Mr B’s green trees is what im using this year, the have a 7-4-4 that’s organic.
I’m curious on people’s opinion on neem meal. I’ve stayed away from the neem oils so probably gonna stay away from the meal also but im curious on others thoughts…
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I grow indoors but I still re-amend and re-use my organic soil. To piggyback off the mineralization comment, that’s what I’ve been trying to focus on this grow and I think I’m getting great results. I normally re-amend with a 4-8-4 and some worm casting but I feel like it’s too much organic “stuff.”
I’ve been giving 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon each per gallon of irrigation water of silica, calcium carbonate, epsom salts, and azomite. It’s a low dose mineral feed that I can give often and repeatedly.
The azomite is for luxury trace minerals and the epsom salt and calcium carbonate is to add calcium and magnesium without over-dosing on the aluminum and heavy metals that’s present in the azomite.
I’m just experimenting but my plants are kicking ass this run. Maybe calmag is the answer after all.
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I’ve actually done this before and the results were not good without extreme correction. Ocean Forest has lots of nutrients to begin with.
During my very first grow when I knew nothing (I still know nothing), I went and bought all the “super soil” nutrients and mixed it with Ocean Forest. I had extreme nitrogen toxicity and potassium lockout that could not be fixed until I literally flushed my organic soil. After I fixed it I had an amazing harvest but I had a lot of un-necessary problems and issues that I had to work through.
Without the guidance of some gurus that was helping me at the time I would have never been able to turn that deathly hot soil into a successful harvest. And yes, I was running 5 gallon fabric pots.
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Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m glad I asked first I thought it was a good idea.
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I’m sure it can be done thoughtfully and I do still top-dress. But I just happened to really over-do it that time!
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I chose to refresh the Power Bloom Amendment every 3 weeks, and the summer crops did Fine.
It was added to Worm Castings, xtra Kelp Meal, scoops of natural sand and mixed-in.
Made it easy to Water as needed @Gadarien
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My current run I started with used ffof that I hadn’t done a thing to except shake the root balls out into a tub and mix in the last bit about 1/3 total amount of my unused ffof. I just got the dry amendments a week before I flipped the lights.
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Did you see an estimated improvement in production with 3 weeks?
I just started using dry and yeah I agree, I’m very much a fan of water as needed.
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Steady is what happened.
Less stress happened.
Yes, I tweaked the Amendables a couple times
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The other reason why I share my “over fertilization” story is because excessive nutrients like phosphorous are an environmental hazard because they cause algae blooms in lakes which kills everything.
I feel that’s an extra consideration when growing outdoors. Of course, there is a “Goldilocks” zone in between that we should aim for.
But a lot of growers, including industrial agriculture, waaay over fertilize phosphorous. Flat out. It’s an actual problem.
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It’s very simple, topdress a bit of everything and you’ll have all the minerals and nitrogen you need.
Free and easy to source: kitchenscraps, tree leaves, grass clippings, dandelion leaves, nettles, thistle, etc…
Horse manure if you know someone who owns horses nearby, a big handful per 3,5 gallon / 9 liter.
Of all manure, horse manure is the closest nitrogen to carbon ratio as good compost so you don’t really need to let it decompose, whatever horse manure you get will usually already be weeks or months old anyway and mixed with straw or some other high carbon stuff so when you use it in moderation it won’t burn your plants.
Think of carbon as straw, wood dust/shavings/chips, bark, stems of whatever, anything that’s brown and hard basically, it needs nitrogen to break down, so you can use it to dilute manure and turn it into mineral rich compost / soil.
For extra slow release nitrogen sow a handful of beans right along your cannabis, in the same pot, same soil. Cut them down when they get too big or start flowering.
Sometimes the bean plants will die on their own, that means the nitrogen is maxed out.
Beans are pioneers and providers, they thrive in poor soil and enrich it, storing more nitrogen than they need in their root nodules, feeding other plants. This type of plant is called a nitrogen fixer, other nitrogen fixers are clover, acacia, peas, etc.
Been doing this since I started out in 2019, works great!
Occasionally I’ll add a handful of fresh organic bagged soil to top up my pots if the soil has sunk and the pots aren’t as full as they can be.
Continuous topdressing with an abundance of diversity, throw everything that ever lived at it and you’ll never have deficiencies. Full spectrum approach. Don’t get hung up on one kind of fertilizer.
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Hi Cap’n! I’m using the flower girl now. Is there a standard dosage you use or a ratio to gallons of medium? I think I’m under feeding cause they look hungry.
Did you add your Amendment as soon as you flipped or did you put the topdress down 2 weeks prior?Dry amendments take 2 weeks to break down till your plant can access the Nutes in it.If you put it down as soon as you flip your going to have a lapse in feed and thier going to start giving you the nitrogen middle finger amd yellowing up.You can correct this in the meantime with foxfarm big bloom with the castings in it as long as your not cannabalizing leaves those will be toast It will give them an instant feed in between till the top dress breaks down.I usually go about around what the bag tells me the measurements are good on that one are pretty dead on.
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They’re in 5 gal. Bucket sips in living soil. On day 27 from.sprout I topdressed 6 tablespoon of the tomato dry ferts and 4 of the flower girl dry. I thought they were auto but they never transitioned so at day 39 and 44 inches tall, I flipped.
Then day 43 I gave 1 tablespoon tomato and 3 tablespoon of flower girl. Last feed was day 54, gave 4 tablespoon flower girl dry with a 1/2 gallon of top water with flower girl liquid mixed. Now day 61 over 5 foot trying to stack buds inches from the lite. In fact alot of the symptoms are improved at the edges where lite drops off.
Also they got a hit of demeters destiny Calcium phosphate yesterday cause I couldn’t find my bottle of litfa.