Need a lil help

[maxamus1]

So ive been having some issues with nutrient deficiencies so i started all new soil and went with coots mix. But the problems still persist. My ph is 5.5 in one 6.0 in another and the last is 6.5 but tbh i really think my ph pen is messed up. I have been feeding with dragonfly earth medicine teas. Also my soil is about a month old and did not really cook any. Now as for the deficiency i believe it is iron but not sure if i am correct that it is how would i fix it?

 

[DonTesla]

Did you plant right away?

To fix iron, one can simply soak coins that have iron in them in water, and then use that to water or foliar..

You can also do a Mg S4 application to help the plant increase its vitamin production and mineral uptake

You can also employ some microbes to try free it up, which you are doing, DEM has good numbers, so unless you are doing something wrong there or didnt follow Clack to the T, which contains a cup of GRD which should have decent iron, then perhaps I would go with my final guess:

That is, albeit a great recipe quite close to my own, lol, I think the ratios of the base are off, and could be a problem. Too much compaction, and ph divers, and not enough aeration.. which is also an easy fix.. add some pumice or charged bio char or rotting wood!

Let me know what helps in the end if you can, for others to learn from,

Best,

Don

 

[Miyagismokes]

simply soak coins that have iron in them

Neat.
Are there any American coins that contain iron, though?

 

[DonTesla]

Good question, I hear a lot of indian coins are.. US contains mostly Nickel, Copper, and Zinc, I believe.. but there may be some if you look it up / look back a bit...

I myself like to use a Fe-rich GRD.. we have used coins in Canada, but the GRD, its much easier, and so full spectrum.. over 80 elements. Plus it couples as a pest barrier, and fungal food, and CBD booster.

How can you argue with all that!

 

[Miyagismokes]

So ive been having some issues with nutrient deficiencies so i started all new soil and went with coots mix. But the problems still persist. My ph is 5.5 in one 6.0 in another and the last is 6.5 but tbh i really think my ph pen is messed up. I have been feeding with dragonfly earth medicine teas. Also my soil is about a month old and did not really cook any. Now as for the deficiency i believe it is iron but not sure if i am correct that it is how would i fix it?

Regarding being uncooked...
I have a backwoods observation--
I've noticed soil mixes like this is an INTENSE amount of calcium carbonate as a mineral supplement.
I don't cook my soil, I mix and plant. I CANNOT use calcium carbonate on this level without locking out iron.
But I have no....real experience with super soil or ROLS per se... Only experience with hot-mix recycled soils

 

[maxamus1]

Did you plant right away?

To fix iron, one can simply soak coins that have iron in them in water, and then use that to water or foliar..

You can also do a Mg S4 application to help the plant increase its vitamin production and mineral uptake

You can also employ some microbes to try free it up, which you are doing, DEM has good numbers, so unless you are doing something wrong there or didnt follow Clack to the T, which contains a cup of GRD which should have decent iron, then perhaps I would go with my final guess:

That is, albeit a great recipe quite close to my own, lol, I think the ratios of the base are off, and could be a problem. Too much compaction, and ph divers, and not enough aeration.. which is also an easy fix.. add some pumice or charged bio char or rotting wood!

Let me know what helps in the end if you can, for others to learn from,

Best,

Don

Yes i mixed and planted right away and watered in with a tea to get things up and going. Then i did a regular water then one with coconut/aloe then back to regular water. Now i should mention that i used 1/2cf of rice hulls and and 3 bags of perlite in the mix so not sure that more aeration is needed but could be wrong. And no i had to use some farm compost from a friend so there was a lil deviation from his recipe. But everything else is good. It was 60/40 farm/worm castings.

 

[maxamus1]

Also mg s4?

 

[DonTesla]

Also mg s4?

Yes, aka Magnesium Sulfate, or Epsom salts with no additives is what I meant.

