea to raise pH. here's my question....i've noticed others seeing pH changes in a day or so. my tea start off at right around 4, sometimes even lower (using ro water). thing is, it takes a good 3 days to see any change at all, then suddenly it will rise several point in a matter of a few hours. anybody else have similar results?

 

[Tactical Farmer]

Loki - Ive never used that stuff (make my own soil from scratch, aka poops & peats) but if its all natural then it should work well.

Since its all new though, might want to get it activated with a "sugar type tea & or culture" wet it down then give it a few weeks to "cook".

Then take say a cup of it, mix with distilled / ro water over night & ph / ec test the juice so you got a good idea how its looking from the get go.

That way you can make some quick changes to the mix (more peat or more lime) or simply hit it with 1 day bubbled acidic teas or 3 day bubbled alkaline teas to adjust in up or down that way.

Or do nothing at all & ride it out - I just like to make sure things get started off on the right foot.

____________________

Sup Ravvy - Welcome..

What your seeing seems to be the norm - day 1 & 2 are acidic then teas go over ph 7 around day 3 all the sudden.

The EJ can be given strait up totally acidic (word on the street here at ICmag) but your plant (should in my opinion) be happiest & hungriest with PH in the 6's going in & PH in the 6's coming out the bottom.

Or dont do any of that - alot of guys here dont check anything.

 

[Dorje113]

The Big Trap: Recipes

The Big Trap: Recipes

So, I've been using Ej for over a decade, and set up tons of systems using it. I'd like to make a few suggestions for it's use, and point out how going by recipes using this product will not produce optimal results. There are too many variables with organic growing for recipes to work. Differences in initial soil composition (even potting mixes of the same brand aren't the same in all geographic locations).

First, you need to start with a good soil mix that will work well with EJ nutes. This mix needs to supply a "baseline" of organic nutrients, with EJ used to supplement the soil ONLY WHEN NEEDED. The soil mix also has to drain well, and maintain perfect pH when using EJ. Here's my mix:

• 50% organic potting soil
• 25% Perlite
• 25% Peat Moss
• Fine Dolomite Lime (qty. depending on potting soil)
• Earthworm Castings, Guanos, Kelp, and whatever you can find to make a nice, balanced bed mix for them

Big Issue: How do you know what's needed and how do you know when it's needed? The answer is soil testing. I know cheap soil test kits are "ballpark" devices, but they work well enough to give you an idea of how much NPK is in the soil and the pH level of the SOIL. This is very important. In organics, people freak out about the pH levels and try to correct for them without understanding the how it works, let alone actually knowing the pH OF THE SOIL. Measuring the pH of the water you are adding without understanding the dynamics of YOUR PARTICULAR system, and then trying to adjust it is a recipe for disaster. In one particular forum I will not mention, there is a guy who gives everyone the same advise, water with a pH between 6.3 and 6.8 for organic soil growing. Well, I can guarantee of you use so much pH UP to adjust your EJ nutes to near neutral, you are going to end up raising the pH of the soil and killing all your plants over time if you use a soil that already has enough dolomite lime in it. Like FFOF, DON'T ADD LIME IF YOU ARE USING FFOF AS THE POTTING MIX IN THE BLEND ABOVE.

Basically, you need to do a soil test before you water your organic garden every time, until you really get the hang of how the plants and your system use the nutes, and it will also track pH so you can make adjustments based on the SOIL pH, which is what actually matters.

Another Benefit of Keeping Your Soil Completely and Perfectly Balanced: Beside the best quality crops, if you keep your soil balanced, you can re-use it indefinitely. I just add more bed mix and lime to my dirt, till it up and re-use. You might need to add more perlite after a few years, it'll break down. If you follow a recipe instead of using soil testing to determine feeding, chances are your soil will not stay in balance, and will have to be flushed or replaced, both of which are like starting over. If you re-use your dirt, you'll never have to buy mychorrhizal supplement ever again either. In fact, it takes a while for bacteria and fungus to get established, and you'll find your 2nd run in the same dirt is better than the 1st.

Thats all for now, prolly have more later...

 

[Tactical Farmer]

Hello Dorje,

Wow - 10 years on Earth Juice, glad you showed up.

