It’s best to make your own IMO get your self a 15-20 smart pot and 1/2 pound of worms !
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Update time!
Went traipsing across the city and confirmed my suspicions. This shit is hard to find!
Picked up some vegetable seeds and a nice propagation tray and light from west coast seeds. I’ll bust it out and take some pictures soon enough.
Picked up a bale of SPM from Home Depot. Thought they would have gypsum but no dice. Don’t worry it’s on sale at the hydro store 60 bucks for 20lbs…not! I’m sure I can find it cheaper and if not black swallow soils is looking a lot more attractive day by day. It’s 75 cents a pound there plus freight.
Speaking of black swallow soils I’m in the process of finalizing a big order with them that includes:
Kelp meal
Alfalfa meal
Crab meal
Oyster shell flour
6 seed cover crop
Silica additive
Ful-power(only place I’ve found in Canada that isn’t completely out to lunch price-wise)
Soap nuts(excellent wetting and emulsifying agent)
200x aloe powder
I was really impressed with the shipping prices and customer service, so may be adding a few things to the order if they don’t show up in the next 24 hours or so of my travels.
Waiting on a Canadian quote from neemresource.com so hopefully the shipping isn’t bad there because the prices are dirt cheap.
Still looking for a good Vermont/compost/ewc source until my worm bin gets started. The grow store had “natures nurture” EWC but the dry bag didn’t look very nurturing. $26 for 20L bag. Anyone had experience with these guys? I may have to dig deeper on Craigslist.
Emailed air terra about bio char(thanks @Kobracom420)
Will be contacting my local stoneyard about grabbing some of their basalt(wish I knew it was useful before, I’ve been cutting basalt for years and the dust is a nuisance)
I think that about ticks all the boxes for the soil end of things. Oh and I’m planning on placing an order with the gardeners pantry for their mycorrhizae and humid acids tomorrow or shortly after I get a quote from air terra(gardeners pantry carries bio char too)
Now on to the nuts n bolts! I’ll be ordering a vivosun 4x4 tent (half price of gorilla grow and good amazon reviews) and I can replace down the line if necessary. Was also looking at their speed-controlled 6" fan with a silencer and carbon filter same brand. Let me know if anyone has had good/bad experiences with these.
Last but not least @Baudelaire got back to me with a quote but in my smoked-out haze I forgot to mention to him that I live in Canada lol. Just waiting for him to get back and I hope I can still make it work. Based on my observations of others, light is not one area you want to sacrifice in.
Once all that is sorted I’m going to source a #20 smart pot and a lb of worms. I’m thinking 2/3 to 3/4 in the pot and the rest in my soil bed. Feedback always appreciated.
Oh and my soil bed. I’m thinking a pvc skeleton with landscape fabric walls will do the trick just right, will wait for my tent to arrive to get exact dimensions(don’t want to make that one too big). Then I’ll get some cheap alfalfa hay from the feed store in town for mulch.
That was a long post. I salute all of you who have read it all. Please let me know if I’m missing anything mandatory. I know there’s always room for improvement but I’m just looking to get things started sooner rather than later.
Cheers!
Stonedmason
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Sounds good to me, Stoned…
I had a bitch of a time finding the stuff I needed, and had no choice but to purchase online. Thanks for the heads up, for where you bought your ingredients.
You will have to charge that Bio-Char…Also, air it out for 2 days after you finish drenching it. The owner is super helpful, if you have any questions…Just shoot him an e-mail…
Question…What is the Ful-Power all about? I have not heard of it yet…
Are you planning on layering Straw, and Alfalfa Hay?
Thanks for the update…It was well done Man…But it is making me feel really lazy, about sharing my progress…Haha.
Regards,
K.
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@Kobracom420 don’t worry bud, I just finished a huge job at work and am starting another one soon, so I figure make hay while the grass is green update wise.
I’m looking at 6 bags of fine and 3 or so bags or coarse bio char to throw in for aeration amendment. I figure having both might help. I’ll probably have extra of the fine grind and will be out to the island at some point this summer so drop me a PM if interested. I’m looking in to charging with kelp alfalfa etc. Will report back with more specifics.
Ful-power is Bioag’s liquid fulvic acid, highly recommended by almost all the no till crew I’ve been reading up on. It seems expensive on black swallow but have a look on amazon or eBay for comparison. Nathan @ black swallow said it was very recently made available in canada for distribution, he said he got it in pretty much the moment I asked if he had it.
Cheers
Stonemason
Edit: and about the mulch, wasn’t planning on it was maybe going to order some comfrey as well. Anything I should know about using straight alfalfa hay good/bad?
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Hey Stoned…
I would love to take some of the fine stuff…But only if you have no other use for it.
As far as the Alfalfa Hay…I just seen it used in a diagram, for raised beds I was reading. I am new to this, and have not got that far into the Straw/Alfalfa use yet…As I just finished charging my Char. Here is the pic I had for the layering process (The Lucerne Hay, is Alfalfa) :
I will still have to figure out, if layering items such as crushed Oyster shells etc, is a necessity, or if I can just mix it all together in the Compost layer. I am trying to find that info now… Perhaps that No-Till Ninja @lotus710 Can fill us in? He has an awesome thread here: Need some help getting off the bottle? About feeding non bottled Nutes. There is some wisdom to be had there.
