Tutorial Organics for Beginners

[BigTex]

Is vermiculite recommended for MJ cultivation? And if so what ratio should I use? I've got a bag and I'm wondering if it would be harmful or beneficial to add that to my mix. I didn't see that ingredient anywhere in the first post so I was just wondering...

 

[mad librettist]

Is vermiculite recommended for MJ cultivation? And if so what ratio should I use? I've got a bag and I'm wondering if it would be harmful or beneficial to add that to my mix. I didn't see that ingredient anywhere in the first post so I was just wondering...

I've rooted with 50/50 perlite/vermiculite before, but it's left out of the soil mixes for a reason. It will make things too heavy.

 

[BigTex]

I've been working on making my organic mix and here's what I have mixed so far (it's still a work in progress)...

4 parts Organic Potting Soil (MG Organic)
2 parts perlite
2 parts Sphagnum Peat Moss
1 part Earthworm Castings
2 cups Bone Meal 6-9-0 (M.G. organic)
2 cups Domolite Lime (GROWMORE powdered)
1.5 cups Blood Meal 12-0-0 (M.G. Organic)
1 cup Kelp Meal 1-.1-2 (Down to Earth)
(1part=2gallons)
Combining those ratios made about 16 gallons. I watered in some humic acid and am stirring the mix daily for 2-3 weeks before using it.

I still have Azomite and Greensand(Down to Earth 0-0-3) that I haven't added yet. I'm thinking I should add .5cup azomite and .5cup greensand??? I'm also considering doubling the earthworm castings. That would raise my mix to about 18 gallons.

I have Medina Humate Humic Acid and Garrett Juice that I plan on adding to my water as the directions recommend, or maybe a little less. The Garrett Juice is made by Natures Guide and the ingredients are Compost tea, Molasses, Seaweed, and Apple cider vinegar.

I also have a gallon of Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom soil formula that I'll probably use sparingly a couple times during flowering, even tho I probably don't need it... what the hell.

This is an indoor grow and I'm watering with rain water (neutral to slightly acidic, I PH test it every few days). I am storing rainwater in a large reservoir and bubbling the rain water 12hrs/day to oxygenate the water and keep it from going sour. I will be veging in gallon pots and transplanting to 3gallon pots once they indicate sex. I'll need to make another batch soon so I have enough medium for all the 3gallon pots.

I'm looking for suggestions and/or criticism so fire away

 

[chappie]

I've been working on making my organic mix and here's what I have mixed so far (it's still a work in progress)...

4 parts Organic Potting Soil (MG Organic)

...[Snip]...

1 cup Kelp Meal 1-.1-2 (Down to Earth)

Combining those ratios made 16 gallons. I watered in some humic acid and am stirriing the mix daily for 2-3 weeks before using it.

What are the "parts" you are using? 1 gallon? That doesn't quite add up to the 16 you report, so are you using a random container as a "part"?

 

[BigTex]

1part=2gallons.

 

[smoketrichs]

When or should I ever apply sul-po-mag during flowering?

 

[Corpsey]

hey bigtex, if each part is 2 gallon then...

4 parts Organic Potting Soil (MG Organic) =8 gallons
2 parts perlite =4 gallons
2 parts Sphagnum Peat Moss =4 gallons
1 part Earthworm Castings =2 gallons
Total=18 gallons
Which i believe is 2.79 Cubic feet

so the LC1 with recipe 1 says...
bone meal 1 cup per CF
blood meal 1/2 cup per CF
kelp meal 1/2 cup per CF
dolomite lime 1 cup per CF
greensand or azomite 1/2 cup per CF

hope that helps im in the process of doing the math on my soil too, so hopefully someone can come in here and verify all this info, but im pretty sure on it.

 

[BigTex]

Yourcorpse the math is right. Thanks for your help! I got an 18 gallon container to store it in and it's not quite full...maybe compaction is why it's 16 gallons... Maybe I didn't do a good job measuring all the ingridients I'm just estimating 16 gallons, it could be plus or minus a gallon or so. I could fluff it out to 18 gallons I guess. Maybe when I was measuring stuff out the ingridients were too fluffy??? I was trying to make 18 gallons cause I'm gonna fill 18 1gallon pots. Guess I shoulda made a little extra or I need to cut back to 16 pots. Phuck! I'll probably just add a little more worm castings to make up the difference.

Either way it looks like I'm pretty close on all the organic Nutes...maybe slightly under according to the LC1 recipe.

I ended up adding 1 cup greensand and a half cup of azomite.

My goal here is to make some nice tasty bud. I just want a little change from what I get outa my native soil(taste wise that is).

 

[BigTex]

I've mixed up another couple batches for the 3gal pots I'm gonna flower in and I left out the blood meal since I won't need all that N for the flowering stage but I left all the other ratios the same. This time I must have measured better cause I got the full 18 gallons both times. Oh well practice makes perfect they say. Any other suggestions?

 

[RipVanWeed]

Thought I would throw up the Mix I'm working on. This is based on info I've gathered here. First, the reason for a new receipe is



While weening off the bottle, I couldn't keep up with the demands of the plants. I believe I fell behind in all nutes, but especially P and K. All my plants have bright red/maroon stems, and damage seen above. Anything with red stems goes yellow 1/2 way through flower. I follow MicrobeMan's receipe for AACT, but just haven't had enough poop in the mix to satisfy my girls. Another factor is I've been vegging my plants bigger before flowering, so by the time I flower, my mix was depleted.

I started top dressing with hi P guano, Sul-Po-Mag, and EWC/Vermiblend mixed. The girls coming along now are looking better, but I see a few issues with the medium. In the quest for improved growth and simplifying care I need to change my mix.

