When do you stop topdressing with Worm Castings?

OK! Nothing looks locked up right now. Nice green leaves, no stripes, no tip burn, stems look good, etc.

I think you're doing really well! We see tons of grows where the leaves are burned or yellowed or the plants are somehow fucked up. Your situation looks good!

It sounds like you've got a whole pro biotic microbe line up! If you're worried about Nitrogen in your worm castings, it might be easiest to just skip the EWC for the last couple weeks and rely on your bokashi and LaBs.

hillbill said:

EWC doesn’t have high amounts of N which is why they can be used early on. I give ACT with EWC anytime I want. Been doing so for some time. Don’t worry, Be Happy!

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If you go heavy on the coffee grounds you'll have a much higher N value.

Folgers Black Silk Grounds

While there shouldn't be too much difference, I was referring to good coffee, and lots of it . Try a bag of Don Pablo beans sometime...

Well I have enough N in my soil, I might need to counteract it.

I have a ton of straw on bed, today I’ll be top dressing with fish bone meal and bokashi and water it in with Banana FFE. I had a bone head moment an accidentally watered in the rest of my LaB on some of my plants. I thought it was the last of a water jug that I mixed in worm castings and dried molasses. My job has purchased a brix meter so I’ll be borrowing that. I don’t want to make rash decisions and offset the balance even if there is a suspected N overload. There are no signs of Nitrogen toxic, so I’m just gonna keep on trucking. She finished 5 weeks in flowering last night, she probably has another 5 weeks

Here’s a link to my journal if y’all would like to follow a long

youraveragehorticulturist said:

Pluck a leaf from near the top of one of your plants and taste the juicy sap from the petiole.

If it's acidic and sour there's too much nitrogen and your plant is busy dealing with the nitrogen, and not focused on getting super dank.

If it's sweet, everything is awesome, your Brix are high and you don't need to worry about the nitrogen.

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Interesting...the sweet and sour test.

Being that it’s been a year since I posed this question, I have an opinion. For me, the flip is the last time to top dress with worm castings. However, I use coot’s mix and organic only dressings. If I keep my soil hydrated the microbiology will be there. Even though it’s like 1%> N it’s readily available and will continue to make it available. Usually Flowering topdressings have some N, it’s enough. I noticed when top dressed later (4-6w in flowering) it definitely showed N activies rather than what I wanted: PK. Phosphorus is made available with organic acids, and it’s needed in a much lower amount than N. So again keep your soil alive, use straw mulch, and of course food organic top dresses. I use Build-a-soil’s build a flower, top dress at the most two times. If you need microbes, bokashi top dress, LaB, or Em-1

This is with organic living soil. Every system works differently depending on pot size, plant, lights, heat, etc.

Happy Growing

Probably doesn't matter when you stop feeding. In organic, at the end of its cycle/life, if the plant doesn't want to eat it or drink, it's not gonna eat or drink.

I apply week 3-4 of flower, with additional gypsum and langbeinite, corn steep powder. the biology from the casting’s will help break down the other inputs that carry S and K. The N from the castings is minor and will burn off later in flower and is needed to carry you through. my 2 cents.

chickenpoop said:

I apply week 3-4 of flower, with additional gypsum and langbeinite, corn steep powder. the biology from the casting’s will help break down the other inputs that carry S and K. The N from the castings is minor and will burn off later in flower and is needed to carry you through. my 2 cents.

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How long have you been using the gypsum? Have a new box here that I'm terrified to use lol, and how much of it do you use? (what size are your pots?)

fox farm ocean forest. Reuse yes, easily 2 or 3 complete grows no problems. I add a tablespoon lime for each 5 gal pot and may include more perlite. I use seabird guano 12-12-2.5 amazon for veg and have used it complete grows easy and perfect results. heaping tablespoon every 2-3 weeks. experimenting w diff. flower nuts. but nothing makes better yet then seabird entire grows.

Great question! I'm familiar with Coot's Mix (aka the cornell mix.) Adding the vermicompost is there to provide nutrients as well as BIOLOGY. It is best to add it to your pots in the beginning of your growing season. From there best practices are to leave it be once established. Try not to disturb the fungal networks that are getting established. Light and movement can disrupt your living soil system. That is why older soil tends to out perform new beds.