Tutorial Organics for Beginners

[cway]

Chlorine tap water

Just a word of caution for you organic heads out there...
If you are tapped onto a municipal water supply that uses chlorine to kill bacteria in the water, it'll do the same thing to the bacteria (microherd) in your organic food source.
Always bubble your municipal water in an open container (5 gallon bucket) for 24 hours before adding ANYTHING organic to it.



Doenst just letting it sit out for a couple of Days without a top evaporate the Chlorine as well? Thats what I have always done and worked well for me..


Nevermiond... Found Answer.. Thought it did..

 

[Guest]

I just wanted to say THANKS to Burn1 and all the others!


Here's my story

I have had lots of success with LC's Soilless Mix #1 and #2.

I used to use PBP, but buying was too sketchy for me.
So I switched to a variation of RECIPE #5 - Fish and Seaweed and my garden hasn’t ever been happier!
Alaska brand 5-1-1 Fish Emulsion and Neptune’s Harvest 2-3-1 Fish/Seaweed

(Locally avail from everyday garden centers.)

(On a side note, I used to use Neptune's Harvest 0-0-1 Liquid Seaweed. But since Neptune’s Harvest 2-3-1 Fish/Seaweed has seaweed in it, I just use it...1 less bottle to buy...)

Veg :
Small plants get 10 - 15ml/gal 5-1-1 + 5 ml/gal 2-3-1.
Large plants get 25 - 30 ml/gal 5-1-1 + 5 ml/gal 2-3-1.

Flowering :
The first three weeks, or so get 25 - 30 ml/gal 5-1-1 + 5 ml/gal 2-3-1.
After that, 30 ml/gal Neptune’s Harvest 2-3-1 Fish/Seaweed...
Plain water for the last couple of irrigations...

Easy.

 

[BurnOne]

Kroter-
Great news man. Keep up the good work.
Burn1

 

[sophisto]

Hey burn one what do you think of this mix...It's a amodified MSM mix with a feww amendments and a tea regime???

-1 bag ocean forest
- 1/2 bag eb stone planting compost
-1 bag light warrior
-1 bag planting mix
- Eb Sul po mag 1/2 dose
-1/4 cup dolomite lime just for some extra Cal
-5 gallons big chunky perlite

tea one early veg ( jumpstart for the microbes) -1.5 lbs of bacterial compost

-1.6 ounces of Black strap molasses
-25 grams soluble cold water kelp
-1/2 oz yucca extracts or liquid karma

I Could also add 1-2 tbsp N guano if I need it...


LAte veg early flower:

-1.5 lbs of bacterial fungal compost 1:1 ratio otherwise 1/2 bacterial 1/2 mushroom compost
-1.6 ounces humic acids
- 25 g soluble kelp
- maybe some fruit pulp or molasses ??

I may add 4-8 tbsp of 0-7-0 guano to add a boost mid flower as well, again if the plants need it..

Mid to late mid flower:

-2lbs fungal compost ( mushroom)
-60 ml humic acids
-10 ml yucca extract
-25 grams soluble kelp
-25 grams fish hydrolysate

again I can add some 0-7-0 guano of I need it ......

The basic thought and hope is to create a rich nutrient profile in the soil so that the microbes in the teas will cycle the nutrients so that no additional fertilizers are needed.. Three to four teas during a 12 week cycle max and the rest will be straight water......


Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated.... I will be running two of your mixes this one and another as an experiment side by side....Help me dial it in and I will split the harvest with you....LOL....I wish it was that easy...... Well I will post photos at least

thanks again B1 and thanks to all the others for your contributions here on this thread

 

[BurnOne]

sophisto-
First, I'd like to say it's great that you want to feed the plant as it needs it. That's a hard trait to learn. But it's the best way to grow IMO. It takes great skill.
Second, I'm a big fan of powdered dolomite lime and worm castings. I know it's what kept me from having any real problems with my grows. Even though you're using humic acid and EB Sul po mag, personally I'd rather use the dolomite and worm castings. It's just less worry as far as I'm concerned. Having said that, use 20% worm castings and 1 cup powdered dolomite lime per cubic foot of final mix.
Third, you're going to need a lot of nitrogen through the second week of flowering to help with the stretching. After that, you can cut back on the N and use nearly no nitrogen or potassium the last four weeks of flowering.
Adding organic nutes as needed is the way to go. It does take time however. And I'd stick with one plant/clone to get that perfect.
Good luck with your grow.
Burn1

 

[Dignan]

Chlorine tap water

Just a word of caution for you organic heads out there...
If you are tapped onto a municipal water supply that uses chlorine to kill bacteria in the water, it'll do the same thing to the bacteria (microherd) in your organic food source.
Always bubble your municipal water in an open container (5 gallon bucket) for 24 hours before adding ANYTHING organic to it.



