7Munkee's Perpetual Organics and Earthboxes

[7munkee]

Instead of making a new thread for each of my grows I have decided to put them all in one. I am an organic grower for the most part, although occasionaly I will use non organic imputs. I prefer SIPs (sub irrigated planters), namely Earthboxes and I have 4. Two stay inside for my medicinals and two stay outside for veggies and herbs. These Earthboxes each hold 12 gallons of soil, although you can mound another 3 gallons of soil on top, and the attached reservoir holds 3 gallons of water and can be filled VIA a tube. They also have a plastic 'shower hat' with an elastic band that acts as a mulch to keep moisture in.

SOIL RECIPE

I use a blend of Subzero's living soil recipe and Clackamus Coot's recipe with a couple extra inputs I have found very useful. Most inputs are sourced locally from a Mennonite-run feed & seed shop—quality ingredients and great folks.

Base soil:
Equal parts peat, worm castings/compost, and aeration. I like to use castings mainly, with a small portion of compost ( I make my own) The castings are slow release NPK 1-1-1 and contain lots of microbial life plus they have chitinase, an enzyme that breaks down chitin, which is in the exoskeletons of insects like fungus gnats. For aeration I use lava rock, pumice, or perlite.



AMENDMENTS & MINERALS

To enrich the base mix, I use a tried-and-true combo that nourishes plants and feeds the soil:

Kelp/Alfalfa meal – 1/2 cup per cubic foot for micronutrients and root vigor

Neem seed mael – 1/2 cup percubic foot for NPK and pest deterrent

Crustacean meal – 1/2 cip per cubic foot adds chitin to stimulate chitinase activity

Langbeinite – 1/4 cup per cubic foot for potassium and magnesium, plus sulphur for a terpene kicker

Basalt/Granite rock dust – 2 cups per cubic foot for remineralization

Gypsum – 1 cup per cubic foot for sulfur and calcium without affecting pH

Oyster shell flour-1 cup per cubic foot. I buy the oyster shell chunks for chickin feed and grind it up in a coffee grinder.

Biochar – about 5% by total soil volume pre-inoculated with worm casting/ compost tea/Recharge

Sprouted (malted) barly-for aminos and enzymes NPK

Sprouted bean seeds/corn seeds - 1/2 cup per cubic foot (only for reamend) NPK

Mustard seed-ground up (so it doesnt start growing) sprinkled on top. Acts as a bio fumigator to kill baddies.

Red Wriggler worms. Yes you will have worms in your house, but I have never found one outside my soil. Worms aerate the soil and help break down the amendments.

With this mix, the soil is water only. Possibley for several grows. You can use any autowatering system with this or hand water. If hand watering, I go by 5-10% of total volume. The minimum size container you want to use is 12 gallons But with a 12 gallon pot you will need to reamend every grow.



This is my last grow that I completed 2 months ago. This was the 7th grow cycle in this soil.

This my very first grow in this mix 3 years ago.

 

[7munkee]

Girl Crush scrog June-6-2025

I started 2 Girl Crush seeds (Bad Girl x Biscotti) in Coco coins soaked in Recharge. I put them in one of plastic trays with the clear cover and put them in the corner of my tent. I had 2 Querkle vegging in 1 gallon pots so the light was at about 350 PAR at the center, good enough for seedlings. I also took 3 cuttings of the Querkle and put them in coco coins also.

I prepped my Earthboxes by scraping the the top off because after 7 previous cycles, I had about 4 inches of mounded soil over the brim. I then added 1 cup of my nutrient mix, 1/4 cup pf gypsum, and 1 cup pf rock dust. I sprinkled about 1/4 cup of kashi on top to accelerate the brealdown.

After a week in the coco coins I had roots poking through so I sprinkled them with Root Magic mycorrhiza and put them an Earthbox. This is the 8th cycle in this EarthBox.

I top watered by hand for 2 weeks until I was sure the roots had grown down to the reservoir, then filled the reservoir. At this stage the reservoir might last a week before needing refilled. Mine lasted 6 days.

6/28

7/02

7/07

Just tucking to fill the scrog

2 out 3 Querkle cuttings made it so plopped them in solo cups. random tomato sprouted in an old cup in the back right.

 

[BeefyBully]

what size tent do you have that grow box in ?
and what gear do you put inside with it thats able to fit ?

 

[7munkee]

what size tent do you have that grow box in ?
and what gear do you put inside with it thats able to fit ?

I have 2 tents. A 3x3 with an Earthbox and a small 2x3x3 that I am flowering a couple Querkle in 3 gallon pots..

The 3x3 is my main tent. The small one is mostly for cuttings and starting seeds, but I just wanted to see the structure of the Querkle before I attempt a scrog with it. I have (2) 100 watt Atreum Hydras in the small tent and a fan. My ambient humidity is 55% so no need for anything else.

The 3x3 I have a 300 watt Maxsisun and the AC Infinity environment setup: Controller 69 pro, humidifier, oscillating fan and extractor fan.

 

[7munkee]

Spent the last week tucking tips and filling out the screen. Temps have been regulated with my window AC in the lung room and stay around 79 inside the tent. My humidity stays at 65% unless it rains, then it jumps to 75%. This is perfect conditions for vegging.

I have about 1 1/2 square feet to cover still at the closest side to the door, 8" x 36". I will have to super crop the few in the back that are taller so the centers can catch up. This tent is inside a 4x4 closet so going at it from the side is not gonna happen.

