Here's the base mix I suggest to all humans in dry US gallons.. 3 to 4 gallons regular peat moss with no additives...

no need for fancy packages. ..(if the topsoil,compost,EWC in the recipe look like they might be muddy...use 4 gallons,if not use 3...or adjust accordingly) 1 gallon HIGH quality earthworm castings 1 gallon local HIGH quality topsoil screened for this potting mix 2 or more gallons small and/or medium sized pumice,perlite,or lava rock...consis tencies vary,adjust accordingly. 1 gallon vermiculite 2 gallons coco husk..rinsed well and fully hydrated 1 gallon leaf litter or forest duff..screened for this potting mix 1 gallon HIGH quality compost 1/2 gallon screened clay or bentonite 1/2 cup this 3 part lime mix based off Steve Soloman's 3 -way lime mix..adjusted by Coot a few years ago.....for the peat moss..and a continued supply of mag,ca l,and sulfur as you recycle. Since the start of this thread we have since determined that dolomite is not nec essary,but this lime mix still works for the peat moss ph regardless. 1 part powdered dolomite lime 1 part agricultural gypsum 2 parts powdered oyster shell These dried commercially available amendments... 2 4 4 4 1 2 1 cups crab shell meal cups acadian kelp meal cups fish meal OR N. bat guano cups fish bone meal cup sul-po-mag...aka langbeinite cups neem seed meal..or karanja seed meal cup alfalfa

Mix all ingredients together WELL....then fill your pots with the dry and mixed base mix. Now make enough Aerated Compost Tea following Microbe Man's instructions to satu rate the mix in each pot until it is thoroughly moist. Let this sit undisturbed for at least 3 to 4 weeks before planting. Now... ..considering the type of cannabis grown,this will be fine as a water only,no ph 'ing,no flush beginning organic soil mix INTENDED for recycling....there may be a need to topdress or supply another ACT in mid-flower..type of cannabis dependi ng. Some types of cannabis have larger root networks and can utilize more from the s oil,some types are more sensitive to certain un-composted amendments like alfalf a and fish meal...but 3 or more weeks allowing this mix to 'cook' which actually means composting or breaking down of organic materials. This should be fine for almost anything considering you have assembled the components according to the variables of your material. If you feel that 3 weeks may be pushing it before transplanting fresh cuts into. ...ease your mind and let it sit for 4 or more weeks..just make sure it remains

moist. Moisture is critical for the microbial processing of organic matter. If you lack one or more of the ingredients,look for suitable replacements...most replacements are fine. ________________________________________ My base mix is-(I do all my mixes in 50 gallon lots) Peat- either Premier from Home Depot or Pro mix from Menards Perlit Pumice (Natures footprint) 20% EWC (mine) 10% Compost (on the first mix I used Composted Steer Manure from my buddies farm ) Bio char (Royal Oak or Cowboy brand) Lime mixGypsum, Crushed Oyster shell (from feed store used as scratch), Coral calcium an d Dolomite lime. Also added were Glacial rock dust and Azomite. Later when I cyc led the soil I added Rock Phosphate in very small amounts. Dried amendments-when I finish a cycle I re-amend with various mixes of these ba sed on what I think the soil needs. Usually just by using handfuls. lol I know b ut it works for me. Alfalfa (from feed store) Kelp meal (from feed store) N guano, fish meal, neem meal and Alfalfa P guano, fish bone meal When I used the larger containers I would add handfuls of worms from the bin and place a lid with holes in it. Set it off to the side and let them do their work adding ACT every so often making sure the soil was kept moist. I would also add shrimp and crab meal during this time. _____________________ Equal parts of Sphagnum peat moss, some aeration deal (pumice, rice hulls, lava rock - whatever is sitting in the garage) and finally some mix of humus - my com post, worm castings some black leaf mold I bought from the local 'worm guy' To each 1 c.f. of this mix I add the following: 1/2 cup organic Neem meal 1/2 cup organic Kelp meal 1/2 cup Crab meal (or Crustacean meal when available - it has Shrimp meal with t he Crab meal. It's a local product from the fisheries on the Oregon & Washington Coasts) 4 cups of some minerals - rock dust After the plant is in the final container I top-dress with my worm castings at 2 " or so and then I hit it with Aloe vera juice and Comfrey extract. Or Borage. O r Stinging Nettle. Or Horsetail ferns. Whatever is ready. That's it. To recycle I've just been letting the root ball breakdown and I remove it. I dum p the potting soil into an extra large SmartPot container (50 gallons) and add s

ome new potting soil mix as above. I water it down with Kelp meal and Comfrey te a and let it sit until I need it. Ain't rocket science...... ____________________ CC, 50% 25% 25% This must be your recipe I got a little while back. Organic Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (Alaska Peat brand specifically) Organic Parboiled Rice Hulls Homegrown EWC

To each 1 c.f. of potting soil I add the following: 4 - 5 cups of Canadian Glacial Rock Dust 1.5 cups of a mix I make up that consists of equal parts of kelp, neem and crab meals (Measure by volume and not by weight.) Water on most days with a weekly application of some botanical tea - Comfrey, Ya rrow or Horsetail or a combination of 2 or all 3. ____________________ Here is the mix that I'm currently using. It was mixed a year ago from May. I co ntinue to use the same mix and on no till recycle I have added comfrey leaves, n eem meal, crab meal in small amounts. I feed with mostly botanical based teas, o r FPE's of comfrey, alfalfa meal, nettles, dandelion, borage, mullein, neem meal , kelp meal, and yarrow. And Like gascanstan said it just keeps getting better. 1 3 cf bag of premier mix ($9 at home depot, it is pro mix without any additives ) 1 cf of used pro mix soil 2 cf of homemade thermo compost .5 cf of perlite 2 -.5 cf bags of lava rock 6 cups of espoma brand bio tone starter plus 3 cups alfalfa meal 3 cups kelp meal 3 cups crab meal 2 cups of a 50/50 mix of neem cake and karanja cake for minerals i mixed 1 cups of soft rock phosphate, 1 cup of oyster shell, 1 cup gypsum, 3/4 cup of sul po mag, 1 cup of azomite "Aloe vera" juice - a must have from my experience ____________________ I can personally attest to an aloe foliar spray being one of the things that cha nged the health of my plants in a matter of hours Some things I've not mentioned that I have incorporated into the recycling/re-am ending... Dried and pulverized Horsetail @ 2 to 4 cups per cubic foot of soil Dried and pulverized Comfrey @ 2 to 4 cups per cubic foot of soil Sand...yes sand is critical for proper drainage and water retention. Glacial rock dust....can work like a sand,but contains far more minerals than re gular sand.

