Living Organics *Ofiicial Thread*

[georgyboy]

When you have four plants in 5 gallon smarties that need watering every 3 days doesn't that $1 for 5gal of water start adding up? Is the water dispensed at a giant ice machine RO? There is this thing nearby that you just put a couple quarters in and you can get either a big bag of ice or water. would this water be good for growing? the water is not in a bag by the way, you need to bring a jug.

 

[georgyboy]

I want to do organics really bad. I only buy organic produce. My vegetable garden is all natural. I recycle. I compost and vermicompost. I use all natural soaps and detergents around my house and on my body. But I grow hydro weed because it seems I couldn't grow organic indoors without finding a source of water. I'm thinking about adding a gutter to the backside of the house I rent and setting up a rain barrel, but my shingles are probably toxic haha.

 

[Mosca559]

Just finished my first grow using TLO and can't wait to taste the buds! The Rev really explains how growing should be, the all natural way....no chemicals, pesticides, just feed the soil and let it work for you and it does! Getting ready to order " Teaming with Microbes " and get deeper into this subject....good times!

 

[Cann]

When you have four plants in 5 gallon smarties that need watering every 3 days doesn't that $1 for 5gal of water start adding up? Is the water dispensed at a giant ice machine RO? There is this thing nearby that you just put a couple quarters in and you can get either a big bag of ice or water. would this water be good for growing? the water is not in a bag by the way, you need to bring a jug.

Yeah itll start to add up but its much cheaper initially than buying a RO system. Before I bought my RO system I used to take my jug to the store every few days to get water for my ladies and myself. Pain in the ass, but the water is perfect for living organics as it is 100% pure. So lets say you use 20 gal a week to water those ladies, thats only $4 a week, or a little more than $15 a month. At that cost you can buy water for a year for the price it cost me to buy my Stealth RO 100 gallon/day system. With only 4 plants it seems like a no brainer to me...once you up the plant count it starts to get a bit more complicated. Good on you for switching you're lifestyle to organics, it is definitely the way to be. Hopefully you havent been feeding anything to yourself that you wouldnt feed your ladies...last time i drank tap water I ended up with a gnarly bout of diarrhea less than 24 hours later....shit is deadly.

Hope this helps

 

[jcmjrt]

You probably don't need RO water to do the Rev's method. In the long run, I'd recommend checking out Pure Water Products and going with a sediment and two charcoal filters. You should be able to get good water flowing right out of the tap that way but of course, it depends on what you started with so if you have really terrible water then maybe you need RO. Since you don't have the bucks right now, you can get rid of most of the chlorine by letting it sit out - get large food containers - and aerate. I used to do it this way and it takes a few days and a place to have a couple of large containers but it does work. I have tested it with chlorine test strips and most of the chlorine is gone and it doesn work.

 

[Cann]

this method will not get rid of chloramine....IMO the rev would cringe if he heard you say you can water with aerated tap - he explicitly states that starting with good, pure water is one of the most important factors. Water your truly living organic soil once with chloramine laden water and you'll see what I mean. It will kill most of the life in your soil overnight. Don't believe me, then do some more reading into chloramine and how hard it is to dissolve the chemical bond...NH2CL is pretty damn strong and doesn't like to dissipate readily. This is one of the reasons they have started replacing chlorine with chloramine in US water systems....

Sorry to disagree, but on the TLO thread I think we should be having real discussions about the importance of water quality, and I can't just sit and watch misinformation be spread to all. While I agree that you dont need an RO system, you do need to think about removing more than just the chlorine - chloramine is odorless and invisible so there is no real way to determine if it is removed without owning a TDS meter, or knowing 100% the source of your water. Just something for consideration...

 

[Piff83]

http://buymarijuanaseeds.com/community/threads/watering-dynamics-by-the-rev-skunk-magazine.117310/ hope this helps clear up the importance of clean water in tlo growing.

