First Soil Grow: aMaphondo 2020

[Onion]

GERMINATION: My first three seeds went into baggies on the evening of 9th September. The first popped on 11th and the remaining two popped on 12th. They are in cups in Western Cape coastal, mountain soil, and the first has popped it's cotyledons. The remaining two look set to pop cotyledons later today or tomorrow.

The weather is now suitably above 13 degrees most of the time, so the sprouts will be able to metabolize. Spring has sprung and new leaves are starting to show all around the garden.

Of our local landraces, I favour the Transkei. It has a beautiful clean high, creative, sociable and euphorically energizing. I am hoping to do a comparative grow with a different batch of Transkei origin seed and if I get lucky I might get a male out of this grow. I have tried harvesting pollen and it is not easy for me, but I hope to get it right this season if I am lucky enough.

I am going to grow in the dark loamy soil in the garden, which is on a mountainside overlooking a bay. I am strongly considering Hugelkulture with some homemade amendments. I will take some Myccorhizae samples from the fynbos and inoculate my soil before transplanting. Last season I developed my own basic kasteel combo bug control juice, which I will treat the leaves with as a preventative measure. I will feed with Lactobacillus, kelp, castings and chicken poop. I will also mix in some bokashi bran when building my pile. If I can get hold of a small quantity of alfalfa pellets I will mash some of those in too.

[PsyCLown]

Nice! Sounds like a lot of natural stuff, not too much coming from a store  

 

I think this could be a great grow! Eager to see how it turns out.

[Onion]

I don't have the space or the terrain for Hugelkultur which was a suggestion for my grow. I don't have access to the space or ingredients for making living organic soil and I'm a cheap skate. I am going to trust that the mountain has made a magical organic fynbos soil, rich in whatever the plants will need. I will possibly add some bokashi bran when I plant, but I need more info. I will inoculate with mycorrhizae harvested from further up the mountain in fynbos roots. I will feed with solutions that contain kelp juice, Lactobacillus, castings and chicken manure, as well as a sprout tea (containing alfalfa), and monitor that. If I need more I will come back to the drawing board for nutes. That soil is dark and loamy and so far it has held water so well that my sprouts have only needed a tablespoon of water each in the styro cups (holes in bottoms to drain) in 3 days. I think that given the fact that the gardens are in a retaining wall on the mountain slope, the rock underneath the soil will be a source of moisture from mountain run-off too. The same water from a borehole will do the rest.

Update on the gals - all three have popped cotyledons. 

[Fridge]

Sounds like a good plan. I think there’s too much growing stuff out there to spend money on anyways. I am convinced you can grow some decent plants with the additives and soil you've mentioned. 

I myself plan on using SST to and want to use alfalfa seeds. Where do you get your alfalfa seeds?

[Onion]

5 hours ago, Fridgedoor said:

Sounds like a good plan. I think there’s too much growing stuff out there to spend money on anyways. I am convinced you can grow some decent plants with the additives and soil you've mentioned. 

I myself plan on using SST to and want to use alfalfa seeds. Where do you get your alfalfa seeds?

Howzit Fridgedoor. I have only now just started looking for alfalfa seeds (previous grows were in coco). I found them here: Living Seeds and Seeds For Africa but they are expensive in my view. I am now trying big operators like Agricol. I'll let you know when I have found a good price for bulk.

[Fridge]

Thanks @Onion! I also saw the seeds on seedsforafrica and agree, they aren't cheap. In case you live in the Helderberg basin we could split a bulk order. Don't need too much though :).

[Onion]

50 minutes ago, Fridgedoor said:

Thanks @Onion! I also saw the seeds on seedsforafrica and agree, they aren't cheap. In case you live in the Helderberg basin we could split a bulk order. Don't need too much though :).

I do live in the Heldeberg basin @Fridgedoor, so I am open to splitting orders. I spoke to Seeds For Africa and they said 250g seed to 22 litres of water. They told me that 440 seeds make up a gram. So if they sell packs of 5000 seeds for  R38, that's 11 g. So that's 23 packets of seeds if I'm not mistaken..... and would cost R847! That's a lot of money  I sent Agricol an email. I just don't know if those seeds would be treated with chemicals that might not be ok for organic grows. The SFA seeds are dusted with organic growth hormone. Maybe I should negotiate with SFA and see if they would be willing and able to supply bulk at a better price. I might just have to buy what I need each month because I'm ALWAYS skint. Let me know if you are able to find another source. I sent SFA an email asking for bulk discount. Let's see what they come back with.

UPDATE - ok so Kelly at SFA says that they sell bulk packs as follows, so I reckon we are sorted. If you would like to share, we could order 500g and split that? Would that be enough for you?

·        100 Grams / R34

·        500 Grams / R165

·        1kg / R310

·        5kg / R1450

Edited September 17, 2020 by Onion

[Fridge]

Thanks for Finding out :).  250 gram would be totally fine for me. Especially since I haven't made any SST yet and first want to see what it does.

[Totemic]

Check your local co-op. Alfalfa is lucerne, so just get lucerne seeds.

Here is a kg for 200 ex shipping:

https://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/481951512/Alfalfa_Seed_Lucerne_Aurora_1kg_Lucerne_Seeds.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwkoz7BRBPEiwAeKw3q4TTTm7WxgLYOkUHLoUlLTdGL7gN5i0YqA3Ba6MS1AETdVetco-0ehoCkYcQAvD_BwE

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Totemic

[Onion]

1 hour ago, Totemic said:

Check your local co-op. Alfalfa is lucerne, so just get lucerne seeds.