Azomite...montmorillonite clay....sort of like Bentonite Pyrophyllite clay When building soil with sands and clay it is important to understand soil types in order to have a medium that can support the functions of the micro-organisms and the plants. _____________________ I will add my favorite foliar feed routine. I take a handfull of alfalfa meal an d soak it in water for 24-48 hours, then strain and dilute in one gallon of wate r. I add a tsp or so of liquid silica, and spray at lights out. I can almost gua rantee new growth in two days. Alfalfa meal costs me $12 for 50lb. As always organic is better but either way i t is good stuff. I also use it in my compost, as a soil amendment, and in teas. Here is a blurb on alfalfa meal..... Alfalfa Meal Alfalfa provides many nutritional benefits not only for plant use, but for soil organisms as well. One very important ingredient is tricontanol, a powerful plan t growth regulator. Orchid and rose growers make an alfalfa tea and spray it directly on as a foliar fertilizer. Alfalfa is very high in vitamins, plus N-P-K-Ca, Mg, and other valu able minerals. It also includes sugars, starches, proteins, fiber and 16 amino a cids. Approximate analysis is 3-1-2. Sprinkle lightly over garden and water, or use about a handful (depending on the size) around each rose, tree, or shrub. Alfalfa meal and hay used for mulch con tain vitamin A, folic acid, trace minerals and the growth hormone tricontanol. 25 pounds per 1,000 square feet or 400-800 pounds per acre. Alfalfa helps plants create larger flowers and increases the tolerance to cold. Make alfalfa tea by soaking 1 cup of alfalfa meal per 5 gallon of water. Good for all flowering plants. Research has shown that using more is not better. At recommended rates alfalfa worked wonders on roses but it could be overused c ausing adverse effects. ____________________ schwagg The 'rock dust' term I used should have included an explanation, i.e. it's a mix I had made and bagged: 4x 1x 1x 1x Glacial Rock Dust - Canadian Glacial (Gaia Green label) Bentonite - from the pottery supply store in PDX Oyster Shell Powder - the standard product from San Francisco Bay Basalt - from Redmond, Oregon (new product at Concentrates - about $18.00)

Use at

No Dolomite Lime, Greensand or SRP was used. Or Azomite. LOL CC

__________ There's plenty of Magnesium in kelp to keep up with the entire life cycle of the plant...realistically. I do the sul-po-mag for shits and giggles on the mag end....more for the sulfur. __________ Scrappy Okay - the first goals of wanting Calcium & Magnesium are good we'll stipulate. Whether or not you need a mineral amendment to achieve that will be put aside. Dolomite Lime is used in 'the real world' when a complete soil analysis has been done and now you have a complete overview of the element levels, CeC, etc. and it's been established that lower levels exist for the long term on the Magnesium percentage. Even then, DL is applied maybe once every 4 or 5 years. The Magnesi um in DL arrives as Magnesium Carbonate (MgCO3) but it's a bit more complicated than that. The reason that it is 'slow acting' is the molecular structure and if you were t o hit even WikiPedia and looked at the molecular formula you can easily understa nd why this material is as slow acting as it is. If in fact you need a Magnesium jolt then you'd be far better off using a mined mineral compound like Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate) or Sul-Po-Mag (Sulphur, Po tassium & Magnesium). The Magnesium in Epsom Salts is in its elemental form like Sul-Po-Mag. The main straight liming agents, Limestone, Calcite (aka Agricultural Lime), Oys ter shell powder and Crab meal are sources for Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3). All ar e pure Calcium Carbonate with the exception of Limestone which can have a Mg lev el between 2 - 3% depending on the specific mine, country of origin, etc. When looking at the numbers on a Calcium Carbonate source you have to multiply t he CaCO3 percentage by 0.375% and now you will have the elemental Calcium (Ca++) numbers. Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) is the preferred 'liming' agent in the PNW due to the a cidic soils we deal with (the west side). That has to do with the adulteration o f the clay platelets which no longer carry a pure negative charge (-) on the edg es which bind along its edge with the center of adjacent clay particles and now you have clay compaction. All the Rototilling isn't going to change that - ever. So back to Dolomite Lime and why it's used in commercial potting soils - certain ly not used by professional nurseries other than for specific growing schedules like 3 - 5 years in containers. Even then, DL is part of a 'liming mix' that wil l include Gypsum (Calcium & Sulphur), Limestone or one of the shells meals. Bott om line is the DL is the least expensive because Calcium Carbonate is widely use d in animal & human supplements - next time you're in a store selling vitamins a nd supplements look at the label on the Calcium products - Calcium Carbonate. Same for livestock and poultry. Calcium is a necessary part of their feed and DL isn't part of that. DL has several industrial, manufacturing, etc. uses - it's not the big deal in agriculture or horticulture like it is in the cannabis hobby gardening paradigm.

All of this assumes of course that the potting soil that you make is deficient i n Calcium or Magnesium. It would be highly unlikely that given the compost and E WC you produce that you need additional Magnesium or Calcium. EWC are covered wi th a slime which is Calcium Carbonate from the worm's digestive tract. Calcium is not this elusive element that Goober wants you to believe it is CC __________ Soil Biology and pH by Jeff Lowenfels The success of the AeroGarden, the first plug-and-grow aeroponic kitchen applian ce, is testament to the fact that ordinary people do not understand the concept of pH and don't want to deal with it in their growing situations. Make it so you can practice hydroponics without this chemistry barrier and they will come, app arently. Frankly, the concept of pH also confuses soil gardeners. Heck, the definition of pH was inadvertently reversed in my book "Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener's G uide to the Soil Food Web." (Yes, some readers noticed; I received two "you made a mistake" notes. But that's not as many as I thought I'd receive.) Fortunately , the mistake was corrected in time for the second printing. In any case, soil gardeners have been told certain plants require acidic conditi ons- for example, rhododendrons and azaleas- or else they won't grow. The soluti on advocated by most experienced gardeners is not dissimilar from what a hydropo nics grower would do: adjust the pH with chemicals, such as agricultural lime, t o make the soil more alkaline. To make alkaline soil more acid, we are told to a dd sulfur. Because they are chemical changes, these solutions work for a short t ime. But to me pH is a biological matter. A bit of quick pH review is in order (if only to make amends for the mistake in my book). You may remember that pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution on a scale of 1 to 14; 1 being most acidic and 14 being most alkaline . A more technical description is that pH is the measurement of the concentratio n of hydrogen ions, H+. If you have lots of H+, the pH is low, or acidic. If you have few of them, the pH is high, or alkaline. If you are adding fertilizers and using chemicals, you are stuck in the chemical realm. Organic gardeners, soil food webbies in particular, realize that pH has more to do with biology than it does with chemistry. That's because of the way p lant roots take up nutrients. Root hair surfaces are covered with positive elect rical hydrogen cations. Think of these charges as ping-pong balls. If soil parti cles are small enough, their surfaces are covered by these ping-pong ball charge s, both positive (cation) charges and negative (anion) charges. These cations ar e not limited to hydrogen; they also include calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesi um, iron, and ammonium. All are important plant nutrients. When a root encounters a clay or organic particle, it can exchange one of its hy drogen cation for another positive one from the particle. It can choose from cal cium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, ammonium and hydrogen, as these are al l cations carried by clay and silt and are all, as luck would have it, major pla nt nutrients. This is known, incidentally, as cation exchange capacity, or CEC. Sand and silt have low CECs, because they comprised of particles that are too large to hold el ectrical charges. This is why humus and clay are needed to make soil good. They are extremely small particles and can carry cations.

