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Kozmo's World

Team Microbe

Active member
Veteran
It's so silly how difficult some people make this step, mixing this and that because they think it'll "help" when really they have no idea what it'll do to the soil biota as a whole. Recipes like Coot's have been dialed in over decades of research, trial and error, and side by sides with controls. Why would you want to re-trace those steps and re-live those headaches when the "answer" is already given to us? I feel like it has to do with ego, the grower feels the need to take accountability for the success of their garden or something :laughing:
 

Former Guest

Active member
Some of those add in extra amendments are not in his recipe and if you were to add those the first or second round might go ok but you'll have issues later on when some of those break down. The coots mix is balanced so you won't have too much of this nutrient and not enough of another. Think of it like this: each nutrient has a plus or minus sign so when everything is calculated and added and subtracted you will end up will zero. You don't want left over because it wouldn't be balanced. I hope that makes sense.

Why is it bad if the worms eat the comfrey? It's kinda the whole point is for them to decompose.

You should definitely get some worms worms worms worms worms worms worms worms worms hahahaha
 

Kozmo

Active member
Veteran
On another note I had some HVAC equipment at the grow today and my CFM is 63 on high and 45 CFM on low. It's 385 cf. so I'm evacuating it all in about six min. A really nice thing is the constant negative pressure in the room is .01 which is a desirable if not thee goal negative pressure in which the HVAC pro's like to see.
 
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Kozmo

Active member
Veteran
I'm not saying there is no difference - I'm saying don't get more going on than you can make sense of at a single time...

You were hesitant to start certain seeds for fear of messing them up - and then you start making things overly complicated with the dirt...

Keep it simple. Follow the recipes EXACTLY as they are written. ZERO adjustments. Zero changes. They are shared "as is" for a reason.

It's hard to tell what's going on with new genetics, new soil mix..new...new...new. You'll have no constant in your garden from which to make a comparison to know whether or not you've made any progress or which particular changes were actually of benefit.

Like Bo said above...make your changes one at a time - gradually...that way you can isolate the specific advantages of each adjustment made.

If you were running a SINGLE pheno of ONE plant - that you ALREADY had run 5 or 6 times and knew the inside outs of...then you can run 4, 5, 20...different soil mixes all at once...because you'll already know what to expect from the plant...and you'll be able to tell what benefits / disadvantages you are causing with your adjustments...

You need a plant/soil that acts as a "control" when you are experimenting...

It really wasn't a criticism of what you have going on - honestly. It was just some food for thought.



dank.Frank

Didn't even catch this message before I wrote mine.

Thank you all for your help.

I took every word from every one of you as constructive. Thank you again.

Much respect

Kozmo
 

Kozmo

Active member
Veteran
Control

Control

All to go into a 72"W x 36"D x 14"H Geopot

Some of these ratios here are what they are because thats the size I get when I order it. This does fit into the ratios BAS has on there web sight for a complete premium soil mix. I'm also aware of the flexibility of the mix.

"15% Vermicompost

15% Compost

30 - 40% Sphagnum Peat Moss or Homemade Leafmold

20 - 30% Small Lava Rock, Perlite, Buckwheat hulls, rice hulls etc. something for aeration"

This is what I would like to see in my soil mix:


Rice Hulls: 1 cu/ft

Buckwheat Hulls: .5 cu/ft

Pumice: 2 cu/ft

Black lava rock: 2 cu/ft

Sphagnum Peat: 6.5

Compost: 3.5

EWC: 3




Acadian Kelp Meal @ 1/2 Cup per cubic foot

Neem Cake and Karanja Cake 50/50 Mix @ 1/2 cup per cubic foot

Crustacean Meal @ 1/2 Cup per cubic foot

Gypsum Dust @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Brix Blend Basalt @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Glacial Rock Dust @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Oyster Flour @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot



 

Former Guest

Active member
On another note I had some HVAC equipment at the grow today and my CFM is 63 on high and 45 CFM on low. It's a 385 sq./ft. room so I'm evacuating it all in about six min. A really nice thing is the constant negative pressure in the room is .01 which is a desirable if not thee goal negative pressure in which the HVAC pro's like to see.

