cannakis
Well-Known Member
Awesome thanks you two
RM3 has your peat broken down after those years causing any problems?
Re-using promix?
- Thread starter HowardWCampbell
- Start date
RM3 has your peat broken down after those years causing any problems?
RM3
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure I said without issue
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
Throw a handful of your soil in some water after use and let it sit for a minute and check the pH. If it's too low some Dolomite Lime will take care of it. Make Oyster Shell Flour, and crab shell meal part of amendments in your soil recipes and pH should never be an issue for you.
cannakis
Well-Known Member
Yep I'm tossing my "super soil" out in my garden and going Straight pro mix. Give it a little toot of lime, MAYBE black Kow and dry molasses after a full cycle. But besides that I'm Done for now.! Too much wasted time and energy for me. I need results Now. And I didn't follow directions in the first place so now it's time to follow directions.!
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
The super soil thing is played out. I've had my best results just having a peat moss/perlite/compost mix (basically promix with compost added) Top dressed with kelp and worm castings. Then watered with molasses and fish hydroslate every third watering. Every once in a while some high phosphorus Guano when they're in flower. Soil gets recycled everytime, more compost gets added, occasionally some more peat and perlite but not often.
No pH testing necessary.
Check out this room full of sativas four weeks into flower. Fed just like I said above...1000 watt lights...no synthetics...
cannakis
Well-Known Member
Shit brother that is beautiful! Honestly hearing you say it, and I guess with my current experience now I Completely understand now.! It's mainly the fresh compost keeping that shit going. I'll eventually get there, for Now I'm sticking with ProMix and BioBizz so I can have a beautiful garden like yours, mines not quite as big though.
! Thanks for your help
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
No problem! Fresh compost is everything! Worm castings are even better! I've got a good local compost source that I can use when I don't have any of my worm castings or homemade compost. Google composting in your area and see if there's a place nearby you can grab some from if you can't make/and/or don't have your own quite ready yet.Shit brother that is beautiful! Honestly hearing you say it, and I guess with my current experience now I Completely understand now.! It's mainly the fresh compost keeping that shit going. I'll eventually get there, for Now I'm sticking with ProMix and BioBizz so I can have a beautiful garden like yours, mines not quite as big though.
swedsteven
Well-Known Member
Im going to reuse my promix for the 4 time i never add nothing .
I just order some dolomite lime 4 lbs .
20 litter pot of old promix i will add 1 tbs 15ml of dolomite and mix for each pot .
I never use more then 600ppm and i flush 10 days my run off are 120 ppm at the harvest .
I just order some dolomite lime 4 lbs .
20 litter pot of old promix i will add 1 tbs 15ml of dolomite and mix for each pot .
I never use more then 600ppm and i flush 10 days my run off are 120 ppm at the harvest .
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
Sorry I'm in London on vacation a bit drunk but flushing? Are we using a toilet?
ShLUbY
Well-Known Member
not the case. PM is more of a you need to sterilize your environment to get rid of it (and those spores can linger so be sure to be thorough and bleach whatever you can and get a sulfur burner to cleanse the environment multiple times). Spider mites are easy to get rid of with regular, alternating applications of captain jacks dead bug and neem oil (be sure to emulsify the neem properly) when you get your new plants in the mix.
@ShLUbY, thanks for your quick and helpful reply. In the case of PM, if sterilizing the environment includes the promix, what's the best way to do so? I assume you don't mean use diluted bleach to rinse the promix, do you?
deep_rob
Active Member
i re-use medium too.. been running same peat-based soil-less medium for nearly a decade now. I do amend it each run w/ fresh myco and good stuff, and every other run or so, i add a little new fresh peat/coir etc + lime, to bulk up what's lost over time..
I reuse medium for a couple of reasons. 1, is to help limit impact on peat bogs. 2. is b/c i use a shit-ton of Vermic and Pearl in my mix. I cant simply toss it in a dumpster or in the woods.. pearlite is dead giveaway. I used to bury it, but after a few runs, it gets too much to bury. Even driving arund town with bags of used soiless mix to take somewhere to bury, is risky and very scary to me.
I shake-off root balls completely and compost those w/ the stalks and leaves, but the medium i got nowhere to throw it away without risking exposure.
I didnt start like this.. just things evolved over time.. started in soil. went to soilless, then dro for years, back to soilless, for a couple of reasons, but one major reason was that it was increasingly more difficult to dispose of used RW slabs and blocks.
RE: mites. i rely on cleanliness (change shoes/pants, block pet access, never go from direct from outdoors to room, etc), ladybugs/lacewigs and neem, no issues. but if u ever get mites, well there is only 1 sure-fire absolute way to get rid of mites. U scrap everything. Trash every single plant. Throw out all meduim. Shut off all yur vent fans. Beethoven the shit out of the empty dark room. wait a few days. Scrub room from top to bottom and all gear incld pots, with h2o3 and a diluted bleach mixture. hang a NPS or two. wait a week. Bomb it again. wait another week, remove yur NPS and then (after 30min or so) try to move new plants in there.. Sprays, Oils, (even neem which i love) are a waste of time and money when u got an infestation. At best you'll simply keep them under control. The amount of time u waste dicking around with mites is counter-productive to say the least. 86 the entire garden and start over. The only thing that get them totally gone, is to remove the food source.