So, back to pH. Every time a plant root exchanges a hydrogen ion for a nutrient ion, it increases the concentration of hydrogen ions in solution. Thus, the pH g oes down and things should become more acidic. Ah, but things usually balance out because the positive cations on the root surf ace also attract negative charges. Here, hydroxy ions (OH-) are the exchange pin g-pong balls, and addition of hydroxy ions lowers the concentration of hydrogen ions in the solution, and pH goes up. I know this still sounds like chemistry and not biology. However, each plant has an optimum pH requirement. What soil growers need to know (and hydroponics grow ers don't) is that the type of bacteria and fungi attracted to a plant's rhizosp here by the plant's exudates has a lot to do with setting this optimal pH. Bacte ria produce a slim that raises the pH, and fungi produce acids that lower the pH . Since the plant is in control of the biology it attracts, in a natural system, it is the plant that determines the pH, and not some chemistry teacher. So, while you may forget the chemistry of pH, at least remember there is a biolo gical side. Do no harm to it, and you shouldn't have to worry much about pH when you grow plants in soil. Moreover, the nutrient exchanges that occur above also have a lot to do with what kind of bacteria and fungi are attracted to the root zone as some like higher pH and others lower pH. ___________ IncredibowlBoss The information on polysaccharides is easily available but let me know. Aloe vera is a nutrient accumulator like Alfalfa, Kelp, Comfrey, etc. meaning th at you get the full panorama of Elements needed by a plant. What separates any plant material from another are the Secondary Metabolites tha t they contain. IOW, if you only wanted Elements then it really wouldn't matter which of the accumulators you used. Sure - some plants will have a higher profil e on this or that but across the board Alfalfa meal could be used in lieu of kel p meal were it not for their specific compounds. Alfalfa = Triacontanol or Kelp meal = Alginic acid and the other plants will hav e their own specific compounds that they manufacture. In the case of Aloe vera you have two compounds that are important - Saponins an d Salicylic acid. You've probably seen references to using Willow shoots to extr act a so-called rooting compound - well this is the same one that you can use wi thout climbing trees or whatever. Saponins are usually promoted as a surfactant or wetting agent which is true. Bu t their role is far more complex as it relates to triggering a plant's innate de fense systems - System Acquired Resistance (SAR) and Hormonal Acquired Resistanc e (HAR). Saponins in the soil, per se, provide a number of other benefits that you can re ad about. The problem with trying to do research on the Aloe vera plant in the U SA is that the links at Google are loaded with blogs, forum posts and manufactur er's blab sheets. Pretty daunting trying to dig through it. You'll do much better at the Australian web sites. Australia is the 3rd largest producer of Aloe vera extracts - liquid, spray-dried and freeze dried versions. China & Mexico are bigger than Australia.

Besides these 2 specific compounds (of about 450), there are the enzymes and her e you can go back to the Google sites, get the specific enzymes Aloe vera contai ns and then look over at Google Scholar, SCIRUS, JSTOR or another science-based search engines and figure out how it applies to Botany and soil biology. But Saponins and Salicylic acid would the main selling points from a sales rep p erspective. HTH CC __________ Some old fart taught me to make a foliar spray with aloe juice @ 2 tablespoons p er gallon of water once..... You can go to the Mexican grocery store and buy aloe leaves. Simply crush the le aves and collect the juice. I sprayed up to 3 times a day before determining that 1 application every 3 days in veg was enough for me....and the plants. What I noticed within 3 or less hours after an application was that the leaves o n most types pointed upwards...not in a lockout or 'clawing' type of way,but mor e in the way of positive vegetative growth....just my observation. __________ A note on the recycling of the base medium... After the plants have completed the cycle (and assuming the grower has cut the p lant at the base leaving the stump and root ball in the pot) ...the pots are dum ped on a large tarp with the rootballs and stumps intact and they are allowed to go through into the next mixing along with the dried amendments that will be re -introduced to the 'used' medium. They are mixed right in along with everything else...and it is at this point in which I introduce other materials such as leaf litter,comfrey,horsetail,etc. as well as more kelp meal,fish bone meal,crab shell meal,neem seed meal,and regular fish meal...oatmeal,etc. I find that the stumps and roots fully break down by the end of the second cycle ...this is food for microbial life and fungi. On the second round I add less of the original portions of dried commercially av ailable amendments based upon the volume of the soil and what deficiencies the p lants may have indicated during the initial cycle. The one thing that continuall y gets put back in in near the original quantity is kelp meal. __________ Be aware that there is an alternative way to reuse soil. We did almost exactly a s Gascan did for several years when using 5 gallon pails for growing. When we switched to an indoor facsimile of our outdoor beds we used stacked bins and left the soil fully intact, treating it with liquid amendments and teams of composting worms between planting. This allowed fungal networks and layered (heirarchical) microbial populations to

remain intact. Were I to do this again [not presently growing indoors] I would attempt replanti ng almost immediately following harvest because the interaction between roots an d microbes has a lot to do with the life of soil [as demonstrated previously by Mr Fista] __________ On the Comfrey, Borage, Nettle, Dandelion 'teas' how you get to the concentrate doesn't really matter - it's the 'color' of the tea when you apply it. There is no official method on getting the plant material broken down. Some people make a syrup where only plant material goes into the tank and it ren ders out a pretty thick syrup. Other methods use water and the amount is all ove r the place - do whatever works best for your situation. When it comes time to apply then there is a fairly general consensus - dilute th e 'tea' so that it's about the color of what people call 'sun tea' - light amber . And to your other question, 99.5% of the Comfrey that I process never sees a can nabis plant - it all goes on the beds as green mulch at the beginning the season to get the beds up and running. Lay the leaves on top of the soil and top-dress with some good compost and in about a week you're ready to plant your seedlings . Comfrey has 2x the levels of Potassium than Kelp meal before you even begin to review the other 82 elements it accumulates. I pour diluted teas on the beds every so often - pretty scientific, eh? LOL Aloe vera - if you're going to use fresh fillets (best method, IMHO) then you on ly want to add about 2 tablespoons to 1 gallon of water - that's an uber safe mi xing ratio. I use 2x that amount but I'm using the pharmaceutical food grade pow ders from Australia which as good as they are, fresh is best. You're gold having fresh available..... HTH CC __________ YS Agsil 16 (Potassium Silicate) is always added to every watering and foliar spray . I've done my homework about liquid Silica in particular in the horticulture pa radigm. I also use this compound to emulsify the Neem & Karanja oils which in and of the mselves are powerful fungicide and pesticides. Certain plant leaves and flowers also contain both of these benefits and making a 'tea' from Peppermint (for example) and using that in place of the 'water' whe n mixing the oils brings double and triple the efficiencies. I've been 'PM Free' for over 3 years now and in Oregon that's quite an accomplis hment. BTW - if you were to buy the Comfrey root starts soon and get them established b efore winter weather hits, you'll be in really good shape for next spring. I onl

y had 4 comfrey plants this season and I'm sitting on massive amounts of Comfrey concentrated extracts - not quite syrup but pretty close. Then this spring I accidentally discovered something and ended up with 20+ 'volu nteer plants' which I got out of the ground quickly and planted them in a more a ppropriate area of the home. You cannot kill Comfrey - the roots go down 15' or more into the sub-soil and th at's how it accumulates the elements as efficiently as it does. Planting Comfrey between the rows of trees in fruit orchards is a common practice in England and Germany. The leaves are removed and used as green mulch and the surrounding soi ls are improved from the accumulation of elements (NPK). 15' feet is deeper than most fruit trees to give you a comparison - once it's pl anted and established they own that piece of earth. It's estimated that the plan t will live over 35 years. Pretty cheap 'nute program' - LOL CC __________ How can I post something as useful as the info. flying out of here.... Well for re-amending 1 cubic foot of recycled soil (6.43 dry US gallons) with no thing fancy....try this. 2 cups fish bone meal every other recycle for @ least 5 cycles...THEN 2 cups fis h bone every 3 to 4 cycles... considering that the soil the gardener is 'buildin g' has been having humic sources such as EWC and/or compost added when re-amendi ng as well. Fish bone meal takes @ least 4 or longer months to break down and be consumed by soil organisms before needing to replace it. 1 - 2 cups fish meal every cycle depending upon other high nitrogen sources adde d (such as comfrey,nettle,crab shell,alfalfa,and other things like neem seed mea l) and what the plants looked like as far as premature N loss before flowering i s done each cycle. Of course some types have genetic signals that start yellowing on a natural leve l and could be confused with nitrogen loss...AKA senescence. 1 1/2 cups Acadian kelp meal every re-amend Kelp kelp kelp kelp kelp kelp!!!!!!! TO x BMR (The One x Blue Moon Rocks) Growing in a third round no-till pot from soil that's been recycled for 3 years and counting....mother for the line...so far...seems to be gaining popularity in the real world from what I'm hearing on shakedown st. Ain't she looking all per tty photo-shopped out and such...golly! __________ Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water. __________

