Sea solids and coco; Side by side trial

[CovertCrops]

Hello curious cultivators, welcome to my sea solids trial. After reading Sea energy Agriculture by Dr. Murray my curiosity got the better of me and I decided I wanted to see what this sea solids business was all about. Growing crops with sea water is a fascinating concept.

Edit: I run perpetual tables so new experiments will start before the older ones finish.
2nd trial Natures Nectar + Sea 90 starts on page 6

The instructions call for 1 teaspoon (5ml) per gallon of solution and they advise adding fish emulsion and/or humate, plus wetting agent. The other option I could use is 1 tablespoon per 3 gallons of coco. I'm not sure at this point if I will mix it into the coco for this trial. I have 7 Strawberry cough , 6 Ecsd, and 2 Strawberry diesel clones heading into flower this weekend. These plants have not received sea water yet, will start applying in flower.

Half of the plants will be the control group (Canna coco nutes) and the other half will be fed a seawater diet. All plants will flower in 6L pots of straight Canna coco.

I think I covered all the bases for now but feel free to ask questions. I may not be able to answer them but ask anyways.



more info about sea solids
http://seaagri.com

 

[CovertCrops]

A line has been drawn

A line has been drawn

I couldn't resist, I fed half strength sea water to a few plants last night. Everything looked fine this morning so I split the plants into their respective groups and applied the sea water to the rest of the trial group. No casualties as of yet.

 

[osirica420]

Nice thread bro, i've been waiting for someone to step up..
I been growing with this technique for 2+yrs and dont ever plant on stopping..

Sea90 is awesome just needs a tiny bit of npk and the plants will take off!
I notice it the most in the taste, potency and smell....

Hope you dont mind me posting pics, here are some ChemdogDD's and Supers Silver Hazes in flower.

400ppm floranova bloom 1500ppm sea salt mineral mix

given salt from first seed soak...
going to take all these to 85days... 27days since first pistil!
shootin for at least 700grams only 3-4week veg

 

[CovertCrops]

Orsirica420 - Thanks for checking out the thread. I appreciate the pics, your plants look great, very healthy! Can't argue with results like that. I also appreciate the info in your thread as I found it very helpful when making up my first dose. What scale do you use for your ppm? I usually use .7 or just use EC. I know you were using PbP bloom @ 400 ppm, do you like the floranova better?

Osirica420's sea solid thread

 

[osirica420]

I have never grown with refined minerals, only 100% organic or a combo of the two mixed with the sea minerals...

This round i figured i would see whats up with a mineral only grow combined with sea mineras, so far i like it more then PBP..
Its really strong stuff only really 200-300ppm is needed in bloom when using sea minerals, and it keeps the PH super steady
which is a HUGE plus, i only adjust every 4-5 days... PBP is not as strong IMO but produces tasty buds for sure...

200-400ppm refined minerals
1000-2000ppm sea minerals

Not sure what that comes out to in E.C. but 1 teaspoon of mineral salt dissolved in water should give ~2000ppm in 1 gallon of water...

 

[CovertCrops]

Azospirllum

Azospirllum

We know from Dr. Murray's experiments and from osirica420's experience that we must add a small but fertilizing amount of nitrogen. Adding P and K may not be necessary according to Dr. Murray. To that end this trial will attempt to grow plants with just sea water and the help of some microbes, namely Azospirillum. I picked up some fish emulsion today, it will be on emergency standby if this doesn't work.

Azospirillum
In short, its a nitrogen fixing soil microbe which also produces a form of IAA that is easily used by the plants (Indole-three-Acetic Acid increases lateral root growth and root hairs, effectively boosting plants' overall root surface) . It is responsible for yield increases from 5 - 20% in real-world field conditions. It forms a symbiotic relationship with trichoderma and mycorrhizae to maximize growth and production rates. The United Nations recommends the use of Azospirillum in poor countries. It has recently become available in the American marketplace.

The package claims these microbes can provide 50-90% of the nitrogen required by plants. While they may not eliminate the need for additional nitrogen, it is worth investigating.

Far more knowledge than I supplied you with:

Azospirillum's effect on common crops. pg. 38-57
www.bashanfoundation.org/gmaweb/pdfs/Azospirillumreview.pdf

Azospirillum and vegetable crop production
www.bashanfoundation.org/barassi/barassidynamic.pdf

Azospirillum produces plant hormone IAA
www.bashanfoundation.org/gmaweb/pdfs/chlorella-iaa.pdf

 

[MarquisBlack]

I'm in.

 

[CovertCrops]

Flip 12/12

Flip 12/12

The plants were moved into their final pots and set in the flowering room.

Experimental Group: 3 Ecsd, 3 Strawberry Cough, 1 Strawberry Diesel

6L pot of pure Canna Coco
mycorrhizae inoculation

watered with 2.0 EC (1400ppm) seawater ph 5.8-6.0
Rhizotonic @ 10 ml/g
Azosprillum inoculation 10 ml/g

Control Group: 4 Strawberry Cough, 3 Ecsd, 1 Strawberry Diesel

6L pots of pure Canna Coco
mycorrhizae inoculation

Watered with Canna Coco nutrients 1.4 EC ph 5.8 - 6.0
10 ml/g A
10 ml/g B

Rhizotonic 10 ml/g

So, there we have it. All plants are clones cut from the same mothers, in case you were wondering.

 

[CovertCrops]

Marquis Black - Glad to have ya. This should be quite interesting.

