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Thinking of using local soil...maybe?
- Thread starter guest2012y
- Start date
Scissor hash from 23 types...
I just harvested 4 plants. It took me 6.5 hours to cut and trim, only stopping to eat and pee. My chatty lady was out of town. It helped that I had on a baseball game that took forever to finish. Incredibly, to me anyway, I got one full to the top brown paper bag of trim leaves and minor buds (no fan leaves) from 4 plants. And yes finger/scissor is good.......scrappy
having notice I need my eyes to trim, I got in touch with classic radio. the old "theater of the imagination" goes well with trimming and makes it go faster.
lol if you grow organic, you need to be prepared to do lots of trimming.
see, it all ties in...
see, it all ties in...
Word...
Classic off topic organic guys at their best..I know 'cause I'm one too. Yet this is the most action this thread has seen in some time...Post pix of the garden and other goodies and it's like a ghost town...and one of the only guys coming around much at all is Yourcorpse.
Start talking about trimming and smoking scissor hash and this place gets bumping...have at it,but maybe try to wrangle it back on topic sometime eh.
CC1
You know you can hang here YC. Anyone feel free to ask anything about this grow method or post information on amendments,soils,composts,etc...that's why I'm here.
I'm sharing this experiment with you folks to show how easy it is to get decent crops using these natural methods...cycle after cycle in recycled living soil.
It works great so far,it's cheaper,and the herb is better.
well maybe you can check over what i have planned.
I have my 1st round coming down soon, already have the 2nd batch 2nd round soil ready, so now the plan is to re-amend the 1st batch for round 3 which was vegged for 10 weeks, and now at about 9 weeks flower and really no yellowing of leaves or deficiencies except for where the leaves got to close to the hps .
1st round ingredients:
11 cubic feet of base soil
Peat 27%
Compost 22%
EWC 30%
Pumice 12%
Rice Hulls 9%
Blood meal ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Bone meal 1 cup per cf 11 cups
Kelp meal ¾ cup per cf 8.25 cups
Neem cake ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Alfalfa meal ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Dolomite lime 1 cup per cf 11 cups
Rock dust ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Azomite ¾ cup per cf 8.25 cups
thinking of adding:
more peat, 2 cf? i went a little heavy on ewc/compost last time, so it needs more peat
EWC 1-2 cf
maybe some more rice hulls, once i examine the root balls i will know how much degraded
blood meal 1 cup
bone meal 2 cups
kelp 1 cup
neem cake meal 1 cup
alfalfa meal 1 cup
crab shell meal 2-4 cups
dolomite lime 5.5 cups, or should i add the full 1 cup per cf?
anything else?
im also close to forests in cali, and i want to take the dive into some topsoil like you. if i do add some, not sure how much, and if i do add more i would most likely need to add more peat/pumice/hulls so its not to heavy.
you think maybe like 5gal-10gal would be fine?
sorry for making this so long, but i know i could benefit from your advice and the others here. im looking to work these two batches of soil for many years, so i want to go about it the right way.
I have my 1st round coming down soon, already have the 2nd batch 2nd round soil ready, so now the plan is to re-amend the 1st batch for round 3 which was vegged for 10 weeks, and now at about 9 weeks flower and really no yellowing of leaves or deficiencies except for where the leaves got to close to the hps .
1st round ingredients:
11 cubic feet of base soil
Peat 27%
Compost 22%
EWC 30%
Pumice 12%
Rice Hulls 9%
Blood meal ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Bone meal 1 cup per cf 11 cups
Kelp meal ¾ cup per cf 8.25 cups
Neem cake ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Alfalfa meal ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Dolomite lime 1 cup per cf 11 cups
Rock dust ½ cup per cf 5.5 cups
Azomite ¾ cup per cf 8.25 cups
thinking of adding:
more peat, 2 cf? i went a little heavy on ewc/compost last time, so it needs more peat
EWC 1-2 cf
maybe some more rice hulls, once i examine the root balls i will know how much degraded
blood meal 1 cup
bone meal 2 cups
kelp 1 cup
neem cake meal 1 cup
alfalfa meal 1 cup
crab shell meal 2-4 cups
dolomite lime 5.5 cups, or should i add the full 1 cup per cf?
anything else?
im also close to forests in cali, and i want to take the dive into some topsoil like you. if i do add some, not sure how much, and if i do add more i would most likely need to add more peat/pumice/hulls so its not to heavy.
you think maybe like 5gal-10gal would be fine?
sorry for making this so long, but i know i could benefit from your advice and the others here. im looking to work these two batches of soil for many years, so i want to go about it the right way.
