Living organic soil from start through recycling

[BlueJayWay]

I ran no-drain in my 120 liter totes in Germany and again this year with my 50´s and 30´s. I have mixed thoughts on this one. Managing the amount of water was easy but the movement inside the flower room was a little to be desired from the 50´s. Getting them to the flower room was a challenge. lol I think......with no scientific proof to back up my claims that it effects the taste of the finished product in a negative way. I had the best luck with a mono crop of plants that had little of no stretch. Cheezy´s DP x BMR and G13HP x Triple Moonshine that I grew out in Germany.

Now after running them a couple times in the totes I then ran them in 5 gallon no till with drainage. Yield was higher and taste was better especially with the G13 Haze from the Cheeze. That one performed like a champ in 5 gallon buckets!

BJW- run them side by side on your next run and then compare the difference in taste and yield.

I do love using the 30´s for Mothers. WOW! The DP x BMR got huge and bushy. One of the plus sides to using totes. It allows the plants to get really wide with the root base it can grow.

V

I have started running a couple 7 gallon smartpots next to all the 5gal buckets, I've noticed no difference in yield/structure on sour bubble. I may be noticing more growth on this other strain, that may or may not be God Bud lol, in the smarts compared to the 5gal buckets.

This time I will seperate the finished product from the smart pots so I can do a smoke test. Thanks for bringing this up vonforne - I never thought about it because I haven't noticed a difference in taste/quality/yield since years ago when I switched to no drainage buckets/tubs. I tried it out based on what I read from the 3LB I think back on OG, and it was easy not having to deal with run-off and it also helped immensely in knowing exactly how much water to give based on the look of the plant and of course the weight of the bucket.

Cheers!

 

[MrSterling]

I mean in regards to legality and personal risk, CC. In the 90s breeders were taking advantage of the lax Dutch laws. Today it seems like Spain from what I read. There's risk and then there's Risk. To me personally, growing out a few hundred plants at a time for breeding projects here in the states would be a capital R Risk.

I've smoked some of that terrible Oregonian weed; it knocked me on my ass for less than half the price you'd pay on the east coast. A+, would smoke again

 

[BlueJayWay]

To those of you with indoor no-till, how big are your soil containers? Say you have a standard 8 foot ceiling, how much soil can your plant realistically use?

I sometimes wish I could just move to the kif mountains for a year with a notebook and a pile of seeds and answer all the questions in my head. What's the new Mecca these days for growing? The Netherlands seems to be cracking down. Cali or Colorado is probably the best bet for 'Mericans, but you'd still be breaking the law doing a breeding program of any real scale. Is Spain the new hot spot? I ramble on, sorry for being so off-topic, this thread often feels like the Organics' general chat-thread.

Above in bold - that's why I don't feel guilty continuing off-topic conversations - GasCanaStan & Cootz started it!

I don't grow huge trees, my ceiling hieght is 7', i have a fairly quick turnaround from veg in a perpetual type setup, the majority in flower are standard 5gal paint buckets, I have four 18gal plastic totes, these are all no drainage, some are on their 3rd run no-till and only getting better.

I have one 50gal smart pot, I've posted a couple pics of it. I'm still in my first run with it but I already know I'm more pleased with it than anything, i put 4 plants in it, I plan on getting 6 more to dump around the perimeter of the room, more or less permanantly and keep some 5gal buckets / 7gal smartpots in the middle and wherever so i can move them and get access in and around.

Obviously I should get some sort of dolly wheel system on the big ones, but none have 'em yet, those are the type of things I'm lazy about & hence the reason they're going on the perimeter LOL...

 

[joedogsong]

Trouble in Paradise

Trouble in Paradise

So I've got this greenhouse.
I've spent a ton of money on top tier compost, EWC's, mostly 'Down to Earth Amendments to old recycled Pro-Mixes. Now with the help of this thread Fermented Plant Extracts and 'Keep it Simple' tea maker. Foliar Sprays of assorted sprouted, aloed, Ful-proed, obsessive compulsive disordered behavior since my other life is on hold until this crop is in kind of madness...

This is also documented over in the Side to side experiments of 'Regular pots/ cups vs Airpots" thread.

The plant(s) involved are cuttings of a Sour Bubble I started Last January.

About 2 weeks ago there was a lower branch that kind of 'faded out' and I thought maybe its just following course and a bottom branch had died.

Then This:

The horizontal rail is at 8 ft tall
I dealt with root pith when some were small but culling took care of that.
The plant was culled and an inspection of the soil showed roots intact, seemingly strong no sign of rot or softness of roots. Top root bed about 4 inches with associated companion plants consisting of an array of aromatic herbs. Dill, garlic, rosemary, basil. None of these being affected.

My question for this group is about recycling this soil. My understanding is that pith is tough to get rid of.
Any thought out there about this...
watering was done via Blumat in an enclosed 50 gallon tree pot.
All plants are in individual 65gal smartpots or very large pieced together airpots at about 65 gal. None of the other plants are showing any sign of weakness.

