Does watering a plantless pot with molasses water throw off microherd

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gomicao

gomicao

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About your ventilation, i am concerned your roommates might be offended by the smell.
It took me awhile to adjust my venting and fix all the leaks. Just be aware.

If i was you i would not get so caught up in making this a perfect run. Just record what you do and next time change only one thing. Go back and compare and make your own conclusions. Everybody’s situation is unique.

It is possible to have a high ph and low alkalinity. I am pretty sure someone in the eugene area has a meter to test your water for you. Start making friends and pick their brains.

You gotta make a decision and stick to it. If it is wrong then make a minor adjustment and try again until you get it right.

Killing a plant teaches you a lesson and keeping a plant alive gives you false sense of security.


They are comfortable with herb, that being said I am not trying to stink up the house too much. I have heard pretty good things about the filters for at least a grow or two, there is decent air moving out of the vent as well, but it like everything will indeed be a learning process. I think I decided to just drop the idea of messing too much with adjusting things, and just use stuff as they are, and see what happens. Maybe it turns out great, maybe it won't lesson learned perhaps. I just found worms in my pots when checking their moisture levels, made me quite happy as I had not seen them in there yet.
 
PhillipPhillip

PhillipPhillip

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My water is certainly near perfect and the results are incredible. I would like to raise the alkalinity to 120 ppm and see if i get better results. Making bicarbonates with carbonic acid works for me.

The fertilizer i use does lower the ph and everything works out fine.

I believe ph and alkalinity work hand in hand. If the soil ppm’s are rising, then something is off. Fixing the water removes one of the many factors.
 
PhillipPhillip

PhillipPhillip

26
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Worms are great clue to success.

thats good to hear. Just keep it simple and grow some weed.
 
oldskol4evr

oldskol4evr

12,306
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Here is a picture of the water tests from my local company. I live in Eugene, OR, there are so many people growing here it isn't even funny. I feel like the water can't be terrible for that reason. Maybe everyone who grows here knows it has some reputation for being a pain? I have never heard that so far. I don't know where I am going with that part so much however... I might just have to talk to some locals about how or what they do to treat their water. Obviously any time I use any ACT or nutrient teas, or even just molasses water, the PH will drop, probably down into the 5's. How long does that drop last in either the teas or the soil? Would that balance out any drifts if my watering is high and the teas low?

I am kind of overwhelmed atm now, because I never realized water had to be so complicated... I figured as long as the solutions I was watering with be it plain water, molasses water, or ACT were adjusted with a small amount of PH solution (be it up or down) it would just take out my OCD worry about organic soil not actually being as good at balancing PH/nutrients as people say. I almost feel like maybe I should toss out the idea of adjusting anything and just see if it end up hurting my plants later in the grow, or 3 grows from now. It would be easy enough to test the soil before I put another round of plants in it again though, and add a little of whatever is clever to bump it back where it should be. Or top dress before flower or whatever to try to keep it proper if it can't even handle one round of plants.

Do people commonly get phosphorus toxicity using phosphoric acid/regular old PH down to drop their plain watering in soil? It seems like such a miniscule amount added. I have never read about anyone using organic living soil who rely on the microlife to make their soil worth anything at all flushing their medium with an acid. We are not even supposed to water till runoff... Nor flush in flower. If one had to flush their soil with acid to reset PH I would assume the whole point of living organic soil and maintaining a micoherd/life between uses would be lost.

Organic living soil growers mention again and again that the micro life are the responsible parties in delivering nutrients to the plant, so I felt as long as the PH of the water or tea wasn't something that would hurt them, that they would take care of the rest as far as letting the plant feed on what it wants/needs. I could see deficiencies happening if the soil PH became so high or low that they could no longer survive, but when a good soil is supposed to take care of that anyway how would this happen? When most organic soil growers are never bothering to check their PH and say most people don't have to, wouldn't organic growing posts be riddled with people's PH problems? I was concerned only because of a few people mentioning issues with PH similar to mine that they checked of course as my OP mentions.