The blend I'm concocting tomorrow ( copied from Clackamas Coot and adjusted for available materials) goes like this:
22g of CannaCoco
17g of SunShine #4
17g of Perlite #3
4g of Kellogg's Natural (mild/red)
4g of Kellogg's Natural (hot/blue)
4g of Vermiblend
2g of EWC

Amended with:
12c of seed, kelp, feather, fish, alfalfa, blood, and bone meals
14c of Naomi's Mineral Mix
7c of Glacial Rock Dust
1c of Oyster Shell Flour
1c of Dolomite Lime
1c of Gypsum

The Naomi's and rock dust just arrived today!

I ran 5g of RO water through each sack of coco, let it drain for an hour, measured runoff at 325ec/250tds/5.6ph. Then ran 2g of AACT through each bag, draining overnight, runoff ph had raised
to bout 6.

I tested the Kellogg's before buying, collected a pinch of each at Home Depot. Soaked in RO water for 36 hrs, strained and measured each at:
Kellogg's Red (mild) 872ec/607tds/6.5ph
Kellogg's Blue (hot) 1848ec/1326/tds/6.8ph



Also measured:
SunShine Mix #4 605ec/416tds/5.78ph
Rip's Previous Mix 1909/1376/6.5ph

Have 4 x 35g trashcans to store in. I drilled many 1/8th" holes in them for air supply.

I water by hand, dailey...will this mix go 24 hrs between watering?

I'm going to have to use some of this new mix right away, but how long do you typically incubate this soil before use?

A nagging concern is the lockout issues with coco?

Any/all ideas, tips and comments welcomed.

Thanks to all the contributors on this site.

Respect,

 

[hashit]

I've been using LC's Mix (blood/bone/kelp) with LK every watering and molasses every other watering. I use a mix of well-water and R/O...I have really hard well-water and that's why I use this mixture. Plants look good and healthy but there is a particular plant that has massive yellowing/dark redish spots. This is the second time growing her, and it's a brand-new batch of the mix. She showed the same symptoms last grow as well...but as you can see the rest of the plants (same c99 clones) LOVE the mix...They are in their 4th week of flowering.

It looks as this particular pheno may need an adjustment to the mix or even a tea throughout its grow...

any ideas/suggestions?

 

[OPT]

Chicken manure compost substitute?

Chicken manure compost substitute?

I've used the following mix plenty of times with good results:

LC’s Soiless Mix #1:

5 parts Canadian Sphagnum Peat or Coir or Pro-Moss
3 parts perlite
2 parts worm castings or mushroom compost or home made compost
Powdered (NOT PELLETED) dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic foot of the soiless mix.


This time I don't have any wormcastings but I do have some Sup r' green chicken manure. This

It says that it is composted, and will not burn plants. Can I use this in place of wormcastings in the above recipe or will it be too strong?

Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks,

OPT

 

[BigTex]

I ordered some domolite lime and the ad said it was powdered but when I opened the box it was just a tad smaller than rocksalt. Is that considered powdered??? It's made by Growmore Research Farms and it's 22% calcium and 11% magnesium. Will that be ok or should I toss it and go with another brand?

 

[laughingmoon]

I ordered some domolite lime and the ad said it was powdered but when I opened the box it was just a tad smaller than rocksalt. Is that considered powdered??? It's made by Growmore Research Farms and it's 22% calcium and 11% magnesium. Will that be ok or should I toss it and go with another brand?

My DL was like tablesalt

 

[mugenbao]

I ordered some domolite lime and the ad said it was powdered but when I opened the box it was just a tad smaller than rocksalt. Is that considered powdered??? It's made by Growmore Research Farms and it's 22% calcium and 11% magnesium. Will that be ok or should I toss it and go with another brand?

I've had decent success with dolomite that sounds like what you are describing. I didn't find any noticeable difference. There may be a good reason to use finer powdered dolomite, but it's not readily apparent from my (admittedly somewhat limited) experience.

 

[Rumer]

I ordered some domolite lime and the ad said it was powdered but when I opened the box it was just a tad smaller than rocksalt. Is that considered powdered??? It's made by Growmore Research Farms and it's 22% calcium and 11% magnesium. Will that be ok or should I toss it and go with another brand?

if you can try to get the pulverized dolomite lime. it looks like flour

 

[jaykush]

It looks as this particular pheno may need an adjustment to the mix or even a tea throughout its grow...

yup its as simple as that, you want to establish a baseline soil mix for yourself( either it be LC or your own) some strains might want it a little lighter, some heavier, some more food, some less. once you have a baseline its VERY easy to make adjustments specially with even the most simple of notes. grow the same cut a few times, adjusting each run and before you know it youll have perfected that strain.

 

[guest2012y]

yup its as simple as that, you want to establish a baseline soil mix for yourself( either it be LC or your own) some strains might want it a little lighter, some heavier, some more food, some less. once you have a baseline its VERY easy to make adjustments specially with even the most simple of notes. grow the same cut a few times, adjusting each run and before you know it youll have perfected that strain.

Type of cannabis definitely has much to do with what results you get from a soil mix. It can get a bit tricky to have one mix that works for 20 types of cannabis.

 

[OPT]

Got ahold of the makers of that chicken manure and he told me it is not used in place of worm castings, even though it is composted it has a lot more stuff in it then normal wormcastings and it will burn young plants. They meant if it was mixed into dirt at the applciated rate in which it recommends it will not burn plants.

OPT

 

[grapeman]

World Ag Expo

World Ag Expo

Just did a quick tour of the world ag expo (formerly the "Tulare Ag Show"). Haven't been for close to 20 years and I thought the organic folks would like to know that fertilizer companies large and small are all developing their own "organic" products lines.

Organic acids and acid blends along with anything with the words "soil microbes" were big KEY words.