Biodynamic / Terra Preta grow

here's the grow at 3 weeks in the terra preta. in the front row are two of subcool's 'the void' beans ('looking mighty happy... good genetics!), in the back right is an AUH#1 (fem., from seed), and the back left is a BlueCheese (Barney's Farm, fem., also from seed):







these are one gallons... 'will be potting up to smartpots 2gals at flowering (week 8 ). they get their first feeding (along with a light BDCompost topdress) tomorrow at the full moon (following Thun's calendar). they're getting the full BMO treatment, in conjunction with aerated BDCompost teas. they've also received inoculations of subculture(b&m), so i'm excited to get some runoff samples tomorrow to put under the scope and see what's what (to the extent that i'm able) with the microherd!

anyhoo, all observations are welcome.

cheers,
-g

Right on man! I am geeting some BD compost soon.

here's a pic from this morning... they seem to have enjoyed the full moon feeding. 'slightly different arrangement here (playing with the magnetite rock i'm using as a sort of 'paramagnetic resonator' [lower center]): back right is the stretchy sativa auh1, front right is the bfbc, and the left two are subcool's 'the void'.




next up will be topping down at around the 10th (moon in virgo)...
'might take the auh1 sativa down to node 2...
'waiting and seeing on how the rest come in between now and the 10th.

will then later be fiming the two tops to four.

cheers
-g


ps this is a very nice talk michael pollan gave at ted ==> http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view.html

Oooh biodynamics, i"m stickin around... very interested!

whats with the magnetite? is that the polishied rockes you have on top? can you explain?

the polished rocks on top are moss agate and are mostly there just to help me keep the relative orientations of the plants straight.

the magnetite (that big rock in the center of the group of pots) it to provide/augment a paramagnetic field (following phil callahan's work) within which the plants may be situated to manipulate growth stimulation/depression... we'll see if it has any effect or not...

cheers
-g

That is a big ole rock...
regarding the orientation..... are you keeping the plants the same direction under the light? I've heard to rotate the pots every once in a while, is this not important? is it more important to keep the relative positions?

looks great so far......

so what happened?

greenman28 said:

so what happened?

Click to expand...

hehehe

'been tripping balls off the AUH1 since thanksgiving (except for a little claire voyance interlude in the land o the mixtecos)... 'pulled 3.5ozs off the one plant which has been keeping me and my vape quite happily busy.



anyhoo, the new all-biodynamic/terra preta AUH1 and BFBC beans have been in flower for six weeks now [see pics below]. this was the first run with the terra preta and the carbon prob needed more conditioning 'cause it was still sucking nitrogen some. i topped these twice for four nodes ('though pruned the 4th node on each for some experimenting). the BFBC is on its all-water diet now and i'm looking forward to a modest (though tasty) harvest come early april. the AUH1 still has a ways to go and should be ready sometime early may.





the second round of the biodynamic/terra preta grow has been enjoying the benefits of the soil/hummus recycling and is proving to be very robust. i've been seeing some particularly impressive growth with the dinafem blue widow (shown below at 3 weeks into veg, topped at 3rd node), though the subcool void bean (the other plant shown) also seems to be pretty happy in the grow.




cheers
-g

Nice to see you back. I was wondering about you. I saw you had an inactive account over at Icmag too. Sorry to hear about the N robbing. Did you ever pretreat your char with any Nitrogen?

I just prepared some Cowboy Charcoal last night. It was a bitch breaking it up. Its getting a 24 hour soak in Hydrolized fish/Humic Acid, and Yucca Extract. Its great to see how well they are doing with recycled soil. That is what I plan on doing with my soil as well.

Since you are a soil man check out this great link. You'll be in soil heaven, although he doesn't go into great detail about bio-char.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=158911

Wow. I am into biodynamics and bio char too!

I would love to know anything and everything about your knowlege and experience with the two.

hey all

'harvested the biodynamic/terra preta bluecheese (the first in this grow cycle) and wow! that's the sweetest yerba i've certainly ever had!! go indigenous agriculture!


anyhoo, @davec: 'dunno if i'm actually "back", but i'll prob be popping by from time to time...

the char was pretreated, but only soaked for about a week ('was in too much of a hurry to get things going with the calendar—not a moment to lose!). 'am soaking the flowering transplants' soil amendment (2nd major cycle) now for c. a month prior.

recycling is a must. the soil is everything and must be addressed/adored/(worshiped?) first.


i like the sound of your soak mixture... can you talk a little more about what brought you to that particular combo? i do a mix of seaweed extract, SPT, BDC tea, LAB, and blackstrap ('trying to help the anaerobes along to colonize as much as possible in the saturated char).

'great link!! many thanks!


@HH: groovy man!!


well, i dunno where to start...

i'm into my second major cycle with the soil and it's going gangbusters (after a slightly shaky start in the first major owing to the N leaching by the char i mentioned above). 'was recently in mixtec/zapotec country and met some amazing campesinos... 'learned a lot that i'm still trying to figure on how to incorporate into my very small scale/experimental setup.

so...

man, it's all about the soil, and the earth organism, and the great aten, and the moon, and getting in touch with the universe you're a part of, and...



whoah.
i'm f-ing high.
hehehe

'will pop in again later.
cheers
-g

Georgi, here Ive provided a link below that goes into detail about the bio-char, and lots of other stuff. The thread is about making a good home made soil, but its more advanced than throwing some peat moss, compost and perlite together . We also tended to get away from the original subject matter in the thread, but plenty of useful info still. The OP no longer posts there, but I have his email in case you ever have any questions if you check out the thread.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=158911

DaveCoulier said:

Georgi, here Ive provided a link below that goes into detail about the bio-char, and lots of other stuff. The thread is about making a good home made soil, but its more advanced than throwing some peat moss, compost and perlite together . We also tended to get away from the original subject matter in the thread, but plenty of useful info still. The OP no longer posts there, but I have his email in case you ever have any questions if you check out the thread.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=158911

Click to expand...

that's a great read. many thanks!
it's always good to keep learning and tinkering!!

some of the stuff i'm starting to explore now has to do with intercropping and use of maize as a char source... but the zapotec zea's a bitch to work with in an experimental setup, and if anything comes of it all it won't be until the harvest moon...



meanwhile, if i could get one of the fucking subcool void beans to be a female, i'd be very happy...
the last three ('can only plant one at a time—space restrictions) have all turned out to be male after much tlc spent...
's been good for the soil recycling, but shitty for keeping me in a variety of dank (not to mention £ spent)!
\

anyhoo, 'good chatt'n, m8
-g