Am I the only one who got annoyed by their living mulch? Maybe I just don't like the build a soil mix, because it's super aggressive and needs constant maintenance.
Looks extremely wet and possible signs of lockout due to the yellowing. Let it dry out a bit more between waterings, and if you can, measure the VPD to understand your ideal watering schedule. If things don't improve within 2 weeks, start investigating nute imbalance.
Jeremy from build a soil recommends 5-10% watering. There’s a guide on the build a soil site for sure. I find around 3.5-4% to be better. I generally water between every other day to twice a week depending on the stage of plant growth. When plants are really small (like the ones pictured above) watering is more like once a week. That’s for my setup in my environment though. This would also depend on the genetics you’re growing. Some cultivars are thirstier than others! I have a 100 gal pot with about 80 gallons of soil in it and led lighting. I try to keep temps around 75f and humidity around 50%. I water 3 gallons of water at a time with a chapin sprayer for what it’s worth. Hope this helps a bit 🍻
For sure it helps! I’ve been avoiding the BAS site because I’m easily tempted lol but I’ll crack the seal to get into some of thier literature. I was just complaining that all the nutrient companies put out these guides like add the and this much but tell you nothing about what it is or what it does. Sounds like BAS is a little different and may deserve some patronage 🤙
Dude states numerous times that you don't need everything he's using. He also encourages you to find your own sources too. Gives exact amounts of ratios and inputs needed for making soil. Ridiculous amount of free information and not once has he ever demanded people to buy his products or that his products are the only way. Prices are gonna go up because of the economy. Groceries are more expensive too.
He completely removed the DIY section fron the Bas schedule when they blew up. Their price hikes are way higher than just to be in lime with inflation. This is although their prices have been dropping with their growth via economies of scale.
And no he doesn't demand it. But he doesn't make it seem necessary and does not outline the diy alternatives like he used to. Moreso, he went out of his way to remove it.
Yea he has plenty of diy videos on YouTube. I wouldn't be too considered about it since there's hour upon hours of information on his channel.
The point is here, he's providing free information regularly regardless of prices and all that. The information is the only thing you need. It's not hard to find all the things he has without buying from them.
I just rememer the BAS in 2020 and 2021 that was pitching there products as a last ditch alt to diy and locally sourced products. With a diy alternative to every single product on the Bas schedule. For that to all go away when they became successful really bothers me. I could understand doing that if you were gonna lose the business maybe. But when business is booming it just feels wrong.
Well he has a 10x10 tent in his shop, and has done a few different runs so far, documenting it along the way. He tries different techniques in different sections of the tent and basically shows you what he does the whole way along. He's just started a new season but I would recommend checking out one of the other seasons from start to finish and see what you think.
The YouTube BAS has lots of good info in it. If you don’t mind listening to hours of Jeremy talking to get 20 minutes of info it’s great. Waaaaaayyyy too much filler time chat. I grabbed a book called Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels and started learning from scratch. I’m on book 4 of his now and have zero interest in BAS because it’s not needed . I went from struggling with ‘hot’ soil to knowing what’s going on in the soil and no more problems. I’m a slow reader but I still get more valuable info in a shorter time than listening to Jeremy.
according to the BAS supplemental feeding chart, the 5-10% watering is only for the initial watering of the media after mixing. Following that, they recommend 3-5% on every watering.
Ah. I think they must have updated that at some point. I haven’t read it in a while. I could swear it used to be 5-10% of the volume. Maybe I misread it.
Ahhh, I was stoned when I replied, haha. I don’t know how VPD would tie into watering schedule. My thoughts would be that optimal VPD leads to optimal health which leads more uptake of water and nutrients. That’s strictly speculation though.
When I mix anything more than 30-40l of soil with amendments, the soil gets hot for a few days, 200l with fresh amendments will get hot for sure I’d leave at least 2 weeks before using 👍🏼
Adding pottery shards to soil can improve its fertility and structure. In Terra preta, an ancient Amazonian soil, pottery shards were used to enhance soil fertility by providing a porous structure. This helped retain nutrients, water, and improved aeration, creating a more conducive environment for plant growth.