Try this: 1/4 cup Barley seeds (not pearled barley from Safeway) Sprout like you would any seed like Alfalfa, Mung beans, etc. Once they're sprouted (about 2 days) add to 1 gallon of water and let that sit f or 3 or 4 days and it will turn cloudy. Strain and mix 2 cups of this 'tea' to 1 4 cups of water = 1 gallon. Spray your plants from top to bottom and hit the soil. Let me know what you think. This works equally well using alfalfa, wheat, oat, e tc. seeds. "Enzymes" CC __________ Here's what I've devolved to on the rooting process - ain't much. 1 1 2 1 gallon of clear water oz. of BioAg Fulvic acid oz. Aloe vera extract tsp. Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt

I take the RapidRooters (the brand - not a knockoff not that it matters a single iota) and soak them for 'some period of time' which is usually when I remember that they're still sitting in the solution. I take them and 'gently' squeeze out excess water/solution. Take a 'glass' glass with the same solution and stick the cuttings in there and let them sit overnight. Next morning I stick them into the plugs, mist the insid e of the clear dome and put them next to a sliding glass door. That's it.... Crosseyed and Painless - Talking Heads CC __________ Also other than comfrey I can easily get stinging nettles...I am guessing a vari ety of different teas is better than one all of the time. Any rotation recommend ? Yosemite Sam The main reason that I grow Comfrey (Bocking 14) is that I lack the physical str ength to head out to the forested areas to grab Nettle or Horsetail Ferns - I re ly on the generosity of others to help me out. But if I were younger and stronger then I would go and grab Stinging Nettles and probably pass on the Comfrey - or maybe not. If you want to grow your own Comfrey and harvest Stinging Nettles then go for it

! One thing to remember is that when we take this plant material and stick in a ta nk of water for several weeks, the Secondary Metabolites, phytohormones, et al. are gone - OVAH So try this: take a couple of cups of chopped, diced, pureed - whatever of Dande lion, Stinging Nettles, Comfrey - whatever and add that to 5 gallons of water. L et that sit for no more than 3 days and apply to the soil as well as spraying th e plant from top to bottom. Adding Aloe vera and Silica is what you want to do for the specific benefits tha t they bring to the party. It's been my experience over the past 2 months getting the raised beds dialed in that this 'quick brew' method bring FAR more benefits than a 'tea' that has onl y the Elements remaining. Take the spent material and run that through your worm bin, compost pile, etc. L ots of value left - so it's not waste by any stretch of the imagination. BTW - Stinging Nettles processed this way (quick brew) is a powerful pesticide a nd fungicide. HTH CC EDIT: harvest the Nettle roots as well. Use a cheese grader and add that to wate r and again, let it sit for no more than 3 days. An entire different set of comp ounds (Secondary Metabolites) - well worth your time, IMHO Can you get Poison Oak? __________ Getting back on track, I am about to transplant into my "recycled" soil today. I should have it in recycle bins. It would be like postmodern art. I have a compost bucket that I was adding coffee grounds (N), peanut shells (P) and banana peels (K) with all of my cannabis scraps and some straw. I then added a bunch of fruit and vegetable matter from making bionutrients, so they had LAB and some molasses on them, so things started "cooking" (thanks subcool) I think this is now called either bokashi or designer compost at this point, it is thic k and sludgy like fresh manure, but smells amazingly sweet and fresh. It got to a point where I was adding in all my kitchen scraps once the microbes were eatin g, there is a lot going on in there, but no worms, it's all thermal breakdown. I have 5 gallons, so I am going to use 4 save 1 as a "mother" and split that up i nto 12 three gallons so about 40oz each to topdress with. There is my nutrient s chedule. Eat bananas and peanuts, drink coffee, smoke herb, save scraps. Easy en ough right? I am very excited about this run. The last run I did was my first without any bo ttled nutes at all and the smell was better than ever. This run should be even b etter. __________ I do not root in soil,but recently did approximately 30 cuts and stuck them dire ctly into the pots that the cuts were taken from to see if it they would root. A

bout ten survived...but mind you I took no special preparations...just cut them and stuck them in the soil. The ones that died either were rotting..or didn't re ceive enough moisture. Rooting cuts in biologically active soil from my experien ce is hit and miss. Now EWC on the other hand....amazing shit right there. ___________ Australia is the 3rd largest producer of Aloe vera extracts and that is where I found the best information on using this plant for general and container gardeni ng. My whole focus on growing plants is to use plant materials and very small am ounts of animal derived amendments - pretty much organic fish meal and organic f ish bone mea, Crab meal and that's about it) What shocked me the first few times I used Aloe vera for rooting cuttings was th e sheer amount of root sites and then the rate which they pushed out from the st alk. And healthy, vigorous, strong meaning that when I transplanted them into a soil high in worm castings (enzymes) and watered them with Aloe vera, alfalfa te a, kelp meal tea, neem meal tea with liquid silica - the plants bolted in a few short days with short internode, strong stalks and branches, etc. If a gardner c an bypass any and all transplant shock the results are amazing. Not difficult to dial in - just a bit of tweaking here and there. You definitely live in the right place for desert plants - I try to use as much native plants found in the PNW - Horsetail ferns (oldest true plant), Yarrow (fr iggin' everywhere!), Stinging Nettles and then I grow Comfrey and Borage and sev eral dozen members of the Mint family for their properties. Still - having a couple of hundred Aloe vera plants would be pretty cool as well ! If you're interested, Horizon Herbs down in Southern Oregon is a certified organ ic farm (Demeter Group [Rudolph Steiner's Biodynamic system] and Oregon Tilth) a nd the specialize in medical plants. Most, if not all, have the properties that benefit human and most mammals and these same properties can be used by a garden er to be a better grower, plants feeding plants like it's always been. There might be some plants that would work in your area and at the very least th e list of plants, seeds, roots, etc. that they offer is a fun read. These are ve ry honorable people and you'll be impressed at the low prices - again certified organic by 2 of the strictest organizations authorized by USDA __________ I don't like it myself, but only because it does't stay put Perfect summation. Then there's the dust factor and once it spills you're screwe d. I prefer using rice hulls, pumice and then lava rock but I'm not anal about one over the other. If I didn't do a good job on planning and I'm out of one or two then I use the third. I go by feel and the look and adjust the aeration componen t accordingly - ain't rocket science. I haven't used this compost personally but I have a close friend who lives where it's available and he raves about it - BuffaLoam. Another person that I've been helping switch from garden stores to doing his own thing bought this and made a soil and he's very happy with the health and growth rates with his new program. Trust but verify with others where it's available.