Later buddy.
K.
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I think I paid 20$ for 15 kilos locally to me, might have been Canadian Tire.
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Hey Stoned…
I meant to tell you, that link for Reindeer I posted, will lead you to Neem meal…If the cost for shipping is too high for your original source, perhaps they can help you? The cost for me, was 1.5 KG’s for $14.50 + shipping, they also have a bigger tub…9KG’s for $57. As I said earlier, you just have to contact him, and he will adjust the shipping cost…
Regards,
K.
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Hey Kobra,
I’m not planning on doing any layering, just mixing together all soil components, topping with alfalfa hay as mulch and finally sprinkling cover crop over the top.
Also thanks for the tip on Reindeer, I’ll have to try him out in the future. For now, I added in 5 lbs of neem meal to my black swallow order so enough to get me started.
Cheers,
Stonedmason
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Later Bro.
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More updates. Things are moving fast.
4x4 tent, fan, filter and muffler ordered on amazon. When with 4 inch fan based on reviews that 6 inch is overkill and created too much pressure on low.
12 solstrips and 480w dimmable driver ordered(very excited about this)
Wait on an amended quote from black swallow(adding basalt, barley powder, gypsum, neem meal and neem oil) and will pull the trigger shortly.
That only leaves vermi/compost/ewc and aeration. I’ll be hitting a landscape yard or Home Depot for lava rock and will look for someone local for compost. If not I may give reindeer a shot.
And I think that’s it! @man-bot, @ReikoX and @deep_rob have kindly offered to send some of their genetics over(thank you SO much guys) and once I get some seeds and get things set up I’ll start poppin em!
Shout out to everyone who has helped along the way. Once my tent arrives I’ll be starting a grow diary.
Stonedmason
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I’m a little late to the party here, so forgive me if I’m out of order. Best price I’ve seen for EWC is $16 for a 20L bag Home Hardware. Local producers are selling @ $2.50/lb or the equivalent of a bread bag for $12.50.
I usually buy alfalfa at a feed supplier. I just bought a 50lb bag of pelletized alfalfa (for the sake of a few cups) and I think I paid about $25 for the bag.
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My bad @Schmokey, I did notice you mentioned that earlier in the thread. I’ll definitely keep that in mind, but a lot of the literature I’ve been digging in to recommends living(ie in a pile or bin until you scoop it out vs bagged) vermicompost to maximize beneficial microbes so I have a bias toward local.
Just emailed a guy that sells 17lb buckets for 10 bucks, maybe I’ll get a deal on multiple buckets.
Stonedmason
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17lb for $10 is a real good price. Might get in on that myself if he’s not too far out of the way. If he’s anywhere close to the GTA, would you mind shooting me the email address?
I know of a few vermicompost operations up in the New Hamburg area, but that’s just far enough that I can’t justify the cost once I factor in fuel and time.
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Sorry buddy, I’m on the west coast. Would be quite a hike for you.
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You’re in good hands then!
I’m just a pollen chucker - but @ReikoX and @deep_rob will have some very nice stuff to play with I’m sure. Still I thought the GF x BB and TP were both nice specimens 
Very interested to see your setup in action. Been meaning to order some solstrips for a new arrangement.
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I’m just grateful for anything and everything 
. Tent, fan and filter showed up tonight and everything else is finalized. I’ll be struggling through setup and probably taking a few pics tomorrow.
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More updates.
Got through the tent setup. Having another set of hands definitely helped. It wasn’t too bad.
Just waiting for my better half to have a free moment so I can hang and rough test the fan. I’m sure I’ll have to switch it up once the lights show up which should be early next week.
Good thing I waited to set up my tent before designing my soil bed. The fresh air intakes are from about 7-14 inches from the bottom so don’t want to choke them out with my bed. I’m thinking 2 inches air space on the one side and half inch breathing room on the other side for safety’s sake should let it pull air in unobstructed. Then I’ll be making it 12 inches deep. I’ll use 8 pvc 3-way elbows and lengths of 1-2 inch pvc, then tack landscape fabric together with heavy duty half inch staples. Any opinions/thoughts on this?
Couple pics of the ducting, carbon filter and a baffled style muffler I got to keep the noise down. The fan is surprisingly quiet. Hope it stays that way.
Finally a shot of a little propagation t5 light and tray I picked up for seedlings and clones.
Soil ammendments, bio char, seeds and light will be filtering in by the end of this week and beginning of next. I’ll probably order 5 bags of reindeers organic worm castings but they aren’t on the online store so I’ll give him a call tomorrow once the long weekend is over. Also there is a quarry that makes pumice close by so I’ll give them a call too, then I think that’s it for organics.
Quite a bit of work left to do, but the finish line is getting closer. I’m getting pretty stoked to get started.
Cheers
Stonedmason
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Looks like your progress is going well. The first grow is like watching grass grow (literally) but after a while you start thinking in 3-4 month cycles.
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I would run the fan as well, to see how much the sides of the tent suck in, you might lose 2-3 inches each side near the bottom. I put 3x1 strapping across the middle of the sides. My tent would lose 6-8 inches on each side, in the middle, when the fan runs higher than half speed.
You don’t want them sucking the side’s in and getting blocked.
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