Slow growth and soil test results.

green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
Thanks again for the advice- As far as the inputs go, while it may seems like a long list of things, I wasn't ever really adding much of them- certainly no more than the listed amounts on the packaging, typically once a week. Will stuff like Quillaja, enzymes etc have adverse effects on the soil?

If I turn off my blumat and hand water only, I typically water two gallons every other day and that seems to keep the soil moisture in the intended range as indicated by my meters as well as feel. In stretch that gets bumped up a bit. Everything I read tells me overwatering is way more common than under so I try to err on the side of under as the consequences of that seem preferable to overwatering.

My light is afull spectrum bar led (viparspecter ks5000) on a 20/4 schedule (autoflowers) and the average dli is between 40/45 as measured on my phone with the photone app... I was skeptical of it's accuracy at first, but I read a thread in a forum somewhere that compared it to high end meters under various lighting conditions and it was surprisingly decent, especially for LEDs.

The mister hose you see there is from a ac infinity humidifier which has a setting that targets a VPD based on a little probe you put in the bed. I've got my target vpd at 1.4 right now as I'm deep in flower- my ambient temps in daytime are around 80-82f (~5 degree leaf offset) and my humidity is between 45-50 generally. I'd like it to be a bit cooler and dryer but that's the best I can do sadly without serious work in my basement.

It would be a shame if my humus input was poor quality- I really tried to follow all the advice I was getting and thought I was using premium ingredients. I guess I'll never know what it was exactly to cause my sodium/sulfer etc to be so damn high but something certainly did.
I personally like closer to 1-1.2 with full spectrum led. That seems to be were is the more explosive growth and nutrient mobility. Idk. Hotter and wetter is what I go for with led nowadays. The old school cool and dry mentality I think really only applies to hps anymore cause In reality the led make no surface heat on the leaf and really changes how the plant breathes. Can’t breathe it can’t metabolize and move nutrients. If your canopy hits 82 I’d definitely take my humidity up to 55 or 60. When you say leaf degree offset you mean like an infrared thermometer on leaf surface? Reads 5 degrees less? On leaf surface compared to ambient?

and im
Not saying the manure compost is bad. But is were the majority of sodium is coming from I’d guess. The origanol coot himself would say that his “coots mix” soil will never ever be anyone else’s even if they copy his recipe exact because they never use his compost. Really implying that the most important vital aspect of the whole coots style soil is the compost material. His worm beds/composting, being a master, are bar none. And compared to bagged compost products they really don’t even compare.

so when sourcing materials for a coots mix, no till or containers alike, it's 33% humus imo should be the highest quality vermicompost that can be sourced locally and in a budget. Better yet is make your own worm castings fresh at home and never look back. Obviously we do the best we can with what’s available. But as a goal shoot for your own compost.

As far as enzymes and Bennie’s. Never really hurt alone or the proper application. But a soil bed is a whole different thing. We really don’t know the biochemical reactions that can occur in the large volume of soil. Nature will correct itself if we get out of the way.
 
Yeah leaf offset meaning they are generally ~5f cooling than the ambient, so about 75-77f. Also even though I’ve got the vpd target set to 1.4, it doesn’t get much higher than 1.2-3 most of the time as ~50% humidity is about as low as I can get it.

It’s funny I actually just got a lead on some alpaca poop… a regular at my GFs bar is an organic alpaca farmer and apparently it makes for seriously high grade fertilizer and doesn’t need to be composted due to the alpaca digestive system. Wish I’d had that when I started this a year ago lol.
 

MissinThe90’sStrains

Well-Known Member
I’ve heard people say that before about rabbit and alpaca poop. I recently read differently. It is recommended a couple times through this book that all types of shit be cooked before any indoor/container use.
 

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Week4@inCharge

Well-Known Member
I stay away from manure compost. I saw it that Mushroom compost is better for cannabis soil, but I also saw that it too can be high in sodium... go figure. So I just use BAS BuildAFlower compost... Some good stuff.
 
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