Dr. Bruce Bugbee method: NASA technique on Mars etc.

Overgrowtho said:

Side note: We dont have acces to Jacks and my buddy has some Flora Flex nutes laying around. I've started him on the 50/50 Bugbee method with silica and gypsum (formula from a year ago).

Flora Flex does advise to use hard water or add calmag but I wonder if the 50/50 amended medium already has enough cal and mag? Our water around here is like 65 PPM.

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I mean it could be that the course is a little more focused on commercial grows, and with vermiculite being rather expensive it might be they are offering this as an alternative that is a little cheaper. If your Ca content is 65ppm I would think that is a little on the low side compared to the video, I think I estimated that their ppm of Ca is somewhere around 80-90.

I have two new threads related to this thread. I hope you people will have a look and chime in.

About my recent grow/harvest using this media:

About re-using the media:

Overgrowtho said:

I have two new threads related to this thread. I hope you people will have a look and chime in.

About my recent grow/harvest using this media:

Wedding Cake. Critique my grow. Chopping-down day.

Based on these photos, how was my grow? In retrospect, I think I should have let the middle of the canopy grow/stretch a bit taller in Veg in order to get more colas like that big huge one seen there. (FYI I am using peat/vermiculite as discussed here). I am very happy with the quality on...

www.rollitup.org

About re-using the media:

Re-Using Soiless Media (Peat/Vermiculite)? Breaking down roots?

I am using the 50% peat and 50% vermiculite as advised by Dr. Bruce Bugbee and discussed in this: thread. My question is about, whether it might be possible or not to re-use the bag with the media after somehow breaking down the roots? For example one might need to help the roots break down...

www.rollitup.org

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I reuse my soiless meduims all the time, lve got pots that l made medium almost a decade ago, reuse each year. Some get better each year.

Southernontariogrower said:

I reuse my soiless meduims all the time, lve got pots that l made medium almost a decade ago, reuse each year. Some get better each year.

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What media do you use mate? I wonder if you add any amendments and how often (e.g. Dr Bugbee advised to add gypsum and lime to his mix).

Overgrowtho said:

What media do you use mate? I wonder if you add any amendments and how often (e.g. Dr Bugbee advised to add gypsum and lime to his mix).

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For years l amended each spring, buy more peat perlite rockdust lime wc etc and buy bigger pots. Gaia was goto for years, And this year l couldnt afford it so am using Pure by Cannapro. Medium is like a fine sand not wet or dry. Pots rootbound by flower no matter how big. Medium is technically soiless. Lime good ph buffer but will grow in acidic environment well too. Just give tapwater and ph will rise. Lime in city water too.

Southernontariogrower said:

For years l amended each spring, buy more peat perlite rockdust lime wc etc and buy bigger pots. Gaia was goto for years, And this year l couldnt afford it so am using Pure by Cannapro. Medium is like a fine sand not wet or dry. Pots rootbound by flower no matter how big. Medium is technically soiless. Lime good ph buffer but will grow in acidic environment well too. Just give tapwater and ph will rise. Lime in city water too.

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Why are you using pots that cause roots to be bound? Why not use fabric pots?

I noticed Dr. Bugbee also does not seem to use fabric pots.... but commented that rootbounding was not a problem since this is more like a soiless grow. It is! So why issues with root bounding?

The problem with bugbee stuff is he's not growing high thc strains for maximum quality flower output as his metric. His system counts total vegetative weight as yield.

I’m a pretty new grower, so I’m experimenting with some stuff. I have 8 plants in roots organic x FFoF and Happy tree amended with some extra vermiculite and perlite, and the other 12 are going to likely go into the type of soil Bruce advised. It will be interesting to take notes on any differences in soil vs the Bruce method.

I won’t be adding much nutrients until flower for the soil as my well water is 900ppm and pretty alkaline. But I will have to start feeding nuets pretty early for the peat and Verm only plants.

I am 100% sure it will not totally be Bruce’s method, because the soil the 12 plants are currently in is a mix of the 3 soils. And obviously this dirt will be going into the peat and verm mix as the core around the plant. I hope this does not completely ruin the method.

