Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[earthling420]

So in seniles case, one couldn't make a tea with oyster shell flour? nothing else just that.

 

[a senile fungus]

So in seniles case, one couldn't make a tea with oyster shell flour? nothing else just that.

Don't think it'd be water soluble, as its just crushed oyster shells.

It needs time in the soil to be chelated and become available.

I guess if it was in your soil and you made microbe teas then you would be facilitating the chelation of the calcium by adding bennies, up to a certain point of course...

 

[D619]

you should probably get a speed controller for that fan. If it cools too much. Below operating temp. It can cut down on spectral output by 10%-20% and the glass already cuts off 15% spectral output.

I'm pulling air through 2 600 watt hoods using a 6" vortex 452 cfm.. Around a 10% loss being cooled vs being non cooled and around 5% with glass as long as it's cleaned regulary which is monthly for me, but I believe that is made up because I'm able to get slightly closer, but I might be wrong.? I run both hps and lec because I noticed my buds were leafier just running lec alone so I added the hps to get a better spectrum of light. We will see .. Plus I had those on hand for the moment and it was my best option pertaining to the limitation in my particular situation. My new grow room set up will be completely different. Switching to Gavita using a mini split AC unit.

Thanks for the feedback.. If I'm losing that much spectral output not much I can do about it anyways... Cheers

 

[st0wandgrow]

Quickly source of calcium? I'm getting some spots on older leaves, looks like calcium def.

I have oyster shell meal, gypsum, and dolomite lime chunks but those all take too long to break up and become usable in the soil.

What about topdressing with kelp meal or alfalfa meal?

Could I make a tea with the kelp or alfalfa?

Or should I just grind up a couple egg shells and bake, then dissolve in vinegar and dilute and water in??

I'm picking up more EWC next week but would like a quick fix if possible for now.

I do have calmag, but I'd like to fix the issue instead of just pouring in calmag.

I use straight RO water right now, so I guess it could be that.

Also, temps are low, from 60ish to 68ish. Not sure if low temps could be contributing to/antagonizing a nutrient's uptake.

Senile, if you don't mind can you post up a quick rundown of your soil (recipe)?

If you followed any variation of the recipes in this thread you should have ample calcium. What it could be is availability of calcium as opposed to a shortage of it. Being a cation (positive charge) it could be bound up and become less available to the plant if you had say high levels of Phosphorous (anion~negative charge).... or in that case what you could be observing is actually a P deficiency because you likely have more Ca in your soil than P. Does that make sense?

I guess what Im saying is before you go adding anything else I would work backwards and make sure you know what the issue is first. It's very tempting to tinker. I still have to remind myself to butt out and trust that the soil food web will regulate things. With that in mind your forthcoming worm casting top-dress is what I turn to first.... always!

 

[earthling420]

Senile, if you don't mind can you post up a quick rundown of your soil (recipe)?

If you followed any variation of the recipes in this thread you should have ample calcium. What it could be is availability of calcium as opposed to a shortage of it. Being a cation (positive charge) it could be bound up and become less available to the plant if you had say high levels of Phosphorous (anion~negative charge).... or in that case what you could be observing is actually a P deficiency because you likely have more Ca in your soil than P. Does that make sense?

I guess what Im saying is before you go adding anything else I would work backwards and make sure you know what the issue is first. It's very tempting to tinker. I still have to remind myself to butt out and trust that the soil food web will regulate things. With that in mind your forthcoming worm casting top-dress is what I turn to first.... always!

If that is the case, what do you recommend I add to ffof dirt that seems to be acidic? im not using it on my cannabis don't worry

 

[st0wandgrow]

If that is the case, what do you recommend I add to ffof dirt that seems to be acidic? im not using it on my cannabis don't worry

To 2 bags of FFOF I'd add a 5 gallon bucket of EWC, a 5 gallon bucket of aeration bits, and a cup of oyster shell flour. You could add other meals if you wanted to depending on what you're using the soil for

 

[a senile fungus]

Senile, if you don't mind can you post up a quick rundown of your soil (recipe)?

If you followed any variation of the recipes in this thread you should have ample calcium. What it could be is availability of calcium as opposed to a shortage of it. Being a cation (positive charge) it could be bound up and become less available to the plant if you had say high levels of Phosphorous (anion~negative charge).... or in that case what you could be observing is actually a P deficiency because you likely have more Ca in your soil than P. Does that make sense?

I guess what Im saying is before you go adding anything else I would work backwards and make sure you know what the issue is first. It's very tempting to tinker. I still have to remind myself to butt out and trust that the soil food web will regulate things. With that in mind your forthcoming worm casting top-dress is what I turn to first.... always!

Sure, I'll see if I can find it, might be lost in all my stuff though.

