[rrog]

Dirt cheap!

[rrog]

Obligatory shot of the medium in da bucket.



1 week to go and plants go in.

I would mention that I worked hard to mix the medium very, very uniformly. No clumps or pockets of anything. I was at a loss for a big mixing vessel, so I bought two new (large) plastic garbage cans.

I mixed the major components in the garbage can, and the minor amendments in a 5 gallon pail. Then combined the two thoroughly in the garbage can.

I used a cut off hoe (sort of a hand-held hoe) as well as poured the contents from one garbage can to the other about 20 times.

Air is coming through the whole system just fine it seems.

[Kanye WeED]

very nice indeed rrog, u r getting a head start on me, def gotta follow this 1. im wishing u the best, u sure r looking good so far for sure, hmmmm got the dirt in there already and the air flow just bubbling away huh, ahhh a man after my own heart, im prob at least a month or maybe even 2 away from my bucket going up, but yet and still i just wanna seem to get mine up and started too

ha ha

nice job man, so far so good!!!

[LadyLargely]

Wey-hey! Good going buddy!

Are you still gonna try to supplement the pearlite cap with that fabric? Thought that was a neat idea. Got any more info on your whole rig-to be? Your sig is empty, been looking around for your 'home' thread. You've just been studying this for so long instead of diving in head-first. You've gone at it in basically the exact opposite way as I would have done. I think you're grow is gonna have a really high level of polish, you seem like you'll bring some sophistication to the method.

Good luck!

[rrog]

Thanks guys. I'll take more pics of the bigger rig at large.

Not sure about the topping yet. But I have to decide this AM before the myco gets established. I'll likely peel off 1" of that top medium. I'm just not sure I'd need both fabric and Perlite.

There's the reflected light advantage of perlite, but I have a lot of light.

EDIT:

I checked for moisture movement in the medium. Stuck my finger down and it seemed more moist. I inserted the medium dry, over the water-loaded rocks. This was last night.

I cleared off 1" of medium and added a finer grade layer of Perlite. No landscape fabric layer. I've said before that I generally like to follow a recipe first before I start modifying things.

Many years ago (maybe 1980) I grew a plant. Light crushed it. Then 1 year ago I tried again and grew 3 girls with Drip Hydro. Worked great. I have weed leftover that will get thrown away.

So this is really my second grow ever. I put all hydro equipment, ferts, pH and TDS meters and calibration solutions all in storage.

Wish me luck!

[Kanye WeED]

Originally Posted by rrog

Thanks guys. I'll take more pics of the bigger rig at large.

Not sure about the topping yet. But I have to decide this AM before the myco gets established. I'll likely peel off 1" of that top medium. I'm just not sure I'd need both fabric and Perlite.

There's the reflected light advantage of perlite, but I have a lot of light.

EDIT:

I checked for moisture movement in the medium. Stuck my finger down and it seemed more moist. I inserted the medium dry, over the water-loaded rocks. This was last night.

I cleared off 1" of medium and added a finer grade layer of Perlite. No landscape fabric layer. I've said before that I generally like to follow a recipe first before I start modifying things.

Many years ago (maybe 1980) I grew a plant. Light crushed it. Then 1 year ago I tried again and grew 3 girls with Drip Hydro. Worked great. I have weed leftover that will get thrown away.

So this is really my second grow ever. I put all hydro equipment, ferts, pH and TDS meters and calibration solutions all in storage.

Wish me luck!

wow, a no ph meter grow, ill def be watching this one man, good luck

im sure we all wish u the best on your voyage

itd be nice if i didnt have to use my ph meter ever again i got my 170 dollars woth of it i think so far

damn i cant wait to give this method a try!!!

[rrog]

No pH measurements required with OBBT. The micro-life maintains the pH for you. If you tried to change the pH the micro-life will simply bring it back to where it wants to be, according to DM.

The beauty of this method is that the micro-life takes over a lot of the duties we would normally do in chem fert hydro.

[Kanye WeED]

Originally Posted by rrog

No pH measurements required with OBBT. The micro-life maintains the pH for you. If you tried to change the pH the micro-life will simply bring it back to where it wants to be, according to DM.

The beauty of this method is that the micro-life takes over a lot of the duties we would normally do in chem fert hydro.

ok well thats lovely, but having said that "chem ferts" and all what if i do all organic nutes what will that do?

will my ph be maintained no matter what nutes i go to use??

thanks man thats really helpful!!!

[LadyLargely]

Actually, you can get mantinence-free pH and use artificially derived nutrients.

OBBTs just need the majority of their nutrition to come from organic sources so that the microbes have something to eat. So long as the microbes are well-fed and well-oxygenated they will maintain the soil pH no matter what!

Thing is, there's no real reason to use mineral nutrients when you have access to organics. If you have strong microbes to break them down, organics are superior for most your cannabis-growing needs. Organics do especially well in providing a large amount of high-variety nitrogen sources.

Organics should be used for 80-90% of your plants' nutritional needs. There are organic substitutes for most trace nutrients as well. Kelp and pretty much all ocean products are packed to the gills with traces. And molasses is all-natural CAL-MAG. And in the right ratio too! Molasses almost always packs twice as much calcium as mag; perfect!

But! And it is a big, round, full-bodied but. Getting the huge amounts of phosphtes into the medium fast enough to cover a well-veged cannabis plant's insatiable desires with organic nutrients only is a big challenge. Other than bat guano there aren't a lot of phosphate-heavy organic nutes out there, and most of them are very tightly-bound 'slow release' type stuff.

This! is where mineral nutrients really come into their own. If you are going to use any artificial fertilizers use them during heavy bloom. There's about a 4-6 week span where the plants will devour nearly as much P as you can throw at them. Organics will run a great OBBT and will do almost everything you need. But if you are looking for maximum yield and don't care about being '100% organic' then use some good strong flowering nutes like Fox Farms tiger bloom.

If you make sure to keep your mineral usage reasonable and well spaced-out a well-sorted OBBT will continue to grow strong microbes and keep the pH well-balanced!

KW,

You definitely need to be sticking all-organic for now. Stay with organic ferts as you initially mix up the medium and use only organic teas to get through veg and early flower. If you make it through the first 4-7 weeks with organics-only you will be well-rewarded. pH stability will be rock solid and then you can sneak a few artificial nutrients later on during heavy flower when it really counts!

So until then, stick with the all-natural stuff. Its worth it big time!

[rrog]

Originally Posted by LadyLargely

And molasses is all-natural CAL-MAG. And in the right ratio too! Molasses almost always packs twice as much calcium as mag; perfect!

LadyL I am running RO / DI water and added CalMag+ to get TDS to 250. Like "regular" water now. I'd rather use the molasses. You're saying I could add Molasses to the RO water to get it to 250ppm and fly with that?

I have a well that runs through a water softener, then through the RO / DI system. No way around that. So I have to supplement the water.

Thanks