Six super soil variants run side by side

[caveman4.20]

I came back to this thread, because the notes I write here are better than the ones on the clip board, and I need to mix more soil.
Imagine my surprise to find them missing.
I had written the following for placement here, but stashed it in an organic soil thread, and forgot it.
So this here is what I'm up to in this thread.


Nine (9) soil formulations for this demonstration are based off of reading done at ThcFarmer which started me in the direction of "Super Soil". The promise is a media from which a plant can draw all nutrient requirements, leaving the farmer to water only and attend to other environmental issues. This has been working well for over three years.
So why don't I know more about how it works?
Knowing things "for sure" is a slow process for me. I keep messing with things.
ie. "microbial tea"
Having six like cuttings ready to go, and an early spring in interior Alaska forced me to do the heavy lifting required to formulate my soil in small batches. I can now mix 5 gallon batches. So I made six variants of the base.

soil 1:
local pit peat - one five gallon bucket
Compost - 6 pounds 7.5 quarts
worm castings - 3.8 pounds 2.75 quarts
blood meal - 136g 210 ml.
bone meal - 136g 220 ml.
bat guano - 384 ml.
Perlite - make to 20% of volume

soil 2:
ProMix replaces local peat
no additional perlite

soil 3:
Coco replaces local peat
no additional perlite

soil 4:
refurbishment of used soil with addition of 140 ml "Peace of Mind" starter.(3-4-3)

soil 5:
refurbished with additions from the original formulation but at one third quantities.

soil 6:
original soil #1 with half the blood meal

So the outline is a head to head grow off between three base media, two soil refurbs, and a stab at the question, "why all the blood?".

Original full batch quantities are based off of three pound bags of Miracle Grow blood & bone.
The five pound box of guano, sixty pound bag of compost, and a 38 pound bag of worm castings are all from Down to Earth.

And the three new soils are:

7- “Three Little Birds” refurb. I got this from a large soil compilation. (https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=228020)
I like it because I need more refurb soil, and it calls for worm castings and rock phosphate, two things I have in abundance and want to use.
The full list is old soil, worm castings, rock phosphate, alfalfa, kelp, bone, diatomaceous earth, and dolomite.

8- soil 2 with rock phosphate replacing guano.

9- soil 8 with half blood meal.

In review:

I, 2, &3 are different base components.

4,5,&7 are soil refurbs.

6, 8, &9 are rock phosphate for guano substitutions with 6 & 9 testing lower blood meal quantities.

All nine are water only.

Are you finishing in those containers or transplanting to bigger one s thanks for sharing .

 

[Dunge]

Are you finishing in those containers or transplanting to bigger one s thanks for sharing .

They will finish in the three gallon pots.
Another ten days in the sun and they go into the basement.
Thanks for checking out the thread.
I'm looking forward to some results, one way or another.

 

[Seamaiden]

I think you just helped firm up my own decision to leave the girls I didn't have room for in the big bed in their 3gal containers. I might transplant, depending on what my back can tolerate.

Great updates! I also email myself my notes, so that I can access them via any device. A dedicated folder makes that stuff easier to find.

 

[Dunge]

8 days left in veg tent.
I've never had one of these plants look better, and here are nine of them.

And the peppers.

 

[Seamaiden]

Very nice work!

 

[Dunge]

Life is change.
Harvest day is moved up to this Sunday (three days short of 9 weeks) due to helper availability and the fact that adding another nine weeks to 6 July puts their harvest at 7 Sept.
As my indoor space will be fully committed to flowering, 7 September is just in time to bring the next round inside along with anything else needing not to freeze.

I am starting to see minor variation in these girls.
#7 is clearly a bit yellow.
#8 & 9 are showing some fan tip curl/ burn.
Based on the results of my "water vs tea trial", these will be flowered out with water only via drip irrigation.
Should be a great improvement over hand watering this crowd.

 

[MoodySass]

O nice very useful thread!! :cat::cat:

lololol
:cat::cat::cat:

 

[Dunge]

To review:
#7 is the Three Little Birds soil refurbishment.
#8&9 are rock phosphate substitution for bat guano with #9 containing half blood meal.

