I just started my first Micro grow need help!

[newkid]

** plant tone, i was baked when i wrote that last one lol

 

[BigBozat]

Thanks man great advice I have read and watched videos that quote teaming with microbes, Great information and gave me some understanding of teas. (anaerobic vs aerobic bacteria).

So far my list is alfalfa meal, kelp meal, EWC, humus or substitute(organic mushroom or manure compost which i can use in teas as well), coco coir, sand, green sand, azomite for transplant and a rooting agent plus espoma plant bloom or similar product should do me through veg for 1/3 gallons. I can use that list to brew teas as well; is it ok to use something like plant bloom if for some reason I don't have time to make a tea one week?

Than I can ammend with some higher P stuff for flower in 5 g pots. To be ready for flower and slightly change my teas to promote flower stage(high P mag cal etc).

hows that sound??

Yes, u can use those to brew teas...
'Tho the coco & sand are sterile (don't contribute nutes or beneficials) and are really in the soil mix as bulk / aeration / structure / texture / drainage / water retention... and so aren't relevant to teas. Don't bother with those in teas...

And don't forget molasses for your tea (it's not on the soil list cuz mixing up soil with molasses in it is just weird [and difficult to get thoroughly/evenly distributed])... there are all sorts of other things that folks have in tea recipes, too (guanos come to mind, but you've looked around so already know)...

Plant-tone not -bloom.

Bloom formulas are usu hi PK for flowering stages, not veg...
Espoma has a 'Flower-tone Bloom Booster' which is a diff. product aimed at flowering not veg (lil lower N, lil higher P-K, different mix/ratio of ingredients)... don't get the wrong thing...

['tho you could use the Flower-tone Bloom Booster as part of your hi-PK fert for the final 5 gal transplant soil]

Can you use Plant-tone in lieu of a tea feeding?...
Well, only if you consider top-dressing as a direct substitute for tea feeding (not quite)... Plant-tone is a dry fert meant to be amended into the soil ahead of time or used as periodic top-dressing, and breaks down organically over time... it's not water soluble, so not meant for/usable in foliars or fertigation... generally, a top dressing of Plant-tone will last 4 weeks, so if you skip a week of tea feeding & do a top-dressing instead, you won't resume teas for a while...

The rest of your plan is fine...

 

[newkid]

Yeah I misunderstood what plant tone was, plus I got mixed up with something I was reading not in this thread about preventing rot at late flower stage. Unsulfured molasses or I heard honey or maple syrup can work too as food for the bacteria. Don't worry I wouldn't put coco coir in tea lol !

Thanks for all your help so far I feel fairly confident (for the next few weeks at least)!
I'll post some pics in the days to come and look into SCrogs possibly and topping/fimming to see if anyone has had any luck with it.

 

[newkid]

Oh and the coconut water sounds like a great idea too !!

 

[newkid]

Hey so I got dolomite lime, sand, perlite, EWC, bone meal, kelp meal, humic acid, and some root stim. Going to put them into 1 gallon today very soon. Any advice for mixing into the Mykes mix, I've was thinking 40% Mykes, 20% EWC, 10% bone meal, 10% kelp meal , 5% lime, 5% perlite, 5% sand and 5% of humic acid. Feel free to offer change to this and I will trust you guys haha !!

Didn't get a chance to read/review into this(esp humic acid), been a busy week. Going to mix, moisten, and check run off ph, then use powdered rt stim @ 0.8% IBA for transplant. The Mykes mix drains really well already.

Could really use some advice ASAP very busy weekend ahead. Very much appreciate advice up to this point. They are looking good and have some more seeds so hopefully I gain some experience and next run will be more smooth.

PEACE

 

[hicksticky]

Hey newkid,
every things going good?
With the additives like meals, lime, root stims, and humic acid (depends on the form) I would not mix in a ratio form but 2 tbls of each to every gal. that way you dont make it too hot.
with the soil, perlite and sand you can mix it in ratio's.

post some pics when ya can, Hick

 

[BigBozat]

Don't worry I wouldn't put coco coir in tea lol !

LMAO
I'm sure you wouldn't...
Just an abundance of caution to make sure understanding happens... kinda reminded me of when I was back doing desktop support for a bank waaaaaaaaay back when the PC's were still using floppy disk drives... had a user call me to help them with something... when I told them they needed to insert a 'clean' floppy disk, I heard a long pause and when the user came back on the line he told me he was all set & ready to proceed to the next step, as he had just finished cleaning the disk in the breakroom sink! Ever since then, I've never taken anything for granted when communicating...

 

[BigBozat]

Hey newkid,
every things going good?
With the additives like meals, lime, root stims, and humic acid (depends on the form) I would not mix in a ratio form but 2 tbls of each to every gal. that way you dont make it too hot.
with the soil, perlite and sand you can mix it in ratio's.

post some pics when ya can, Hick

Agreed... 10% each for the meals is waaaaaaay too insanely hot... I think all of my ferts put together come out to something like a bit less than 6% of my total mix by volume, and that was a mix for an 'aggressive veg' growth stage...

 

[stoney917]

Kool thread ... way to bring them back... lots of good useful info for beginners. ... got ne recent pics... they should be taken off by now.. how big was ur space again???

 

[sourpuss]

Wow miracle grow to organics.... you guys better hold his hand the whole way.... anyone educated him on tap water and what he should be doing to use it with organics... just wondering dont feel like reading the whole thread.... important info tho...

