@diggum Hey there Mr Frost, lol, good to see you on the forums. I'm following your earthbox grow with a lot of interest--very similar design to what I use but a hell of a lot less expensive to buy (or make, as you've done). The only major difference would be the grow sleeve on the octopots, they are breathable so perhaps an advantage there, but I prefer the earthbox though if only because they're so reasonably priced.
As far as organics, I am new at it this year. I spent a lot of time here trying to figure out if organics would be too difficult or not to pull off, and became aware of the Revs soil being available and then Eyes had a thread that mentioned kisorganics brand, and that's how I was introduced to it. That was all before AFN started working with kind soil and doing the current test threads with it.
So far, I'm really happy with kisorganics, it can be reammended with their nutrient pack. I'm not using any calmag either and they look great so far this run. Now I have some experience to reflect on, I feel--at least with kisorganics--organic growing is very easy, time efficient, and produces great quality smoke. It's a lot less involved to use a premade mix rather than trying to build your own mix from scratch. I'm happy enough, I'm going to stick with this brand I'm using and continue posting my test results.
As far as top drenching, the only potential problem I've run into with a bottom watering system like we both have--well, mine anyway runs very very dry at the top of the planter. So with this, whatever you drench in isn't going to run off and out over time like it would in a top watered container. There's no run off. So at the end of the run, that stuff may need to be flushed or rinsed out for flavor reasons, depending on what it is. But yeah, my previous crops this year were kind of a combo of soil with some top drenches. I found that once I started using this soil above 50% strength then top drenches were not really necessary and caused minor problems of over-fert.
But yeah, fish bone meal is a classic amendment I guess, and it's in the Kisorganics formulation too.
The theme of this test run is to try the soil at 80% strength from their bag, and water only and see how it does. The aloe spray I'll allow myself to do once a week but that's about it.
It's hard to fight the temptation to do more as I'm used to bottle nutes and continually wanting to "feed the plant" instead of letting the soil feed the plant. But I want to clearly see what the soil alone does this round.
Thanks again for stopping by, and thanks to everyone here for your interest
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thanks mediscrogs
