Local materials

[h.h.]

I destroyed a Ninja blender trying to blend dried yucca pods. Plastic gears.

Looks like avocado pits may have some fungicidal properties. Also they can be toxic. I’m not going to reiterate it all. Too easy to get it wrong.

Not to be an alarmist. I’ll probably follow suit. Just thinking it may be frugal to leach them out first.

Easy enough to google. Just remember they’re listening.

 

[h.h.]

If I’m understanding this correctly, iron and zinc are considerably reduced when molasses is treated with sulfuric acid. That may make more of a difference than the sulphur itself.

https://www.academia.edu/24799003/M...ion_by_Halomonas_sp?email_work_card=thumbnail

 

[Hookahhead]

I finally got the packets to calibrate my pH meter. I thought I’d take the opportunity to show you how to make a cheap and effective foliar spray for potassium.

Research shows that potassium from organic salts are much more readily absorbed than inorganic salts. You can see for yourself, just google “potassium acetate foliar” or “potassium citrate foliar”.

The article The foliar absorption of
potassium from organic and
inorganic potassium carriers compares the absorption of various salts.

Inorganic salts:

Organic salts:

Some basic chemistry here, a salt is formed when a positively charged cation (+) and an negatively charged anion (-) bind together and neutralize each other. In a solution, they separate into their respective ions. So to prepare a salt from the potassium cation (K+) we need a negatively charged anion. This is where the various organic salts come into play. An organic acid dissociates into the respective anion along with a H+ cation.

For my potassium source I use water extracted through hard wood ash. Wood ash is comprised primarily of calcium and potassium salts. The potassium salts are much more soluble. We take advantage of this by allowing water to slowly filter through the wood ash, collecting primarily potassium hydroxide. There are a ton of videos on YouTube that show the process if you look for “lye water from wood ash”. Testing the water shows a very high pH from the hydroxide.

For my organic acid, I’m going to use some LAB serum I have on hand. According to the published research, potassium acetate has the highest absorption. So using a KNF vinegar or store bought white vinegar might be a better option. My LAB serum has a low pH from the lactic acid. It can go even lower than this indicating a higher lactic acid content.

So by mixing the two solutions together, we are able to neutralize the acid and the hydroxide.

The balanced chemistry looks something like this...
K(+) + OH(-) + Lactate(-) + H(+) yields —> K(+) + Lactate (-) + H2O

By the magic of chemistry, we turned the acid (H+) and base (OH-) into water! This brings the pH back closer to neutral, and the Lactate/Potassium stay in solution! The pH can be altered by adding small increments of the appropriate solution.

Unfortunately at this point there is no way of knowing how much potassium is in the solution. For that we would need to titrate the original potassium solution, and that makes things a tad more complicated. Instead I tend to dilute heavily at first and ease my way up. It’s been my observation that plants like it!

 

[Rico Swazi]

Looks good Rico.

Thanks, flying blind here without a microscope I have no way of knowing if there are flagellates bacteria/archaea , fungi, protozoa, nematodes et al in my compost. Just to be sure, I let it set and mature for a year much like my static pile of leaf mold. I have trouble with microscopy due to a vertigo like sensation and stated earlier the only person I knew and trusted is no longer around to help. I had hopes of working out a protocol/price to send samples to you but virus fears put that on the bottom of the list for the foreseeable future.


My comment on the lazy stoner stigma was due to the fact my friends and I have all been labeled lazy by a small group of (sad but influential) people who believe Reefer Madness was a documentary. This small (minded) group has much to say about the community garden and outdoor markets. They are all well off financially . It was their idea to stop composting on site, have compost delivered, and use the area for more raised beds. My objection along with a few other was the art of composting was not being taught . Same with saving seeds, easier to buy them they said. For years, the 'teach a man to fish' proverb fell on deaf ears
Fast forward to today, the stigma got a swift kick to the filberts when word got around two of my friends had been working and sleeping at their little lazy pizza shop, only going home to their respective families to wash and say hello thru the glass. They have been making and delivering their own pizza and helping to deliver meals on wheels for those in need for free. Same two guys were belittled for living a less is more hippie lifestyle being happy with enough to feed themselves and others.

are now regarded as heroes by the same group calling them lazy. And all it took was a pandemic to open their minds and hearts.


Dr. Krieger, not his real name but we call him that as he looks and acts like the Archer character of the same name, said it best about the accolades and attention by quoting Sir Paul
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make



Long post, was raining here and had some time to type an apology/explanation for the lazy stoner remark as it had everything to do with my situation and not the laid back easy going mellow people on this forum and certainly not those in this thread.



Sending Vibes for minimal suffering and heartache to all especially to you Tim. Thank you again for all the knowledge and help over the years.