Yourcorspe, I would go light on the re-amend, (been there, done that still have the scars) if you add enough extra peat you should be alright, just be careful. Remember your feeding microbes not plants and you can always fine tune with top dressing or teas. I would be especially concerned with adding lime as it takes forever to break down and too much makes life difficult. And the forest soil's microbes could be cultured for additions if that would be easier for you. good luck bro....scrappy
PS It's almost scary to not have yellowing at the cycle's end, isn't it?
Looks to me like you have a pretty good grasp on what's going on with recycling and re-amending.
Go light on the re-amend...those amounts should be fine,but consider that alfalfa and blood meals are immediate release. Alfalfa lasts longer than blood though. Any uncomposted material in the soil should be fully composted before transplanting. Let it "cook".
Blood and alfalfa burn...careful.
You may want to consider nitrogen amendments that take longer to break down and still have some readily available to the plant.
Things like Fish bone meal,fish meal,bat guanos are also long term suppliers.
I think you have a good idea on percentages of things and what balance to keep. That amount of topsoil should be fine...and of course by adding peat,coco,pumice,perlite,vermiculite,rice hulls,etc.....you can adjust the mix to suite your liking for drainage and water holding capabilities. Screen your topsoil and you'll get a nice fluffy material.
Look for dark rich topsoils in undeveloped areas....also leaf litter from under deciduous trees is also choice material screened.
If you add more peat be sure to add dolomite,oyster shell at the correct amount to ph the additional peat.
I do think you have been paying attention...Your plan looks good.
It's a learn as you go thing....nobody has a set system for re-amending and recycling. We're it bro...out on the front lines with these other recyclers.....learning from trial and error.
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thanks for the info scrappy, and yeah it is almost scary that they are still green, but a good feeling too.
thank you capt.cheeze. Very good points about the blood & alfalfa. i will have a whole cycle to let this one "cook" each time since i have 2 sets of 11cf soils. I should think about getting cover crops in there, wheres mad, im sure he would want me to have a living mulch in there.
I was thinking of going with fish bone meal eventually, and they have small boxes at the nursery i go to so... i'll pick some up to replace bone meal. I also have some guano i have not used that will go in there sometime, im just a little scarred from burning some plants topdressing guano once.
and when you say....
thats the one i have been trying to figure out because dolomite lime should last for what, 2-3 years? but do you re lime every year?
I also will eventually get into the 3 way lime mix that you and coot use, so maybe this time would be a good time to start?
thank you capt.cheeze. Very good points about the blood & alfalfa. i will have a whole cycle to let this one "cook" each time since i have 2 sets of 11cf soils. I should think about getting cover crops in there, wheres mad, im sure he would want me to have a living mulch in there.
I was thinking of going with fish bone meal eventually, and they have small boxes at the nursery i go to so... i'll pick some up to replace bone meal. I also have some guano i have not used that will go in there sometime, im just a little scarred from burning some plants topdressing guano once.
and when you say....
do you mean only add lime to the additional peat(1cup per cf)
thats the one i have been trying to figure out because dolomite lime should last for what, 2-3 years? but do you re lime every year?
I also will eventually get into the 3 way lime mix that you and coot use, so maybe this time would be a good time to start?
I use a three way lime mix to start the mix with.
1 part dolomite
1 part agricultural gypsum
2 parts oyster shell
2 tablespoons of 3-way lime mix per gallon of peat added.
On the recycles I only add oyster shell...and sometimes just a tiny bit of dolomite as more an amendment at this point.
There's enough immediately available calcium in the oyster shell.
The reason I like guano's is because they break down over a 4 month or longer period along with many other amendments that break down at the same rates. It's easier to account for that on the recycle.
I've never burned plants up with bat guano alone....but it's definitely possible.
Fish bone meal is a very nice product and I've permanently replaced P bat guano with it. ...been running fish bone meal now for quite a while.
The standard rule for liming peat is 1 cup powdered dolomite per 1 cubic foot of peat alone..not soil mix. Or 1 to 2 tablespoons dolomite per gallon of peat.
1 part dolomite
1 part agricultural gypsum
2 parts oyster shell
2 tablespoons of 3-way lime mix per gallon of peat added.
On the recycles I only add oyster shell...and sometimes just a tiny bit of dolomite as more an amendment at this point.
There's enough immediately available calcium in the oyster shell.
The reason I like guano's is because they break down over a 4 month or longer period along with many other amendments that break down at the same rates. It's easier to account for that on the recycle.
I've never burned plants up with bat guano alone....but it's definitely possible.
Fish bone meal is a very nice product and I've permanently replaced P bat guano with it. ...been running fish bone meal now for quite a while.
The standard rule for liming peat is 1 cup powdered dolomite per 1 cubic foot of peat alone..not soil mix. Or 1 to 2 tablespoons dolomite per gallon of peat.
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After running all these various types together you can really see how end of cycle characteristics are type related. Some types will not go yellow..others do every time. Some look good doing it..others look butt ass ugly.
B
blazesck
glad to see things are going well for you man
