E
Elevated
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Chamomile is great shallow rooting plant for companion
Hey brother, i know im a bit late but check out Roots Organic Seabird Guano, Super fast acting from my experience, if you top dress between runs and are reusing soil you shouldnt have any cal mag issues after your second or third round in the soilHey, i'm running my first organic soil. Using the water only KIS organics biochar mix, veg has been about 4 weeks and they're almost ready to flower. I noticed signs of Cal deficiency, what would be some great organic methods to bump up Calcium? I'm just feeding with water and microbes, and recharge.
Thanks for the the response bro.
I’m actually looking at a couple of options now. Trifolium repens is one. I see it has shallow roots and a creates a good cover. Woolly thyme is another option but sadly i couldnt find it near me. There are succulents like sedum sexangulare (or any other sedum) which can cover too, no nitrogen fixing tho. I think i’m going to cover with trifolium repens dominantly and add couple of things just for diversity like thymus citriodorus and couple of shallow rooting succulents. Well we’ll see. Still open for suggestions.
You have a great grasp on the subject. You are correct that it would be best to use any of the legume family over woody herbs as you stated they would be depleting the available N. They would still help keeping the biodiversity in the soil going with the herd, but wouldn't help with building a N bank.You could try Thyme. It has lots of small leaves, has a tendency to spread as it grows, and lots of small leaves. Personally I would be more interested in using clover over basil or thyme. Clover is a legume, and legumes replace Nitrogen in the soil as they grow, whereas most other types of green plants will use nitrogen to grow, depleting the soil of the nitrogen necessary for plants to thrive. Another thing to keep in mind when companion planting is that not all plants like to play together. All plants give off exudates (waste) from their roots, those exudates may benefit or harm other plants in close proximity. While I am pretty sure neither basil nor thyme will negatively effect Cannabis I am not certain about that either. It’s worth it to do a bunch of research on companion planting before you just start putting plants together. While Cannabis exists in its own family of plants, it’s closest relative is hops (humulus lupulus) so it is probably worth taking a look at any companion plants growers are using with them.
I wouldn’t use succulents for cover crops, particularly ones that are going to be watered daily or bi-daily. You could also try Oxalis, which makes a nice garnish or salad ingredient.
Here are but a few cover crops that work well. Some more than others.
Hairy Vetch
Annual Oats
Crimson Clover
Mustard
Buckwheat
Winter (Annual) Rye
Thanks for the suggestions, i’m sure people will benefit from them but in my case some of these might be hard to grow in containers. It seems buckwheat and winter rye, oats and stuff seems more like an outside thing. I actually need something that would act as a living mulch in pots.
Now crimson clover for the crimsonecho seems like a match made in heaven but i see it can grow up to 50cms which again wouldn’t be ideal in a 7-10 gal pot. But i’ll utilise those in my outside garden.
You can keep the rye and even the clover down in size with regular trimming, like people do with wheatgrass.
@ thank you for the compliment. In my day to day life I am a landscape designer, but I fell into that job through my hobby of vegetable gardening. I am always researching concepts of companion planting and cover crops for both facets of my work.
Definitely but i’m concerned about the root peneration. I dont really know how deep their roots go.
Mustard harvested root and all or cut down and allowed to regrow?I know the rye doesn't develop very deep roots. Mustard has shallow roots. You could also harvest the mustard as a micro-green so it will never develop much of a root system at that.
I know the rye doesn't develop very deep roots. Mustard has shallow roots. You could also harvest the mustard as a micro-green so it will never develop much of a root system at that.
Hey brother, i know im a bit late but check out Roots Organic Seabird Guano, Super fast acting from my experience, if you top dress between runs and are reusing soil you shouldnt have any cal mag issues after your second or third round in the soil
I grew basil within my tomatoes last summer. Both plants did wonderful together. Rumor is basil enriches the tomatoes flavor. These were cherry tomatoes in the pic. They developed the size of ping pong balls. All organic.Heres some root porn under mulch. Do you guys think a companion plant can create or maintain such humidity in the top soil to promote this kinda of root growth? I just like the soft, top soil so water can move in more freely.
I’m thinking of companion planting with basil next grow. Hear tomato growers like to pair these two to enhance natural flavors. If i go with basil than i may not be able to mulch so maybe a moss like plant or something with many small leaves that crawls on soil that would hold the moisture down or produce moisture thru respiration could replace the mulching next grow.
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I grew basil within my tomatoes last summer. Both plants did wonderful together. Rumor is basil enriches the tomatoes flavor. These were cherry tomatoes in the pic. They developed the size of ping pong balls. All organic.
Basil generally small roots, and you can top it many times to create a low thick canopy to block light and keep the soil moist.
Soil Recipe per cubic foot.
Equal parts:
CSPM (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss)
Aeration (Pumice/Lava rock)
Compost - Homemade is best but Malibus B/U is an excellent choice if it is available in your area.
Amended per cuF with:
1/2 - 1 cup Neem or Karanja meal
1/2 - 1 cup Kelp meal
1/2 - 1 cup Crab/Crustacean meal
1 cup MBP (Malted Barley Powder)
1/2 cup Gypsum (nice sulphur source)
4-6 cups Basalt dust
6-8 cups Biochar
1 cup lime (oyster shell flower, dolomite...)
***Small handful of worms per container***
You have to charge biochar first or it will act as a sponge in the soil and adsorb nutrient in the soil.
In a rich nutrient tea for a week or so. Not microbe tea tho.
I couldn’t get biochar where i live went with activated carbon to make slow release fertilizer. Had some biobizz and homemade fpe around the house. So i mixed fish-mix, alg-a-mic, banana fpe, alfalfa fpe, re-veg fpe, molasses. Let the carbon soak as much as it can for a week.
Okay this is news to me! Why do you say "not microbe tea tho" I found this article https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/how-charge-biochar that basically says to add EWC/compost tea and soil from the area you plan to grow in. I wonder if you can just mix in some of the original amendments in the soil too maybe ?
I meant you don’t need a microbe tea but my reasoning was and still is that, mostly, a nutrient rich tea will do the job and since you are gonna be soaking them for a week or so the tea will go bad.
Also, i don’t really buy the process that article tries to sell, couple of months in a compost pile or 12 hours in a tea? I play it safer and soak for a week because as said in the article equilibrium needs to occur before seeing the effects of carbon.
All the nutrients i add have microbes in it already. Microbes are everywhere and in the pots they will colonize on food sources anyway. Thats why i took this road and charged the carbon with nutrients and mixed it with my medium. Gave a good tea and let it cook for sometime (around a month).