A micro living organic soil grow

Indoor Growing Growroom Diaries
41

A lil update, gave them watering with some OA (Organics Alive) FPT (Humic plus other stuff) today… A lil bit on the top to keep it moist and then basically filled the tiny saucers (which I feel like makes for a convenient measurement as well) to bottom water some more.
I did this somewhat early morning.
I said I was gonna LIFTA that SS2 but decided to water it with the same mixture as the rest… I could be wrong, but almost seems like a claw to me, any thoughts on it?

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Here’s the rest and maybe the strongest looking one:

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Build update:
Before moving on to making more boxes, here are a couple more things I plan to work on:
-Retrofitting a better humidifier than what I currently have which has been very unreliable. It doesn’t seem like I need this now, but maybe when there are greater light requirements and heat, and more exhausting, might need to compensate a lil bit.

-Putting a NO solenoid on the main RO line to the plants that is plugged into a smart switch that connects via IFTTT to a water leak sensor system (feel like I mentioned this already but I still need to do it)… if you don’t know, this will hopefully be triggered to automatically shut off the water if this long rope around most stuff ever gets wet.

-May either add another exhaust cpu fan and hole or just upgrade to an inline fan… would be nice to have one beast fan be able to exhaust all boxes (individually or simultaneously) but I think that might need some electronic dampers or something? Might be above my skills but I know you all have elegent solutions for these kinds of things😉 Any tips on that would be great as well but I also see some potential issues with a shared exhaust fan unless it was a super smart fan (not on an Adrino level yet, goals tho) that changed speed according to open ducts or something.

-Also, am thinking about recreating one of these starter containers to see how much it weighs dry-ish and then compare to help get a better idea of water timing.

Some grow questions:
-Does anyone know or think it would be better to have lower temperature, maybe less moist / less often watered, or, maybe a higher temp with more soil evaporation and thus more frequent waterings?

I guess let’s assume same VPDs or whatever you want ideally.
I know VPD charts have the different areas for prop/veg/flower but it seems in each of those ideal zones you could lean drier or more humid and also obtain similar vpds at different combinations of temp/rhs in those same zones…

So, not counting LST differential for now, it seems the two extremes (within each growths’ stage’s respective ideal zones) in this context might be cool humid (which I assume holds water the longest) and hot dry-ish (which I assume moves water the fastest)…

So why do you like which part of each zone? (schedule permitted)

Water might likely apply different to me later on when attempting to use the cap mats as it could be more of a constant, altho maybe some dialing for different stages is a possibility? Regardless, I am still def curious what you chiefs think/know about this, if not for a tid bit I can translate to the cap mats, still nice to know for the small starter pots! :bowing_man:t2:‍♂ :pray:t2: :beers:

*after a lil more research, it sounds like <76F for non co2 and 77-83F (maybe higher cause of LST?) for co2 with higher humidity to take it in? Seems some people like it in the more humid friendly side when it pulls nutrients and water more evenly vs dryier might pull water more and then leave an accumulation?

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42

Ok, finally got the humidifier going, it was def a pain getting the water level right between covering the fogger and not spilling out, but it should be good to go auto filled by the float valve :sweat_smile:

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Plants are coming along, no watering/feeding today as soil still feels moist now that the mulch is on…

Do you guys like to try and keep the mulch moist or just go by the soil moisture?

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43

The mulch is there to help keep the soil moist, so I would go by the soil.

That seedling you thought was was clawing possibly, looks like it could be just a bit overwatered. The last round I had a plant that stayed pretty saggy all through flowering also. I’ll have to run her again to see, but she just seemed unhappy all through the grow. Her sisters were cool.

I love watching the grow and concept. I’m an ac infinity guy, so I would look at their stuff. It’s pricier, but worth it IMHO. They have lots of options through there whole catalog. We use stuff from several of their lines in our grow and drying room (smart vent fans).

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44

Gotcha… so it’s ok if the mulch is dry then?

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45

I believe so. I’ve never worried about it. I’m learning that keeping my living soil a bit more moist has been working well also.

I wouldn’t judge that by the mulch. I would experiment a bit to see where the plants like it.

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46

The mulch is dry so the soil wouldn’t be. That’s why it’s there, to slow down evaporation. Always go by the soil, that’s where the roots of your plant are.

The top layer of your mulch could be soaking wet, the layer under it could be dry.

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47

When it comes to living soil I use the weight of the pot. The actual materials in there are super light. Water is really heavy!

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48

Anyone have any idea what theses leaf colorations might entail?

