Growdo Baggins
Active member
Does it count towards the 33% aeration? Or is it in addition to?
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How much biochar do you add to your living soil?
- Thread starter Growdo Baggins
- Start date
Growdo Baggins
Active member
I'm actually getting that black owl from you guys. It's free shipping. What would you use for aeration besides pumice? I can't find it here and again getting it shipped is crazy. I know perlite floats but if I'm doing blumats the soil should really never be saturated enough to cause it to float, right?
Growdo Baggins
Active member
I don't know what is like yet. I've honestly never seen it, but I was planning on getting black owl from kis, ironically enough.
Growdo Baggins
Active member
My water analysis report came back from Logan's lab today. I went back and read the blog again and compared my report to your sample one. There's some things that are off but nothing like I expected. I was sure something in this water was throwing my ph out of whack. Or just something in it that's messing this grow up. It's really the only other factor that I've changed. I was using this spring water 50/50 with bottled spring water for my previous grows and it really seems like when I started using it 100% I started having problems. I'm going to stop using it but I really want to understand what's going on. That blog helped a shit load and was really exactly the info I needed to try to interpret this. Here's the report if you wanna check it out. The hardness gains look high. But nothing else really stood out as super high or low. I'm going to go over the blog again though. Thanks Tadd
Water report looks pretty good. You could use an acid to drop the pH but no major red flags.
I don't consider the biochar as a portion of my "aeration" and I like to have it around 5-8%. Don't get caught up on using pumice. You'll be fine with perlite if that's what is available locally. Just know it wants to float to the surface and over time will break down with disturbance and you'll probably need to add more aeration as the physical properties of your soil change. You can also use lava rock or vermiculite if the size is correct.
I don't consider the biochar as a portion of my "aeration" and I like to have it around 5-8%. Don't get caught up on using pumice. You'll be fine with perlite if that's what is available locally. Just know it wants to float to the surface and over time will break down with disturbance and you'll probably need to add more aeration as the physical properties of your soil change. You can also use lava rock or vermiculite if the size is correct.
Growdo Baggins
Active member
Thanks dude that's very helpful, and I appreciate the reply. I think what's happened is that I've gotten salt build up. I'm using Fox farm nutes and soil and I never flushed. I think the water just added more salt to everything. I thought the salt concentration mightve been high in the water but I've had a hard time finding the info. Or a hard time interpreting it. I feel like I have a mental block that prevents me from understand basic science. Thanks again. I'll be getting the black owl bio char and I prob need a few other things, I've gotta go over the list.
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If your EC is high in the soil then you could have salt buildup. Keep in mind when I say "salt" in this instance it's not necessarily sodium but all cations. It can be from adding too much fertility to the soil and it can cause osmotic shock for the plant roots.
You should also consider getting a water test. On our website we have a blog for understanding a water test and what the various metrics are and target ranges. This will help determine if your water is adding to the problem or creating it.
Growdo Baggins
Active member
. That was helpful too.
Bio boy
Active member
Do you use a water softener by any chance ? they use sodium to remove impurities so it replaces with bicarbs citric acid will drop the ph slightly and bubble off the carbonates n sodiums hold on to the ca
add citric acid 1tsp to 500ml water and use that as a ph down to micro adjust so it doesn’t go away outa range
add citric acid 1tsp to 500ml water and use that as a ph down to micro adjust so it doesn’t go away outa range
Growdo Baggins
Active member
Thanks for the reply. No I don't. I collect this from a local spring that everyone here drinks from. I have citric acid I bought last year when we started canning. I will def give that a try. Thanks for explaining how water softner works. Honestly I'm trying to learn stuff like this, but I'm so far from understanding any of it that it seems futile to even try to learn sometimes
Where is this soil salt website? I recycle my soil, don’t rinse it, and have no idea what is in it.
Rico Swazi
Active member
as said earlier biochar quality matters-
Caveat emptor
Caveat emptor
Rico Swazi
Active member
Besides that ^
Poor soils will see the most benefit from biochar application
for those nutrient rich organic matter soil mixes cannabis growers typically use.... not so much
www.sciencedirect.com
I will always suggest the use of brown carbon/lignin (wood chips) and plenty organic matter over black carbon as it facilitates that living soil paradigm better so it seems
![20230103_070906[1].jpg](https://www.icmag.com/attachments/20230103_070906-1-jpg.18800104/ "20230103_070906[1].jpg")
Poor soils will see the most benefit from biochar application
for those nutrient rich organic matter soil mixes cannabis growers typically use.... not so much
Mollisol - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
www.sciencedirect.com
I will always suggest the use of brown carbon/lignin (wood chips) and plenty organic matter over black carbon as it facilitates that living soil paradigm better so it seems
I have been playing with biochar lately and was wondering if it could be used as a perlite replacement drainage amendment?
Just to see what would happen I planted a clone in soil that was freshly amended with biochar that was not activated. The clone yellowed up almost immediately and did not grow at all.
Just to see what would happen I planted a clone in soil that was freshly amended with biochar that was not activated. The clone yellowed up almost immediately and did not grow at all.
Bio boy
Active member
biochar is highly alkaline so small amounts are ok but otherwise it’s like growing in lime if ya use too much
small ammounts beneficial
Pyrolysis of plant biomass normally results highly alkaline biochar
If you activate your biochar, which in my case involves mixing it in with my compost and leaving it for at least six months, then PH should stabilise?
Bio boy
Active member
True
I have seen farmers where the entire mass of their soil is mostly biochar but I didn’t take note what was growing either Hm interesting
