Living organic soil from start through recycling CONTINUED...

[milkyjoe]

Whether or not to use dolomite comes down to your compost to me. Most of it has plenty of Mg ready. For example, worm power vermicast has a 4:1 Ca:Mg ratio. No more Mg needed.

But if I did need Mg I would not hesitate to use dolomite.

Too much Mg will deflocculate your soil making it tight. Admittedly not a huge problem given our use of drainage amendments...but still no use for it either

 

[TheFarm]

You know people look for best performance when doing a comparative and I will make a different suggestion.

Bring more plants into your life, non marijuana and grow them to the side and do trials with evaluating organic pre-cursors

some times local natural availability trumps performance and the best way to gauge that is through use.

If space allows (greenhouse, out doors, big grow rooms) I would be running companion plants for multiple purposes, one so I could run organic trials before I put them into production two I would run plants that add to IPM such as marigolds, lavender or other plants that at the same time could contribute to other consumption/medical use.

I don't know if marigolds or lavender are perfect examples to fit those molds but you get the gist of it.

Plant Valerian chamomile cilantro basil close to MJ hot peppers and onions on the periphery

 

[Goatstroker]

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[TheFarm]

I've got a jar full, and will be sprouting them today. I'm also sprouting barley right now, so the flower room will get barley and the veg room will get cannabis. See how this goes

If growing in very large containers or straight in dirt bury your non MJ seeds deep enough to sprout but not break through to the surface: sprout dirt beats sprout tea, don't use middlemen to do the job when the supplier is next to home

 

[dickcorn]

Anyone have a suggestion for winged root aphids? Can't seem to shake them even ditched my bangin soil to try and get away from them but there back again! I've had ortho and riptide for like a year but can't bring myself to use it. Tell me there's another way. Neem cake maybe? Anybody?

 

[Goatstroker]

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[TheFarm]

I'm not against sprout teas in flowering especially with a plant that will have a long vegetative period since the problem with sprout soil is the impracticality of going back to deeply amend with seed but not a problem when transplanting up. In the long run I think you'll find that the growth promoters from sprouts in sprout soil carry over in the plants vegetative into flowering stages quite efficiently when used in this manner even over a long growing season. Add to that the long term release of nutrients from seeds sprouting in the soil and decaying (mother nature made the best fertilizer ever: seeds). And you gain the added bonus of improved soil tilth and aeration from the root tunnels made by the sprouting seeds. Add to that the large increase in microbial habitat and activity (which spreads to the cannabis roots you get from the transformation of the underground sprout by the micros. Just another bow in your quiver.

Oh, if you haven't ever noticed, plants seem to grow out of seeds fairly well, there's a reason for that.

One more thing, bloom tea for flowering, just need flowers instead of seeds. check it out

 

[Goatstroker]

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[Luther Burbank]

I'm still organic but these days ideas like gathering flowers to make bloom tea seem like an inefficient way to do things.

 

[TheFarm]

1I grow on a small scale for my medical needs and the medical needs of a small circle of confidants but I do have a large staff (about 20 new assistants assigned to me each hour) at my lab that get paid (not money) to perform biological experiments I'm interested in (not using cannabis but plants with similar life cycle needs and production) so in my private little outdoor cannabis garden I can enjoy extending experimentints (doesn't even hurt my feelings to kill a few when taking a new approach to the limit, I always plant a little more than I need) I know I'm blessed. Jah Glory

2Plant tissue cultures and autopsies are indispensable in my research path. Sorry for the repeated posts but I can't edit yet so I've doubled up posts sometimes when a new idea pops in, sorry if its annoying in your reading style

3

Right on, pretty much what I was thinking



Tell that to "High Quality Seeds" with their 0/11 germ rate. But really, isn't that the whole idea here?



Huh?

Goatstroker thanks for the interest and I'll post personal research on bloom/blossom tea for flowering when I get a chance to dig through my notes and piece together a coherent explanation of the process.

 

[xmobotx]

I'm still organic but these days ideas like gathering flowers to make bloom tea seem like an inefficient way to do things.

The living soil crowd has actually moved away from more soluble choices like flower tea. Or, the thinking as jay presented was always more about getting started than a long term program.

today's option would likely be more like how cootz suggests using comfrey w/ your mulch. The thinking of applying veg preparations and/or flower preps doesn't make sense either. more like 'include the whole plant in your mulch ~even flowers! at all phases'

though i do think many will treat clones and seedlings differently because it takes a very mature living soil to be a safe environment for tender plants i.e. we obviously don;t do cuttings in our ROLS {until they're rooted} but after a few cycles, seeds may be germ'd in ROLS

 

[Corpsey]

Anyone have a suggestion for winged root aphids? Can't seem to shake them even ditched my bangin soil to try and get away from them but there back again! I've had ortho and riptide for like a year but can't bring myself to use it. Tell me there's another way. Neem cake maybe? Anybody?