 

[Seamaiden]

How'd you do that...? I love the enlargement inset thing!

 

[Dunge]

How'd you do that...? I love the enlargement inset thing!

I used paint.
Opened a second view of the pic, did a cut and paste from one to the other.
Wish I knew how to do more.

 

[Seamaiden]

I bet there's a way to do that using GIMP, too. I just have to fiddle with it. Thanks!

 

[Dunge]

Big day in the garden.

The line-up. 1 to 9 left to right.
Grow and bloom are reconfigured into one bloom room for the remainder of the outdoor season.
That gives me just enough time.

I knew it would be full.
I'll try to get better shots of the trial 9, but they are the big ones in the back, ordered in the same way as in the tent and shot from the same angle.
My attempts to number the hoops in this shot proved sketchy, so I'll leave it to later efforts to better shoot these girls.
The shorter plants in the front are assorted seedlings and a few select clones.

 

[Dunge]

Whenever I HOPE my environmental controls will hold up to new room demands, I find I am forced to adapt.
I have my harvest hanging in this same space, and I added 400 watts of HPS so expected trouble.
Had to turn off one of the 400 s and add more fans. Might (probably) need bigger out vent hole.

7 still looks a bit yellow, and the 8&9 leaf curl/burn looks not to be progressing, so presumably results of an historic insult.
Firing on all chloroplasts.
Height is a concern.
Alien Rock Candy is not a big stretcher, but...
The canopy is more vegetatively dense than I am accustomed to.

After four days of pushing my dehumidifier to heroic levels, I can almost hold 70% RH and 82 deg F. for light on.
I need that RH down to 60%, so every drop of free water is being carefully controlled.

These are some shots of my new drip manifold.
Works like a charm.
All open tubing, no drippers.
Just drilled holes in PVC pipe and stuffed in irrigation tubes.
No leaks.
Didn't want to hand water this gang.

 

[Dunge]

Two weeks into 12/12 and I continue to struggle with the environment.
Humidity it too high at 80% and temps max at about 82 deg F.

The hoops are no longer visible, so identifying individual plants is complicated.


This is a slightly more top shot showing that all have the expected two weeks 'small white eye' bud.

 

[DieselBoy]

Really cool thread. Subbed.

 

[Dunge]

Three weeks into 12/12
Buds are all on track and tops are all reaching up.
#5 has joined #7 in the 'not so green' look.
I have read some saying that dark green is not the ideal, too much N.
Shall see.
I gave them all a shot of microbial tea as the results of a prior test has me thinking tea is good for flower growth.

This shot shows how over stuffed my space is.
Test subjects are the far half.
Bent a few tops, but I think the stretch is over. Now they grow.
More ventilation, little dehumidifier working hard.
I can keep my temps below 82 deg F, but the humidity stays about 80%.
If things don't dry out a bit, I expect to have fungal trouble.
So far, so good.

I include this picture to demonstrate the yellowing (less green?) I have noted.
Even with these badly lit pics, you can see that 8 is darker than 7.
8 is what the garden look like, but for 5 & 7.

 

[Seamaiden]

Too dark a green is usually indicative of a P-. Plants look pretty happy overall, but yeah, I see what you're talking about.

 

[Dunge]

My inability to keep humidity below 80% forced me to spend hours trimming their legs to let the air flow.
Imagine a sweaty bear snuffling among the pots.
I was hoping to not trim so much, but once I got in there I realized the canopy was so dense that any tops that were below light penetration were never going to produce anything worth harvesting.
The canopy is still well stuffed.
Did what I had to.

 

[Seamaiden]

Man's gotta do... errr.. a bear's gotta shit in the woods!

 

[Dunge]

Four weeks into 12/12

The room is healthy.
Stretch is done; only had to bend a few tops to avoid HPS burn.
RH still too high.
Serinade a few days ago.
Caps foliar in a few.

Frosting up.

Need to update readers on the peppers.
Summer has been cool. All these are late.
Like all nine Rock Candy, all peppers look much alike.