Naughty.Psychonaut

I agree, it definitly depends on how and with what the nutes are made. In terms of using nitrates and sulphates I guess the molecular structure is "organic enough" to allow use at certain amounts, where as with organic nutes you can just give the stuff. Synthetic nutes can become "too much" for the plant very quikly. The other big difference is the obvious, roots in earth will move a lot further and free where as potted plants are limited, which is the biggest contributing factor in the synthetic nute becomming "too much". According to practical studies done by boss man, using synthetic nutes in an inert medium (coco) just increases the risk of nutrient build up. In living organic mediums with a healthy symbiote you actually have microbes breaking down those synthetic nutes aswell so you don't have to rely as much on flushing as with inert mediums, although it's still recommended. Which if you think about it makes perfect sense. Anyone who can shed some light on this? I'll probably still do my own practical research, just trying to find external views. So in conclusion anyone who has ever told me to stay away from synthetic nutes just cause I'm growing in living soil was just being a bit full of themselves? My "research" isn't final and I am not setting my mind on anything, but choosing who to believe is becoming an issue, because some people are real hard up about what their egos make them believe and they'll try to force it on others even though they themselves don't really know and on the other side you have people with masters degrees telling you different. Kinda a no brainer, but giving the benefit of the doubt to the self proclaimed masters and giving their opinions a fighting chance. With that being said I am fully aware that you still face nute build up and root damage when growing in living soil with synth nutes, but it's actually more so with coco. Which is what we use synth nutes for. I am also fully aware that organic nutes compliment living soils much better and keeps the symbiote healthy, but using your synthetic nutes the right way won't do any harm, with extra emphasis on "USING YOUR NUTES THE RIGHT WAY". Here'a where things get a bit more complicated, although not really complicated at all. Going off looking, smelling and knowing what's in the soil, how do you know how "alive" it is and if so how "healthy" it is and how much synthetics it will take to cause harm. Some conditions will be able to tolorate more than others. How to simplify? Apply microbial and enzyme rich ammendments in the medium, introduce life and keep it healthy and alive. You can push the microbes till you see mycelium colonising on the soil. This brings life to the party and your synth nutes won't be a problem (obviously you still won't be able to apply it however you like, just stick to the recommendations that come with the product)

What's the story around using synthetic nutes in a living soil? All information welcome. Motivation for my question is that they use these "synthetic nutes" in big scale irrigation systems on farms. I currently work on a fynbos farm, but have done my share on cash crop and fruit farms and they all do it. It obviously goes directly into the earth and the plants still gets fed. My current boss is a multiple masters degree holder in all things agricultural science at the age of 59 and also the owner of Inteligro. They manufacture and distribute their own nutes and distribute brands like Haifa and such, all specializing in water soluble synthetic plant nutrients and all kinds of other crazy shit. We have a consultant that visits our farm once every 3/4 months and gives us the run down of what to do and feed the plants with, this consultant is twice as smart as my boss. I often listen to their discussions, but only understand about half of what they say. I only apply the stuff, but that allows me to know what it is and it's all the exact same stuff you would use in a normal hydroponic setup, just at different ratios. I know people say to stay away from synthetic nutes when growing in a living soil, but I'm sure it's very much the same as putting synthetic or "hydroponic" nutes on your plants that are growing outside in mother earth. You just have to apply it right. We have an old school irrigation system on the farm, no pumps, all natural. So where we irrigate from we tap into the irrigation system through a manifold then attach a big metal bucket that gets pumped full of pressure and we throw all the synthetics in there and pump it into the irrigation system. Like I've mentioned, we've done this for everything from lettuce to guava trees to fucking king proteas. Consumables, ornamentals, the whole show. Recently finished a permaculture internship on an all organic farm, toughest but best time of my life.

