Shwag's Indoor Organic Perpetual Medical Garden Adventure.

[Shwagbag]

Interesting you feel that lemon juice is a good long term PH down/ never thought their was any validity to that and aren't you concerned about the acid affecting your beni bac/fungi colonies?? or are you constantly inoculating the soil?? Sulfur is a good long term organic ph down BUT will also not play nice with the beneficial bacteria. In the end if it works for you, go for it

Girls look great brother!! .................ah that ASS!!!lol

What's up Psuagro, been awhile. Not sure on long term because I've never used it much. I just recently ditched the PH down. My teas usually need very little adjustment and don't seem to be effected by it. There seems to be plenty of action after 24 hours. I am trying to inoculate the soil with teas once every week to 10 days. My water is PH testing around 8 out of the tap and I'm not comfortable giving them that contrary to what some people believe, I just can't do it lol. Does a little sulphur go a long way? Please share your experience with your application.

 

[PSUAGRO.]

Ah yes powdered or pelletized sulfur/sulphur is long lasting and quick acting........but I deal with usually acidic mediums(peat based)/water so my knowledge is limited to other gardener's experiences. What's your soil's ph?? It should buffer pretty well on it's own............or am I missing something?? didn't read you whole thread?sorry brother

ALL ph down's are acids( sulfuric/phosphoric/citric? blends) and I agree in not adding it in a "living" soil................yes it's been a while, but your ass still looks good

 

[Shwagbag]

I'm not sure to be honest as I've not metered it in quite some time right out of the bucket. Probably something I should put on my list! I had PH issues in FFOF on my second grow and I've been a creature of habit ever since. Although the soil might buffer it on its own, I prefer to adjust for peace of mind.

I wish the ass belonged to me lol. Well, er, uh.... You know what I mean lol.

 

[Sincerely420]

I say go peat rather than Sulfer.
Topdress & water down. Just to be safe rather than sorry...

You can just remove the peat, but not the S.
Also, Molasses, even tho it's "unsulphured" there's S abound, that microbes can obviously dislodge.
Remember my early yellowing?? I can ONLY attribute that to S from the Molasses, given it was the ONLY thing I did different.

 

[Shwagbag]

The lemon juice does not appear to be stable. I let my water get to temp for 24 hours, PH adjusted with lemon juice and 24 hours later its crept back up out of range. Might look into earth juice ph adjusters too. They are citric acids in powder form, but I wonder if they are more stable? The lemon juice at least takes me from 8 to 6.3 to 7 in 24 hours lol. Probably good enough but I'd like to do better.

What amounts of sulfur are you adding to move your PH Psuagro?

SB

 

[Sincerely420]

Why not just water while the pH is in range boss??

 

[Shwagbag]

I could do that. Just bring 24 gallons to temp (3 x 8 gallon tubs) and just adjust 8 gallons at a time for using that day. Most likely what I'll do for now, thx S420!

 

[PSUAGRO.]

Personally schwag I would get a decent soil ph meter(http://www.amazon.com/Rittenhouse-82353-Soil-PH-Meter/dp/B0002F9AHM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1365638255&sr=8-2&keywords=soil+ph+meter) and be done with it!/ too much sulfur will cause major issues ........It will drive you crazy not knowing if your defs are ph related or not, BUT a good soil mix should be within 6-7ph and mostly self-buffer. I check my mix once a run, sometimes never but it's comforting to know if defs pop up I check it/ verify it's not a lock/ amend accordingly ....bam....well really most organic ferts can take some time sooo no bam!lol

AND I sincerely concur with his advice about peat

 

[Shwagbag]

My next mix will be peat based and I'm not going to worry much once I'm using that. My base now is mostly coco based so I worry a little lol.

Not a bad idea on the soil PH tester. I wasn't aware they actually made them worth a shit. I bought one for 15 bucks at home depot and that piece of turd is isn't worth its weight in... turd!

 

[Jozikins]

You see dem mints yet son?

 

[Shwagbag]

Nothing yet? How long ago?

 

[Shwagbag]

I say go peat rather than Sulfer.
Topdress & water down. Just to be safe rather than sorry...

You can just remove the peat, but not the S.
Also, Molasses, even tho it's "unsulphured" there's S abound, that microbes can obviously dislodge.
Remember my early yellowing?? I can ONLY attribute that to S from the Molasses, given it was the ONLY thing I did different.

