First shot using teas from worm compost high in P and K for BLOOM BOOSTER side/side

Hi everybody. I'm starting a new project, so I thought I'd start a journal. I believe with all of my heart that I can get through veg and flower with worm compost for NPK, and by get through I mean CONQUER!

I am, however, talking about more of a "designer" compost. Cannabis is a special plant that requires special care, and I think that there are enough of out here using plants that are good for Cannabis plants that we can figure out the best things to compost.

For months now I've been into worm-composting, I now have to stackable units and I'm going to build something bigger soon to start composting on a larger scale. This is what I'm using now.



The original plan was to use some high PK compost in the soil mix as well, but the worms couldn't make it in time. They'll have enough to make teas however. If I don't get the results I'm looking for I will do another journal using compost in the actual mix, and then so on from there until I figure it out. Worm compost is VERY rich in NPK, depending on what you feed them of course. Here's the tea recipe I'm going to use all throughout flowering (feed/tea/feed/tea) until the final week.

4 gallons of rain water
2 cups of high PK worm compost
1 cup of worm castings from bag
1 cup of worm leachate
1 cup of Alaskan Forest Humus
1/2 cup of Alfalfa
1/2 cup of Humic
3 TBSP of unsulphered Molasses
2 TBSP of Agave



I just flipped them last night, so today is the first day of 12/12. I also tried something kinda new, LSTing it right before flipping by tying down the longer branches to the bottom ring of the tomato cage to hopefull encourage some more growth before flowering starts. Here's a pic.
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I had a little N def with them in veg, ran out of Nature's Nectar N and Vega at the same time and had to wait for them to ship...it was a bummer. But they're doing better. I fed them last night, they'll get AACT in a couple days, then another heavy feeding with some N....and then I'll start feeding with the high PK teas for the rest of flower.

Oh, did I mention this is a side by side?? Two side by sides to be exact.

I've got 5 OG Kush in this room, and 4 White Rhinos. So the OG in the middle is just extra.

2 OG Kush are going to get ONLY the high PK tea for Phosphorus and Potassium...aside from what may be in my base nutes. But they will be getting no additional seaweed, guano, manure, rock phosphate, or any other P product. And 2 OG Kush will be getting Humboldt Natural Bloom 0-10-0 for P

In addition to this side by side, 2 White Rhinos will be getting the high PK tea for P, and 2 White Rhinos will be getting just the ASHES from high PK food scraps. These ashes should be immediately available for nutrient uptake as well as the compost tea.....but we'll see huh?!?

What else....oh yea. They're under a 600w HPS covering a 4'x4' area.

Nutes: Bio Flores is my base. Also using Bio Root and Bio Bud. I think that's it except for stuff I throw in the teas...

Thanks for checking this out, I'll continue to post pics and updates over the next 2 1/2 months.

EDIT: Forgot my mix!

Soilless Mix= aprox. 40 gallons

Dolomite lime –1 cup (I use Epsoma)
Neem cake – 1 cup (http://www.neemresource.com)
Karanja cake – 1 cup (http://www.neemresource.com)
Mykos – 1 cup (I use Xtreme Gardening Mykos, awesome and cheap. I also reapply with their Mykos WP early flower the feeding after a good P dose. I also use Roots Oregonism on rooted cuttings.)
Coffee/tea grounds – 1 cup
Greensand – 1 cup

¼ bale of compressed coco chips (I’m using HydroFarm Planting Chips, but I’m looking for a better chip product that’s still OMRI. I just the chips instead of Perlite. Maybe you can find a better brand of chips)
2 bales compressed coco coir fibers (GO CocoTek OMRI coir)
2 gallons peat (Home Depot, which I hate but is far closer to me than any other store, has 3 cu. Ft. bales of OMRI peat for 10 bucks, but it’s seasonal.)
3 gallons EWC
1 gallons worm compost (I’d have used 2 gallons or more if I had enough)

Nice! I want to start vermiculture too, just have got to get a bin going. I don't compost well enough to use it in my indoor and I think the worms will do a better job than my outdoor 'crobes can. Do you think the premade bins are worth it for simplicity/cost to get started? +Subbed

Its nice to know someone else on here is working towards a high quality, good yield, vegan AND organic grow on RIU too!

