Organic Fanatics - Australia

johnnybsmokin · Aug 2, 2011

SilverSurfer_OG said:
Before taking drastic action make sure its ph related. I never use a ph meter now but its good practice when trying new products. So really ph isnt such a big deal unless in hydroponics... unless using way too much lime etc

Manutec make a great ph tester for soil. The one you have is junk if its the one im thinking of and used to own. I bet it reads 5.8 if you stick it up your arse

How wet is your medium?

Hey Silver

After a little more research etc I don't think I'll worry to much about adjusting the Ph levels. As I said in the last post the last 2 put into the flower cab are doing well at 5 weeks into 12/12 and there Ph reading is about 6.2. A couple of pics

As you can see these are doing fine, just don't know what has happened to the others thats all. This has happened once before with very shitty weights at harvest time. I'll just put it down to experience.

My watering at the moment (this time of year,winter) is about every 4-5 days. I fully submerge the pots in "water" untill it stops bubbling and then let drain completely.

Cheers all, and many thanks, Johnny :gday:

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 2, 2011

Cool as mate.

I have a hunch your watering method may be to blame. What you do works very well to evenly soak the medium. I know from experience that around week 5 or 6 (8 week flower cycle) the plants needs for water rapidly diminish. Any extra water from then on leads to floppy and browing leaves and buds... once they dry out watch for more white pistils and a happier plant.

Anyhoos hope this helps. :wave:

On the home front i got myself a new tool that will hopefully help me turn my compost heap. Pics soon.

Keep it green!

:smoweed:

Guest50138 · Aug 3, 2011

You need too take notes on the methodology you are using when doing organic dirt grows ,it gives you something to look back on and see what's working and what's not..there can be so many variables compared to doing a grow in hydro sometimes by the time I get a grow across the line I have forgotten what the fuck I have done.. Keep it simple stupidis my philosophy. Lately I have been using bulk garden mix from local garden centre adding coco and/or perlite to about 30% and 20% of my own composted material 10% worm-casts and a handful of dynamic lifter and been pulling in dank

johnnybsmokin I've had the same problems in the past with the PH crashing and cal/mag problems and have never been able to quickly re mediate the problems on the fly..seems you have to start with the basics right in the first place or you just get punished, find a simple mix that you can make with the material available to you and slowly work on improving it a grow at a time..Hydro is easy Organics can be a bit suck and see but its worth the few hassle you have ...Take it easy :gday:

bonsai · Aug 3, 2011

bonsai's budget brewer from bunnings

I posted this in the stickied tea brewer thread in the Organics forum, but I reckon it's worth putting in here as as the parts (except the pump) all came from Bunnings so it's damn easy for anyone else to grab the same bits if they want.

Black plastic part (female threaded 25mm to 13mm hose fitting) came from the irrigation department, all the PVC parts came from the plumbing department, and the "tank fitting" came from the plumbing section that deals with down pipe filters and similar bits. I *think* it came to $35 in total, but the tank fitting was on sale for $14 and is usually a bit more. If you can get your hands on a 20L water container from a water cooler you can flip that over, cut out the bottom and use a rubber reduce to join the bottle to the 25mm PVC, saving at least $10.

Here's the brewer in action:

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 3, 2011

Very cool thanks Bonsai!

I have been looking at the new and improved tea makers and plan on making one soon.

Nice vortex :good:

johnnybsmokin · Aug 3, 2011

very oldman said:
You need too take notes on the methodology you are using when doing organic dirt grows ,it gives you something to look back on and see what's working and what's not..there can be so many variables compared to doing a grow in hydro sometimes by the time I get a grow across the line I have forgotten what the fuck I have done.. Keep it simple stupidis my philosophy. Lately I have been using bulk garden mix from local garden centre adding coco and/or perlite to about 30% and 20% of my own composted material 10% worm-casts and a handful of dynamic lifter and been pulling in dank johnnybsmokin I've had the same problems in the past with the PH crashing and cal/mag problems and have never been able to quickly re mediate the problems on the fly..seems you have to start with the basics right in the first place or you just get punished, find a simple mix that you can make with the material available to you and slowly work on improving it a grow at a time..Hydro is easy Organics can be a bit suck and see but its worth the few hassle you have ...Take it easy

Hey very oldman

Thanks for the input my freind, it's strange how you can have great success for sometime and then have it all go pear shape even when every thing else is the same. I have used this same soil receipe now for the last year now with little dramas, actually have been recycling it for about 7 months with small amendments, and most do just fine????.

I am going to do an "autopsy" on the pot soil after harvest and check to see root ball and also look for "pests" to try and figure outif there is a problem.

Hey Bonsai

Nice setup there, should realy mix the teas nicely. Dont you just love Bunnings!!. What pump are you using?? capcity etc??

Cheers all, Johnny :gday:

bonsai · Aug 4, 2011

Johnny: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/55L-Min-...429632?pt=AU_Pet_Supplies&hash=item33667758c0 That's the pump I bought. Not using any of the airstones, manifold etc, but they're handy to have around for my mini aerocloner. 55L/min = 1.94CFM. Microbeman and the "Teaming with Microbes" book recommend at least 0.05CFM per gallon. With my 5.5gallon brews, the above pump supplies over six times that volume of air.

I also use the same setup for dechlorinating tap water, as my water tank has become a giant barrel of fermented possum shit and pine needles :badday:

bonsai · Aug 4, 2011

Good advice from SilverSurfer about overwatering too - gotta really watch out for that in winter. Cold, wet roots = unhappy plants!

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 4, 2011

Cheers Bonsai!