Well, fuck. Had her on a towel the first night cause I couldn't find a bucket / drip tray big enough, but the towel couldn't soak up what leaked out. I'm super fucking glad I have my plugs and all electronics raised off the floor, woke up with a puddle around the thing yesterday. Luckily it was just clean water!!! Looks like I won't he able to take it apart completely the way I wanted to, because it's the pvc cement you use to secure the pipe fittings that makes it water proof. So for now I will glue her down and just keep the whole thing like that. Atleast I can disconnect the hose from the air pump and the bucket itself it fitted with a threaded drain plug so I can screw that loose if I need to.

The man, the ledgend himself, posted a link to that thread just a bit earlier in this thread. Will be sure to take full advantage of it!

I've got ff premium mix here, was thinking of taking some soil from a nice fresh patch in the mountain here, also got liquid vermipure here with so much bacterial colonies inside the bottle and it smells very nice. My plants are going into flower now, any special ingredients you know about for pushing those flowers?

So, here she is now. Things got to a point where I just didn't know what to do anymore, was gona plant her out or put her somewhere else. Didn't think about it twice, had a couple new bags of soil, also ff premium mix, took her old soil out and dumped it on the compost heap, took a hose with a shower head and cleaned the roots completely and replanted her in new soil. Can't even tell now that it was ever a replacement plant, she's even taller than the Super Lemon Haze right next to her.

Took a while to get a hold of the pump, but finally got it! I had my mind on the air lift tech, but made this configuration, because it looked cool and I had extra pipe and fittings are cheap and I had a lot of fun doing it. It's basically all submerged except for the pipes that exit the bucket on the sides and that also helps keep the piping down and in the water, also allows me to close the bucket to reduce noise and spillage. All the pipes disconnect so can easily pack it away and keep it in the box of extras. As I had my mind made up already, I also made a vortex, but by cutting the hole for the drain plug made the bucket single purpose only, so will have to get another bucket if I ever wanted to use the bubbler, but used the same two holes on the side of this bucked and just made a 25mm hole in the bottom. Whole project took me about 45min, but stretched out over like a period of a month! Mostly because water proofing all the connections, but still allowing it to be taken a part for cleaning was a real hassle and then the wait for the pump. Probably gona still do a bunch of "upgrades", but for now I'm happy! Gona give 24h to get rid of chloramine, then add ingredients.

Update I forget to mention in my previous update, but I am sure it is very obvious from the picture aswell, one of the blueberry plants got removed from the tent as space was running out. So here we have the other Blueberry right in front on the left, next to her is the Super Lemon Haze, behind her is Banana Hammock and in the left back corner is Cheeeeeese. A week later and it looks like they exploded into the new pots, was hoping for a lot more stretch, but will do a complete defo, raise the lights and give them another week before flip and see how they react. I just add a little liquid vermi pure and some molasses to the water and ph it to 6.7 to 7.3. Foliar feed with Phyta from Biogrow. Got mycoroot and richoderma mixed in the soil for some activity, will be giving AACT once I get the first batch done. Got my pump a few days ago, so the bitch is a brewin'! I always like this 'under canopy' shot

Thanks man! I also found a samsung specific data sheet on the digikey website, getting all the answers now!!! Once things are in motion I'll show you all how I'm putting it all together.

Almost got it, I am looking for the wattage, unless there's a way to calculate it?

This is exactly what I needed!!!! Thank you kindly good Sir!! I am looking at those F series strips with the 144 diodes. Fucking crazy. For some reason I can't open or download any of the data sheets from the Samsung strips on that website. I got the pdf downloaded for the data sheet on the Bridgelux strips, but I need to cram as much W in and it seems my alu frame will be too small to get 300w of the bridgelux strips on there. Could I possibly ask one of the forum members who has access to the data sheet of the F series strips to take a screen grab of the wattage on those F series strips, and post it here? The link to the data sheet is given on the LEDgardener website in the link @SkunkPharm provided in the post above.