Your air speed for the fans is measured in cubic feet while you're comparing it to square feet. If you have a 8ft tall ceiling, you need to multiply the sq ft by 8 then that will give you the total amount of air space. Also you need air exchange at three times per minute I think. There's a sticky in grow room forum in case you haven't seen it. I found all the same info online that was very good and short, straight to the point.

That's a very small fan. Hurricane makes cheap but good fans that have a decent amount of power or vortex is also sold at costco. $150 I think for a 700+ cuft fan. So it's the same price as hurricane that has a smaller cfm rating. I wish I knew that before I purchased all of mine.
 

Former Guest

Active member
Haha! Just make sure you get a powerful enough fan. It will cool a lot faster and that way it won't run as often if it's on a thermostat. I have around 120cuft in one room with a 435cuft fan and it can't cool running 1400w right now lol so I'm rearranging everything so I can close the damn door :D this is just my experience putting together the two rooms.
 

BigBozat

Member
... Also you need air exchange at three times per minute I think...

I think it's more like being able to complete a [single] air exchange of the room within 3 [to 6] minutes...

3 times per minute would require a fan rated to draw 1,155 CFM... which seems like hurricane force for what equates to a roughly 7' x 7' x 8' room.

For a room of 385 cu ft volume, 64 ~ 128 CFM should be adequate to replenish CO2 sufficiently rapidly to mitigate any risk of CO2 depletion.
 

BigBozat

Member
Thoughts on insect frass...

Since:
- it's effect/purpose is essentially to trigger the activation of a plant's defenses against insect pests (among which are more glandular trich development & secretion of terpenes, etc. therefrom)
-AND-
- doing so diverts plant energy stores & resources away from normal growth (at whatever stage the plant is in at the time the frass triggers defense pathways)

... then you probably wouldn't want to use frass during veg, or clone/seedling...

Wait until, say, mid- or later-flower, at which point you want to see growth slowing/stopped anyway, and you're looking to maximize trich dev & resin production...

Ergo: Don't mix it directly into soil... see if you can make a tea with it & use as a foliar at a point in the grow cycle when you want to encourage trich production (may need to micronize the frass , or filter the tea, to mitigate clogging)
 

BigBozat

Member
Thoughts on insect frass...

... see if you can make a tea with it & use as a foliar at a point in the grow cycle when you want to encourage trich production (may need to micronize the frass , or filter the tea, to mitigate clogging)


PS - suggesting foliar application, instead of a soil drench to minimize impact on soil if you're going to recycle...
 

Former Guest

Active member
I've tried to foliar with the frass but it broke my sprayer. I top dress a little bit with it. It's fairly mild 2-2-2. It's more that I scatter it into the mulch for added N since I don't have enough N in my mulch which is mostly carbon. I think a half application of suggested dose should still give you benefits like the chitin but not enough to bother your soil balancing. It would only raise the npk 1-1-1 that way so the ratio of nutrients wouldn't be effected. So that's what I did. The plants in the room next door have gnats while the ones where I top dressed lightly covering the top of the soil surface just trying to cover as much surface with it do not have any. These plants are the healthiest I've had yet. I'm really excited!

Big bozat, have you watched Symphony of the Soil documentary. It talks about a lot of great stuff including plant defenses. It's very interesting with beautiful photography,
 

BigBozat

Member
I've tried to foliar with the frass but it broke my sprayer. I top dress a little bit with it. It's fairly mild 2-2-2. It's more that I scatter it into the mulch for added N since I don't have enough N in my mulch which is mostly carbon. I think a half application of suggested dose should still give you benefits like the chitin but not enough to bother your soil balancing. It would only raise the npk 1-1-1 that way so the ratio of nutrients wouldn't be effected. So that's what I did. The plants in the room next door have gnats while the ones where I top dressed lightly covering the top of the soil surface just trying to cover as much surface with it do not have any. These plants are the healthiest I've had yet. I'm really excited!

