Things are looking pretty sweet in this @Stonedmason looking forward to the grow!
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Sounds good to me, Stonedā¦
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-Charā¦Also, air it out for 2 days after you finish drenching it. The owner is super helpful, if you have any questionsā¦Just shoot him an e-mailā¦
Questionā¦What is the Ful-Power all about? I have not heard of it yetā¦
Are you planning on layering Straw, and Alfalfa Hay?
Thanks for the updateā¦It was well done Manā¦But it is making me feel really lazy, about sharing my progressā¦Haha.
Regards,
K.
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@Kobracom420 donāt 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.
Iām 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. Iāll 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. Iām looking in to charging with kelp alfalfa etc. Will report back with more specifics.
Ful-power is Bioagās liquid fulvic acid, highly recommended by almost all the no till crew Iāve 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, wasnāt 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 Stonedā¦
I would love to take some of the fine stuffā¦But only if you have no other use for it.
As far as the Alfalfa Hayā¦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 yetā¦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 nowā¦ 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 Stonedā¦
I meant to tell you, that link for Reindeer I posted, will lead you to Neem mealā¦If the cost for shipping is too high for your original source, perhaps they can help you? The cost for me, was 1.5 KGās for $14.50 + shipping, they also have a bigger tubā¦9KGās for $57. As I said earlier, you just have to contact him, and he will adjust the shipping costā¦
Regards,
K.
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Hey Kobra,
Iām 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, Iāll 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. Iāll 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 thatās 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 Iāll start poppin em!
Shout out to everyone who has helped along the way. Once my tent arrives Iāll be starting a grow diary.
Stonedmason
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Iām a little late to the party here, so forgive me if Iām out of order. Best price Iāve 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. Iāll definitely keep that in mind, but a lot of the literature Iāve 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 Iāll 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 heās not too far out of the way. If heās 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 thatās just far enough that I canāt justify the cost once I factor in fuel and time.
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Sorry buddy, Iām on the west coast. Would be quite a hike for you.
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Youāre in good hands then!
Iām just a pollen chucker - but @ReikoX and @deep_rob will have some very nice stuff to play with Iām 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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Iām just grateful for anything and everything 
. Tent, fan and filter showed up tonight and everything else is finalized. Iāll 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 wasnāt too bad.
Just waiting for my better half to have a free moment so I can hang and rough test the fan. Iām sure Iāll 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 donāt want to choke them out with my bed. Iām thinking 2 inches air space on the one side and half inch breathing room on the other side for safetyās sake should let it pull air in unobstructed. Then Iāll be making it 12 inches deep. Iāll 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. Iāll probably order 5 bags of reindeers organic worm castings but they arenāt on the online store so Iāll give him a call tomorrow once the long weekend is over. Also there is a quarry that makes pumice close by so Iāll give them a call too, then I think thatās it for organics.
Quite a bit of work left to do, but the finish line is getting closer. Iām 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 donāt want them sucking the sideās in and getting blocked.
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tea recipes and soil mixes aside i would like to mention the incredible benefit of using the water you cook food with in your soil and/or teas. cpl examples here would be:
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hard boiling eggs leaves soluble calcium in the residual water this is a mild solution, you may also break up the shells and add vinegar and wait till it stops fizzing cpl hours or a day later to get allot more calcium, but this is very concentrated
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pasta and potato water after boiling. the starch is a great source of microbe food in general. i would add aquafaba from cooking/soaking dried beans here, but there are serious smell issues if you make a tea or use to much aquafaba. that said it has allot of sulfur which is nice if you wanna use it late in flower as sulfur makes weeb smell stronger imo
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spinach water after boiling. after cooking leafy greens like spinach the water has allot of iron and potassium in it and can also be used to supppliment soil or plants.
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used coffee grounds are slightly acidic and create an acid creating bacteria in soils, also high in nitrogen. i am also fairly certain i read plants also respond to caffein similar to how we do, it āenergizesā them
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limes, fresh squeezed into water. if you are lucky enough to live somewhere you can get large bags of limes cheap like me then you can forgo filtering for chloramines mostly. i find the amount of limes,1 in my case is enough to dechlorinate and ph 5-7 gallons of water for a day or so not to mention adding sugars for microbes and other benefits. i donāt use ph down or filtration i use only limes
*** while not a food but i round out the egg shell thing with langbenite for my own natural cal/mag . it also contains sulfur and potash in high amounts
i wanted to point out i was only refering to by products that i can use immediately to water plants or make a tea, the purpose here is not about enriching compost or what foods add what benefoits as they compost or become castings. we all kinda know this, but i never really see man ppl mentioning using the water from dinner when thyew boil veggies etcā¦
WASTE NOTHING IF POSIBLE FOLKS, IT IS OUR JOBS AS CAREGIVERS FOR THE EARTH TO STOP AND THINK BEFORE WE POUR/FLUSH STUFF DOWN THE DRAIN
heck you can even fertilize with your own piss smell free if you add the right bacteria/microbe culture to the urine. this is how a porto potty would handle smell partly. i forget the specific microbes needed t assure the urea/amonia is converted but your pee once processed this way is an excellent odor free full spectrum fertilizer. and no i donāt piss into my cannabis plants lol, but it is possible should you want to, just treat it first with the bacteria/microbes that eat the urea and convert the amonia smell
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There is some good info in here, thanks for your part outlierā¦ I will be trying this trick out soonā¦I have heard of baked eggshells, powdered up and mixed with compost tea beforeā¦
K.
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