I'm not gonna lie, some of the ingredients I kinda willy nilly just threw in. I ended up not having enough of some things due to limitation in package sizes (ie do I order 5lbs or 50?) and some things I couldn't find at all (clays and neem meal)

Also, because my last grow also had issues with cal/mag throughout the whole grow, this run I've been experimenting with different things.

I have so many different plants in so many different mix's and ratios of mixes that its actually kind of mind boggling.

I'm so lucky to have that awesome source of EWC or else my plants would probably all already be dead lolol.

I have half a mind to just make 25% with local Michigan soil, 25% horse manure compost, and 50% of that messed up mix and just put it in massive pots for the outdoor season.

That would give me a clean slate to start with. I could mix a new batch of living organic soil. I would emulate your organic style, with a low number of simple effective inputs. That sounds nice to me.

 

[Midwest Weedist]

I've seen the lec 315 ( 325 watts) up first hand and it runs much cooler than a 400w hps. It's impossible for a 600 watt hps to run cooler given the efficiency since a 600 watt hps puts out about 400 watts of heat.

Those 400 watts of heat are a bitch in small spaces

 

[Midwest Weedist]

To 2 bags of FFOF I'd add a 5 gallon bucket of EWC, a 5 gallon bucket of aeration bits, and a cup of oyster shell flour. You could add other meals if you wanted to depending on what you're using the soil for

At least add some kelp meal, maybe some rock dusts. For the aeration bits he could use lava rock. It's like pumice but loaded with minerals, I started using it a couple months ago and it's fantastic.

 

[Midwest Weedist]

Sure, I'll see if I can find it, might be lost in all my stuff though.

I'm not gonna lie, some of the ingredients I kinda willy nilly just threw in. I ended up not having enough of some things due to limitation in package sizes (ie do I order 5lbs or 50?) and some things I couldn't find at all (clays and neem meal)

Also, because my last grow also had issues with cal/mag throughout the whole grow, this run I've been experimenting with different things.

I have so many different plants in so many different mix's and ratios of mixes that its actually kind of mind boggling.

I'm so lucky to have that awesome source of EWC or else my plants would probably all already be dead lolol.

I have half a mind to just make 25% with local Michigan soil, 25% horse manure compost, and 50% of that messed up mix and just put it in massive pots for the outdoor season.

That would give me a clean slate to start with. I could mix a new batch of living organic soil. I would emulate your organic style, with a low number of simple effective inputs. That sounds nice to me.

Buildasoil.com
They solved my issues with how much of this or that to buy and they offer sooo much

 

[Midwest Weedist]

I can tell you first


I needed extra amps in my place, since I wash my dishes by hand only, I never had any use for my dishwasher. Looked at the main panel and a 15 amp breaker was dedicated solely to the dishwasher , so I was able to use that. Not sure how your apartment is wired but take a look.. If you haven't aleady. Never used LEDS, but I can tell you that a 315 lec lamp runs hotter than my air cooled 600 hps.

I figured it out. My kitchen has a 15 and a 30 amp service hooked to it, with the fridge running alone on the 30. So I'm just going to extention cord my airconditioner to the kitchen. It'll look trashier than I'm comfortable with but I'm out of this apartment in less than 8 months so I'll deal.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Sure, I'll see if I can find it, might be lost in all my stuff though.

I'm not gonna lie, some of the ingredients I kinda willy nilly just threw in. I ended up not having enough of some things due to limitation in package sizes (ie do I order 5lbs or 50?) and some things I couldn't find at all (clays and neem meal)

Also, because my last grow also had issues with cal/mag throughout the whole grow, this run I've been experimenting with different things.

I have so many different plants in so many different mix's and ratios of mixes that its actually kind of mind boggling.

I'm so lucky to have that awesome source of EWC or else my plants would probably all already be dead lolol.

I have half a mind to just make 25% with local Michigan soil, 25% horse manure compost, and 50% of that messed up mix and just put it in massive pots for the outdoor season.

That would give me a clean slate to start with. I could mix a new batch of living organic soil. I would emulate your organic style, with a low number of simple effective inputs. That sounds nice to me.

Yeah, the ewc are where it's at. Coot talks a lot about supplementing your worm bin. Makes sense if you think about it. A worm bin is absolutely crawling with microbes. It's ground zero for mineralization. Anything you put in there is going to be processed quicker than anywhere else. It's like an incubator for meals and minerals.

Every time I feed my worms I add some rock dusts, and/or kelp meal, and/or oyster shell flour, etc. The stuff that I add to a freshly harvested bin will be largely bio available in 4 months time when I harvest that bin again. Then there will be other stuff that was added more recently that will be available to the plant further down the road.

This approach makes EWC a super tonic for anything that ails your plant (or soil) IMO.

