whythefnot
Member
hehehehehehehehehehehe...
There's another row directly behind the row on the left.
There's another row directly behind the row on the left.
You need a bonsai hero bro... Have fun!
or 1 for $380... just get replacement trimmers and your own 12v power supply.
Ok final total yield was just 4.5 - 4.75 lb of decent nugs, depending on how you calculate popcorn.
Also, how should I prepare my coco coir so it doesn't sap all my nutrients?
I'm confused - why the coco if you're all about an organic/food web grow?
Ok final total yield was just 4.5 - 4.75 lb of decent nugs, depending on how you calculate popcorn. Not too great but adequate enough to get me through. Also, the Sublime pretty much just sucks for potency. Terrible genetics for cash cropping. Reminds me of mexibrick. I can't talk too much trash because I'm smoking it right now. The other two are just too strong for me as morning smokes.
Anyway, moving on...
I left my plants unattended for two weeks and on my return they looked incredible!
I'm going to ask for a little advice from you more experienced fellas on building my organic beds here, about 4 paragraphs down.
From what I can tell I need to fill about 64 cu ft with high quality "soil." The pots I have right now contain roughly 19 cu ft of soil, leaving me with 45 unanswered cu ft.
Very locally I can get a cu yd, or 27 cu ft, of organic compost, organic humus or a 50/50 compost/soil blend, for $32, $25 and $30, respectively. That's a lot to fit in the trunk of my compact sedan but I've done it once before so I know it's possible. I'm willing to bet he'd sell me half a yard for a slight rate increase, maybe $20 for 1/2 cu yd of the compost. I'm using this compost right now with decent results, but there are so many things in the mix I simply cannot attest to the quality. The guy selling it seems to think very highly of it, of course. He claims to have gone outside the area to have procured the highest quality compost around, but still can't tell me the NPK on it.
Slightly less locally, maybe an hour's drive, I can pick up 1/2 cu yd of vermicompost for about $200. I've been on the fence about whether I need quite that much of it, but it looks like it's really good quality and I've got a 35 gal cone bottom tank on order, so my castings needs are about to increase greatly.
If I get 1/2 yd of compost and 1/2 yd of vermicompost, minus what I keep for teas (2 cu ft? castings), I'll have maybe 43 cu ft of soil. That leaves 21 cu ft to be filled, or 3/4 of a yd. What's the best thing to fill here? Should I just go with straight coco, or a coco/promix blend, or add some perlite in there too? What sort of mulch should I be looking for in your opinion? Should I bother more than just the compost and worm castings? In other words, is there a significant gain to amending things like blood meal and kelp meal now or should I be adding those things into the beds by top dressing over long periods of time?
Also, how should I prepare my coco coir so it doesn't sap all my nutrients?
I'll be googling all of these things soon but I'm buried in other work right now, any help would be appreciated.
I would go with 1/2 yd of vermicompost + 1/2 yd of compost/soil mix + 3/4 yd of 50/50 coco/promix HP. If you want a bit more aeration in the mix perlite or better yet floor dry are great additions. If you plan to go water only, yes you need to mix all the amendments (bone/blood/kelp meal, etc) into the soil so it can cook for a few weeks prior to planting. You can then top dress as needed, and re-amend between crops. This will also take care of the coco's CEC requirements. Straw makes great mulch. Clovers and such can be grown as a living mulch if that's your desire.
Thanks, that's the answer I was looking for. I'm not really planning a water-only grow, per se. I have a 35gal cone bottom tank coming soon so I should be able to brew up a pretty nice batch of tea. I was planning to push a whole bunch of tea through that soil in the next few months. Up to this point I've been brewing strictly microbial teas, but I plan to use quite a few nutritional teas once I get my soil tested. Also, I'm not really planning any cooking time with this batch so I think I'll leave my amendments out for a little while. Am I screwing up there? I would think I'd get everything I need for the first round from the worm castings/compost but please correct me if I'm wrong.
Wouldn't say you are screwing up not adding the amendments, more of a personal preference. Castings and compost (depending on quality) should get you through veg and possibly part/all of flower.
I glean from your answer that I should still include true "soil" in my beds, even if it's in much lower quantities than the other media. Also I gather that a coco/peat mix will be my best bet rather than going toward one or the other.
It's beyond the scope of one post to explain the "whys", but yes you want real "soil" in the mix. Same goes for the mixture of coco and peat. They all contribute important characteristics to the mix.
You answered Silver's question perfectly because whether you realize it or not I'm leaning toward coco based on your recommendations to bobble. If it hadn't been for that I would have gone with straight pro mix and never thought twice about it.