I like this idea, the question is will it be enough as a top dressing in an 8 gallon container. Not sure how much room I have for top dressing lol. I have been cutting my SS with pro-mix and the plants seem to like it better though. I wouldn't be surprised if my SS PH was a bit high. The peat would be a more permanent buffer too. I'm leaning heavily towards a mostly peat base rather than coco this time.

 

[Sincerely420]

Yeahhh that's wassup! Coco is supposedly a little less stable given the lesser CEC...
But I'm just go an inch thick around the pot and water down...If you notice effects that you don't like, take it off and on to the next thing haha!
That's what I'd do!

And hmmm SS pH being hot??! Did you cook it? Let it cycle before you used it??

 

[Shwagbag]

Yeahhh that's wassup! Coco is supposedly a little less stable given the lesser CEC...
But I'm just go an inch thick around the pot and water down...If you notice effects that you don't like, take it off and on to the next thing haha!
That's what I'd do!

And hmmm SS pH being hot??! Did you cook it? Let it cycle before you used it??

Good afternoon S420! Yep she's cooked for many months now. I should spring for a meter so i know what the eff I'm talking about lol. It would be nice to know where the soil PH is at considering I cook 90 gallons at a time.

 

[Sincerely420]

haha yeahhh probably lol! Thing it that all these damn meters are hit or miss unless you drop and arm and a leg lol!
But damn bro...Months would have been more than enought time for life to adjust...How many cups or nutrional and mineral amendments did you use per c.f? If you used more than 5 per, that could VERY WELL be your problem!

And thanks for that marvelous post in the soil thread boss!

 

[Shwagbag]

I have a couple pics I snapped from my camera phone. This should start a dialogue lol. This is the quality that 3 or 4 of my last several plants have finished. A couple plants have gone straight to hash or just given away they were so poor. Others are yielding less than 50% of their potential. The slight changes I've made seem to be helping a lot, I hope they continue to work through flower.



And here is Izzy! I found out Izzy is a he. He was blazing his dewlap for me last night, it was pretty cool. He is a cold blooded killer. Its fun to watch them hunt. Lizzy is a a timid little lady, she eats less than half of what Izzy does and she's half his size.



Querkle Bush is coming along nicely. I documented her transplant a cpl pages back. 11 gallon container on this one.

 

[Shwagbag]

haha yeahhh probably lol! Thing it that all these damn meters are hit or miss unless you drop and arm and a leg lol!
But damn bro...Months would have been more than enought time for life to adjust...How many cups or nutrional and mineral amendments did you use per c.f? If you used more than 5 per, that could VERY WELL be your problem!

And thanks for that marvelous post in the soil thread boss!

Its basically a subcool mix with some added diversity i.e. humic/fulvic, microbes, a little poultry compost, azomite, kelp. Can't recall what else but I know I went above and beyond, but not much in the nutrient department. Since its coco based, I'm thinking the natural PH is around 6.8-7? I'd rather have that down lower. Funny thing is that I've never had any issues until recently and the only changes I really made was increasing the frequency of teas, which I've back off on as part of my changes.

 

[Sincerely420]

Damn boss! Going above and beyond a super soil must take some work haha!
But that could be your problem man! And coco doesn't have as good a CEC as compost bro.
So the nutrients can leach out if you over did it I'm sure! What about the color of your runoff?

And it could very well be the teas throwing things off even ya know?!
Given the way that you had been mixing them...

That could have been the issue brother!

 

[Shwagbag]

Damn boss! Going above and beyond a super soil must take some work haha!
But that could be your problem man! And coco doesn't have as good a CEC as compost bro.
So the nutrients can leach out if you over did it I'm sure! What about the color of your runoff?

And it could very well be the teas throwing things off even ya know?!
Given the way that you had been mixing them...

That could have been the issue brother!

They look sweet don't they? lol

I can't remember if I put compost in the mix this time or not honestly lol. I usually use 1.5 cubic feet of humified compost in the mix to 12 cubic feet of base soil.

If there is compost in my current mix, there is only one bag from a regional vendor. The same vendor that provides the base for commercial compost tea manufacturers in Michigan. Their recommended application is 1/16th to 1/8th inch top soil amendment for potted plants. I usually go with 1.5 cubic feet to 12 cubic feet of roots and 50-75 lbs of castings.

Roots claims to have peat in it, but it can't be much. Definitely a much higher ratio of coco. I'm really considering taking a look at the soil options my regional people offer. They're are incredibly cheap! I've grown in the 201 and it did ok. That was before I started mixin' with the fixin's.

http://www.dairydoo.com/Morgan_Composting/Our_Products.html

 

[Jozikins]

Last Thursday or Friday. Probably more like Friday.