I’ve been using the same containers of soil to flower my plants in for a couple of years now.
Originally started out with a Clackamas Coot style mix with peat moss, rock dust, rabbit manure, perlite and a calcined clay product, karanja and neem cake, crustacean meal, insect frass, ground malted barley, rootwise mycrobe complete, and mycorrhizae at transplant. I use blumats with blusoak tape for watering. This has worked very well. Ive had a couple of plants that just didnt perform, but mostly everyone has been happy, with few problems. Between runs i add organic inputs: worm castings, ground barley, spent leaves/biomass from harvested plants, cover crop.
Im wanting to hear what other LOS growers have started out with, how you’ve maintained it, problems you’ve had. Has testing been helpful/worthwhile?
Ive enjoyed this style of growing because once i set it up it has delivered again and again. I spend about 20 minutes a day, mostly topping off the rez and the rest of the time im just watching plants grow.
Pretty much started out just like you with a Clackamas Coots mix. I’ve been testing my soil and amending according to the recommendations in Solomon’s book The Intelligent Gardener.
@ReikoX how long have you been running your soil? What kind of problems have you seen? Under what circumstances would you ever consider starting fresh? Has testing helped you?
These particular beds have been running a little over two years now. Only real problems I’ve had have been micronutrient imbalances. I doubt I would ever start fresh. Yes, testing is quite helpful once I got a grasp on how to interpret the results.
This is how I reamend.
Kitchenscraps, tree leaves, grass clippings, etc.
I’ve thrown moldy dates in there and now have two date palm trees sprouting, and two pointy bell pepper plants from bell pepper scraps, basil and nettle growing too.
Been going for a year and a half without any major problems, I get small plants and big plants alike, and harvest quite often, a little at a time, but continuously, under perpetual 12/12.
@Rogue are you doing that with clay or plastic pots? Looks like what I’ve seen with some blumat setups, starting out in a bottomless fabric pot on a capillary mat for veg, then just setting it on a living soil bed to finish. No transplant shock, and no food scraps/mulch right up by the plant parts. Cool!
The problems I see most often are from people who use coco coir instead of peat. They get too much Mg and K and never enough Ca. This is why coco growers gave decent success with Nectar For The Gods, because they push so much Ca.
When reusing peat, I just need to be mindful that anions deplete more than cations. And that manganese and boron are the most common deficiencies.
I had helped Liontree Farms convert from synth to organic. Now he gets 5-7% terpenes. A big part of that was adding manganese sulfate and borax each year. And I showed him how to make teas for each part of growing.
Anytime i see a problem in soil, I simply dump a shit ton of gypsum, then reamend the micronutrients. This works well when you cant test your soil
I would like to know exactly what is going on in my soil, but im not sure what kind of testing will be helpful. Kinda thinking if the plants are mostly happy i am too.
Gypsum - calcium sulfate - uses the sulfate to break apart the cation bond of whichever cations are in excess and flush them out of the soil, all while replacing that cation site with the calcium.
So adding gypsum will flush the soil of having too many cations and allow you to reamend with a better ratio of cations
Ive found the ratio to be more important than the actual quantity.
For sprouts or clones, i like more magnesium - about a 2:1 or 3:1 Ca:Mg.
Then in Veg i like about 6:1 calcium:mag.
Then bring that back down to 4:1 by week 4 of flower.
Theres other ratios to look out for, too.
Mg:K
K:P
P:Fe
But, the Ca:Mg is the only one you really need to think about. Then keep K around 4% and you’re all good to go.
I love gypsum and constantly tell people to use it vs dolomite lime, it’s one of the best and cheapest sources of calcium available that won’t swing the soil ph all around and it does a amazing job at softening clay soils.
If the ratios aren’t right having more will only increase the severity of any issues caused by lock outs and imbalances.
I’ve been preaching organic for over 20 years now but I was a environmental science major in college , specifically environmental conservation and land restoration.
I made a lot of enemies telling people how much synth sucks and how organic is better.
Me and Alan helped push probiotic farming around 2014. Now his Probiotic Farmers Alliance facebook page is on of the biggest farming communities (you should check out the files page there, soooo many good PDFs).
It makes me happy to see these large farms finally doing soil. Lol, remember warehouses and greenhouses full of CurrentCulture hydro systems?
Salt build up for days and no flavor in comparison , all the three part nutrient companies eventually added organic based additives to there lines but it was still a far cry from quality organic herb.
I grew organically in hydro for several years when everybody said it was not feasible. I had to clean my reservoir and maintain its temperature a little more closely then synthetic but the results were well worth it. I’m lazy now and grow everything in soil indoors or out , besides the hassle of watering I enjoy the quality and it makes it worth it. Plus I’m always growing multiple strains and they don’t always need the same feed at the same time so individual pots gives a lot more control in that department.
Thanks for the valuable input here guys. Ive been cruising along pretty good so far, but i do worry sometimes. Will definitely be reading up some more about gypsum.
I can see that it is all about balance, and when im thinking about my next moves im always worried about adding too much of this or that, and being stuck with it(not super easy to flush things out using big beds of “forever soil”).
What test companies/tests have you guys been using? What’s the cost? And do you keep the samples separated by bed, or combine them into one? After several runs in these big containers, i might be due for some testing.
You can do say three tests of three different beds/containers, and then mix others and test that just to see min/max range. Cheaper than testing each one. Big farms will test each bed.
The gypsum will flocculate the cations out if the cation exchange sites of the soil so they can be replaced (immediately).
This is another reason I use living cover crops that vary in depth. Like clover for surface and vetch for depth. These will soak of things that get flushed out, while also letting you see whats going on with the soil before it affects the pot plants.