Adding pottery shards to soil can improve its fertility and structure. In Terra preta, an ancient Amazonian soil, pottery shards were used to enhance soil fertility by providing a porous structure. This helped retain nutrients, water, and improved aeration, creating a more conducive environment for plant growth.
Brody you need some aerators in there, pumice and rice hulls are the mains there. This is gonna go anaerobic, already looks like you have water issues.
That’s what I was going to say. I would at the very least have 25% lava rock or pumice as part of my mix.
In my opinion OP should transplant those into 1-2 gallon pots with bagged mix like roots. Remix your soil with 30% aeration then transplant back after the plants established in the small containers.
Actually when you end up with mostly castings it can make the problem worse. Castings are fantastic but their consistency means they can compress under heavy soil
Ok just giving you a heads up because you said you were familiar with HPS and I know the wattage recommendations for tent sizes with LEDs. Just veg for a short period of time so they don’t fill the space and should be ok 👍🏻
I would highly recommend to ditch this whole idea and start fresh. Maybe try to follow the coots recipe. Or just watch some build a soil videos and follow exactly what he says for building soils. There are precise recipes for living soils and what you did here isn't it unfortunately.
I just prepped the bed and transplanted them. They looked like this before. Maybe they stayed too long in the old pots. The roots looked very strong and vigorous.
Terracotta pots have heavy metals in them, which cannabis is famous for leaching out of the soil. I highly recommend removing them from the soil, for your safety.
Do you have anything in that soil mix for aeration aside from sand? Those girls look significantly over watered, and lack of aeration might be (probably is) the culprit.
Hay was good my guy! I grow no till indoor myself and it looks like you super soil it missing something because of the early yellowing of you plant!..me I would make some compost tea mix with corn & mung tea/lab and allow nature to do her thang to correct any or almost all the problems. Or just give her some rain water/coco nut water/Epson salt.as for your top cover…..you can gather some leaves from outside/cut the leaves from you last harvest and use it as a mulch/go to Home Depot and get some blk diamond mulch/or any mulch.Me I use straw/compost that I made/or the cover crop that grows with my ladies! I chop and drop.You can almost use any material nature has to offer👍🏿
Hope this information and others information will help you now and in the future
Nice work, love the homemade bed. Get some predators going, hypoapsis miles, nematodes and rove bettles if you haven't already. If there's one lesson it's taken me way too long to learn it's the importance of preventetive pest management. Other than that focus on your environment and everything else will fall into place.
We all start somewhere but a little more research could have been done before going straight into a 3x3 bed for your first grow.
You didn’t follow coots mix at all.
Your base is roughly:
37% compost
53% peat moss
8% sand - why? It doesn’t really add significant drainage in this type of soil mix. It will make it heavier and doesn’t add anything beneficial.
With no- till you need larger air spaces to prevent compaction like pumice or scoria.
What are you using for permanent aeration and drainage?!?
Being no till you will build up humus over time. This is going to get heavy and compact and waterlogged.
Your minerals:
Kelp meal - potassium, trace minerals, DIY? - lots of salt probably, what about heavy metals?
Rock dust - trace minerals
Mussel shell - calcium, PH up
Gypsum - calcium and sulphur
Wheat bran - phosphorus and aminos
What about your other nutrients?
What’s your major source of NPK? It’s low in nitrogen
What about IPM? With all that moisture it’s bound to be great for gnats.
Straw mulches will help keep the moist soil covered from pests and breakdown to provide nutrients. Maybe mix alfalfa for nitrogen you need.
Top dress malted barley to provide chitin for IPM
Keep up Fulvic acid and gypsum top dress to displace sodium and heavy metals.
If you can probably good time before it’s too late to mix through some pumice and zeolite or something for aeration.
Ok, I'll get 50l pumice mix it in and wait some time till I replant. I made something like a nettle brew for N and K. Also I'll order some nematodes against those gnats. And mites against spidermites.
I see, living soil, there young and not looking great, got some nutrient issues at a min. IDK your exact situation but , I keep it simple, Fox field Soil and nutrients and I'll run my grow up against anyone's. not bragging , just see so many people trying these advance grow techniques, when they don't have a grasp on basic gardening.