Thanks Kalyx! Yes, I totally think it's worth buying one, unless you have the time to make one yourself AND make it stackable AND have a spout on it for the Leachate. That stuff is awesome, and one of my favorite things about the one I use. I use the Worm-composter 360 with 2-3 extra trays. I ordered it from unclejimswormfarm.com because I got half off my worms for doing it at the same time. Now I use two composters though obviously. But just about every time I make compost tea there's at least a full cup of Leachate and all I have to do is twist the handle on the spout.

Also, when the worms finish composting a bottom tray and the eggs all hatch, they just crawl into the next one. So every week I fill a tray with kitchen scraps that we save in containers in the fridge, and the always start coming up within a couple days. It makes things really easy for me.

Picked up some of that GH Florablend...looks to be mostly organic and it's vegan, and looks to promise a yield increas lol, but don't they all. Either way I'm gonna start using it.

By the way, I don't know if you use coco in your mix Kalyx, but that GO CocoTek is OMRI now and comes in a coir bale instead of all those bricks. Got some for $9 a bale today, and got almost 5 cubic feet for $18 bucks lol, and it's good coco.

Oh, duh! I forgot to put the mix in the first post. I'll edit it.

Cool.. I'm in

I've never used florablend. It is basically a knock off of Botanicare's first big seller, Pure Blend Original. If you are brewing tea your AACT will be vastly superior to any of these 'tea concentrate in a bottle' products. They are nice to have around if you forget to start the brew on time and are in a pinch.

Yes I do use coco coir in my mix. I like it in addition to peat or as a complete replacement. The omri bales are a great way to go. I think I'm gonna source all OMRI inputs for the next few rounds. It would be cool to have certified organic nugs!

Mine are certified organic now lol. Except for the BioRoot which I'm running out and replacing. I'm surprised people are holding on so hard to peat, I'm having a much easier time using coco. The sad thing is my certified organic soil mix with all it's amendments is still about half of what Fox Farm and Roots and all these companies are charging for soil, and you still need amendments...

I picked it up because it was $11 lol. I didn't think it was a bottled tea product though, is it? We'll see. I haven't been concerned with yields for awhile, but now I'm not growing enough to keep up with consumption lol.

I'm also trying my hand at growing one plant under 600 watts. It's gotta veg for another week or two before I flip it. But I wanna see what I can get out of it, just because I have an extra plant with no home and no companions.

subbed. i was just thinking about this same idea but thought against it due to yield factor. let us know if the decline in yield is a major factor with this all out organic grow.

thanks for sharing.

Fresh 2 De@th said:

subbed. i was just thinking about this same idea but thought against it due to yield factor. let us know if the decline in yield is a major factor with this all out organic grow.

thanks for sharing.

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I will for sure. To be honest I'm not expecting to be able to get the same yield from just using teas, but I'm confident that once I have enough compost to use in the soil mix I'll be able to do this for sure. So if not this round, the next batch.

But hey, I might surprise myself.

Can you give me more info on the support cages you have? I really like how the vertical supports are straight up and down but they kink out on the bottom to hold a larger plant all within. This would be great for me as I like to rotate my plants daily. Angled bamboo can make this a pain when they are in a tight canopy/big.

Question on your mix: Have you considered upping the amendment dosages? I add similar amounts to an already hot bagged mix (FFOF, Roots) and the veganic ladies seem to handle it well. (Matt is convinced all bagged mixes need amending except cannas BT plus which is a phantom in this country). Wish I had my own worm farm to boost any mix tho!

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/Search?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=plant%20support&Ns=None&Ntpr=1&Ntpc=1&selectedCatgry=SEARCH+ALL

I use the 18" ones, but I was actually just discussing in a thread how we could make them much better than these. I like as you noticed that the top ring comes off, as well as the bottom. There are loops in the poles for the rings to fit through. But this almost makes them not completely as sturdy as I'd like them to be, so when I LST branches to the lower ring, they get bumped around a little bit when I move the pots. And also the bottom ring should be smaller than the top one and isn't.