Hiddengems said:

The problem with bugbee stuff is he's not growing high thc strains for maximum quality flower output as his metric. His system counts total vegetative weight as yield.

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Can you be more specific about the critique? Particularly, how might his method fall short in terms of high THC/Terpenes?

I recently had my 2nd and best run with his method, and the quality was very high, along with a proper good 1.4 grams per watt rating! Nice! Albeit I'm using different nutrients simply according to what I have available here.

Overgrowtho said:

Can you be more specific about the critique? Particularly, how might his method fall short in terms of high THC/Terpenes?

I recently had my 2nd and best run with his method, and the quality was very high, along with a proper good 1.4 grams per watt rating! Nice! Albeit I'm using different nutrients simply according to what I have available here.

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No idea about terps or thc levels. But his yield is counted as total plant weight, not grade a hard flower.

Some strains can easily put out a ton of vegetative mass that's 30% larf bud.

Nothing wrong with his medium choice at all, and his work on lighting is great. But many growers like to lower nitrogen through flower to get less leafy buds.

Hiddengems said:

many growers like to lower nitrogen through flower to get less leafy buds

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Fair point. Personally I use a 2 part A and B for veg and an A and B for flower. While still using his medium.

Hiddengems said:

No idea about terps or thc levels. But his yield is counted as total plant weight, not grade a hard flower.

Some strains can easily put out a ton of vegetative mass that's 30% larf bud.

Nothing wrong with his medium choice at all, and his work on lighting is great. But many growers like to lower nitrogen through flower to get less leafy buds.

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I don't know about that. I have been using Bugbee's Method since I started growing and I'm on my 4th grow. My 2nd and 3rd grows produced some nice fat dense buds/colas. And that was just 20-10-20 Peat Lite from start to finish. I did no flushing (that's already been dis-proven) and I did not do any 48hr-24hr dark period, just chopped it down once I knew it was ready.

Vizzaro said:

I don't know about that. I have been using Bugbee's Method since I started growing and I'm on my 4th grow. My 2nd and 3rd grows produced some nice fat dense buds/colas. And that was just 20-10-20 Peat Lite from start to finish. I did no flushing (that's already been dis-proven) and I did not do any 48hr-24hr dark period, just chopped it down once I knew it was ready.

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I concur.
Wrapping up my second grow.
Had to give most of the first grow away.
My problem is, I enjoy cultivating this soilless media / nutrients so much that I’m more hooked on growing than consuming.

BonnMac said:

I concur.
Wrapping up my second grow.
Had to give most of the first grow away.
My problem is, I enjoy cultivating this soilless media / nutrients so much that I’m more hooked on growing than consuming.

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I am enjoying it too and now I am interested in Dr. Bugbee's new soilless media mix. And right now I am trying out my first Autoflower (Bruce Banner). I had an accident causing a stem split as I was putting a scrog net on the plant. I think that may have stunted its growth and has much less leaves on all the top nodes.

Hi, just wanted to share what I have going, ~using bugabee method. I’ve only been using it for about a month now but it seems pretty nice so far, some of my best looking seedling to date.


That’s my girls, maybe a male or 2, mostly auto flowers. Ranging from over a month, to a week old. The oldest ones were stressed by over nute and some over water too.

All of these plants were removed from a different substrate (fine vermiculite and peat), yesterday I switched the fine it with the extra coarse, it looks like all the plants took it pretty well.







thE fine works really well for seedlings but I think that is what helped me overwater. my exact mix now is 50 peat, 40 coarse virmuclite 10 fine virmuclite. also pelletized gypsum and dolo lime, not powder, no scale, eyeballed the right amount, I think a little heavy.

Here is the ferts I will be using throughout, ~exclusively. 200 ppm of this every watering and Folier spray seems to make the plants happy (200ppm tap water being used, 400ppm total), from day 0-30, at least. Was trying to keep water ph sub 6 but it rises to 7, sitting outside, I’ll care when the plants do.



it was the closest thing I could find to 2-1-2 from this company and I wanted to give them a try, I like the ingredients they are using. On second look I think they had something closer to 2-1-2, but I don’t want to look again haha. So far I really like it and I think this gallon should last forever.

I guess that’s all for now but here is some of my best looking seedlings.