You should be able to find Yarrow and Stinging Nettles in your part of the world . Stinging Nettles = you could use this plant alone to feed your plants and it wou ld be the best garden you've experienced regardless of the plants involved Yarrow = Bio-stimulant and a slew of other benefits. Vastly overlooked by even h ardcore organic terrorists but if you used it a single time it would become a st andard plant in your garden program. I promise you that one. Horsetail ferns = everything - this plant will be found in wet(ter) areas, i.e. it won't be out in an open field but usually in marsh areas around lakes, stream s, etc. A 'nute' powerhouse almost unrivaled except for Comfrey - perhaps. There's a few native plants that you might be able to find without risking your life. On the Nettles you'll probably want to bring some leather gloves and a jug of Aloe vera juice - the juice will immediately remove the sting from your skin . HTH CC __________ I just want to bring leaf mold into this soil building thread, mostly because it is a mainstay for my organic soil. I have never used coco' but I suspect it mig ht act like leaf mold in a soil because they both are high in wood fiber. Anyway here is a brief write up on leaf mold...scrappy Leaf mold is an excellent, free soil amendment. It is easy to make, simple to us e, and has a huge impact on soil health. What is Leaf Mold? Leaf mold is the result of letting leaves sit and decompose over time. It is dar k brown to black, has a pleasant earthy aroma and a crumbly texture, much like c ompost. In fact, leaf mold is just that: composted leaves. Instead of adding a b unch of organic matter to a pile, you just use leaves. Benefits of Leaf Mold You may be wondering why you shouldn't just make compost. Why bother making a se parate pile just for leaves? The answer is that while compost is wonderful for i mproving soil texture and fertility, leaf mold is far superior as a soil amendme nt. It doesn't provide much in the way of nutrition, so you will still need to a dd compost or other organic fertilizers to increase fertility. Leaf mold is esse ntially a soil conditioner. It increases the water retention of soils. According to some university studies, the addition of leaf mold increased water retention in soils by over 50%. Leaf mold also improves soil structure and provides a fan tastic habitat for soil life, including earthworms and beneficial bacteria. How to Make Leaf Mold There are two popular ways to make leaf mold, and both are ridiculously simple. The one thing you'll need to keep in mind is that leaf mold doesn't happen overn ight. Leaves are basically all carbon, which takes a lot longer to break down th an nitrogen-rich materials such as grass clippings. The decomposition process fo

r leaves takes at least six to twelve months. The good news is that it's basical ly six to twelve months with very little work on the gardener's part. The first method of making leaf mold consists of either piling your leaves in a corner of the yard or into a wood or wire bin. The pile or bin should be at leas t three feet wide and tall. Pile up your leaves, and thoroughly dampen the entir e pile. Let it sit, checking the moisture level occasionally during dry periods and adding water if necessary. The second method of making leaf mold requires a large plastic garbage bag. Fill the bag with leaves and moisten them. Seal the bag and then cut some holes or s lits in the bag for air flow. Let it sit. Check the bag every month or two for m oisture, and add water if the leaves are dry. After six months to a year, you will have finished leaf mold. Impatient? There a re a couple of things you can do to speed up the process: Before adding leaves to your pile or bag, run over them a couple of times with y our lawn mower. Smaller pieces will decompose more quickly. Use a shovel or garden fork to turn your leaf pile every few weeks. If you are u sing the plastic bag method, just turn it over or give it a firm shake. This wil l introduce air into the process, which speeds decomposition. If you are using the pile or bin method, cover your pile with a plastic tarp. Th is will keep the leaves more consistently moist and warm How to Use Leaf Mold Leaf mold has several uses in the garden. You can dig or till it into garden bed s to improve soil structure and water retention. You can use it as mulch in pere nnial beds or vegetable gardens. It's also fabulous in containers, due to its wa ter retaining abilities. Leaf mold is simple, free, and effective. If you're lucky enough to have a tree or two (or ten) on your property, you've got everything you need to make great g arden soil. __________ Cool man, I just got some bags of nettle, yarrow, comfrey, yucca root powder, ho rsetail (as in shavegrass) oh and some red clover seed, i was thinking of sprout ing the clover and letting it grow on the piles/bins of reused soil as they wait for their next run i.e. mini cover crop. When I use alfalfa, I brew a tea, 5gal water, 1 cup EWC & 1/4 to 1/2 cup alfalfa meal (I find 1/2 cup to be a bit strong though, undiluted) & 30 to 50ml molasse s, then let it bubble for about a day. Are there more proven/benefical methods in using any of these other herbs/plants that you've found? OH and on the Georges aloe juice, Fractional Distillation is their method of ext raction/preservation. I couldn't think of it at the time, I'm going to work thro ugh the bottle (and take a few swigs myself, tastes like water) then look into o ther aloe options. Aloe doesn't like being under feet of snow I discovered LOL l ets see how they may do indoors... __________ "Dynamic Nutrient Accumulators" - Comfrey would be in this group like Alfalfa, K elp, Dandelion, etc.

HTH CC _____ The ONLY reason that I aerate these botanical teas is to get the pieces bounding around in the water but it's not mandatory. Stirring it every few hours wouldn't hurt however for the 2 day steep/brew cycle . HTH CC EDIT: I use 1 cup of Alfalfa meal to 5 gallons of water - I missed that part of your post. __________ I have burned the fuck out of plants with alfalfa tea....its fast and hot. Great stuff just be caerful....I can't remember the ratio...somewhere around 1 tables poon per gallon. __________ Just as an aside - if it's Nitrogen that you feel that you need then Stinging Ne ttle will give you numbers that will make you smile. BUT - you have to soak the leaves in water for 3 - 4 weeks. One suggestion that I might make is to get a huge amount ready so that at the end of summer you can hit your raised beds and by spring you'll be glad you went through the trouble. Planting Red or Crimson clover (field clovers) will also increase the tilth in y our beds. See if your Garden Zone allows for over-wintering on cover crops. Clov er isn't the only option - Hairy vetch, about any legume, etc. No mystery - basi c soil building practices. CC __________ Thank you, I use oak leaves for my leaf mold. I doubt the leaves return much in nutrition, but they make for an outstanding texture because of the lignin conten t. This lignin or wood fiber also makes oak leaves notorious for their long brea k down times. To speed this process up I cut the leaves at least twice with my m ower, then I add things with healthy nitrogen levels to speed up composting. The things I add are grass clippings, alfalfa meal and soybean meal. In 2-3 weeks I get something that looks like compost, and this almost done compost does make d ecent top dressing. But to finish properly it takes several more weeks. I also u se fresh not quite done compost for earth worm habitat. Oak leaves in a pile on their own might take a year or more to make leaf mold. I've also found places that city slickers dump yard waste in the local woods.(il legal but widely practiced) If you dig under these piles you will find decent le af mold, and most of the time worms" win win as they say.....scrappy ___________

