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Living organic soil from start through recycling CONTINUED...

Microbeman

The Logical Gardener
ICMag Donor
Veteran
The ingredient which your red wrigglers will most appreciate is the peatmoss. It is actually best to start a worm colony off in quite shallow feed/bedding. To begin with I've often started with just wetted peatmoss and sometimes shredded cardboard. Or/and one can use older horse manure or compost. As they begin to eat and multiply one can layer additional feed/bedding on top. Other methods include a flow through system where finished castings fall out the bottom.
http://microbeorganics.com/keepingworms.pdf
 

trichrider

Kiss My Ring
Veteran
would an airstone work in the bottom of that barrel instead of holes?

I must be turning into a plant because contents of your tote look edible. lol
 

yortbogey

To Have More ... Desire Less
Veteran
shame the home owners association keeps holding U down... If they want let U compost on site ... then they should offer a community garden w/ composting space.....
I see these on every corner in west seattle.....
 

PakaloloFromPNW

Active member
Veteran
I got through the Part 1 and have finally landed here. I've been doing the living organic soil since last November with good results. I've learned a lot in the last few months and this is my results.

gallery_726300_5163_235344.jpg


That's one of my water only living organic soil ladies. I couldn't have done it without all the great information found mainly in part 1.
 
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PakaloloFromPNW

Active member
Veteran
Here a picture of one of my ladies I've got in my hoop house.

gallery_726300_5163_51619.jpg


This is not a mosaic virus. It is just a genetic modification and the mother plant produced some great smoke. I find it interesting myself and have clones from this daughter.
 

PakaloloFromPNW

Active member
Veteran
That is a chimeric plant which is pretty rare.

I'm not familiar with chimeric but I'll look into it. It started out as a cutting like this.

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I've taken cuttings that continued to show this variegation. That clone grew up to look like this.

gallery_726300_5163_394692.jpg


With buds like this.

gallery_726300_5163_275184.jpg


I like color in my plants. This is another one I've got.

gallery_726300_5163_129965.jpg


All of these were grown in living organic soil that I learned about from the part 1 journal. I know that many of the contributors are gone but I want to thank you for not deleting the part 1 journal. I couldn't have switched away from bottled nutrients without the information I found there.
 
T

The Dragon

I've had the same experience. The more I read the ROLS thread the more bottled stuff I found ways of getting rid of and the more actual living soil I started nurturing. My current grow is 80-90% sustainable organic living soil. My next run is already built to be 90-95% SOLS and that is with living in the middle of a desert. The driest part of the Mojave where nothing but sagebrush and creosote grows.

Posted this elsewhere but thought you guys might like to see it too.

NzvHWTm.png

^This is what I feel like every time I talk to my hydroponic grow buddies.^
"You can grow bigger and better buds with soil instead of hydro? Really???" ~Jake
 
T

The Dragon

Thanks for the informative read about nettles Vonforne! Turns out I was confused between nettles and thistles. Seems we are in thistle territory... too dry up here on the volcano to grow nettles.

You folks would get depressed looking at the soils around here... dead, sandy; or dead and rocky... lots of red rock, lots of bottle rock in the area also. Shards of volcanic glass litter the area from the last eruptions... (NOT yesterday by the way :) )

It's a challenge I accept.

Payaso
I have a plan that I'm working on with the LOS community for growing in this soil. LOL, you'll remember it from your years in the Mojave desert!
Xueyi63.jpg


All measurements calculated from surface to a 3 foot depth using USGS data.
Soil taxonomy: Loamy, carbonatic, thermic, shallow Typic Petrocalcids
Surface Texture: Gravelly fine sandy loam
Parent Material: alluvium derived from limestone
Drainage Class: Well drained

50% Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) (That's agricultural liming agent)
3% Gypsum

.25% Organic Matter
Soil Profile: Sandy Loam
13.2% Clay
62.9% Sand
24.0% Silt

8.5 pH (1 to 1 Water)

Looks like fun, right?!?!
 
T

The Dragon

So, I received a shipment in the mail today!!!!


ic

NL#5 x Neville’s Haze
These are the repopulated seeds CC aquired from Sensi Seeds in 1988. CC did one pollenation to the best sativa dominant female and then put the seeds away for two decades. We sprouted and bred what we could find from the original F2’s.

ic

Panama Red
An authentic Panama Red sativa. Sourced from the same Peace Corp worker who was in the region collecting as far back as the mid-70's...same source as the Guerrero.
These are tall and vigorous sativas with sticky flowers and a very lovely sweet and spicy scent. Indoors, expect flowering times well over 100 days for a proper Panama Red experience.
[I've been searching for genuine PR for quite some time!]

ic

Mr Greengenes 'Cherry Bomb'
1979 Maui-Wowie IBL
reproduction from 3 males and 3 females using my first reproductions and the last of Mr Greengenes Cherry Bomb.
[Grow buddy's wife is going to flip over these. Original MW is her all time favorite.]

ic

Mazar-I-Shariff x Guerrero
The 'giant' landrace indica Mazar-I-Shariff was the last indica landrace sourced in Afghanistan. The largest of the indicas, she can get big and yield pounds outside in the right environment. Extremely resinous, yet lacking the heady soaring saliva buzz, more a CBD strain for sure but crossed with the Guerro highland Mexican landrace, that should definitely take care of that.

