Do I have my bases covered??

After 13 years of Flora Nova or Gen Hydro Flora Series for at least a run I'm saying to hell with the bottled nutes.

I have a bale of Pro mix MP, a bag of perlite and a bag of dolomite lime.
I know there are endless amendments I could buy but this is what I've got. Do I NEED anything else???
I'm using LC's mix #2 with recipe #2 and added Langbeinite for K.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792

Will be using plain ph'ed water and nothing else unless needed.

your close to my mix I use some more things but if you wait til my lights go on I will give you my schedule and including re amendment rates and basic philosophies

lol bug me if I forget

That's all i use in my grows.
Adding bat guano tea for the next round, but have done it with exactly LC's mix and blood, bone and kelp last rounds with only water until harvest without problems.
A good harvest I might add..

Weird said:

your close to my mix I use some more things but if you wait til my lights go on I will give you my schedule and including re amendment rates and basic philosophies

lol bug me if I forget

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I'm going to apologize in advance for the many questions I expect to have for you! Your knowledge of organics far surpasses anything I will ever obtain.

Chevy cHaze said:

That's all i use in my grows.
Adding bat guano tea for the next round, but have done it with exactly LC's mix and blood, bone and kelp last rounds with only water until harvest without problems.
A good harvest I might add..

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I thought about keeping bat guano and MAYBE rock phosphate on hand for a tea in flower.

I'm still researching.

You have your bone meal already, if you look at how long it takes for the p to become available, 2-3 months for some to start I believe depending it could be faster at 1 month but not all of it, you may consider doing a top dress just before flower, at the start or a couple weeks in, just scratch it into the surface at the rates recommended on the box.

Guano would be a faster approach if you find you need it for a boost, you could always try a pot of one treatment and another of a different and the rest the same if you are able to do that in your set up just for you to learn what is working best for you, if it helps out or not, best application times etc.

To keep things simple I would go with others suggestions just plain water then have your high p on hand if you need to add it, decide for your next run if you want to change anything or try out a pot or two the next round with something different. Especially with the fact that you are just switching to this now may as well keep a simple course and observe as it seems to be your preferred path with your plan b on deck already I have a feeling you're going to have a great grow.

just my .02 cents and very important with LOS is IPM LOS is the best til shit hits the fan and that is where most people fall out because recovery is where expertise has been the hardest.

I have been fortunate and recovered from many issues relatively unscathed

one more thing to mention for the past decade I have been recycling soil because I had so much from running once and replacing I had to find a way to get use it up, that said when I make new LOS containers (which I only did to expand and this is 4 years in) I put some active los dirt from unused containers to "inoculate" my mix

I started doing it with chem soil a along time ago with no ill effect, just throwing it out there do with it what you like

I plant directly in this mix I can post some pictures of a new space with it

ratio (gallons) of 3 1 .5 .5 promix/perlite/castings/compost compost isn't necessary and can bring pests like gnats so hold out for quality or stick with castings

that ratio at 1 gallon per unit makes 5 gallons of soil

to that mix I add 1 gallon of soil I want to recycle or replace one part peat with my recycled soil. This time I did the former in the past I have done the later.

once mixed I add the following per gallon using 10 - 15 containers. I say this because nutrient density imhe can be lighter if you have far more soil per plant but personally in my room I find this container to plant size to work well

let me start with meals because I add half of these back per recycle with a small amount of ewc and some peat to keep the consistency as close to the rest of the soil as possible

MEALS

1 tbs kelp blood crab (water with em-1 if the crab smell is annoying)

2 tbs bone

Next I add "dusts" some of which I have a lifetime supply like green sand. I really like it but I don't think I would buy it because of a lack of sustainablity. I also used basalt and grd instead of just grd which I prefer. I did this because someone gave me basalt to try out. I only add half back oyster every run and grd every 3 runs to avoid buildup. I have been past 10 runs and was able to keep the soil performing, I changed space and wanted to get out of smart pots (which I have a theory about it causing vpd and mg def but that is a side observation)


DUSTS

1 tbs oyster shell 1 tbs greensand .25 tbs glacial rock dust .25 tbs balsalt (normally I would use .5 tbs grd) and .5 tbs gypsum

I topdress around the plant after I mix and plant in it a tbs fras and I use mycos when I plant and replant

I use castings that have my pots filled with worms in fact some of my old smart pots are working as worm bins but buying some composting worms and putting them in your pots if you plant to recycle is very important imho as is keeping a population alive in the pot through cycles

I added predator mites as well as part of my IPM

day 5 from flip, planted 2 weeks before and vegged under 2 400 led on a mover this is the first day they are under 1200 watts instead of 800 (600 being DE) the canopy is about 12 x 6



removed the led on day ten and put up straight de for 800 x 2 on a mover for 1600 watts over 12 x 6

Great info, thank you.

Welcome to the dark side hold your fire, im sure you will love it and seem to be set to get the ball rolling.

Not to hijack but Wierd, id love to hear more on your observations or concerns with smart pots.

No real Ca source in your proposed mix. The quantity of Ca in bone meal is decent, but will quickly be over powered by EWC.

Most EWC are loaded with Fe. Lacking greatly Mn. Without Mn, you cannot complex simple sugars. You can only get so far up the genetic pyramid without trying to balance out all that Fe.

A simple soil analysis of your mix PRIOR to planting might give you a better idea of where you need to go.

