Building A Better Soil: Demonstrations & Discussions Of Organic Soil Recipes

[Timmo]

Lol whoops I didn't realize I was replying to the Build a Better Soil thread with that, meant to ask in the Landrace Genetics 101 thread, but thanks for the advice Timmo!

So far so good with the soil though. It's a little hot for them I think to be honest, but the growth still seems good. They're growing, there's just some little burn marks at the tips. My "Base Mix" was doing that too, I think the EWC I got was a little hot since they also added kelp meal and rock dusts to it. The original Base Mix was 33% EWC, 33% Perlite, 33% Peatmoss. Using that, I added 2 cups neem meal, 1/2 a cup Bio-Live and 18 tablespoons of Azomite to 2.4 cu ft ( 18 gallons ) to make my "amended mix". I wasn't liking how the Base Mix was draining, so I added a heap of perlite to it, changed it to 50% Perlite, 25% EWC and 25% Peatmoss. So then finally I mixed the revised Base Mix 50/50 with my Amended Mix ( after it cooked 4 weeks ) and transplanted them into 3 gallon pots with it.

I'm a little concerned, since they were initially planted into Happy Frog, and then those solo-cup sized root-balls were planted into the original Base Mix (which seems like it was burning tips already but was growing well ) and then transplanted that gallon size root-ball into a 3 gallon pot with that 50/50 combination of revised Base mix and Amended mix. I'm just hoping that as they get bigger they will appreciate that more nutritious layer on the side, or just instinctively stay away from it if they don't like it.

I really don't think your soil is causing nute burn. I would chalk it up to heat stress complicated by low humidity. In all the research I've done in the last few years, one of the few things I can say that EVERYONE agrees on is that EWC is about the most gentle thing on plants there is. Even spiked with kelp, because that's probably number 2 on everybody's list of things you really can't hurt a plant with. You're not adding a ton of neem, biolive, or azomite, so I would think that a solo-sized plant could handle it just fine. Certainly a gallon plant could.

And yes, the bigger a plant gets, the more it will appreciate a robust soil, at least for most strains.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I really don't think your soil is causing nute burn. I would chalk it up to heat stress complicated by low humidity. In all the research I've done in the last few years, one of the few things I can say that EVERYONE agrees on is that EWC is about the most gentle thing on plants there is. Even spiked with kelp, because that's probably number 2 on everybody's list of things you really can't hurt a plant with. You're not adding a ton of neem, biolive, or azomite, so I would think that a solo-sized plant could handle it just fine. Certainly a gallon plant could.

And yes, the bigger a plant gets, the more it will appreciate a robust soil, at least for most strains.

That makes sense because I can never really get my humidity up, and lately the temperature inside my tent has been a lot higher than ambient temperature in my room. It will be 73 in the room and 81 in the tent. Not really a problem right now with the temperatures dropping, but when it was saying in the 80s in the room it was getting pretty hot in the tent.

I've never really seen burnt tips associated with high temps and low humidity though, always thought it was a nutrient burn thing. I'm talking about just the very tips of the leaves, too, like 1/16" sections.

 

[TheFertilizer]

So you can kinda see where the tips are burnt, and also some yellowing on the lower leaves which I am not sure is from anything but some accidental underwatering. Also yeah they're really stretched and I am gonna scrog them to keep the canopy even, but they're getting tall so I am not sure how much longer I can veg.

Made some LABS. Lactic Acid Bacilii Serum. Supposed to be a super strong probiotic. Made from milk and rice. Pretty much the only input besides plain water and molasses I plan to use.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

So you can kinda see where the tips are burnt, and also some yellowing on the lower leaves which I am not sure is from anything but some accidental underwatering. Also yeah they're really stretched and I am gonna scrog them to keep the canopy even, but they're getting tall so I am not sure how much longer I can veg.

Made some LABS. Lactic Acid Bacilii Serum. Supposed to be a super strong probiotic. Made from milk and rice. Pretty much the only input besides plain water and molasses I plan to use.

Cool.....what about odor from something with a dairy ingredient?

 

[SweetSue]

Cool.....what about odor from something with a dairy ingredient?

There's no real odor with making LABS that's intolerable. In the curdling step it's a bit smelly, but that's fleeting. You can use a dilution of LABS to deodorize an area. That's a good indication of the absence of dairy smell.

 

[SweetSue]

So you can kinda see where the tips are burnt, and also some yellowing on the lower leaves which I am not sure is from anything but some accidental underwatering. Also yeah they're really stretched and I am gonna scrog them to keep the canopy even, but they're getting tall so I am not sure how much longer I can veg.

Made some LABS. Lactic Acid Bacilii Serum. Supposed to be a super strong probiotic. Made from milk and rice. Pretty much the only input besides plain water and molasses I plan to use.

I used to add aloe vera to every watering. The plants loved it. You need to have either a healthy aloe garden or access to the powdered form. Well worth the effort though, in my opinion.

Nice LABS. Do you use it around the homestead in any other capacity?