The highland Mexican Guerrero landrace was sourced by a Peace Corps worker in the mid 70's in Guerrero Mexico from farmed lines. The Females are quite sweet and sticky with big black seeds and healthy growth.

The cross to the Mazar makes this a genuine hybrid, which are extremely hard to come by in the cannabis world these days... which means that both plants being parents of unrelated genetic origin puts this into the realm of 'hybrid vigor' breeding. These F1's should rock hard.
[This is going to be an incredible pheno hunt and I'm almost giddy waiting to see what mysteries she has in store for us!!]

ic

Velvet Rush
DJ Short’s first cross utilizing the Highland Blue Thai and the ‘stretch Afghani’. These are the original genetic lines of Blueberry before the Chocolate Thai and the Highland Mexican were bred into it. The Highland Blue Thai was only imported by the BOEL for a period for 15 months circa 1976.
Thai dominant plants that stretch extensively. Some very interesting indica phenotypes do express themselves as well.
Effect is like drinking coffee, probably not good for those who struggle with anxiety as it tends to be a high energy sativa dominant type that won’t let you sit down for long.
(Swami wasn't kidding when he said he sends -some extra seeds-. I wish breakfast cereal had prizes this good.)

My plan is to split the seeds with my grow buddy, plant them in ROLS soil in a couple months, track a couple varieties and clone the desired phenos, then either find crosses or breed phenos toward stability, depending on their reported histories. It is so nice having seeds with an actual documented genetic history including observed pheno weaknesses/strengths

Much love for Swami and the crew!!
 
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L

Luther Burbank

Variegation and Chimeric plants are not the same. Variegation is merely differences in color on the leaf. A chimera is two genetically distinct creatures which came together to make one; as in two distinct eggs in the womb combining into one. Here's an example:
1.jpg


With plants the term chimera is more often used to denote a rootstock with multiple cultivars grafted to it.
 
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T

The Dragon

So, I have to disagree with you Luther. (Love the cat photo though, beautiful example of chimeric genes!)
Variegation is the appearance of differently coloured zones in the leaves, and sometimes the stems, of plants. This may be due to a number of causes. Some variegation is attractive and ornamental and gardeners tend to preserve these. The term is also sometimes used to refer to colour zonation in flowers, minerals, and the skin, fur, feathers or scales of animals.

Chimeral
Plants bearing such variegation are chimeras, with more than one type of genetic makeup in their tissues. A lack of chlorophyll producing tissue in some tissues causes variegation with white or yellow coloured zones on the leaf, contrasting with the usual green tissue. It is due to some of the plant’s meristematic tissue losing the ability to produce chloroplasts, so that the tissue it produces is no longer green.
In a common type of such variegation, the part of the meristem that produces epidermal tissue loses the ability to produce chloroplasts. The margins of leaves may be composed only of cells derived from this merismatic tissue. Hence, this marginal tissue is white or yellow, rather than green. There are several other types of such variegation, depending on the tissues that have been affected, and their relationship to each other. Variegation may be consistent and symmetric in appearance throughout the whole plant, or it may be quite random in location. In some plants, entire branches or stems including the leaves may be variegated. The variegation in some forms is unstable. The extent and nature of the variegation can vary, and sometimes the plant will return to the green form. In others it is stable and does not change under normal conditions.
Because the variegation is due to the presence of two kinds of plant tissue, propagating the plant must be by a vegetative method of propagation that preserves both types of tissue in relation to each other. Typically, stem cuttings, bud and stem grafting, and other propagation methods that results in growth from leaf axil buds will preserve variegation. Cuttings with complete variegation may be difficult if not impossible to propagate. Root cuttings will not usually preserve variegation, since the new stem tissue is derived from a particular tissue type within the root.
As these plants have some of their tissue unable to carry out photosynthesis, the plant will be weaker than the plain green plant. They should generally be expected to die out in nature and their only real source of survival is through cultivation.

*******************
"rootstock with multiple cultivars grafted to it"
This might be true for some growers in the field but it is not acceptable scientific application of the word Chimeric because it is not a chimera plant. It does not have more than one genetic make up in its cells. It is a graft and should be called a graft; a multi-scion graft if you will, but still a graft.

Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues from one plant are inserted into those of another so that the two sets of vascular tissues may join together. This vascular joining is called inosculation. The technique is most commonly used in asexual propagation of commercially grown plants for the horticultural and agricultural trades.
In most cases, one plant is selected for its roots and this is called the stock or rootstock. The other plant is selected for its stems, leaves, flowers, or fruits and is called the scion or cion. The scion contains the desired genes to be duplicated in future production by the stock/scion plant.

***********************************
Speaking of grafts, I've been curious for a long time if anyone has successfully done herbaceous grafting of cannabis to another species and if so was there an effect on the cannabis scion?
There might be a plant that could be used as root stock that would allow for maturation of flowers but not complete senescence of the branches.
 
L

Luther Burbank

The only living relative of cannabis is hops which it can be grafted to with work.

You're attempting to twist science's arm to prove your point. The vast majority of variegation in plants is genetic. Spontaneous variegation can be chimeral but that is a rare condition.
 

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