Help Diagnose please

driver77 said:

FFOF is a living soil and usually pretty hot. That said the last batch I got of it was full of wood chips and cold as hell, had to add nutes 1st week, where usually none needed till week 4 to 5.

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yeah can you elaborate please. i didnt think it was a living soil with myco and bacteria added. i get that due to the mixing process not every bag will be the same, but as far as bugs. ive only ever had 1 bag of FFOF that had fungus gnats. even right now I use yellow and blue sticky fly traps above and below the canopy and i have no bugs. i also use this thing that i call a pepper mint cap. where i basically take a soda cap, cut a piece of sponge and put it in it, and pour peppermint oil into the sponge. it repels bugs from grow areas and i keep a pretty sterile environment. wash the tent floor and walls with h2o2 and alcohol, make sure theres no garbage on the walls or floors etc...

Also I topdressed with some more FFOF last night and great white mychorrizae. watered with 6.5pH water. and the 2 front plants that were looking a little pale started to come back a bit. theyre a bit darker. i just got thrown off cus the back plants are fine. they have good color, no problems. (other than all the plants have tobacco mosiac virus) but the backs ones are a nice green, stacking WAY better than the front ones. the front ones are way bigger though. the way they're LST'ed its hard to tell but the 2 front ones are probably 10 inches "taller" than the back ones. probably intaking more thant he back ones. I think they might have been hungry and the interveinal chlorosis was just nitrogen deficiency. theyre starting to look better so at day 21 i'll add a little 2-8-4 and do the 1st defoliation of flower, (1st on day 21, 2nd on day 42) . theyre looking better. thanks for your guy's input.

rollituprandy said:

yeah can you elaborate please. i didnt think it was a living soil with myco and bacteria added. i get that due to the mixing process not every bag will be the same, but as far as bugs. ive only ever had 1 bag of FFOF that had fungus gnats. even right now I use yellow and blue sticky fly traps above and below the canopy and i have no bugs. i also use this thing that i call a pepper mint cap. where i basically take a soda cap, cut a piece of sponge and put it in it, and pour peppermint oil into the sponge. it repels bugs from grow areas and i keep a pretty sterile environment. wash the tent floor and walls with h2o2 and alcohol, make sure theres no garbage on the walls or floors etc...

Also I topdressed with some more FFOF last night and great white mychorrizae. watered with 6.5pH water. and the 2 front plants that were looking a little pale started to come back a bit. theyre a bit darker. i just got thrown off cus the back plants are fine. they have good color, no problems. (other than all the plants have tobacco mosiac virus) but the backs ones are a nice green, stacking WAY better than the front ones. the front ones are way bigger though. the way they're LST'ed its hard to tell but the 2 front ones are probably 10 inches "taller" than the back ones. probably intaking more thant he back ones. I think they might have been hungry and the interveinal chlorosis was just nitrogen deficiency. theyre starting to look better so at day 21 i'll add a little 2-8-4 and do the 1st defoliation of flower, (1st on day 21, 2nd on day 42) . theyre looking better. thanks for your guy's input.
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Your grow looks great! I think your right, the bigger ones that show a deficiency are probably hungry.
I stand corrected! FFOF advertises organic soil BUT nothing about mycros....FFHF says mycros are in......I always run a mix and guess I just assumed...see where that got me.
I get gnats in mine too, definitely coming from soil. Usually if it has gnats it actually hotter. I use myco and the FF trio with calmag in all my grows.
oh and Dr Earth dry ammends

So you're doing a living soil in 10 gallon containers?
You're pHing and adding bottled nutes to your water?

Hollatchaboy said:

So you're doing a living soil in 10 gallon containers?
You're pHing and adding bottled nutes to your water?

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Uhh im 'trying' to do a living soil. I read that it takes 6 hours for microbials to develop in the rhizosphere but ive also heard that it can take 2 weeks for the beneficial to break down the amendments so im not sure. not an expert on organics yet. The base soil is FFOF and I added insect frass and earthworm castings.
yes theyre in 10 gallon pots.
im pHing the water with rapidstart from general hydroponics. its a root enhancer. i clarified what everything is because some people got confused on what they were. the AN line is literally just microbials. great white = myco. molasses = food for bacteria. b-52 = b-vitamins for transplant shock.

driver77 said:

You grow looks great! I think your right, the bigger ones that show a deficiency are probably hungry.
I stand corrected! FFOF advertises organic soil BUT nothing about mycros....FFHF says mycros are in......I always run a mix and guess I just assumed...see where that got me.
I get gnats in mine too, definitely coming from soil. Usually if it has gnats it actually hotter. I use myco and the FF trio with calmag in all my grows.
oh and Dr Earth dry ammends