 

[Cann]

Thanks Piff, perfect link. +rep to you sir

 

[georgyboy]

Thanks for the idea man. I will start talking up the misses until she gets tired of listening to me and I'll probably have a couple of those jugs in the house by the new year haha. My tap is pretty decent, it comes out with a ppm around 85 and the local water treatment facility won an award for the best lagoon type system of it's size in the state. The only real problem with the source is the chloramine. Would a faucet mount filter by Brita or PUR work, or is that completely inadequate?

 

[Cann]

I try to stay away from brita...the cartridges add fluoride to the water - no good for you or your ladies. I've always been puzzled as to why they do this...

Go to a homebrew store or pet store and ask about how to get rid of chloramine - they will know how to help you. Until then I'd stick with RO water from the machines - just buy yourself a few more jugs (BPA free of course).

And damn 85ppm out the tap that is awesome...

 

[puffnpaint]

gotta sub up for this. my book should be here fri and i`m pretty stoked about it.

 

[jcmjrt]

You can get rid of the chlorine and chloramine with letting the water sit out and aeration helps. Some of the removal, I'm sure is that there's some organic materials which get in the water;the containers just sit uncovered outside. I have tested the water after it has set for a week and the water was good and usable...and yes, I grow organically and the grow stayed healthy.
BTW, a TDS meter only shows particulates in the water and doesn't tell you what the particulates are. I use one all the time as part of my work. There are testing kits for chloramine...I've used one both on my water sitting out in containers to aerate prior to getting the PWP double charcoal and sediment filter which I tested as well. Both do well at removing chloramine but one is much quicker and takes up less space so I'm happy with the PWP water treatment. If you don't have the money or inclination though, the containers do just fine...with chlorine and chloramine removal.

 

[SupraSPL]

The R/O machines at grocery stores are designed to partially filter water at high speed (gets that largest particles filtered out). We have 100ppm tap water at walmart. The Culligan R/O water comes out about 45ppm. That is a low 55% rejection rate (they claim it tastes better this way). We are trying to filter out pharmaceuticals, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, heavy metals, chlorine, chloramines, ammonia, persistant organic pollutants (PCBs) and for drinking water we want to filter out or deactivate spores (cysts) bacteria and viruses. 55% rejection does not inspire confidence (Aquafina and many other bottled waters use the same high speed R/O process).

So I bought an undersink R/O for $145 shipped and using the same 100ppm tap water I get a 98% rejection. The water comes out at 2ppm and rises to 4ppm when it gets a chance to start absorbing CO2 from the air. Bought another one for my mom and got the same results.

2ppm water lacks calmag. Depending on your compost/EWC this can create problems when recycling soil. I experimented with dissolving pulverized dolomite lime using the CO2 from holding my breath and using the exhale (80000ppm CO2) which did work but on a large scale it takes too much work and time. It is much easier to use citric acid. Add some pulverized dolomite to the R/O then add powdered citric acid. Shake it up and allow it access to the open air so the CO2 can escape. The ppm will rise at first and as the CO2 escapes the ppm will decline and the pH will rise. If you make a strong batch you have calmag concentrate. Just add a splash of concentrate to every watering and you have an organic solution to water and calmag.

You could use calmag+ or you can add a remineralization filter to your R/O system.

 

[Kalyx]

Happy solstice team TLO!

Pure water is a must. Also, water comes out fairly chilled in the winter so pay attention to water temp. Add some warmed ro to at least get to room temp, I just use my tea kettle.

Supra, thanks for the do it yourself camg tip. How long have you used this as your camg source? I am currently looking for a new camg that is easy cheap organic and effective.

 

[Cann]

Good info Supra, I agree a home RO system is the way to go for so many reasons. Also Kalyx good call with the water temps - dont want to shock your ladies with 40 degree water!!! I use my 8 gallon homebrew kettle - just fill it up with 5 gallons and put it on my outdoor burner on full blast and the water will go from 40 degrees to 65 in a minute. I'm too impatient for a kettle

Just set up a vermicomposting system today - who else has worms and what do yall feed em? I know certain foods produce higher quality castings, so I'm looking to find the perfect diet for my worms in order to produce the best castings for growing medicine. I'm going to purchase the Revs book, hoping he mentions something in there cause I know he keeps worms...