Big bozat, have you watched Symphony of the Soil documentary. It talks about a lot of great stuff including plant defenses. It's very interesting with beautiful photography,


To me, the real consideration in re: insect frass is not NPK (or any other macro/micro nute), additions thereto or balance thereof...
(seems to me most of the nute value of frass isn't immediately avail to the plant, anyway, unless it it is micronized into sufficiently small particle size and/or broken down by microbial/bacterial action -or- soil critters (worms))


... It is, rather, the chitin & its effect...

What are the relative trade-offs between the benefits of inducing plant defense responses against insect herbivory (e.g., promoting trich/resin/terpene/volatiles production; generalized improved insect/disease resistance; etc.) -versus- the costs of doing such...???

Inducing resistance redirects plant energy/resources away from what otherwise is either going to be used for immediate plant root/shoot growth, bud formation, etc. -or- is going to be stored for use use for future growth.

So, having not done the research [yet], I'm just wondering whether there is any risk to using frass at particular stages of growth?

Do you use it as a top dress and/or foliar thru-out the entire grow cycle... or only at certain points? Have you ever done any side-by-side sort of experimentation to see if there are effects on yield, quality, growth rates, bud formation, plant structure, etc.? Would you want to avoid using frass/chitin/chitosan at stages where maximum plant energy is needed for root/shoot growth?

LLB, I have not watched the documentary you mentioned (link?)...

But I *do* have a little background in horticulture & soil science... and have probably read/absorbed just about everything ever written (or put online) by Jeff Loewenfells, Elaine Ingham, Michael Astera, Rodale, John Schrempf, Bruce Tainio, yadda, yadda, yadda ... Name some, I've probably run across 'em (but am always open to more, if I've missed some)... even Rudolf Steiner & the Biodynamic cultists... as well as a couple hundred research papers on plant physiology, PGRs, etc.

I make no claim to being expert [on anything, LOL!], but I do think I have a reasonable handle on some of the science... I just haven't really deep-dived into the science surrounding insect frass yet, so am wondering...
 

Former Guest

Active member
I'm not going to worry about different periods of a plants life and how that effects them in regards to chitin. Many people who've used it, see improvements. I've never read about it diverting energy away from growing.

I also wouldn't want to keep track of which week is which and when to not add due to how complicated that sounds. I told you my experience and these plants are happy, praying and the best I've grown yet. So other than the countless people who rave about it, I've also had no issues.

Plus, I should remind you this thread is in the new growers forum so I don't understand how you expect someone without years of experience to respond like the way you want and dropping names to further your credibility and call me out, doesn't really help. Maybe Dank Frank can answer or you can start a thread in the advanced botany forum. :2cents:
 

Lapides

Rosin Junky and Certified Worm Wrangler
Veteran
I'm not going to worry about different periods of a plants life and how that effects them in regards to chitin. Many people who've used it, see improvements. I've never read about it diverting energy away from growing.

I also wouldn't want to keep track of which week is which and when to not add due to how complicated that sounds. I told you my experience and these plants are happy, praying and the best I've grown yet. So other than the countless people who rave about it, I've also had no issues.

Plus, I should remind you this thread is in the new growers forum so I don't understand how you expect someone without years of experience to respond like the way you want and dropping names to further your credibility and call me out, doesn't really help. Maybe Dank Frank can answer or you can start a thread in the advanced botany forum. :2cents:
picture.php
 

Former Guest

Active member
I haven't read any of your PMs because I've have never thought much of you and the very very few times I've spoken to you, I've been nothing but nice. You have been harassing me through shitty rep comments for over a month. You are not worth my time to bother to fight.


View Image
You bully people cowardly through rep and PMs. You tell me I'm retarded, a moron, my buds suck, blah blah blah. Yet when you talk about me you say you've tried so hard to give advice but you haven't said anything close to constructive. Go put on your big boy pants. Take the advice given to you about letting it go.
 

Kozmo

Active member
Veteran
Please get off my thread now Lapides.


"Plus, I should remind you this thread is in the new growers forum so I don't understand how you expect someone without years of experience to respond like the way you want and dropping names to further your credibility and call me out, doesn't really help."


Lets be kool now LLB... We won't put any limits on education. I'm glad for the list of name that way I can sight them, and grow, which never hurts.

No more responses to any of this please.

Much respect

Kozmo
 

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