Torture Gardens - Soil recipes and Pot Experiment

[Amnesialocal]

Hello everyone,

 

Experimenting a bit outdoor into a simple greenhouse. Keeping some UK420 seedling/plants in vegetative for experiments and testing some soil recipes.

 

Well..what's actually soil?

 

AI discussion:

"Soil is the complex mixture of minerals, organic matter, water, air, and living organisms that forms the top layer of the Earth's surface. It provides a vital medium for plant growth and supports a diverse ecosystem. While traditional soil may contain peat, which is partially decomposed organic matter found in wetland environments, peat-free soil refers to soil mixes that do not contain peat moss as an ingredient. Instead, peat-free soils utilize alternative organic materials such as compost, coir, bark, or green waste. Peat-free soil is favored for its sustainability and reduced environmental impact compared to peat-based mixes, which are sourced from environmentally sensitive peat bogs."

 

Soil ( the one bought for gardening) to me doesn't exist as such, but as blend, mix between different components and ingredients to create the perfect balanced product. Of course the commercial products are never "super" soil, because to focus as such for generic plants is very difficult and also because like this companies can sell also lot of fertiliser to add to the blend that we call soil.

So when we say: I am growing in soil....how much of actually "soil" is there on it? ( Living soil temporarily out of this discussion)

 

Here the recipe experiments I want to test now.

Transplanted 06.04. let's see how long takes them to die? Or maybe all the opposite:)

Let's check it out.

 

All recipes are for 3.5l pot.

Some plants I have then transplanted into 1l pot but proportions,gr,% are based on 3.5l

 

Organic 100%: onda calabra

Soil with 20% perlite 70%

Wormcast 20%

Guano 28 gr

Seeweed 2.5gr

Epsom Sault 5gr

Fish blood 5 gr

Sulfur 0.85gr 

 

Coco organic 100% 3.5l = 3.5plants ( X1 + 2 San Marzano tomatoes) CeliaxCelia or Panama x malawy #3

Coco 50%

Soil 15%

Wormcast 25%

Guano 28gr

Seeweed 2.5gr

Epsom Sault 5gr

Fish blood 5 gr

Sulfur 0.85gr 

 

Soil Osmocote  3.5l = 3.5plants ( X1 + 2 tomatoes) OT1B F2 #2-3

Soil + 20% vermiculite+ Osmocote 4gr/l = 14gr 

 

Coco Osmocote ( blue dream)  3.5l

90% Coco

10% vermiculite+ osmocote 5gr/l =17.5gr 

 

Super mix Coco soil organic

 3.5l = 3.5plants ( X1 + 2 tomatoes)

Coco 35%

Soil 30%

Wormcast 25%

Guano 28gr

Seeweed 2.5gr

Epsom Sault 5gr

Fish blood 5 gr

Sulfur 0.85gr

 

I found Blumat and lazy growers an inspirational combination and I decided to give a try to Blumat outdoor.

@Slippy One at the end I keep it

 

The system has been setup with little time, although since last weekend the pots are wet butnonky the Coco dripping a bit..drinking as expected...

I would like to combine 5 drippers for carot and actually use 1 carrot for the Coco main mix and the other blend mix as they need different watering.

 

All the recipe are based on products that I have already, are very cheap to buy or are part of the base for my hacking works with tomatoes

 

 

Coco double boosted with cal/mag organic

Biobizz warmcasting

Soil of the last tentative ( failed for mould ) growing outdoor.. I left stem and roots and added some fruit and veggy to decompose along all the winter. It smell forest.

And vermiculite

 

 

Here the ingredient. I am sure several you can find in any country you are.

 

And here the torture victims.

 

 

I have problems with slang and snails which exterminated in 1 night 12 tomatoes seedling.

Hopefully I will avoid now.

Temp are cold, very cold. 4-8C at night. Day also are not so warm yet.

Let's see.

 

Torture Gardens experiment soil recipe + Blumat starts.

Edited April 10 by Amnesialocal

[Slippy One]

That's crazy! A good experiment nonetheless, always wondered if adding organics into coco would be the same as pellets (Osmocote or beanstalk etc). 

 

My last outdoor season was just experiment to see if the coco/pellet combo would work, as I hate watering and was on holiday for 2 weeks. Turns out the combo worked, so I brought the idea indoors over this winter to some success. I say 'some' as I had issues keeping the pots damp with no runoff, which drained the res too much. I'm still tweaking so stay tuned on the lazy thread.. 

 

Good luck. From that pic, I noticed there's no end flow valve, which helps remove air when setting up, and the distance from carrot to where the drip comes out should be no longer than 8cm, 6 is better imo. 

 

 

 

[Amnesialocal]

3 hours ago, Slippy One said:

I'm still tweaking so stay tuned on the lazy thread..

Absolutely!

3 hours ago, Slippy One said:

I noticed there's no end flow valve, which helps remove air when setting up, and the distance from carrot to where the drip comes out should be no longer than 8cm, 6 is better imo.

Thanks to advise on this!

[Amnesialocal]

To clarify as I actually missed.

Here the intent is to use Blumat with plain water, without added fertiliser ( lazy style) just gravitational dropping without electricity needed. Gravitational hydroponics.

 

2 X are in 3.5l ( autos)

The rest are in 1l pot

Both nutrient base recipe is considered for 3 months maximum....less to me. So the 1l will need some action in the future.