I have yucca root powder, how would ya'll use that? Also I saw "aloe powder" i t hink it described it as just the gel powder, and "aloe leaf powder" obviously th e whole fillet, both for $15 or so for 16oz (the mountain rose herb site). The 1 00x cosmetic/medicinal gel powder from a different site was $120 for 16oz. I'm a ssuming the main difference would be the 100x will last a shit-ton longer due to its concentration, but i like the idea of having the whole leaf dried and groun d up, even if i'm using "more." If i read correctly aloe doesn't contain any or has very low Nitrogen so could b e good to use throughout the grow (?) as well as the Yucca root... Alfalfa I tap er off on the teas by 2nd week in flower (lots in the soil anways already) and i 'm thinking the same for nettle and maybe the comfrey too? Not sure though, Thou ghts? Horestail in the soil mix too, i like that gasca... ________ You couldn't find a better company to order botanical products from than those f olks. They are the real deal - no question about it. Another source (also locate d in Oregon) is Liberty Naturals though they're more commercially oriented, i.e. minimum orders, etc. But they also have a huge range of oils, dried plant mater ial, etc. Aeration? Sure - I do on all botanical teas not because I'm trying to grow micro be colonies but to get the plant material bouncing around in order to release th e compounds which is what you're after: Terpenes, Terpenoids, Ketones, et al. HTH CC __________ Alfalfa's saponin levels are about 30,000 ppm - there's the foaming you're seein g. Try Horse Chestnut powder sometime - 150,000 ppm - only add 1/4 tsp to a 5-gallo n tank of water or do your brewing outdoors - seriously. CC __________ Worms are the key to a no till soil management program IMO. When you harvest a p otted plant, cut the stem at the base, and leave the root ball in the container, cut the stems up onto the soil surface, plant another plant in it with minimal tillage and keep going. __________ YosemiteSam RE: Alfalfa tea - pretty amazing isn't it? Try it next time with some kelp meal added. Well worth the pennies this would involve RE: NPK I honestly have never considered NPK when selecting this or that material. I'm m ore about 'where is it from?' and 'who is packing his?' with a heavy emphasis on

'what is their track record with their regard to their filings with various age ncies?' Sounds weird I'm sure. BUT - when you get Comfrey up and running, I pulled the USDA analysis on Comfrey and the list is too long on the Secondary Metabolites so I'll limit the numbers on what is usually considered important. Having said that, I could use your help because all of these Elements are listed as 'ppm' so I don't know how that translates into percentages but regardless he re goes....... Calcium - 11,300 Magnesium - 1,700 Silicic-Acid - 40,000 Phosphorus - 2,111 Potassium 15,900 HTH CC __________ Redefining the Root-Soil Food Web for Indoors Published by Matt Rize Redefining the Soil Food Web for Indoors by Matt Rize The complex relationship between plants and soil is called the soil food web. Th is describes the connection between roots, soil, and soil organisms. In the past 15 years this topic has been the center of attention for organic gardeners, tha nks in large part to Teaming With Microbes by xxxx xxxxxxxxx and xxxxx xxxxx. ( names omitted to protect the guilty) This guy Matt is still pushin the sales for hydro bloatware IMO. "The constant addition of vermi-compost (EWC) by worms does not apply indoors, a nd this plant nutrient source must be replaced for high yield indoor organics. T he bottled and dry nutrients replace the worm's decomposition of soil. The switc h from soil to soil-less organic (peat, coco, bark), due to* soil-less' airy str ucture, means most of the nutrients that plants use must be added by the gardene r. The dry and bottled nutes that we water in are eaten by the bacteria and fung i, which are eaten by nematodes and protozoa, who poop plant food. The root-soil -nutrient food web." __________ Gypsum = Sulfur = Terpene/Terpenoid/Ketone production __________ all natural Barley extract - sprayed to reduce heat stress. I have absolutely NO science at all. I collect old books on gardening, farming, etc. and this one came from a bo ok published in the mid-1800's in England by a 'gentleman farmer' - pretty inter esting digging through old writings. Free too - Gutenberg Project has resources you wouldn't believe. I have 'almost'

the entire body of writings by Luther Burbank - all free. Soil & Health Library is another resource that will amaze you. It's run by Steve Solomon the famous PNW gardening writer and the original owner of Territorial S eed Company. CC __________ Fenugreek - another one to consider. Primary Nutrients: Choline, Iron, Lecithin, Minerals, Protein, Biotin,choline, i nositol, iron, lecithin, mucilage, volatile oils, PABA, phosphates, protein, tri goneline, trimethylamine, and vitamins A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vi tamin B5, vitamin B6, vitamin B9, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. Rich in phosphates , lecithin, nucleo-albumin, iron, vitamins A and D (similar in composition to co d liver oil) The leaves contain at least 7 saponins, known as graecunins. These compounds are glycosides of diosgenin. Seeds contain 0.1% to 0.9% diosgenin and are extracted on a commercial basis. Plant tissue cultures from seeds grown under optimal con ditions have been found to produce as much as 2% diosgenin with smaller amounts of gitongenin and trigogenin. The seeds also contain the saponin fenugrin B. Sev eral coumarin compounds have been identified in fenugreek seeds 6 as well as a n umber of alkaloids (eg, trigonelline, gentianine, carpaine). A large proportion of the trigonelline is degraded to nicotinic acid and related pyridines during r oasting. These degradation products are, in part, responsible for the flavor of the seed. The seeds also yield as much as 8% of a fixed, foul-smelling oil. About 28 per cent mucilage; 5 per cent of a stronger-smelling, bitter fixed oil, which can be extracted by ether; 22 per cent proteins; a volatile oil; two alka loids, Trigonelline and Choline, and a yellow colouring substance. The chemical composition resembles that of cod-liver oil, as it is rich in phosphates, lecith in and nucleoalbumin, containing also considerable quantities of iron in an orga nic form, which can be readily absorbed. Reutter has noted the presence of trime thylamine, neurin and betain; like the alkaloids in cod-liver oil, these substan ces stimulate the appetite by their action on the nervous system, or produce a d iuretic or ureo-poietic effect. [cite] ___________ Ok.....sooooooo...it's a little early to confirm anything but.... I took one infested leaf with 26 counted adult mites and sprayed with the cardam om tea. I let the leaf 'dry' and then took it into the sun and turned it upside down...if any adults survive they will run to the edge of the leaf to get out of the sunlight. Only 4 were alive and did this....that's a good kill...but I figure the strength of the tea could be increased at least 2 to 4x. No signs of burning yet....we'l l see in a few hours how effective it was on the entire Kali Mist. __________ also I found some quick info on these teas: Dandelion leaves contain vitamins A and C, as well as calcium and potassium. Nettle leaves are packed full of nutrients from vitamins A, C, K, B1, B2, B3, B5 , calcium, magnesium, phosphate, phosphorus, potassium, boron, bromine, copper,

iron, selenium and zinc. Parsley leaves provide a good amount of vitamins A and C, as well as iron, r and manganese. Perilla leaves are loaded with iron and calcium. Watercress contains vitamins A, C, E, B3, B6, calcium, manganese and iron. German chamomile flowers (Matricaria recutita) have anti-fungal properties we have observed preventing damping-off disease in seedling flats. Flowers teeped in cold water for one or two days, then strained and sprayed on the ng mix just before planting. __________

