New Grower First Grow in 22 years, Nature's Living Soil

[NickDanger3rdEye]

I hear you. I've started two new grows (in Solo cups right now). Not going to use the NLS in a living soil mix. I threw the remainder of the bag of NLS original blend under one of my trees in the backyard. I still have the autoflower blend and Girl Flower Power, but I "might" use them for teas or top dresses not sure at this time. I'm going with Happy Frog mixed with Strawberry Fields. I mixed in 2 tbls of the autoflower blend in the HF and 2 tbls of Cavern Culture with the SF (layered). One grow will be inside and I am going to attempt the other grow outside. Supposed to be in the mid 90's this weekend and hoping the temps drop a little by the end of next week as I plan to move one outside then. Good luck on your next grow. I will be following you as depending on how these current grows turn out, I might give the BAS 3.0 soil a go.

 

[Proph]

Nature's Living Soil Update
Last week, we finally decided to dump our ready-made NLS pots into a large container to let rest for 90 days.
We refilled our 5 gallon pots with fresh Ocean Forest. Hopefully when our cycle ends in the next week or so, we will be ending our experience with NLS. Results we not bad, and we were overall satisfied. We just don't like the lack of controls, non-existent product support from the company (ignored my emails and chats), and other issues mentioned earlier, and throughout @Big Sul's NLS grow, and all the experts help here too.

We went with BAS craft blend as our nutrient source/ top dress and soil amendment moving forward to test. We will top dress our new grow with this around week 6 or whenever the plants need it, and again every other week throughout flowering. Then we will amend the soil with BAS craft blend, and rest it for another 90 days, and it should be good for the next round.

We need to learn or decide if we want our soil to be living or not. It appears can just follow the above recipe, and forget living soil part.
This can open a can of worms so to speak...
Or, we can throw in some worms, castings and compost before resting the used non-living soil to ensure proper nutrient breakdown and soil harmony. It would be cool to eventually get to "water" only method explained by @Proph earlier. Our plan is not to be constantly growing and have a break for a few months in the Arizona summer, so we will figure it out along the way...

Sounds like you're getting your head wrapped around this! Nice! Your new plan sound on point. I would recommend doing it that way as well. And yes, you are right. You have to choose a grow style. Soil doesn't have to be a "living soil" per say.. You can make any base soil into a living soil. My first organic grows where ocean forrest amended with BAS craft blend if needed. Then I'd amend the soil again after chop and let it sit for a few days before reusing it. I eventually worked my way up to no till living soils and bigger pots. It's very hard to have/keep a living soil in 3-5 gallon pots.. So if you use smaller pots the top dress method is definitely the better option. I'm in Az too, and I'm on my last run before my break. It's almost impossible to dry correctly from may-july without a temp controlled room. I veg photos for that time instead.

 

[xena499]

@NickDanger3rdEye thanks for adding in your process.
I planned on throwing my NLS autoflower left around my shrubs in Phoenix. I had it in a bag in Tucson, and didnt want to leave that stanky shit in my car, so left it beside my car outside in our parking lot. A few hours later, someone stole it. Good luck to them !

I really wanted to try outdoor too, but as I look at all the parameters properly, it looks like a big challenge here.
I never even realized the difference between daylight hours and sunlight hours and with that in mind I abandoned ship.
**From what i learned, seems to me, you will need to dig into the ground for insulation and moisture retention. Might need a mister/fountain or something like that as well. It can be done, and I read about successful solutions that have worked all-year-round. But, the measures taken to do so, for me, appear to be too much. I hope you post about this, so I can follow and learn!
Our goal was to throw the seeds in the pots in our 2 growing seasons March-May and Oct-Dec water feed and be done....
I have a greenhouse we never used... and ended up in the tent indoors.


The temps I think are fine 50-81F (66) average range April with 11-12 hours sunlight and 21RH and dropping.
Checkout this useful chart for Tucson, and if you dont already have this data you can easily get for Phoenix.

Tucson, Arizona Climograph in English Units

 

[WildBill]

Ugggg..........I bet it's tuff out there. A friend showed me his airport grow. It was quite drastic going into the young girls grow room from outside.

 

[xena499]

@Proph thanks for your response supporting our idea, and providing more insights to your methods.
re: drying in May, June:
Since your in Phoenix have you tried the large debris bag method? (I'm sure you have, but I share below, in the event its a good idea).
We first dried in paper debris bags, and kept the room at 50RH. and that required 2 humidifiers even in March!
In our second dry, we put a hygrometer in the debris bag. We noticed we dont need to keep the room at 50 RH, since the large paper bag holds it up the moisture of the drying buds. RH 17 in the room, 65 in the bag.
We even had to leave the bag partially open with the AC fan blowing across it. Too wet, partially open, too dry, leave it closed - even sealed if necessary. So the large bag is now the humidor for the bud....and we dont need to go crazy keeping the entire room at 50RH! It still took 6 days, showing we weren't drying to fast, and the bag seemed to work.