Here is a kg for 200 ex shipping:

https://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/481951512/Alfalfa_Seed_Lucerne_Aurora_1kg_Lucerne_Seeds.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwkoz7BRBPEiwAeKw3q4TTTm7WxgLYOkUHLoUlLTdGL7gN5i0YqA3Ba6MS1AETdVetco-0ehoCkYcQAvD_BwE

 

AAAah thanks for sharing this @Totemic, that's less than half the price that SFA are charging. My only question is.... is it treated with chemicals?  I'll have to try to find out. 

[Onion]

Today I dug holes for the transplant in a few weeks time. I dug till I got blisters. As you can see, it is rocky. I mixed half vermicompost (nice one from Jamie's with traces of worms so hopefully some eggs), with two handfuls of lucerne (alfalfa) meal and the rest soil from the ground and a myccorhizae inoculation from local flora. I bought a great soil conditioner, called Elemental Blend (also Jamie's) which I will use to top dress. I dug 5 holes, the rest I will do when the next batch of seedlings is on the go. I also started my batch of Lactobacillus which will take 3 weeks to be ready. My three little plants are looking very healthy and are growing at a good pace. They are a week old now.

 

[Onion]

I discovered that Agricol is the place to buy bulk untreated Alfalfa (Lucerne) for SST (sprouted seed tea). I collected my Elemental Blend from Jamie's today. I will dig it in with the rest of my soil mixture. I also had to stake my plants up a bit because they had got too top heavy. The stem was all above the soil, so I added more soil to the cups.  I am concerned that they are so tall and spindly. They are outside but they are not yet in full sunlight. I guess I must put them in the full sun and hope they calm down. I haven't experienced this before and my lighting conditions are not that different. Oh well, every little challenge is a learning curve.

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by Onion

[Onion]

My first three plants are coming along well at the end of their second week. I am busy brewing the LABs and ordering buckets etc. Does anyone know where I can get 20 or 25 litre black buckets with lids in Cape Town that don't cost an arm and a leg? I am likely going to order from Jhb and ship because it appears that Jhb has more competitive prices. I'm making a banana tea for flower, and will feed with an SST kelp blend for veg. I'm getting excited to try all these yummy organics and see what results I get. The sun was out for a few days... nice.

[afternoon blazer]

15 hours ago, Onion said:

My first three plants are coming along well at the end of their second week. I am busy brewing the LABs and ordering buckets etc. Does anyone know where I can get 20 or 25 litre black buckets with lids in Cape Town that don't cost an arm and a leg? I am likely going to order from Jhb and ship because it appears that Jhb has more competitive prices. I'm making a banana tea for flower, and will feed with an SST kelp blend for veg. I'm getting excited to try all these yummy organics and see what results I get. The sun was out for a few days... nice.

What up man. For the buckets i would suggest a place like westpack or some sort of large plastic store.

[Onion]

On 9/27/2020 at 8:12 AM, afternoon blazer said:

What up man. For the buckets i would suggest a place like westpack or some sort of large plastic store.

Hey Blazer,  thank you. I took a look at Westpack on your suggestion. I have been hunting online for good prices in Cape Town. Prices here are more than double Jhb in the places I've been looking. The big plastics places sell wholesale and I can get a great deal on 30 buckets, but I only want 3 to make my juices. If I could find takers for the others I would get them. I will likely ship from Jhb if I don't find anything soon. My LABs are almost ready for a bucket. I will take white buckets if I can't get black.

[GGG]

Try Plastics for Africa or Mambo's, they about R60 for 25L I think

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[Onion]

11 hours ago, GGG said:

Try Plastics for Africa or Mambo's, they about R60 for 25L I think

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Thanks GGG. That's what burns my butt though. I can get them for under R20 if I buy 30. But yes, R60 will be my last resort. What a rip off. If I buy in Jhb I can get them for under R40 but then I have to pay for shipping. I must physically go to Mambos because I did look at those websites and couldn't find what I was looking for.

[Onion]

Today my three Transkei origin plants went into their specially  prepared holes in the ground. Their roots look fabulous and they went in intact and now look as happy as can be. My mystery purple plant is in a pot and has healthy cotyledons. I have set three more seeds to germinate. They are special phenos from a homey. Two are Durban landrace origin plants with different parentage and geographic origin. The third is a proper heirloom Transkei landrace seed. These three will also go into the ground when they are ready. Pictured here is my first ever batch of bacteria juice; then Holly, Molly and Polly in their new homes.

I ended up getting the buckets from Mambos. The price was under R50 each which was what I was after. Alfalfa seeds (untreated, from Agricol) are ready for me to make my first batch of SST, but I will do that once the new seeds are in the ground too. For now I will just water the plants that are in the ground with tap water because the tank water is finished. They have plenty of living nutrition in their holes.

[StonerZN]

This is gonna be cool to follow!
I enjoy the indigenous natural vibes going on here.
In the earth as plants were intended. Local origin plants. And then a little science to spice it up and make the whole thing pop. Kudos.


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[Onion]

@StonerZN Thank you so much for the interest, and welcome aboard. The wind is blowing hard tonight and those little babies better tough it out. I am taking a fittest will survive approach on the hill here. Are you keeping a journal that I can look at?

[GGG]

Love your strains you growing man

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[StonerZN]

16 hours ago, Onion said:

@StonerZN Thank you so much for the interest, and welcome aboard. The wind is blowing hard tonight and those little babies better tough it out. I am taking a fittest will survive approach on the hill here. Are you keeping a journal that I can look at?

I have started messing around a little while I wait for a seed delivery and my designated start date to arrive, recording my experiments as I go. Am new to all things growing so lots to learn!

[Onion]

Caption this....
(and feel free to use expletives)

[Stinger96]

Mother Buffer.... Bloody hell man... Eina fok sorry.. The joys of outdoor growing..

[Scoobydoob]

How’s your year going ?

-My year



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