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Tutorial Organics for Beginners

Ph-patrol

Well-known member
Veteran
agricultural lime for Ca. or oyster shell flour. make sure it's what your plant actually needs in regards to calcium and magnesium.

This the part that's throwing me . I used Agricultural lime in my soil mix 2 table spoons per gallon but I'm showing signs of calcium deficient. Rust spots.
 

Mikell

Dipshit Know-Nothing
ICMag Donor
Veteran
A very light top dress should fix it, around a tablespoon per 3-4 gallons worked well enough. The first time I tried it with a heavier hand... went not so well. Poor cover crop....

I ran in to the same thing on a few different varieties using the 2-1-1 ratio/1c per cf rate common here. Some liked it, others needed a bump. Took around 7-10 to work in and alleviate the symptom.
 

JointOperation

Active member
ya 10 is super high man.. we get ours out of the tap at around 7-7.2 and with 50-75ppms is what the meter has been reading before addin any nutes..
 
L

Luther Burbank

10 sounds like a meter issue. pH works exponentially. A pH of 10 is 1000x more alkaline than neutral water.
 

Weird

3rd-Eye Jedi
Veteran
Hi guys, I'm into Organic growing. It makes a lot of sense, and simplifies many aspects. I'm using LC's soiless mix #2 (5 gallon smart pot per plant) and for feedings I'm using the Fish and Kelp nute regimen (recipe #5).

My water out of the tap is 10-10.5. I'm bubbling it for at least 48 hours in an open container to cut down on the Chlorine.

I have two questions:

1. I know that when growing organic I shouldn't be worrying too much about PH, but I'd like to hear from some people with more experience if I should be adding some apple cider vinegar to my water perhaps to cut the PH down closer to neutral. Thoughts on it?

2. I noticed I had "light and airy buds" on my last grow. It was all healthy plants, and a strain I haven't grown before, but I've read somewhere that using Fish emulsion as my main plant food is known to cause "light airy buds". Should I try a different organic food source? Should I be supplementing in some way? Has anyone done a grow on the same strain with different organic plant food recipes listed here that can verify my "light and airy" buds weren't just the strain?

I pulled 18 dry ounces off of 5 plants, so I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to improve for the future.

Thanks!

Ill discuss my experience with both the mix your using and high PH in organics but let me explain it this way for continuity

If you make a LC#2 mix, there is no real bacterial activity when you start off. Recipe #5 will not help in this regard.

If you do not have a robust bacterially active soil with lots of humics it will not buffer the PH.

I believe humic activity coupled with microbiological activity and PH within a "natural" range makes PH and organics unnecessary

if you do not have those mechanism in play your gonna have PH problems which will articulate to nutrient uptake problems later on.

I have experienced this TOO many times.

Also IMHE LC#2 and recipe #5 is not enough organic material of the right diversity to get you optimal results.

ADD compost, not a huge amount but 1 part and add EWC teas that are bubbled.

bring your water to a local pet shop and ask if they do free water tests, see what they say about the PH.

I would want biologically active soil before I started putting high PH water in it with hopes it will naturally buffer.

microbeman has a recipe for EWC tea that also incorporates some fish emulsion but at a very specific amount to avoid disrupting maximum microbial activity (what you really want when brewing a tea)

I have found that people seem to fare much better with recipe #1, you then use EWC in teas to help boost start microbial activity and make ewc with neptune's in ratios given by microbeman if you feel they need a lil more organic material.

your one step away from LOS and a few simple changes on the recipe ingredients you can run a clackmas/gas or any other successful organic mix that you are interested in

good luck
 

Ph-patrol

Well-known member
Veteran
A very light top dress should fix it, around a tablespoon per 3-4 gallons worked well enough. The first time I tried it with a heavier hand... went not so well. Poor cover crop....

I ran in to the same thing on a few different varieties using the 2-1-1 ratio/1c per cf rate common here. Some liked it, others needed a bump. Took around 7-10 to work in and alleviate the symptom.

Mikell are you addressing me and speaking about agricultural lime in your top dressing.

If you are I have used the lime dressing and eggshells pulverized after I have steamed them for a top dressing.In the past.

As stated I used ag-lime in my soil mix. I just keep on getting a cal deficiency in one or two plants.
Very disheartening.
 

gr0w1ngbud5

New member
Your pH meter is broke. If it's not, I wouldn't drink that tap water. Or bathe in it.
If you have chlorine in your water it must be from a municipal water supply. In my experience, they usually adjust the pH to near neutral to protect their pipes.
Burn1

I'll make sure to re-calibrate my ph meter, and retest. Thanks.
 

gr0w1ngbud5

New member
Ill discuss my experience with both the mix your using and high PH in organics but let me explain it this way for continuity

If you make a LC#2 mix, there is no real bacterial activity when you start off. Recipe #5 will not help in this regard.

If you do not have a robust bacterially active soil with lots of humics it will not buffer the PH.

I believe humic activity coupled with microbiological activity and PH within a "natural" range makes PH and organics unnecessary

if you do not have those mechanism in play your gonna have PH problems which will articulate to nutrient uptake problems later on.

