Making the change to organic, got some ?'s

Rrog said:

I've been asked what's my prob with the Revs book. It's not based on science. No educated horticulturist would bother with the things he recommends.

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my complaint with Rosenthal and, Cervantes, and mel whats his name Thomas?
You will learn ten times more from simple botany books.
Like I always say, if you can grow orchids, tomatoes, philodendrons, violets, etc....
Cannabis is simple man, just simple.
Only thing easier is growing comfrey, man, that plant is burly..
I was harvesting my comfrey, chopped some of it down, threw it in my compost pile, and it rooted. on its own.
pretty cool shit

The first 2/3 of teaming with microbes is straight science with references. That's why I love it

greasemonkeymann said:

you sure man? I've never heard that about oyster flour, some people I know use it to adjust the ph of there aquariums so i'd speculate it doesn't have to do with root contact, are you thinking of mychorrizhae?
I could be wrong, just never heard that before...

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No I'm sure that crushed oyster shells help regulate ph in the rhizosphere as well as provide calcium and magnesium. It's a natural ph buffer but it doesn't work like lime; it can only affect the ph of the immediate area of the soil in which it exists which is why most growers use it in it's fine powder form.

Lucifder said:

Wow thanks for the info dude, I'm definitely gonna check out that book. And trust me I did wanna make the switch earlier I just didn't go out and buy the soil and materials because I didn't want to mix it and cook it lately in socal where I live the weather's been weird its real hot for a few days and then by night its real cold and we been getting rain on random days, two days of straight heavy rain I guess its good to collect some water from it!

Abiut how much Dl do you add for one bag of soil? I have ff ocean forest and just wanted to mix some Dl in it, it looks like I'm going to use the General organics line if this weather keeps up and they claim their formula doesn't need to be Ph'd I think I read it comes out at 6.5

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"Cooking" the soil has nothing to do with temperature - it's the time it takes for microbial life to break down whatever compost and amendments are in your soil. FFOF is good as it is - really no need to add anything to it until you need to recycle it after your first run. I started with ocean forest as well and then used a top dressing of EWC and other soil amendments to get the plants through to harvest. When the plants are down I recycle my root balls and add about half a "handful" of DL, some garden gypsum and a "handful" of oyster flour & then wait until ph is higher than 6.5. I like to grow in 10g or 7g smartpots so I can fit like 5 root balls into a tote bin for recycling and then check the ph weekly with a soil meter. Ph is not much of an issue with organics unlike using synthetic nutes and it only takes about a month to cook it until it's ready for another run.
Do yourself a favor and read the books suggested before diving into this but if you want to get started just give your plants FFOF and clean non chlorinated water. Start a worm farm and you are on your way....

norcal mmj said:

Get the amendments and compost your soil it's super cheap. I like to let my mix compost for at least 3 months. It works great I only feed 2 or 3 times in late flower. Some people don't care for subs ss but I just think it needs to compost longer and then be recycled and recharged. View attachment 3460986Subs super soil with mycos and beneficial bacteria with sugers and 3 light feedings in week 6, 7, and 8 on a 10 week fire og. This is a pic at 8 and 1/2 weeks.

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Man. That is the bombest. Hats off to you for some fine cheeba. Organics can do this for you? I'm starting to be a believer.

Rrog said:

The first 2/3 of teaming with microbes is straight science with references. That's why I love it

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yeah the first 1/3 was basically an overview of my soil management class. never read TLO.

agree with greasemonkeymannn, read the botany stuff. my botany class taught me more about plants than i ever knew, and i realize how little many (but not all) cannabis growers actually know how plant tissues form and function, and how processes work in the plant. the combo of botany, soil management, geology, and 2 sem. of chemistry led me to start producing my best harvest quantities to date. it just pieced a lot of the puzzle together

Anyone can download or read online horticulture 101 and 110 from university of Missouri. Just with a quick Google search.

Then Oxford journals experimental botany dept has published papers / studies online too.

Richard Drysift said:

No I'm sure that crushed oyster shells help regulate ph in the rhizosphere as well as provide calcium and magnesium. It's a natural ph buffer but it doesn't work like lime; it can only affect the ph of the immediate area of the soil in which it exists which is why most growers use it in it's fine powder form.

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I wasn't saying that oyster flour doesn't help the ph, I was just saying it doesn't need to be in contact with the roots to work.