[Slippy One]

here the end valve which eliminates any air bubbles. Keep an eye on the res level, as I have a hunch that below half will provide pressure issues and might be responsible for any runaway carrots. I’ll be trying to keep my res over 50% for this next cycle to see if that helps.. 

 

 

 

[grooving]

Hope the torture garden transforms into a verdant Eden for you Amnesialocal. 

 

@Slippy One I’ve wondered about that too. Surely less water in the res will lead to less gravity pressure for the drippers. To mitigate this I run 2 outlets from the reservoir (see pic with 2 red inline valves) that join the loop with a drain valve at the farthest point.

 

 

[Slippy One]

@groovingthsnks! Every day is a school day.. makes sense and I’m guessing my hunch was right, still not sure if it’s the cause of runaway carrots but the lack of decent pressure might introduce air pockets under a certain psi.. 

 

The holy grail would be one of their mains valves. Without a res I would literally have nothing to do.. might be worth looking into for lazinesses sake..

[Hazeytones]

Think I'd rather 50l on the floor than an endless running tap if all goes wrong. I had thought about it but chickened out 

 

I've got fed up with the blumats and back to hand watering at the min. I kept getting runaways in my 90l pot, no matter what I do it keeps watering until the meter reads 33 which was no good. I finished the last run and reset the blumats and it's still doing it.

 

It's the opposite in my 3x3 bed it can't seem to keep it wet enough which I think may be down to not enough pressure from running the two off the one res.

 

But yeah you want to try and keep the reservoir at the level you set the blumats at or it starts to mess about with them a bit. The best solution I think would be to have a tank that feds your reservoir on a float valve type setup.

Edited April 10 by Hazeytones

[MindSoup]

On 10/04/2024 at 23:52, Hazeytones said:

The best solution

 

The best solution (as demonstrated recently on BAS) is a constant pressure pump . Pretty expensive though, not something I'd pay for myself. Probably still wouldn't make them work properly with Coco either. 

 

They're listed on Ecothrive's website. 

 

E2A I'm getting alot less/no runaways since I started my new set-up. I think having a few drippers after each carrot helps, maybe it gives a more gradual even release of the water so the sensors have more time to react?  

Edited April 12 by MindSoup

[MindSoup]

 

E2A you also want a loop for the feed line. Either like @grooving describes  with 2 outlets from the res or as above. It equalises the feed pressure. 

Edited April 12 by MindSoup

[Hazeytones]

I don't know man I've done the whole lot by the book and when I first set them up in the pot I had no problems until I was well into flower then started getting runaways.

 

I just finished the last run by hand watering. I then took the carrots out, the long one was empty, and primed them again, put them in cooled boiled water, made sure to remove any bubbles and set them back into the pot into compost only. The pot was watered by hand until the meter was reading 100 and the blumats set again, next day was reading 33 so they got turned off.

 

In my 3x3 it never ends up over watered it just slowly makes its way to being too dry. The blusoak tape is always full so I think it might be down to the pressure not being enough running the two off the one res.

 

I just can't be annoyed melting my head with it at the minute and I have a couple of young clones in the pot now so I don't want to drown them.

 

I'm chopping the rest of the bed down this weekend so I'll reset it and just run the bed with the blumats and leave the pot and see if that makes a difference.

 

[MindSoup]

Yeah TBF, I may well just be getting lucky. My theory was that a lot of my issues were being caused by all the work activity around the carrots, adding drippers has definitely stopped that issue, but time will tell.

[Amnesialocal]

Many thanks all for the comments and advises, are all very well appreciated.

 

Definitely Blumat is not so easy to setup.

 

I have of course assembled the valve pipe In the wrong location, the tank I selected (5l) lasted not a lot. It is hanging from the greenhouse higher point, and there is enough pressure ( when full) to water correctly. But it is too small...and I don't have lot of options due to weight.

 

The run off flush which emptied my bucket in 1 day and half happen unexpectedly...

I have few drippers which I will add to the carots and I will adjust the lines following your comments.

 

Not easy to adjust neither the carot drippers.

Some soil has mould on the surface, and the blends are all very wet.

I could live with Coco, but the main soil blend % could experience problems.

 

Still nights at 11-12c and day around 14-16 if cloudy and up to 35C ! if sunny. I love greenhouses

 

I recently bought a ¥9 "automatic watering plant controller" with 60 days autonomy with 8 drippers. Relatively silent, two way pump with suction. 80-100cm high.

Not sure if this could be an alternative to Blumat.

 

The carrot with 1l pots are not a viable solution. Roots growing, soil adjustment, space are all factors that are affecting the carrot.

 

In which scenarios do you use the valve at the end of the system?

And if my tank get dry and air enter in the system....do I need to remove the carot, reset and put them back?

 

Tx

[Amnesialocal]

17th days after:

 

I have still issues with Blumat as the tank empty suddenly. So I added an automated system to support the main 3.5l.

I still need to adjust, and experiment more with Blumat ....

 

Another plant (OT1BF2) Is male...so I am going with 10 males over 15 seeds I planted! Makes me think about environmental and sex predetermination.

 

 

How much environment can modify the genotype too? Or just the phenotype?

Look at the left OTBF2 with purple stem.

Probably temperature stress, but the brother in the right side is normal.

 

Crazy temperatures.

Crazy Rh

Here you can see the onda calabra and blue dream in blend mix super soil one and Coco+ osmocote the other.

 

The experiment here is about soil recipe and I guess is still very early to see how the recipe is responding.

 

I will cut and clone what I hope are famales and move into the hacking room to have fun with.