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Here comes for sure one of those questions many of you will consider crazy...but I gotta ask. I "get" botanical teas, they speak to me soul. But I do not really understand ACTs, or AACTs or microbe teas. And here is what I do not get...if you have a soil/plant deal going on the plant dumps sugars in the soil at night (correct me anytime I am wrong)...that sugar feeds the microbe s that then make the plants next day food. If you dump a shitload extra microbes into the mix how does that work? Do you force feed the plant essentially? Somebody help me out here. I mean when you feed biological teas all you do is make stuff available and excess gets stor ed on negative sites or in the microbes...kind of stored like leftovers for late r is the way I visualize it....or have I way oversimplified. on the lavender tea...I used it as a miticide, sprayed it. Have not used it to f eed the soil. __________ Compost tea is an aerated solution that is teeming with billions of beneficial m icroorganisms that can be applied directly to the leaf surface of a plant as a f oliar spray or used as a soil drench to improve root systems. Compost tea works by putting good biological diversity that your plant needs onto the leaf surface of the plant or the soil. You can enjoy the proven benefits of compost now in a liquid form. Many home gardeners and farmers use compost tea as an organic fert ilizer to restore a much needed diversity and population of beneficial bacteria, fungi, and protozoa back into the soil foodweb. Others use compost tea as a fol iar spray to reduce disease. Whatever your particular needs, compost tea will he lp you on the path towards a healthier, natural, organic garden! The concept behind compost tea is quite simple, though the actual process of mak ing compost tea becomes scientific and very complex. The idea is that compost (f ull of beneficial microorganisms) is put into water and then nutrients or foods for the microorganisms is added to allow the bacteria and fungi to multiply rapi dly. Air is sent through the water to keep the water oxygenated, as this favors the beneficial bacteria and fungi over the pathogens (ex.-e coli). At the end of the brewing cycle, what you have is a concentrated liquid full of billions of m icroorganisms (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes) that can then be sprayed di rectly onto the leaf surface. This puts the "good" biology where the plant needs it to protect itself. It keeps the plant healthier and helps it to fight off po tential diseases. The "good" biology occupies the infection sites on the leaf su rface and is held there by simple sugars that the plant puts out (exidates) that work as a glue to keep the beneficial microorganisms thriving and protecting th e plant. Compost tea has been used by many people all over the world with mixed results. Part of the problem relating to studies on compost tea is that there is a high diversity in the quality of the compost tea produced in many of these st

udies. After all, if you don't start with good compost, don't add the proper amo unt of nutrients, or don't keep the brew sufficiently aerated, you could be sele cting for the "pathogens" rather than the "beneficials," and end up with compost tea that could potentially harm your plants. Much more likely is that the compo st tea would be low in bacteria and fungi and have little more effect than putti ng water on your plant. __________ YS, the plants take what they need in a living soil. Our job is to make a divers e offering for them to choose from. The plants sends out exudes through its root s to attract that particular food it wants. The microbes make foods available bu t it's up to the plant to decide the what's and when's. The food we feed our pla nts in a living soil is ussually not soluble, but microbes make it soluble. You may have heard the term "made available" used when talking about nutrients becau se without healthy microbes your food just sets there, so they have to be made a vailable, by microbes or chelating agents. Plants need soluble food whether a mi crobe makes it that way or a chemist makes it that way. In a chem grow the food is soluble and the plants bypass the food web, and some of those soluble foods l ike N in an ammonia form will burn root hairs when the plants can't take anymore . The grower is left scratching his head as he adds more and makes things worse, then of course the flushing starts, lol. While burning can happen in organic gr ows it is not frequent. Scrappy __________ I'll give it a crack. Fulvic Acid's important because it has 2-4 times the catio n exchange capacity of humus and assists the microherd in breaking down minerals - it also chelates metallic elements. __________ This is from the controlling organization in India on the Neem tree industry, Pa rker Group. If you're dealing with larva (caterpillars) or slugs, you want to increase the a mount of Neem oil by 3x. For indoor gardens and general IPM the recommend amount to be used is around 4 t sp. for each gallon of water. I cut that down to 3 tsp. or 1 tablespoon. But spraying trees I would use 12 tsp. which is 4 tablespoons which is 1/4 cup i.e. 2 oz. Emulsify with liquid Silica as usual and add that to tepid water. For a surfacta nt you want the one with the highest Saponin levels possible. However, Aloe vera has high levels that are sufficient and here again for trees you want to increa se this amount from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup to each gallon of mix. Spray as late in the evening as possible. Follow-up with another application in 3 or 4 days (maximum) and again and again. 4 applications HTH CC __________ The common wisdom says that you need large amounts of P and K in flower, but a l ot of us do not pay attention to common wisdom. And I think we all eventually de

velope our own strategies based on what we have to work with. I want to give you another way of looking at it, because no one ever accused me of wisdom common o r not. For me going into flower I want my plants to ned after the plants were growing crazy fast rtical growth per day is ideal. Flowering is clicking then you might have trouble later, just listen to your plants. have momentum. My best cycles happe going into flower. 2-3 inches of ve stressful on plants so if there not if it takes an extra week so be it,

So at the final transplant before flower I like to feed alfalfa meal teas and ne ttles, kelp meal, and dandelion, and comfrey, all in teas. All these will be gre at for fast growing plants. They all have fairly high levels of calcium, not in NPK but stll important. Plus the diversity of multiple teas gives me diversity o f trace elements. At the switch to 12/12 I like to feed a tea with sul po mag, and again at about three weeks in. This gives the plants a shot of sulfur, potassium and magnesium in a soluble form, or fast acting. But only if I feel they can take this shot, i f their suffering in any way I won't force feed them. In flower I like teas made with comfrey, yarrow, dandelion flowers, and kelp mea l. I just rotate them in no particular order. I use these teas because they have worked well for me so far, but I'm always open to new things. I try to fit in a little humic acid once a week or so in tiny amounts. I make my teas fairly week, the color would be like drinking tea at one hung lo' s Chinese resteranut. But I feed the plants tea at almost every watering up to a round 6 weeks in flower on ten week varieties. __________ Thanks man! Yeah it keeps getting better and better, just adding compost/EWC eac h batch and drainage/aeration additions as needed. I think I can cut most of the amendments in half though and just keep the kelp @ "full strength" as you sugge sted, seems to be pretty rich and as I mentioned the plants in the no-till tubs that only got topdressed are doing amazing. I like to give 'em variety, so next round for example the soil will get a pound of powdered yucca root that's never been in there before, maybe some lava rock t oo... I really like providing a variety of mediums & amendments. __________ Floating free as a bird Sixty foot leaps, it's so absurd From up here you should see the view Such a lot of space for me and you Oh, you'll like it Gliding around, get your feet off the ground Oh, you'll like it Do as you please with so much ease Now I know how it feels To have wings on my heels To take a stroll among the stars Get a close look at planet Mars Oh, you'll like it

Gliding around, get your feet off the ground Oh, you'll like it Do as you please with so much ease Bouncing about on the moon Guess you'll all be up here soon The candy stores will be brand new And you'll buy rock with "The Moon" right through Oh, you'll like it Gliding around, get your feet off the ground Oh, you'll like it Do as you please with so much ease Moody Blues - Floating __________ My heavily Sativa leaning girls have trouble staying fed without aggressive foli ar feedings (kelp/alfalfa botanical) - specifically East Coast Sour Diesel and G olden Goat - and expecting a similar response from the Bruce Banner #3 I just go t. At first I didn't know of I'd be able to take em to flower without resorting to bottle feeding, but the botanical teas have made all the difference! On another note: does anyone add/inoculate with mycorrhizae? Every hydro store h as a lot of very pricy jars of various brands, but I know there's gotta be a bet ter way/source __________ When i increased K in my soil mix (higher kelp amounts and introduced langbeinit e) I noticed increased vigor, stem strength and size, and in general "meatier" p lants, if that makes sense (?) __________ Make your own free Bokashi starter. January 6, 2010 Source: http://bokashicomposting.com/ Making your own bokashi starter culture in place of commercially available EM is incredibly easy. My goal from the start was to produce bokashi compost without the use of expensive EM, bran or fancy buckets. The most important component of the commercial EM in relation to bokashi is lactobacillus bacteria, the others a re secondary (if at all necessary) and can be cultured in the bucket when condit ions are favorable. I culture my own lactobacillus serum starting with a rice wa sh water solution. Making the serum is amazingly simple. Step One: I mix one part rice thoroughly with two parts water (1/2 a cup to one cup). Mix thoroughly and vigorously. Drain. The resulting water should be cloudy. Place the rice water in a container with 50-75% head space allowing plenty of ai r to circulate. Cover lightly (air should be able to move in and out of the container) and place in a cool dark spot for 5-8 days.