I had RA for at least 8-9 months and it finally was too much just days before christmas (what a present!). Buds just fully covered with winged aphids that i had to cut down and kill.
But i successfully killed the infestation (so far 3 weeks in) and saved 9 mothers and a dad, this is what i did for an organic treatment...

cedar oil spray on the pots and around the room on the walls/floors, mine was from a pet source that was a organic flea treatment.
Mycotrol O soil drench each week, even soil that had nothing in it.
1 Aza-sol ( powdered neem, not oil) root drench on the mothers.
then to top it all off a cedar oil fogger for the whole room, with the same oil from the spray.
i still need to add some beneficial nematodes , so they can protect my soil from now on. you could add neem meal and crab meal to your soil as a topdress. i added crab meal.

my sticky traps have been empty ever since, now im just hoping i can keep it this way.

 

[TheyCallMeJJay]

One more thing, bloom tea for flowering, just need flowers instead of seeds. check it out

I remember the first time I smoked weed. It was this level of awesome

 

[TheFarm]

The living soil crowd has actually moved away from more soluble choices like flower tea. Or, the thinking as jay presented was always more about getting started than a long term program.

today's option would likely be more like how cootz suggests using comfrey w/ your mulch. The thinking of applying veg preparations and/or flower preps doesn't make sense either. more like 'include the whole plant in your mulch ~even flowers! at all phases'

though i do think many will treat clones and seedlings differently because it takes a very mature living soil to be a safe environment for tender plants i.e. we obviously don;t do cuttings in our ROLS {until they're rooted} but after a few cycles, seeds may be germ'd in ROLS

Just don't grow comfrey or other dynamic accumulators close to cannabis: counterproductive Use resin terpene enhancers as companion plants, and 99 per cent of any pulled weeds are as good as comfrey for dead mulch

I remember the first time I smoked weed. It was this level of awesome

I'm too stupid to understand this joke, please elaborate

How much does it disturb the soil when you put new plants in? How do you marry new soil to old?

Depends if you are planting into an established myco rizo system or into simply "living soil", also think tilth at the time

 

[milkyjoe]

The living soil crowd has actually moved away from more soluble choices like flower tea. Or, the thinking as jay presented was always more about getting started than a long term program.

today's option would likely be more like how cootz suggests using comfrey w/ your mulch. The thinking of applying veg preparations and/or flower preps doesn't make sense either. more like 'include the whole plant in your mulch ~even flowers! at all phases'

though i do think many will treat clones and seedlings differently because it takes a very mature living soil to be a safe environment for tender plants i.e. we obviously don;t do cuttings in our ROLS {until they're rooted} but after a few cycles, seeds may be germ'd in ROLS

This has always been my point. If I make a tea with water then only water soluble stuff is going to be in the tea. Ions...or you can say salts. No different than stuff in a bottle of AN.

Much better to use not soluble but available stuff. Make microbes process it. Or at least add some humic/fulvic acid to chelate it. So yea, imo (for what that is worth), mulch is superior to nutrient teas.

And I am not talking aerated biology teas...I got no issue with those. Done right they will increase microbe activity and make things available in the proper form

 

[TheFarm]

Had someone ask me why no comfrey as companion plants. The only reason to put it in and pull it out repeatedly is friction when you are f$ck$ng

This has always been my point. If I make a tea with water then only water soluble stuff is going to be in the tea. Ions...or you can say salts. No different than stuff in a bottle of AN.

Much better to use not soluble but available stuff. Make microbes process it. Or at least add some humic/fulvic acid to chelate it. So yea, imo (for what that is worth), mulch is superior to nutrient teas.

And I am not talking aerated biology teas...I got no issue with those. Done right they will increase microbe activity and make things available in the proper form

Some people for some reason throw away tea base material or compost it. Which organic materials are you having with getting to be extracted or dissolved by water that you want to add to plants? I'd like to know

Sorry "having problems with" I meant to say

 

[Goatstroker]

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[Luther Burbank]

Well that and comfrey drops a tremendous taproot and is unfit for planting is a container with cannabis.

 

[TheFarm]

If I suspend mulch in water and apply that in whole, have I not just mulched my soil?

you've made "fast mulch" which is great stuff if you need fast mulch, if you do not mechanicallly and chemically break it down you've made "slow mulch" which is great if you need slow mulch

 

[Goatstroker]

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