cbcool's native soil grow 2017

cbcool · Jun 30, 2017

I decided to start a grow thread this year because I'm trying something new, growing in amended native soil and thought it might be fun to catalog the process of the whole grow! So here goes it.

I did all seed starts 66 planted in 4" pots on March 20th so I could choose 24 of the choicest females to go in the ground, here's the lineup,

Dark Horse Genetics
Bruce Banner BX 2.0

DJ Short
F13 Throwback
Flo
Grape Krush

Rare Dankness
501st OG
Blue Ox
Grape Ox
Longs Peak Blue
Rugburn OG

Unknown Breeder
Tahoe OG

I started by taking a couple soil sample and a well water sample, then sent them to the lab. One sample was taken at 0"-12" depth and the other at 12"-24", I wanted to see how the soil varied at different depths. Here is the results of those samples and the well water dated 2-22-2017.

0"12"

12"-24"

well water

After I received the results, which I found shocking how much nutrients were in this dry sand/clay loam, I combined and averaged the results of the two samples then calculated my amendments I needed to add. My 24 holes average between 1.75-2.25 cubic yards of soil, here's what I amended with.

Gypsum-15lbs/yd with 10lbs added to the bottom of each hole (thanks SlowN)
Soft rock phosphate-3lbs/yd
Fish bone meal-1.5lbs/yd
Ag sulfur-1.7lbs/yd
KSo4-0.25lbs/yd
Sodium tetraborate-0.04lbs/yd
MnSo4-0.44lbs/yd
ZnSo4-0.08lbs/yd
CuSo4-0.08lbs/yd
Aged steer compost (lab tested)-7.5lbs/yd
Worm castings-3lbs/yd
Alfalfa meal-1.75lbs/yd
Peat moss-2 cubic ft/yd

I also lined the bottom of the holes with all the sage I removed from the garden plot and several flakes of moldy hay on top of that before putting the amended soil back in the holes.

After that I watered in the soil once a week to let it cook for a month before retesting and getting the girls in their final home, here's the retest results from 5-23-2017

cbcool · Jun 30, 2017

All the ladies were put in the ground by 5-23-17, sorry I don't have early on pictures but here are some pictures from June 6th and again from yesterday June 28th.

Grape krush on june 6th

Same Grape krush on June 28th

Flo on June 6th

Same Flo on June 28th with F13's in the back

Longs peak blue on June 28th

cbcool · Jun 30, 2017

501st Og on june 28th with a Bruce banner in the back

Rugburn Og on june 28th with a Grape ox in the back

And another Rugburn on June 22nd

I'm sure I've missed a lot of stuff since I started this journey in February, but feel free to ask me anything and I will try to answer to the best of my ability.

Thanks to ICmag and all the love from it's members, I hope everyone enjoys the thread.

Limeygreen · Jun 30, 2017

Have you considered adding calcitic lime? Gypsum is great and you need the sulfur of course but when you calcium saturation is lower than 65%, the sulfur will leach out your calcium before your magnesium. If you are able and wanting to reuse your site next year, have you considered amending the ground for different holes next year? You could add a calcitic lime and ag sulfur to drop your pH and lower your magnesium to loosen your soil maybe by the fall, it can take months for the bacteria to eat the sulfur and convert it to acid, they don't do it very effectively in the cold soil.

Plants are looking great, hoping for a big harvest for you.

ManyManySpliffs · Jun 30, 2017

cbcool the plants are looking awesome, you're going to have an incredible harvest (all that trimming going to be a pain in the ass, but its gonna be well worth it in the end). I'll be around for the show.. :lurk:

cbcool · Jun 30, 2017

Hey limey, I did consider ag lime at first but when I combined the 12" and 24" soil layers Ca saturation was at 68% so I opt'ed to stick with just gypsum.

I may not be in this spot next year, the wife and I are negotiating the purchase of a 40 acre lot, hopefully the deal goes through so we'll have our final resting place at least till we get old and die.

Thanks manyspliffs, trimming is always a pita around here.

plantingplants · Jun 30, 2017

Nice!! The low iron is interesting.... I thought red clay always had a lot of it.

Are you feeding at all?

cbcool · Jul 1, 2017

plantingplants said:
Nice!! The low iron is interesting.... I thought red clay always had a lot of it.

Are you feeding at all?

Ya not this red clay, I thought the high Mn to low Fe ratio was very interesting.

Not feeding much at all, I've watered in P to try to bring it up to equal K, watered in some FeSo4, some humic/fulvic acid, and a once a month dose of LAB and FPJ made from wild mustard and tarragon.