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

I mean in regards to legality and personal risk, CC. In the 90s breeders were taking advantage of the lax Dutch laws. Today it seems like Spain from what I read. There's risk and then there's Risk. To me personally, growing out a few hundred plants at a time for breeding projects here in the states would be a capital R Risk.

I've smoked some of that terrible Oregonian weed; it knocked me on my ass for less than half the price you'd pay on the east coast. A+, would smoke again

Spain according to the large volume breeders, as far a availability of equipment and quality of life - though over 90% of seed sold goes to Eastern Europe - primarily Russia. They do huge fields for hashing out there and the legal system is pretty occupied with serious criminals, so growing a little pot is no problem.

 

[MrSterling]

Incredibowl, thanks for the info! That's crazy, huge fields for hash. Makes me make that homer Simpson noise.

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Anyone know anything about these new CO2 bags? I picked one up because it was cheap and I felt bad the grow store hasn't made any money off me in a few months.

It will supposedly add 800-1000 PPM of CO2 until January 2013. It's some sort of organic matter inoculated with a fungus in a bag with a 'one way air patch'.

 

[BlueJayWay]

Anyone know anything about these new CO2 bags? I picked one up because it was cheap and I felt bad the grow store hasn't made any money off me in a few months.

It will supposedly add 800-1000 PPM of CO2 until January 2013. It's some sort of organic matter inoculated with a fungus in a bag with a 'one way air patch'.

View attachment 184092
View attachment 184093

Wow that's a trip lol, they couldn't or the bag doesn't tell you what sort of organic matter or fungus it is?

Wouldn't the PPM's of CO2 being emmited and kept in the atmosphere of the room be dependent on the size of the room? Does it tell you what volume of space it will keep it @ 800-1000ppm?

If you have a CO2 meter that would be awesome to let us know how its workin


**edit** quick search takes you to their website, not much more info but has some clarifications & at least they advertise the plastic bag is recycled and the mycelia mass can be used as a soil amendment

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

They specify a 4x4 space and apparently (according to grow store guy) say 1100-1300 ppm in that space - I'm in a 5x5 tent, so I'm hopin for 800-1000. I don't have a co2 meter, but I do believe I can borrow one

 

[MrSterling]

Interesting! I'm wary of stuff like that, but hopefully it'll work. Let us know if you get that co2 meter ib.

 

[b_all_in]

To those of you with indoor no-till, how big are your soil containers? Say you have a standard 8 foot ceiling, how much soil can your plant realistically use?

MrSterling-

That is something, as a noob indoor no-tiller, I am trying to plan. I am wanting to start with a 1200k perpetual flower room and I am thinking either two beds or 5gal air pots. Any suggestions or schools of thought?

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

To those of you with indoor no-till, how big are your soil containers? Say you have a standard 8 foot ceiling, how much soil can your plant realistically use?

MrSterling-

That is something, as a noob indoor no-tiller, I am trying to plan. I am wanting to start with a 1200k perpetual flower room and I am thinking either two beds or 5gal air pots. Any suggestions or schools of thought?

I just got 1600 up in flower - perpetual - transitioning to 2 beds of 6 plants each on a 6 week rotation. Do you mean 1200 watts or 1200k(?!)?

 

[shmalphy]

I think having the living soil, worm bin, bokashi, and fermented plant extracts in the room helps with co2, but I don't have a meter to measure it. I used to make hard apple cider in gallon jugs hung from the ceiling by chains, but I don't drink alcohol anymore. It was a cheap buzz at $3 a gallon, I made so much I was giving the stuff away.

 

[b_all_in]

Ha! Meant 1200 watts! How big are your beds?

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Ha! Meant 1200 watts! How big are your beds?

I do custom ghetto beds: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=243353

 

[b_all_in]

Ah yes! I followed that thread when I was lurking around these parts. How is that working out for you, do you still run a bunch of plants in just one of those totes? And what ever came of the carnivorous cover crop?

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Ah yes! I followed that thread when I was lurking around these parts. How is that working out for you, do you still run a bunch of plants in just one of those totes? And what ever came of the carnivorous cover crop?

I stopped updating when I got russet mites because I didn't know how it'd end up, but after tonight's treatment, those mite should be a distant memory. The plants in these beds are by far my most vigorous and beefy - their stems are the diameter I look for around week 6 of flower in 5 gals an they're just finishing veg!

The plants also appear more resistant - to just about everything - even the mites were less populous on em! I'll update te thread tomorrow, then again when I prune em out just before bloom next week or so (depends hen the ladies in the room finish)

EDIT: as for the carnivorous plants, my fungus gnat population is WAYYYY down (see one every few days or so) and the flytraps look happy and healthy! The pitchers aren't loving life as much, but they seem to be doin fine all told. They're a bitch to propagate, so I dunno if I'll do em in all my bins because I'm prolly too cheap to buy more, but they're a great part of the ecosystem

 

[b_all_in]

Sweet! You figure the size and vigor are due to active aeration of the soil? You have worms in that aerated soil as well right?

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Sweet! You figure the size and vigor are due to active aeration of the soil? You have worms in that aerated soil as well right?

Active aeration, mycelial network, and worms I reckon

 

[b_all_in]

Boss, I love it! This thread is phenomenal! You all are some smart fellers!