New Grower Perpetual Auto Grow By The Trifid..

[Noods]

...What are your experiences... ?

The word "experience" can not be used in plural form in conjunction with AFN member Noods.

I think during my ER grow, I added minimal amounts of SBGuano to the top dressing mix twice, during veg. Otherwise it was added with the rest of the leftover goodies after aeration of the tea, up till about three weeks before harvest, when I started using FishMix and BioBloom (and Molasses. Always Molasses).

 

[drjkl]

Thanks for the link, I want to learn to feed the soil while keeping it simple. I am looking forward to your upcoming threads.
I appreciate you taking the time to separate the pics by strain. This will help me see the differences in strains grown in the same conditions. I'm fixing to sub to this thread.

 

[drjkl]

A few questions for you. Why do you use alfalfa in your soil mix? Can you inoculate with Mycorhizzal fungi before planting of does it need the plant to grow? Do you think it would be a good idea to add worms to the soil outdoors?

 

[Noods]

This is from here:

Alfalfa Meal

1. Made from alfalfa(If placed in the root zone, the rapid decomposition of alfalfa will generate heat which can damage roots.)

2. Slow acting all purpose fertilizer

3. An alternative to blood meal as a source of nitrogen, balanced with phophorus and potassium.

4. An excellent soil conditioner because of it's protein and carbohydrates that encourage microbial action in soil.

5. Ranges of N 2.0-2.5%, P .5-1.0%, K 1%

6. Has an excellent carbon to nitrogen ratio which helps speeds availability in the soil to plants.

:smokebuds:

 

[Trifid]

twice, during veg. Otherwise it was added with the rest of the leftover goodies after aeration of the tea, up till about three weeks before harvest...

Noods - Okay. Thanks, i have been applying a handful guano per container every 4-5 days since wk 5 so i'll give them a bit more when i apply charcoal/potash this week for the final push and then discontinue mulching for the last few weeks. I wasn't sure if i should remove the top soil/mulch when flushing a wk before harvest? Are you doing this? I have another question for you buddy... I know you're not using EC but do you have any idea what concentrations you are using for your tea? And what forms (if you have experimented with various forms) of molasses do you prefer to use? thanks for your help Noods

Why do you use alfalfa in your soil mix?

drjkl - Noods has provided us with a nice summary of this wonderful extract. Thing is we can produce/grow an abundant quantity of alfalfa ourselves. 'Comfrey' another one of my favorites, always have plenty of this stuff growing out in the yard.. Bio-fertilizers are amazing substances that the agricultural industry does not want you to know about Indoors i tend to avoid applying Alf to my growing medium since even it's crude form it is highly concentrated and it's rapid decomposition has a tendency to lead to pH fluctuations. I have used Alf in planting mixtures used for outdoors to help condition the soils, but these days i tend to choose better locations with optimal fertility and so this practice is no longer necessary for me. When Alfalfa is applied as a component of a 'tea' at concentrations generally in the order of 1:250 or 4% it serves as a ideal source of organic fertilizer for vegetating plants

Can you inoculate with Mycorhizzal fungi before planting of does it need the plant to grow?

Yes you can - cultures can be pre-inoculated but the media must be supplemented with carbohydrates and amino acids (to mimic the effect of the fungi having a mutualistic relationship with a plant there) and provided with optimal growing conditions for the culture to profliferate - keeping the media relatively moist and within the temperature range 65-75C.

Fungi will feed on other beneficial microorganisms or may be prey to other hungry microorganisms such as cyano or azotobacteria when a carborhydrate source is depleted. Good quality carrier culture is that which contains a sufficient amount of rhizobial cells (1000 x 106 to 4000 x 106 rhizobia/g carrier soil). A commonly used method is 'seed inoculation' with aqueous suspension of carrier culture during sowing. This has revealed more effective rhizosphere nodulation. Supplementing the colony with amino acids enables the beneficial fungi to synthesize essential proteins for itself and the plant more effectively..

The steps of seed inoculation with rhizobial culture are as follows; Dissolve 10 per cent sugar in water by boiling it for some time. Allow the sugar suspension to cool. Gum arabic solution (10% ) may also be added to the solution. This serves as sticker for Rhizobium cells to seeds. Mix this carrier based culture of Rhizobium to form an 'inoculant slurry'. Submerge seeds into the inoculum slurry allow to soak for 1 hour. Remove seeds from the slurry and proceed to germinate. Powdered inoculums must be stored at temperatures no greater than 4°C when not used immediately to protect the rhizobial cells.

Do you think it would be a good idea to add worms to the soil outdoors?

Absolutely worm farms are also a essential part of organic farming - there are many advantages to worms in your medium.. Worm castings for one.

 

[Noods]

I wasn't sure if i should remove the top soil/mulch when flushing a wk before harvest? Are you doing this?

No. Since I don't have the salt build-up, no need to do much of a flush at all.

I have another question for you buddy... I know you're not using EC but do you have any idea what concentrations you are using for your tea? And what forms (if you have experimented with various forms) of molasses do you prefer to use?

This was the only Molasses that was available in my country. It's unsulfered, and that's what is always recommended, so I got it and it works fine. I'm certain that this stuff effects the taste of the final product. I have never smoked anything as sweet tasting as my ER in the middle of curing.

worm farms are also a essential part of organic farming - there are many advantages to worms in your medium.. Worm castings for one.

:thumbs:

 

[Trifid]

No. Since I don't have the salt build-up, no need to do much of a flush at all.


That's great I agree that there be no requirement for flushing when using a biological approach to cultivation and doing so could do harm to essential bio-cultures and alter the soil chemistry, but it seems plausable to me that there is perhaps a chelation rate associated with the assistance of micro-cultures - in particular the Mycorrihizal and yeast colonies that if interupted shortly before harvest could lead to cation exchange and leeching of absorbants from plant tissues. Perhaps we could perform a controlled experiement to see if those flushed produced a smoother smoke? We could take a branch or two of a fully matured plant initially. Then Flush the media and allow a couple days to pass for leaching, then harvesting the rest of the plant and compare the smoke two months later? Also are you starving/stressing plants before harvest to increase trichome production? Hope you don't mind me asking so many questions..

 

[Skobywan]

Maybe a stupid question but if you're using 3 - 5 gal pots is there any point in adding in some worms indoors? I could reuse em as I grow perpetually, I just didn't want to add something in to kill it later.

 

[Noods]

...are you starving/stressing plants before harvest to increase trichome production?

All I did was cut back on the FishMix and BioBloom till the last watering, which was just with a taste of Molasses to bring the pH down from 6.7 to 6.4. Then I let that dry -almost; I was pressed for time- and then she had a 40 hr dark period and got cut down. There were more trichs on the buds and leaves after the dark period, but I don't know if it was just me not having seen her the last two days, or if the dark period helped.

Hope you don't mind me asking so many questions..

I expect to get you back ten-fold! :smoke: and besides, it's your exceptionally informative thread- you can do what you want.

 

[drjkl]

Thanks for the replies Noods and Trifid. When you mentioned hay on the first page and alfalfa later I wasn't sure if you used it in your soil mix. It sounds like I should wait till I plant to inoculate to keep it simple.