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yey i feel you about the assuming. i assumed the beneficial bacteria needed food but as ive looked into it more i see that the voodoo, tarantula, and piranha actually are microbes suspended in a liquid food. And FFOF comes with like wood chips and stuff so tehcnically that breaks down into food as well. same with the old dead roots. the senyszme helps break down roots faster so the bacteria can use that as food as well. so all that and the molasses is redundant, but ive also read that the more sugars there are the more nutrients they can bring to the plant so i guess its not the worst thing. other than great white being like $300 a container lol. honestly tho it seems i dont seem to get bugs as often as most ppl. I wonder if its my IPM (integrated pest management). They REALLY stay away from the peppermint caps I make. and I have sticky traps all over my house just to make sure and they stay pretty empty. ill leave them up for a few grows because only like one or two bugs every get caught and i remember where the bug died, theres that few of them. my friend on the other hand has gnats every grow but his soil is always super moist. i think thats probably the main cause. I also realized ive used happy frog before. I really want ot make my own soil but down ever have the time to cook it before my next grow so i just end up using bagged stuff and adding things to it (like earthworm castings, perlite, crab shells, a sprinkle of cinnamon for antifungal properties, humic acid, mycos, guano, etc) been trying different things but i think im limited by my medium. thanks for your input so far i appreciate it!

driver77 said:

These are 21 days old today in the bad batch, I've added Big Bloom and Grow big 3 times, and 1 shot of cal mag to keep them happy. Normally they wouldn't get anything till week 4 or 5.
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these look good!

rollituprandy said:

Uhh im 'trying' to do a living soil. I read that it takes 6 hours for microbials to develop in the rhizosphere but ive also heard that it can take 2 weeks for the beneficial to break down the amendments so im not sure. not an expert on organics yet. The base soil is FFOF and I added insect frass and earthworm castings.

yes theyre in 10 gallon pots.

im pHing the water with rapidstart from general hydroponics. its a root enhancer. i clarified what everything is because some people got confused on what they were. the AN line is literally just microbials. great white = myco. molasses = food for bacteria. b-52 = b-vitamins for transplant shock.

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living soil is hard to pull off in smaller containers. No need to pH the water, no need for bottled nutes, unless they're in need of readily available nutrients, until dry amendments start breaking down.

You'll benefit a lot more by adding mulch. Barley straw is a good one.

Good luck.

Hollatchaboy said:

living soil is hard to pull off in smaller containers. No need to pH the water, no need for bottled nutes, unless they're in need of readily available nutrients, until dry amendments start breaking down.

You'll benefit a lot more by adding mulch. Barley straw is a good one.

Good luck.

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how do the dry amendments get broken down without adding mychorrizae and other beneficial bacteria? arent they what is required to break down the dry amendments?

rollituprandy said:

how do the dry amendments get broken down without adding mychorrizae and other beneficial bacteria? arent they what is required to break down the dry amendments?

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They don't. That's why you add ewc/ compost.

Hollatchaboy said:

They don't. That's why you add ewc/ compost.

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wait sorry im confused can you elaborate please on the breakdown of dry amendments and why i dont need to add the mychorrizae, baccilus, & trichoderma? also you suggested mulch or barley straw. what are those used for other than to keep the soil moist?

rollituprandy said:

wait sorry im confused can you elaborate please on the breakdown of dry amendments and why i dont need to add the mychorrizae, baccilus, & trichoderma? also you suggested mulch or barley straw. what are those used for other than to keep the soil moist?

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Its allready in the dirt.soil unless hydrophobic is full with life

rollituprandy said:

wait sorry im confused can you elaborate please on the breakdown of dry amendments and why i dont need to add the mychorrizae, baccilus, & trichoderma? also you suggested mulch or barley straw. what are those used for other than to keep the soil moist?

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Mycorrhizae is less of a decomposer, and more a transport mechanism. Fungal and bacterial microbes are important, but I feel bottled microbes, aren't as numerous as advertised. Ewc, compost, aact(compost tea), are more beneficial, imo. I'm not even a fan of Recharge. It was alright, but I felt teas are better.

Eventually the straw breaks down and releases the nutrients it contains, but it takes a long while., also it's extremely beneficial for microbe populations to thrive. Keeping the soil moist is the name of the game with living soil.

If you're new to living soil, I suggest looking into sub irrigated planters.

Hollatchaboy said:

Eventually the straw breaks down and releases the nutrients it contains, but it takes a long while., also it's extremely beneficial for microbe populations to thrive. Keeping the soil moist is the name of the game with living soil.

If you're new to living soil, I suggest looking into sub irrigated planters.

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hmm ok thanks. and yeah i need to get used to keeping my soil more moist.