It's awesome to be able to move the pots though. What I've been doing up until now was FIMing and topping to get about 8-10 colas growing up through the middle, but now what I'm doing is tying down the branches to the lower ring and trying to encourage more of that middle growth to climb up.

So I'm gonna window shop at home depot this weekend and see if I can make my own that have a 14" ring on the bottom so and the poles can extend up another 12" so that I can put that on when I flip. That way in veg I can LST the branches to the lower ring and wait for more branches to come up. Then I can get them all around the same height and flip. So it'll basically be like packing in a SCROG, but I can still move the pots around incase of mites or so that they get better lighting. I think you'd be into this style. I actually got the idea from matt awhile back on the veganics thread cause he said he uses tomato cages for his sativas to wrap them around as they grow. I like this idea way better though.

I want to amend my mix for sure, but I'm hoping to do it with just compost, the same way I'm trying to flower with just compost. While I'm window shopping at Home Depot this weekend I'm gonna try to come up with an idea for my own custom DIY worm composter that will be space-saving and still hold about 20k worms and at least a hundred lbs of compost/composting scraps. And I don't want it to smell either, even though it's in the basement, so this is gonna be a SUPER fucking cool composter...when I make it.

Until then I'll just supplement with NN N in veg, unless you have some ideas for me on some other vegan ways to boost it. I'd use mexican guano since I still have some from last year and it's just veg, but it's unpredictable when I mix it in lol.

Oh, and I'm also going to look for some 1' rolls of netting that could be slipped around the ring on the top and the bottom to put some branches through before super-cropping or cutting off the tips.

I don't know what all you have going. just came across this. you might check out the plastic chicken wire at the depot. you could cut it to fit. I used it last year to keep plants off the sidewalls of the green house. 20k of worms is a good little venture. I can hold 500-1000 worms in a 4x8 table w/ compost about 10" deep.

Hey stumps. Yea that plastic 1" chicken wire from the depot is what I used on my outdoor garden beds actually. It's good stuff and only $10 for a 25 foot roll. I think that stuff would be a little to rough on the ladies though.

I want fabric netting though for the tomato cages, think more like a basketball hoop. That's what I want the top ring to look like. Then the bottom part of the net can attach to the bottom ring.

I've added 5k red wigglers altogether to my two compost bins over the last 4-5 months. They've had tons of babies so I think I'm probably around the 7-8k mark with them right now. It's actually surprising how many of those little guys can fit in a bin lol.

I'm actually surprised as well with how much fun I'm having making worm compost lol. I didn't expect it to take the form of a hobby. I like posting my ideas on this site. Half of them would probably go to the junkbox in my brain if I didn't have a bunch of like-minded Cannabis enthusiasts to keep me motivated. I thought about this compost idea for months before I finally signed up and asked about it on this site. Nobody had any idea, but a few people saying "go for it, let us know" really makes me jump to it.

I got blown out of my mind and walked around home depot today...with no luck as far as a material for the bottom of the stacks for the worm composter I wanna build. I did however have plenty of luck when I finally thought of the word I was looking for to crack the puzzle on my google search.....

PERFORATED!!!! This is what I'm going to use on the bottom of it. I'm going to figure out how many I need and order them in the morning. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Perforated-347-Stainless-Steel-Sheet-6x6-/280896247503?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4166b896cf#ht_500wt_1287

Tomorrow I'll try to figure out what material or container to use for the outside. I'm gonna want them to stack obviously. And I gotta make sure it can breathe.

Anyways, I'll take some pics of the plants in the morning. I didn't even look at them today. Busy busy. Busy. But I worked for the weekend. So here it is.

Looks like I've got some new colas growing up from the middle. I raised the light 6 inches. I'll unstrap some of the branches in a couple days and try to level out the canopy. I want at least 500 grams outta these 9 plants, even if the ones getting just tea don't yield as much.