Also, I guess, we need to use a portable evap cooler to lower temps and provide humidity vs portable ac which is removing humidity and using much more energy...

 

[Proph]

@Proph thanks for your response supporting our idea, and providing more insights to your methods.
re: drying in May, June:
Since your in Phoenix have you tried the large debris bag method? (I'm sure you have, but I share below, in the event its a good idea).
We first dried in paper debris bags, and kept the room at 50RH. and that required 2 humidifiers even in March!
In our second dry, we put a hygrometer in the debris bag. We noticed we dont need to keep the room at 50 RH, since the large paper bag holds it up the moisture of the drying buds. RH 17 in the room, 65 in the bag.
We even had to leave the bag partially open with the AC fan blowing across it. Too wet, partially open, too dry, leave it closed - even sealed if necessary. So the large bag is now the humidor for the bud....and we dont need to go crazy keeping the entire room at 50RH! It still took 6 days, showing we weren't drying to fast, and the bag seemed to work.

Also, I guess, we need to use a portable evap cooler to lower temps and provide humidity vs portable ac which is removing humidity and using much more energy...

I've tried it all bro, lol. Rh is the easy part since we're in the desert. We just add humidity.. It's the room temp that gets costly.. Ideal drying environment (in my opinion) is 60/60.. It's the 60 degree temps that are too hard to achieve. I can keep a room at 75-80 ambient temps right now depending on the time of day, if you're drying in a box or bag or closet, it'll be a little cooler in there.. So right now I can get 70/60 without it costing me hundreds in electricity. Keeping a room or home at 70 when it's 95-110 outside is costly. Nov-Feb is the perfect time frame out here for drying. I can get 60/60 easily with just a window open, no AC.. It's only april and it's touching 90 outside.. It's gonna be a long summer, lol. I've learned to mimic the outdoor season thing.. I veg from june/July and flip in September for a big harvest.. If Im growing autos I start in july and grow as many big plants as I can until Nov. My goal is to dry as many plants as I can from Nov-Feb.

 

[NickDanger3rdEye]

@NickDanger3rdEye thanks for adding in your process.
I planned on throwing my NLS autoflower left around my shrubs in Phoenix. I had it in a bag in Tucson, and didnt want to leave that stanky shit in my car, so left it beside my car outside in our parking lot. A few hours later, someone stole it. Good luck to them !

I really wanted to try outdoor too, but as I look at all the parameters properly, it looks like a big challenge here.
I never even realized the difference between daylight hours and sunlight hours and with that in mind I abandoned ship.
**From what i learned, seems to me, you will need to dig into the ground for insulation and moisture retention. Might need a mister/fountain or something like that as well. It can be done, and I read about successful solutions that have worked all-year-round. But, the measures taken to do so, for me, appear to be too much. I hope you post about this, so I can follow and learn!
Our goal was to throw the seeds in the pots in our 2 growing seasons March-May and Oct-Dec water feed and be done....
I have a greenhouse we never used... and ended up in the tent indoors.


The temps I think are fine 50-81F (66) average range April with 11-12 hours sunlight and 21RH and dropping.
Checkout this useful chart for Tucson, and if you dont already have this data you can easily get for Phoenix.

Tucson, Arizona Climograph in English Units

View attachment 1303043

I’m going to give it a go anyways. If things look iffy, I’ll try and bring it indoors with the other grow. I have a small tent, i.e., 2.3x2.3x5. I’m going use 5 gal pots this time around.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

California after april is pretty much the off season. Especially with the tiered electrical charges

 

[xena499]

@Proph I see your point. I haven't tried cooling the room when its any warmer (>April). Thanks for more great tips for the southern AZ road ahead. We figured its working easy now with portable AC, so swamp cooler should be easy until mid July. 60F your target zone... wow, that's a different story....
Luv the mimic the outdoors

@NickDanger3rdEye I agree with the 5 gal size. I think you will need that size minimum for outdoor here. The smaller pots, i believe will dry out too fast. Even inside, my 2 gals needed to be watered much more frequently, but got great results! I'm also a bit concerned about rabbits, and other bigger animal pests in our backyard.

 

[d0773d]

I am currently growing with the autoflower nutes from NLS. NEVER again! I started phing my water to 6.5. I flushed my containers and started to ph my water to 6.5 with some cal-mag. The yellowing and rust spots seemed to slow up, but it's starting to happen again :-/ Such a bummer. I wonder if top dressing this stuff would of worked better? I'm afraid to even try on my next grow.