Yes, I cannot understand the logic of bloom boosters except in high performance, expertly maintained RWDC or something similar and even then Desert Squirrel said he never found any benefit.
@ Altitude Farmer or anyone that has an opinion......I would like your take on a couple things, if you have the time. I gotta do this fast so I hope it makes sense.
Number one, do you think I should use Bone Meal? I never have and get great yields compared to other people I know. I now understand that bone meal does not affect Myco activity, new studies say, and does have a positive effect on phosphate solubilizing microbial population. About half of the SuperSoil ratio.
The next big one is this: I want to go to a lighter mix by adding in the Pioneer so I can get higher oxygen content and I also want to substitute a small amount of Perlite with Vermiculite which will help offset the airier mix. I'll explain everything I do now below.
For my Bloom mix: By ratio I mean how much I cut the
FFOF. Currently it's 2:1. 2 parts
FFOF to 1 part Sunshine. For the base.
I currently use 2 parts
FFOF to 1 part Sunshine Advanced plus the amendments I have listed further down. I do it in one tote batches. I do not let it cook like SSoil. I let it gently come to life about two weeks before I am to use it by adding some compost tea and I brew my own beneficial bacteria from an Bokashi type deal.
So it's 14 half gallons of
FFOF and 7 half gallons of Sunshine Advance. So it's ten gallons dry measurement about. I then add in about 1 gallon EWC and about a half gallon of Ancient Forest. This is about 15% EWC to the
FFOF and a little over 10% compost to the Sunshine, or close enough :) I then add Perlite of the same amounts of both the EWC and Ancient forest, so it's basically a 1:1 ration of the EWC and A. Forest to Perlite, and I use both coarse and fine Perlite. I also add in these amendments: for each batch I add in 1/4 cup Dolomite (powdered), 1 cup
Diatomaceous Earth (silicone and it's supposed to improve CEC, Azomite, and Blood Meal about 1 cup each. I then usually add in a quart or two more perlite. I transplant directly into it and have never had any transition problems at transplant and flip, never any deficiencies. I use a liquid cold processed fish fertilizer called Organic Gem (it's made from the complete fish, they supply fish bones to the pharmaceutical industry to make glucosamine/chondroitin products), it's loaded with enzymes and is 3-3-0. Great stuff. I also use compost teas regularly almost every watering, I use Insect Frass (once or twice during bloom), and I constantly top dress with sparse amounts worm castings and compost, plus some other random stuff like Flora Blend, Liquid Kelp, EJ catalyst, Bokashi juice (bennies) a few times. It depends on the strain.
I get good results, ~7-9 lbs from 20 plants (vegged ~ 4 weeks) under 2 1000s and 4 600s.
But, I have reservations that it's too thick (because I don't see the same root health as during veg), even though it's okay, it seems that at about 5 weeks I notice that root turnover slows down noticeably.
More importantly I also found that my other grow place that I share with a friend, using the exact same clones, they got noticeably more frost than mine did. Everything except the mix is the same as far as climate, lights, temps.....ect. The only real dif is the mix she prefers is more airy, she prefers straight up Peat, worm castings and compost, and Perlite. 1:1:1 ratio. We use the same type teas, fish fertilizer, top dressing every week. At chop time they were noticeably frostier. I can't think of anything that would make that difference except the higher oxygen content which is a healthier root zone. At the end, which is about the time my roots slow down, is when stacking and swelling starts on this strain and hers had an exceptional coating of frost. Although mine were still fine, hers were prettier.
The first time I grew in soil I used a 1:1 ratio and had a noticeably airier mix I had great roots all the way through. I still have pics. It required more watering but it didn't dry out too fast, and although I didn't get as large a yield, I did see steady root health and turnover the complete grow, no slowdown. Was even using GH 3 part. By turnover I mean that I watch my roots enough to notice when I see the older roots get tan and newer white growth somewhere will add on and cover it, it should be constant.
Currently, well as far as my last few grows, I use
smart pots and (in my current mix) up until the fifth week I always have bunches of white roots poking through the pots, plus I pull the sides down and do a visual look see. I am definitely in the more roots more fruits camp. So, they are fine until week 5 when they steadily slow down to where there's hardly any new roots. They don't get mushy, it's not root rot, at least not yet, and they smell fine, just like fresh potato peelings, but my gut feeling is that the final stage of bloom, when buds are stacking and swelling is just too much demand and an oxygen deficiency of some level develops. Since the time I did have the good root growth all the way through bloom was before I started using teas and other stuff, that will more than make up for the what I am thinking of going to below which will make it a change from 2:1 to 1:1?
I think I can safely improve the oxygen capacity if I go to a 1:1
FFOF to Sunshine/Pioneer Batch 64. I would keep the EWC and AForest at 10% of each base ingredient but instead of all Perlite I substitute out about 20% for vermiculite to help water retention, plus CEC. Considering I think I get good yields but my roots are not as high performance as during Veg, plus that I add nutes anyway, it would benefit me to make it more airy and more importantly I want a better resin appearance.
