First soil grow eco life

[Blue brother]

Hi all 

This will be my first non hydroponic grow.

I will be using eco life soil by eco thrive, this soil is supposed to be used without the need to add bottled nutrients, just de chlorinated water. However I see on here and a few other places people are saying it still needs to be amended in order to live up to its purpose. What is the general consensus on the best way ? It’s my first time and didn’t want to have to amend the soil that’s why I bought this stuff haha. But I still like the product and don’t mind buying more of their line to make it work better.
 

the seeds are fried ice cream by lit farms, I’ve popped 4 in 2l pots of light mix they’re about 1 week old now and look great 

 

grow area is a grow box ambient 1.2x1.2x2.2 tall tent, I picked it because it blends in from the window with its beige outer, and I wanted something white inside for a change.

 

lighting will be 2 hlg 350r Diablo leds but only one is in the tent at the moment 

 

ventilation is taken care of by ac infinity s6 with their 67 controller and carbon filter, I’m blowing out of the filter into a crawl space, the fan and filter are both out of the tent and insulated from the room, so only a duct is in the tent 

 

I have a smart humidifier maintaining constant 65 rh, a oil filled radiator for if needed, and the fan set to ventilate the room if it gets above 30c or 75rh. 

I would post some pics but can’t seem to figure out how to on this site, but they’re over on my Riu account if anyone wanted to see.

 

thanks guys peace out

 

[KC]

Help for new comers uploading to uk420 - New Members - UK420

 

 

That should help with the pictures, you basically create and album where you can upload your (reduced size) pictures. It's not so bad once you work it out, took me awhile but I'm shit with computers.

 

Sorry can't help you with the compost thing, I just buy the stuff ready in a bag and add liquid nutes. There's a good few on here who use it though so hang tight.

 

Cracking lights btw! 

[Flamedodger]

I’m currently in week 4 flower on my second grow using it. What I read regarding it is you don’t need to feed if using 40l+ pot sizes.
I’m using 15l fabric pots and they’ve had a teaspoon of some organic bloom amendments per pot so far and they will probably only get a teaspoon more. I give them some compost tea when in veg, but that’s all 

[Blue brother]

1 hour ago, Flamedodger said:

I’m currently in week 4 flower on my second grow using it. What I read regarding it is you don’t need to feed if using 40l+ pot sizes.
I’m using 15l fabric pots and they’ve had a teaspoon of some organic bloom amendments per pot so far and they will probably only get a teaspoon more. I give them some compost tea when in veg, but that’s all 

Brilliant just what I wanted to hear, I’m using a 40l bag per plant in 56l fabric pot obviously I won’t totally fill the pot. I’m only doing 4 in the 1.2 though so they’re gonna be biggish plants. I suppose I can top dress if necessary but was hoping not to have to. Do you get many pests ?

[Flamedodger]

3 hours ago, Blue brother said:

Do you get many pests ?

Not so far 

[Blue brother]

9 hours ago, KC said:

Help for new comers uploading to uk420 - New Members - UK420

 

 

That should help with the pictures, you basically create and album where you can upload your (reduced size) pictures. It's not so bad once you work it out, took me awhile but I'm shit with computers.

 

Sorry can't help you with the compost thing, I just buy the stuff ready in a bag and add liquid nutes. There's a good few on here who use it though so hang tight.

 

Cracking lights btw! 

Unfortunately I still can’t do the pictures, I’m on iPhone browser and it’s not setup like in that tutorial and I can’t find the create bit.

 

the lights are new I’ve never used leds before, I was torn between the 650r Diablo and 2 350r Diablo, in the end I opted for the dual light arrangement, mainly due to the independent par map for each light, I realised I’d get much more even light coverage with 2 lights spaced out than with the one light in the Center, I loose abit of efficiency but get more light and a better crossover zone in the Center of the canopy.

 

safe to say I was absolutely buzzing when unboxing the light you can really tell the quality and the heat sink is really thick it looks the part. And it’s absolutely bright as F”&k haha 

 

gonna get the uva bar and the ir sleep light for flower

 

really looking forward to this new small scale Percy op. I wanna do a journal but the crack with uploading images makes it less user friendly than I cba with haha 

[KC]

Yeah that's not a bad idea with the two lights. The place I had mine from didn't have 350r diablos, only the 650 so I got one of those. It was meant to be the 600r as it was super cheap but you know how it is, the newer one had way more diodes  

 

I was contemplating the uva bar myself. 

[Flamedodger]

@Blue brotherI did a tutorial for uploading pics on an iPhone, hope it helps 

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?/topic/417979-uploading-photos-using-an-iphoneipad/

[lildaveham]

@Blue brother

 

I use this soil and have done for the past 18-24 months. I am in a 100l pot and the best advice I can give you is get some worms in your pots and plant a cover crop such as Crimson clover this will put nitrogen into the soil, also a mulch such as straw or hemp shiv this then ensures the top of your soil does not dry out.

The moisture level of the soil is crucial when using this soil and fabric pots. No wet dry cycle needed just a constant level of moistness and your soil will do the rest. I would say the more the soil is reused the better it gets but after every grow I top dress with lifecycle and put all my trim back into the pot for the worms to munch on. 
 

hope this helps and check out my diary if you want to see it in action.

