New to organic soil, tips on watering - and also good foliar spray for transplant recovery

[EastCoastGambit]

I know this is probably covered elsewhere so I apologize for possibly being lazy. I have recently switched over to recycled soil filled with amendments and allowed to "cook" to build up beneficial bacteria and microbes. I plan to water with plain RO water and teas. My impression is you shouldn't really allow these soils to dry too much between watering as you are trying to keep that stuff active. This is kind of new to me as I am accustomed to letting plants dry out a little between watering. What should I be aiming for here? Obviously I want to keep aeration to the root zone, I did add some #8 perlite.

Part two - I recently up-potted and wanted to boost and clean my small plants. Any input from the veterans here on good foliar spray recipe for this (helping de stress the plants and clean off any dirt) I did dust the root balls a little with Azos (not sure if that stuff is legit or not?)

Thank you - I'll be loading some photos to my threads if anyone cares to see visually.

 

[FletchF.Fletch]

I can chime in on the Foliar Spray. I like kelp/seaweed (1 tsp kelp meal steeped into 2 quarts), a simple Mg mist with Epsom salt (1/8 tsp per quart), or plain water. Kelp helps with recovery, the other 2 help counteract LED stress.

Interested to hear some answers to your initial question.

 

[chilliwilli]

I grow in 90l pots with no drainage holes. When i started i had to figure out again when to water.
I did let it get too dry in the first runs(water once a week- every 3.day 20l/90l) because i always noticed a big boost in growth after watering but also stopped growth the last days before i thought it was right to water again.

Now i water every other day(9-14l per 90l) most of the time and up to daily, but let it go a little drier ~ 2 weeks after flip and when i harvest.

I have my pots on rollers so checking the inertia through moving and the good old finger in the soil is my way to test if i need to water. When i let it go drier the surface looks dry and 1-2 knuckles deep the soil feels dry. The rest of the time the soil still feels moist when i water again.

Living soil with worms and critters will get back to life again easy when getting too dry imo. Microorganism can have spore and the poop of the little helpers is a constant reinoculation with them. As long as everything is not bone dry for months it should come back to life easy and imo no problem with letting the surface get really dry every now and then.

 

[EastCoastGambit]

Thanks, I dont have any critters in my soil at this point, that I know of. I do make my own vermi-compost though.

 

[EastCoastGambit]

I'm in fabric pots at the moment. Small ones, planning to do quick flips with minimal veg time. Trying to go more plants but smaller vs a few larger plants, not sure why just something I wanted to try.

 

[chilliwilli]

I'm in fabric pots at the moment. Small ones, planning to do quick flips with minimal veg time. Trying to go more plants but smaller vs a few larger plants, not sure why just something I wanted to try.

Most of the time when i planted more, one or two grew bigger than the rest.

I would toss a handfull of your worm bin in the mix. Those critters help break down organic matter and are part of the soil food web what we try to mimic imo with recycled organic soil.

 

[Cactus Squatter]

Since you’re in small grow bags, check out the Self watering trays that ac infinity makes. I’ve been using them for a little bit now and love how well they work. They work with 3, 5 & 7 gallon bags.
I run living soil that I constantly recycle and amend and really like the moisture level the trays maintain for me.

 

[EastCoastGambit]

I'll check them out

 

[EastCoastGambit]

I can chime in on the Foliar Spray. I like kelp/seaweed (1 tsp kelp meal steeped into 2 quarts), a simple Mg mist with Epsom salt (1/8 tsp per quart), or plain water. Kelp helps with recovery, the other 2 help counteract LED stress.

Interested to hear some answers to your initial question.

not sure how to measure 1/8 tsp, sounds like a pinch?

 

[FletchF.Fletch]

not sure how to measure 1/8 tsp, sounds like a pinch?

A pinch is exactly it. They do sell measuring spoon sets with a tiny one included, but good luck finding one separately! Buy a set for the kitchen and keep the tiny one for measuring the pinch.

 

[Dr.Mantis]

Hey, welcome to soil growing!!

To me, it doesn’t have to be super complicated ( crazy amendment lists, teas, etc.). I use fermented seed meals (soy right now, and testing hemp hearts) for most of my micro and macros. Occasionally I’ll add specific things if I think the plant needs it, say a little Mn or Boron, but for the most part it’s easy sailing. I have also heard you shouldn’t let soil dry out to much, and I tend to agree but mostly because dry soil can be hydrophobic and tough to water. Perlite is great for oxygenation, I use a lot of it. I would say you may want to go a little easy on the watering until the plants are vegging well, if the pot it staying soggy for a long time you can end up with issues.

I don’t have any noticeable transplant shock. I take my plants (usually in solo cups), put them into a new pita round the cup, then remove the cup so I have a nice spot to plug the transplants into. I also like to uncurl the roots if they are swirling.

I’ve heard great things about seaweed, but one thing that concerns me is a lot of seaweed products have tons of sodium in them. Depending on your water and soil, this can be an issue long term.



Let us know how things go!

 

[Hillbilly69]

Good call on keeping soil from totally drying out. You can use a soil moisture meter to help you get a hang of it. I got to the point that I was able to properly water based on pot weight.
Have you included a source of Cal and Mag in your soil? If not you'll have to supplement with RO water. I use powdered dolomitic lime at about 1 tsp/gal of soil to manage PH and supply Cal and mag when flowering starts. You can foliar feed it also. Kelp and earthworm castings are your best friends in organics, they supply many of the goodies plants love. To minimize rodents diging plants up, my mix includes soybean meal, alfalfa meal and kelp meal, and high P bat guano if I can find it.

 

[Hillbilly69]

Forgot to mention this mix was awesome in swamp tubes, they were constantly moist during summer and plants grew like crazy, set and forget!

 

[Fungalfreude]

A blumat automatic watering system might be something to look into. Soil gets watered when it gets to a certain dryness.

 

[EastCoastGambit]

A blumat automatic watering system might be something to look into. Soil gets watered when it gets to a certain dryness.

Its on my radar for sure

 

[Bush Dr]

BioBizz Root Juice as a foliar feed for the win ….contains a natural PGR

 

[Three Berries]

I make a KMgCa 2:1:1 chloride foliar spray at about 1300 ppm ea base or use them separately up to flowering.

 

[bye12]

I am also fairly new to living organics. I have been using a blumat digital moisture meter for my last grow but now I invested in 4 digital moisture sensor so I can see exactly how the moisture goes up and down in my pots. I have not used them for any plants yet, but so far they seems to keep a really good reading.

A general rule of watering is between 5-10% of the pots volume every 1-2 days.