Organic, pro-biotic and organic growing without bottled nutrients

[Try Blu]

Looks good. Are you using the recharge pack?

On a side note I got some persimilis, amazing to watch under magnification.

I literally saw one today pick up a spider mite and devour it while the smaller juvenile ones went searching for eggs.

The predators suck the mites dry....... Louping around checking for shrivelled up mite bodies still attached to underside of leaves is one of the methods utilized to determine if your population is winning. This is often easier than finding live predators in the field.

 

They move quick don’t they?

[Try Blu]

Certainly greened up in the last 5 days

 

 

 

Starting to wonder how this would go in the indoor hempys.. mine are only 1.5L, so a few bags would go a long way.....

 

Is that a leaf roller or spider in that fan leaf?

[billygoat]

Spider.  I got quite a few around.  They seem to look after the plants, so I leave them alone

[Inthewoods]

Yep. Loving the preditors. Was too hot for working but these guys didn't stop.

Amazing to watch two of the little persimilis gang up on one spider mite. He was surrounded and didn't stand a chance. These things chase them down as soon as you open the lid they run up the leaves and I watch them hunt.

 

Here's some happy snaps taken while sweat dripped off my head and kept fogging up the lense sorry. Not bad for a phone cam though.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Inthewoods

[DoNothingGarden]

Okay, for those that want more insight into looking at a soil test, let’s look at the CEC and base saturation and why they are so important to a high performing living organic soil. Cation exchange capacity is a measurement of how many mineral cations the soil can hold on to. Cations are positively charged nutrient ions consisting of mainly calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium, as well as trace elements. The higher the soil CEC, the more negative exchange sites are available to hold onto the minerals as mentioned above. The aim when building a quality potting soil with lots of humus and biology... from a mineral balancing perspective is to fill the CEC with a ratio of about 70% calcium, 10% magnesium, 4% potassium and 1.5% sodium… leaving the rest for trace elements and exchangeable hydrogen. Generally when a soil CEC is filled close to the ratio recommended above it will have an ideal mineral composition that allows efficient nutrient uptake by plants through root and microbial exudates. Both the plant roots and microorganisms can exude hydrogen ions and exchange them for calcium or other cations. This exchange is what keeps soil pH optimum, at around 6.4. A well constructed living organic potting soil takes all of this into account for maximum crop performance and dense mineral content. This results in superior flavour, smell and nutrition from yields limited only by plant genetics and environmental factors.

[billygoat]

The GSC is picking up, had a little stretch.... certainly not going to be a big plant, but still interesting to see if the soil can take it all the way through to harvest... 

 

The plants behind in the mix i made are already starving, which is disappointing given the investment.  Might as well have used cheap potting mix 50/50 with perlite and just added nutrients.  

 

Pics below, but some pretty nice looking growth in only 10 days...And the green.. The camera really doesn't capture just how green the plant is.. 

 

 

 

[kloud9]

Awseome

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[itchybromusic]

The GSC is picking up, had a little stretch.... certainly not going to be a big plant, but still interesting to see if the soil can take it all the way through to harvest... 

 

The plants behind in the mix i made are already starving, which is disappointing given the investment.  Might as well have used cheap potting mix 50/50 with perlite and just added nutrients.  

 

Pics below, but some pretty nice looking growth in only 10 days...And the green.. The camera really doesn't capture just how green the plant is.. 

 

 

 

ahhh living soils ay !

 

if you have any mix left you could make a compost / nutrient tea out of some of it 

& kill 2 birds with the one stone , inoculate & feed the starving plants 

not sure if DNG has done that with his soil mix but i think it be cool to do  

[DoNothingGarden]

Beautiful!

[billygoat]

ahhh living soils ay !

 

if you have any mix left you could make a compost / nutrient tea out of some of it 

& kill 2 birds with the one stone , inoculate & feed the starving plants 

not sure if DNG has done that with his soil mix but i think it be cool to do  

 

I have around 10L left.. happy to try it, how does one make a tea ?