I reuse medium for a couple of reasons. 1, is to help limit impact on peat bogs. 2. is b/c i use a shit-ton of Vermic and Pearl in my mix. I cant simply toss it in a dumpster or in the woods.. pearlite is dead giveaway. I used to bury it, but after a few runs, it gets too much to bury. Even driving arund town with bags of used soiless mix to take somewhere to bury, is risky and very scary to me.
I shake-off root balls completely and compost those w/ the stalks and leaves, but the medium i got nowhere to throw it away without risking exposure.
I didnt start like this.. just things evolved over time.. started in soil. went to soilless, then dro for years, back to soilless, for a couple of reasons, but one major reason was that it was increasingly more difficult to dispose of used RW slabs and blocks.
RE: mites. i rely on cleanliness (change shoes/pants, block pet access, never go from direct from outdoors to room, etc), ladybugs/lacewigs and neem, no issues. but if u ever get mites, well there is only 1 sure-fire absolute way to get rid of mites. U scrap everything. Trash every single plant. Throw out all meduim. Shut off all yur vent fans. Beethoven the shit out of the empty dark room. wait a few days. Scrub room from top to bottom and all gear incld pots, with h2o3 and a diluted bleach mixture. hang a NPS or two. wait a week. Bomb it again. wait another week, remove yur NPS and then (after 30min or so) try to move new plants in there.. Sprays, Oils, (even neem which i love) are a waste of time and money when u got an infestation. At best you'll simply keep them under control. The amount of time u waste dicking around with mites is counter-productive to say the least. 86 the entire garden and start over. The only thing that get them totally gone, is to remove the food source.
ShLUbY
Well-Known Member
no need to sterilize the medium, as the spores require a leaf surface to land on and germinate. the problem with spores in your environment is that they remain dry and when they become airborne again, they can land on your plant and germinate. exposure to moisture on the growing medium would prevent spores from becoming airborne again, and also they would likely degrade from the moisture. they rely on staying dry, and then landing in a favorable habitat, aka your plants leaves.
edit: i would break up all medium and put it into totes, moisten it with some diluted beneficial bacteria, mix it all up, and then let it sit for a couple weeks and allow beneficials to consume any lingering contaminants. and remember, this is the organic forum, so we have a much different approach to growing than most of the members on this forum
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Thanks for the details. What's NPS? (I'm newish to growing with salts and am learning about going organic)
Thanks again. I'm fairly new to growing, and have been considering going full organic. As a new grower, it struck me how there are so many expensive single use materials in cannabis growing, and how far removed it seems from the rest of the gardening world.no need to sterilize the medium, as the spores require a leaf surface to land on and germinate. the problem with spores in your environment is that they remain dry and when they become airborne again, they can land on your plant and germinate. exposure to moisture on the growing medium would prevent spores from becoming airborne again, and also they would likely degrade from the moisture. they rely on staying dry, and then landing in a favorable habitat, aka your plants leaves.
edit: i would break up all medium and put it into totes, moisten it with some diluted beneficial bacteria, mix it all up, and then let it sit for a couple weeks and allow beneficials to consume any lingering contaminants. and remember, this is the organic forum, so we have a much different approach to growing than most of the members on this forum
ShLUbY
Well-Known Member
those are both very significant observations. I can certainly attest that growing with hand made organic soils is cheaper than growing with bottles, and is also sustainable if you wanna put some extra work into it by making your own compost, and growing some of your own nutrients, all while never, and i mean NEVER throwing out any soil.
I wanted to learn to be a better vegetable gardener and after a few classes in college and was able to piece together the puzzle of what real soil is: a living thing. Then i started pondering how i could grow cannabis in the same fashion. Soon after, i found this place, all of its recipes for soil, and some good experienced, knowledgable folks, and got to it!
at the time i found organics, i was at my peak at growing with bottled nutrients, and doing really well (was using age old organic brand). However, i did not like all that came along with it: the ph'ing, mixing nutrients, disposing of my medium (which just went to the garden but still... PITA), and most of all... spending money constantly on nutrients.
organics has literally changed the game for me. i see the differences in product quality when i compare with friends who grow the same strains. they all can tell the difference and some of them are amazing by it. different terps, stronger flavor, smoother smoke, all while not having to sacrifice harvest amounts (once you know full well what you're doing, which i'm still making small adjustments here and there and really pushing the limits and intricacies).
the beauty of it all... you just add water and manicure your plants. if you know how to make a good soil, the plant takes care of everything else!
Olive Drab Green
Well-Known Member
I reuse organic medium as long as it’s not anaerobic. Between runs, I’ll run boiling water through it to kill off anything alive in it, then reconstitute it with OregonismXL.
People grow no-till all the time, so I imagine if they can reuse their entire plot without switching it up that you should be fine, too.
People grow no-till all the time, so I imagine if they can reuse their entire plot without switching it up that you should be fine, too.
You're inspiring me to put some real love into this new hobby/venture. I'm very willing to put in the work to aspire to your level. Do you recommend a good starting point? Perhaps books/videos/writeup to get me started? Internet research is leading to too much information, which is in many ways worse than no information, since I can literally spend days in front of the computer, thereby taking time away from my plants.