@Prom Thanks a ton man, the LM301B's it is then. Any guidance as to what strips to go for? Have been looking at digikey, but even when I put in key words such as "samsung LM301B 3000k strips" it comes up with nothing, when I just use either "samsung" or "LM301B" it comes up with hundereds of things that don't really mean anything to me because it's a bunch of random letters and numbers. If I click on a strip to see the specs I can't find any info on the wattage or the type of diode used on the strips....

@Prom I have looked at those, the only reason I would wana go the DIY route instead of buying a fixed board would be because I can build a frame to my liking and mount the LEDs all the way in the corner of the grow space, where as with a qb you have to raise the light to get better coverage and by raising the light you decrease intensity, or am I mistaken? Another reason would be because of the whole 1 qb just a tad to small for a 1m square and 2 qb would be to much, like you've mentioned. So I would rather build something to my specific needs and the whole project will give some DIY perspective and I seriously need to gain some knowledge on LEDs. @CreX Definitly did help! Thanks man!! I am leaning towards the samsung LM301H diodes for now, but how do I check on digikey which of the strips use those diodes? If I got the strips I'm going with then I can work out how many I need to make 300w and from there I'll be able to calculate how much alu I'll need.

What's up all, any LED gurus enthusiastic about sharing some of that juicy info? To best understand my needs I will try make things as clear as possible as I am not just "looking for a light". I am trying a DIY, this will be my first so I had a look at the DIY section, thought I might go with something similar to what Mr. @greenkush created. Regarding all that, heres my first question, keeping the best diodes for flower cycle in mind, what strips do I get?? I've been about on digikey, but can't figure out what to go with? Second question, for a flower space of 1mx1m how much LED can I throw in there? I am thinking of covering the area by making a 80cm square frame out of aluminium and will need to know how many strips to mount to get my desired wattage, but I guess first I need to know what strips I'm gona go with! Hope you all having a blessed Friday!

Time for an update Not much has happened, as I had major problems with the Blueberry plant I kept all the rest of the girls steady just giving water and kept them all in 10L pots till I could save the Blueberry. I managed and so here we have al 4 girls in their final 20L pots, pulled a scrog net over them and shoved a pallet under them to help with the cold temps at floor level. Trying to save the Blueberry set me back a good three weeks, so they are only on the 6th week of the feeding schedule right now and thinking I'm gona push them till about 9/10 weeks. Wana get some serious strech so I can clear out the under canopy. Other than that, the 5th plant that was also a Blueberry problem plant moved over to intensive care, plus there was never meant to be 5 plants in this space.

What's good my dude. In this thread, following that statement I made, we kinda debate it a little. It's certainly not written in stone, have a look at what the other guys said and how we all brought up different points and opinions, from there it's all your own decision. For me, to a certain extent, it's just about a little thing called "biometics" or "biomimicry". Basically mimicing the systems and elements of nature, I don't mean seeds being put in the fridge, but rather the fact that seeds when dropped from the plant does not sprout immediately, they lay dormant in through a cold period (winter time) and only sprout when the heat comes back around (spring time). I've read about fresh seeds, as in straight from the living plant, are less viable than seeds that have been through a cold shock or a dry period, but I read that shit on the internet and I haven't done my own experiments to back those statements as facts, so I don't, but it makes sense to me.

Don't waste your money like that my dude. Save up and buy a nice light. I spent 5k on a 240W blurple and not satisfied, feeling like an idiot, now have to save up again to buy something better. Buying that cfl, even for one plant, will be the biggest waste of time money and energy. Stand back, give it some time, save up some more money. Learn from others' mistakes, being in a hurry and forcing things will not get you far. Saw the ones @Master_G and would highly recommend that if you wana start off on the right foot and save yourself some head and heartache. Blessed!

Yeah man I agree, the tent is also actually not the best for a grow room, for many of us it's the best option, but a solid wall with the right reflective would be muuuch better than a tent anyway. Clones are super easy, but it's definitly a trial and error process and each person has their preferred method, it's just a matter of finding what works for you! I am excited for some gorilla glue, I've heard some good things. Will definitly put a few in the shopping cart on my next order!! How did your lady turn out so far, any photos?