 

[Guy Cavallero]

There's no real odor with making LABS that's intolerable. In the curdling step it's a bit smelly, but that's fleeting. You can use a dilution of LABS to deodorize an area. That's a good indication of the absence of dairy smell.

That sounds impossible, lol. So ultimately what does a probiotic do for our girls? Pretty new to this but I've never heard of them being used before.....

 

[Van Stank]

That sounds impossible, lol. So ultimately what does a probiotic do for our girls? Pretty new to this but I've never heard of them being used before.....

I was curious as to what it is supposed to do for the plants.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

I used to add aloe vera to every watering. The plants loved it. You need to have either a healthy aloe garden or access to the powdered form. Well worth the effort though, in my opinion.

Nice LABS. Do you use it around the homestead in any other capacity?

Its funny. I heard someone say the other day that they get most of their amendments from the grocery store. Therefore just like all boxes and spaces would be ideal grow options....lol......now all weird (to me) liquids in the international section at Wal-Mart could be the next big discovery for growing ( in my mind) lmao.....

 

[SweetSue]

It warms my heart to stop here and find this room so expertly maintained. I love you guys, you know that, right?

Don't ever forget it.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

It warms my heart to stop here and find this room so expertly maintained. I love you guys, you know that, right?

Don't ever forget it.

Awww....the feelings mutual Sue. To know if I ever have a question or concern, all of you are 1 post away.....pretty amazing confidence booster for us noobs. Thanks Sue!

 

[Van Stank]

Dirt is so freaking awesome....I can read about it and growing in it, all day....every day.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

Dirt is so freaking awesome....I can read about it and growing in it, all day....every day.

.... Even obsess about it LMAO. I'm hoping that everybody gets told they're obsessed..... Right?

 

[Timmo]

Obsessed is the right word, alright.

Fert, I'm curious about how you use the LABS, too. I've used it to make plant food, but never heard of putting it directly into the soil. I suppose it would work pretty much like a monoculture compost tea. What's your experience with it?

Guy, here's a great website on how to make and use lactobacillus serum. Lactobacillus Serum It's another website that you can spend days reading--there's all kinds of great stuff there.

Also, check out TheNuttyProfessor's concoctions. I think he gets most of his ingredients from his kitchen cupboard, and it's some pretty crazy stuff--baby formula, lentils, bird seed, to name a few. He grows amazing plants. If I could trade all of my "knowledge" for his gut sense of what's going to work, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

[Van Stank]

.... Even obsess about it LMAO. I'm hoping that everybody gets told they're obsessed..... Right?

I love dirt. I go back to days growing up where there was a creek behind my house and me and my buddies would literally spend hours every weekend playing around in the dirt. I think back to my times fishing and burying all my fish heads and guts on the side of the house (Literally hundreds and hundreds of fish heads and guts buried back there) and how insanely fast and huge anything we planted there grew. I remember moving to Yuma Arizona and looking at the dirt (more like pure desert sand) and thinking "how in the hell does anything grow in this". Little did I know just how rich that 'sand' was. That area was a delta overflow from the Colorado River for millions of years and as long as you gave sufficient water for the insane heat, stuff grew incredibly. I started really working on my garden soil for my veggies about 4 or 5 years ago and really started learning about soil and relationships that occur between the soil and the organisms that live there. LOL, I just love dirt.

Ms Stank and myself recently signed up for a free online class on soils from either Oregon State or University of Oregon. MUST LEARN MORE!!!

 

[Timmo]

Do you have a link to those online classes?

 

[Van Stank]

Do you have a link to those online classes?

Its on her computer, so give me a bit of time to find it. Will get it when she is available.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

I have the option to buy some mushroom compost, how does it stack up against animal based?

 

[TheFertilizer]

I used to add aloe vera to every watering. The plants loved it. You need to have either a healthy aloe garden or access to the powdered form. Well worth the effort though, in my opinion.

Nice LABS. Do you use it around the homestead in any other capacity?

I haven't tried it for anything yet, but my buddy has a clogged drain I hear it's supposed to work on, I just need to find where I saw that and make sure it doesn't need too much since I only have half the jar right now.

I was curious as to what it is supposed to do for the plants.

Well, I'm a little unclear on that as well, but from what I understand it colonizes your soil and makes it very difficult for any of the bad pathogens to gain a foot hold, while at the same time getting along with most of your other beneficial soil life that the plant does like. Then as a lot of other bacteria, they will consume the nutrients in the soil and make them more bio-available for the plant. It's kind of like the same thing that mycorrhiazae is supposed to accomplish but it's more about the soil "rhizosphere" than infecting the plant roots.

 

[Van Stank]

Do you have a link to those online classes?

Hey Timmo......so I lied to you brother (not intentionally). The course isn't the free one. There is a charge for it.....45 bucks. Not sure if you are still interested, but here is the link as well as the link to some of their other Master Gardner courses.

Soil and Compost class - Master Gardener Series: Soils and Compost | Professional and Continuing Education

Master Gardner Program - Master Gardener Series: Oregon Master Gardener Program | Professional and Continuing Education