 

[BigBozat]

Hey so I got dolomite lime, sand, perlite, EWC, bone meal, kelp meal, humic acid, and some root stim. Going to put them into 1 gallon today very soon. Any advice for mixing into the Mykes mix, I've was thinking 40% Mykes, 20% EWC, 10% bone meal, 10% kelp meal , 5% lime, 5% perlite, 5% sand and 5% of humic acid. Feel free to offer change to this and I will trust you guys haha !!

Didn't get a chance to read/review into this(esp humic acid), been a busy week. Going to mix, moisten, and check run off ph, then use powdered rt stim @ 0.8% IBA for transplant. The Mykes mix drains really well already.

Could really use some advice ASAP very busy weekend ahead. Very much appreciate advice up to this point. They are looking good and have some more seeds so hopefully I gain some experience and next run will be more smooth.

PEACE

FWIW, 5% sand isn't enough to be noticeable, much less enough to have any appreciable effect on soil structure/drainage/tilth...

Typically, I use it at 20% ~ 30% (maybe more if my base is high in clay and/or a lot of org matter that retains excess amts of water)... if the Myke's already drains well, doesn't you much good & you don't really need it... can't hurt at this point (since you've already got it/bought it), just a head's up for next time (so you don't waste money, even if sand is cheap)...

On the other hand, regardless of drainage, the more sand in your soil, the easier it'll be to tweak pH via dol lime (see elsewhere below)...

Ditto (sorta) for perlite, which is both for aeration & [some] water-retention [tho vermiculite would be better for water-retention & release if your strain is particularly thirsty]... 5% isn't going to make any appreciable diff... 25% ~ 33% is prolly more norm for me... but, again, I don't use Myke's and don't have any real idea as to whether aeration is a need for this base or not...

Still, I would at least double, maybe triple or quadruple the perlite... IIRC, Myke's is mostly sphagnum peat which tends to compact after an extended number of waterings, so more perlite with help it resist compaction & improve aeration... perlite also is sterile (or should be!), while peat is not, so I would tend to favor more perlite, less peat...

As to the dol lime... 5% seems way too much to me; for 1 cu ft of soil mix, that works out to something like 7 cups of dol lime, whereas a normal rate is more along the lines of 1/2 ~ 1 cup per cu ft... Too much dol lime can cause Mag toxicity... I wouldn't go above 2 cups max per cu ft in any event...

For the humic acid, I would just add to the water you'll be using to initially moisten the mix... application rate = in accordance with the bottle label directions... no need to use the whole bottle (save some for making foliar sprays later)...

Feel free to juice things up with a jar of unsulfured molasses in the initial soil mix (add to your moistening water)... it'll give a jump start to the mycos in your Myke's potting soil, and help build soil structure/crumbs...

And as per prev post, your ferts/meals are way too high...

 

[BigBozat]

Wow miracle grow to organics.... you guys better hold his hand the whole way.... anyone educated him on tap water and what he should be doing to use it with organics... just wondering dont feel like reading the whole thread.... important info tho...

LOL

This all started as an emergency/rescue operation, and not really as a primer on organics (he can go read the sticky for that), so no I don't think anyone's focused on his tap water much, other than saying whoa to too much watering and maybe asking about tap water pH...

But, you're right, of course, if the immediate emergency is under control, and he wants to pursue an organic route, it oughta be addressed... listening newk?

 

[yahooman]

yes 20% is average for drainage

 

[sourpuss]

Hey newkid, we r all in suspense waiting to see what happenned... miracle grow to organics..... pls show us... if you make it ill consider tryin again

 

[newkid]

Heres an update ! Let me know what you think about those lower leafs dying over the weekend, still a bit of discolouration throughout plant, hopefully that clears up for new growth in new mix.

With regard to the water I have read other resources than this forum I know that chloramine and chlorine will kill bacteria in soil. I have been filtering using brita and letting water sit out for 48 before watering using in foil spray or using in humidifier. And Bozat I have really appreciated your level of communication skills (just saw floppy disk reply now haha)

PEACE

 

[newkid]

 

[BigBozat]

Heres an update ! Let me know what you think about those lower leafs dying over the weekend, still a bit of discolouration throughout plant, hopefully that clears up for new growth in new mix.

With regard to the water I have read other resources than this forum I know that chloramine and chlorine will kill bacteria in soil. I have been filtering using brita and letting water sit out for 48 before watering using in foil spray or using in humidifier. And Bozat I have really appreciated your level of communication skills (just saw floppy disk reply now haha)

PEACE

If you're water source uses chloramine, Brita doesn't work... or well, anyways (flow rate has to be reaaaaaaaaaaaally slow -or- you have to run it through multiple times (6+))... you can use campden tablets (an old homebrewer's trick; if you have the muni water report, double the chloramine number add the chlorine number and divide the result by 6 = the # of campden tablets per 20 gals)... and/or maybe a 500mg of Vitamin C... or RO (best)...

I musta missed the lower leaves dying over weekend (or maybe I'm just too baked ; just came back from bong-a-thon of MOB + Jorge's Diamond #1)... true leaves? I will have to re-read/re-look...

 

[BigBozat]

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[newkid]

yeah pics didn't upload right I guess. These ones should work!

 

[mia_reddog]

Beautiful pics! I've enjoyed reading through this thread. Great work recovering those special ladies! Keep posting pics of your success.