I’m a huge believer in Layers & Nutrient Spike sections. I’m actually starting this topic to see what other people do and HOW/IF they also do layers & spikes. I just find it better than ramming nutrients down their throats. I’ve come to terms with layers & sections simply because I find than the roots find those nutrient spots and simply draw up nutrients as needed. I’m just off to work; otherwise I would be writing more. However I do want to hear everyone’s thoughts and inputs. How do you feed ur plants or how do you situate your pots in terms to their soil?
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Sounds like another TLO (Total Living Organics) grower!
Yeah, me too…
I’ve been messing around with layers as well after reading The Rev’s book, TLO.
I fiddled around with spikes a bit but I haven’t been using them lately. There was a great comment by Upstate last month about catching and using grasshoppers as food spikes in out-door grows.
I’ve been dissecting my root balls to see what the effects of layers have had with some results. I found large amounts of roots in the EWC layers but that was heavy feeders.
Light feeders root-balls aren’t as strongly affected…
Lately I’m thinking that the folks that re-pot are probably doing better than I have been with layers. I base this on discovering how fast the young plant can send out those roots all through the pots.
Cheers
G
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Well what does everyone else do? Do you simply use 1 soil mixture the whole way through? Do you add spikes at all (homemade) or store bought? What recipe? Or do you simply top dress. It’s “Obvious” I’m talking about soil now. Sorry Aeroponics, hydroponics & aquaponics guys. Lmao… However I am looking for a some NEW trial ideas for my ladies. So feel free to let me know what works for you and I’d love to try it out… IF you don’t mind sharing.
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Well what are you doing these day @Gpaw? How do pot ur soils. It seems I’m starting off where you have at least touched base on! Only cuz I’m open for some NEWER techniques. Let me know when you can. Respect brother. As always much love and respect from Canada.
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Honestly, if you just mix up a batch of well-balanced soil with everything a plant needs, there’s really no need for layers and spikes and all that. Nor is there a need for force-feeding the plants nutrients/fertilizers/whatever. When I first started growing, I was almost completely water-only, with maybe one or two sprouted seed teas and a couple aerated compost teas (one during veg, one at the very beginning of flower) and my results were great. The last few years, same soil mix, but I’ve been watering with more shit and my plants have suffered. My current grow was supposed to be a “getting back to the basics” grow and I fucked up, started adding shit to the water again and my plants are looking a little rough. The flowers look great, but the the plants themselves got a little fried.
I can assure you that next grow will absolutely be almost completely water-only. As long as your mix is all good, there’s really no need to add anything else.
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I like to grow in beds with a living organic soil. I love to topdress with fresh earthworm castings, i put that shit on everything. When I harvest, most of it goes back to the bed as mulch, so it cold composts slowly over time.
I like to use malted barley, aloe, coconut water, neem, kelp, and silica as a tea in a rotation.
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Sorry, I was away for a bit, what @ReikoX & @minitiger said is sold gold, especially the EWC. 
I started with the Rev’s recipe and later I scored a great PDF from a great person I met at a Cannabis trade show (Black Swallow Soils, Brantford, Ont) Great stuff on teas, ferments, etc. Now that I think of it I need to find that original PDF as all I can lay my hands on is a hard copy. They have some interesting blogs on their main page too.
I suggest you get one of those cheap soil test kits, then you can check pH & N, P, K (My latest batch indicated I needed more potassium and bring the pH up).
If you are going to go soils you will want a worm bin. If you have the room, the big no-till setups look great.
Cheers
G
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Ok so as for earthworm castings. I KNOW they’re best when NEW!!! However, I don’t exactly have that option. So I buy the $60.00 bag of Gaia Green earthworm castings and I DO use them as a top dress! All in all the plants are looking good. That doesn’t mean I don’t have room for improvement and learning NEW skills and techniques. Growing weed is kinda like “Bridge”. No matter how long you play… You’ll never know everything!!!
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I can’t fathom buying EWC. Seriously a bin is cheap and easy to setup. My worms eat my garbage.
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Sixty bucks for a bag of EWC is a LOT of money. I dunno where you’re located, but Agrowinn makes really good castings for like 30 bucks a bag. One cubic foot. While I agree with @ReikoX that homemade castings are ideal, I just don’t have any place to put a worm bin. Outside isn’t an option, just because it gets up to around 110 degrees here in the summertime and mid-thirties for a few weeks in the wintertime. And there’s no more room in the bedroom I have dedicated for growing. I don’t think my girlfriend would be okay with me putting a worm bin in her office or our bedroom. I wouldn’t, either haha.
So I buy castings. I saw Coot suggest Agrowinn in a thread from like 2009, maybe earlier, so that’s what I’ve been using. I think they’re located in San Diego. There’s a landscaping place that orders them for me so I’ve been doing that. Sixty dollars? Wow… I was starting to have a hard time spending thirty and I only buy EWC once every year or so.
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The bag of EWC is a 60pd bag. It helps and goes along way
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