All Natural Organics. The Dons' Summaries + FAQ Thread. <2017-'18>

calliandra

calliandra

Well-Known Member
DonTesla said:
Sorry for the delay, calli, super busy week is all playing catch up!

Just going back.. re the biochar .. I basically just look for a ph of 7-8, vs 6 or so, since I have a lot of free biomass to neutralize that's already a bit low..

Then I look for a nice and low under 2% ash content, no containment, high surface area as per usual, and an appropriate bulk density to confirm!

Course is really cool, though..its a whole uni campus dedicated to green tech, in which local and enivronmentally-excessive biomass keeps a billion dollars worth of buildings warm, year round, campus wide..
and they apparently have an amazing phD program on soil science, one of the top 5 in Canada, along with courses on converting biomass to biochar and energy,
plus great forestry/ entomology / field courses here.. So sounds like a great fit since two of our deposits are so close to the area..

(Not only is the 2 million tonnes of sawdust and woodchips compost within 2 hours, the 200,000 tonnes of GRD is only 30 mins from the campus). The work ahead is plenty, but the dots are connecting fast enough, considering its winter like all hell here!

Trip went great too btw.. Met some great store owners, and made some great connects... Got a bunch of samples to some stores, opened a lot of doors, and kick started things quite a bit! Protests went really well too, we even avoided the raids by not setting up on the Sunday, and our friends who did get nabbed got released quickly..so that's big. Apparently we were on the news but I have no idea, that's just what several ppl told me, I don't recall no cameras in my face, although the days were very fast paced and action packed. Plus it was raining and we were under manned a bit!
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Ah no worries! Sounds like exciting times, and full of good movement in the right direction! yay, good for you!!

Proximity of your piles of resources to a uni sounds like a good potential to go the "permaculture way" - provide materials and space for hands-on teaching and let the students do the work, possibly even charging for it haha

What uni is this?! Sounds like a place I should at least know of!!

Those plants are coming along beautifully too (as if that were surprising in your case haha)
That soil...! Sounds like my dreams!
Cheers much for the updates!:bigjoint:
 
DonTesla

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Greasetraps, perhaps one of our most terpy, slippery to the touch, most relaxing, consistently sweet and blue tasting strains .. Which i need to test for its profile, as its the womans fav and should def stick around .. The one has petioles that smells just like the herb when finished, I'm looking forward to it, especially under the cobs and water only.

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Topdress on the lower one is our iron rich sand blended with our GRD .. Which was just transplanted into a one gallon. Also around 3 wks old.
 
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firstnamelast

Well-Known Member
ShLUbY said:
if you're already in living soil, put a topdressing down of kelp, crab shell, oyster shell, and neem. mix it with some compost and topdress and water in. that stuff breaks down fast, and an inch or more of compost will give your roots some room to grow, and more nutrients from the amendments. this will buy you some time. give a EWC tea as well for the soluble and chelated nutrients as well (compost extract tea).
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Great ideas thank you! Any chance of me burning the plants with too much? I did a couple topdressings of alfalfa and kelp but not sure if I used enough it had no effect lol my little ones are definitely needing nitrogen at the moment. Before I noticed your response I ended up filling them the rest of the way with some more soil, so I don't have much room to try the inch of compost at the moment haha woops
 
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firstnamelast

Well-Known Member
A quick pic of the little ones, 2 in the front are the dirty snow (chem d x humboldt snow) from seed, in the back are cuts from my friend. On the left is meltdown, right is b1 (mikado cross). Unfortunately my friend has been holding the whole process up now for quite some time. I've been waiting to make my soil because he's got my amendments and has been MIA again. So I just ended up ordering more and said screw it. They have been sitting in these tiny pots for a lot longer than they were supposed to and I'm pretty frustrated. But they aren't dead yet haha

I'm assuming I've lost a lot of vigor because they've been so stunted. Is there a likelihood that they'll recover and start cruising again? Thanks
 

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ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
firstnamelast said:
A quick pic of the little ones, 2 in the front are the dirty snow (chem d x humboldt snow) from seed, in the back are cuts from my friend. On the left is meltdown, right is b1 (mikado cross). Unfortunately my friend has been holding the whole process up now for quite some time. I've been waiting to make my soil because he's got my amendments and has been MIA again. So I just ended up ordering more and said screw it. They have been sitting in these tiny pots for a lot longer than they were supposed to and I'm pretty frustrated. But they aren't dead yet haha

