Good compost mix?

[evatil]

Hi all,

 

Doing a tonne of research before I jump into my first grow in a little while.

Will be growing outdoors in pots, lucky enough to have a yard with near-perfect sun exposure. Not lucky enough to have somewhere to plant into the ground without being found by unwanted eyes. Will be starting with some Autoflowers as I hear they're harder to mess up and better for a beginner grow. Also smaller until I work on my grow-stealth.

 

Soil, I'm thinking of using Canna Terra Professional. Have heard it's great, but willing to hear any other suggestions.

 

It's been a steep learning curve but I'm learning so much and I'm sure I'll be posting loads of questions soon enough.

 

Looking at some compost. Just did a gumtree search and found this mix, about 40 minutes from me:

 

Woodchip

Coco coir

Manures

Shredded high nutrient plants

Compost teas

Manure teas

Worm castings and tea

Biochar

Hand caught and cultured Indigenous Micro organisms

Lactic Acid Bacteria serum

Bokashi EM1

Kefir Mix

 

It looks great from what little I've read about compost (going into this at complete n00b level) worth the trip?

 

How much am I going to want to add to my pots? Will the CTP soil and compost be a decent mix? Perlite, too?

 

Thank you [emoji5]

 

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[itchybromusic]

so they are individual items being sold or these are what's been used in the compost 

 

cos kefir mix sounds like a starting culture to make your own kefir 

bokashi EM-1 sounds like grains ready for use 

LAB's is something you can make at home with the water you wash rice with = rice wash water 

 

they all sound individual items , either way , i would be prepared to put money on the person being a canna person

almost all items are discussed quite allot in no till , living soil , KNF , doesn't mean he is but would not be surprised

 

you could use the canna terra pro as part of your 3 part base mix , being the peat part , the other 2 would be compost 

& aeration , yes you could use perlite although 7-10mm scoria might be cheaper in bulk , you can get perlite in bulk as well
most no tillers are re-using there soil / pot to grow the next plant , if you plan to do this at some point perlite will break down 

& turn to dust loosing that aeration , the scoria will not change anytime soon , not re-using = perlite be fine 

 

the compost part will be a lill nutrients , along with the canna terra pro , but the inoculation of a well made compost 

will be handy to re-inoculate the canna terra pro 

 

you could add more amendments but i think compost combined with terra pro will be fine for nutrient content 

plus add top dressing castings as you move though the grow , I think nutes are covered 

 

anyways need some more info about that list of stuff for sale or list of what was added to the compost pile  

Edited March 6, 2018 by itchybromusic

[evatil]

so they are individual items being sold or these are what's been used in the compost

 

cos kefir mix sounds like a starting culture to make your own kefir

bokashi EM-1 sounds like grains ready for use

LAB's is something you can make at home with the water you wash rice with = rice wash water

 

they all sound individual items , either way , i would be prepared to put money on the person being a canna person

almost all items are discussed quite allot in no till , living soil , KNF , doesn't mean he is but would not be surprised

 

you could use the canna terra pro as part of your 3 part base mix , being the peat part , the other 2 would be compost

& aeration , yes you could use perlite although 7-10mm scoria might be cheaper in bulk , you can get perlite in bulk as well

most no tillers are re-using there soil / pot to grow the next plant , if you plan to do this at some point perlite will break down

& turn to dust loosing that aeration , the scoria will not change anytime soon , not re-using = perlite be fine

 

the compost part will be a lill nutrients , along with the canna terra pro , but the inoculation of a well made compost

will be handy to re-inoculate the canna terra pro

 

you could add more amendments but i think compost combined with terra pro will be fine for nutrient content

plus add top dressing castings as you move though the grow , I think nutes are covered

 

anyways need some more info about that list of stuff for sale or list of what was added to the compost pile

Will definitely suss out scoria. See?! Learning new things everyday .

Equal parts of each? More one than the other? Hoping by learning about this mix, and others, it'll help me make my own later down the track for my veg garden and photoperiods, when I can make the switch.

Thanks for replying!

Here's a screen capture of that ad.

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[SOOTY]

hey evatil [emoji113] are u sure u wanna go with autos for ur first try? not many people will recommend them for beginners as they can be quite finicky. ur decision of course but u may want to look into them some more first. good luck mate

[brick]

Leave the wood chips out. They can cause mould problems. imo. The rest sounds pretty good.

