Tutorial Organics for Beginners

[Mikell]

I believe you're just noticing the difference between raw and treated (Pro-Mix BX) spaghnum.

 

[lolryn]

I believe you're just noticing the difference between raw and treated (Pro-Mix BX) spaghnum.

exactly my thinking as well!

 

[exstr]

using LC mix 2 + the feeding recipe 3. top dressing guano instead of adding to tea. also top dressing roots organics uprising/bloom and foundation a tiny bit. I have also started a large vermicompost project in tubs. When I am ready to recycle my LCmix 2 what would be a good method? Could you bin it up and add something to it to increase it's dankness before planting in it again?

 

[dank.frank]

What happened to Luther_Burbank??? He is now guest? Did he delete account?



dank.Frank

 

[Microbeman]

What happened to Luther_Burbank??? He is now guest? Did he delete account?



dank.Frank

I believe he got put off by the trend towards conjecture and invented terminology and what followed in the wake.

 

[dank.frank]

That's a bummer. I liked having him here...sigh.



dank.Frank

 

[Former Guest]

I'll miss him. He always answered my questions.

 

[xmobotx]

using LC mix 2 + the feeding recipe 3. top dressing guano instead of adding to tea. also top dressing roots organics uprising/bloom and foundation a tiny bit. I have also started a large vermicompost project in tubs. When I am ready to recycle my LCmix 2 what would be a good method? Could you bin it up and add something to it to increase it's dankness before planting in it again?

you can recycle these types of mixes w/ great results. it's best to give it a try because other variables may contribute to success or failure which may be regional, choice of brand and even water

typically these mixes are quite strong & regardless of what many would suggest, you could recycle them un-amended

for best success recycling, it's the key to start w/ a proper "recipe" as some amendment choices don't recycle as well as others ~mostly this means avoiding dolomite lime in favor of something like crab shell, gypsum, oyster since magnesium is fairly abundant & likely to become problematic if added while not needed. w/ dolo, it becomes available on later cycles & then you see the dreaded cal/mag issues

 

[Former Guest]

You might want to check out Top-feeding...and why I like it by Crazy Composer. He uses top dressings of uprising/foundation/bloom. He uses a lot of that line with additions per the roots feed schedule. It tells you when to apply and also the ingredients can be what the roots products are made of so you could substitute amendments like guano for the roots product.

 

[xmobotx]

sure sometimes it's easier to try all-in-one products like DR Earth 5-5-5 which is a combination of typical dry amendments

the all in one thing is somewhat comparable to what i like about plant-based amendments. an ideal no-till will be top-dressed either w/ chop-n-drop or plant based stuff like dynamic accumulators because they are fairly balanced additions

crab meal is another excellent top-dress for that purpose. i like to mulch these things in w/ a little vermi-compost but that's not as feasible w/ certain chop-n-drop scenarios.

it's like you say though. by the time your primary plants canopy is shading your living mulch, there may not be much to chop-n-drop

 

[Former Guest]

I thought it was a good starter guide so you know what to do as Crazy Composer did a nice job spelling it out for people, repeatedly. So the thread is a bit long but I really liked it when I first starting looking into this. He also showed people how to do it by using ammendments instead of products. I was thinking leaf litter, crab and neem meal, bits of decomposing wood bits, comfrey, yarrow, clover, nettles maybe, I can easily access quite a bit so I can add a mix of a little variety of what I can get my hands on. Make litter of it all maybe I could add some biodynamic accumulators on the sides. Someone here has marigolds. That would work. Thanks!!

 

[PotSnob420]

I use all.methods TOGETHER. To maximize yields!

 

[rolnik1]

Hi guys, i was using #1 #1 mix for few times now and it worked great, except for fungus gnats from castings one time(mosquito dunks helped 100%). Just green healthy plants from begining till end, also everybody loved the smoke (c99) . So i if you're hesitating whether to use it - don't
Now i want to reuse my mix but it's all dried out for few months in garrage, super dry. I want to use some castings concentrate, and probably full recipe 1. You think it'll work? Should i use less meals? It was grown for 3,5 months.

 

[rolnik1]

So i if you're hesitating whether to use it - don't

Can't edit yet i guess, of course i meant USE IT.

 

[exstr]

you can recycle these types of mixes w/ great results. it's best to give it a try because other variables may contribute to success or failure which may be regional, choice of brand and even water

typically these mixes are quite strong & regardless of what many would suggest, you could recycle them un-amended

for best success recycling, it's the key to start w/ a proper "recipe" as some amendment choices don't recycle as well as others ~mostly this means avoiding dolomite lime in favor of something like crab shell, gypsum, oyster since magnesium is fairly abundant & likely to become problematic if added while not needed. w/ dolo, it becomes available on later cycles & then you see the dreaded cal/mag issues

Thanks, I have quite a bit of the LCmix2 which has the added dolomite lime, what would be a good replacement substance and more importantly ratio for the lime alternative? The mix #2 calls for 1 cup dol. per cubic foot.

I am considering using my recycled LC #2 mix that's left for my fruit and veggie garden outside and starting a fresh batch of something without the lime that I can plan on recycling every cycle for my mmj. I enjoy growing in the lc2 mix it is very airy and lean which helps it dry out a little faster. If any of you had to break down your favorite mix and method in a short list/summary I'd really appreciate it any and all info. Thanks!

 

[keingrower]

Hello guys

I started an organics soil grow and I am encountering some problems at the moment. I thought you could help me out with your opinion and skill.

I did not want to open a new thread and hope to get some answers in here.

My main question is (I know, there are several threads about that and I have read most of them)

How important is it, to watch your pH of your feeding solutions/ water?

