Feed plan okay?

Overgrowtho said:

Thanks @kratos015 I will chew over all this. Really appreciate all the feedback.
I was wondering how much LUX you have on them at this point? And what size fabric pots are those? 3G?
Seems like my main mistake was not adding a lot of pertlite. Damn!

I thought normally these soils should be pre-cooked so no need to water/sit for 30 days prior to use... I had better ask before assuming.

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Happy to be of service.

Not sure about the LUX. It's a 1000w DE Metal Halide, so only thing better would be a top of the line Cree/COB LED. They're in 5g pots, started them from seed in those pots 3-5 weeks ago.

If you add more perlite to that soil you'll definitely get better results.

Normally these soils are supposed to be pre-cooked, unfortunately many large scale commercial businesses tend to cut corners. Best to err on the side of caution and turn/water it to be sure everything has decomposed sufficiently.

So I just got some alfalfa hay in the mail and also ordered clover seeds.

I am debating whether to use the clover or the alfalfa to keep the moisture in the top of the pots.

At the moment I am more inclined to the clover since: it looks badass, converts nitrogen in the air to water, is living and therefore might help me to gauge what is going on with the soil itself too.

The alfalfa doesnt need to be cut back, but apart from that I dont see any benefits of it over the clover.

Thoughts?

Overgrowtho said:

So I just got some alfalfa hay in the mail and also ordered clover seeds.

I am debating whether to use the clover or the alfalfa to keep the moisture in the top of the pots.

At the moment I am more inclined to the clover since: it looks badass, converts nitrogen in the air to water, is living and therefore might help me to gauge what is going on with the soil itself too.

The alfalfa doesnt need to be cut back, but apart from that I dont see any benefits of it over the clover.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I never allow my soil to rest without something alive growing in it, but I usually mix up the cover crop to include at least one grass type (like annual rye, or whatever is available). Most of my cover crop seeds come from my local Walmart, so pretty cheap as $2 will last dozens of grow cycles if you get the lentils. lol

However living plants will not keep the top surface of the soil moist like a good mulch, because although they shade the soil with their leaves, they also transpirate and suck water from your soil. You can start with both - a thin mulch of brown (your alfalfa hay I guess) no more than an inch thick, and just water in some clover seed over it. The clover will easily sprout and send its roots to the soil while it grows through the mulch.

Great ideas @Northwood thanks I'll try this. Best of both worlds.

Now I am adding some compost tea 5 gallons for 10 plants (each in 5 gallon pot) but it is my first time making an actively aerated compost tea so please let me know any feedback. Here is the composition:

Tea bag base
compost 1 cup
worm castings 1 cup

Extra tea ingedient
kelp extract
honey (or molasses if have)
fish hydrosolate
humic acid
bat guano
mycorhiza
trichoderma

My question is: for plants in early veg will this be too nutrient rich and powerful? Should I dilute and how much?

I just did a PPM and pH test and it came out to 460 PPM and 6.2 pH