Osmocote, my favorite plant food - easy peasy, complete

[Old Uncle Ben]

Looks like some coir in there

Played with coir back in the 80's. meh....

Most quality, value based commercial soil mixes consist of pine bark fines, peat, dolomite, and perlite. This is my favorite for the money. pH is around 6.2 I believe. It is only a part of my bulk mix.

Bought some Sam's Club potting soil. Not only was it a good price but damn good quality.

UB

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Here's a similar link, not the one I was thinking of, but fletch did a pretty damn good job on this one. Wasn't osmocote only, but did have very minimum inputs including osmocoe so contains some pretty good info.

The Bio-Osmo-Coco Hempy Experiment

Having had success with Coco/Perlite Hempy buckets, i pondered on making a water/calmag only Hempy. 1 cup of Espoma Bio-tone 4-3-3 was mixed into a 3.5 gallon bucket and 2 capfuls of Osmocote 15-9-12 were scratched into the surface. Amnesia Lemon from Barney's is the test subject. The plant was...

www.icmag.com

Espoma is crap sold to naive organic purists. Check out the analysis of their products!

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Thanks @xtsho for that info about how long it lasts at what temps.


View attachment 19051550

They are all much happier, and healthier, and greener, with the larger pots and the Osmocote.
Tallest one is about 200 cm, the other larger ones about 175 cm, and there's a single bud plant about 100 cm, plus a bunch of little seedlings in there (planted to find a male to make some seeds).

Nice job! ICL site publishes longetivity info based on temps for all of their products.

Like making pizza sauce, you can always add more but you can't take it back. But, being a slow release food Os. is pretty forgiving.

Happy harvest,
Ben

 

[Orange's Greenhouse]

Ok buddy, below is a very good link on how and why coco works well as a medium. Your choice to read up and understand or not. Good luck in your future grows.

The Chemistry behind Coco Coir: a (strange) journey from ferts bottle to to buds

Growing is something strange as it can be as much complicated as you want. Beside that, some growing methods needs a better understanding of the involved chemical processes than others. Coco coir (in my opinion) is one of them. "Coco Coir tend to adsorb Calcium and Magnesium", "pH of nutrient...

www.icmag.com

It does work great and I like it. Most of my plants are in some kind of coco mix or another. But the CEC is making it more difficult to use and not easier. All that stuff about buffered and washed coco is directly related to the exchange capacity. Your link even says that feeding/runoff should be sufficient to keep the CEC at equilibrium with the nutrient solution, thus irrelevant.

Dutch glasshouses use rock-/glasswool because it is very similiar to coco in every aspect except the CEC. It has similiar air/water ratio, low water retention, is cheap. The low CEC makes it more inert, thus the composition of the nutrient solution is what the plant feeds, not the medium+solution.

 

[Brother Nature]

Cool. We’re well off topic from what the threads about at this point enjoy your experimentation dude.

 

[greenleader]

I love this thread!

During my experiments with 19-10-9 Osmocote in the last months, I discovered that it is ideal for keeping mother plants and also for clones (with rooting hormone). My soil mix is peat moss with vermiculite and 5g osmo for every liter of soil. Only water is needed, but calmag is a must when taking it into flower.

I started a fresh mother from a RQS Special Kush 1 seed and this fall I will try to amend a 3 gallon osmocote grow with wormcastings, azomite and dynomyco to see how that goes.

> On a side note, I have also started growing peppers in 9L pots and the growth is amazing compared to organic solutions available in my area.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

On a side note, I have also started growing peppers in 9L pots and the growth is amazing compared to organic solutions available in my area.

View attachment 19052328

Like I said, I've used it for 10's of 1,000's of field grown stock, greenhouse potted plants, cannabis, grape vines, pomegranates, olives, veggies....you name it, I use Osmocote. You'd shit if you could see the fruit I get from my greenhouse trees, all which I've grafted after years of networking and trading scions getting the best of the best - mango, citrus, avocado, annona, pineapple, dragon fruit (see the large flower). I got at least 1,000 citrus fruit from Dec. 2023 to April when I finally pulled the rest off. I'm still eating blood orange from the crisper.

