Radogast's Hi-Brix Basement Grow - New Location - New Soil - New Experiences

[Radogast]

IMO It's not the methods, it's the seed

I think I'm on the other side of the fence from you on that one.
Of course, it really seems to be a very garden specific thing. One person swears by one way... another swears by another... and their experiences back up their words. Strange that way.

We are closer than you think. In this case I didn't mean the general case 'It's the seeds,' I meant the specific case 'It's the seed' as in it's a bad seed.
Not some 'bad to the bone' seed with fuzzy electric guitars and nurses hanging round on the day I was born, but a seed not so viable when planted.

I'll start another Borderliner seed to replace it.
(My wife loves the strain - it kept her opiates to the minimum when recovering from an ankle fractured in 3 places and inoperable due to blood clots.)

I was planning to wait until the next watering day to start the repacement seed, but at 17 days since seeds went into the ground, it looks like it might be another week before the pots dry out. I don't want my 4th plant falling too far behind the other 3.



FYI - here is a photo of me soaking a pot from the bottom in 1/4 transplant.

I tried to catch the pot floating on the water - but by the time I got my cell phone in position, the pot had sucked up water and was mostly settled to the bottom of the bucket.

 

[SweetSue]

We are closer than you think. In this case I didn't mean the general case 'It's the seeds,' I meant the specific case 'It's the seed' as in it's a bad seed.
Not some 'bad to the bone' seed with fuzzy electric guitars and nurses hanging round on the day I was born, but a seed not so viable when planted.

I'll start another Borderliner seed to replace it.
(My wife loves the strain - it kept her opiates to the minimum when recovering from an ankle fractured in 3 places and inoperable due to blood clots.)

I was planning to wait until the next watering day to start the repacement seed, but at 17 days since seeds went into the ground, it looks like it might be another week before the pots dry out. I don't want my 4th plant falling too far behind the other 3.



FYI - here is a photo of me soaking a pot from the bottom in 1/4 transplant.

I tried to catch the pot floating on the water - but by the time I got my cell phone in position, the pot had sucked up water and was mostly settled to the bottom of the bucket.

I can certainly understand her attachment to the strain.

I'm lovin' that bucket you have. It's a sturdier plastic than mine. After a couple cycles mine are cracking beyond the safety zone. I'll have to keep my eye open for these. I'll swing through the store on my way home tomorrow morning. Thanks Rad.

 

[Bumble]

Good morning brother. Hope you are enjoying your growing up there. How's those temps treating you in the basement? I've got 80 in the days, 65 at night. Not bad yet, eh...

 

[Radogast]

Good morning brother. Hope you are enjoying your growing up there. How's those temps treating you in the basement? I've got 80 in the days, 65 at night. Not bad yet, eh...

Enviable temperatures you have there

I'm running about 63 night and 69 day - a few degrees of variation based on humidity. I expected cold to be more of an issue. If I have to warm an area, I'll do some form of walls to make the area smaller, even if I only hang plastic from the ceiling.

80 in the day sounds like winter temps near the tropic of capricorn. Will you grow in summer?

 

[Radogast]

Planting a seed


Today I planted the a replacement seed for the seed that didn't germinate.

Since I wanted to soak the soil for the new seed, I took a few pictures of bottom watering.


Pot with soil, 1.2 ml transplant, a 2/3 full bucket of RO water.

A small plant stand helps hold the bucket of water as I place the pot. (I filled a little too full,)

After about 1 minute, the pot is almost done sinking. I let the soil soak up water for about 5 minutes.

My experiment with the new plant stand.

I leaned the pot to drip into the bucket below the plant stand - rotating a few times to drip from all 'corners' of the round pot.

My arms did not get tired draining a pot for 5 minutes. Experiment successful.

 

[JimmieJ]

Love the plant stand idea Rad!

 

[bobrown14]

Thanks Doc for explaining that to us.. I'm currently ONLY watering my flowers from the bottom in a tray for each plant... using the AutoPot system with self feed water reservoir.

Pretty much I don't have to do anything in the flower room anymore except IPM and look around.

That's a little crazy there with the holding plant sideways by the stem, I don't think I have the balls to do that! That does say something about the health of the plants for sure.

My guess is there's a fair amount of Silica in your VEG drenches and maybe some additional Cytokinins to be able to grow such strong stems.

Stronger stems support larger flowers.. get the flower to flower internode spacing right and we have little green gems! The goal, eh? Build the roots, build the stems and build the flowers...FTW!

 

[Bumble]

Hey rad, what size pot is that?

Peaceful blazing

 

[Radogast]

Hey rad, what size pot is that?

Peaceful blazing ��

Hey Bumble

I am starting in 1 gallon plastic pots. When the time comes, I will transplant into 7 gallons of soil in fabric pots.