Grow looks good, congrats!

Did anyone know about or participate in the Dr. Bugbee AMA on Reddit? Some very interesting stuff in there. 1 being he changed the recipe for his media to have more silica in it. The new recipe is 75% Peat, 13% Vermiculite, 12% Rice Hulls and the soil is amended with 0.7kg/m3 Wetting Agent, 1kg/m3 Wollastonite, 1.3kg/m3 Hydrated Lime. He also adds Potassium Silicate to his fertilizer when watering his plants.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/paoigz
Stating in his research that "The ideal Si media would have a high and consistent rate of Si release over several months. "

Here is his other findings on how to "Enhancing the Solubility of Silica for Liquid Fertilization ". RO water pH'd to 11 was perfect for solubility of Potassium Silicate.

I am thinking about following this new media formula but I wonder if it is mainly for people using the 20-10-20 nutrient he always goes on about. In which case perhaps this not really important for those of use using a full and proper cannabis hydro nute?

I can find all the materials, except I'm not sure what/where to find the the wetting agent. I thought these are normally liquid so how can it be added to a media?

Thanks for sharing this, I look forward to reading through...... and hopefully will get some of these questions answered in doing so. Or if anyone can advise, please do!

Overgrowtho said:

I am thinking about following this new media formula but I wonder if it is mainly for people using the 20-10-20 nutrient he always goes on about. In which case perhaps this not really important for those of use using a full and proper cannabis hydro nute?

I can find all the materials, except I'm not sure what/where to find the the wetting agent. I thought these are normally liquid so how can it be added to a media?

Thanks for sharing this, I look forward to reading through...... and hopefully will get some of these questions answered in doing so. Or if anyone can advise, please do!

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He uses Peat because "We use media with peat to help buffer pH changes. " As for hydro I think as long as you are giving your plant a "high and consistent rate of Si release over several months" you should be fine. Also silica raises the pH of the water so just monitor that and make sure it's in the right range.

For the wetting agent I am not sure what brand he uses. I though he would mix it in his media with some water to keep it moist since if Peat is left to dry out it becomes very hydrophobic. When I mix my media I also add water to it to keep it moist and I can see how a wetting agent will help with that.

I am more blown away by how much more Silica you can give your plants. I guess doing only 50% Vermiculite just isn't enough Silica. I am now adding Armor Si to my nutrient solution to give my plants silica with every watering. Wollastonite is hard to find here is Southern California, I believe it only comes from Canada. Potassium Silicate is also hard to find since its sold out everywhere right now in SoCal so I just bought a bottle of Armor Si. Rice Hulls is also hard to find at a store where I am at but I did find some on Amazon but its 3lbs for $20 when other online stores are selling 50lb bags of Rice Hulls for $20 but the shipping is expensive. Ugh, this is hard trying to find all of these ingredients. So far I have found 1 online supplier that has everything I need but the shipping is going to cost me $107 at the cheapest and I just don't have that kind of money right now. Dr. Bugbee did mention that his old recipe still works fine but that the new one obviously is just that much better.

I guess it would make sense to just put some wetting agent in the fertigation solution, and perhaps the exact type is not too important.

I am kind of eager to splurge on Bugbee's course and get all my questions answered... but I am still scared that someone like me whose not even using 20-10-20 is running around in circles by nevertheless trying to benefit from these updated amendments/formulas.

Potassium silicate? It doesnt seem to exist around where I live. All else, I can get pretty easily and cheaply (but what is that solid wetting agent he uses, I still wonder).

For me I might wanna add some wetting agent to my reservoir, amend media to diff ratio, add the wallistonite and rice hulls.

I am just confused about where to get potassium silicate! Cant find it at all. Also confused: What is that wetting agent, and whether this whole change may jive with my cannabis hydros nute (not 20-10-20) well or not. Moreover, before doing stuff I like to know what I am doing so I should really buy the damn expensive course.... prohibitively expensive perhaps. I wonder why no more gypsum.

Anyways the major takeaway for me is to: re-portion the media to new ratio, add husks, add hulls, silica and wetting agent.
I will be brave and likely adopt this for next run, but I am a bit afraid to mess up a crop! And I have major questions....