You might want to bulk up your peat/vermiculite mix with pine bark fines @greenleader. Add some dolomite and Os. and you're good to go from start to finish.



.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Again, everything gets Osmocote. Newly planted field stock, veggie garden plants, fruit trees, etc.....everything. I also innoculate with VAM.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Real Seeds founder:

7. Any special/secret cultivation tips you could let our readers know about?

When it comes to growing traditional strains, less is more. Go easy on the liquid nutes; try slow-release stuff. And if you’re lucky enough to have the climate then grow outside in soil under the sun. Let the plants put down roots.

10 Quick Questions with The Real Seed Company

In the first of a brand new series of articles, Seedsman sat down with Angus from The Real Seed Company to ask him 10 quick questions about his seedbank. 1. How was The Real Seed Company born? The …

landrace.blog

 

[bigsur51]

still killin’ it Ben

what flavor is this one?

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

still killin’ it Ben

what flavor is this one?

View attachment 19060770

Think it's Lapis Mtn. indica from Cannacopia. One of my favorites. Not couch lock.

 

[bigsur51]

Think it's Lapis Mtn. indica from Cannacopia. One of my favorites. Not couch lock.

sounds lovely!

are running any other flavors?

we did a bigger than normal outdoor garden 4 years ago during Covid and had 12 different flavors

here we are 4 years later and still enjoying that harvest

all the best on this cycle!

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

sounds lovely!

are running any other flavors?

we did a bigger than normal outdoor garden 4 years ago during Covid and had 12 different flavors

here we are 4 years later and still enjoying that harvest

all the best on this cycle!



View attachment 19061215



View attachment 19061217

View attachment 19061220
View attachment 19061218

Saw those pix, that is stunning! You must be in a state where it's legal to grow?

Am growing Ace stuff and some OLD Positronic crosses I made a good 20 or so years ago.

Am also going to be making my own Griffin's Spin-Out paint for root pruning. Got some Kocide 3000 coming in soon. Bought a qt. of cheap exterior latex paint today for $5, close out..

SpinOut | SePRO Corporation

SpinOut Root Growth Regulator stops roots from growing through the walls of containers and other treated fabrics.

sepro.com

Amazon wants almost a thou for 2.5 gals.! I can make that much for $80, not that I'd ever use it.

Thread:

Microkote used to be made under the brand-name SpinOut by Griffin L.L.C. until SePRO bought the rights. After the re-branding they added other metals labeled as "nutrients". In my opinion this is all marketing; the roots will be stopped and not absorb anything near the Microkote layer - so really the only active ingredient is the chemical that stops the roots from growing further (this chemical is copper hydroxide which was the original ingredient in SpinOut).

Microkote is pricey ($28 for 8oz). But you should be able to make your own.

1) Buy some dry Copper(II) Hydroxide, this is used usually as a fungus pestizide. Interestingly, SePro stuff can be bought on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/CuPRO-5000D...er-Hydroxide-SePRO-3lb-foil-bag-/370622313276), this is probably the same stuff they put into Microkote. Other sources are
KOCIDE 3000 (made by DuPont) or http://kingquenson.en.alibaba.com/productshowimg/424951536-200579235/Copper_hydroxide.html.
2) Dilute the Copper(II) Hydroxide in latex paint. The original SpinOut was made with 13 oz/Gal of Copper(II) Hydroxide (source: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/28/5/527.6.abstract). Remember to account for the original concentration of dry Copper(II) Hydroxide in the pesticide bag (this is typically 50%, for which you would add 26 oz per Gal of latex paint).

Remember to read all the instructions in the bag when handling pesticides.

This costs about 10x less than buying the Microkote solution which is over-priced and over-marketed (b/c of those extra additive "nutrients") in my opinion.

 

[bigsur51]

Colorado the last 16 yrs

had 6 “patients” and a 99 plant count at one time