Hey that water tank just needs some mollasses and an airstone and be good to go :smoke:

Heres my compost heaps. I got this awesome tool for $20 that did a great job of turning them over. There were some dry spots in the corners but it looks and smells ok. I wetted it some more with urine, mollasses, Seasol, worm runoff and a pineapple EM ferment i made.

Decided to make it one big heap to hopefully kickstart the hot composting process again. Will be covering with black plastic too.

johnnybsmokin · Aug 4, 2011

bonsai said:
Good advice from SilverSurfer about overwatering too - gotta really watch out for that in winter. Cold, wet roots = unhappy plants!

Hey Bonsai

Temps aren't a problem here even in winter. The reason being is that I run my lights at night time and then off during the day. This is to do with the stealth factor for 1 and to also combat against the heat in summer. The temps this time of the year are a constant mid 20's give or take a degree and in summer it gets to about 27/28 max during lights on at night (temps at root level are about 20/22). If the temps go a little higher I just crank up the "light chamber" fan a little more, it's on a variable speed control and is only sitting about half way at the moment.

The soil mix is also very free draining so soggy roots aren't a problem.During the summer I am haveing to water every 2-3 days unless of coarse I leave a little water sitting in the over flow/drainage saucers under the pots.

Cheers Johnny :gday:

johnnybsmokin · Aug 4, 2011

SilverSurfer_OG said:
Cheers Bonsai!

Hey that water tank just needs some mollasses and an airstone and be good to go

Heres my compost heaps. I got this awesome tool for $20 that did a great job of turning them over. There were some dry spots in the corners but it looks and smells ok. I wetted it some more with urine, mollasses, Seasol, worm runoff and a pineapple EM ferment i made.

Decided to make it one big heap to hopefully kickstart the hot composting process again. Will be covering with black plastic too.

Hey Silver

I wish I had a back yard like yours, would certainly have more compost pile to boot. Is all that land beyond the "piles" yours as well???

Tell us what have you got "brewing" in the bath tub??? some special FPE or so.

Love the chooks as well, make me wish I hadn't sold my first house all those years ago, it was acreage, could be doing a lot more now and keeping chooks as well.

As one infamous "Aussie" once said, such is life.

Cheers Johnny :gday:

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 4, 2011

I have a couple acres. Mostly bush which is nice.

The bath tub is my new worm farm. It usually has a bucket under the drain hole.

Cheers mate.

johnnybsmokin · Aug 5, 2011

SilverSurfer_OG said:
I have a couple acres. Mostly bush which is nice.

The bath tub is my new worm farm. It usually has a bucket under the drain hole.

Cheers mate.

Worm farm!!, cool recycling of an old bath tub. The winter temps aren't knocking them around then??, I keep mine indoors in the garage to try an avoid the extremes. Even in the garage the temps only get down to the low teens at the worst. I suppose thats the joys of living in a sub tropical climate...lol

Cheers Johnny :gday:

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 5, 2011

Yeah they slow down but been getting heaps of runoff every time theres a good rain.

Its in a sunny spot so that helps. Might havta erect some kind of shade in the summer.

shroomyshroom · Aug 5, 2011

I got the worm bins cranking as well

never used any type of work product castings or liquids its going to be exciting to see the results

bonsai · Aug 6, 2011

lol SS_OG, the water tank is so putridly anaerobic... it's a lost cause. Been avoiding it for 3 years, it hasn't been too bad until ~4 months ago when the PH swung waaaay into acid and the odur became pungent. Massive clean out and plumbing up a source of rain water that isn't under a 80 year old pine is long overdue.

What's the go with your pineapple EM mix? I did a kiwi + pineapple sage FPE that I haven't used yet, it's super alcoholic judging by the (sweet) smell.

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 6, 2011

I see said the blind man to his deaf dog :smoke:

Yeah mine is supersweet smelling too! Makes the growroom smell awesome when i use it.

Not sure yet of exact benefits but hoping the enzymes in fresh pineapple were preserved. I used it on a bin full of recycled soiless medium plus very dense roots. It didnt break them down like say Cannazyme does but didnt use much. Think i will do a small scale experiment with it and see if it works at stronger dose.

wilbur · Aug 18, 2011

my compost heap

my compost heap

after three weeks I turned my small pile for a second time and found it stone cold throughout.

this should not be seeing as more than a third of it is goat shit.

so I asked the supplier about it and he told me it was from stuff in a yard out in the weather and was too hardpacked to bag ... so he put it thru a mulcher.

fabulous looking stuff! like peat moss. but it seems to me that hardpacked yard shit must be weathered and oxidised and the goodness may have just washed and evaporated away. which is why my compost isn't working.

so guys. do you agree with my deductions that sometimes apples aint apples?

(I have watered on a lot of urine and will see if that starts the composting. and just to be on the safe side began another pile this morning using chook pellets as starter.)

cheers all!

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 18, 2011

Fresh grass/greens are good.

Nitrogen will leach out easily with heavy rain and will also evaporate so yeah anything left out to weather wont have the N required to get hot compost.

Fresh horse shit and hay/straw is a good combo for the beginner composter ( i very much include myself in this catagory) and should be available to most country Aussies.

I havent checked the guts of my new heap yet but its covered in black landascape cloth and warm on top.

How does your heap smell?

Urine + mollasses will help a lot.

My pineapple brew is soaking with some roots at full strength. Been a few days and not much happening.

Might have to break my new habit and invest in some Cannazym or the H and G stuff...

SilverSurfer_OG · Aug 18, 2011

Thats my worm farm with some Azolla chucked in from my wee pond.

Bottom pic is my hugelkulture bed just planted with broad beans and potatoes. Its basically a big pile of branches and small trees/cuttings etc. Left to rot for a year or so and then made into a raised bed of sorts... it was going to be a bonfire but this is much better

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