[SilverSurfer_OG]

High folks

Things ticking along here nicely. Plants starting to pick up their growth rates a bit. Have given them few feeds and topdressed with slow release ferts.

On the left are the Maroc/Afghan, the Big bud on the right with the two remaining Menage a trois still small at the front. They are getting repotted and given a good dose of nutes tomorrow.



The side by side is pretty much even stevens at mo.

These puppies are both in coco with the charcoal mix on the right. There is about a cm in it with the chicken poo in front.



These are in soil with the charcoal amended plant a bit bigger. This of course could be for any number of reasons. But so far so good.



So what have we learned already? Not much, but will mix in a good amount of charcoal with next re-pot and see what happens

[jaykush]

im starting to like the look of those Maroc/Afghan.

i like the side by side, looks good for now not much that i can see only a few differences but that could very well be because of genetics. one thing we have learned is that charcoal in the soil doesnt kill your plants, or seem to harm them in any way as of yet.

[Smurf]

Very healthy indeed SS, I'm loving the deep veined rippled leaves in those pics.
I swear by those square seedling tubes you're using, nice & deep.
If any of the charcoal plants die I'll be gob smacked,, only because an elderly gentleman taught me in my youth (many moons ago) that charcoal was extremely beneficial for healthy soil/plants i.e. it keeps the soil "sweet" & stops it from going "sour". I have personally never had probs with it, in fact IMO the plants can take more abuse.

I love this type of side by side test grow,,, its always interesting,,, until I stuff up by misplacing the tags etc.

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah i am very pleased after the dodgy start...

@Jaykush
I love the look of the Maroc/Afghani too jaykush, looks unlike any plant i have grown so far....

What ratio did you find the charcoal to be most effective in your grows?

I guess lots of people have been mixing charcoal into their compost heaps. I have put a good few shovels of charcoal into mine.

@Smurf
Yeah more punishment indeed

Love those pots too. Want to get a bigger example but cant find any here in Taz...

Do you still use charcoal in your mixes?

[jaykush]

What ratio did you find the charcoal to be most effective in your grows?

I guess lots of people have been mixing charcoal into their compost heaps. I have put a good few shovels of charcoal into mine.

actually im doing it a lot different than you. heres what i plan to do.

i mixed a few gallons back hmmm 2-3 weeks ago. each started with a base of castings, soil from outside sterilized in the oven, and perlite.

i am doing 4-5 mixes.
ca= castings ch=charcoal(natural from nature i gathered it up from about 4 different species and mixed equal parts) ach=activated charcoal pe=perlite ss=sterile soil
(these are estimates i do not measure)

1.10%ca/40%ss/20%ch/30%pe
2.10%ca/40%ss/30%ch/20%pe
3.20%ca/30%ss/30%ch/20%pe
4.10%ca/40%ss/30%ach/20%pe

then after a 2 months has gone by i will make another batch. so one will be aged two months. then say another 2 months ill make another, ill have a 2 month, 4 month and a fresh one. this is to see if age has anything to do with it. i might even go longer im not sure yet depends on how much room this is going to take.

after that i will probably start clones to throw out genetic differences.

its a long but patient way of doing things, but the results will show in time. its a side project anyways, way too much breeding, and composting experiments to do.

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Excellent jaykush. Very thorough! It will be interesting to see if the age makes a difference.

It has been raining here a fair bit and has kept my charcoal mix nice and moist. I wonder if that will allow beneficial microbes to flourish?

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Hello again.

The 4 Reclining Buddahs have just been repotted. Here you can also see the root development. The roots of the coco plants are lookin more healthy and less compact.

From left to right:

1. Coco/perlite/chicken poo
2. Compost/perlite/chicken poo
3. Coco/charcoal/perlite
4. Compost/charcoal/perlite





As you can see the two with charcoal are wee bit smaller... maybe this is due to the awesome power of chicken manure or maybe due to sex/genes or maybe the charcoal just wasnt rich enough??? Lots of variables here...

Anyway i have now gottem in 10litre buckets and have kept the same mixes. This time i have added a good helping of dry ferts to each pot.

[ThaiPhoon]

I think they look great. I have one plant that grew in the same pot as one of my small citrus trees. Not sure how it got there, but it is my most healthy specimen. The soil in that pot is about 40% rice husk charcoal the rest is a mixture of local potting soil and some clay earth native to my area. I tried a mixture of 50 50 coco and char a while ago, I believe that failed due to my inexperience with fertilisers and such. I will have another crack at it soon enough. Awesome thread Silver..

Peace

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Thanks ThaiPhoon!

I have been using 1/3 charcoal for my recent mixes and 1/4 charcoal indoors.

This did seem to disagree slightly with my more sativa strains but the indicas were fine.

I would imagine 50% might be too much...

I should also point out that my charcoal mix is actually an equal amount of charcoal, compost and sand.

[jaykush]

looking good. this is where clones would have come in handy. to see the slight differences but its all good still a good show. was wondering when you were gonna update this.