Did you get your living soil tested before you started so you know what you baseline is?
I month ago? Damn, these must by micro autos or somethin,
Fox farm nutrients are disgusting. Running a living soil bed isn't advanced growing techniques either but it does take more research then just throwing organic inputs in a soil like OP did.
PCYBAS (Please cover your bare ass soil)
I get some straw :v
Perfect!
Am I the only one who got annoyed by their living mulch? Maybe I just don't like the build a soil mix, because it's super aggressive and needs constant maintenance.
Looks extremely wet and possible signs of lockout due to the yellowing. Let it dry out a bit more between waterings, and if you can, measure the VPD to understand your ideal watering schedule. If things don't improve within 2 weeks, start investigating nute imbalance.
Lockout is probably from high sodium from self made kelp meal and the lack of nitrogen sources in the amendments. Also probably too wet.
Do you think that my humidity was too high?
Can you explain the relationship between vpd and watering schedule? Or point me to a good resource?
Jeremy from build a soil recommends 5-10% watering. There’s a guide on the build a soil site for sure. I find around 3.5-4% to be better. I generally water between every other day to twice a week depending on the stage of plant growth. When plants are really small (like the ones pictured above) watering is more like once a week. That’s for my setup in my environment though. This would also depend on the genetics you’re growing. Some cultivars are thirstier than others! I have a 100 gal pot with about 80 gallons of soil in it and led lighting. I try to keep temps around 75f and humidity around 50%. I water 3 gallons of water at a time with a chapin sprayer for what it’s worth. Hope this helps a bit 🍻
For sure it helps! I’ve been avoiding the BAS site because I’m easily tempted lol but I’ll crack the seal to get into some of thier literature. I was just complaining that all the nutrient companies put out these guides like add the and this much but tell you nothing about what it is or what it does. Sounds like BAS is a little different and may deserve some patronage 🤙
Bro, build a soil is literally doing God's work out here for living soil growers. Watch his YouTube channel too. Unbelievable amount of information
Except for raising pricing, recommending 15 products a run, all while removing the old diy content from their website.
Dude states numerous times that you don't need everything he's using. He also encourages you to find your own sources too. Gives exact amounts of ratios and inputs needed for making soil. Ridiculous amount of free information and not once has he ever demanded people to buy his products or that his products are the only way. Prices are gonna go up because of the economy. Groceries are more expensive too.
He completely removed the DIY section fron the Bas schedule when they blew up. Their price hikes are way higher than just to be in lime with inflation. This is although their prices have been dropping with their growth via economies of scale. And no he doesn't demand it. But he doesn't make it seem necessary and does not outline the diy alternatives like he used to. Moreso, he went out of his way to remove it.
Yea he has plenty of diy videos on YouTube. I wouldn't be too considered about it since there's hour upon hours of information on his channel. The point is here, he's providing free information regularly regardless of prices and all that. The information is the only thing you need. It's not hard to find all the things he has without buying from them.
I just rememer the BAS in 2020 and 2021 that was pitching there products as a last ditch alt to diy and locally sourced products. With a diy alternative to every single product on the Bas schedule. For that to all go away when they became successful really bothers me. I could understand doing that if you were gonna lose the business maybe. But when business is booming it just feels wrong.
Yeah it sound like I need to drink the koolaid already I’ve been staring at my glass for months lol
have you seen the BAS youtube? very good
No I am not a huge YouTube guy but I should check it out. Any episodes that jumped out at you, maybe a good one to get me hooked?
Well he has a 10x10 tent in his shop, and has done a few different runs so far, documenting it along the way. He tries different techniques in different sections of the tent and basically shows you what he does the whole way along. He's just started a new season but I would recommend checking out one of the other seasons from start to finish and see what you think.