 

[Blue brother]

19 hours ago, KC said:

Yeah that's not a bad idea with the two lights. The place I had mine from didn't have 350r diablos, only the 650 so I got one of those. It was meant to be the 600r as it was super cheap but you know how it is, the newer one had way more diodes  

 

I was contemplating the uva bar myself. 

The uva was something of an after thought, initially I dismissed it as I’ve only ever read about uvb in short doses improving resin production but I had a listen to dr Bruce bugbee saying that all uv will work it’s just all about the dosage, even uvc in super short doses. So I thought I’ll give it a go.
 

My time on riu lead me to a thread about far red specifically 730nm, and it’s use as a flowering initiator. Basically a 15 min burst of this light starting 5mins before lights off allows the plants to fall asleep. In nature as the sun sets in the winter they would experience this too. The idea is that more rest = a faster finish. There’s research being done by a guy on there with various lighting regimes and cycles including a 10.5 hour day with a 13.5 hour night, hes finished a known clone which is usually an 8 week strain in about 6 weeks with no loss in yield. So I thought imma give it a go, I’m not gonna mess with the day length I’m just gonna use it like I said at lights out. 
 

 

[Blue brother]

7 hours ago, Flamedodger said:

@Blue brotherI did a tutorial for uploading pics on an iPhone, hope it helps 

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?/topic/417979-uploading-photos-using-an-iphoneipad/

Aw mate ur a star cheers

[Blue brother]

1 hour ago, lildaveham said:

@Blue brother

 

I use this soil and have done for the past 18-24 months. I am in a 100l pot and the best advice I can give you is get some worms in your pots and plant a cover crop such as Crimson clover this will put nitrogen into the soil, also a mulch such as straw or hemp shiv this then ensures the top of your soil does not dry out.

The moisture level of the soil is crucial when using this soil and fabric pots. No wet dry cycle needed just a constant level of moistness and your soil will do the rest. I would say the more the soil is reused the better it gets but after every grow I top dress with lifecycle and put all my trim back into the pot for the worms to munch on. 
 

hope this helps and check out my diary if you want to see it in action.

 

What kind of worms do u recommend mate ? Should I build my pot now and get worms and cover crop in, I had a rough note in my diary to transplant around next Friday but obviously the plants dictate the timeframe. Do you put anything in the bottom of the pot? A mate of mine who does soil says put hydroton in the bottom to aid drainage, but I’m guessing this soil won’t need it ? 

[lildaveham]

@Blue brother

 

I would recomend Tiger or Dendrobaena worms you can get some from yorkshire worms mail order.

 

I would say its a good move to get your pots going and planted with cover crop before planting in yes, a realy good product for living soil imo is Biosys and it gets all the microbes going. I would also recomend raising the pots on something that will allow for airflow underneath. I have my pot on gravel trap stuff they sell in places like BnQ or Homebase. I wouldnt bother with the hydroton as you dont really want to have any run off in living soil pots also drainage will be sorted by the worms tunneling through the soil.

 

A good diary on here with living soil and where i got my inspiration/lots of knowledge is ....

Hope that helps

 

[Blue brother]

1 hour ago, lildaveham said:

@Blue brother

 

I would recomend Tiger or Dendrobaena worms you can get some from yorkshire worms mail order.

 

I would say its a good move to get your pots going and planted with cover crop before planting in yes, a realy good product for living soil imo is Biosys and it gets all the microbes going. I would also recomend raising the pots on something that will allow for airflow underneath. I have my pot on gravel trap stuff they sell in places like BnQ or Homebase. I wouldnt bother with the hydroton as you dont really want to have any run off in living soil pots also drainage will be sorted by the worms tunneling through the soil.

 

A good diary on here with living soil and where i got my inspiration/lots of knowledge is ....

Hope that helps

 

Excellent mate,

I think I’ve seen them on Amazon? Is that right Yorkshire tiger worms ?

 

Is biosis granular myco? Similar to great white?

Reason I ask is I did go live a few year back for

a couple runs and I was brewing ewc and great white teas and I’m somewhat familiar with knocking up a batch of Bennie tea. And also transplanting with a dusting of the granular stuff.

I eventually fd it off and started using raw bleach to much better success with mineral nutrients in hydroponics. 
 

ive been using vitamin c tablets to de chlorinate the water so far, the plants seem to have gotten paler as they’ve gotten older, only very slightly though, I have been tempted to feed the light mix but I reckon I should probs just transplant into the ecolife, and next time will probably just germinate and propagate in the 56l pot of ecolife  Would you recommend that?

thanks for ur help 

[lildaveham]

Just now, Blue brother said:

Is that right Yorkshire tiger worms ?

Yup they come through the post in a breathable bag inside a letter box shaped package.  Makes me chuckle tbh, mail order worms.

 

Biosys is a microbe tea and is easy to mix and apply no brewing or steeping needed . 
 

I would say if you are using fems then yeah straight in the pots but if using regs you want to sex them before transferring to the pots. If you get everything spot on including environment and watering the growth can be amazingly fast. 
 

You can always feed the young plants a bit of fish mix if they need some food before potting up.

 

As time goes on you may even want to automate your watering with a blumat system