I have experienced this TOO many times.

Also IMHE LC#2 and recipe #5 is not enough organic material of the right diversity to get you optimal results.

ADD compost, not a huge amount but 1 part and add EWC teas that are bubbled.

bring your water to a local pet shop and ask if they do free water tests, see what they say about the PH.

I would want biologically active soil before I started putting high PH water in it with hopes it will naturally buffer.

microbeman has a recipe for EWC tea that also incorporates some fish emulsion but at a very specific amount to avoid disrupting maximum microbial activity (what you really want when brewing a tea)

I have found that people seem to fare much better with recipe #1, you then use EWC in teas to help boost start microbial activity and make ewc with neptune's in ratios given by microbeman if you feel they need a lil more organic material.

your one step away from LOS and a few simple changes on the recipe ingredients you can run a clackmas/gas or any other successful organic mix that you are interested in

good luck

Off to research I go. Thanks for the feedbacl

I should probably mention I am supplementing the soil with 1/2 cup Azomite per gallon, I also added Endo Mycorrhizae in the directed quantity as well.

I'll add more compost too for my next batch.
 

Mikell

Dipshit Know-Nothing
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Mikell are you addressing me and speaking about agricultural lime in your top dressing.

If you are I have used the lime dressing and eggshells pulverized after I have steamed them for a top dressing.In the past.

As stated I used ag-lime in my soil mix. I just keep on getting a cal deficiency in one or two plants.
Very disheartening.

Yes to both, I suppose that was a vague reply I gave.

If topdressing doesn't solve the problem, post up the whole recipe and perhaps someone more experienced can chime in. If you're looking for a quick fix, a concentrated EWC slurry would give a high shot of Ca.
 

Kozmo

Active member
Veteran
Thanks gr0w1ngbud5 for jumping in a hour and a half after my inquiry and taking up all the senior attention on this thread. I thought it would be a good place to put it maybe even strike up conversation about organic needs of different types of strains and hybrids. I can go the rout of PM'ing individuals or maybe I should have put it in the soil mix thread. However I wanted to keep it "organic". If no feedback ill edit it and move it over to the soil mix thread. Sorry for blowing up gr0w1ngbud5 but little things like etiquette bother me sometimes.

Peace
Much respect
Kozmo
 

Former Guest

Active member
Kosmo, I'll help you if you still want me too. I will even be nice this time. I've noticed while reading a lot of your questions have gone unanswered. Find me and others on the organic growers community thread. I will answer your questions tonight. Sounds like a lot of nitrogen just at first glance.
 

VerdantGreen

Genetics Facilitator
Boutique Breeder
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
kosmo, one piece of advice i would give you is to add the biochar over 2 or more cycles rather than putting it all in first time round.

biochar can take a while to show benefits and it is quite alkaline.

i would not add it at more than 5% to start with.

VG
 
L

Luther Burbank

Kozmo, it's cool dude, chill. There's no etiquette of that sort on this internet forum. Asking a question doesn't mean that no one should post another question until someone answers yours first. If your inquiry didn't get a response it's probably because BurnOne and other senior members prefer to keep this thread about the prescribed recipes on page one. After years of looking over tons of individualized soil recipes most senior members would refer you to the tested proven recipes. The soil mix thread might be a better place for a critique of an individualized mix.
 

Weird

3rd-Eye Jedi
Veteran
I have heard of SSTs and people using them with great regard for their efficiency but since I have no personal experience with them I don't feel qualified to answer questions regarding them.
 

inreplyavalon

breathe deep
Veteran
Hey now, good to be posting in this forum. Been a long time hydro grower and thought it about time i give organic a try. I actually did in the beginning, but lack of research and pisspoorperformance resulted in as you would expect. Now i am looking to learn about organics so i can grow some food and simplify my life. Here's what i am wondering:

I veg my plants for 60-70 days and then flip them. In coco which is what i am experienced with i grew them in cups>1gallon>5gallon. I was planning on doing the same with organic. I will root in my aero, then plant into cups of soil. Then leave in the cups for a few weeks before then switching them into 1 gallon smartpots. They would typically stay in the Ones for 3 weeks, and then onto the 5 gallon pots.
I am using LC's mix #1 with Recipe #1.

Does anyone think i should skip any of those pots? Is it a problem to leave them in 5 gallons for 13 weeks or so(the last 2-3 weeks of veg and up to 10 weeks of flowering)? With 1000w hps blasting from above, is it likely i will need to supplement whats in the soil with some added nutrient for plants that are relatively large? I will definitely be brewing some ACT every few weeks to keep a strong microbe population.

This organic thing has made growing fun again. Hope it stays this way for a while.
Thanks for helping and much respect to Burn1 for guiding so many.
 
C

ct guy2

I would go straight to 5's if you're not concerned about the container size in regards to your light footprint. Using organic media, the more the plant has access to, the better it will grow.
 

mx628

New member
Does the temperature in which your brewing your tea matter? I am going to have different barrels going with the veg and flowering tea. They won't all fit in my tent, so I will just have them in my basement next to it and it does get kinda cold in the winter here.
 
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