I am used to starting in 1/4 to 1/3 gallon pots. This is different. I've never gone 3 weeks between watering before.

 

[Bumble]

Hey Bumble

I am starting in 1 gallon plastic pots. When the time comes, I will transplant into 7 gallons of soil in fabric pots.

I am used to starting in 1/4 to 1/3 gallon pots. This is different. I've never gone 3 weeks between watering before.

Thanks bro. Looks like ol Bumble has to go down to the pot shop and look at pot sizes. Tell you the truth, I've never bought any pots. I had a ton left over from a clean up job. Various unknown sizes! Lol

Peaceful blazing

 

[Doc Bud]

Thanks Doc for explaining that to us.. I'm currently ONLY watering my flowers from the bottom in a tray for each plant... using the AutoPot system with self feed water reservoir.

Pretty much I don't have to do anything in the flower room anymore except IPM and look around.

That's a little crazy there with the holding plant sideways by the stem, I don't think I have the balls to do that! That does say something about the health of the plants for sure.



My guess is there's a fair amount of Silica in your VEG drenches and maybe some additional Cytokinins to be able to grow such strong stems.

Stronger stems support larger flowers.. get the flower to flower internode spacing right and we have little green gems! The goal, eh? Build the roots, build the stems and build the flowers...FTW!

Hey Bobrown,

There is absolutely ZERO Silica in any of my drenches, especially the veg drench. None. Most products that feature Silica are way, way, way too high in potassium.

Potassium is the enemy of High Brix, as it competes with calcium (the hero of High Brix) to form cell walls. Plants that grow in a calcium rich soil, with enough microbial action to assimilate the calcium into the cell wall have strong stems like this. All of them.

Minerals, microbes and magic.

 

[Radogast]

Hey Bobrown,

There is absolutely ZERO Silica in any of my drenches, especially the veg drench. None. Most products that feature Silica are way, way, way too high in potassium.

Potassium is the enemy of High Brix, as it competes with calcium (the hero of High Brix) to form cell walls. Plants that grow in a calcium rich soil, with enough microbial action to assimilate the calcium into the cell wall have strong stems like this. All of them.

Minerals, microbes and magic.

It seems like I will be using my worm compost outside. I went looking for the potassium content in melon rinds and found this:

Dried banana peels are 42 percent potassium, more than most other organic substances, such as manure at 0.5 percent, wood ash at 10 percent and cantaloupe rinds at 12 percent.

Banana peels are 42% potassium !!!
I have fed my 2 active worms tray about 60% banana peels and 90% banana peels.

It would be a mistake for me to add 25% or 40% potassium worm castings to the Hi-Brix kit.

 

[Doc Bud]

It seems like I will be using my worm compost outside. I went looking for the potassium content in melon rinds and found this:


Banana peels are 42% potassium !!!
I have fed my 2 active worms tray about 60% banana peels and 90% banana peels.

It would be a mistake for me to add 25% or 40% potassium worm castings to the Hi-Brix kit.

Yep. I wouldn't use that at all if you want mineral density/high brix.

compost is even worse, BTW.

 

[Jaga]

Great to have you back in action Rado

 

[bobrown14]

Hey Bobrown,

There is absolutely ZERO Silica in any of my drenches, especially the veg drench. None. Most products that feature Silica are way, way, way too high in potassium.

Potassium is the enemy of High Brix, as it competes with calcium (the hero of High Brix) to form cell walls. Plants that grow in a calcium rich soil, with enough microbial action to assimilate the calcium into the cell wall have strong stems like this. All of them.

Minerals, microbes and magic.

Thanks Doc - what I use for Silica besides my soil from the worm bin that is naturally high in Silica (we live on and extinct volcano) is Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt (0-0-3). I use this mixed in a foiler with our IPM routine.

I'm an organic farmer so I don't use chemical fertilizers at all, we make our own from compost (cold composting)/ worm castings), what I use for calcium is Calcium Carbonate food grade & oyster shell flower, those of course we mix in when building soil for potted plants and throw some into worm/compost bins every so often. Keep the worms happy they keep the microherd and plants happy...

I don't follow the NPK paradigm. We do composting and worm wrangling and use rock dusts for micro and macro mineral content with a specific mix ratio.

I've also used the red algae (Lithothamnium - thanks to Conradino for that tip) for another calcium source that I typically top drench at flip and also foiler spray at IPM time.

Typically when building our soils I'm not going at all for anything with K (potassium) as a goal, its going to be there for sure and its needed in my opinion, but I think it's likely overused with non-organic and some organic (hot compost) growing techniques.

We concentrate several times a season in the compost worm bins on green manures thru the harvest of Comfrey and also Stinging Nettles and a few other plants/flowers that we grow in the garden that are nitrogen fixers (cover crops and companion crops).

