Synth to Organic switch over talk and pics

[Highlighter]

CC, pics look fine when clicking on the top bar.

I use Air pots, which are like a hotel for fungus gnats.
Since incorporating Neem Meal into my mix, no more gnats.

Weekly foliars up to the 2nd wk. of flowering w/ Neem, Aloe, and Pro-TeKt silica will strengthen plants and make them almost impervious to a host of problems like PM.

Can't imagine you giving up using silica.

 

[Crazy Composer]

HL, see... I was under the impression that neem would do harm to the biological activity. I'd heard of it being used in soil, but I needed more evidence. Your use of it is evidence to me, so... NO issues at all? Really?

 

[RoostaPhish]

sorry, not sure if that was a compliment or if you were referring to stinky. fun to talk to as well. I dont speak thread talk so not sure.

 

[Crazy Composer]

Hehehe I meant you and stinky...

 

[RoostaPhish]

for sure

 

[BrainSellz]

View Image[/URL]
View Image
View Image
View Image

The funk, nice job! Your in for a real treat growing all organic in soil. Yum!

 

[who dat is]

HL, see... I was under the impression that neem would do harm to the biological activity. I'd heard of it being used in soil, but I needed more evidence. Your use of it is evidence to me, so... NO issues at all? Really?

I used to be concerned with this as well but I don't think it has any effect on the biological life. I've personally seen a neem seed top dress blow up with mycelium and also a root aphid walk across it with zero fucks given. I would use it as a soil amendment or top dress and nothing else. Neem oil is for pests and preventative.

 

[Crazy Composer]

Kozmo, well... I use and will be using various teas depending on what stage of growth we're at. If I'm making an active tea for spraying, it'll be very very light vermi compost, I'm just trying to breed bacterium to cover leaves with.

As for what I like for each stage, well, I'm not sure yet what the teas will be made of. Also... I'm not exactly sure that all teas need to be active microbially. As a matter of fact, I'm beginning to think there's little need whatsoever to activate a fertilizing tea before adding to organic soil. The brewer tank is full of water, my guess is that the microbes being promoted in the water will not be ideal microbes for the soil environment. If anything, the aqueous forms of microbes may only be beneficial in their ability to break down the less soluble ingredients in the fertilizing teas. Other than that, I'm not sure the fermentation is that important. If I use soluble ingredients in my tea, I should really be able to simply soak my bag of tea ingredients long enough to leech out the solubles into the water and then feed the tea to the soil. No biological activity needed in such a case, it seems to me. The soil microbes take it from there.

I plan to use various top dressings, as well. I'm now using straw for a mulch, which gives me warm fuzzy feelings just seeing it in place. Top dressings will be MUCH more effective under a mulch. The ability for the surface of the soil to stay moist longer means the fungal and bacterial action can really do its thing on the surface without dealing with long dry periods that the soil surface would experience without mulch.

I'll be doing lots of research to come up to speed on the wisest use of all the organic materials used in tea/top dressings. Almost as much as smoking the herb, I look forward to all the tinkering and tweaking I'll be able to do.

 

[Stinkymutt]

Im inspired , havnt liked " buying water " for a long ass time now .

 

[Crazy Composer]

Haha! Stinky mutt, you heard me professing my goal of being completely bottle-free. I was pretty passionate about it that day. Still am.

 

[DoubleTripleOG]

That's where I'm headed, Highlighter. Nice seeing old faces around.

Thanks, guys. Trying to get to this here PC much more often.

So... to update the switch from chemical ferts over to organics... Here are a few shots of the Chem D, getting close to stop feeding time. You can see some leaves with a little leaf tip burn, which is either from the enzymatic action in the now (somewhat) alive medium, or from the heavy initial use of 24 hr bubbled Earth Juice. The enzyme action probably made old, locked up chem nutes available to the plant again, causing that bit of burn. I'm cool with it, though, because this is only a stepping stone situation here. The real organic show is beginning very soon!

So, this is what I'm noticing about this switch... the plants want to yellow up any time I skip a feeding of light tea. Which should mean a highly effective flushing period will follow. I know "flushing" is a bad word with some people, but when you can come up with a better word for trying to slow the uptake of nutrients in organic plants, please share that word. It's all meant to say "get em to yellow up a bit due to a slow, gradual lessening of available nutrients", innit?

