Composting LC Mix pre-use?

[BillFarthing]

I have all the components for LC Mix sitting in my garage. I want to go organic, but every thread about LC mix has problems with yellowing in mid-flower.

Has composting for a couple weeks beforehand helped?

How long do you compost for?

Would you add beneficial myc or bacteria in the composter?

 

[intotheunknown]

well if youre using LCs mix alone you of course would run into problems pretty early anyways... compost or EWC + dolomite lime will not get you by.

what other added ferts would you plan to use WITH LCs mix?

and yes, it is always a good thing to "cook" your soil before use for a good month or even longer to get things starting to break down, etc. it is beneficial but without the proper mix its not going to help in the long run.

 

[limonene420]

Based on the assumption that you are using dry amendments.

I've used LC mix and variations of, with great success. They will start to yellow for me around 5-6 weeks of flower, which always leaves me with perfectly harvest-able plants at 8-9 weeks ideal for my strains.

you can top feed or make a worm casting tea to water with, if you have a long flowering stain, but for most indicas I wont top feed past 5 weeks, so if any nitrogen deficiencies have shown up afterwards, the plant is just going to have to stick it out, as it seems to delay maturing of trichomes on my plants when they have excess nitrogen at the end of flower. I am aiming for very yellow fan leaves at the end of flower,

as for letting LC mix sitting before hand, I've used everything from using it right away, to letting it sit for over six months or more, they all worked fine and all had little adjustment that needed to be tended to. Basically if you dont want to let it sit I suggest using compost tea/ worm tea to get your microbes a boost in population.

 

[Scrappy4]

I have all the components for LC Mix sitting in my garage. I want to go organic, but every thread about LC mix has problems with yellowing in mid-flower.

Has composting for a couple weeks beforehand helped?

How long do you compost for?

Would you add beneficial myc or bacteria in the composter?

I don't know what threads you are referring to but, if the issues are N, or mag, or both, they can be fairly easy to fix. Just keep a close eye on the leafs, and catch any deficiencies early. I have found foliar feeding works fast for these things that pop up from time to time. I use epsom salt for mag, and earth juice's micro blast for the other minerals that may be lacking. Lots of other products as well to provide for the plants.

Some of the yellowing can be the genetics of the plant, or normal end of life yellowing. So that is where keeping good notes and experience with that strain can be helpfull.

To be clear when you say your composting the lc mix, you are letting it sit for several weeks, right? That helps by balancing the nutrients in the mix. They are food for microbes. The time gives the microbes a head start. And it's the microbes that are important in this type of growing.

I do add beneficial bacteria to my compost piles, but not my soon to be ready mixes. I don't know if adding them to the lc mix is a good idea or not. I do think it is best to add myco spores at transplanting time. These spores need roots to work their magic. without roots, my guess is they are just expensive microbe food.....hope this helps......scrappy

 

[intotheunknown]

also a good way to help with mid flower deficiencies is ewc tea like limonene420 said. but depending on your strain you may need to up it with some fish, ewc, kelp meal, and molasses tea then top dress the slurry to get them through.

 

[limonene420]

Alfalfa tea is another great way to add more nitrogen when the plants need it.
3lb recipe


4 gallons of water
1 cup of fine ground alfalfa meal
1 TBSP blackstrap( unsulphured) or sugar beet molasses

 

[BillFarthing]

I forgot to mention a couple things:

I would mix subculture B and M in with the compost and let it rest for a while.

That I was going to use molesasses every watering, compost tea every other watering.

Thanks for the heads up on the alfalfa tea and epsom salts, I think I have my arsenal ready to go.