when your done

[stihgnobevoli]

but why would it be a red flag if its in your trash? they sell perlite everywhere and mix it into every bag of potting soil ever made. its not like its some rare shit.

 

[mad librettist]

when your done

but why would it be a red flag if its in your trash? they sell perlite everywhere and mix it into every bag of potting soil ever made. its not like its some rare shit.

question is how much how often

if you do a bit at a time you can waste all that perfectly good soil securely.

 

[Microbeman]

ok, im still not getting it. sure it looks fishy when you're moving tons of dirt in and out of houses, but dont you think thats stupid in the first place that you would be doing a large commercial grow indoors and you didnt plan out a better method of growing than buying big pallets of dirt and bringing them into your house every 4 months.

but for everyone else growing on a small scale, theres nothing wrong with having dirt or perlite? wtf is wrong with perlite? why would perlite in my garden raise suspicions? OMFG ITS PERLITE CALL TEH COPS. even if you dont have a single plant on your whole premise visible, buying a couple of cubic feet of dirt and perlite is hardly suspicious. some of you are making sense, well not really cuz if im gonna be growing enough weed where i need to worry about dumping 5 cubic feet of dirt i would have figured out a way to recycle it cuz trying to dump that much dirt is like the most retarded and suspicious thing ever. like moving my rolled up carpet with a big body sized lump in the middle of the day on public transportation.

i understand why you can't just dump tons of soil, what i cant understand is why. even if you dont ammend the soil and you only use chemical ferts, you can still reuse it unless you're one of those people who uses ferts up until the last day and even still you can reuse it, just root your seedling or clones in something else and then transplant into the old soil and fert as neccessary.

one more thing. mad librettist, whats wrong with perlite again? last i checked it was just puffed glass like rice crispies. how is that in any way harmful in soil? or anywhere for that matter.

hehehe

 

[nukklehead]

@ nukklehead - Next time you finish a grow you should save one pot, cut the stem out, and replant straight away. If you need to re-amend do so by topdressing. It might work well and overtime it would save you a ton of money and hassle. I'm trying this now in a large container (20 gallons) and it is working well. I suspect it would also work in 5 gallon (and perhaps smaller) pots.

Pine

ok guys you convinced me to give it a try..
Not too often do people change there minds. As far as moving soil in and out.. Im a pretty stealthy dude. I grow in 6 8 gallon containers per grow. will give it a go around next time on 1 or 2 containers.
wish me luck..maybe I will be a convert.

 

[nukklehead]

ok, im still not getting it. sure it looks fishy when you're moving tons of dirt in and out of houses, but dont you think thats stupid in the first place that you would be doing a large commercial grow indoors and you didnt plan out a better method of growing than buying big pallets of dirt and bringing them into your house every 4 months.

but for everyone else growing on a small scale, theres nothing wrong with having dirt or perlite? wtf is wrong with perlite? why would perlite in my garden raise suspicions? OMFG ITS PERLITE CALL TEH COPS. even if you dont have a single plant on your whole premise visible, buying a couple of cubic feet of dirt and perlite is hardly suspicious. some of you are making sense, well not really cuz if im gonna be growing enough weed where i need to worry about dumping 5 cubic feet of dirt i would have figured out a way to recycle it cuz trying to dump that much dirt is like the most retarded and suspicious thing ever. like moving my rolled up carpet with a big body sized lump in the middle of the day on public transportation.

i understand why you can't just dump tons of soil, what i cant understand is why. even if you dont ammend the soil and you only use chemical ferts, you can still reuse it unless you're one of those people who uses ferts up until the last day and even still you can reuse it, just root your seedling or clones in something else and then transplant into the old soil and fert as neccessary.

one more thing. mad librettist, whats wrong with perlite again? last i checked it was just puffed glass like rice crispies. how is that in any way harmful in soil? or anywhere for that matter.

Hate to agree with my adversary now friend mad liberal but perlite is a dead giveaway in most instances. Also no trash/dumpster to rid waste.. just asking for it (LEO)

 

[nukklehead]

Jay and liberal can you give some specifics on re amending... I know there are tons of posts out there but you guys seem to know your shit so rather then waste time maybe you could narrow it down for me thanks

 

[nukklehead]

@ nukklehead - Next time you finish a grow you should save one pot, cut the stem out, and replant straight away. If you need to re-amend do so by topdressing. It might work well and overtime it would save you a ton of money and hassle. I'm trying this now in a large container (20 gallons) and it is working well. I suspect it would also work in 5 gallon (and perhaps smaller) pots.

Pine

sorry for the questions but HOW DO YOU KNOW when you need to amend?

