amending as you go?

714steadyeddie

Well-Known Member
nah I think if it's outside in 0 degrees it'll be dead-dead.
I don't think it'll come back, comfrey on the other hand totally will
but aloe ya gotta keep inside in the cold, it'll die in anything around 40 or so, at least the ones I have do.
but either way, any local hardware store (home depot, orchard, etc) will have bigass aloe plants for like ten bucks or so
so even if you needed to buy each yr it's not much.
but I reaaaally like a good fresh aloe gel in the water along with some fresh coco water
that's the only "tea" I ever use
I just bought a leaf of aloe today. Do you need a lot of gel for water ?
 

blunt_tip

Member
Great post, and to be honest, relieved me of a great amount of stress, for I'm also giving organics a go as a first grow.

Question regarding the rock dust; I saw posts where people would add loads (cupS) of the stuff to their mix (for a cu. ft. = 7gallons), but the Gaia glacial rock dust calls for 1tbsp per gallon. Are there "more potent mixes" than others? I'm trying to figure out if someone made an adjustment based on experience or what...

My 10gal pots have been cooking for nearly one week. Got the kelp triple mix, shrimp mix, and vegetable mix, threw in worm castings, perlite, coco, and 10% biochar (which I crushed and activated with plenty of urine and water, prior to mixing). Couldn't crush the bbq lava rocks as easily as the biochar, so left them out of the mix... I added 1 tbsp per gallon of crab and kelp, and 2 tbsp for alfalfa; the minimum recommended by the manufacturer.

The seedlings are growing faster than anticipated, and believe they have entered vegging (2 weeks since sprout, 2nd and 3rd set of true leaves are shown. They are in 3" pots with promix myco, and haven't fed them nutrients as of yet, just rainwater.

My question is if I should transplant them into bigger pots (and fill them with what?) until the 10gal pots have cured, or if I could just plant them in the 10gal pots as nothing is running "hot" in there...?
 

im4satori

Well-Known Member
while we on the topic

I have
bodhi jabbas stash freebies 5 beans
cali corlenone kush (replacements)
cali head band (replacements)
cali larry og (free)
cali chem 91 (replacements)
bcbd the purps
Bodhi dream lotus
dr cripple incred bulk fem
Bodhi goji og
satori f2 a bunch
@im4satori so what are you amending ocean forest with in flower ? I have some mothers milk by bodhi in flower right now.
I've been doing coconut watering and top dressed the soil with some ewc. Also added some kelp meal.

I cant recommend what ive done, as of yet
but I can tell what ive done so far

early early in the first few weeks of veg maybe 2 months or more ago while I 2 gallon pots I top dressed with 1/4 tsp of calcium nitrate a couple times primarily for the calcium and also 1/4 tsp of Epsom salt a couple times for the magnesium

but im trying to get away from the chem salts so I stopped top dressing it and did nothing but water for a while

I did transplant into 20 gallon pots so there was food there

several weeks later

april 11th I could see the plants looked hungry so I top dressed with 2oz organic happy frog rose fert.
( I would have used the tomato and vegetable but the store was out of it)
and 3 cups EWC( to much) and 1oz/gallon hydrolyzed fish (which was way to much )
if I had it to do over I would have used 1.5 cups EWC and 1tbs hydrolyzed fish per gallon
and watered it in with tea I purchased from my local garden center
it was just poop and molasses 2 days old
the hydrolyzed fish was too much and gave me a wee bit too much N that caused some real dark leaves but they recovered in a couple days

I watered in some potassium sulfate and Epsom salt 1x around april 14th

a couple days ago about 1 week into 12/12
I top dress 20 gallon pots with 2 oz alfalfa meal and 4 oz kelp meal and 2 cups EWC
and sprayed with some mild bacterial tea and added about 1 gallon of tea to the root zone

as for now I don't plan to add or do anything more except water it until they ask for something
I suspect they'll ask for more magnesium


maybe in 10 days I will give them a balanced poop tea with no additives if they look hungry

