Hey everyone

stoned gnome said:
in the past year my dad, granddad and uncle have all started growing. after helping out with their grows I've decided to give it a go myself growing autos in organic living soil.

I heard this was the place to come for sage advice so I look forward to learning with you all!
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum @stoned gnome ! :welcome:

Good choice going for a grow in organic living soil. I suggest starting up a grow journal so we can all follow along, and please tag me in there so that I can follow along. I specialize in organic growing in my gardens and would love to help you out where I can... there is a whole lot of misinformation out there about organic and living soils and I would like to help you not to get lost in all the confusion.

So tell us about your soil... how are you going to roll when it comes to creating an organic soil... are you actually going to go for a large 15-30 gallon container so that it truly becomes LOS, living organic soil, or are you going the supersoil route, or some other hybrid organic situation such as TLO, True Living Organics, or using one of the fantastic products out there that now let us feed and supply microbes with topical solutions?
 
stoned gnome said:
in the past year my dad, granddad and uncle have all started growing. after helping out with their grows I've decided to give it a go myself growing autos in organic living soil.

I heard this was the place to come for sage advice so I look forward to learning with you all!
Click to expand...
Welcome to 420magazine my friend. :welcome:

Stay safe
Bill
 
Welcome stoned gnome, see ya round!
 
Emilya said:
Good choice going for a grow in organic living soil. I suggest starting up a grow journal so we can all follow along, and please tag me in there so that I can follow along. I specialize in organic growing in my gardens and would love to help you out where I can... there is a whole lot of misinformation out there about organic and living soils and I would like to help you not to get lost in all the confusion.
Click to expand...
I'm not quite set up enough yet to start my journal but I will be sure to tag you when I do!
Emilya said:
So tell us about your soil... how are you going to roll when it comes to creating an organic soil... are you actually going to go for a large 15-30 gallon container so that it truly becomes LOS, living organic soil, or are you going the supersoil route, or some other hybrid organic situation such as TLO, True Living Organics, or using one of the fantastic products out there that now let us feed and supply microbes with topical solutions?
Click to expand...
as for the soil, I'm very new to LOS and see I have much to learn. I was planning on starting in a 2' x 4' tent with a soil bed to match, but beyond that I'm pretty lost. I would be very gracious if you had any tips on getting started and/or some good LOS related articles.
 
stoned gnome said:
in the past year my dad, granddad and uncle have all started growing. after helping out with their grows I've decided to give it a go myself growing autos in organic living soil.

I heard this was the place to come for sage advice so I look forward to learning with you all!
Click to expand...
Welcome stonegnome! Great advice here.
 
stoned gnome said:
I'm not quite set up enough yet to start my journal but I will be sure to tag you when I do!

as for the soil, I'm very new to LOS and see I have much to learn. I was planning on starting in a 2' x 4' tent with a soil bed to match, but beyond that I'm pretty lost. I would be very gracious if you had any tips on getting started and/or some good LOS related articles.
Click to expand...
the idea of a shared bed is not a good idea with this predator plant... the weeds will attempt to dominate each other if given a chance. Therefore, most people, even commercial growers, mostly go with individual containers for each plant. Never fear, you will easily be able to totally fill a 2x4 canopy with just 3 plants, and they will be pushing things.

Living Organic Soil... by definition this soil will essentially be a slice of the forest floor, complete with all the mosses, molds, fungi, and critters. LOS means essentially creating a terrarium in a grow container. There are several aficionados of this method on this forum and a simple search of LOS should bring several names to the forefront. They all totally believe in this method and will tell anyone who will listen that this is the grow method of choice. The downside is that you will have to basically turn the floor of your entire 2x4 tent into a soil container to have enough soil to make this work... ok, its not that bad, but I think the minimum size container would be a 15 gallon and you are only going to get one of those in that tent. I'm not saying it won't work, but it is going to involve a lot of compromise.

I will give you a pat on the back for wanting to go organic, and by many definitions, the best way to go organic... but there are easier ways to still go totally organic without all of this effort. First, let me define organic by this, creating an environment where the microbes and fungi in the system work in symbiosis with the plant in "the organic feeding cycle" where each feed the other. The gardener in an organic garden does not feed the plant, she feeds the soil and the microbes.

Today, there are many ways to do this. I started organics with a system called TLO, True Living Organics. In this method a supersoil is created by adding the raw minerals and organic materials that will break down into nutrients for the plant, which is then composted for several months. In this way it is possible to pre-load soil with everything the plant will need, and then use microbes to feed these items to the plant. TLO teaches how to use layers of raw materials along with a supersoil in the bottom third of the container and in addition use spikes of mixtures of raw materials for the microbes to find and congregate around during the grow. It also teaches how to make specific actively aerated compost teas to provide supercharges of the the right microbes into the soil, depending on the week of the grow.

I moved out of that labor intensive system after some modern microbe inoculation products started showing up, eliminating the need to brew your own smelly teas. I really liked the supersoil idea, and I now use some supersoil in the bottom third of most of my containers. You don't need fancy soils though, and can still grow organically by top dressing raw nutrients and the microbes specialized in dealing with them, by using periodic topical applications of several products out there. Good soil helps, but you can actually now grow organically even in coco or a cheap hardware store soil, using my favorite organic nutrient system, @GeoFlora Nutrients, a sponsor of this forum. With the ability to buy freeze dried or liquified microbes in a bottle, organic growing has become much less of an ordeal for many of us. There is nothing like the fully expressed flavors and tastes of good pot grown organically, using one of many methods.

I think we can make your entry into organic growing a whole lot less painful than where you were planning to go. Check out the group Girl Scout Cookies grow for many examples of people using @GeoFlora Nutrients and the amazing results they got from simply topdressing the plants once every 2 weeks.
 
I run LOS as in how The Rev sees it in the True Living Organics, book with everything including soil recipe and amending used soil. My best runs have been in 10 gallon cloth bags from geopot. My smallest pot size that I call fully LOS successful would be 5 gallon. Bigger the better though!
 

Similar threads

AmGrowR
Hey Everyone
Replies
5
Views
741
Keith Lake
Keith Lake
dodgerlover11
Hey hey hey
Replies
2
Views
937
dodgerlover11
dodgerlover11
Fozzie
Hi everyone!
Replies
8
Views
1K
Drifter90
D
F
Happy day everyone!
Replies
3
Views
1K
Rifleman
Rifleman
Nine Toed Hippie
Nine Toed Hippie Intro
2
Replies
34
Views
1K
BarnacleBill
BarnacleBill
Back
Top Bottom