Organic top dress
- Thread starter Lilwatt
- Start date
DonBrennon
Well-Known Member
THE best is good compost, but really, anything locally available, preferably organic so it can break down and supply nutrients to the soil as well as protect the soil, rootzone and micro-organisms..................straw, leaves, I believe grass clippings are awesome for outdoor mulch, shit loads of nitrogen for fast huge growth
Lilwatt
Well-Known Member
Is there any thing I can get that it ready to use ..... with jus adding water when feeding is what im looking for
caveman117
Well-Known Member
Look into the espoma "tone" line. I think it may be what your looking for. I've been using bulb tone and I've liked it so far. Has mycorhizae already in the mix and its real cheap too.
bigskymtnguy
Well-Known Member
I give real worm castings an A+ for topdressing during veg. Holy smokes, you'll see results immediately. Or maybe try a worm castings tea with alfalfa for watering rather than topdressing. I'm also trying out a new organic product called "Afterburner" made by Huls Dairy. http://www.hulsdairy.com/anaerobic_digester.htm
HeadyYonder
Well-Known Member
While we're on this subject, is composted horse manure a viable option for topdressing my autos? I've used it in soil mixes to make up part of my humus content but am unsure of using it to top off my pots. @greasemonkeymann I know you would know you Organic guru. All the help an tips would be appreciates
greasemonkeymann
Well-Known Member
I appreciate the kind words, however my experience with topdressing horsemanure is zero...
BUT I have used steer manure, rabbit manure, alpaca, etc.
heres what I like to do with that, if you have a wormbin that's ideal, as I like to mix in half castings with the manure, but if not that's cool too, but past that what I do is this, tip the plant on it's side, scrape away ALL the toplayer of your media that dumps out (use common sense do NOT damage the roots) scrape away the top layer that isn't attached to anything, and keep that soil aside, then mix in equal amounts of manure with the soil you scraped away, now mix them, you'll have a rather rich but still aerated topdress, and hopefully innoculated with the microbes that are already in your soil.
then add the mix back to the plant container to its original height.
make sense?
obviously water after, but not LOTS of water, just moisten it.
and furthermore susan, if you want to be a pimp, cut out a cardboard circle to fit on top of your soil, and the added humidity from that will allow the roots to grow UP throw the topdress, it works like magic.
HeadyYonder
Well-Known Member
Your response couldn't be anymore clear man, I really appreciate it. I'm going to be getting some rabbit manure here soon as well. I really need to rebuild my worm bin and get that going again. Sadly due to unforseen circumstances my worms ended up starving or something last winter. I love making a good acct with homegrown ewc. I had another account on here and have followed your threads an advice for a long while man. I know I'm not the only one in here who thinks you're one of the most highly regarded organic growers here as far as giving advice and just sharing knowledge.
greasemonkeymann
Well-Known Member
wow man, that's really cool to say
I always have enjoyed the simple organic-compost methods and since they work so damn magically I simply like to share my experience with it, I used to work my ASS off trying to do all sorts of stuff to manipulate the plants into bigger/better flowers, when after it was alllll said and done, and lots of time and money was invested on many, many different approaches, the most effective, and ironically the most satisfying was the simplest.
I mean how often is that the case?
More often than not, life rewards how MUCH time and effort you put into things, but with cannabis growing it's counterintuitive, after building the soil right, or should I say, allowing mother-nature to show you how it's done right, after that its so very simple.
I just wish I would have discovered it yrs, ago, hence my eagerness to tell people, I mean it's not like its MY discovery, homesteaders, hippies, and mother nature itself has been doing it for millenia
on a different note, you can keep your wormbin inside under your kitchen sink, don't water them, just give them the juices of the rotted/frozen then mashed fruit, and it'll never seep through the bottom, I use a 25 gallon smart pot, with at least an 8 inch layer of old spent soil at the bottom.
it'll never stink, and your worms will go nuts.
BUT I only feed mine rotted fruit, if you throw a lot of coffee grinds in there, they will attract flies and smell a teesny bit.
but my point was more for the fact that you can keep them inside with no problem
HeadyYonder
Well-Known Member
Oh I know. I had mine inside but I just don't know why they died out. I'm calling it to underfeeding or something. They loved for a long while and produced some awesome poo. I forgot to add that this horse manure was composted with sawdust, is that gonna cause weird ph fluctuations? I know I never ever really worry about that with organic but just figured it might be different than manure composted with leaves
Olive Drab Green
Well-Known Member
Nature's Care Veg, Fruit, and Flower food. That's what I use.
greasemonkeymann
Well-Known Member
not sure about the manure, no experience with sawdust or horsemanure.
it'd probably be alright, but I have no idea
caveman117
Well-Known Member
Have you tried the bulb tone/ewc? I bet it.would be a great combo. Bulb tone is a little heavier in the p/k than tomato tone but it also has 6% calcium (higher than n,p or k in the mix) add some ewc for veg and I bet you'd be golden.
KENTA
Well-Known Member
I think bulb tone would be a more ideal option if I had it on hand.. Espoma makes great stuff. I agree it may offer slightly better results. Where I live tomato tone is what they have and like I said it works well
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