NorCal's 2017 organic garden

Mahmo

Member
Greetings.
I'm in the NorCal foothills, in 100 gal smart pots, watering every other day with 10 gallons of nuted water per plant, 3 times a week. It's been triple digits off and on for weeks. On flush days I am flushing with 20 gallons of water per plant, then brewing compost tea and feeding 10 gal per plant every 10 days.
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rsbigdaddy

Well-Known Member
Greetings.
I'm in the NorCal foothills, in 100 gal smart pots, watering every other day with 10 gallons of nuted water per plant, 3 times a week. It's been triple digits off and on for weeks. On flush days I am flushing with 20 gallons of water per plant, then brewing compost tea and feeding 10 gal per plant every 10 days.
View attachment 3983895
I been watering my 100 gallon pots with 25 gallon of water last about 4 days intell need water again been between 95 to 106
 

norcal mmj

Well-Known Member
A 65 gallon grow bag in the desert where i am at uses 25 gallons every other day a 30 gallon smart pot needs to be watered twice a day 6 gallons in the morning a 6 gallons in the evening. on the days that i don't water the bigger pots i give them a few gallons of surface water. I use a garden hose with a shower head on it & would rotate between 5 of those 100 gallon smart pots for about 45 minutes with the hose running full blast. this way i am sure there are no dry spots. Average temp here is about 100* & 11% humidity.
Good to hear, I'm always worried about overwatering but guess I don't need to.
 

norcal mmj

Well-Known Member
Are those beans you've got growing in the pots along with the plants? :D
Crimson clover and buck wheat for cover crop. The buck wheat is kind of tall and the clover didn't sprout much. Too dry in the summer I guess, next year I'll plant it in the spring. Trying to learn notill.
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
Crimson clover and buck wheat for cover crop. The buck wheat is kind of tall and the clover didn't sprout much. Too dry in the summer I guess, next year I'll plant it in the spring. Trying to learn notill.
Ah cool thanks!
Yeah I'm thinking about covercrops alot myself at the mo, and do think it best to start them before the cannabis even goes in.
On the one hand, they get a better chance to establish before they get all dwarfed and shaded, on the other, they can activate the microbial life in the soil in preparation, thus allowing the cannabis to take straight off.
I'm still pondering the mix of plants best suited.... ;)

So I'm getting ready to change to bloom tea. Any advice on my recipe? Im make about 50 gallons at a time. So far I plan on using 6 cups of compost, 2 cups of kelp, insect frass and molasses.
While I see this being done alot, personally I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to mix microbial tea with nutrient tea. Because if there are too many nutrients in the tea, neither goal (adding microbes, adding nutes) will be achieved:
On the one hand, the microbe population explodes to consume all those nutes, the danger of the tea going anaerobic increases accordingly (all that action in there uses up lots of oxygen!) thus also increasing the risk of anaerobic populations of microbes taking over, thus defeating the original purpose of the microbial tea, which is to add a nice active diversity of microbes that will feed the plants' increased hunger whilst in that growth phase. Flower is said to require nutes best mined by fungi - but when tea populations explode, it's going to be the bacteria, not the fungi, tipping the balance in their favor. So, wrong set of microbes...
On the other hand, the added nutes will tend to get eaten by the microbes whilst the tea is bubbling, ending up feeding those exploding populations instead of the plant who should be getting them.
So by the time the tea gets watered in, there is a reasonable cause to doubt the microbial as well as the nutritional content of the tea.
That's why personally, when I go to make a microbial tea, I'm adding less and less molasses. And I add kelp and other nutes as topdress or mix it into the soil when I start a new one.
Just my 2c.

Your plants are looking amazing!!! :D
 
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norcal mmj

Well-Known Member
Ah cool thanks!
Yeah I'm thinking about covercrops alot myself at the mo, and do think it best to start them before the cannabis even goes in.
On the one hand, they get a better chance to establish before they get all dwarfed and shaded, on the other, they can activate the microbial life in the soil in preparation, thus allowing the cannabis to take straight off.
I'm still pondering the mix of plants best suited.... ;)


While I see this being done alot, personally I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to mix microbial tea with nutrient tea. Because if there are too many nutrients in the tea, neither goal (adding microbes, adding nutes) will be achieved:
On the one hand, the microbe population explodes to consume all those nutes, the danger of the tea going anaerobic increases accordingly (all that action in there uses up lots of oxygen!) thus also increasing the risk of anaerobic populations of microbes taking over, thus defeating the original purpose of the microbial tea, which is to add a nice active diversity of microbes that will feed the plants' increased hunger whilst in that growth phase. Flower is said to require nutes best mined by fungi - but when tea populations explode, it's going to be the bacteria, not the fungi, tipping the balance in their favor. So, wrong set of microbes...
On the other hand, the added nutes will tend to get eaten by the microbes whilst the tea is bubbling, ending up feeding those exploding populations instead of the plant who should be getting them.
So by the time the tea gets watered in, there is a reasonable cause to doubt the microbial as well as the nutritional content of the tea.
That's why personally, when I go to make a microbial tea, I'm adding less and less molasses. And I add kelp and other nutes as topdress or mix it into the soil when I start a new one.
Just my 2c.

Your plants are looking amazing!!! :D
Well I thought by using compost I was doing a fungal tea ? So you say skip the molasses, kelp and just use compost? I use maybe a 2 cups of molasses in 60 or 70 gallons of tea.
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
Well I thought by using compost I was doing a fungal tea ? So you say skip the molasses, kelp and just use compost? I use maybe a 2 cups of molasses in 60 or 70 gallons of tea.
No, I'm not telling you to do anything :mrgreen:
I was just saying that if you add too many nutes to the tea when also brewing compost, you get neither a microbial nor a nutrient-rich tea.

Sorry I have problems with the gallons and cups as measuring entities (especially gallons!! lol), so maybe I misread the proportions of what you're doing there. I have been using ingredient proportions like Tim Wilson's (microbeorganics.com) - both for the compost and the foods, and have been reducing foods from there.
Cheers!
 
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