Anyhow, I'm thinking that because the only truly organic medium in these containers is right in the top layer of the medium where the organic materials are being worked on by the microbes, that it should not be too difficult to starve them out. The only thing is, I don't want them to crash due to a sudden lack of food, so I'll have to tend to exactly how quickly they lose their green. Too fast will mean they will have to get a little bit of weak tea before the full-on starve sets in. We'll see.

Fungus gnats!!! I was starting to get nailed pretty bad by the little fuckers, but I mixed in a bunch of DE (diatomaceous earth) into the surface soil and waited. It seems to have worked well! A significant reduction of gnats is absolutely discernible. The DE basically makes the soil VERY unfriendly for the gnat larvae and hatchlings. Cuts em up like a small room full of knife-wielding Whirling Dervishes on ether. Must be an ugly sight to see up close! hehehe

Had a single spot of PM (powdery mildew), sprayed the whole crop with tea. That seems to really kick ass on PM, and even provides serious protection on the surface of the plant for some time after the spraying. Could PM finally be a thing of the past? we'll see...

I've also been fighting a mite invasion lately. Nothing serious, but what a pain in the ass it is to KEEP it at the "nothing serious" level, eh? bastards. I read great things about a product called Liquid Ladybug... so I just got some. I love spraying something that I don't mind getting on my bare hands, ya know? It feels right, sustainable, clean. It's basically peppermint oil and Geraniol. The Geraniol is just another plant extract, also used in some natural bug repellents. Will the Liquid Ladybug work? Again, we'll see. I couldn't find any signs of mites just before I sprayed, I looked pretty damn good, too, but you know how the Borg is... So I really nuked the 2 plants I've seen them on recently, then sprayed the plants in the vicinity pretty well, also.

My yield is looking pretty poor, relatively. I'm used to seeing much more heft by this point, but the trade off for quality was simply not worth it. My future tinkering will all have to do with mastering the best tasting weed on Earth AS WELL as yielding like an Apple stock in 2007.

I just noticed that bamboo stake, covered in resins from previous grows. hehehe

I'm still not remembering how to get my pictures to show up really nice and hi-res on this site... I wonder what I can do aboot that... Maybe a resizing issue?
View Image
View Image
View Image
View Image

Man that stuff looks good. Making me impatient for my Chem D cuts to root so I can flower the mother. I can smell the stank thru the screen!

 

[Crazy Composer]

Hey, All!

I'll be on the road all day. Just wanted to throw up a couple quick shots I took with my iPhone 6... technology sure has come a ways! These little cameras, if used with care, can produce some killer little bud shots, even with lights on, if ya know how...

Well, the switch to 147% organic/no bottles is officially under way as of yesterday. I transplanted a bunch of clones to organic soil, and the age of bottles is officially at an end. Well, I'm looking for a way to get molasses in a bagged, dry form still... but other than that, NO BOTTLES, NO MORE PLASTIC WASTE/POLLUTION. It's just something I'd like to accomplish for my own spirit, not something I'll preach hard on or anything. So, like a baby, I've been weaned off the bottle. hehehe

As you can see from the following photos, the ripening is going full steam ahead still. No more food will be given, it's time to use up residual nutes and then starve down to gorgeous light greens, yellows, purples. I will thank them profusely for their wonderful bounty and medicine, then commence harvest.

I'll start a new thread with the organic babies and follow through to the end. Any indoor organic super geniuses out there... I'd love if you'd follow along in that thread and comment on what's going on during the grow.

Remember, these pics were taken on a cell phone, so don't expect magazine quality here, but still pretty damn good!

Legend OG Kush:

Gorilla Glue #4:

Chemdog D hanging out with an LOG bud:

Chemdog D alone (picture was turned sideways by IC upon uploading?):

 

[MileHighGlass]

Firstly, your plants looks fucking great! Love the story about Chemdog and the rooftop. Makes me wonder if you know the truth behind the guy in mass. that got busted in 2011? Maybe for another time.

Secondly, with what you are doing your transition to natural growing will be pretty smooth.

Thirdly, my suggestion is to go notill. It is extremely easy, and produces great results. I personally do not use neem cake, sprouted seed tea, neem tea, malted barley, or any other fad shit.

If you use smartpot style containers coupled with rove beetles, hypoaspis miles, and nematodes, you should not have any issues with soil born pests.

