1gal organic grow with worm tea & KNF inputs only?

[Pat Puffer]

I believe the veil of secrecy or better yet, "obscurity" is being lifted on this process as us growers are becoming more aware of the organic nature of well, mother nature.

Also, we as DIY'ers enjoy the hands on approach of tending to our crops. There should be more questions and interests arising along the way.

Some see it as a chore and needless effort when stuff already comes in a bottle and it's ready use and to help us succeed. This approach is antiquated and not as alluring as other methods.

 

[Azimuth]

Thanks. Will have a look.

Ah yes, The Unconventional Farmer. I had left that one off my suggested research list. That one may have been my first introduction to the subject, and now that I think about it, probably from you by way of @Emilya . I have several of the write-ups printed and in my journal.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[StoneOtter]

Thanks, StoneO!

I was pretty stoked to finally come across the fact that he uses the 2 gal cloth pots. He also uses 2 gal self watering pots, and that's what I have, just the next size down, the 1 gal. Talk about burying the lead! You'd think he could've mentioned that before the second to last chapter! Although most people grow in larger containers than I do so may not have occured to him.

The BuildASoil guy made some good points in his blog about finding substitutes for things like blood meal and feather meal since those come from sources that might/probably use antibiotics and growth hormones in the animals feed, and some of the guanos for unsustainability reasons, but as I said, I don't know enough yet to know what would be good substitutes.

I think I'll dig around a bit on that site and see what I come up with.

But, looks like this is all coming together!

Now, if I can just get a handle on the whole propagation thing...

I thought he was into 3 gal self waterers, 2 is even better for you! Buildasoil is a great source of soil information and products. They have a huge container philosophy that is just too much for me. I stick with the Rev's recipe pretty straight. The things I do different are aacts. I don't brew teas these daze for my laziness. I use Real Growers Reacharge. I feel comfortable substituting fishbone meal for bone meal. A flowering trio of microbes and feed from Buildasoil and that's about it I think.
Right, the propagation. Get the basics and the rest will follow.

 

[Amy Gardner]

I have @MerryAnna to thank for introducing me to the KNF world when I joined here. I owe her a lot! She got me making my first LABs

 

[StoneOtter]

Did you use it for both veg and flower or did you find you only needed it in flower once the plant grew out?

The plant went for a while on LOS. It may have had one veg feed. Then all flower every two weeks.

 

[Azimuth]

@Van Stank just started an experiment in a 1gal pot using his soil mix.

Yeah, I was the one who shamed him into it. He grows alot in smaller containers and took on the challenge to prove whether it could be done to help me out.

Great group on this site, I tell ya.

 

[Azimuth]

All my ferments have been water ones.

You should try out the brown sugar version. Super fast and easy. Generally 7 days to finish and, according to the tables in the Regenerative Grower's Guide, unlocks a much higher amount of the minerals and other goodies.

 

[Azimuth]

The plant went for a while on LOS. It may have had one veg feed. Then all flower every two weeks.

Ok, cool. I'll keep that in my back pocket for when I get to that stage.

 

[Azimuth]

Some see it as a chore and needless effort when stuff already comes in a bottle and it's ready use and to help us succeed. This approach is antiquated and not as alluring as other methods.

Right, and no marketing dollars in support of our way. No way for corps to make money from me growing dandelions in my front lawn. Unless, of course, I want to poison them, then it's a party.

 

[Azimuth]

it’s included in that KNF archive I just linked you to, that version is long and wordy, so I have a picture tutorial my DIY for it here (link coming ) if you’re interested.

Yes please.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Yes please.

Oops!!

DIY LABs

I’ll go and edit it back into the post as well.

 

[Azimuth]

so I have a picture tutorial my DIY for it here - if you’re interested.

Thats a great write-up. You should redo it as its own thread. It deserves to stand on its own.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Thanks! I have a few things I should do that with probably - one day!

 

[Pat Puffer]

I must say that a thread specific to these methods and recipes would be beneficial for us dirt growers.