At the end of the wait the mixture should smell mildly sour. Strain out any particles. Step Two: Put the finished rice water solution in a bigger container and add 10 parts milk (I use skim). DO NOT seal tightly, the gases must be able to escape. Allow 14 days for a complete ferment, most of the solids in the milk will float to the top revealing the yellowish serum. Strain off the solids. You now have purified lactobacillus serum. __________ I've been working through "Botany for Gardeners" by Brian Capon. Excellent read so far, if any of you want to know more about the science behind plants. Just fi nished a chapter explaining how auxin migration in stems causes plants to lean t owards the light. Super cool. __________ I just bought the michael starks book marijuana potency from amazon for 97 cents . This is apparently the book that gave dj short the idea to select males with h ollow stems. I've kept this article handy for about five years now from when I f irst read it in cannabis culture. Its a great article. Its also the reason 90% o f my growing is done outside. DJ's definitely right you just can't get the good sativa phenos inside. I've never smoked anything grown inside I couldn't build a tolerance to and had no ceiling. My acapulco or acapulco x g13 are both fairly bland inside even with 13/11 veg 11/13 flower but when taken outside its unbeata ble. Guys that go to new york to pay 800 an ounce for hydro diesel wouldn't even touch the stuff when I showed it to them it wasn't dense enough wasn't sticky e nough (though very sticky) etc. Its a shame what most people view as a highest q uality sativa is always gonna be second rate to a true outdoor organic product. __________ Backward" hermorphidites are males that eventually sport female flowers (as oppo sed to the usual female to male hermorphodites). These are rare occurrences, usu ally sterile but sometimes viable, that I found to be genetically valuable. Many resinous anddesireable males exhibit this trait, which almost guarantees agains t unwanted homeomorphism in subsequent generations as it also increases the fema le to male ratio in it's progeny. __________ EcoSmart - Rosemary Oil __________ There are strains that originate still from the Kush Valley. Cannabiogen's "Paki stani Chitral Kush" comes to mind __________ I'll just suggest that the flat-earthers do a 15 minute review on the Haas Avoca do story. La Habra Heights circa 1920 I won't hurt their feelings with a discussion on heirloom apple propagation - ta

lk about shooting fish in a barrel. A review of the tradition of Zen citrus cultivation beginning in the 16th Centur y might be instructive as well. Then again it's been claimed that in other areas of Botany that cannabis is a 'v ery special plant' which does not follow this science. Okay - I'll agree to that one for sake of discussion but does it have to involve the sciences of Chemistry, Biology, Soil biology as well? >>chuckle<< CC ____________ http://www.ibiblio.org/steved/Luebke/Luebke-compost2.html http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/QR/QRToC.html http://neemresource.com/ http://www.kitazawaseed.com/ http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/ http://sproutpeople.org/ __________ During the course we made diastatic malt from oats, barley, wheat and even rice and it was interesting. This product is available from food service distributors and a 10 lb. box is around $12.00 and in a bread dough the maximum amount you w ould use is .05% In bread doughs, the amount of flour(s) is always 100% and everything is measure d against that. A 50% hydration means if you're using 50 lbs. of flour then you would add 25 lbs. of dough. A dough with this formula would be very dense and you would find this in bagels. French breads are always 66% hydration, pizza dough are between 69 - 71% and th en the Italian ciabatta doughs are as high as 85% Higher hydration levels = bigger 'holes' in the bread and pushing the yeast acti vity is where the diastatic malt comes in. Thanks for you input - I need to figure a couple of things out. Back to sprouted seeds in general - there is a lot of information on why one wan ts to eat sprouted seeds. Enzymes, amino acids are found in massive amounts in t he seedling. It has to be that way. But even on the (in)famous NPK aspect, the E lements stored in the seed is a study in and of itself. What I've been doing is to sprout 1/2 cup of organic barley seed. Once the tap r oots are about 1/2" long then I dump them into a gallon glass jar, cover with wa ter (about 2") and let that sit for 4 or 5 days until there is a very, very slig ht fermenting aroma. Very slight. I fill the jar with water to hit 1 gallon. 1 cup of this 'tea' with 15 cups of w

ater = 1 gallon. I water the plants with this. This was the deal that gave me the 'praying hands' that I mentioned. On one stra in specifically which is Week 2 in the flower cycle, the leaves in and around th e developing stalk and branches were sticking straight up - not at an angle but straight up. This lasted for the rest of the light cycle (about 5 hours) and the next morning the leaves were still 'praying' but in the usual way, i.e. about 4 5 degrees. This stuck for 3 days. Beautiful new flower development, leaf color is perfect, etc. I dunno know..... CC __________ Here's the best advice that I can come with: the recipe for a soil is moot if th e humus isn't right, i.e. you cannot amend your way to a viable soil. Get the compost and/or worm castings dialed in and you won't have many questions that need an answer. Probably too simplistic for many but that's how I see the way/method to growing plants successfully. HTH CC __________ BlueJay Nothing special at all. I know this is wrong because there's a plethora of books about growing dope that says so. Posters with long green bars under their avatar sneer at my general st upidity - but I just don't understand the role of Dioxin in germinating seeds. Here's the wrong (stupid wrong) method that I use on all seeds from any plant: Take soil mix and put it into #1 containers, hydrate with kelp meal tea, Aloe ve ra and Fulvic acid. Take seed and set it on the surface - and here comes the tri cky part - I take my 'pinkie' and press lightly on the seed until it is about 1/ 4" deep - warning another tricky step here - I push the surrounding soil on top of it and gently tamp it down. They go under 400w HPS CMH bulbs until they're of size to transplant. Take notes - there will be a pop-quiz in the morning! LOL "Tough Love" - that's how we roll in the shire EDIT: Same method for 20+ year old seeds - pitiful isn't it? __________

So I was eating some strawberries in someones backyard right from the plant, not iced a strange *but good* guava undertone, then I noticed a guava tree about 5fe et away. I thought, not shit that's kind of odd. Grabbed a few strawberries 10+feet away from the guava tree - no guava taste. We nt back to the closer ones - strawberry taste! No shit man, I thought it was amazing & I was confused/questioning myself at the same time, ha!, I haven't looked into it yet but I was told strawberries can do this, via roots of course but I can't even imagine exactly how, ya know scienti fically speaking, other than I guess the exchange of residues/exudate's from the guava roots to the strawberries - whether direct or through microbial interacti on - I don't know really, and it reminded me of the stalk of celery in the glass of water with food dye resulting in a purple or red or whatever colored stalk, unrelated but just the fact of absorbing the qualities of a foreign object, so t o speak. Ha, if that "transfer of taste via roots" shit is real and can be genetically se gregated, I'm wondering when we'll see enhanced plants/vegetable crops with this feature ......... Huh - wonder how strawberries might be as a botanical berry tea (sounds tasty) potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron, manganese, zinc, copper , and selenium. Strawberries are also a good source of the following vitamins: V itamin C, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vi tamin B12, Vitamin A, and Vitamin E. Additionally, strawberries contain 18 diffe rent amino acids. Nothin' on the guava strawberries, just that they "absorb things sprayed on them ." Hmmm __________