I'm assuming I've lost a lot of vigor because they've been so stunted. Is there a likelihood that they'll recover and start cruising again? Thanks
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it's hard to tell from the pic, but your soil appears to look really dry on the top. When plants are that size in that small of a container, i basically keep the soil moist at all times. not dripping wet, but never dry. with organics, wet/dry is not practical as it slows microbial life, which could be the reason for seeing some slight def of N. like the moisture of a lightly wrung out sponge.

also, they're honestly getting a little big for those containers. I'd be transplanting them to a one or two gallon like asap. then you don't have to worry about topdressing. if you're interested, try a SIP container. put 1-1.5" of pumice or perlite at the bottom (whatever you have for drainage), then put the soil on top of that, transplant and sidefill, mulch with pumice/perlite, set it in a drip tray (or a plate or something whatever you have) with water in it and let them wick it up. Have the level of water a little lower than the height of your pumice then you never have to guess when to water the plant! It's been working amazing for me.
 
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firstnamelast

Well-Known Member
ShLUbY said:
it's hard to tell from the pic, but your soil appears to look really dry on the top. When plants are that size in that small of a container, i basically keep the soil moist at all times. not dripping wet, but never dry. with organics, wet/dry is not practical as it slows microbial life, which could be the reason for seeing some slight def of N. like the moisture of a lightly wrung out sponge.

also, they're honestly getting a little big for those containers. I'd be transplanting them to a one or two gallon like asap. then you don't have to worry about topdressing. if you're interested, try a SIP container. put 1-1.5" of pumice or perlite at the bottom (whatever you have for drainage), then put the soil on top of that, transplant and sidefill, mulch with pumice/perlite, set it in a drip tray (or a plate or something whatever you have) with water in it and let them wick it up. Have the level of water a little lower than the height of your pumice then you never have to guess when to water the plant! It's been working amazing for me.
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Yea I've been held up on the transplant because my friend has had the rest of my amendments this whole time and disappeared. I ended up ordering 1 cuft of buildasoil last week just to get me into the bigger pots, it should be here tomorrow hopefully.

I've had my soil a little too wet lately so I let it dry out a bit the past day or 2. Had some white mold growing on it LOL. It's still got some moisture underneath right now, that enough?
 
ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
firstnamelast said:
Yea I've been held up on the transplant because my friend has had the rest of my amendments this whole time and disappeared. I ended up ordering 1 cuft of buildasoil last week just to get me into the bigger pots, it should be here tomorrow hopefully.

I've had my soil a little too wet lately so I let it dry out a bit the past day or 2. Had some white mold growing on it LOL. It's still got some moisture underneath right now, that enough?
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like what kind of mold? i mean, a living soil should have stuff growing in/on it... I would put a mulch on it to slow evaporation. As long as you're not seeing signs of overwatering, you should be fine.

some friend! lol. you should have already had enough soil made though. big batches so you're not fucked later. i always make sure i have soil ready a month in advance for any situation that arises. then there can be no surprises!
 
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firstnamelast

Well-Known Member
ShLUbY said:
like what kind of mold? i mean, a living soil should have stuff growing in/on it... I would put a mulch on it to slow evaporation. As long as you're not seeing signs of overwatering, you should be fine.

some friend! lol. you should have already had enough soil made though. big batches so you're not fucked later. i always make sure i have soil ready a month in advance for any situation that arises. then there can be no surprises!
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Some little white cotton ball looking guys, about the size of popcorn kernels. I figured if I was seeing mold on top of the soil it meant I was watering too much. I had planned on having all this done over a month ago LOL I have been hung high and dry
 
DonTesla

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
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Pink OGs (ie the opg) loving the Gpa'co 5 way living blend and even handling the dense soil better than the Greasetrap.. Which are also happier than usual with good posture and better sheen than often times. Leaves straightening out too very nicely.

firstnamelast said:
Some little white cotton ball looking guys, about the size of popcorn kernels. I figured if I was seeing mold on top of the soil it meant I was watering too much. I had planned on having all this done over a month ago LOL I have been hung high and dry
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That was probably mycelium, its a bene fungus actually, not harmful mold.. Great decomposers of the wood rock minerals and much more, including water transport and communication.. That said, I also agree with said advice..

ALWAYS USE MULCHES, my friends.. It prevents erosion from wind, heat and light.. Premature arid conditions, and allows a less intense zone for the microbiology to thrive

I sway away from wood mulches and pure green mulches too, but rather a blend of diatomite or special sand, or an edible companion followed by a semi-dried harvest type mulch..