Tonight I will have to clean the lowers up and remove most leaves below the screen. Airflow is gonna be important in a couple weeks.

 

[BeefyBully]

yea I've been thinking of getting an earth box for my 2x2 and had to build a clone station using the AC Infinity Ion beams and a car shade ...working out so far so good. thanks for sharing

 

[7munkee]

yea I've been thinking of getting an earth box for my 2x2 and had to build a clone station using the AC Infinity Ion beams and a car shade ...working out so far so good. thanks for sharing

I paid $1.25 for this at Dollar Tree. It will fit 4 or 5 small cuttings in coco coins.

 

[7munkee]

yea I've been thinking of getting an earth box for my 2x2 and had to build a clone station using the AC Infinity Ion beams and a car shade ...working out so far so good. thanks for sharing

They are 32" long. Maybe diagonal?

 

[7munkee]

Amended my second Earthbox. This one will be starting its 6th cycle. It's been sitting empty of plants since like January. I stuck my probe in it and surprisingly it was still moist enough to keep the worms alive. I did hit it with a quart of Recharge every 5 or 6 weeks though.

I added 1 full cup of my seed meal, 1/4 cup of kelp meal, and 1/4 cup of Neem seed meal. Also added a cup of BuildASoil mineral mix. It contains powdered oyster shell, gypsum, and glacial rock dust. I couldn't find my bokashi, So I just hit the whole box with another quart of recharge and a quart of fulvic acid.

The Earthbox in my 3x3 with the 2 Girl Crush is doing fine. I'm starting to get feeder roots and a nice mycelial mat starting for the flower cycle.

This is the same box at the end of the last grow a couple months ago

I had to scrape close to 4 inches off of it to replant.

Now to find my Bo-kashi...

 

[7munkee]

The 3x3 is just about full. I'll probably flip it over Friday.

That gives me time to hit the soil with recharge (I doubt it needs it) and foliar on some fulvic acid. Maybe I'll skip the recharge. The soil looks ready to eat.

My canopy is pretty level for now. The entire plant is 14" from soil to highest of the 100 or so tops. There is plenty of room to add some castings/Coast of Maine the day I flip over for the crazy root growth during the stretch. I seen several feeder roots poking up already looking for food.

There is still a little room for my pepper plant, at least for another week.

 

[7munkee]

The 2 Querkle I have in my tiny tent are packing on the weight. They are on day 44.

 

[7munkee]

Same plant but with my webcam

 

[7munkee]

46 days from seed. Time to switch over to flower. The last two rows will be filled during the stretch.

14 inches high and 36 inches wide.

 

[7munkee]

Querkle after 49 nights of 11hrs. Photo from a webcam inside the tent.

This is a 3-4 gallon pot. Its just a 5 gallon drywall compound bucket with the top cut off. I have like 8 and figured out how to use them.

 

[7munkee]

Under the EarthBox mulch cap...let the nutrient cycling begin.

I stopped counting at 100 growing tips.

This Girl crush doesn't stretch a whole lot. With a heavy defoliation on day 7 or 8 it will almost double. I've had Durban Poison that more than tripled

Gave her a good foliar feed of fulvic acid to accelerate the nutrent absorption and drenched the soil with Recharge. My reservoir was empty so I took this opportunity to top water. I will fill the reservoir tomorrow with 3 gallons of water and I should be good for 2 days. There is no evaporation because of the mulch cover, so the 2 plants are drinking it all. Next week I will need to fill it every morning because week 2 is when this strain really does 80% of her stretching.

 

[Phil.D.]

I’m a tried and true Earthbox grower. I start with pro mix hp and then create my mix using mostly Build A Soil amendments. It has worked out very well for me and it’s pretty easy.

 

[7munkee]

I’m a tried and true Earthbox grower. I start with pro mix hp and then create my mix using mostly Build A Soil amendments. It has worked out very well for me and it’s pretty easy.

The soil I am using now is based on Clackamas Coot's recipe as taught by Jeremy Silva. It's 3 years old and has produced 7 cycles of scrogs for me with minimal amending. I add sprouted seed meal, also popularized by Coot, worm castings, a little seabird guano, occasionally langbeinite, and recharge. I usualy add a little kashi between cycles and also foliar feed fulvic acid.

I love the Earthboxes because the moisture is always dead perfect.

 

[Phil.D.]

Yup…Earthboxes …perfect watering every time. That takes away one the most common problems for growers…watering correctly.

 

[7munkee]

Yup…Earthboxes …perfect watering every time. That takes away one the most common problems for growers…watering correctly.

That was my biggest hurdle. Now my biggest hurdle is what to do with all this flower.

 

[7munkee]

Day 14 of flower: Girl Crush

The stretch is just about over for these two if they track with the last 5 or 6 that I have grown. I counted 73 tops that stretched, plus about 15 or so short ones. I'll pull maybe 15 ounces from this grow. Should last my weed fiend sons 2 or 3 months. Between the 3 of us we go through an ounce a week. They both buy a couple of those distillate pens a week for work also. I frown on it but they are both in their 30's so what can I do.

I was gonna lay some recharge on the soil under the mulch cover but I honestly think it would do more harm than good at this point because of the fungal layer on top is thriving. I don't want to drown all that mycelium.

There are feeder roots starting to poke through the top dress that I laid down already.

I fill the reservoir with a carboy and wine pump. I'm burning through 3 gallons each day now. Water only.

Querkle flower day 60

Another week maybe for these two Querkle. They are starting the fade and most trichomes are cloudy with just a few amber.