The fabric container is a mechanical barrier so the pests can't enter the root zone. The rove beetles, hypoaspis miles, and nematodes act as an active "barrier" in the top couple of inches of the soil.

Pretty hard for anything to take over, and you will save money. The hypoaspis miles, and rove beetles should only need one application ever. The nematodes I add twice per complete cycle. Once when I start the veg, and once when I start them in flower.

Anyway, seems you are not going to need a lot of direction as you have a ton of experience, and the results you are getting are ridiculously awesome already.

 

[Crazy Composer]

MileHighGrass, Thanks for the tips, I really do appreciate input! I'm not sure about the neem, either. I believe everyone who says it works fine, but the only reason I'd use it would be for pest control, and I'd rather have a standing army of predators than to have to buy and mix in neem seed meal all the time. Still considering, but pretty well sold on NOT using it at this stage.

I've been considering the no till method recently. Let me ask, what's the turn around like for the no till soil? You just cut the woody part of the roots out of the center, right? Then, to re-amend the soil... how's that work?

The predator mites are a must, I've come to realize this. Didn't know about the Rove Beetles AT ALL, so thanks for that.

Flashback Half white Sharon Widow bud from many, many moons ago. So cool!

 

[MileHighGlass]

MileHighGrass, Thanks for the tips, I really do appreciate input! I'm not sure about the neem, either. I believe everyone who says it works fine, but the only reason I'd use it would be for pest control, and I'd rather have a standing army of predators than to have to buy and mix in neem seed meal all the time. Still considering, but pretty well sold on NOT using it at this stage.

I've been considering the no till method recently. Let me ask, what's the turn around like for the no till soil? You just cut the woody part of the roots out of the center, right? Then, to re-amend the soil... how's that work?

The predator mites are a must, I've come to realize this. Didn't know about the Rove Beetles AT ALL, so thanks for that.

Flashback Half white Sharon Widow bud from many, many moons ago. So cool!
View Image

When you harvest the your plants you just cut at the base and leave all of the roots in the pot. You then replant right next to the old stump, and top dress. I top dress once when I replant the new girls and start veg, and then once about 2-3 weeks into the flower cycle.

My first top dress is fish meal, crab shells, kelp, alfalfa, azomite/or basalt.

My second top dress is yarrow, comfrey, moringa, nettles, and horsetail grass.

I use 20 gallon notill pots, and just eyeball how much I top dress. It's not a lot. I will grab a small handful and sprinkle each over the tops of the pots. I keep things lighter than heavier.

Also after every third round I will top dress some oyster shell flour, and gypsum. Not much, just a little bit.

As far as the rove beetles go, In my veg I can put clones in beer cups on a shelf, and within 2-3 days the rove beetles have migrated to them and start to chow down. They are fucking awesome eaters. They search and destroy very well. They are fun to watch as well.

 

[Stinkhorn123]

Awesome Thread Crazy Composter! I too am returning to my organic roots after being on the bottle for twenty plus years.

 

[RoostaPhish]

Ah yes, nettles and horsetail fescue. Two things I was talking about with Crazy the other day. Most farmers hate horsetail. Has a tendency to travel state to state with ornamental landscape plants. Always used it to my advantage. Wild yam, and turkey rhubarb are great ones as well. There are many others. And actually neem can be extremely beneficial nutrition wise. And is being used in areas of extreme climates, with great effectiveness. Due to the plants ability to live in hostile areas, it unlike other plants such as yucca and aloe, can bestow its hardiness to others. It has been some time since I have studied the nutritional and biological effects of neem, but there are many publications on the subject out there. There is one fellow in particular, he owns a company called Organibliss, it is a biological extract of neem, not neem oil. He and I have had many a long conversation, at events with many folks. But he didn't care, just wanted to talk for damn near an hour.

 

[Crazy Composer]

You caused me to look into this "Horsetail" plant... Very interesting, and more widespread than I had first imagined! I've seen it around, but never realized how helpful and chemically unique it is. I'll research more tomorrow.

 

[Crazy Composer]

Turkey rhubarb is used in Essiac tea, an old and effective Ojibwe cancer cure.

 

[Crazy Composer]

Nettles give me an itch, for about 7 minutes. There's another name for that stuff... what was it again???

Those are extraordinary plants, as well. Superbly healthful as a tea for us to drink, and apparently for plants, too? Yet so potentially irritating... About a 7 minute itch.