The buds - The one - 36g The other one - 67g I live near the ocean and all the sand is white beach sand with just enough minerals to feed the indiginous flora really and a few other real prolific plants, such as cannabis. I have a bedding that's composted about 30cm deep and I've added about 5 or 6 layers of compost over the last 2 years or so. Just to keep the garden alive really, have grown these two plants with no other ferts than whats in the compost and just water from the hose. They turned a bit yellow and then one day the leaves started to die back, there was nothing I could have done to save them, or well the one more so than the other, but I chopped both. They smell fucking amazing, almost sour fruity kinda smells, hard to describe they still curing and it's still changing. Anyway, this grow is done! Wish I could've pushed the flowers a little more! Will fertilize the soil a bit better and pop few more seed when the time is right.

They sure do. I got a jar filled with all kinds of seeds from custard apple tree seeds to evening primrose seeds and there are a shit load of cannabis seeds in there too. When I pop those I usually get about 85-100% success, so I don't have any problem storing them in a cupboard. Mine are in the dark, cool, airtight sealed with rice, but they're "bag seed" so not always the best grows and I usually just pop them to keep myself entertained and harvest when I get a nice flower! What is that you growing there?

Hahahah gona let him chill in the bong if he promises not to fly down my throat when I pull the clutch! He's not a lady bug, although I have tons of lady bugs flying around, that is not one of them. I was curious, because I've never seen such a beetle. Had 4 big white squares on it's back and two long feelers coming from it's face. Looked rather majestic, even to the point that I was concerned that it might be snacking on my leaves or even on some of the other beneficial bugs I have around such as the lady bugs! The two girls came down about a week ago, buds weren't fully matured, but I was facing some troubles. Will post a pic of the buds tonight!

Damn boooii, would it be too much to ask if you can store my seeds for me too hahah I'm just kidding brother, yeah with seed storage you have to remember it's not a peice of plastic, it's organic biological matter, obviously it's gona loose viability, even if stored "correctly". Maybe you did have some cup winner seeds laying around!

Thanks man! I guess the only reason I have is that the cold temp slows down biological activity, but the most important is that the temps are constant. Flux in temps will create moisture, but yeah rice is always good. I also got like 2 or 3 little rice grains in the airtight lightproof jar, that's another important thing, no light. I wouldn't recommend putting it in the food fridge though, not because of the food but you'll be opening the fridge often causing the temps to flux. Freezing them will kill them. If you think about it, in nature the plant drops the seed before winter and the seed lays and waits till spring time. Usually two or three months spent in "cold shock" before they pop when the temps heat up. Then again I obviously don't know how old the seeds are or how they where stored before. I have seeds in my cupboard too, all of them are probably still viable!

I always have a different pack, all I can say is I don't like bleached paper. Bought a pack of those glass ones way back, didn't like it at all. Have you guys seen this the tips have little perforations for easy bending and making the perfect tip, the pack folds out into a work station with fold out sides with a pack of virgin paper. what more could you ask for!? I know RAW brought out a pack like this, but OCB had their pack on the shelves closest to me first so that's pretty cool!

I don't mind smoking some weed and not getting super baked, as long as it tastes and/or smells good. I wouldn't grow a CBD specific strain for myself, though as long as the bud is good I don't mind if someone else brings it to the party. As for the Sativa or Indica thing, I don't know. Maybe I'm not smoking weed right, but what I get from the bud I smoke depends more on the mood and energy I was in right before I smoked. If I smoked a straight indica right as I woke up I'll just continue on with my day, don't have time to be lazy and "get tired". Within the next two hours I would have smoked again. Sometimes I smoke smoke sativa right before I go to bed, if it's some super sativa shit I probably lay there with a goofy smile on my face for like 3min longer than I would have if it was indica, if I haven't fallen asleep already... I guess my answer is that it doesn't matter hahah!