Happy solstice to all let the new cycle begin

 

[jcmjrt]

I'm running a worm factory 360 with 7 trays. I'm keeping it in my grow room now so the worms stay nice and toasty and I just fed the worms this morning. I keep some coffee cans in my kitchen and put food scraps in there - banana peels, coffee grounds, apple/pear cores, veg peels, and the like. The bedding to start with is mostly coir, old leaves, cardboard and perlite and pumice (aeration is good). I will probably be purchasing some rice hulls in the future and will use those for aeration vice the perlite.

To the food scraps (a couple of coffee cans worth) which I put in the corners and buried under the bedding, I added a couple of tablespoons per worm factory layer of a mix of crab shell, neem meal, karanja meal, glacial rock dust, diatomaceous earth, greensand and fishbone meal. That mix will vary a little from time to time and I don't add it EVERY time I add food but add it occasionally. I may step up on adding materials as the worms seem to be loving it. I've also add Rabbit manure occasionally (friend has a rabbit) and the worms devour that quite rapidly.g

Since I use a botanical tea occasionally, kelp and alfalfa meal mix in water - to water and foliar spray (which the plants do love) - I add a little of the water and the strained leavings to the worms as well.

 

[georgyboy]

Good info Supra, I agree a home RO system is the way to go for so many reasons. Also Kalyx good call with the water temps - dont want to shock your ladies with 40 degree water!!! I use my 8 gallon homebrew kettle - just fill it up with 5 gallons and put it on my outdoor burner on full blast and the water will go from 40 degrees to 65 in a minute. I'm too impatient for a kettle

Just set up a vermicomposting system today - who else has worms and what do yall feed em? I know certain foods produce higher quality castings, so I'm looking to find the perfect diet for my worms in order to produce the best castings for growing medicine. I'm going to purchase the Revs book, hoping he mentions something in there cause I know he keeps worms...

Happy solstice to all let the new cycle begin

Hey man I have had a worm bin for over a year now and I feed them a mix of different fruit and veggie scraps, with the occasional dried and crushed egg shell. I used to soak plain brown cardboard and shred it up as my bedding, but I just recently switched to coco and perlite at a 3:1 ratio and the worms seem very fond of them. I have heard that vine fruits, such as melons and their rinds, are supposed to be especially rich for composting. I like to use lot's of banana peels, too, for the K. I also have a juicer, and the juicing scraps are great for composting because they are so shredded that it is much easier for the worms and microbes to begin to digest them. It helps the composting go by nice and quick.

Also, in TLO the Rev goes over his special worm bin additions. He says that these measurements go in with about 2 gallons of moist kitchen scraps, and that he does not use all of the additions all of the time, just here and there. You can also add all of your trimmings and stems that you don't use for making hash. I prefer adding the plant matter to the recycling soil with the roots though. Here is what the Rev recommends adding to your worm bin from time to time, straight from the book.

4 cups of perlite
1-2 cups of rinsed coco coir
1 tablespoon of greensand
2 tablespoons of crused or ground oyster shell
1 tablespoon of granular rock phosphate
1/4 cup of all organic alfalfa pellets
2 tablespoons of kelp
2 tablespoons of humic acid ore shale
plenty of dried cannabis leaves and roots
2 cups of shredded junk mail

Good luck with your new slimy friends.

 

[foreverflyhi]

Nice already some great info! Does anyone know if rev ever comes on this forum? Would be nice to have him join.

 

[Cann]

Thank you everyone! That is exactly what I wanted to hear
Bout to feed my ladies a bunch of kitchen scraps, and a tiny bit of glacial rock dust and kelp meal to start it off. Hoping I can find rice hulls sometime soon...anyone have success finding these locally? Everywhere I call has no idea what I'm talking about, the only source I found is a homebrew store but theirs are far too expensive because they are for human consumption...who's got the rice hull hookup in socal? Many thanks to whoever finds this out first.

As far as the rev visiting this forum..I wasnt even aware he had a RIU account...but it would be awesome to have his presence to keep us all on track with TLO (although together we should be able to keep our shit in check). If anyone knows the rev's account shoot him a message...

 

[SpliffAndMyLady]

subbed! this is my kind thread, great info!