quick acting magnesum

[wonderful]

i foilar fed the epsom salt to the plants yesterday. should i do it daily untill they improve or when should i do it again?

 

[xmobotx]

you probably shouldnt have done it in the 1st place and you should never do it again

 

[wonderful]

you probably shouldnt have done it in the 1st place and you should never do it again

sorry but thats crazy talk to me. over 50% of eaves were afected. if thats not a clear sing they were unhappy i dont know what is.

 

[FunTimesIndeed]

I thought we agreed too much magnesium is a bad thing...

 

[xmobotx]

you know; the majority of this forum is bottle-slingin' non-organic chem growers who would be much better suited to give you that kind of advice

epsom salt is useless to an organic gardener

just like 'organic based' ~it doesnt mesh @ all w/ the paradigm

sul-po-mag would be a better option {assuming there is an actual deficiency} even dolomite lime is a better choice than epsom {and we are all discouraging it too}

but EWC is the best advice you have gotten

crazy talk is to ask for advice and then ignore it

FYI; its not the magnesium in the EWC that 'fixes' the problem~ your seeing some form of imbalance which is likely from the re-veg'd plant {which wants to die anyway ~its an annual} not 'feeding' resulting in 'over-fert' the EWC is a mad rush effort to restore microlife, CEC, and balance to the soil ~hence the massive 'dose'

another good point is to avoid over-watering~ your plants 'needs' arent what they were when it was veg'n let alone flowering

 

[wonderful]

well i may have jumped the gun calling you crazy, sorry for that.
i thought the too much magnesium problem came from the magnesium in the soil
i shall go get another bag of ewc because i ran out of mine

 

[Cann]

don't buy bagged EWC...you're not going to get the results you want.

try and source some locally..hit up craigslist, etc. and see if anything comes up.

you will be disappointed by the bagged castings, guaranteed.


and yeah, no more epsom salts. listen to xmo...

 

[FunTimesIndeed]

All I'm saying is if you acknowledge your soil probably has enough magnesium, why are you hellbent of spraying it with every last bit of grandma's footscrub?

More EWC is a pretty frequent answer LOL...

 

[Microbeman]

SilverSurfer_OG- what is basalt rock dust?

FunTimesIndeed- yes but i was kind of wondering w hat that actually meant and y it was such a misleading name.
o and yes i decided not to buy another bag of bone meal once mine is gone, and i have the impression that foilar feeding is fast acting, since it has been for me in the past, i already had the epsom salt laying around. once i get familiar with using it i will decide if i like it or not. experience is the best teacher

Gascanastan- you have to thouroughly mix the lime througout the soil for it to work properly, burn1 mentioned it to me in on of my threads

Microbeman- thanks for stoping by and asking a question i can help you with. when i look at my plant i search for leaves tht are not perfect green on a regular bassis and i advise you do the same, they will stick out clearly once you get accustomed to it. once i notice a symptom i research it here

http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-pla...ur-deficiencies-here-easy-learning-table.html
and here
http://www.greenmanspage.com/guides/plant_abuse.html

once i fell like i know what i am dealing with i do nothing and monitor the progress of symptoms. once it takes upto 1/4rd of the plant is a clear sign that this is likely going to need addressing before harvest based on the stage of its life.
but if you look at my pictures and compare to the links you can see that the symptoms line up

From looking at the photos displayed, I could not tell the difference between a deficiency, a burn or a fungal pathogen.

 

[Scrappy4]

Along with earth worm castings as a source of calcium, don't forget our plant based inputs have tons of calcium too. Alfalfa, comfrey, kelp, and neem meals are full of cal plus many hundreds of beneficial (gotta love bennies he he is that word over used or what) compounds that lime does not. (Dolomite lime is cal and mag in elemental rock form) And for slightly slower release not plant based, and for more diversity there is crab meal, and oyster shell, and again wid da bennies!

Growing without bottles gives you all the calcium you need. Ask yourself if buying bottles of nutrients already, why do you, or maybe more appropriately, why should you have to buy deficiency cures from the same folks?

