I really appreciate your informative posts!
The dust bowl can be attributed to farming practices for sure, but that’s neither here nor there for indoor and small scale growers.
Also, N is reduced my the AG industry because they chemically feed often, and want to save money.
Organic farmers of Cannabis can often reuse their rich organic soils, so the reduction of N is not anywhere near as pronounced. These crops can be extremely tasty product. That’s why I reccomended using an N rich amendment for organic soils. Not too much, just enough to keep things happy.
As for the compost and microbiology, that is a huge topic to get into. In short, the plant will only take what it needs and a little extra variety in additives, when not overdone, isn’t the end of the world. You don’t need to know 100% how organic decomposition works to utilize it, that’s just silly and esoteric.
i wasnt complaining you made a recommendation, I am just blunt by nature, and in fact i use alfalfa among many other things discussed in this thread, but I also suggest i probably use far less of most things than most growers, because i spend my time testing for CO2 burst rate to check the microbial respiration before i add anything at all.
i was merely pointing out that every action has a reaction blah...and for me, its better to know, in detail, what this is before i leap.
Yes some topics are huge, and complex, this is why we ought to try to understand them so we can do things better and be better stewards of plants and the planet. Progress thats all.
i disagree that Ag only considers the cost of N adds. its understanding and this is why they use it more correctly than home growers and domestic users who widely lack the need for this education about where and when and how much.
Surely its more likely those whose livelihoods depend on consistency, have really understood the crops they grow, because this is the only way to really prevent negatives to economy (Labour, $$$'s or watts etc) and ecology, which they would otherwise bear the brunt of, certaintly as self employed farmers and food producers, and with wholesale food prices being lowered by the likes of walmart, it is critical they really know what and when to use anything additionally or margins would be over run in days. Farmers tend to focus on few cultivars of a limited # of crops and so they can and do spend time researching and testing timings for said crops, as well as monitoring data such a as environmental changes.
Of course any time someone mentions problems with organics, indoor growers, using this method esp, begin to throw their toys out of their prams and get all hyper defensive, claiming they are "a non leaching organic haven island" without ever really knowing this is true, and how individuals or small scale growers cant make a difference to the wider environment, esp true if they havent been bothered enough to understand totally and or have their heads in sand or worse up the asses.
The facts about synthetic N use are just that buddy, FACTS, its domestic users over doing it in most cases and each one of these is small scale, but collectively they all own the larger land mass and so make the most impact.
No smirking either as organic indoor growers pump up to 330 watts of fossil fuel based energy per plant in an attempt to mimic the sun and grow a plant in minus 15c or +35 (I took the number in Watts from a posts here where the growers cant even understand light as a human versus light as a plant but know they should use more watts).
Not forgetting. cannabis might otherwise have been a plant to lift third world nations out of poverty had we not all grown it inside in our over indulgent western houses, but who cares about those Africans et al right? And we, or the Dutch mainly, may not have damaged our options and library of landrace stock, since today we have near zero true native strains, and have most likely lost countless forms of future medicine, but anything to suit a market in denial about its part in things.
Just because you are organic, dont mean you have good practices, and so the dust bowl point is relevant as it high lights its not just synthetics that cause problems we all have to manage at great cost. Just reusing your media doesnt mean you are not leaching excessive nitrogen or phosphates either. I am an organic grower buddy and I make nutrients/ bio stims and biology too.
i agree by the way that organic anything is the only true option and it will provide the most natural and resonant effect for users, and this includes having a better taste, but there are still glaring gaps in peoples understanding and so we can not be sure today we are doing it right
