[OregonBorn]

I see, you know about the nail file method then... we are on the same page here. I have grown a lot of older seeds myself. I have a crazy collection of older seeds from Europe, Latin America and NorCal. I have also force popped the seed shells, but I just crack the hinge and leave them on. I have the same problem with doing that though, I tend to get dampening off. Even with sterile tools, sterile water, sterilized soil (baked on the oven for an hour at 250). My grow room in the converted garage may be too filled with spores in the air? Or it was just to forking wet and cool this spring. It rained through mid June. 2 years ago was PRIME growing this side of the Cascades. Best year ever, hot and sunny from April on. California climate year. First legal year to grow in Oregon too.

Originally Posted by Dankwolf

With seeds older then 10 years old or seeds that have high value i first lightly sand edhes of seeds with a nail file . then soak for a few days in water .after that i pull seeds out of water . then apply presure with twizers to sides of seed shell to lightly open it enough to get a small knife in between shell opening and force open exposing seedling . then place exposed seedlings in a damp/wet paper towel in a zip lock bag and place bag in a warm dark place 70 to 75 degress till i see obvious . soon as i see a good half inch of growth seedlings then in to 4 inch potters.this technique has much higher germantion rate that is needed for old seeds.


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[OregonBorn]

Your soil mix is fine. I have been mixing my own soils for years. I have also grown weed in in the ground in pure sandy soil, pure clay soil, pure compost, silty loam, and all sorts of mixed soils. Its a weed... and will grow in virtually anything. These soil mixes and fancy numbered fertilizers that they sell? Not needed.

I mix:

1 part native silty soil (important for fungal spores, accd to UC Davis, native spores are just as good as any other spores to build up your soil fungal mass)
1 part composted wood products (sawdust, bark, fine wood chips, bagged stuff; whatever is free or cheap; I compost my own sawdust here layered with grass clippings for nitrogen)
1/4 part perlite (I buy the huge bags at a nursery supply)
1/4 part sand (from the local river bank, using east Cascades soil you can skip this)
1/4 part peat moss
1/4 part composted: barn muck, sheep poop, steer manure, mushroom compost, Alpaca poo, horse manure, or whatever composted poop that is available. Avoid Milorganite or human manures though, they can have diseases.

And smaller amounts of any of the following: kelp meal, cottonseed meal, bone meal, blood meal, worm castings, and whatever else is handy.

I also top with Superphosphate and Ironite, so that whatever the soil pH, the plants will get enough iron and phosphate. I also toss in some worms and used coffee grounds. Wiggling red and earth, and let them do the soil aerating, and leave lots of castings. Worms love coffee grounds, and the compost. They will propagate. I feed the worms, and let them do the work. I also toss in some cut and dried edible boletus mushroom caps that I got from my property the year before. This year I am going to harvest 20 or so different mushrooms to dry and use in future soils. No need to buy any fancy spores. We have hundreds of shrooms growing here in the PNW. The soil is already full of spores, and this is likely overkill.

But as I said above, weed will grow in pretty much any type of soil, and with any type of fertilizer.

Originally Posted by Dankwolf

I am pretty much broke for soil funds for this years out door so i was thinking of making a horse manure/native soil mix to use . i am trying to use ingredients that i all ready have .any input would be appreciated.

Native soil is the common eastern oregon sandy look.

horse manure is from a compost pile of 1 through 5 year old manure that is broke down nicely . horse's were feed alfalfa mainly but pile contains some hay from stall floors (15% or so). I can dig and only use 5 or so year old manure or only use 1 year old manure or both?

My thoughts so far are to mix

1 part native soil
1/2 part sunshine peatmoss.
1 part horse manure compost
1/3-1/2 part custom soil amendment ?

Custom soil amemdment recipe

2.5 cups grden lime ( buffer / cal-mag )
5 cups kelp meal ( 1-0.1-2 )
5 cups gandular humic acid ( no npk value )
5 cups neam seed meal ( 6-1-2 / pest detorant)
5 cups alfalfa meal ( 2.5-0.5-2.5 /growth hormone )
5 cups high phosphorus bat guano ( 0-7-0 )
1 medium bag/ part fine organic Diatomaceous earth ( calcium/ silicon / pest detorant/low k stabalizer )
1 bag/part .5 cu ft worm castings ( nitrogen/potash)
1 bag/part .5 cu ft ancient forest ( humus )
1 bag/part .5 cu ft mushroom compost ( beneficial fungi )
1/3 of a 5 gallon bucket chicken manure high in calcium (from my laying chickens ) also cotanins about 10% pine/ceder beding and about 10% fire place ash. ( npk diversity )

The final soil mix will be watered with high brix molasses and allowed to sit for at least 45 days .

[OregonBorn]

As an aside here

I would leave out the ground Neem seed in the soil, as Neem is an anti-fungal. Neem works great sprayed on the leaves to kill the bugs and PM, but it also kills the beneficial fungal mass growing in the soil. I only use Neem as a drench if I have spider mites, and only as a last resort after using it as a spray. If I have mites before flowering, I also use Avid. Both Neem and Avid break down rapidly in UV light, so I am not worried about residue. Others scream about Neem residue here, and allergies and weird reactions that I have never heard of, but I have not had any issues using it.

