Reiko, I was hoping for a little advice on a amending coots mix, since I see that is what you use also. A bit of ewc or compost and how much meal would you add? I’m going to start using the bio live mix. How about any oyster shell flour or garden gypsum? Should I add a bit of that also. Do you normally add a little aeration back in to maintain your ratios? Use the same original mix I added in? From what I understand rock dust breaks down slowly, so I shouldn’t need that, how bout azomite?
Also, I had a ph issue. The water I was using was over 8. I tested Mt used soil, and it was between 7.2 and 7.3. Should I address that or let the meals bring it down with their acidity since it isn’t that high? Any thoughts bud?
By the way, it is greatly appreciated that you are sharing your creations. You’re a good dude.
I run a living soil bed, the only amending I do is putting the leaves and trimmings back into the bed when I harvest.
I add will add EWC to the beds a couple times per cycle. EWC fixes everything. I do add some neem and kelp teas and the leftovers end up in my worm bin, so they are indirectly added that way.
I will grind up my egg shells and add them to the worm bin, thats very similar to oyster shell flour. There is plenty of gypsum and other rock dusts in my soil.
Nope, sometimes I run old soil through the worm bin (are you detecting a theme here?) which has some aeration in it. My soil mix uses pumice which tends to stay around for a long while.
I stay away from azomite, it tends to have heavy metals in it, particularly aluminum.
I would get RO water, it has low alkalinity (the pH can be changed easily) and let the rhizosphere do the work for me. If your pH is 8, it is likely pretty high alkalinity as well, causing your pH to stay high. If not, bring it closer to 6.0 when you water.
This mix is intended for a no-till bed, its 30+ gallons. I’ve run a bed like this for 2 years before. Now, if you are trying to use a coots mix in smaller pots, add a bit of neem, kelp, and crab/shrimp meal to some EWC and top dress with that, ypu shpuld be good.
I use basalt rock dust as well as azomite. I know the mix says glacial rocks dust, but I couldn’t find it when I made my soil originally.
I am running it in 3 gallon pots, which is why I’ve been adding some meals between runs. I just wanted to be a bit more accurate when adding, if possible.
I did start another worm bin at the beginning of winter/ late fall. I should be getting some good from it here in a few months.
I’ve been adding some compost to my tap water to neutralize the chloramine. I thought it would also help with the high ph water, but I was wrong. Now that I got a ph meter, I realized some of my issue was that. I will start hauling some ro water home with me from work, so I can use that instead.
I will hist the teas harder from now on, now that I made a brewer. Using RO water instead, since the ph part of that makes perfect sense. It’s been super easy to overadjust my clone water when using it. I’ll just switch over to using that all the time. I will also be doing more top dressing as well.
The no-till beds are doing better now that I turned down the lights. These plants have been vegging for about two weeks now, I will put up the first trellise soon.
GRCD are about 30 days since germination. They were getting closer to the lights and not slowing down, so I flopped them over. A few hours later and the tips were pointing back upward. I will continue flopping them to keep an even canopy.
I have a couple more questions, if you don’t mind. I had not been worried about ph, and I ended up with some issues. We have been ph’ing our water lately with absorbic acid or citric acid, down to about 6.5. Is this the best thing to ph for living soil?
We are still having some ph issues on some reused soil. It is close to 8.I assume that’s from the high ph water we had been using (well over 8). The last batch of soil that we used, I tested. It is between 7.2-7.3. Should I add a little wood ash to bring it down? It seems awfully weird to me with all the acidic sphagnum peat used in it.
Im going to start bringing home ro water from work and use that to water, and we plan to start collecting rainwater, which will definitely help.
One teaspoon of lemon juice per gallon of water at a time will lower the ph. Wood ash would work to a point and stop but is loaded with potassium. I would add a half cup of ash to one gallon of soil
Citric acid will work, but will cause some pH drift, especially with hydroponics. The nice part about citric acid is it is created naturally by the plant in what is known as the Krebs cycle. Regular pH down, phosphoric acid, is more stable and will add a bit of P to the mix.
Wood ash is very alkaline, it will drive the pH up, not what you want in this case.
If you use RO water, there is no need to adjust pH, the water has low alkalinity, i.e. it is easy to change the pH. The rhizosphere will have no problem adjusting the pH. I use RO water. I have very hard water around 500ppm and 8+ pH.
The poison is in the dosage. Remember when we add the acid to hard water, it reacts with the base water and neutralizes the acid. Perhaps in the long run it could be bad, but will work until you get a better water source.
These autos are coming up on five weeks since I germinated them. They handled the flop just fine, both tops are pointed back up toward the light. These are about 1/2 way there already. I love how fast autos are.
I got some slaps from @misterbee so I had to put them on the door. My collection is getting close to where it was previously. I love stickers, anyone want to trade some slaps for seeds?
Whenever I get a fair amount, I’ll run 'em your way. I see the “Big Perv” is prominently displayed…luv it!!! You stay super safe, continue to take extra care and, you know I’m gonna say it, be well…mister
Duuude, I just threw out like two dozen stickers from various breeders. Had them sitting on my kitchen table for months and finally tossed them.
Plants look good, btw. I’ve never messed with autos, although I have been considering getting some and growing them outside this Spring. Thought I’d harvest them and just press it all.
I’ve got a auto little under halfway thru just started flower so looks just a few days behind yours above. It’s a grower thou rather than bushy I was going lst it this evening to get it backed off the light a bit. In your opion would a flop be better? Haven’t tried it yet so might have to just to see what I think.
