Ok so plan on getting Rice Hulls to use as mulch for my pots.
Any IPM worries when buying Rice Hulls from a scoop container at a local home-brewing shop?
Also am I looking to do 1"or 2" (or more?) to keep topsoil moist. About how much will I need to do 4 five gal pots.
Typically I see rice hulls mixed into the soil for aeration. They are high in silica which is good when they break down.
For a mulch, I would have thought 1/2" (1cm) would be a good target.
Good question about the IPMā¦ (ā¦I donāt know)
Cheers
G
Be careful with the water absorption.Rice hulls like to suck up water and hold it.Get your self a cheap soil probe thier like 14 bucks the green one with the two long probes.The Ph tester on those things sucks donāt trust it the water probes are dead on.Beats guessing and trying to pick up pots and guess the water all the time.It will be one of the best 14 busk you ever spent I use mine till they fall apart they last years
@CapnCannabis I fully support that as well about the soil-moisture accuracy, great tool. My only added advice is to NOT, LEAVE IT IN THE SOIL. Use it and clean itā¦ cheers CapnC
Needless to say I destroyed my first one
Thanks for the warning about Moisture absorptionā¦
I always stick it get a reading and bounce alway clean them off your 100% right the probes are a bit bendy they will snap if your not careful if you hit a root ball one will go one way the other will go the other way .Iām thinking about going to the single probe but Iāve had so much luck with the one I figure if it wasnāt broke why fix it
So do you suggest something other than rice hulls?
Eh yupā¦
My wife just ājacksā them into her pots and leaves them thereā¦
(yes, Iāve told her thatās not a good ideaā¦ 
)
Cheers
G
Rice hulls are great you just have to be more mindful of the water.Iāve been reusing all my soil and Iām finding the old roots from the last grow are really good soil aeration.Iāve use hulls in the past and it just wasnāt for me donāt mean it wonāt work for you.I had to ditch it it was causing too much moisture in my environment and it was bringing Dirt gnats back every time.I switched out the hulls and just started reusing my soil.I have a better grow each batch I reamend and let sit for two week thatās really important.If you mix your nutes and just throw them into it they donāt like that.Your going to have all kinds of issues
Also I will drop this little tidbit for you If you do have gnats come.Want those gnats dead in two weeks ?Check out this stuff.It is in liquid form and you donāt have to mess with dunks itās instant.A drop will treat like 100 gallons itās probably overkill but I use a drop to 5 gallons of water and let it sit in my garage they use this stuff to clean up ponds of mosquitos itās pure BTI.I only use it in my indoor grows.The dirt gnats outside donāt really do anything and they get eaten up pretty fast by all the lady bugs and lacewings I donāt want to alter the bugs in my environment other things snack on outside just my indoor if they beat up my plant.
All my sticky traps are clean havenāt seen one in a month
Yup I use Microbe-Lift 
what do you use for mulch?
Iāve been using hardwood bark from a maple we cut down on the property I collect it in the spring and I set it in a black trash bag in the sun sealed up and let it cook for a bit use them the next year.the indoor I have been using hard wood chips been slacking lately
I think you were the one that told me about that Lift now I think about it.Way better than waiting in dunks holy crap
Right? Lift is 100x easier than dunks/bits. Itās not even close! Its like weāre unpaid Microbe-Lift evangelists now 
As an exclusively outdoor grower (no room for anything indoors) and generally unorganized stoner, I find it a little daunting that this is in the āBasicā growing thread. 
Donāt get me wrong. Clearly, in many ways itās the way to go and not only in places where growing is illegal. But itās just so, well, organized! 
I donāt know, I think of myself as a ābasicā grower - germinate too many seeds for my tiny backyard, when theyāre big enough pot them into dixie cups and give some seedlings away cuz clearly thereāll be too many for me, then later transplant into 1 gallon pots and give a few more away, then transplant into 10 gallon pots with perhaps a couple more leaving home prior to transplanting, and you know, water when needed, fertilize when I remember to, keep close track of pests and the like, then when they begin to flower fertilize with a āfloweringā fertilizer and then, basically, watch closely for trichrome development. A simple grow for a simple person.
Our building is going on the market, or may already be for all I know, so weāre likely going to have to move at some point, and that means I may have to go indoors. I canāt express to you how nervous I am about this likely eventuality. 
Not sure what exactly started me off on this. Clearly, Iām
If worried about potential IPM issues, Iād check out sierranaturalscience.com products. Safe up to DAY OF HARVEST, inexpensive, and quite effective. I would just spray the Rice Hulls/Husks after top-filling. If youāre in the U.S., Iāll be including several of their Products in a planned āSpring Seed Slam, featuring @SamwellBBās BAKED BEANZ w/OTHERSā. Members selecting the SNS items will only pay Shipping. I was sent some Sample Pouches, but donāt need the amount sent. I figured why not spice up a Giveaway. Anyway, thatās the plan. SS/BWā¦mister 
Thereās a place in Berkeley with Vegetable oil for cars and all kinds of urban farm stuff. They have bales of straw. Free if self collected (not bales). Works great as mulch.
.02
Good luck
At the corner of Sacramento and Ashby?
And do you know that at the Berkeley Marina there are generally large piles of compost and chipped wood mulch for free? Bring your truck and shovel. If there isnāt any when youāre there, there will be again in a week or so.
I didnāt know that, thanks.
Looking for local Ganja testers to help with final descriptions. If available thatād be very cool.
Peace
Edit: yup thatās the spot. They have Bokashi, Buās Blend and other goodies. Are you familiar with D&S? On Dolittle?
