PeeJay's Neophyte Breeding Adventure (or PeeJay has The Talk with LOS )

PeeJay;2544734 said:

SweetSue;2544686 said:

PeeJay, I'm ready to talk seedlings. Whenever you're ready. Seeds are in and I'm making pots as we speak. I'm not planting until we solve my germination dilemma.

Love, love, love the random leaf shots. Healthy leaves make my blood hummmmmm.

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You have options, Sue. Your problem, in my opinion, is the CC soil is MUCH to hot for seedlings. Those supercharged LOS no-till soils know no restraint. The same thing happens to LOS folks as bottle folks. The medium is too rich and young plants don't do great. When they are not springing out of the gate then more stuff, coconut water, malted barley, ACTs ( or in the case of bottled nutes, more nutes) etc are ADDED to an already too hefty soil. Ouch!

I expect that if you took the CC soil and added 3 qts more peat and 1 1/2 qts more perlite to it for each quart of CC soil it would do great for the first three weeks in a quart sized container.

Just to reiterate, complete soil strategies can be an overloaded mess. People try to apply field growing organic practices to containers and it just isn't smart. To me "no till" = I'm scared of transplanting. SWICK = I'm afraid to learn how to water my plants properly.

There is a great John Oliver bit about Dr. Oz. Have you seen it? The Oz effect has you adding coconut water, malted barley, and aloe to a soil that was designed to push the maximal limits already. "These wonder additions will make your plants explode!" Not so much.

Coconut water is SO trendy. Why? Because it is a natural mimic for electrolyte replenishment beverages like Gatorade that is lower in sugar ( still has a lot ). Mostly it is a very rich source of potassium. It has lower amounts of sodium than manufactured sports drinks. Many processors add extra salt to coconut water for flavor and better electrolyte replacement properties. Even without the added sodium, coconut water is higher in sodium than most plant foods. Sodium is bad. Potassium is an essential macro nutrient for plants, but it is also problematic. It has the greatest affinity for the active sites on the enzymes that move the cations up the concentration gradient for the plant. In effect, too much potassium prevents the transport of calcium, magnesium, ammonia, and ammonium. The sugar also causes problems...

Malted barley is mostly a sugar source. It is also touted as a "rich source of hormones." Ok, I don't want my milk jacked up with extra hormones, or my chicken... That isn't important though because plants CAN NOT absorb most hormones. Rooting hormone is one exception. A cutting might like a little because the actual plant is not metabolically active enough to make it's own. A healthy plant, however makes the correct amounts of hormones for itself via carefully regulated biochemical pathways. The hormones from the malted barley are just one more thing added to the soil that needs to be broken down by bacteria. The bacteria already have a TON of things to work on breaking down in a complete soil.

So, malted barley is a great sugar source. That's why it is great for making the delicious fizzy beverage I'm drinking right now. What happens to all that sugar from the malted barley and coconut water? It's a fuel feast for bacteria! Good right? Nope. Plants can't absorb sugar from the soil. They make sugar from sun, water, and CO2. In fact, plants exude sugar through the roots into the soil to create beneficial micro environments for the mico herd. When you keep loading up the sugar into the medium the bacteria feast. They have lots of fuel. They also need nitrogen for making amino acids and protein, phosphate, calcium, magnesium. They take these out of the soil and sequester them in their little bodies. While sequestered the plant can't use them. Oh no!

But hey, someone somewhere said "pour coconut water on the plants." Dr. Oz effect.

My mixes are prudent. I'm more concerned with overdoing it than under doing it. If I under-do it I can add if needed. A little topdress. An occasional kelp foliar. It's damn hard to take things out of the soil if there is too much, and too much can be a real problem. Read about potassium toxicity in humans. I know Dale really had to watch the potassium overload on his renal diet. Cut that CC soil way back with peat and perlite for larger plants, too. Err on the side of caution. You will be pleased. Show some restraint and your plants will be much healthier.

You just need to back way down on the richness of your LOS soil. Start seedlings in a very light soil and let them do a wet dry cycle so their root structure needs to expand to look for goodies. Don't overfeed the kids with either dirt that is too loaded with organic matter, or bottles of stuff. Avoid trendy add-ons. Watch out for Dr. Oz.

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