 

[Midwest Weedist]

Yeah, the ewc are where it's at. Coot talks a lot about supplementing your worm bin. Makes sense if you think about it. A worm bin is absolutely crawling with microbes. It's ground zero for mineralization. Anything you put in there is going to be processed quicker than anywhere else. It's like an incubator for meals and minerals.

Every time I feed my worms I add some rock dusts, and/or kelp meal, and/or oyster shell flour, etc. The stuff that I add to a freshly harvested bin will be largely bio available in 4 months time when I harvest that bin again. Then there will be other stuff that was added more recently that will be available to the plant further down the road.

This approach makes EWC a super tonic for anything that ails your plant (or soil) IMO.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this. I probably spend more time feeding and caring for my worms than I do anything else, even my ladies. I'll toss some kelp meal, alfalfa meal, azomite, powdered egg shells (mortar and pestle...) and occasionally a little greensand every couple of feedings and they gobble it up in less than a day.
Anyone ever throw in some extra coir to compensate for too much moisture?

 

[st0wandgrow]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this. I probably spend more time feeding and caring for my worms than I do anything else, even my ladies. I'll toss some kelp meal, alfalfa meal, azomite, powdered egg shells (mortar and pestle...) and occasionally a little greensand every couple of feedings and they gobble it up in less than a day.
Anyone ever throw in some extra coir to compensate for too much moisture?

I add coir over top of my fruit/veggie slurry every time I feed. Just a handful

 

[Midwest Weedist]

I add coir over top of my fruit/veggie slurry every time I feed. Just a handful

I feel it helps keep mold spores from colonizing so easily

 

[PSUAGRO.]

I'm pulling air through 2 600 watt hoods using a 6" vortex 452 cfm.. Around a 10% loss being cooled vs being non cooled and around 5% with glass as long as it's cleaned regulary which is monthly for me, but I believe that is made up because I'm able to get slightly closer, but I might be wrong.? I run both hps and lec because I noticed my buds were leafier just running lec alone so I added the hps to get a better spectrum of light. We will see .. Plus I had those on hand for the moment and it was my best option pertaining to the limitation in my particular situation. My new grow room set up will be completely different. Switching to Gavita using a mini split AC unit.

Thanks for the feedback.. If I'm losing that much spectral output not much I can do about it anyways... Cheers

your both right in a way.............yes direct cooling MAY drop the voltage on the arc, resulting in a loss but not as high as stated. if pulling the air from your grow room=== it's mute, pulling outdoor arctic air over a 400c arc= COULD be an issue. 10% loss through quality/pure glass is guaranteed when clean====running it closer makes up for it generally.

have seen great things done with the lec 315, .................switching to DE seems to be a trend

good luck

 

[Midwest Weedist]

your both right in a way.............yes direct cooling MAY drop the voltage on the arc, resulting in a loss but not as high as stated. if pulling the air from your grow room=== it's mute, pulling outdoor arctic air over a 400c arc= COULD be an issue. 10% loss through quality/pure glass is guaranteed when clean====running it closer makes up for it generally.

have seen great things done with the lec 315, .................switching to DE seems to be a trend

good luck

I only have very subjective experience when it comes to this as it's all by what I could feel/see but, I can backup the claim that cold artic air will mess with the bulb if vented through a cooltube setup. I recently upgraded to a 600 watt cooltube and have it stuffed into a 4x2x5 tent (yes, it's fucking bright and HOT). Before I figured out how to keep temps where I need them, I tried venting cold air from outdoors that was between 0°f and 32° directly across my light at 190cfm. When I switched fan setup around and starting pulling ambient temps of like 68/72 across my light and just pulling the cold air into my tent with a separate 25cfm fan I noticed a change in the visual output of the bulb. Which worries me a little that I could have damaged the bulb, but I digress. With the warmer air the bulb seems brighter in a way, maybe a bit whiter in color. It feels as if the ir heat is a couple degrees warmer too, but my knowledge of how that works is weak so I'm probably wrong in some way about that lol.

 

[zonderkop]

...but my knowledge of how that works is weak so I'm probably wrong in some way about that lol.

armchair speculation is part of the fun!

 

[4ftRoots]

I feel it helps keep mold spores from colonizing so easily

Is it bad to have fungi covering the food in my worm bin? I usually burry or just slop it on the top of the bed. The worms eat it quickly but it is usually white when they get to it. I usually run ozone once a week since I try to harvest perpetually, but never thought of the mold in my bin being bad.

 

[Midwest Weedist]

Is it bad to have fungi covering the food in my worm bin? I usually burry or just slop it on the top of the bed. The worms eat it quickly but it is usually white when they get to it. I usually run ozone once a week since I try to harvest perpetually, but never thought of the mold in my bin being bad.

Are you sure it's not mycelium?