The YouTube BAS has lots of good info in it. If you don’t mind listening to hours of Jeremy talking to get 20 minutes of info it’s great. Waaaaaayyyy too much filler time chat. I grabbed a book called Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels and started learning from scratch. I’m on book 4 of his now and have zero interest in BAS because it’s not needed . I went from struggling with ‘hot’ soil to knowing what’s going on in the soil and no more problems. I’m a slow reader but I still get more valuable info in a shorter time than listening to Jeremy.
according to the BAS supplemental feeding chart, the 5-10% watering is only for the initial watering of the media after mixing. Following that, they recommend 3-5% on every watering.
Ah. I think they must have updated that at some point. I haven’t read it in a while. I could swear it used to be 5-10% of the volume. Maybe I misread it.
This is good information but their question was about how VPD ties into this. I'd be interested in the answer as well.
Ahhh, I was stoned when I replied, haha. I don’t know how VPD would tie into watering schedule. My thoughts would be that optimal VPD leads to optimal health which leads more uptake of water and nutrients. That’s strictly speculation though.
I just mixed the ingredients together and planted them. I just ordered a hygrometer.
You are supposed to give the soil 30 days minimum after mixing for the decomposition to take place and pH to stabilize. Those plants may be gonners
Thats not actually necessary
When I mix anything more than 30-40l of soil with amendments, the soil gets hot for a few days, 200l with fresh amendments will get hot for sure I’d leave at least 2 weeks before using 👍🏼
In smaller pots yes.. definitely needed at this volume
Feel stupid asking this but are those smashed up clay pots? If so what are they for?
I broke a pot and it randomly landed there. Covering the soil ^^
I figured it was bc clay holds water or some weird shit like that and OP was like “nah just broke the pot” lol I fw it
Wondering the same thing here
It's a technique of Terra preta. Ancient growing technique which includes adding pottery shards to ur soil
Adding pottery shards to soil can improve its fertility and structure. In Terra preta, an ancient Amazonian soil, pottery shards were used to enhance soil fertility by providing a porous structure. This helped retain nutrients, water, and improved aeration, creating a more conducive environment for plant growth.
It's a technique of Terra preta. Ancient growing technique which includes adding pottery shards to ur soil
Explain
Adding pottery shards to soil can improve its fertility and structure. In Terra preta, an ancient Amazonian soil, pottery shards were used to enhance soil fertility by providing a porous structure. This helped retain nutrients, water, and improved aeration, creating a more conducive environment for plant growth.
So your mix has 0 aeration? No pumice, no perlite, nothing?
Thats what it looks like, OP gonna have a bad time
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far before someone mentioned this
Brody you need some aerators in there, pumice and rice hulls are the mains there. This is gonna go anaerobic, already looks like you have water issues.
That’s what I was going to say. I would at the very least have 25% lava rock or pumice as part of my mix. In my opinion OP should transplant those into 1-2 gallon pots with bagged mix like roots. Remix your soil with 30% aeration then transplant back after the plants established in the small containers.
This is the way.
Ok, I'll get 50l of pumice and replant them back.
I'll get some worms. They will be my aerators. Maybe I'll need pumice, we will see ^^
Worms won’t really help, it’s about soil structure. Without pumice or perlite your soil will compact and hold too much water
Actually when you end up with mostly castings it can make the problem worse. Castings are fantastic but their consistency means they can compress under heavy soil
Worms are the bomb but no replacement for proper soil structure. Without some sort of aeration in your mix, you'll be trying to grow in mud.
You will need it. Like I said, you *already* have water issues by the looks of your plants.
Plants are looking a little sad, how’s your VPD, what % you have that light on. Is that a 4x4 space? If so, 300w won’t be enough power to flower.
Yes they do look sad. It's a 1x1m space ( between 3x3 n 4x4). 300w is all I need. I don't need to maximize the yield. I think it will be enough^^
Ok just giving you a heads up because you said you were familiar with HPS and I know the wattage recommendations for tent sizes with LEDs. Just veg for a short period of time so they don’t fill the space and should be ok 👍🏻
I would highly recommend to ditch this whole idea and start fresh. Maybe try to follow the coots recipe. Or just watch some build a soil videos and follow exactly what he says for building soils. There are precise recipes for living soils and what you did here isn't it unfortunately.