I do need to do some preventative measures from the spring humidity and im hoping the tea will do the trick

im considering getting some predatory bugs since this is the season they get ya
mites are a common here
so I might just let some critters in just to be safe
I don't want to spray them with anything other than maybe 1 more time with tea to try and inoculate them from pests
 
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im4satori

Well-Known Member
nah I think if it's outside in 0 degrees it'll be dead-dead.
I don't think it'll come back, comfrey on the other hand totally will
but aloe ya gotta keep inside in the cold, it'll die in anything around 40 or so, at least the ones I have do.
but either way, any local hardware store (home depot, orchard, etc) will have bigass aloe plants for like ten bucks or so
so even if you needed to buy each yr it's not much.
but I reaaaally like a good fresh aloe gel in the water along with some fresh coco water
that's the only "tea" I ever use
youll have to tell me how that comes together

I have no clue about the aloe or what it dose
I will try doing a search to learn it
 

im4satori

Well-Known Member
while we on the topic

I have
bodhi jabbas stash freebies 5 beans
cali corlenone kush (replacements)
cali head band (replacements)
cali larry og (free)
cali chem 91 (replacements)
bcbd the purps
Bodhi dream lotus
dr cripple incred bulk fem
Bodhi goji og
satori f2 a bunch



I cant recommend what ive done, as of yet
but I can tell what ive done so far

early early in the first few weeks of veg maybe 2 months or more ago while I 2 gallon pots I top dressed with 1/4 tsp of calcium nitrate a couple times primarily for the calcium and also 1/4 tsp of Epsom salt a couple times for the magnesium

but im trying to get away from the chem salts so I stopped top dressing it and did nothing but water for a while

I did transplant into 20 gallon pots so there was food there

several weeks later

april 11th I could see the plants looked hungry so I top dressed with 2oz organic happy frog rose fert.
( I would have used the tomato and vegetable but the store was out of it)
and 3 cups EWC( to much) and 1oz/gallon hydrolyzed fish (which was way to much )
if I had it to do over I would have used 1.5 cups EWC and 1tbs hydrolyzed fish per gallon
and watered it in with tea I purchased from my local garden center
it was just poop and molasses 2 days old
the hydrolyzed fish was too much and gave me a wee bit too much N that caused some real dark leaves but they recovered in a couple days

I watered in some potassium sulfate and Epsom salt 1x around april 14th

a couple days ago about 1 week into 12/12
I top dress 20 gallon pots with 2 oz alfalfa meal and 4 oz kelp meal and 2 cups EWC
and sprayed with some mild bacterial tea and added about 1 gallon of tea to the root zone

as for now I don't plan to add or do anything more except water it until they ask for something
I suspect they'll ask for more magnesium


maybe in 10 days I will give them a balanced poop tea with no additives if they look hungry

I do need to do some preventative measures from the spring humidity and im hoping the tea will do the trick

im considering getting some predatory bugs since this is the season they get ya
mites are a common here
so I might just let some critters in just to be safe
I don't want to spray them with anything other than maybe 1 more time with tea to try and inoculate them from pests
so let me try and clean up the jibber jabber

excluding the early chem inputs early on in small 2 gallon pots

march 27 transplant from 2 gallon to 20 gallon container
only water

april 11
top dress
2oz organic fert happy frog for roses...this had a good bit of calcium in it
3 cups EWC (could have been less)
30mls per gallon hydro fish (too much could have been 1 tbs or nothing at all)
tea

april 15th +/- watered one time with
low EC feed (EC 0.4) of magnesium sulfate and potassium sulfate and peters micro nute mix for the iron
80ppm K
40ppm Mg
1ppm Fe

april 24 top dress (one week into 12/12)
1.5 cups EWC
2 oz alfalfa
4 oz kelp meal
tea

and I don't plan to give it anything more thru finish except maybe 1 more balance tea for inoculation in about 10 days
but if it stays that green I might not even do that
 