 

[Azimuth]

There’s been so much synchronicity around me lately. This is just another one - the question of labs and/or Korean natural farming has come up four times in the last week around here.

That's the universe talking to you. You may not know why, but if you pay attention it will become clear soon enough.

 

[Azimuth]

I must say that a thread specific to these methods and recipes would be beneficial for us dirt growers.

@Emilya has a few of them back when she was experimenting with it. She's got one on the calcium extract from eggshells, one for a dandelion extract in three parts (roots, leaves, and flowers), and others, too, I think. Somewhere there's a page with her important links that's not in her signature if memory serves.

 

[SmokingWings]

It sounds like you have a well thought out plan going. Your new project should work out in no time.

As mentioned already, the plants are heavy feeders demanding more nutrients than the few soil micro-organisms are capable of producing in a 1 gallon pot as fast as the plant needs. Some sort of supplemental feeding will work wonders.

In my perpetual set-up I ended up doing 1 gallon and 2 gallon containers for a couple of years. The area for flowering was a cabinet which was 45 inches or so from floor to the lights. The plants were clones and most of the time the original mothers, from seed, were in a 2 or 5 gallon. Eventually I was able to get 1 oz off of a clone.

I did not use teas, at least not as most of us are familiar with. Instead I would soak the nutrient material in gallon jugs for a day or so and then water. By the time I was finished flowering in the cabinet and was switching over to a tent I had settled on a watering and feeding schedule which involved no feeding while in veg except for some Cal-Mag mix.

Two weeks before moving clones to the flowering cabinet I would give a dose of phosphorus to those plants. They would get a dose of potassium shortly after going into the cabinet. Flowering plants continued to get a dose of the P or K on a 2 week alternating schedule until harvest.

A couple of my cloned plants harvested in early September of 2019. By this time I was consistently hitting 1/2 oz (or a bit more) dried from each Blue Dream clone. By winter of 2019-2020 I was often getting 1 oz dried from BD clones.

A couple of my Blue Dream clones being trimmed while on the hoof. If I remember right these two Blue Dreams were in the 2/3 to 3/4 oz area when all was said and done.

 

[Azimuth]

As mentioned already, the plants are heavy feeders demanding more nutrients than the few soil micro-organisms are capable of producing in a 1 gallon pot as fast as the plant needs. Some sort of supplemental feeding will work wonders.

Smoking,

I guess in my original plan I was thinking of supplying ALL or at least most of the minerals and nutrients with the KNF outputs and just using the base mix plus whatever comes along with the compost as far as nutrients go, and not putting in any of the amendments directly into the soil.

That likely would mean adding some of the KNF stuff each watering, or at least every other, but now I wonder if they would even be enough.

From the table values I listed earlier it seems like the fermented fish juice has very high ppm's of most of the inputs needed, but can a plant be brought across the finish line on a liquid diet alone?

Of course that's the way the synthetic guys do it all the time, so maybe?

It will be an interesting experiment for now as I gather up the stuff needed for a TLO approach. There's certainly something to be said about using a tried and true model rather than reinventing the wheel.

On the other hand, experiments are how we learn new things.

 

[Azimuth]

In my perpetual set-up I ended up doing 1 gallon and 2 gallon containers for a couple of years. The area for flowering was a cabinet which was 45 inches or so from floor to the lights. The plants were clones and most of the time the original mothers, from seed, were in a 2 or 5 gallon. Eventually I was able to get 1 oz off of a clone.

That's good to hear. That's some nice yield. I'm still measuring yield in individual grams.

But, learning lots and I can see lots of opportunities for improvement. And results like yours are inspiration to keep working at it. Eventually things will click and I'll find a combination of things that work for me.

Thanks for sharing your pics.

 

[SmokingWings]

I got the idea after reading that thread somewhere on this message board which was started by someone with a 'hempy' style of growing in hydro set-up. I figure that soil is more forgiving and easier in the long run.

My way of thinking was to mix up the soil and add some amendments and start with that. Sounds like you might be considering doing something like that and then supplementing when needed with teas and maybe top dressing??