 

[Microbeman]

Hey Rico;

I thank you for your recent gift by post but also for the visual aids via photos of your garden.

Laziness [so-called] is a great teacher. She can teach us that by not rushing in a growing, engineering or compost process we may get greater reward. e.g. that neglected worm bin is superior because the worms double digested the material; those unpulled weeds kept the nutrient cycle going or removed toxins or added nutrient; that building project put aside for beer with a neighbor brought out a better method hidden in the recesses of the mind.

People were making fine compost before there were microscopes.

I hope you and yours are keeping safe.

 

[h.h.]

Theres a pebble in a pond
Going on and on
Making waves and tides and ripples and rain
Theres a leaf in the wind
That don't no where to end
Chasing days and waves and wishes and dreams

Seems like everyone is out, looking for the sun
Singing rain and pain on he who hesitates
But it'll shine when it shines
You might think I'm wasting time
But I'm just a good old boy that's learned to wait

 

[Microbeman]

COCONUT WATER

COCONUT WATER

The search function seems functed so can any of y'all recommend dilution rates for fresh coconut water to foliar and root drench?

I've read 15 to 50 ml per litre. My gut said 100 ml to a litre for first application for fungicidal purposes.

 

[chilliwilli]

Hi man. I used 50ml per liter on 3 weeks old sativa seedlings and didn't like it. Leaf went down tips got burned. But they were also a little underfeed and i thought that first feeding then coconut water would have been better.
Also used about 125ml at 2liter in a 90l pot with good results. Plants were 4-6 weeks old. Got a lot of new growth on the branches. The first days those branches were quite soft and bendable.

 

[Microbeman]

Hi man. I used 50ml per liter on 3 weeks old sativa seedlings and didn't like it. Leaf went down tips got burned. But they were also a little underfeed and i thought that first feeding then coconut water would have been better.
Also used about 125ml at 2liter in a 90l pot with good results. Plants were 4-6 weeks old. Got a lot of new growth on the branches. The first days those branches were quite soft and bendable.

Thanks. I applied to a young tree with rust, fungal pathogen. 100 ml/L - tree not dead this AM. Will see.

 

[Badfishy1]

Tons of valuable information in this thread. Sincerest thank you to those that have contributed

 

[Microbeman]

Sitting in the garden

 

[h.h.]

Planted your tree wrong.

 

[Microbeman]

Jalisco landrace weed

Jalisco landrace weed

This is one of the weeds that grew up in my firepit, not planted. Absolutely no help, no fertilizer; just some water. It should be ripe in about a week. You can see it had/has a few bugs; I'm hoping the brown is not fungal.

 

[Hookahhead]

That brown is definitely dead/fungal. Most likely it’s isolated to that immediate area. If I were to make a bet, I suspect you’ll find a caterpillar/feces in that spot. Nice plant though. My opinion, it looks like she’s still pushing new pistils, and doesn’t seem a week away from harvest to me.

 

[Microbeman]

I went back to pluck the brown but it just fell right away when I touched it. It was completely disconnected. I've always harvested earlier than all the pros advise. Personally I prefer the psychotropic effects, however 95% of what I have harvested at that stage, cures with the amber color of trichomes when the whole plant is inverted to dry.

Never had a complaint from 2000 regular [previous] customers. I may leave it longer regardless until the leaves yellow, depending on outside influences.

 

[h.h.]

I like young bud. Don’t mind old bud.

Harvesting yeast...

https://twitter.com/seamusblackley/status/1140945355992965121?s=21

 

[h.h.]

Natural Gardening Philippines

https://m.facebook.com/naturalgardenphils/

 

[40degsouth]

Hi everyone, l hope you’re all well.
I haven’t posted my results with the foliar sprays because I’ve been having real issues with reception and I’ve actually lost a lot of posts, including several here. Anyway I’m going to today and do it in a few instead of one very long one, so please excuse my excessive posting.

 

[40degsouth]

I’m doing this, instead of waiting, just in case someone might get something out the results or might want to follow on from where l ended and also so l can stop thinking about it.
Well the good news is that l believe each spray has had a positive effect on the plants but the bad news is that it didn’t slowdown or prevent the disease from spreading, even all though l do believe they each had a slight preventative action but this is unquantifiable and only anicdotal.

 

[40degsouth]

Salt water: l found the browning pistil stage at 1salt(ocean) water litre to ten fresh, 1-10. I took this as the upper most limits of the mix and l could taste the salt in the water.
I tried many different mixes and the one to twenty mix l used seemed to work initially but as senescence approached it became less and less effective. Perhaps using the 1-25 or 1-50, fertiliser spray as in Korean Natural Farming, from the beginning may have an effect.