Okily dokily Weed Neighbors!

The plants are looking good, all healthy. And I've got a pretty even canopy, although I might have to prop up a couple of the OGs out the side that didn't grow as tall. I used to use upside down pots for this, but now I'm starting to think that used to be part of my problem with mites...so I screw together scrap pieces of wood now usually from building tents lol.

I just made the first high PK teas for the OGs. The compost wasn't ready to harvest yet unfortunately. It looks about finished, but there were still quite a few worms and some eggs, and I don't wanna lose a bunch of eggs trying to harvest it too soon. But next week I'll take out at least a couple cups if it's not ready.

So instead of using compost I used a cup of high PK worm leachate and a half cup of regular worm compost. It was a compromise I guess. I'll give the other 2 OGs 5ml of liquid P tomorrow when I water the other 2 with the teas.

I'll also be giving the 2 White Rhinos 5ml of liquid P and the other 2 Rhinos will be getting some high PK ashes from fruit/veg scraps. I haven't tried to calculate an amount yet, but I'm thinking the PK will be something like 4.5-20(something)...so I think a Tablespoon per gallon of soil would be about right. We'll see.

I'll take some pics tomorrow when I feed.

Oh, and an update on my worm composter...it's not finished yet, I'm gonna finish it tomorrow hopefully....but I'm using a 275 gallon food grade IBC tote...yes that's right I said I'm using a 275 gallon tote...I'm gonna harvest about half a yard or 100lbs or so every month haha. No more bagged worm castings either once this is all goin. It's gonna be fucking awesome. I got some perforated steel sheets with 1/4" holes, plenty of room for the rooms to get up into the next stack...it's gonna be pretty cool and I think it'll be an awesome DIY for people...I'm talking to you Kalyx

nice .. wish I had the room/out door space for worms/compost and rainwater .. sucks to have a appartment

but I guess its more of a isue when you grow lots of plants ..

my 2-4 plants 4 times a year schouldnt use more then I can handle ..

but realy nice and make sens if you have a house and grow lots of plants that need lots of soil and water ..

Oh...if only I was keeping this worm-composter outside haha. It's going in the basement. :]

Yea I don't miss having an apartment. I like having my own yard, even if it's not very big. And I feel privileged in this day and age to have room to grow my own food.

But yea I think this is gonna be cool man. Even if I can't do it this time around with just the teas, I'll have enough compost to mix in next time and I can't imagine that won't get the job done.

I'd estimate I've got around 8000 worms right now, probably 10,000 in a week or two when I can finally harvest the compost...so I'll throw ALL of those worms into the new composter which is gonna be the higher PK compost, and I'll buy 3000 new worms to keep the high N bin going. Since I don't need as much of that compost.

I've gotta get my shit together with the rainwater though...I need more money for more IBC totes lol. Argh. Sometimes it would be nice to grow for profit...but alas, I'm indebted to Cannabis and I can't put my health in jeopardy to save a few bucks on water and be green...

But in a few months I'll be basically raising red wigglers I guess lol, so free nutrients AND some extra worm money on the side. Whooopty Doooo.

what are you using for pest control?

whats your reasoning for complete organics?(sorry to pry)

this looks like my kind of grow man....them fucking teas, whoopin' hydros ass daily.


oh and like ol dude said, you like florablend? check pure blend... but really you dont need it if your like me, and you are, you need this so you can make you own blends,lol

http://www.horticulturesource.com/dr-earth-dr-earth-soft-rock-phosphate-0-2-0-3-lb-size-12-case--p10256/

as far as organics go im about 90% can always use that extra boost, and pest control is a bitch. but im moving back to 100% organic growing some marigolds and chrysanthemums to make some extracts picking up some neem oil(had been using extract, dont care for it) gonna get some mint and fennel and rosemary and all that shit too.

it works you just have to have a variety. i stopped being organic becauase there really isnt a market for organic pesticides(or at least a variety)