So my point is that I use silica for the very reason to build stem strength and healthy plants, and calcium for the same... and to keep it that way thru to harvest.

Not sure where the potassium thing came into the conversation??

Maybe the use of Pro-TeKt (0-0-3) 1/4 tsp / gallon in a foiler is what you consider overuse of K?

Plants need Potassium for sure, how do you incorporate that in your routine? Sorry for the newb question.

The balancing act in container gardening is the challenge. For me, it starts with the soil mix & microherd, then mainly water and IPM to harvest. Outdoor gardening I do very little IPM/foilers, only when I have leftovers from indoors.

There's a lot more at play outdoors that we have no control over. The trees are the masters, IMHO.

 

[Radogast]

Great to have you back in action Rado

Hi Jaga. Nice to have you here. Welcome

Yep. I wouldn't use that at all if you want mineral density/high brix.

compost is even worse, BTW.

I did a search for low potassium compost - hoping for some tips on low potassium worm food - and came across a story on the High Brix Gardening (TM) website on why compost should be used only when needed - just like other tools. I liked their less is more approach.

On of the main things they do on the website is soil tests and ammendment recommendations. This made me think, is there a best way to go about a soil test and HiBrix recommendations for my back yard. The back yard is a living worm farm, at least one worm per trowelful when I dig for a new plant. I'm split between saying everything is fine, and getting a soil test before I plant veggies, flowers, and vines in the spring.

Thanks Doc - what I use for Silica besides my soil from the worm bin that is naturally high in Silica (we live on and extinct volcano) is Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt (0-0-3). I use this mixed in a foiler with our IPM routine.

I'm an organic farmer so I don't use chemical fertilizers at all, we make our own from compost (cold composting)/ worm castings), what I use for calcium is Calcium Carbonate food grade & oyster shell flower, those of course we mix in when building soil for potted plants and throw some into worm/compost bins every so often. Keep the worms happy they keep the microherd and plants happy...

I don't follow the NPK paradigm. We do composting and worm wrangling and use rock dusts for micro and macro mineral content with a specific mix ratio.

I've also used the red algae (Lithothamnium - thanks to Conradino for that tip) for another calcium source that I typically top drench at flip and also foiler spray at IPM time.

Typically when building our soils I'm not going at all for anything with K (potassium) as a goal, its going to be there for sure and its needed in my opinion, but I think it's likely overused with non-organic and some organic (hot compost) growing techniques.

We concentrate several times a season in the compost worm bins on green manures thru the harvest of Comfrey and also Stinging Nettles and a few other plants/flowers that we grow in the garden that are nitrogen fixers (cover crops and companion crops).

So my point is that I use silica for the very reason to build stem strength and healthy plants, and calcium for the same... and to keep it that way thru to harvest.

Not sure where the potassium thing came into the conversation??

Maybe the use of Pro-TeKt (0-0-3) 1/4 tsp / gallon in a foiler is what you consider overuse of K?

Plants need Potassium for sure, how do you incorporate that in your routine? Sorry for the newb question.

The balancing act in container gardening is the challenge. For me, it starts with the soil mix & microherd, then mainly water and IPM to harvest. Outdoor gardening I do very little IPM/foilers, only when I have leftovers from indoors.

There's a lot more at play outdoors that we have no control over. The trees are the masters, IMHO.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Since I have to shift my worm feeding routine, I'm wondering about growing cover crops indoors this winter just for the worms.

It would be relatively effortless to add a 4 foot row of white clover under the grow lights. I have a single Russian Comfrey in the back yard with 4 large leaves. I was thinking of propogating in the next 2 weeks to bring some of it indoors. Do you have a favorite method for propagating from a relatively small comfrey plant?

 

[Radogast]

Three Little Three Node Girls


Day 20 since seeds were planted in 1 gal pots of Doc Bud soil. No watering after the initial "1/4 transplant" soil drench.

I am pleased with their progress.


Amherst Sour Diesel

AK47 XTRM

Buddha's Gift (gotta make sitting under a Bodhi tree better - right?)

Buddha's Gift is the shortest at less than the height of a credit card

The Amherst Sour D. is the tallest at nearly the length of a credit card

 

[Radogast]

Almost forgot.

The ladybug I thought had died is still hanging around the plants. (There's nowhere else ladybug friendly in the basement.)

I set out a few drops of local honey in a bottle cap on the cloner.

 

[Tead]

I set out a few drops of local honey in a bottle cap on the cloner.

Is that how you keep them alive? I always toss them into my grow room when I find them, but they seem to die off pretty quickly.

 

[Bumble]

Good morning brother. Fat leaves on those girls, looking nice.

Peaceful blazing