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im4satori

Well-Known Member
the N is a little heavy I think

theyre pretty dark

the new growth looks about right
the dark dark green was from over doing it on the ewc and hydrolyzed fish back on april 15th

but nothings drooping so itll be ok
 
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714steadyeddie

Well-Known Member
the N is a little heavy I think

theyre pretty dark

the new growth looks about right
the dark dark green was from over doing it on the ewc and hydrolyzed fish back on april 15th

but nothings drooping so itll be ok
If you have a second you should check this guy out. He breaks down no till (living organics) pretty easy to understand. In episode 2 he talks about aloe and coconut water.

For flower I'm just going to be doing coconut and aloe waterings, and also ewc and molasses teas.

Have you added any worms to your 20 gallons ?
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
@greasemonkeymann

how big a comfrey patch would you guess would be plenty?
could /will a couple/few plants in pots give me enough or do I need like a hole bed?

or another way of asking
how big an area of comfrey plants or how many plants would provide for 12 #20 container large plants
sorry man, i was slammed at my shop today.
so for 12 plants i'd go with three good sized comfreys
they grow FAST, and they tend to be sorta like roses, in that they respond really well to coppicing
one big comfrey can get you probably 20 bigass leaves every two to three weeks in the summer, in the winter they grow verrry slowly, and if the temps are low they'll die back, but they always come back.
i stick mine in my grow room in the winter months because i can't/won't go without using it as a topdress.
to give you an idea, 20 big comfrey leaves will topdress probably 7 or 8 plants.
in a good soil outside with lots of sun a big comfrey plant will get you more than that
one thing I've noticed is that comfrey likes water... a LOT
so in a bright sunny spot you'll need to water it daily most likely
and once again, get the bocking variety of you are planting outside, or you'll be sorry...
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
If you have a second you should check this guy out. He breaks down no till (living organics) pretty easy to understand. In episode 2 he talks about aloe and coconut water.

For flower I'm just going to be doing coconut and aloe waterings, and also ewc and molasses teas.

Have you added any worms to your 20 gallons ?
just don't go nuts with the cocowater man, it does have a good amount of potassium and magnesium in it, with relatively lower amounts of calcium, so you don't want to mess with the ratio much there, especially considering it's applied via water rather than the soil.
i LOVE coco water, but i'm afraid of overdoing it, so i only use it like 2-3 times per flowering.
usually just twice.
but i may be paranoid about that because i messed up a grow yrs ago when i used too much black strap molasses and they have similar amounts of cal/mag and potassium
i could just be overly cautious there... but i don't like too many cations all at once..
it's also can be a lil more tricky to diagnose and remedy as well
 

im4satori

Well-Known Member
I noticed last night im showing some mild calcium def but only in the smaller 5 gallon pots

so what do I do

add/top dress a tbs or 2 of gypsum?
how long before I should expect the gyposm to become available?
 

im4satori

Well-Known Member
I also have the egg shell flour but have no idea how much to use or how quickly it would work

if I have to I could add a little calcium nitrate and correct it no problem.. but im wondering if theres another way
 

im4satori

Well-Known Member
so the ffof as we all now is light on calcium magnesium and iron...that's why most peeps are supplementing with calmag around week 2 or 3

on the plants in large 20 gallon containers I added calcium by way of calcium nitrate a long long while back and for now there now showing any issues with calcium

but on the small 5 gallon containers i have not added anything except when I transplanted I added 1/2 tsp egg shell flower in hopes that it might offset some of the missing or lacking calcium
but the eggshell either wasnt enough or isn't yet available

im thinking top dressing with some gypsum but I could use some directions on how much and how long itll take to become available

my guess, just a guess

maybe top dress with 1 oz and then again in 2 weeks and maybe thatll carry me until the end?
 
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