The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[CanniDo Cowboy]

LOL Dude. Relax, I'm not your enemy nor am I attacking your soil preference or where you choose to purchase or how much you choose to spend. Whatever pard. Yes, I think med grow products in general are inflated but that is just one persons opinion. Mine. Which in the grand scheme of things, doesnt mean squat. Nor should it.

I speak in generalities here man and nothing I type is ever directed at anyone specifically. No need to get all defensive or take my posts personal if we happen to see things differently...CC

 

[Yes4Prop215]

my ATV has the tow hitch with the 3x6x3box...i guess theoretically i can have it dumped at the house, then trailer it down. it just seems like a shitload of work to have to shovel all the soil into the dumptrailer..then shovel it all out. instead of just lifting and stacking the bags, and then cutting them open and dumping out into the pots...

the property is down a steep gravel road.. its one of my favorite features of the property but not really friendly towards getting big dump trucks and trailers in and out...


am i really that lazy lol....yea i just i hate shoveling gotta save my back for old age...

might be able to rent a bobcat....how much does one of those things cost. i could do a 200 gal pot on each load lol..

 

[onerha]

Thanks. ended up finding some 4" discharge tubing which we filled with sand. 3" would have been plenty fine. I googled wire lock to no avail... any links you could provide me with?

Also, how can you possibly get a no light leak seal using only those pipe clamps?

 

[mendo420]

I paid have paid 120 a yard for a custom mix.
I had like 60 yards to move.
It was a pain in the ass!!!
Even with back hoe's and loaders, moving it to the spots was the challenge.
Sure equipment could load a pickup truck but getting it out of the truck, shoveling by hand. After a few days....
We ended up hand bagging it and caring it to the woods.
The remaining 20 F'n yards!


I have also carried thousands of bags of dirt into the forest.
Fox Farms Ocean Forest buy the pallet works great!!!!
FFOF its a great product. I would not use anything else.


Buying bulk soil is ok, just not for getting it out in the sticks.
Go with the bagged dirt.

After several seasons my FFOF look darker, more rich than the black gold. FYI

 

[hashcat88]

Yes4....me and a buddy loaded 100gal of soil in about 3 minutes, using 2gallon pots to scoop instead of shoveling. if the norcal growers blend is as veg says, id say itd be worth it to put in a little extra work, save some cash, AND get a better soil.

i dont do outdoor but man i love following all your guys threads! this one in particular

 

[Madhemp]

Those of you still wondering about your soil ought to check out post #2 of this thread. I will never regret following that recipe.

The year I stopped using Fox Farms and built my own soil (with Tom's mix). My yields went from an estimated 1 to 1.5 lbs/per to between 4 to 6 lbs per plant. I had almost no insects to speak of (I had been hammered by cabbage loopers for several years prior). and the smoke was noticably better.

I am convinced that building kick ass soil is the MOST important step in the entire process. Don't skimp there. in the outdoor game mistakes cost you a year to resolve. I learned the hard way. but you don't have to!

MH

 

[guest8905]

imo the soil is what makes the diff between ur average outdoor green bud and some really nice organic outdoor bomb that looks and smells and tastes amazing...

Have u ever noticed a outdoor grower who has a bunch of strains but they all look and smell and taste very very similar? Dark green buds that smell like grass or hay or even smell like they are molding? I find that a lot of poor outdoor will look smell and taste the same regardless of genetics, but if grown in proper soil with proper ipm and foilars and organic ammends you get much more chronic and unique herb imo

 

[OrganicBuds]

I think recycled soil with rock elements becoming active plays a big role in taste and quality.

 

[Veg N Out]

You need lots of fulvic acid to unlock those rock dusts...

 

[GoldCountryGuy]

You need lots of fulvic acid to unlock those rock dusts...

Kelp, fulvic, compost tea

Thats the recipe for me

 

[YosemiteSam]

So...using Tom's soil mix (along with my dumb ass thinking it might need some more K and adding a little Albion Metalosate K) here is the soil analysis done by a local University extension. (btw...my now thinking is that all that K keeps Mg from being more available and is not a good thing...all hydro formulas as written by the thieving nute companies provide too much nitrate and k...oddly enough both pretty cheap).



To me the keys are the pH and the Ca:Mg ratio. Personally I am a big believer in Albrecht and Reams...so I would like a Ca:Mg ratio more along the lines of 4.5 to 1...but that is just me.

If you think these ratios are easy to achieve on your own then my suggestion is give it a shot and see how you do. Otherwise ask for an analysis and if they don't have it ask yourself hmmmmm?

 

[Veg N Out]

Foliar spray with Brix Mix for the extra mag ..Coming from the K MAG in the dry ....Bless

 

[Madjag]

Rock Dust (Steimehl or "Stonemeal") and Worm Castings

Rock Dust (Steimehl or "Stonemeal") and Worm Castings

I love Agrowinn'a rock dust (steinmehl or "stonemeal") and their 99% pure, OMRI-Rated organic worm castings.

Most worm castings are "worm compost" or "Vermipost" and have a significant amount of leftover material from the original source, usually composted materials. These worm castings take far less to do an equal area for coverage compared to most.