 

[pinecone]

sorry for the questions but HOW DO YOU KNOW when you need to amend?

I don't have a lot of experience with this method; I'm just trying it myself for the first time now (grow in sig) so I'll tell you what I did the first time and how I'm going to approach things in the future.

I tried to establish a baseline by scratching in some guano (high N and P), kelp, and EWC when I transplanted. It turns out that what I thought was a mix of guanos, kelp, and EWC was actually straight high P guano - my mistake. The amount of guano and kelp I would added in absence of my mistake was equivalent to what I put in a gallon of fresh un-amended LC's mix - so not much for a 20 gallon container.

Within a few days the plants were suffering (getting pale and rusty leaves). Upon noticing they were not doing well, I immediately brewed up a tea consisting of EWC, kelp, molasses, and fish and top dressed with a decent amount of EWC. I also foilar fed with a dilute mixture of the same tea. Almost immediately the plants started to look better and growing fast. All this was done within the first week of transplant. During the second week post transplant I hit them again with the same EWC, kelp, molasses, and fish tea. By the 2-week mark they were back to perfect health and growing fast.

From left to right: at transplant, at 1 week from transplant, at about 2 weeks from transplant, and at 2.5 weeks from transplant (after 4 days of 12/12)


When I do this again I will top dress with EWC (half inch or so) right away (@ transplant) and perhaps a cup each of high N guano, high P guano, and kelp. I will also water with a tea at transplant. I guess for a 5-gallon container I might suggest cutting the amounts of guano and kelp to for topdressing to 1/4 cup of each to start. Of course you can use something other than guano. I happen to like guano because it doesn't seem to shoot its load (so to speak) as quickly as other organic fertilizers.

Plants respond pretty quickly, even in organic grows, so if you didn't amend enough at the outset it is easy to correct.

Pine

 

[jaykush]

sorry for the questions but HOW DO YOU KNOW when you need to amend?

you look at the plant, and say to yourself does it look like it needs something? if so what? if it looks fine simply leave it and ask yourself the same thing the next day.

as for the perlite deal with suspicion i think its totally situation dependent. Having a guy who owns a house, not that many people come over, the house outside looks unkept and hes bringing out bags of something( soil in this case) which he accidentally drops a little perlite. neighbor sees some and 1+1 isnt 3 hes doing something, this leads him to snoop and such. If its another guy, hes got a decent front yard, talks to his neighbors, a wife and kids possibly, and perlite ends up in the mess again, chances are no ones going to suspect him unless he looks like hes hiding it ( i.e doing it at 3am )

that being said, perlite is stupid stuff imo. i absolutely hate its white speckled look in soil.

Jay and liberal can you give some specifics on re amending... I know there are tons of posts out there but you guys seem to know your shit so rather then waste time maybe you could narrow it down for me thanks

amending with what? what is your aim? veg? flower? touch up? what soil? etc??

 

[stihgnobevoli]

i hate to keep sounding like an idiot but what about perlite is suspicious exactly? as i've mentioned it before they sell it everywhere, and when you buy 99% of potting mix it comes premixed into it. maybe they will think its crack rocks and call the cops? what?

 

[TACOE]

i hate to keep sounding like an idiot but what about perlite is suspicious exactly? as i've mentioned it before they sell it everywhere, and when you buy 99% of potting mix it comes premixed into it. maybe they will think its crack rocks and call the cops? what?

If you don't have a garden with perlite in it.. it might look funny. My yard has a shit load of perlite in it.. it doesn't look good. Setting up a "distraction garden" asap.

Switched to DE + rice hulls on the last mixing. Looks a little less sussy.

 

[mad librettist]

Jay and liberal can you give some specifics on re amending... I know there are tons of posts out there but you guys seem to know your shit so rather then waste time maybe you could narrow it down for me thanks

The easiest thing to do is keep a bokashi bucket and after every grow you bury some bokashi compost and wait.

During the grow is also an important time to feed the soil, especially if you aren't growing plants in it between runs. I'm in the habit of sprinkling meals on the surface randomly. Sometimes I scratch them in with a rake.


So, if you can flower 4 plants and veg 4, all you need is 10 containers to have a perpetual grow with recycled soil.

Or with SOG, you can keep soil in a central "hub" that has worms and such. By throwing root balls on one side and harvesting from the other, you keep the cycle going somewhat.


My personal approach is 8 container, 4 veg 4 flower. They are quite large and have a clover lawn. I'll be able to chop, drop in a cut, and go. I can bury some bokashi at the other end of the pot and by the time the mj roots get over there the stuff in neutralized by worms.