As this is not answered without any more information about my grow, here some basic information:

Its a indoor tent grow, 1sq ft. (Secret Jardin DR90)
400w HPS
temperature steered ventilation

RH: between 30-50%
Temps: Lamp on: min 20°C - max 28°C (difference because some times I forget to open the tent to get more fresh air in the tent
Lamp off: 15°C - 20°C

Its not complete in line with the recipes on site one, as I did not had all amendments right away, but I always added nutes to counter the little nutes in the soil

1 gallon pots only (maybe a bit to small?)

Soil and amendments:
noname Light Mix (peat moss, perlite and little humus)
EWC
Guanokalongs High P Guano
1-2 tablespoons / gallon dolomite lime (its not called dolomite lime here, its called algae lime and contains 50-60% calcium, 4-5% magnesium and some other stuff)

Mixed: 5 Part Soil, 1 Part EWC, little Guano

Supplement Nutrients used:
BioCanna Vega and BioCanna Rhizotonic for Veg and in the first weeks of flower
BioCanna Flora and BioCanna Boost, since 2-3th week of flower

Guanokalongs Liquid kelp (got it in week 3)
Blackstrap Molasse
epsom salt
plagron lemon juice (pH down)

My tapwater is hard, over 8, I checked the water analysis (ppm is about 200-400), high calcium. What I did at first, let water bubble 24 hours and then use it.
As I have read, that too much cal can lookout mag, I decided to get an RO-Filter and mix RO with tap water to decrease ppm and cal in the water.

Now to my grow:
After the switch to 12/12 they were stretching good and I have feed them with half Vega and half Flora to tackle the high use of N during stretch. I always pHed my solution when feeding tap water without RO, had to use some lemon juice to pH down, are used a little more nutes.
After I started to use RO, the starting pH was way lower and with the nutrients, my pH was at 5.. when I used less than before, and 4 when I used my normal doses. But, I thought, my soil should handle that and did not use pH up.

After stretch, two of 10 plants started to get yellowish.. showed some brown spots on the leaves (I will provide pictures I took a day ago).

Immediately I came to the conclusion, that it is mag def or a pH issue. I checked pH and it was a little high. So I flushed them with pHed RO water and little epsom salts in it.
After two days, I was worried because the situation has not changed but more leaves were affected. I thought, maybe I flushed not good enough, flushed again with a mild nutrient solutions and epsom salts (pHed at 6 to lower soil pH).
Then I gave them just pHed water for some days. I think, I waited to long to start giving them nutes again, because the yellowing increased.. some leaves curling upwards and getting brown and crispy… Then I read, it could be Calcium def.. so I added some lime to mit watering and started to give them nutes again..

as I am mixing my tap water with RO water (1:2), the pH goes way down when I add the nutes. But again, I read that you do not need to think about your pH in organic soil.. so I just used the 4-5 pH nutrient solutions..

Now… the situation looks like.. some plants are getting a little worse, the plants which are affected the longest time, green up a bit in the new growth region..

Could you give me some hints what I did wrong, what I did right and so on? You would help me sooo much guys!!

I am sorry for the pictures turned out to be very yellow (damn you HPS lamp hehe) but maybe you see it, one plant on the right back side is dark green, as it should be..

thank youuu for help!

 

[lolryn]

I am no expert at this, but I'll give it a shot.

I personally run organics and water-only style. I have never run well amended soil with bottled nutes.... but speaking from organics and just amendments, you (arguably)do not need to PH. I think when you throw in the bottled organics, you then need/should PH your water. from the looks of it, it looks like either a mg def, or if you're over feeding, it could be a lockout too. that first pic looks a little like nute burn too. I would suggest doing what you did... flush at 3gal and on the third watering use a mild nute solution, give it a bit and see what happens from there and either turn up the nutes or keep them at a low dose. good luck!

 

[keingrower]

thanks mate for the quick response!

thats what I kind of thought too... too feed them with mild solutions and add some epsom to get them back on track.

in theory.. all looks kind of plausible and rational. but a plant is a living creature and there are so many things playing different roles that its hard for an inexperienced grower to listen to the plants and react the correct way

 

[xmobotx]

Thanks, I have quite a bit of the LCmix2 which has the added dolomite lime, what would be a good replacement substance and more importantly ratio for the lime alternative? The mix #2 calls for 1 cup dol. per cubic foot.

I am considering using my recycled LC #2 mix that's left for my fruit and veggie garden outside and starting a fresh batch of something without the lime that I can plan on recycling every cycle for my mmj. I enjoy growing in the lc2 mix it is very airy and lean which helps it dry out a little faster. If any of you had to break down your favorite mix and method in a short list/summary I'd really appreciate it any and all info. Thanks!

something like crab meal can be great for an overall re-amend ~using it at somewhere like a teaspoon per gallon. a little goes a long way w/ re-amending

gypsum and/or oyster flour are good choices if you just want to "lime" & a little goes a long way here too maybe the same tsp/gal

keingrower those are dramatically over fed. you probably didn't need to add any bottled nutes to your waterings as light mixes perform quite well. i would cease any additions/attempts to balance your soil & hope you haven't done too much already

 

[keingrower]

keingrower[/B] those are dramatically over fed. you probably didn't need to add any bottled nutes to your waterings as light mixes perform quite well. i would cease any additions/attempts to balance your soil & hope you haven't done too much already

hei... thanks for pointing that put... maybe I underestimated the power of the amendments added to the soil... I did not thought about that!

I will not use my bottled nutes any more till harvest. plain pH RO water mixed with tap. I hope they will recover!

thank you!!