The rock dust is so fine you'd better wear a mask when applying it. I have used it for two years now in my vegetable garden with amazing results. It is one of my compost worms favorite foods, easily digestable and full of trace minerals in great balance. Slow release compared to conventional fertilizers but much better for "growing soil".

Here are a few snippets from their website. Call 888.794.3674 and ask for George Spoerri, the Swiss-born owner and head genius. If you are near San Diego he's located in Encinitas nearby:

From the Agrowinn website: www.FertilizerOnline.com

First, a few words about chemical fertilizers...

Fertilization with high concentrations of Nitrogen, Potassium, and/or Phosphorus (N-P-K such as 15-15-15 or 20-20-20), stimulates rapid initial plant uptake of trace minerals (also known as trace elements) without providing for their replacement.

It is common knowledge that excessive nitrogen reduces the valuable calcium available to the plant. Calcium is a "cation", together with Magnesium, Potassium, and Sodium. A reduction in the available Calcium, always leads to an imbalance in the "cation exchange". If cations are out of balance, anions will also not work properly, nor will several important trace elements.

Liquid fertilizer, which is widely used in commercial agriculture, is causing the leaching of a large amount of N-P-K into the ground. This is one of the most serious environmental problems we have today. The government will soon require water run-off impact permits if this problem isn't dealt with by industry and consumers.
For some time, researchers, using fairly coarse rock dust (the only kind available to them) have tried to justify the remineralization of the soil with rock dust. The question now is no longer whether to re-mineralize, but where to get the best universal rock dust.
Agrowinn Fertilizers and Soil Amendments are environmentally friendly and will not leach into your ground water. These products do not contain excessively high concentrations of Nitrogen, Potassium, and/or Phosphorus, and are more efficient. They are the best organic products you can buy.

Agrowinn-Minerals (Rock Dust) is the finest rock dust on the market (also known as rock powder or stonemeal). Rock dust is environmentally friendly and will not leach into your ground water. It is also a slow release product; its super-fine particles will pass through a 2500 mesh screen with water agitation. It is also easily applied with boom-type sprayers with diaphragm pumps only.

The finer Agrowinn-Minerals (Rock Dust) is ground, the less product is needed. Rock dust is of course, inorganic. And since microbes consume the fine dust easily, they then discharge organically available plant food. The warmer the climate, the more microbes that are available to create plant food.

Guaranteed Analysis:

Agrowinn Minerals provide natural Phosphoric Acid, Soluble Potash, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, and numerous other trace minerals with this guaranteed analysis:

GUARANTEED ANALYSES: 0-0.003-0.007
Available Phosphoric Acid (P205).....................................0.003%
Soluble Potash (K2O)....................................................0.007%
Calcium (Ca)................................................................ 4%
Magnesium (Mg)............................................................1.5%
Iron (Fe)....................................................................6.0%

________________________________________

From: Acres USA magazine - August 2003
by G.H. Earp-Thomas

Nutrition & Trace Minerals

Often it is the little things in life that really count. Who knows - the secret that keeps you from perfect health may be a tiny trace element no larger than the head of a pin - or even one-tenth the size of the head of a pin. Read this classic article from the 1950s - as timely today as when it first appeared - and you will understand just how important trace elements are. As Earp-Thomas relates, a mere six ounces of the trace mineral cobalt spread over 43,000-odd square feet of land became the difference between the fertility and barren-ness of a farm. Take six ounces of paint and try to spread it over 43,000 square feet surface, and you will comprehend how thin 6 ounces of cobalt must have been spread over 43,000 square feet of farmland- yet those six ounces to the acre saved the farm from ruin. Are you getting the trace elements? It will make little difference how much phosphorus, how much calcium, how much iron, how much this-or that ordinary mineral you are receiving each day if even one of the trace elements is missing from your diet.

Agrowinn-Minerals has Cobalt and 56 more elements of Macro-and Micronutrients.

​

 

[YosemiteSam]

Foliar spray with Brix Mix for the extra mag ..Coming from the K MAG in the dry ....Bless

Excellent point...I admit I had not even thought that. I did finally figure out though that it also provides the K I thought the formula needed.

Funny how some things are working for someone like a boss really should be understood before they are improved upon...I be guilty of that so many times.

 

[Veg N Out]

Glad I could help. Bless.

 

[YosemiteSam]

In retrospect though I could of replaced some gypsum with CaCO3 to drive the pH a little higher. 6.4 is where I would prefer to see it.

 

[Veg N Out]

You could do that , just depends on your water to start with.

Any one putting in any new toys for this year? Here's one of mine...350 gallon cone bottom tank on a poly stand Fuji VF41DS blower, custom diffusors.

First brew has organic gem, worm juice plus, humax, fulmag, superzyme, rhizone...

 

[ROOTWISE]

Plugged today.




Here are the girls, enjoying their first sunset ever....a very happy Rootwise was enjoying it too...

 

[smoooth]

Wow root wise that is one of the nicer greenhouses I have ever seen! Hats off to you

 

[smoooth]

Here are some getting ready for the start
Most have been repotted since this photo into much larger containers!