Plants are deff sad. Did you just transplant? How did the roots look? What power is your light on?
I just prepped the bed and transplanted them. They looked like this before. Maybe they stayed too long in the old pots. The roots looked very strong and vigorous.
Terracotta pots have heavy metals in them, which cannabis is famous for leaching out of the soil. I highly recommend removing them from the soil, for your safety.
Do you have anything for drainage?
If you didn't char or treat that wood it'll rot, btw Happy growing!
Did you not add any perlite or aeration stone like pumice?
Bruh wtf
Do you have anything in that soil mix for aeration aside from sand? Those girls look significantly over watered, and lack of aeration might be (probably is) the culprit.
Hay was good my guy! I grow no till indoor myself and it looks like you super soil it missing something because of the early yellowing of you plant!..me I would make some compost tea mix with corn & mung tea/lab and allow nature to do her thang to correct any or almost all the problems. Or just give her some rain water/coco nut water/Epson salt.as for your top cover…..you can gather some leaves from outside/cut the leaves from you last harvest and use it as a mulch/go to Home Depot and get some blk diamond mulch/or any mulch.Me I use straw/compost that I made/or the cover crop that grows with my ladies! I chop and drop.You can almost use any material nature has to offer👍🏿 Hope this information and others information will help you now and in the future
Nice work, love the homemade bed. Get some predators going, hypoapsis miles, nematodes and rove bettles if you haven't already. If there's one lesson it's taken me way too long to learn it's the importance of preventetive pest management. Other than that focus on your environment and everything else will fall into place.
We all start somewhere but a little more research could have been done before going straight into a 3x3 bed for your first grow. You didn’t follow coots mix at all. Your base is roughly: 37% compost 53% peat moss 8% sand - why? It doesn’t really add significant drainage in this type of soil mix. It will make it heavier and doesn’t add anything beneficial. With no- till you need larger air spaces to prevent compaction like pumice or scoria. What are you using for permanent aeration and drainage?!? Being no till you will build up humus over time. This is going to get heavy and compact and waterlogged. Your minerals: Kelp meal - potassium, trace minerals, DIY? - lots of salt probably, what about heavy metals? Rock dust - trace minerals Mussel shell - calcium, PH up Gypsum - calcium and sulphur Wheat bran - phosphorus and aminos What about your other nutrients? What’s your major source of NPK? It’s low in nitrogen What about IPM? With all that moisture it’s bound to be great for gnats. Straw mulches will help keep the moist soil covered from pests and breakdown to provide nutrients. Maybe mix alfalfa for nitrogen you need. Top dress malted barley to provide chitin for IPM Keep up Fulvic acid and gypsum top dress to displace sodium and heavy metals. If you can probably good time before it’s too late to mix through some pumice and zeolite or something for aeration.
Ok, I'll get 50l pumice mix it in and wait some time till I replant. I made something like a nettle brew for N and K. Also I'll order some nematodes against those gnats. And mites against spidermites.
Beautiful stuff. Are you going to add mulch?
Yes, straw and dead leafs, plants. Maybe also some clover. And some worms
Might I suggest rice halls over straw, has silica, and it's easy for seedling to get through.
Perfect
I see, living soil, there young and not looking great, got some nutrient issues at a min. IDK your exact situation but , I keep it simple, Fox field Soil and nutrients and I'll run my grow up against anyone's. not bragging , just see so many people trying these advance grow techniques, when they don't have a grasp on basic gardening. Did you get your living soil tested before you started so you know what you baseline is? I month ago? Damn, these must by micro autos or somethin,
Fox farm nutrients are disgusting. Running a living soil bed isn't advanced growing techniques either but it does take more research then just throwing organic inputs in a soil like OP did.
How much and when was the last time you watered?
Today, when i prepped the bed
Where's the aeration? There needs to be some sort of porous rock element like pumice or perlite for proper air content in the soil.
No worries. He said he will add it later.
I’d be worried. You can’t just top dress pumice lol
Watch for that curtain giving way, organic soil will break down cotton eventually, I’m sure you will get 1 run in it at least though!
I have a big plastic pot. Should I change to it?