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1st grow for a few years as I need to replenish my jars.
Trying out organic living soil from Dr Organics to see if it’s easier to get through the grow without the complications of bottled nutrients and over/under feeding.
Had to bulk up the living soil slightly to fill the pots so added some shop bought peat free compost and some perlite. Hopefully that doesn’t mess with the ecosystem.
I’ve been messing around a bit with light and heat trying to stabilise things in the grow room as I’m getting spikes of 26/27 degrees C when the heater kicks in every few minutes
Did first bit of LST this week, also did a bit of defoliation and for the first time I took off a couple of the lowest bud sites to see if that helps the main colas later in the grow
More LST on lower branches this week and a bit more defoliation and a couple more bud sites removed.
I’ve also got some self wicking pots from ac infinity and I think the plants are about big enough to start using them.
More LST and defoliation.
She’s really filling out now. I’ve noticed that the leaves are praying for the first few hours of light but after about 12 hours she seems to go all lank and floppy.
I bought a new Mars hydro light to get some extra coverage into the grow area.
Probably should have moved the light further away considering it’s 200w more.
Think I may have added some heat damage to the top leaves.
A few leaves are showing signs of a problem, I’m thinking calcium deficiency, not sure why as the soil is supposed to cover all nutrients. I will look into it.
Ok, I think I’ve found the issue and it’s totally my fault for not doing enough research on living soils.
I have been watering my plants for nearly the entire grow with rain water collected off my shed roof. I assumed that rain water would be the best I could give them.
Unfortunately it appears that science has other ideas. As far as I can work out from forums, rain water has so low ppm’s (TDS?) that it either strips the plant of nutrients or at least stops the plants from being able to take in nutrients. Therefore my plants are probably deficient in all they need 😞.
I have top dressed and given a slurry of garden lime and tap water to hopefully give a boost of what they need most.
As I don’t usually water until runoff I’m hoping the nutrients and bio diversity are all still in the soil ready for action.
After a couple of days of tap water the problem doesn’t seem to be getting any worse and I think (hope) I’m seeing some improvement in the colour of the leaves 🤞
Has using rain water killed my living soil?
Has anyone got experience of using living soil with rain water? Apparently the ppm is too low (just like RO water) for the plant to take in nutrients.
So basically is my living soil now just soil or is the microbial life still there?
Looks like your having issues with some nutrients.
I can see Calcium and maybe some Magnesium Iron and sulphur.
Living soil is great, however it does need amending or it uses up all its available resources. The idea behind it is you feed the soil microbes who in turn feed the plant, This is believed to have better symbiosis and create a synergy between the plant and its soil and can lead to better abilities to fight off drought and diseases. but with out food for the microbes or the plant it runs out and in a pot this can happen fast.
I find topdressing every 3-4 weeks helps but in transition to flower it needs a bit more. and unless the top dressing is getting mixed in well into the top later it is not going to decompose well. Plus if your disturbing the roots this can cause some issues so it almost always better to leave a few inches of head space in the pot so when you do top dress you have room to add in more soil and work in the amended into that new top layer.
This is all not needed if you use liquid nutrition as it does not need to be broken down its good to go as is.
It also looks like your plants are overwatered. and this can cause root issues that mimic a lot of issues. let em dry out more before giving more water or shelter them a bit if they outdoors, Next year add in more perlite to help it drain more effectively and not get water logged.
Rain water is fine and should not be an issue unless you have very acidic rain PH below 5.5 or the thing your collecting it in is contaminated with something like bacteria fungi or chemicals.
Good Luck!
SparkyGrow