As for your aeration, both perlite and rice hulls compact, and rice hulls disappear pretty fast as well. And so, if you only went with 33% aeration, there may indeed be an issue there.

What kind of farm? May be a bit heavy..

 

[Growitpondifarm]

Hey man, I’m having what looks to be the same problem with iron and other mineral lockouts in a mix similar to yours. Seems to be common issue. Wetdog on here recommended me to Use a chelated iron supplement such as ironite to give the plants a readily available iron boost. I can tell you that it helped immensely but that I am not completely out of the woods yet. Ironite or similar chelated iron products can be found at any local hardware store. I’m sure the organic crowd on here might be up in arms as it is not certified OMRI but I did not feel like losing this whole run so went for it. Also there are chelated mineral foliar sprays available at your local garden center or online. I used that in conjunction with the ironite top dress and am seeing growth return but still have not got the color of my foliage where I want it to be. Hope this helps and good luck. You can check out my soil results thread in here to see what lies ahead for you if you don’t get them some minerals ASAP. My plants pretty much had a text book iron defiency

If anyone else has a good micronutirent source that is available immediately and may be of a more organic source I am all ears.

Good luck man

 

[maxamus1]

Yes, aka Magnesium Sulfate, or Epsom salts with no additives is what I meant.

As for your aeration, both perlite and rice hulls compact, and rice hulls disappear pretty fast as well. And so, if you only went with 33% aeration, there may indeed be an issue there.

What kind of farm? May be a bit heavy..

Hey don thanks fornthe help and i i got the mg but that s4 part had me confused so thanks for clearing that up. As far as the farm goes its just a general farm but the compost is chicken, rabbit mix. As for adding more aeration could i do some greensand in the pot for now till i can harvest?

 

[maxamus1]

Hey man, I’m having what looks to be the same problem with iron and other mineral lockouts in a mix similar to yours. Seems to be common issue. Wetdog on here recommended me to Use a chelated iron supplement such as ironite to give the plants a readily available iron boost. I can tell you that it helped immensely but that I am not completely out of the woods yet. Ironite or similar chelated iron products can be found at any local hardware store. I’m sure the organic crowd on here might be up in arms as it is not certified OMRI but I did not feel like losing this whole run so went for it. Also there are chelated mineral foliar sprays available at your local garden center or online. I used that in conjunction with the ironite top dress and am seeing growth return but still have not got the color of my foliage where I want it to be. Hope this helps and good luck. You can check out my soil results thread in here to see what lies ahead for you if you don’t get them some minerals ASAP. My plants pretty much had a text book iron defiency

If anyone else has a good micronutirent source that is available immediately and may be of a more organic source I am all ears.

Good luck man

Yeah i think that is my next move is to use a iron supplement as a foiler spray untill i can figure out how to make a long term solution. which i hope will will be soon.

 

[Growitpondifarm]

Yeah i think that is my next move is to use a iron supplement as a foiler spray untill i can figure out how to make a long term solution. which i hope will will be soon.

Let me know when you do...problem for me is I have high P, K and S and C levels in my soil which I think are preventing the iron that is in my soil from becoming available to plant. I suspect if you tested your soil you might be looking at same problem, only because we used basically same recipe.i know there is plenty of iron physically in my soil, just not in plant available form.

I just ordered a product called Biomin 153 from KIS, it is one if the only mineral supplements that doesn’t have sulfur in it that’s could find. Also has a bit if nitrogen which I believe may help to darken my leaves.

 

[Miyagismokes]

anyone else has a good micronutirent source that is available immediately

...kelp extract?

 

[DonTesla]

Hey don thanks fornthe help and i i got the mg but that s4 part had me confused so thanks for clearing that up. As far as the farm goes its just a general farm but the compost is chicken, rabbit mix. As for adding more aeration could i do some greensand in the pot for now till i can harvest?