 

[B. Friendly]

ok so I have 50 old 2 gallon pots from a couple months back, still full of my organic mix and root balls...
the mix was
3 parts peat
3 parts perlite
3 parts coco
1 part mushroom manure
4ml per litre of Gaia Green All Purpose, ie organic mix
4ml per litre Dolimite Lime
4ml per litre Kelp

So if i reuse them I'll add in:
1 part Top Soil
1 part Worm Castings
2ml per litre Gaia
2ml per litre Kelp
2ml per litre Dolimite Lime

Any suggestions?????????

 

[mad librettist]

hmm maybe some meals... like crab shell, biotone, etc... I would also spring for some hydrolyzed fish.

with 50 2 gal containers, I would look for a "hub", like a 100 gal smart pot or some such. you need to do some catching up if they have dried out.

most important thing is probably gonna be getting moisture back in, and having them all together makes it easy.

this plant was grown and finished in a 3 gallon smart pot, so don't let anyone tell you it can't be done in small pots. it can be done, it's just a lot of work. Big pots and blumats is very easy.

 

[B. Friendly]

Mad, thanks for the ideas, I will get some more amendments bro.
It can be done in small pots and personally I have always preached that small pots are the way to go. More girls, more shoots, more yeild
Here's my thread with 100'ish 1 gallon pots, in two small rooms
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=209180
you might have to water more that's all, but it's worth the work, guaranteed, also use stadiums.

 

[guest2012y]

ok so I have 50 old 2 gallon pots from a couple months back, still full of my organic mix and root balls...
the mix was
3 parts peat
3 parts perlite
3 parts coco
1 part mushroom manure
4ml per litre of Gaia Green All Purpose, ie organic mix
4ml per litre Dolimite Lime
4ml per litre Kelp

So if i reuse them I'll add in:
1 part Top Soil
1 part Worm Castings
2ml per litre Gaia
2ml per litre Kelp
2ml per litre Dolimite Lime

Any suggestions?????????

Mix equal parts dolomite and powdered oyster shell together and use that as your "liming agent".
I'd also consider adding fish bone meal and N. bat guano....won't need much.
Is that a kelp meal?
All topsoils are not the same...try to find dark,rich looking stuff that hasn't got a ton of sand and wood by products in it. Some sand and wood is okay,but you are looking for a soil that forms a loose ball when you squeeze it and expands a bit when you release it. Spongy/firm texture is best IMO

This would also be the time to add things like glacial rock dust,Azomite,sul-po-mag,char,etc.

 

[nukklehead]

I use all the old roots...they go right into the remix. I only cut the bulky stump out of the way and now feed those to the worms. I add nothing to break the old roots down,the soil is alive and takes care of that by itself.
On this next cycle I'm going to experiment with the no-till concept in pots. Not all,but some. That way I can get an idea how successful it will be or not with my own methods by comparison. Topdress with various goodies...mostly EWC and compost.

Would like to try this capt. when you say "bulky stump" hypothetically this would be approx 2 gal or so of a 5 gal bucket????
Then do you turn the bottom soil over and work it a little to break it up or leave it? I get the top dress part. Thanks. Also what do you mean by no till method. I assume the same as our farm crops??

 

[guest2012y]

I've yet to apply the no-till method to pots. I had 3 indoor beds in which I experimented with 1 using no-till practices. There was no difference in the look or yield of the plants from all 3.
The other 2 beds were emptied,re-amended,mixed,and planted in again. The no-till bed was topdressed with goodies through the cycle..mostly EWC. The no-till bed grew mushrooms under the plants and had a vast assortment of life forms. I ended the indoor bed thing because of space issues.
Now I use mostly 3 to 5 gallon pots. Ideally I want all 5's. I have been emptying the pots and re-amending every cycle,but that gets old when you have had back injuries. I'm really hoping the no-till thing works in pots. I'll be running a few no-till pots next cycle to see a side by side of what happens. If I can I will post the results.

 

[420stoner]

i want to make some worm castings & i know you need some red worms but
my ? is where do i get this worms at i really dont want to order them online but if thats the only way i guess ill have to buy them online. the cheaper the better cuz i dont got alot of money.
thanks growers!

 

[FlaDankster]

i want to make some worm castings & i know you need some red worms but
my ? is where do i get this worms at i really dont want to order them online but if thats the only way i guess ill have to buy them online. the cheaper the better cuz i dont got alot of money.
thanks growers!

Bait shop.you'll have to start out on a smaller scale but it is a bit easier on the wallet.You won't get a shit load of worms but you don't need much anyway,they'll get themselves going in no time.