Also the horse manure: I would use the old horse manure and not the new stuff. I have used a lot of horse manures, and they tend to be dense and break down really slowly. I lived on what was an old horse ranch in Southern Oregon, and the old rotted piles of horse manure left there worked great. The worms love the stuff. It was better than the fresh barn much and new manures, which can be too hot in nitrogen. You have to breakup the old horse manure though. If possible use a cement mixer on your soils. I do not have one any more, so I use a wheel borrow and a shovel.

I also revitalize soils from previous grows with the natural amendments, peat, coffee grounds, and more compost, as all the natural stuff will disappear after a year in this climate. And I water with molasses on any new soil only once for the first watering. I want to grow weed, not gobs of fungus. The fungal mass will grow without it, I just use it as a starter feeding. You want them to get their food from the roots of your plants, as they have for millions of years.

[Dankwolf]

Originally Posted by OregonBorn

Holy shirt... I grow in a GH so I have to keep the size down with pruning and growing in 25 gallon tubs. Your plants are gonna be Jeorge Cervantes NorCal monsters.

Pots are around 1000 gallon give or take due to the fact i dug below pottors aswell . i plan to build a green house around plants in the fall some time weather depending fo a full season finish it will be interesting lol.

[Dankwolf]

There are so many new to the industry /collage educated growers breeding supper bugs due poorly thought out pest management program's.

Hemp pollen, pollen, Pm, mold, plant disease and emmun bugs are out of hand in my area. So i am forced to make decisions that are not allways optimal just to stay ahead of the pest management game.

[OregonBorn]

Originally Posted by Dankwolf

Pots are around 1000 gallon give or take due to the fact i dug below pottors aswell . i plan to build a green house around plants in the fall some time weather depending fo a full season finish it will be interesting lol.

Thousand gallons... double holy shit, Batman! definitely Humboldt County growing size pots.

The big issue with greenhouses in fall is >>CONDENSATION<< when the weather cools. Unless they are insulated or heated, or a special type of GH plastic that prevents it. Condensation leads to drips, and that leads to spot rot. Also frost can be an issue. In Southern Coastal Oregon I had an early Umpqua frost that knocked out my long flowering Colombian strain girls even in a greenhouse. It was not heated though.

[OregonBorn]

Originally Posted by Dankwolf

There are so many new to the industry /collage educated growers breeding supper bugs due poorly thought out pest management program's.

Hemp pollen, pollen, Pm, mold, plant disease and emmun bugs are out of hand in my area. So i am forced to make decisions that are not allways optimal just to stay ahead of the pest management game.

All big issues. Free floating hemp pollen is a growing issue here, as there are several huge hemp growers in my county now. Botrytal rot was always an issue and strain dependent. Sativas are more resistant with more open buds. Spider mites were always an issue, but getting worse. Broad mites are a newer issues, and really bad in Southern Oregon and NorCal. PM was always an issue, and strain dependent. GDP was the worst for PM for me, but early land race western hemisphere sativas do not get it. Oil sprays work well to control PM though. Ag mineral oil, or refined Neem oil at 100:1 work well. They also kill bugs and mites. Whitefly has always been an issue growing indoors, and in GH. Thrips are common, but only a nuisance. Fungal gnats are an issue, and oil sprays also work to quench them. Dampening off is my biggest issue here, but again, not with sativas. And slugs... damn things got one of my baby clones the other day. They ate the whole plant!

[Dankwolf]

Originally Posted by OregonBorn

Thousand gallons... double holy shit, Batman! definitely Humboldt County growing size pots.

The big issue with greenhouses in fall is >>CONDENSATION<< when the weather cools. Unless they are insulated or heated, or a special type of GH plastic that prevents it. Condensation leads to drips, and that leads to spot rot. Also frost can be an issue. In Southern Coastal Oregon I had an early Umpqua frost that knocked out my long flowering Colombian strain girls even in a greenhouse. It was not heated though.

I am only concerd with low temps and shity growth due to the fact that 3 of 4 plants are cotton candy and she is pretty much immune to mold.i am being gifted a freinds last season duel layer green house plastic that should cover them seamlessly.

I also plan to use a natural gas stove/fire place. Running on a thermostat with a high humity shut off to heat and keep humity in check and yes it will be vented properly with doulble wall pipe and the proper coller to exit green house safely. For back up i plan to wire in a large squirrel fan that will be used to handel air flow/temps as needed using a cheap heat pump thermostat cheep thermostat.

[OregonBorn]

That should all work well. Reading up on CC they tend to herm (the strain has been over feminized), so watch for male flowers. She is also said to be a rather late bloomer, likely need to flower through at least October.

[Dankwolf]

Originally Posted by OregonBorn

That should all work well. Reading up on CC they tend to herm (the strain has been over feminized), so watch for male flowers. She is also said to be a rather late bloomer, likely need to flower through at least October.

This one was a delicious seed version of cc to the best of my knowledge leans . structure is heavy on the power plant side but the terp profile is mostly skunk coming from the lavander side. No herms unless something really goes wrong. It is thrip/ fungus ghant susceptible. I would call it a 9.5 to 11.5 depending on skill/setup.