OK so that is 100 questions... and all over the place... can you tell I'm overwhelmed? I felt like I was just trying to "play it safe" in case my high PH water was hurting my microbes or would hurt the plants. The soil drift is a secondary concern because if I can't use amendments to reset it, then there is no point in me even keeping the soil to use again. I may as well just use bottles and feed the plant directly or go hydro.
dud you are way over thinking this stuff
before you embarrass yourself check your meters
your soil will buffer high water ph,soil is a filter right,if your water is 9 like you mention you can top dress a little sulfur in your soil ,with the sulfur and high alkaline water ,it will equal out,adding sulfur isnt as easy as just throw in the pot though,small increments at a time.
neat with soil you dont even need to be checking what comes out pots anyway,there is too much to confuse you,soil is difrent than soiless mediums,the soiless mediums have nothing to really hold the minerals in ,soil does it is just a huge filter.
anyway enough of that ,your over thinking all this,trail and era is all i can say
 
Flexnerb

Flexnerb

1,288
163
My water is certainly near perfect and the results are incredible. I would like to raise the alkalinity to 120 ppm and see if i get better results. Making bicarbonates with carbonic acid works for me.

The fertilizer i use does lower the ph and everything works out fine.

I believe ph and alkalinity work hand in hand. If the soil ppm’s are rising, then something is off. Fixing the water removes one of the many factors.
If your ppms are rising your plants arent taking up he nutes that were there from the last feeding. Then don't feed anything but just your 80 ppm water. Cut it in half with RO/distilled if you're worried about it(better off to) then your medium will be better off...define work hand in hand plz
 
PhillipPhillip

PhillipPhillip

26
3
I am not worried about anything. I just want to tweek things a little bit and try to be a chemist and make this funner.
 
Flexnerb

Flexnerb

1,288
163
Yes sir i am an avid listener of bob and his ocgfam show.
Hes just another product promoter! Lol sales pitchers are hilarious as all hell!!!

If one was inclined to do so they'd make their own nutes like the mfg'er...lol..like @oldskol4evr said...

Theres so much a person could pick in spring

I used to have a laundry list of plants that can be picked. Fermented or composted. Better fermented!

Science it up, just wasting money though...do the 4 plant ph experiment i posted about earlier...your alk is almost perfecto...ph doesnt matter in organic as much as soiless and hydro...he could water with an 8 prolly wouldnt change much....the plant would change it before the water could
 
PhillipPhillip

PhillipPhillip

26
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I think bob and scott are good guys from what i see and hear. Obviously they want to sell. I learned a lot from piggy backing off the material they mention. They gave me 6 bottles of nutrients for free. What other business does that?

KNF sounds great. I have been fermenting food scraps with bokashi lately but not long enough to use the results. Hopefully it turns out well.

If you use water with ph 8 and the soil has ph 6.4 +\- 0.3, my only concern is the microbes. I dont think they would like the change in ph. Are you saying it is a proven fact the microbes are unaffected by ph in this case?

Your experiment sounds good. Next time i grow i will try this out if I remember.
 
Flexnerb

Flexnerb

1,288
163
I think bob and scott are good guys from what i see and hear. Obviously they want to sell. I learned a lot from piggy backing off the material they mention. They gave me 6 bottles of nutrients for free. What other business does that?

KNF sounds great. I have been fermenting food scraps with bokashi lately but not long enough to use the results. Hopefully it turns out well.

If you use water with ph 8 and the soil has ph 6.4 +\- 0.3, my only concern is the microbes. I dont think they would like the change in ph. Are you saying it is a proven fact the microbes are unaffected by ph in this case?

Your experiment sounds good. Next time i grow i will try this out if I remember.
Cant say they wont die off. My guess they will be ok as long as the soils ph isnt drifting off...it takes a lot of fucking up to causevdrift if you have a good buffered soil.......when people talk about ph swings i think its more hydro/soiless...ask around!

With a 1/3 compost in your mix, worrying about ph(as long as it has a good buffer) makes lil sense.

If your soil is 6.5, buffered well, and you pour in 8.5 water. its going to be ok. Ph of water with your alk at 80ppm wont change the ph of your soil much at all. Im thinking it would take certain amount of days to see a drastic change. Im talking in the 60 to 90 day range. Try it yourself test run off ph in and out. Then let the soil chill 15 min after watering test soil ph.. the soil wont change, if it does itll biffer back in in a few hours or less..i dont know all the specific details. ...university studies tell me im right....you're worried about shit that doesnt need to be worried about... if you are running a heavy peat mix then worry if not and you got a good mineral soil...fuck it!

Bokashi is strickly for outdoors, right? Can the leachate be used indoors?
 
PhillipPhillip

PhillipPhillip

26
3
I have no worries about my water or soil. I just want to protect the microbes.

I ferment the bokashi and food scraps for a month in my garage, then dig a hole outside and compost it for a month. I have not been able to use the results to amend my indoor soil yet.

I just pour the leachate on my garden bed. The leachate smells like vomit and i don’t want that indoors. I probably did something wrong because i was told it should smell like pickles.
 

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