General Organics

I use the GO line. I don't pay attention to PH when feeding with GO -just mix and feed. I'm using a vegan super coco mix -kelp meal, casting, mychorriza, rock phosphate and GO Alaskan Ancient forest. I feed this stuff AT every watering because plants will start to suffer if you do feed-water-feed, at least mine did.

ClosetSafe said:

When you add Diamond Black, it should lower the PH dramatically, especially if the water is RO. It's 6-8% humic acid.

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Have you ever tested the Diamond Black-only solution with a digital PH pen? It should test higher than 7. CaMg+ and BioThrive is what drops the PH level.

elduece said:

I use the GO line. I don't pay attention to PH when feeding with GO -just mix and feed. I'm using a vegan super coco mix -kelp meal, casting, mychorriza, rock phosphate and GO Alaskan Ancient forest. I feed this stuff AT every watering because plants will start to suffer if you do feed-water-feed, at least mine did.



Have you ever tested the Diamond Black-only solution with a digital PH pen? It should test higher than 7. CaMg+ and BioThrive is what drops the PH level.

Click to expand...

I have done the experiment with adding Diamond Black ONLY to Reverse osmosis water that was around 8, it definitely lowered the PH. Then I tried other lings like adding just a solution i made up of dolomite lime and it increased the ph. I don't remember what exactly my blue lab said, but i'll do it again and let you know how much is needed to bring it down to 7. I have just begun messing with dolomite lime as a ph up and don't have much experience with it yet to give a recommendation of using it.
Biothrive and CaMg definitely do bring the PH down. I have noticed while mixing that if you add CaMg+ first, the Ph will level out around 6 and not move much after adding the rest of the acidic nutrients.

That vegan mix sounds nice, i can't believe with all those added fertilizers water-feed caused suffering. I'm starting to want to whip a batch of subcool super soil together and see what watering with nothing but water is all about.

My submersible pump brewer is suctioned to the wall of the bucket verses the bottom. But the very bottom of the wall of the bucket to help explain. That way it pushes water across the bottom and keeps particulates from settling. Also the cord is pointing straight up out of the bucket and no tubing is attached to the pump outlet.

I'm experimenting with habitats for the micros, however throwing the earthworm castings straight in isn't an option for my submersible pump. Any ewc has to be paper towel'd, i use the brown ones because i'm paranoid delusional and think white ones contain bleach.
Since I have two brewers going, I can create a solution out of the ewc to strain into one and toss the leftover ewc into the other. I don't know how effective that method is yet. When I do that, I have to throw the lid on my brewing bucket with a netpot in it full of coconut chips. The coconut chips are too large to fit through the net pot, much less clog the submersible, but it is a natural habitat for trichoderma fungus and perfect for the rest of the micros.

They're fine. Water them again with some 6.0+.2.

Dude, i'd still throw an airstone in the brew and just not throw Biothrive grow/bloom in it. If the airstone gets chokes, just dip it in some hot water (that was taken off of boil). And foam, well my remedy for that is to drop some humboldt grow or honey in. I'm pretty sure the cane molasses is what brings the foam down, but i haven't tried just cane molasses.

Edit: are you getting marine?

This has been my first time using the general organics line, got the GO box from my local shady shop(hydro store), and I don't worry about the ph at all. Just make sure to throw in a teaspoon of dolomite per gal soil and you'll be right as rain. As far as the biomarine, the smell is only bad when mixing. Once it's in the soil its unnoticeable. My plant seems to be digging it.

You can use great white or Roots Oreginisms instead of the Sub-Culture A&B. Its cheaper and does the same thing. The Gypsum could be screwing with your ph.

What ppm did you feed them with?

Use Dyna Gro Pro Tekt for a natural ph up, wont hurt the benes

IVIars said:

Use Dyna Gro Pro Tekt for a natural ph up, wont hurt the benes

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Would earthjuice ph up and down crystals have the same effect? It's my understanding that bacteria thrive in acidic conditions and no matter what you use a spike in the ph will kill at least some of them off. As far as beneficials go anyone interested should check out http://fungi.com/mycogrow/index.html the mycogrow soluble. You get an ounce of powder for 6 dollars containing loads of different goodies. Does the same thing as great white minus the whole paycheck part. Plus if you get an airstone bubbling and add molasses every now and then they will keep multiplying leaving you with a technically endless supply.

I read that once the roots have been exposed to the bacteria and if there are proper carbs fed to the soil there's no need to re introduce them more than twice in a whole grow is this true? Would feeding them bacteria every time you pot up to a new container be the best solution?

IVIars said:

You can use great white or Roots Oreginisms instead of the Sub-Culture A&B. Its cheaper and does the same thing. The Gypsum could be screwing with your ph.

What ppm did you feed them with?

Use Dyna Gro Pro Tekt for a natural ph up, wont hurt the benes

Click to expand...

I already bought the sub-culture a&b before I read these last posts...but I'll keep that in mind when I run out. As far as what PPM I fed them at, I couldn't tell you. I had to chose between a good PH meter or PPM meter b/c of budget, so I'm without PPM for a few weeks.
I know the water I start with is usually around 150 ppm though, and I only fed half strength according to their feeding chart. (Seedlings/Cuttings Week 1). PH went from 8.0 to 6.3-6.4 after mixing everything, so I didn't even alter it when I watered. Runoff was coming out at 5.4-5.5.

So today, I mixed a full strength feed, as the plants still looked hungry after the half strength last week. Started @ 8.2 PH and after it was all mixed ended up @ 6.0. Again, I didn't alter...thinking the 6.0 solution would raise my 5.4-5.5 just a tad to where I want it. Runoff was coming out at 5.1-5.2...wtf am I missing here? And if my PH up will harm my beneficials etc, how should I raise it?

i know this is an old thread but i'll give my 2 cents about the ph thing. i have read that you can't go by the runoff for an accurate reading and that the runoff ph is usually a point or so lower than the actual ph. so it sounds like to me that the ph is fine, but i could be wrong. it seems like every tip i learn on growing is wrong to the next guy. it seems like growing weed should be a little less complicated. guess weed is like any other women. if they weren't complicated and needy little bitches, what would they do?? haha.