Doenst just letting it sit out for a couple of Days without a top evaporate the Chlorine as well? Thats what I have always done and worked well for me..


Nevermiond... Found Answer.. Thought it did..

You can do this in much less time by agitating water for just 5 minutes or so. If it's chlorine and not chloramine we're talking about.

Or if you wish to be more thorough, exposing chlorine to any kind of organic matter and air will burn it off almost immediately. So take your bucket of water, toss in a scoop of compost, worm castings, whatever.... stir it for a couple minutes, then go from there with making your compost tea, nutrient tea, or just watering your plants.

Keep in mind that if you, for instance, run tap water into a bathtub, the simple agitation/aeration from the water dropping from spigot to tub is enough to almost immediately dissipate chlorine.

Do not fear the tap water, as long as you have a report verifying what exactly is in it.

Dig

 

[jaykush]

sunlight kills chlorine instantly. pour from bucket to bucket a few times make sure the sun hits it and your all good.

 

[seventynine]

I thought someone here might be able to give me some advise.

I'm trying my first all organic grow. I decided on my medium before I read this thread so....

I've got 50/50 perlite/happy frog as my medium. I've topdressed some worm castings into all of the plants (they're still in veg). I'm showing signs of what I think might be PH lockout on one of my 9 girls...not sure if it's PH or something else. I don't have a meter.

I'm a bit short on money and don't want to invest more in fertilizers this grow.

Here's what I've got...do I need anything else...and if so what's the cheapest way I could do it.

5 pounds EWC from the store.
My own worm bin in the back yard inspired by this forum.
A bottle of Neptune's Harvest 2-3-1 Fish/Seaweed fertilizer (this is just fish emulsions/seaweed...totally organic and so forth.)
Unsulphured molasses (not blackstrap.)

I also have a bottle of something called Sugar Peak Flowering, but I don't think this is 100% organic.

Again I really want to do this grow without spending any more money at the moment, but will be switching to 12/12 in a week so need to know if 2-3-1 will cut it for flowering without extra P added....also will this be too much N in late flowering?

I do have an air pump to make teas, but no airstone...is it ok if I just leave the air hose in a gallon bucket or will this not provide enough O2?

Thanks

EDIT:

Kroter, I just noticed you're using the same Neptune's Harvest Fish/Seaweed 2-3-1 I am. Will this stand alone for flowering or do you need to get additional P? Wish I could send you a PM but not to 50 posts yet.

Re-EDIT: OK just one more question I promise....I want to make totally sure that you CANNOT burn plants on EWC...is this correct? I eyed some EWC to topdress my plants with a week or so ago and am wondering if the weird leaf curl I'm seeing on new growth on one of my girls could be from a hot mixture? It was fine in the happy frog/perlite for a while and seemed to be fine for at least a week after I topdressed with EWC.

 

[BurnOne]

^^^ You have no magnesium or calcium in your recipe. Use powdered dolomite lime @ 2 tbs./gal. or 1 cup/ cubic foot of mix.
Burn1

 

[seventynine]

BurnOne...wouldn't dolomite lime put my PH up even further? I know you say PH doesn't matter, but I think this leaf curl really looks like a PH issue. I've considered adding MORE EWC to buffer the PH even more, but not sure if it's possible to burn the plants that way (or if perhaps that's what already happened.)

However, I think you know all that, and told me to put dolomite lime in ANYWAY...so assuming that's the case....can I get it at box stores and is it really expensive? My goal had been to add no more money to this grow, but obviously the kids can go without food for a few days to pay for growing supplies (j/k obviously.)