2 inch thyme, butter leaf or outredgous heirloom lettuce, being a couple that come to mind

And yeah!! Aw man, if you ever get amendments in your possession that you paid half for, scoop your half and protect your investment, lol. Soil is a grrrreat investment but one must keep control of it as best as possible, for it to remain an asset that is.

And ShLuby is right. Pays to be proactive and have an abundance mixed ahead of time. Never know what the future will hold! I need to get my butt in gear and double down as well.
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On a positive note..At least the worm farms Really exploding! I mixed some of each (the coffee farm, the coco farm, and the leaf mould farm) with one another and added food and more bedding and aeration, and now there are cocoons all over, and the each farm is getting rich and black looking, crawling with life. So much for the experiment of different beddings, it just seemed right to give them better homes .. One had more worms, one was too wet, one was dry, and one was too clumpy.. Now all of them are more of an ideal texture .. And much richer
 
calliandra

calliandra

Well-Known Member
DonTesla said:
On a positive note..At least the worm farms Really exploding! I mixed some of each (the coffee farm, the coco farm, and the leaf mould farm) with one another and added food and more bedding and aeration, and now there are cocoons all over, and the each farm is getting rich and black looking, crawling with life. So much for the experiment of different beddings, it just seemed right to give them better homes .. One had more worms, one was too wet, one was dry, and one was too clumpy.. Now all of them are more of an ideal texture .. And much richer
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And once again, diversity takes it away! :D
 
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firstnamelast

Well-Known Member
Got my little suckers transplanted finally a couple days ago. Seen some new growth already, hopefully they'll darken soon and they aren't too shocked. Anything else you guys see I should do at this point? I do need to figure out a mulch. I mixed my soil with about 25% leaf compost to try and prevent nute burn (recommended by my friend) And a tsp of myco in the hole first. Thanks
 

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ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
firstnamelast said:
Got my little suckers transplanted finally a couple days ago. Seen some new growth already, hopefully they'll darken soon and they aren't too shocked. Anything else you guys see I should do at this point? I do need to figure out a mulch. I mixed my soil with about 25% leaf compost to try and prevent nute burn (recommended by my friend) And a tsp of myco in the hole first. Thanks
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just use whatever your aeration material is for a mulch for now. you can always scrape it off and replace it with something else later
 
DonTesla

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
calliandra said:
And once again, diversity takes it away! :D
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Totally, right. Always more experiments to do anyway, so all good!
Speaking of diversity, took all the soil recipes, made an 'intuitive blend', and tis the largest plant after 4 wks, by far, go figure!

firstnamelast said:
Got my little suckers transplanted finally a couple days ago. Seen some new growth already, hopefully they'll darken soon and they aren't too shocked. Anything else you guys see I should do at this point? I do need to figure out a mulch. I mixed my soil with about 25% leaf compost to try and prevent nute burn (recommended by my friend) And a tsp of myco in the hole first. Thanks
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I would probably do a weak AACT and foliar some life on em, just ewc and some natural sweetener

maybe even follow that with gentle aloe or coco foliar, looks like it could be of use, and then perhaps an epsom foliar for that one in the top right, if not gentle alfalfa seed or kelp spray..

and as Shlu mentioned, any mulch is better than no mulch! Rice hulls, sand, anything. Cotton, plastic. hay.

Also, tad slower than spraying, but you can use beans, peas, clovers, alfalfa as companion crops to help
fix nitrogen from the air for your plants.

Speaking of which, I better mulch some of the babies in their first week.. thanks for reminder guys

SSGrower said:
Do you ever feel like the pink and purple plants are bleeding when you trim?
Won't insert pic you'll have to click belowbongsmilie
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Oh for sure, I just topped the Shotta Berry K (SBK) and the Bullet Proof Rhino (which is my new TPR x SBK) and yeah, wow! They both oozed out a reddish pinkish resin much like the brown and amber resin you can see that the plants creates to heal itself, except much pinker and redder... its exactly like blood, its a plasma that forms a scab..

I love how much plants are like animals and humans, and how much we are like them, in fact..
the more I learn really, the less I can tell the difference between us and plants. We are but massive systems of electrical energy, full of different cell types and surrounded by bacteria literally, all communicating on nano levels..

I will have to try get a pic of these pink scabs.. quite amazing what they can do. We all got a little Wolverine in us, thats for sure..
 
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