DonTesla
Well-Known Member
Yes, thanks again, @greasemonkeymann .. I am too.
Organic super soil mix from scratch - for ROLS
- Thread starter SupraSPL
- Start date
SupraSPL
Well-Known Member
That is good info, I am up to about 30% now, not counting the DE. Maybe I will try going higher. Thanks for the link. I agree @hillbill that DE behaves like vermiculite, holding water.
In theory a TDS test should be useless but in practice I find I can assess a soil's fertility pretty well with a TDS test, based on a 12 hour soak. Normally the TDS rises by about 150-250ppm during the 12 hour soak and then stabiize, so I can extrapolate from an instant reading by adding 200ppm. For the test I use 25ml of soil and dump it into 100ml of water. Stir it up and you get an instant reading.
One of my goals for my recycled soil is to be able to go water-only as much as possible. It is amazing how a "rinsed" soil somehow has the ability to feed a plant, as long as it is very rich in fertility and microbial life. But seeing the plants starve in the FFOF proves that the soil fertility really has be up to par to keep up with flowering light intensity. I have never been able to reliability fix a problem like that by watering anything organic in and I suspect that watering in strong organic nutes may have some cost in terms of bud quality. I seem to get the best flavors and cleanest finish when the soil fertility is strong enough for water only so I have been trying to dial that in.
I have always trusted in composting and microbials to balance NPK out, but since I have been using the same soil and basically the same reamend recipe for years I was getting curious if maybe I was pushing it out of balance over time. The ladies seem to veg up very nicely in my current mix but my yields have a huge variability from 1.5 zip/bucket up to 4 per bucket. I wish I could figure out how to get 4 every time LOL
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SupraSPL
Well-Known Member
Yes I brew these 1 liter teas from time to time and I use a biological scope to check them out. It works very well even with an aquarium air pump. That is all an indoor grower needs when it comes to microbial tea. For nutrient tea we probably want a larger brew and larger air pump. The nice thing about aquarium air pumps they are efficient and relatively quiet.
greasemonkeymann
Well-Known Member
ohhh yes, that was and is still my objective, to maintain a water only mix while keeping the results optimal.
one thing worth considering, as far as what you were saying on the variability of the results, i am discovering that the cation balance is CRUCIAL for container plants, in particular the magnesium, we gotta go light on that one..
i am seeing better results with less amounts (surprise!)
i totally agree with you on the difficulty in watering in organic nutrients for results, and we all know why, the microbial interaction with the nutrients is needed, and it takes time.
That being said i have tremendous results with using comfrey as a topdress, that is the perfect topdress in my world.
Not only is it pretty much cure-all for any defies it's also the perfect nitrogen to carbon ratio to literally NOT need anything added at all to compost on it's own, in fact that's how they normally make the comfrey-teas, more like a leachate they let the comfrey melt and then add water.
but shredded comfrey mixed in with fresh castings or compost is the best
but even dried comfrey is literally double the nutrients that kelp meal has, and nearly the same stuff in it, hence the nickname "land-kelp"
nearly a 2/.5/5.5 NPK, and that's not even considering the real benefit of it and that's in the micros, and it's healthy balance of cations
considering all that is nearly immediately available and it's no wonder why it's a nearly perfect nutrient
sorta why the seemingly pretentious/elitist "vegan" grows actually have some merit
that being that vegetative inputs are not only more "balanced" in regards to it's cations, but it's also readily bioavailable needing minimal microbial interaction. Conversely things like bone meals, crab meal, etc, and such require that interaction more and simply need more time.
The caveat being though that vegetative inputs are gone MUCH faster, and typically are more subjected to nutrient leaching over time as it's watered.
considering the relevancy i can recommend some really good soil inputs for slow release nutrients, as that's EXACTLY my objective.
commonly overlooked/underutilized things too, like slow release nitrogen in keratin forms, so either as hoof and horn meal, or doghair, beard clippings or even feather meal (ONLY if it's from a local hippy-type natural source as they contain arsenic otherwise)
or slow release natural forms of chitin/phosphorus such as insect meal (crushed insect chicken feed, usually it's mealworms and crickets)
but i reaaaally like adding the slow release stuff to the compost pile and then it's all golden by the time the compost is done also, and then slowly provides minute amounts of it over a large period time, juuuust like they like
ruxing
Active Member
Isn’t diatomaceous earth the same stuff everyone is raving about now days about being good for getting rid of ticks an fleas on pet and lawns? If so that’s cool you can get it from Napa and it’s probably cheaper!
ruxing
Active Member
Nice mature budz!
ruxing
Active Member
So that’s interesting! I have sulphur smell on my well, installed a whole home filtration system to try to eliminate the smell and protect the upgraded front loader machine I bought. My water test in the green with the cheap PH drop test. With all the build up that I have to suck out of my water heater every year or so, I thought it would be best to use distilled water... am I wrong?
ruxing
Active Member
Really enjoying this thread! So decaying leaves is showing great results?! I have been thinking about trying a mixture with leaf matter! I have tones of trees on my acreage and I scrape them into huge piles every year. I have piles of them in different years or stages of decay!