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Everything is still pretty moist, so they’re going longer now without watering. I’m sure the mulch had a bit to do with that but also the full saucer bottom waterings as well I think.

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49

I would hazard classic over watering or over feeding. Check the moisture of the soil and the EC…if possible? I squeeze some soil check for moisture.

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50

Yeah, I’m letting them dry out a bit… kind of tough to find the fine balance for living soil of always moist but not too overwatered…

I’ve been doing a finger test and def still moist…
Contemplating turning up the temp from 76F to not sure but also might just let it play out… VPD has been averaging 0.9…

Haven’t done ph yet, prob should try tho…

Prob won’t do EC of soil only cause I’m not sure exactly how with soil… I don’t do run off so if that’s how it done I prob won’t do it?

Here’s a funny update tho, that SS2 with the most messed up leaves is stretching the most (I take it cause it’s leaves aren’t getting enough photosynthesis?):

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The catnip looks like it’s doing great for the most part :laughing:

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If a few end up not working out, I’m totally ok with that as I want to run some other strains and also figure out some sort of perpetual thing goin on between new seeds and clones.

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51

Overwatering, likely, I agree. It’s really hard to not overwater in those little pots. I do it all the time. What I found worked was give them enough water for maybe 2-3 days, in a saucer or something. Let it soak that up and dry out just a little, repeat. To fix over watering, just skip the soak step and wait for slightly dry.

Or that’s what’s worked for me. YMMV.

Your exhaust fan, it simply needs to turn on after the microcontroller opens the damper. If the damper is open, the fan will pull air from whatever box. Alternatively, the way I’d do it? Each box has its own environmental controls. Leave the fan running 24/7, or what have you, and each box opens the damper until desires climate is met.

Or, go passive. Get some manual dampers, set up a constant ventilation setup and balance each box so you relatively maintain stable temps. I’d help you out if I could code worth a shit, but yeah. I can teach myself calculus, but not Arduino. Go figure.

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52

Thanks. Yeah, it’s a bit over my head for now, prob just gonna go individual boxes, maybe try double intake/exhaust with my big supply of cpu fans before I bite the bullet with the infinity type fans.

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53

I test the soil EC by taking a sample and mixing it in a tiny bit of distilled water, same with the ph. Outdoors I soak the ground with distilled water and slam the ph meter into the puddle.

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54

Maybe I could do that when I up pot, these might be a lil small to take anything tho.

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55

I always water from the bottom, it keeps the peace in the top layer, there’s hardly any root there anyway. It’s deceptive, you never really know how much water reaches the middle and bottom of the pot when watering from the top. Especially with bags. I noticed there’s little streams that form inside the soil where the water always follows the same path so a lot of the time it went through and out the side or bottom. Can’t go wrong with watering from the bottom, the soil gets saturated gently and evenly. I’ve had my pots sit in an inch of water for months on end as an experiment, plants weren’t even bothered. The fungus gnats went to town tho, so letting everything dry out again now and then back to little bits of bottom feeding. Just a little drizzle at a time.

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56

What kind of cat nip is that? BTW

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57

Do you know much about surfactants (wetting agents)?

I’m wondering if these would help much with bottom watering?

Some people put it in the water but apparently you can mix them into the soil as well I believe.

@JoeCrowe ill have to get back to you on the catnip, I didn’t even know there were different kinds, but I’ll look at the package and let you know.

58

No idea, but it’s really not necessary, the soil just wicks up the water all the way to the top if you keep adding water, and from the moment it’s saturated it will stop absorbing, it regulates itself.
So after watering, if the next day you see there’s still water in the saucer, throw it out, then you’re good for quite a while, the more alive your soil the less you’ll need to water.

If you’re growing in living soil I’d say go all the way and let it sort itself out. Organic living soil only gets better with age but it takes patience, self-restraint and a whole lotta LITFA.

If you really wanna use nutes then go all the way and use dead soil.

I don’t even use compost tea because it doesn’t occur in the wild and it’s extra work. The best farmers are the laziest ones. :wink: All the soil ever gets in the wild is mulch, manure, corpses of all kinds of species and sizes, dust, seeds, spores, pollen and rain, and exceptionally a layer of silt after a flood. I’m still learning how to be lazy though, it’s a whole art of its own and zen as fuck.

Edit: I’m an editing fiend.

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59

I’m not sure there are any physical systems in this universe where you get more out than you put in.

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60

I wondered the same… I’ve seen two types, the regular bush ground cover stuff and a more viney kind.