Having a recyclable self sustaining soil starts with great compost, and purs along with diverse organic inputs. The ph is set biologically/microbialy and the calcium is handled in multiple ways, and in different release times. And yes there's plenty of magnesium in the inputs I mentioned......scrappy

 

[wonderful]

hey so i found a local person who makes his own castings. he said he feeds his worms peat
which brings me to the question does it matter the diet of the worms for the quality of ewc or is the important thing the amount that starting product has been broken down

 

[xmobotx]

if theres worms and eggs in it you cant go too far wrong

peat huh?

sounds kinda funny but what you dont want is something like worm castings fed municipal waste {garbage}

see; down the road, its really the thing to fortify your compost pile w/ your Ca amendments and some more insoluble amendments say for instance; crab meal, gypsum, rock dust, even fish bone meal~ once the compost isnt thermophilic {hot} anymore; you can feed that to your worms and your resulting vermicompost will be alive balanced and fortified ready to re-amend when you recycle and to use as mulch if you dont want to re-mix

{you CAN recycle either way ~ if you leave it in the pot and just plant again; thats no-till}

w/ an environment like that you see the greatest effects from top-dressing and things like botanical teas or sprout rinse

 

[Scrappy4]

hey so i found a local person who makes his own castings. he said he feeds his worms peat
which brings me to the question does it matter the diet of the worms for the quality of ewc or is the important thing the amount that starting product has been broken down

Some commercial casting operations feed their worms cardboard, but it's junk in, junk out. Same for compost in general, and compost btw can be much better if first worked over by worms. Some of us make some pretty exotic composts that we can customize because we are the ones controlling the inputs. Then it gets even better after the worms turn it into vermi compost. Another good worm food is aged horse manure, and both compost or manure cost less than peat would. So even if peat works as worm food, you probably could do better......scrappy

 

[wonderful]

Another good worm food is aged horse manure, and both compost or manure cost less than peat would. So even if peat works as worm food, you probably could do better......scrappy

hmm that got me thinking. so while i was waiting for all my food scraps to compost, i could get some horse poo or mushroom compost and feed tat to some worms, so i could have a quicker available source of my own vermicompost.

and is it better to compost first and feed that to worms like some of you do, or to put the food scraps into the worm bin on top? do people choose to compost it first because worms will proccess compost quicker than scraps?
is it quicker for your scraps turned into vermicompost by putting directly in bin? because it seems that it would be quicker from food to castings if it went into the bin right away


thanks all of you for helping me progress my skills, it seems like there should be a thread call organics for intermediate growers stressing the importance of compost!

 

[wonderful]

o and do you guys use red wiggler worms the ones that seem to be expensive as hell online? or any worms?

 

[xmobotx]

yeah red wigglers {eisenia foetida} but i say that because that is what is recommended; i used the 'manure worms' i find in my yard and that did work just fine {til the batch of horse manure contaminated w/ wormer}

 

[Scrappy4]

hmm that got me thinking. so while i was waiting for all my food scraps to compost, i could get some horse poo or mushroom compost and feed tat to some worms, so i could have a quicker available source of my own vermicompost.

and is it better to compost first and feed that to worms like some of you do, or to put the food scraps into the worm bin on top? do people choose to compost it first because worms will process compost quicker than scraps?
is it quicker for your scraps turned into vermicompost by putting directly in bin? because it seems that it would be quicker from food to castings if it went into the bin right away


thanks all of you for helping me progress my skills, it seems like there should be a thread call organics for intermediate growers stressing the importance of compost!

Be wary of mushroom compost, sometimes it is full of pesticides. As for using food scraps, in general there mostly water, and if you use them you just might get wet soggy worm bins. And worms don't like to live in water so they die or leave. I sometimes add food scraps, but for me its mostly not quite finished compost. And remember flies and skunks also like food scraps. The worms seem to like compost more and its easier to work with. Also for me I like the fabric pots for worm bins over plastic totes. Plastic also holds heat and cold longer, along with moisture than the more breathable pots.

It may seem like a lot of work for a noob to compost and have a worm farm, and it can be in the beginning, but the rewards are well worth your efforts once you see how your plants react to living soil.

And don't stop with MJ, veggies love it just as much. I use the very same techniques in my outdoor vegetable garden. They grow better as there disease resistant and taste better grown organically than force fed chem ferts....scrappy

 

[Microbeman]

peat is a common bedding/feed for worms. Our bin worms are fed 85% sphagnum peatmoss and our windrow worms get peat supplements. It is one of the best worm foods there is. After all peat is compost (mostly)

 

[xmobotx]

After all peat is compost (mostly)

that is something i kinda thought too and i wild harvested some peat moss for my worm bin the 1st year

of course; that was living peat and it took a while for them to get into it much