Rabbit is pretty awesome. Best if rinsed dried and shredded.. but hopefully theres not too much ammonia and salt in there, and it broke down nicely.
Chickens eat a lot of bugs, I hear thats decent too.
So not the heaviest manures. That good. But still can be some issues there potentially.

As for your aeration problem, I would probably just scratch in some biochar in with a fork, and or get a skewer and gently poke a hole every inch or so, and get that skewer a good 1-3 inches deep each time.. sometimes increase the O2 a bit that way and then just reamend to spec after.

 

[DonTesla]

Yeah, or soak some kelp meal, strain it fine, and mist those fan leaves a BIT, while avoiding flowers at all costs..

Kelp is considered a super-food because of all the nutrients it contains. It is a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Pantothenic Acid, Zinc and Copper, and a very good source of Vitamin K, B, C and E, Riboflavin, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Boron, Magnesium, and Manganese.



Long term solutions may include adding more spinach to worm farm.

Or using a full spectrum living compost, or both, thats the best!

 

[Miyagismokes]

full spectrum living compost

How much garden space is dedicated to growing things specifically to compost them?

 

[maxamus1]

@DonTesla thats my worms major diet is spinach with kelp, oats, alfalfa, rock dust and some other things thrown in but mostly spinach. So after doingg some research and some help with others on here it seems as though compost is adding way to much p which seems to be locking out micronutrients. If this is the case and i start doing a iron supplement that could cause problems when i recycle my soil. So should i toss this soil after and start new? Even with the kelp seems as though there is a thing as to much of a good thing. Also how do i go about testing my soil?

 

[DonTesla]

@DonTesla thats my worms major diet is spinach with kelp, oats, alfalfa, rock dust and some other things thrown in but mostly spinach. So after doingg some research and some help with others on here it seems as though compost is adding way to much p which seems to be locking out micronutrients. If this is the case and i start doing a iron supplement that could cause problems when i recycle my soil. So should i toss this soil after and start new? Even with the kelp seems as though there is a thing as to much of a good thing. Also how do i go about testing my soil?

If you foliar on your Fe then it wont impact the soil though right..

I honestly think Coots is flawed a bit, although I do wish to be as popular as him one day lol!

Calcium complex itself can affect 2000 micro-processes within the plant itself, but yes, high P is also no good.

So what I would do is test your soil.. in the US you can get it done for $35. In canada, there are many places too.. depending on what tests you want.

Toss soil?
No, I would use it for veggies outdoors if anything, but a tweak or two and it can be a high performing blend for a few years, and then it can get re-amended .. used for up to 25 cycles at a time.

As for kelp, yeah, you're right bud. But most people apply kelp at what? 1/2 cup or so per CF??

Meanwhile the companies producing the kelp recommend using more like 2% and up to 3% of total volume .. in other words, with 119.69 cups per CF, 3% of total vol. would mean 2.4 cups per CF.. not a measly 5.

Try some side by sides with the kelp, and you will see for sure. I'd like to see your thoughts..

Here's a water only batch of organic soil, 95% vegetarian, ran at 2% kelp, at just the 3 wk mark, which was a hell of a potent crop that had the pungency and expansion that I'm really after, done with expert strains no less that typically yield only 25g per plant.. yet the average was about triple that, and the quality was unreal.

Bottom line is, if you want to push your numbers and potency, you gotta push the minerals..

 

[DonTesla]

To summarize, I do something more like:

20% COMPOST
&
40% AERATION

***********************

BTW, here's that shot during week 3, from the above post..

with the 2% kelp.. or almost 5x the norm.. very low yeilding strain here crushing it.
(Super Lemon Haze x Chernobyl - Slymer Cut)

Makes you wonder..

 

[maxamus1]

Well i ordered the soil savvy test and i will go from there. Was hoping to go into flower in 2 weeks but not sure now if thats a good idea. Also picked up some ironite couldnt find the liquid so just a bag of it. But plan on foilar spraying it if possible. Now i sit and wait for the test results.