My pathetic organic grow

SilentBob024

Well-Known Member
Stepwell eh. Yeah I've had a few issues with them till I contacted them directly for info. Ok the low down of what you'll need and trust me it will work. I've had plants that look like yours and the odd couple that looked like buddies captain crunch ones there lol. I got gaia green all purpose 4-4-4, mixed it into soil as the container says and used as a top dressing. Then for phing water use if you can find it "Braggs organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar with mother". Ph the water to 6.4 they said and use immediately as the ph will rise up fast if you dont. But...be sure to use some diatomaceous earth because the apple cidar might attract flies or something. Better to set up precaution than deal with it afterwards right. But I can swear by that works with the stepwell. The gaia green and the specific apple cidar vinegar works great.
 

dwig

Well-Known Member
Probably not but it doesn't even give you an npk value listed on the bottle; not OMRI. You are better off imo with something like neptunes harvest which I know for sure is safe even at fairly high doses. Even a generic brand liquid fish w/ seaweed like maxicrop is good if has nice low numbers like 1-2-1 or whatever. As a general rule in living soil grows if you have to give a soluble fertilizer try to find something with npk values less than 5.
Unlike bottled "organic nutrient" vendors would like you to think, you don't need as much npk as they wish you would buy. Like I said microbial activity is more important than npk values. Dry amendments given during soil recycles after each run work vastly better and for much longer in your mix than soluble liquids. They will not work though unless you provide a source of microbial activity in the form of compost. This is why the entire nutrient industry exists; its actually hard to keep soil highly active inside a small container over the long term and impossible without a form of compost. You have to keep adding back decomposing organic material to keep your mix going strong, or alternatively provide it in a soluble form.
Most of my mix is just homemade worm castings and perlite. Started out with FFOF soil and kept on amending it. At each recycle I add more ewc, chicken manure, and crushed oyster shell; Dolomite lime and garden gypsum once or twice a year. Soil just gets better and better with age. If plants begin to look pale and I can't transplant them I just give them neptunes harvest and/or top dress with ewc as needed. Having a worm factory makes things super easy and worry free; it's the compost that drives every thing else. It's like magic.. the worm leacheate that comes off the bottom makes them pray to me in homage.
Thank you again for the great input. I’ll avoid this fish fertilizer for now and ill look into some of the neptune you mentioned. I also have nature prides top dressing at 6 - 3 - 3.5 for veg which I forgot to mention I put one tbsp of that on each plant before I transplanted into there current pots. They got no food for nearly two months in a two gal so I figured that wouldnt hurt.

Heres an update
859BAA00-389A-4779-92C2-F626CE80083A.jpeg
I want to start with a better build next grow (blackswallow organics ksi build) and use in a notill. What you have going is my end goal.
You don't want to feed with softened water. Get water from part of the house that isn't softened even if it's from an outside spigot. Then check the ph of the non softened water.


That's what I was trying to say, ph is important.
I never watered with softened water. I was just saying its an option if it could work. My well water is un softened and I have the stats listed in this thread. ph 8 and 300-350ppm roughly. Mostly from iron I believe. I know ph is important thats what this thread is kinda about.
 

dwig

Well-Known Member
Stepwell eh. Yeah I've had a few issues with them till I contacted them directly for info. Ok the low down of what you'll need and trust me it will work. I've had plants that look like yours and the odd couple that looked like buddies captain crunch ones there lol. I got gaia green all purpose 4-4-4, mixed it into soil as the container says and used as a top dressing. Then for phing water use if you can find it "Braggs organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar with mother". Ph the water to 6.4 they said and use immediately as the ph will rise up fast if you dont. But...be sure to use some diatomaceous earth because the apple cidar might attract flies or something. Better to set up precaution than deal with it afterwards right. But I can swear by that works with the stepwell. The gaia green and the specific apple cidar vinegar works great.
thank you for the input my friend! Lol thats captn cruch comment bad me laughing for real (maybe im just high). I got nature prides 6 - 3 - 3.5 which came with my stepwell kit which probably will work fine instead of the giga green. If normal phing lemon doesn’t work I found that mothers stuff for $20 a bottle. I’ll give that a shot if needed.
 

SilentBob024

Well-Known Member
thank you for the input my friend! Lol thats captn cruch comment bad me laughing for real (maybe im just high). I got nature prides 6 - 3 - 3.5 which came with my stepwell kit which probably will work fine instead of the giga green. If normal phing lemon doesn’t work I found that mothers stuff for $20 a bottle. I’ll give that a shot if needed.

Actually it's like 5$. Its just apple cidar vinegar with mother in it. Brand is braggs. Any bigger grocery store should have a good stock of it.
 
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