With that said, this is a crop that you can do nearly nothing to and still get a crop. Just go to any of the festivals and see all the garbage out there. 90% of the stuff out there is hack. The biggest reason folks have so hard a time is usually an excess of Mg. If you see a Mg deficiency it is because of not enough P, Ca or an excess of K, N and even Mg!!! Get those in the correct proportions and the plant will have plenty of Mg.

High Mg in the soil almost always never has Mg in the leaves. Completely counter intuitive. Took me 20 years to understand that one.

I'm using dolomite lime which has both cal and mag.

After continued research, correct me if I'm wrong, black strap molasses and Epsom salts will further supplement the cal/mg.

That's my early plan.

The company that makes the boxed amendments I'm using has liquid calcium and botanicare has fulvex(for mg). Both carry the omri label for whatever that is worth.

Really trying to avoid ANY bottled nutes though.

Bmac1 said:

Welcome to the dark side hold your fire, im sure you will love it and seem to be set to get the ball rolling.

Not to hijack but Wierd, id love to hear more on your observations or concerns with smart pots.

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Sure

let me break down the scenario because I am sure it is limited and not a universal failure, a larger smart pot might resolve it but I really don't like that all that much anyway.

I grew in a homer for a long time so when I went LOS I felt it wasn't enough soil after using a homer bucket for it.

I upgraded to 10 gallon smart pots and started to get some mg deficiency related to vpd

now other than smart pots I never experienced and I ran organics in homers so I started to think about what could be happening and I think those pots with relatively large plants in a small space are contributing to humidity but also when I water by hand or use blumats the water is not being pushed through the container the same way by gravity as it is with a bucket with

those 2 subtle variables seem to cause make a perfect storm for vpd something ive only seen in that room set up wiht smart pots

but it is a theory I switched 15 gallon nursery pots using same volume of soil and will have a better idea as time passes how things work out

Hold Your Fire said:

I'm using dolomite lime which has both cal and mag.

After continued research, correct me if I'm wrong, black strap molasses and Epsom salts will further supplement the cal/mg.

That's my early plan.

The company that makes the boxed amendments I'm using has liquid calcium and botanicare has fulvex(for mg). Both carry the omri label for whatever that is worth.

Really trying to avoid ANY bottled nutes though.

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Hold,

All that Mg in organic material is going to cause that soil to hold a lot of water and have very reduced aeration. If you are just starting out making a new mix, you may want to try one plant with no dolomite. Use some gypsum and some calcium carbonate, depending on your pH and hopefully based on a good soil analysis. You lose nothing by spending $50 on a sample that will give you a road map. You don't have to follow that map, but it may help you to learn faster.

If you ever see a Mg deficiency, you can always apply Mg foliarly. It is 100% translocatable to the roots meaning that applied foliarly the plant can get all the Mg you need. A 1% solution of epsom works just fine.

Funny your choice of terms, thus the reason for me chipping in. The name of the thread I post on is talking about base distribution, which is a soil balancing concept that is what all of US and world agriculture has been based on since 1935 or so. You might want to take a read, see some analysis that is posted, watch some videos and then read some of the results.... You were asking about whether you had all the bases covered...

Running organically is critical. This plant which is a C-3 (google C-3 plants) and actually picks up Carbon (C) from the soil. Not all plants do that and it is critical for their nutrition. Biology obviously stimulates C uptake and hydro, etc. obviously have little if no C in their system.

You are on the right path!

Hold Your Fire said:

I'm using dolomite lime which has both cal and mag.

After continued research, correct me if I'm wrong, black strap molasses and Epsom salts will further supplement the cal/mg.

That's my early plan.

The company that makes the boxed amendments I'm using has liquid calcium and botanicare has fulvex(for mg). Both carry the omri label for whatever that is worth.

Really trying to avoid ANY bottled nutes though.

Click to expand...

this is why I use oyster shell

I wanted to add exposed surface area to amount of over all soil volume being another contributing factor without a bigger pot I can't break that condition and while I went with a bigger nursery pot the foot print is the same

i dont grow monostrain monocrop although I do tie them evenly more or so at start but that is more to buy time from them to run into the lights (very low ceiling) so I like having a bit more plants that I can move around and futz with

Running organically is critical. This plant which is a C-4 (google C-4 plants) and actually picks up Carbon (C) from the soil. Not all plants do that and it is critical for their nutrition. Biology obviously stimulates C uptake and hydro, etc. obviously have little if no C in their system.

Click to expand...

Slow i thought cannabis is a C-3 plant?

Mronyc said:

Slow i thought cannabis is a C-3 plant?

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You are 100% correct. I think my alzheimers' is starting to kick in.

Thanks for the correction.

Went to the grow store this morning.

Came back with these.



Sure seems like a lot of boxes!

yeah and while I buy down to earth in a pinch they are expensive

I found a local wholesaler who sells to the public

they sell neptune's harvest and I get 50 lb bags of kelp oyster and other crab etc

still on my first bag of kelp from 3 + years ago same with oyster went through a 20 lb tub of crab shell went to get more and found out the 50 lb was only like 10 dollars more

the trick it to find someone who supplies the line you like in contractor bulk and buy cash as a walk in, most small farmers and enthusiasts do it that way but they market to legit markets and none of it is marketed for pot

asking for certain things off season can get you some funny looks in an illegal state