[Hemphrey Bogart]

Thanks for starting this thread, FE.

I got a bunch of aea product recently...very timely thread for me.

I'll have to go through those links you posted before I ask my questions.

Thanks again!

HB.

[milkyjoe]

Originally Posted by FatherEarth

MJ,
What you said about the K in place of Ca not letting the plant utilize the B seems spot on looking at the soil tests
How does a plant not uptake what you foliar feed it? I understand in the soil but does it select minerals and nutrients when you foliar feed in the same way it does in the soil? Are you feeding photomag to the soil too?


Thanks

Watch the nova crop control stuff again. The plant works just like the soil. Once you saturate it foliar or no it ain't taking anymore.

I would be willing to guess those lower ph beds are not the ones that have hollow stems...they can exchange H for base cations ie they can take up foliar Ca whereas the ones with higher ph probably cannot. This is espe cially true if your soil ec is where you like to run it.

You are leaving no room for the plant to correct. It is fine to run highish cec if your mix is dead nuts on. But if it isn't you aren't allowing the plant to choose

[FatherEarth]

The ph was corrected before I ever added gypsum I added some spectrum extra and rejuvenate and kept the beds warm for two weeks. Within a week of that first watering the ph was 6.2 - 6.5... Thanks for the reply excellent info... Much appreciated.

[xmobotx]

I have spectrum extra and pepzyme c. My impression has been that it can remediate imbalance? So far, using as foliars and soil amendment, it seems to be a step up from not using it?

My plan is to alternate cal-phos slurry w/ kelpfalfa {bubbled in my brewer} as foliars {including the spectrum/pepzyme @ 1/4 tsp ea per 4~5 gals of bubbled foliar brews

[cannascholar]

Are yall following a guide or just going by the bottle's suggestions? I was told that the nutrients can be used in equal proportions. Tried everything at 1ml, rejuvenate 2ml per gallon and the plants loved it. Lookin forward to many good harvests with AEA.

[milkyjoe]

An absolute shameless product endorsement coming so avert your eyes if you are opposed to such things.

FE...if you are buying bags of soil for beds allow me to suggest Keystone Bio Ag for one bed. It will be expensive because it comes from PA but you will get to see with your own peepers what a seriously biologically active soil with Albrecht balance is about...and it is a potting soil

That plant went from what I thought was good potting soil into the keystone stuff. You can see the transition was a bit rough but check out the new leaves. They are not N and K driven so they are no where near as dark as I am use to seeing. But check out the gloss...lots and lots of energy in those things. I was literally blind but now I see...it is different but you recognize immediately what is going on.

Now, it may not grow as fast as high N/K soil but the tradeoff is worth it in my opinion. This is at a minimum my new start plants and keep my mothers in soil.

edit...you can see it is probably still a hair short on Ca...the tips. But some albion ca foliar and maybe a touch of photomag will fix that no problem. It has the dry version of Sea Shield in it...good stuff.

[Hemphrey Bogart]

Originally Posted by cannascholar

Are yall following a guide or just going by the bottle's suggestions? I was told that the nutrients can be used in equal proportions. Tried everything at 1ml, rejuvenate 2ml per gallon and the plants loved it. Lookin forward to many good harvests with AEA.

Yeah, I'm basically doing the same thing.

Did a simple soil test recently and found low N levels in all my containers. I'd been basically giving them water with a little liquid fish and mollasses up until a couple weeks ago. I top dressed the plants with a bit of bat guano (about 5 tbsp per 20 gallon pot). I'm going to check my soil again in a few days to see where my N levels are...plants already look better.

Since no one is willing to share their foliar formula, I've been giving the outdoor plants the following on a rotating basis...these are per gallon application rates all mixed in one container...

Present week:

1oz Photomag
1 oz pht Calcium
2 oz Rejuvenate
1oz seashield
5ml Pepzyme
1/8 micro 5k
5ml SE Wet

Mid week:

2oz Calmag
10ml Azamax or neem (rotating between the two)
2.5 tbls seacrop
5ml SE Wet

Following week:

Same as previous week, but I add 1/4 tsp of pk1k instead of micro5k.

My soil P and K levels are fine right now, but I'm checking my soil weekly to make sure they don't spike on me.

Went to the grow shop and asked for an ec meter for my soil and the guy didn't know they exist. He jumped on the computer because he couldn't believe that Hannah makes an EC meter for soil....I was going to ask if they carried any refractometers, but he seemed pretty annoyed by my first request so I didn't bother.

Milky or any of you other experienced aea folks, if you don't mind...can you suss what I'm doing and point out any glaring flaws? Thanks in advance.

HB.

[milkyjoe]

Here is the exact program recommended by aea for tomatos:

weekly fertigation for one acre

1 qt. PHT Phosphorus
1 qt. PHT Calcium
1 qt. Rejuvenate

1 qt. Sea Shield

0.5 qt. Sea Crop

12 Applications

Weekly foliar and it is suggested mix in 20-30 gallons of water

2 qt. HyperCaP

1 qt. PhotoMag
1 pt. MicroPak
0.67 ounces Micro 5000
3 ounces

Pepzyme Clear

1 qt. Sea Shield

0.5 qt. Sea Stim
1 qt. PHT Potassium increase PHT K to 2 qt. at fruit fill

1 qt. PHT Calcium

Make adjustments based on your soil...e.g. if your K is high (and whose isn't) do not add the pht-K. Also base it on observation...no two soils are the same, no two environments are the same, etc. Technically it should be based on tissue analysis or better yet, sap analysis...but for a starting point...

Based on sap tests for other plants Ca and P are the hardest things to get enough of in plants. The Pepzyme somehow improves this process so you might wanna use it in the fertigation also at the same rate.

edit...it is also a good idea to use micro 5000 one week and pz 1000 the other. Even though when you look at the label the microbes seem the same...they aren't. Different effects on how protein is synthesized.

[Hemphrey Bogart]

Thanks, milky. One thing I just noticed about my foliar mix is that the Rejuvenate contains yucca (and I assume saponins) already. I might be over doing it by adding the SE Wet as a surfactant. Can't I just use Rejuvenate and skip the SE Wet?

I'll look into that soil mix for next year. Thanks for posting up those results you got with it. I'm curious to see how that dirt handles the rest of the season.

I just want to mention, for the sake of people like me who had never heard of John Kempf before this season.....his lecture linked on the first page here is pretty eye opening. The stuff about "sucking insect" digestive systems was cool. Also, I never knew how round up worked. Good thing I don't use that shit at my place.

HB.

[FatherEarth]

No, Ive not bought any bagged soil in a while.. well, I put starts in black gold for the first two weeks but thats about it. Yea I got a quote from that company a while back when you mentioned them and they quoted me 17$ a bag delivered I believe. Im actually having my soil mixed and delivered to me now by a professional mixing company. Theyll add everything to exact specifications and the compost analysis they showed me is better than the stuff Ive had recently. I was told they would help aim for our favorite ratios with testing and amending til we get it right... 107$ a yard delivered or $8.68 bagged per 1.5 cu ft.

I am going to order some of your snake oil soil to try out though.. Thanks....


here is the compost analysis




surprising there are no inerts... currently I have to be careful mixing with my hands last time I dug into a bed while transplanting I got a nice gash from a piece of glass in the mix.. Ive always had some plastic or weird crap come out of green waste compost...