79

 

[sophisto]

sophisto-
First, I'd like to say it's great that you want to feed the plant as it needs it. That's a hard trait to learn. But it's the best way to grow IMO. It takes great skill.
Second, I'm a big fan of powdered dolomite lime and worm castings. I know it's what kept me from having any real problems with my grows. Even though you're using humic acid and EB Sul po mag, personally I'd rather use the dolomite and worm castings. It's just less worry as far as I'm concerned. Having said that, use 20% worm castings and 1 cup powdered dolomite lime per cubic foot of final mix.
Third, you're going to need a lot of nitrogen through the second week of flowering to help with the stretching. After that, you can cut back on the N and use nearly no nitrogen or potassium the last four weeks of flowering.
Adding organic nutes as needed is the way to go. It does take time however. And I'd stick with one plant/clone to get that perfect.
Good luck with your grow.
Burn1

Thanks for the great feedback brother... My plans are to run 4 different mixes with 3 plants each mix, this way I can really see which works best for me, and where the others could be better for future knowledge..... I will let everybody know..

 

[sophisto]

sunlight kills chlorine instantly. pour from bucket to bucket a few times make sure the sun hits it and your all good.

No shit??? It's that easy.. Good bye bubblers...Do you have any links, linkmaster??

 

[seventynine]

noticed this post in another thread in this forum....I hope this will help explain why I question the dolomite lime...I'm just questioning...i'm happy to do it as soon as I'm sure you all think it's the right thing to do (is it even possible to add it to this grow...can I topdress for instance?)

I believe this is from Suby...I hope I'm not misquoting anyone, but I was pretty stoned last night and copied this excerpt and e-mailed it to myself...now can't remember where from.

"You need to know certain things about water properties before you start, ph and ppm's are 2 crucial ones.
If your ppms are high and water ph is high then lime will do more harm than good.
Your water ph went up when you bubbled it because you are passing atmospheric gasses through your water that raise ph, stop bubbling it for a few hours and watch the ph drop back down"

Ok...so I DO have high PH....at least 8 possibly more based on a water PH test I did about a month ago (with a friends dropper test kit.) I also have PPM of around 150.

Is dolomite lime still the proper response? Just checking...thanks for your tolerance of newb questions.

EWC QUESTION I just want to make sure I can't burn my plants with the nitrogen in EWC...or should I be careful?. I'm about to repot and was thinking of mixing quite a bit of EWC into the soil I have, but don't know if this is a good or bad idea. I've got Happy Frog by Fox Farms.

 

[BurnOne]

EWC can't burn. Do what I said.
Burn1

 

[seventynine]

Alright...alright...it's HARD for me to do this, but I'll take your word for it BurnOne! I've been doing a lot of reading here, and I know you know your stuff.

Question about dolomite lime though...can I top-dress it into my soil? Otherwise I don't think I'll be able to do it till next grow anyway since these girls are going into flower any day now and won't be repotting.

79

 

[BurnOne]

^^^ Can't top dress dolomite. It must be powdered and mixed completely and thoroughly with soil.
Burn1

 

[seventynine]

Sounds like dolomite will have to wait till next grow. I'll definitely be using it though...I'll just have to watch out on the PH for now.

However, my potting soil Happy Frog DOES have dolomite lime. I just don't know how much...probably not enough.

I transplanted into soil with happy frog/perlite and 20% earth worm castings. Hopefully all the humus from the EWC should help buffer my PH.

 

[ixnay007]

I've got tap water with some pretty serious magnesium/calcium already present (it builds up everywhere), would dolomite lime (if I can even find it here) be necessary in my case?

I've been having some ph problems, but have found a source of EWC, so I'm hoping to be able to create a soil mix without having to worry about my water PH too much. Possibly also using as close to plain water as possible. AFAIR my water ph runs about 8.3 with a fairly high PPM, with EWC and molass. teas I should have less problems?

 

[BurnOne]

ixnay007-
Use one of the soil mixes at the beginning of this thread. Everything will be fine.
Burn1

 

[seventynine]

For my next grow I will probably try to do at least half of my grow in one of the above soil mixes. My happy frog amended only with EWC and perlite has been doing well so far...hopefully it'll see us through till the end.

Thanks