So I guess they kind of been fed but not excessively.

I'll test the soil again in a couple weeks to see were its at before pre flowering starts.

ManyManySpliffs · Jul 1, 2017

I luv growing in the red clay at my guerilla spot. I think it brings out the pink pistils in my girls that I see so often from using that spot.

cbcool · Jul 2, 2017

I wonder if there is a mineral correlation with pistil color of if its all genetics, either way you can't go wrong with pink and purple pistols!

ManyManySpliffs · Jul 2, 2017

cbcool said:
I wonder if there is a mineral correlation with pistil color of if its all genetics, either way you can't go wrong with pink and purple pistols!

My thoughts exactly.. :laughing:

cbcool · Jul 6, 2017

Happy late 4th of July everyone, I'm so we living in a country where we can be free to be ourselves, I hope everyone had a great Independence Day!

A little update, I think I've been over watering a bit. In June, before it got real hot I was watering 20-30 gals/plant every 10-14 days, as it got hotter I moved it up to 20-30gals every 7-10 days, then 5 days and just recently every 3 days. Needless to say I thought it was too much water so I dug a 12" hole next to a plant and sure enough it was plenty moisture 6" below the surface.

It's hot enough now that the first 4"-6" of soil drys out in three days, but 20-30 gals every three days seems a bit too much, so I'm going to back it off to 10 gals every three days and see how it goes.

Here's some pictures from the 4th, and thanks for stopping by.

Food Garden

Longs Peak Blue

Grape Krush

A couple of F-13's with a Flo behind on the right

An F-13 with Grape Ox in back

RoostaPhish · Jul 6, 2017

Everything looks nice and healthy. Even with the high ph. Has it come down anymore? Curious what a sap test would show.

cbcool · Jul 7, 2017

RoostaPhish said:
Everything looks nice and healthy. Even with the high ph. Has it come down anymore? Curious what a sap test would show.

Ya the last soil test the pH came down to 7.2. Not sure on sap tests I want to get some meters so I can test next year, their just not in the budget for this season.

Thanks for stopping by I do appreciate the input.

LivinLegally · Jul 7, 2017

Very nice overall...looks professional

Noonin NorCal · Jul 7, 2017

Looking good Cbcool

EasyGoing · Jul 7, 2017

Doing a really nice job.

Those tests are from logan right? I would be top dressing with some gypsum until those Ca numbers rise and the ph lowers. The Mg needs to be pushed out of the top 12". Looks great though.

cbcool · Jul 7, 2017

LivinLegally said:
Very nice overall...looks professional

I wouldn't go that far :tiphat:

, I just try to do the best I can with what little resources I have available, that and my grandfather hammered into me at an early age "if its worth doing its worth doing right".

Noonin NorCal said:
Looking good Cbcool

Thanks man i appreciate it.

EasyGoing said:
Doing a really nice job.

Those tests are from logan right? I would be top dressing with some gypsum until those Ca numbers rise and the ph lowers. The Mg needs to be pushed out of the top 12". Looks great though.

The test are from spectrum. I've been pushing gypsum , Mg has come down to about 12% base saturation. I'll be sending in another soil sample in 7-10 days to see what I need to do before flowering starts.

Thanks for stopping in, I'll try to post regular updates to keep up on the progress through the season.

cbcool · Jul 9, 2017

So I guess I was wrong about backing off the water to 10gals every three days. I watered the girls with 10gals on Wednesday and this is what some of them looked like by the time I got home from the city Friday night.

I suppose 20 gals every three days isn't to much water, I'll stick with that number for now.

Its always so tricky trying to figure out how to water this time of year when everything get so hot and dry.

LivinLegally · Jul 9, 2017

cbcool said:
So I guess I was wrong about backing off the water to 10gals every three days. I watered the girls with 10gals on Wednesday and this is what some of them looked like by the time I got home from the city Friday night.

View Image

View Image

I suppose 20 gals every three days isn't to much water, I'll stick with that number for now.

Its always so tricky trying to figure out how to water this time of year when everything get so hot and dry.

Sounds about on par with wats going on in my back yard. Each plants has 2 and a half yards of soiless and half yard of compost on top. Been near 100 degrees and they have been getting around 100 gallons of water every 13-15 days. Compost post teas help with the retention more than one would expect. And for added heat stress could also add lots of yucca and silica

cbcool's native soil grow 2017

Member

Member

Member

Well-known member

Active member

Member

Active member

Member

Active member

Member

Active member

Member

Well-known member

Member

New member

Active member

Member

Member

Member

New member