Mine are looking the same and found the ph to be high( been adding worm tea) ph 7.5 so will get ph down tomorrowPartly due to the lights off shot tbh. It is looking better, but not as much as the flash photo would lead you to believe.
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The pH has crept up a bit tbh so it could be a factor of minor uptake issues. Before I potted the slurry was coming back around 6.1-6.3. Has risen to 6.7 now after 8 weeks, but should drop a bit from here as I'm feeding bio Flores which lowers the waters pH from 7.6ish to 6.7 which is a bonus, and the powdered bloom boost Ill use week 5 and 8 of flower has a fair bit of S due to the potash which should bring down the pH a bit.Mine are looking the same and found the ph to be high( been adding worm tea) ph 7.5 so will get ph down tomorrow
Yeah mainly 2 Alpha-amylase and Beta-amylaseHey @Hudo
I'm not a brewer so only know from what i read but my understanding is you guys are looking for certain enzymes to do that conversion but aren't interested in all the enzymes that are present , where as us growers will be happy to have em all present to do what we do with soil , does that sound right from your aspect as a brewer ?
Mine are looking the same and found the ph to be high( been adding worm tea) ph 7.5 so will get ph down tomorrow
not sure what exactly you guys are using but i start with a larger quantity of an active soil & do as little as possible to disturb that biology & as much as i can to add to that biology , i never PH anything & i'm watering in things like EM-1 which is around 3.5PH & potassium silicate at around 11.8PH , in general the plant & the symbiotic relationship with biology control PHThe pH has crept up a bit tbh so it could be a factor of minor uptake issues. Before I potted the slurry was coming back around 6.1-6.3. Has risen to 6.7 now after 8 weeks, but should drop a bit from here as I'm feeding bio Flores which lowers the waters pH from 7.6ish to 6.7 which is a bonus, and the powdered bloom boost Ill use week 5 and 8 of flower has a fair bit of S due to the potash which should bring down the pH a bit.
cool mate , that's what i'd readYeah mainly 2 Alpha-amylase and Beta-amylase
@itchybro Agree with starting with a nice, live soil and foregoing the pH chasing routine. I usually use natural mineral soil from a local landscaping joint or well-prepared yard soil as a base which is more active than these bagged mixes and then amend from there with coco, compost and fresh castings. With a good base in the past I have not had to check pH for quite the while, but going back to a cheap bagged product I figured I'd get a base reading before potting and see how the ph holds up out the bag and over time as it wouldn't be much of a half assed "review" if I didn't attempt to assess the buffer capacity over time, original feed duration, mix consistency and water holding capacity at some stage. Tbh, I don't use any pH ups or downs and don't adjust pH in potting mix, but I do check a nutrient solutions pH the first time I mix it up to get a basic idea for future reference.
I'd say I'll be going back to natural soil, coco and compost again next run as I just enjoy the building and cooking and would rather stay organic. Strangely therapeutic.
Peat should be banned outright!!i think most if not all bagged potting soils are pretty much soilless mediums , they generally ain't living , well not to the extent of homemade compost or castings are , (we could talk about pathogens but they can be present in potting soils as well as composts) what bagged potting mixes are is pretty consistently average , they meet all the general nutrient / PH / water holding standards (even the cheap ones) , & if you keep the moisture level consistent they well do an "ok" job at growing a plant
if you want nutrient density & the flow on markers you get from achieving nutrient density you have to have biology growing the plant imo , 90% of plant available nutrients are directly related to microorganisms consuming organic matter or each other , plants are in total control of this , they attract the appropriate organism for the desired nutrient or for there own protection for that matter , so even in a shitty bagged potting mix if the moisture is kept consistent , over time the right organisms will inoculate that mix
just a note on coco Vs peat , i would choose peat over coco , coco is definately more sustainable than peat & is most likely cheaper , Kis Organics has a good blog post on the pros & cons of peat Vs coco here https://www.kisorganics.com/blogs/news/99806785-peat-vs-coco
I use perlite that is mined so probably still fucked for the environment!!can't disagree with that @Porky , i'd like to cause peat is a better plant growing media
The big ones always come out when screened usually as I'd rather not mash them through a screen. The soils not the best before a screening. There's quite a few small worms in there still but the screening removes most and all the big chunks of rock and root.why did you pick out the worms ?
I can't believe I never gave it a thought previously. It's crazy how sometimes the most obvious of things still need to be said here and there.ah right , mashing them is not what you want
i'd add them back in cause they'd have to be the number one organism for converting organic matter / greenthumb amendments into plant available nutrients , everything that comes out the arse of a worm is better than when it went in it's other end