[itchybromusic]

yeah i agree with sooty re auto's , regular fem indica seed would be a better choice imo

 

i would be a lill concerned with the wood chips sucking Nitrogen out of the compost to breakdown

but sounds like they are already composted & wouldn't be going into a mix as not broken down chips

so not as much of a concern once broken down

 

as far as mold go's brick are you talking about the white mold / fungus you see allot round wood chips ,

this is a good thing , if it changes color from white to gray , black or red it's become or is nasty , but white fur is good 

i've found by using EM-1 regularly as soil drenches & weekly foliar sprays in veg , i have allot less chance of bud rot 

 

his compost sounds ok not sure about all the teas being made & added to the compost 

sounds like a lill bit of wanker going on but if it's composted back to soil it should be pretty good to use 

 

i'd give the compost a go & i still say this guy is a canna person 

 

base mix is 3 equal parts , i make 1.5 cubic foot at a time , which works out to be 14lts of each part  

i then add amendments on top of that , which you could do as well but your peat moss component = canna terra pro

has nutrients added , along with the compost there should be enough in there to feed a plant for a bit , although it won't be a hot mix 

 

i like to mimic nature as much as poss so i would mulch allot to keep feeding the pot/soil life via that mulch layer so you have a constant supply of organic matter

being consumed & producing readily available nutrients for the plant 

 

i would also say you could add the amendments i use to the mix of what you have as a 3 part mix with no negative effect i would think  

as the mix i use is def not a hot super soil 

[itchybromusic]

i shouldn't of said wanker in the last post 

just like most canna people , if he is a canna person , we get stoned & over think shit 

[evatil]

Thanks for all your replies.

 

I was looking at autos because from what I've read, they're apparently a pretty easy grow. And let's be honest -- the faster harvesting time is nothing to sneeze at either. I have depression, anxiety, PTSD, a trapped sciatic nerve root, and two bulging discs in my back. Very keen to try medicating myself with different strains.

I've only been using it for a year, but it puts me to sleep every night. I don't have traumatic dreams when I go to bed after smoking. Before this, I was on so many pharmas and I just hated thinking what it was doing to my body. Hoping I may get off the final two that I'm on.

 

I can't get my hands on good stuff. What I can get, I'm not told the strain and I know nothing about it. It passes through a few hands before it gets to being put into mine. That leads me to getting some green that can be great for me, shit for me or a waste of money in some cases. Most smokers I know just think weed is weed is weed.

I really want to try making edibles and oil. Need a "free" supply to do that.

 

It also gets quite cold in the winter (no snow, though) where I am and I only have a little shelf tier greenhouse to protect them from frost, until I get my veg patch happening and can throw a larger greenhouse outside without worrying it's going to look suss. Because of my back injury and having small kids close in age, our backyard has never grown anything but grass. Might look a bit suss to my nosey neighbours (got em back and both sides of the yard.) Now the kids are older, and they like to help. They want to grow a veggie patch and I want them to be interested in growing their own gardens and learning about it. It's something I wish I'd had taught to me when I was young.

 

I'll give the compost a go once I've started up and will definitely consider some fem photo seeds.

 

And, hey, nothing wrong with being wanky if you're a good wanker! [emoji6]

 

P.S. Sorry for the novel haha. Here, have a photo of my kids' different kind of grass grow to make up for it [emoji23] a week in and the joy they get from seeing the grass grow is so awesome.

 

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[itchybromusic]

it's all cool mate , we only suggesting looking else where other than auto's cos

i always thought you needed to be pretty on your game when it came to auto's 

you have X number of days of growth to get through , seems like no margin for error ,

& have seen a number of people end up with 7 or 14 grams total , not that i've grown auto's b4 , 

 

everything your saying makes sense & i agree with , the only thing is ,

to do all you want to do , auto plants , for the most part , can't deliver the quantity required to do all those things 

 

coke , smack , cannabis = all the same thing to allot of people in oz 

 

as far as growing canna that's your area & your call but def get the kids in the garden ,

 

if you buy a bunch of cress seeds you can spell the kids names out in seed 

once it sprouts it looks pretty cool & you can plant other veg & herb above

there name , makes it a bit of fun  

 

anything that gets them excited about growing & eating there own produce at home is a good thing for everybody 

 

no worries about the novel , i have the same habit 

[pug1010]

hiya evatil

 

Just a follow up on itchies post ... scoria is great stuff and unlike perlite, you wont have to use a mask or hold your breath when mixing it - perlite dust gets in the lungs. If going down the perlite route for aeration though ... get a one-use mask. Not sure where you live, but if close to a beach, you might find it has heaps of pumice stone. This stuff is much better than the pumice sold in gardening stores and is very light. Might be something for the kids to collect at the beach. I just make sure that I dont take too much from any one spot and also that I don’t take any that is near a plant or grass, as they tend to use it with their roots.