One of the things that has alot of us guessing is the life span of the EJ line, mostly Grow & Bloom.

Whats your feelings on that ?

does it spoil ?

if it does how do you know ?

The general consensus seems to be not more than 2 years under good storage conditions.

Still have not heard of it going toxic & wrecking gardens - have you ?

Thanks for your time on that post - 10 years & he still tests, hear that fellas..

The soil test kit is VERY rarely used - might have to try the darn thing.

 

[Dorje113]

Hello Dorje,

Wow - 10 years on Earth Juice, glad you showed up.

One of the things that has alot of us guessing is the life span of the EJ line, mostly Grow & Bloom.

Whats your feelings on that ?

does it spoil ?

if it does how do you know ?

The general consensus seems to be not more than 2 years under good storage conditions.

Still have not heard of it going toxic & wrecking gardens - have you ?

Thanks for your time on that post - 10 years & he still tests, hear that fellas..

The soil test kit is VERY rarely used - might have to try the darn thing.

I don't know, I've never kept the stuff around that long. I've never heard of it wrecking gardens either. I think it's def. possible it could go bad over time, especially if it's stored in a hot place...

And yes, soil testing is good, come up with your own feeding program that fits YOUR system

 

[loki3xb]

Dorje113,

Welcome Mate, good to have you.. I like the idea of knowing your system and feeding them what you know they need. Ive read that the 3LBs reuse their soil and it works great if you "recondition" it, just like you mentioned.

I found this a few days ago well perusing the web, I found it kinda interesting / cool.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXGqJbFZzCo

 

[liquidmaco]

hello all, i am new to ic and to earth juice. i did a few rounds with PBP and decided to switch to organics from PBP for obvious reasons. my girls are just now telling me if they are girls or not, so maybe a month out of the tray. growing if FFOF/Light Warrior mix. i used plant success at about a week and then started in with the ej, just a little grow, then a little more grow with some bloom, and then grow, bloom, catalyst and a tad of micro. the last mix had a ppm of 380 or so, about 30ml grow, 10ml bloom, 10ml catalyst and 5 micro per gallon, bubbled in a 5gal with flexhose, have a heat mat under it. im seeing some purpling in the veins of the leaves, and the beginning of some yellow blotches just barely visible now. not any major signs of tip burn, and some of the new growth seems to be light too like theyre hungry? im really worried about this coming on so soon in their life, and because im picking a mother out of these. the ph has been low going in even after bubbling 24 hrs but runoff is on point everytime. they are some warlock bagseeds. also i noticed that my last mix in addition to foaming had a weird white film like stuff that formed on the top and when swished the airhose around it broke up into chunks and eventually seemed to have dissolved again? my flexhose is covered in it. is this normal? do you pros water between feeds or feed all the time? ive been going with the latter so far/

 

[treefrog]

I have found that a rate of 3 tbsp per gallon of the grow will not green up an N deficient plant. I hadn't used the grow in awhile, but recently tried it on an N hog. What's it going to take, 4, 5, 6 tablespoons? It seems like the "bang for your buck" element just isn't there. A gallon of fish hydrolysate can be had for less than one quart of EJ Grow.. Urine is free.

 

[Jdizzel]

i love EJ

i love EJ

i am a first time soil grower and i love this shit!
GO EJ
sorry to interupt.

 

[Tactical Farmer]

sup guys

liquidmaco, your best bet is to fill out the problem list & post your complete situation with pics in the Infirmary section here at ICmag.

Theres about a thousand combinations that could be going wrong - air / water / nutes / environment / soil health / etc ?

Just slowly eliminate possibilitys to find the problem.

________________________________________________

Treefrog, 3 TBSP per gal is on the HIGH end for N feeding - less more often seems to work better.

Example: 1 TBSP Grow per gal every watering vs. 3 TBSP per gal once a week.

Kinda like going to Chinese buffet & over eating = makes you tired & lazy.

Any feeding over 3 TBSP per gal of Grow or Bloom is crazy in my opinion.

________________________________________________________________

Nice arsenal Dizzle - Whats that orange bottle on the bottom right ?