Soil recommendations? Former Fox Farm User.

Shit. Just saw that! Lol!

I was reading up on that last night and all I can say is wow. So fascinating!

I threw my seeds in paper towels and the Stardawg popped in like 12 hours! I gotta figure this out fairly soon haha. My LSD is barely starting to pop after about 24 hours but man, that Stardawg popped almost instantly haha.

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Just remember that if you collect the char from the fire the grey ash will still raise you PH. You can however make a biokiln using a 2ā€™ piece of ducting and two end caps. Just drill some small holes in it for the gas to escape and youā€™re set. Thatā€™s how I make biochar.

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Right, but you need to charge biochar first or itā€™s fairly useless from what Iā€™ve read. Either compost it or make a tea right?

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Only issue being composition of terra preta is still a what the fuck in the ā€˜scienceā€™ community

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Yup. You do have to be careful with ash. One pound raises the pH of 100 square feet of soil one point. Biochar/ash gets rained on in the spring so all is clean for use so no ashes, although I do add some separately sometimes. Rained on ashesā€¦Nice tip for biochar. Do you use old iron pipe? Can you explain in more detail?In our area most people sell partially seasoned wood. It leaves lots of coals that keep getting buried under the next log until it goes out. Shitty heat. Great biochar lol! My soil is getting this crazy nice consistency to it. And biochar really holds on to nutrients in a rainy climate. Look how itā€™s held up in the Amazon under that incessant rain. Our top soil scientists should be making it a priority to uncover the secrets of this wonderful ancient soil technology.

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Theres lots of compost in my soil. It must work naturally somehowā€¦ ?Mine does sit for months. Then it goes in the ground with compost and composted manure. How would one charge it? Would lightning do it?

With biochar??? Iā€™ll have to look into that. And compostingā€¦ you mean in with the compost pile? Or by itself?

Yes I mean in the compost so it gets charged with microbes and nutes or charged in a tea. Yeah, look it up.

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Make your own and amend it.

1/3 peat with no additives
1/3 pumice
1/3 HQ compost (I use Buā€™ Blend)

To that add:

1 cup fertrell fish meal per cubic ft of base mix
1 cup acadian kelp meal per cu ft base mix
1 cup basalt rock dust per cu ft base mix
1 cup pacific pearl oyster shell powder

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Makes complete sense. The biochar acts as a nutrient reservoir, or as I read it, a coral reef for microlife. So impregnating it first makes sense for quick use. Thanks for the tip!

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Nice simple recipe. I will try that on a couple plants this year and see how they fair next to my complicated mix. I looked for shell powder last year with no luck. Using colloidal rock phosphate and crushed oyster shell instead. Where did you get yours?

Check the thread I made lol.

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Ok so you found another rabbit whole lol, so there is this theory that biochar retains the intelligence of the plant itā€™s made from they say that biochar made from the cannabis plant has the intelligence from the previous cycle so like how to protect from disease, drought , bugs, heat, ECT I know it sounds crazy but once I started doing it things got a whole lot easier and as far as charging it while itā€™s hot take a tea or so jadam JLF or lab/worm castings stirred in water or a combination of the three or how ever, pure or spray it on the char while hot and it flashes the char with steam and it clears out the honeycomb structure and the filles it with nutrients and microbes I perfer the JLF and lab mix because they are facultative anaerobes they can handle the harsher environment then the aerobic ones can I like to mix/bury mine so the microbes can mine it and it act as a moisture well itā€™s pretty awesome stuff I use a Christmas popcorn tin if youā€™re doing cannabis stalk put them in tin set tin on a fire keeps cleaner and you wonā€™t lose no mass due to oxidation/ash if youā€™re just using wood, sticks n such build fire once you get coal bed take shovel fill tin then pure to clear and charge :slight_smile: edit oh and I also take a sledge hammer and bust em up to smaller pieces makes for a easier spread like a finer mix I keep some larger pieces like AA battery size but most is like fines edit then if you add multiple cycles of stalk as be char it increases your soils intelligence and this increases your compacity to reach genetic potential in turn increases genetic expressions:) onward down the rabbit hole lol

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Not or but both itā€™s a nutrient well and microbes hotel :slight_smile: it also increases cation exchange and increases moisture holding compacity and a cpl more things too I forget, itā€™s really badass stuff

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Fascinating. Any links for further reading?

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I made the switch from Ocean Forest to Strawberry Fields a couple years ago. Strawberry Fields is coco based, not peat. it seemed that when Ocean Forest gets dry, water pours right through it. Strawberry Fields does a much better job of absorbing water when itā€™s dry.

funny, Iā€™ve never fried a plant in plain Fox Farms soilā€¦ might get a touch of tip burn on a smaller plant, but that goes away quickly. I mean Iā€™ve popped seeds n Fox Farms and had zero problem with the seedling getting burned (it didnā€™t happen).

things that make ya go , Hmmmmmā€¦

I use FFHF or Ocean
The main reason is on the east coast not many places sell it.
Lucky for me a.nursey 20 mins away does.

Now, Iā€™m not saying i got broad mites from it
But they are on the west coast for sure.

It is possible I just got them here.

So i now sterilize all soil.
Pour boiling water over it in pots and add fish emulsion
To rebuild bacteria.

So ya Love FF
All my notes are FF.
I used FF HF soil consecutively for 20 grows or more.
Just flushed soil
Sifted old roots out and kept on banging.
It was not till after about 2 years I bought 3 new bags
And then broad mites.
Not saying it was their soil
Could been on my end.

So ya Iā€™m a fan of their soil for sure.
I use their fruit and flower
Powder and top dress the soil when I flip.
Then I use open sesame
First weeks
Beastie blooms mid flower
And cha ching late flower
As directed.

Again I donā€™t blame ff for mites
They are a new plague
And im not sure anyone could provide affordable soil
And promise they arenā€™t hiding somewhere.

Always sterilize from now on
Is my motto.
Good luck

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Yes dudeā€™s name is cuauhtemoc villa https://youtu.be/1JHj5ZRcaBM
Hereā€™s a video with him and Matt powers itā€™s a hour and a half long but there is many more I just had to dig through 4years worth of videos cus I couldnā€™t remember his name lol

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He worked with a college in south America studying terra preta Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s the right video or not but it will get you started another interesting tidbit is that the secret ingredient to terra preta is chunks of fired clay pots they found that thru the fireing process it like excites the clay partical and causes it to emit infrared light which in turn like supercharges certain microbes they use it as a food source of sorts I think one is the purple nonsulfer bacteria which is one of the main ones in worm castings like I said a whole nother rabbit whole lol I hop that helps actual white papers I not sure Iā€™m sure that south America college probably submitted some but I donā€™t remember the name of the college but it should be able to be found using key words edit sorry I might need to tag ya @upstate