Osirica420 - Thanks for the ppm info. I am going to try and eliminate the need to add additional fertilizer with the microbes, I may add some fish emulsion but that would be it. I'm going to try and avoid bringing in P and K unless absolutely necessary. Do you use RO water or tap? I am currently using RO water but will experiment with tap water at some point.

 

[osirica420]

interesting product you got there, might give it a try..

I use tap water but its very good water only 50ppm...

I am very curious to see your progress with the nute lineup your using, should turnout super tasty..

 

[thatguy]

Got this 1 tagged bro! Definitely interested to see how this works out!

All the best,
TG

 

[CovertCrops]

TG - Thanks for stopping by, got your msg about the LG mom, nice.

Quick Update:
These pictures are from day 4.

Sea Solids Table
2.0 EC seawater + 100 ml/g undiluted EWC tea

Control Table
1.4 EC Canna Coco (10ml A + 10ml B)

Sea solids (LEFT) Control (RIGHT)

They look surprisingly similar thus far, but this is only the beginning. Fish emulsion smells terrible so I have some Natures Nectar Nitrogen on the way. I brewed up an EWC tea to add some nitrogen to the seawater for the time being.

 

[osirica420]

Looking good bro!

They should start moving alot faster now, i'm anxious to see these results play out!

def got my eyes on these heh...

 

[CovertCrops]

So here we are 7 days into flower. The Control plants are doing a bit better than the seawater plants. The EWC tea isn't quite enough, while the good Dr. may have been able to grow tomatoes on nothing but seawater I think giving these girls a bit more npk will help them compete with the controls. So I decided to add 5 ml/g Pure blend pro Grow to the seawater, which is next to nothing, but more than they had previously. They are keeping up with the control plants but the controls are thicker in the stems and a bit more lush.

Sea solids trial
2.0 EC seawater + PBP grow 5ml/g

Control
1.6 EC Canna Coco (8-10 ml/g A + B)

Sea solid trial (LEFT), Control (RIGHT)

The difference between the 2 strawberry diesels are more pronounced, the control plant is much stronger than the seawater, so I would venture to say some strains will tolerate the seawater better than others.

 

[osirica420]

Ah yes definitely seeing the differences...

Yea i never tried growing with just seawater i have always added adequate amount of NPK to the Sea mineral mix..

Dr. Murray in his several years of trials said it works best with added minerals and seawater combined..

In my experience the best results i have seen so far are with chem nutes and seawater combined
extremely fast healthy growth..

Adding the PBP is going to give them a nice boost for sure..

I would feed them both normally with same nutes or similar amounts of NPK, but only give one group salt..

Its a fact that all these strains are bred for higher NPK levels, Dr. Murray mentioned this and so have a few others...
The more hierloom a strain is the easier it will be to grow without NPK...

So you really must factor this in...
Thats why i have yet to try lowering my NPK levels..
there will be a major diffenrence in the smoke that was grown in sea salt done this way...

 

[The Mud Shark]

Thanks for the show. subscribed.

 

[PetFlora]

For some reason the pics aren't showing up with my ISP. I had to log out and log back in. I see you are doing this in a soiless mix.

My plants were started in either S2G cubes or 1" rockwool cubes- nothing else. I am using high pressure aero, which cannot handle EC >1.2, and that at full on bloom.

Reading the Azospirilla link, it talks about microalgae/chlorella growth promotion. I wonder whether the Neptune Harvest Seaweed Plant Food I am using is already supplying these. Also, next grow I am planning on adding their Fish Food (hydralised)

Other than that I am looking forward to watching this

 

[CovertCrops]

Osirica - While the seawater plants are a bit smaller I can't fault them considering they had been fed no additional P, K, and only a minute amount of N. My intent was to start with as little additions to the seawater as possible to get an idea of what it was capable of, I'm still quite impressed with it. I agree that they should grow faster with the addition of PBP. I am very interested to try the final product, I suppose I'm getting a bit ahead of myself there....

MudShark - Welcome, I hope you enjoy the show.

Petflora - Are you still having trouble with the pics? I'm not sure what that is about, are you using internet explorer?
These girls are in coco, which is actually the way my entire operation is headed, Just have 2 more tables to finish then I'm all coco. I am not familiar with Neptune's harvest nutrients or what beneficials they may contain nor have I tried hydrolyzed fish. As far as the EC with seawater, Dr. Murray used anywhere from 1000 ppm to 8000 ppm on his crops! I had actually grabbed up the azos a while ago and just been sitting on it because I didn't really have a purpose for it, Sea solids gave me a potential application for it, it seems to be working. I hope you can see the pics and I hope you enjoy the show.

 

[osirica420]

I hear ya, definitely a good idea..Cant wait to see them in a few days!

 

[CovertCrops]

Day 12

Day 12

So here we are at the start of day 12, the Sea solid plants have been getting 5 ml/g PbP grow for the past 4 days which has helped. Also bear in mind that the control table has 1 extra plant than the trial table does. That said, the differences are minimal ( except for the Strawberry Diesel). The Sea solid plants are a little thinner in the stems, but have less stretch, and are beginning to throw pistils a bit faster than the control plants. It's shaping up to be a mostly uniform canopy none the less.

Sea solids
2.0 EC Sea water + 5ml/g PbP

Control
1.6 EC Canna Coco

Sea Solids (LEFT) Control (RIGHT)

And just as the lights are coming on