OT1

[dustin boles]

hey ot1, when i first joined uk420, you replied to a post of mine, remember, i got a little mad cause i thought that "piece of string" was something smartass? anyway, you said something about ph but i cant remember and i cant find the thread. im growing in an organic soil mix. its about time i start fedding liquid nutes cause the ones in my soil are all used up. but i need to know about ph levels. ill be using earth juice as per your advice, so during veg and flower, what should my ph be? thanks a lot.

[dustin boles]

ok, well anyone else have the answer to my question.

[serendipity]

Hello Dustin Boles

When I ran into problems a while ago was advised about 6 which I believe is slightly on the acid side of neutral.

Soil tester kits are cheap and you can do a quick test in a couple of minutes.

S.

[oldtimer1]

Hi dustin boles, sorry been a little busy of late and missed this post. If your compost has dolomite lime in so the compost ph is round 6.5 it will buffer back close to this if you use earth juice.

I know when you first mix earth juice the mix is pretty acidic it does not matter as if left to stand it will come back to ph 6 on its own through bacterial activity, but freshly mixed and immediately watered into a buffered soil mix it does the same thing in minutes. So don’t worry about the ph if you added dolomite lime to your compost.

[dustin boles]

kool, thanks to both of you. ot1, i was beginning to think you didnt like me for some reason, isat here yesterday trying to think if i pissed you off or something.

[helenofjoy]

Where/how do I go about acquiring high quality seeds for growing?

Am very interested in those of the "white" family variety.

Thank you for any help.

[Labrat]

No personal experience (yet) but I'll offer up a couple of on-line stores.

Dutch Passion, well thought of on here.

Seeds Direct.

Theres also a fairly useful forum here.

[greengrass]

Hi ot1,

After reading many glowing reviews and seen the evidence i have purchased 50 ltrs of bio bizz all mix+veg&bloom and being totaly new too all this organics was wondering if the advice you gave too dustin on mixing his organic mix with dolomite lime would also applie to me ,or does biobizz all mix already contain it? I understand it is quite complete. I`m worried about ph of the medium becoming too strong as the ph of my tap water after standing 24hrs is 7.6 it is also verry hard.

I have seen youre mix at the top of the forum in which you use 200ml in a 50 ltr mix would yo also recomend this dosage in bio bizz allmix? I just don`t want too overdo it and already have the lime so it would be a shame not too use it benaficely if i could.

Allready picked up some handy feeding hints from youreself an others on these threads so i dont want to bugger it up before i start!

Also should i do anything too the bio bizz all mix before i use it ,like wetting it or letting air get too it(its still in the bag) before i use it?

many thanks for youre time

all the best gg

[oldtimer1]

gg allmix is pretty much ready to use with every thing in it you need, with a water ph of 7.6 you would not need to add more lime to the allmix. The allmix should buffer back the water ok, its not the same as with hydro.

The thing you will need is some epsom salts, one dose during mid veg period plus two doses during flowering, at round 10 days and 35 days on 12/12 at a level table spoon per 5 litres.

Final tip when potting up your plants fluff up the compost in the bag, then add it to the pot until its brim full to over flowing do not squash or compress it. Make a hole by lifting out a enough compost for your plant to go in, lightly fill round the rootball. Give the pot a couple of taps on the ground to settle the compost in the pot. Do not firm or press the compost in the pot or round the plant. Gently water with a fine rose wetting the whole compost surface until you get a little run through, I recommend you stand the pots in pot trays/saucers the run through should not be more than a cm in the tray. Leave it for half an hour, if all the water has been drawn back into the pot, give it a little more until no more is drawn in to the pot. Do not leave the pot standing with water in the tray for more than an hour or two. If there is any in the tray after that time, tip it out. Do not water again until the root ball is dry. Then follow the same procedure. I know this sounds ancy but you will soon get the idea of how much it takes, hefting the pot will give you an idea when the compost is wet or dry. Over the first couple of waters the compost will firm its self so you have a cm or so gap from the pot rim. This gives you the ideal water/air holding capacity. One of the biggest mistakes non gardeners make is trying to pack as much compost as they can into the pot and compressing it till there are virtually no air spaces, this makes for anaerobic soil conditions and the compost goes stagnant with little root growth. Hope this helps.

[greengrass]

Cheers ot1, youv`e saved my all mix! glad too hear i shouldn`t experiance any ph problems

I already have some epsom salts but have never known exactly when too use them thanks again.

As BioBizz is complete do you rcomend using the salts because my water is hard or is it standard practice in pot grows? i have experienced bad new growth yellowing in previous pot grows and suspected the hard water could be locking out the magnesium.

That sounds like a great tip you said about waiting too see if they drink the run off its got too be like giving them the max with little chance of over doing it

I have a bit of a grasp of pot wieghing by hand so hope fully i won`t over water. I wiil definetly keep the mix airy and youre recomondation of the sprinkler should help keep it that way

many thanks for your time & help ot1

all the best gg

[oldtimer1]

On Mg, just my opinion but it seems to be the one thing all the Biobizz products are a little low in. A little supplementation resolves this prob, other than that the Biobizz products are first class..

See how you go with this grow. Earth juice fertilisers may suit your water better as they are more acidic, just something to keep in mind.

Hefting the pot is more to get an idea when the compost is dry and needs a water. The idea is that it should not get so dry as to stress the plant and to water well before there is a chance of leaf wilt. Its a judgment that needs learning. A lot of people err on the side of caution and water to often, this causes more damage than letting things get to dry.

[greengrass]

Thanks for clearing a few things up for me ot1, much apreciated will post post up pics when i have anything decent to show.

all the best gg

[Bish]

Cleared a few things up for me too - cheers folks

[greengrass]

Hi ot1 have been following youre advice to the letter & and everthing seems too be going great

I planted my rooted clones in 3 inch pots under a 90 watt flouro lightwing from growell 6 days ago making sure the soil was well airy. Roots a now emerging from the bottom of all the pots & new growth is a lightish green and they have doubled in size(now 4 inches)They look verry healthy they definatley like this all mix.

I have been watering as advised with my new dinky haws watering can superb

Ihave just tapped them out of there pots very,verry carefully too examine the roots and after studying the pictures on the Roots thread they look ready for repotting this is where I become a tad confused over pot size.

Would it be best too move them straight into a 6 ltr pot as you do in 48 baby cuts? or would i be better of stepping up the pot size gradualy over 2 or 3 steps?

going straight from 3-4 inch pots to 6 ltr pots seems strange too me i thought this would be detrimentle too root ball formation or is this normal in organics?or is this just more suited to sogging true sativas?

I`m not trying too sog.Ihave just 9 fem skunk clones in a well ventilated 2.75x3.25 area which i want too keep simple with a reasonable yield.

I plan too veg for aweek or 2 under my 250 then move on to my 600 kind of ease them in gently if that helps at all.

Many thanks ot1

[oldtimer1]

Hi gg heh heh I use haws watering cans to.

On repotting into final pots, my sats grow so fast that its not a problem, my final pots are 7 x 7 x 9 inches sq.

Seeing you are only going to grow 9 plants I would go for as big a final pots as you can fit in the space. You say its about 33 inches x 39 inches, the organic grow shop does a 25 x 25 cm by 30 cm high square pots that hold 16 litres of compost. Thats 10 x 10 x 12 inches. If you cant get them try and get some 11 inch diameter round pots. Big pots give your plants much more in the way of reserves and will make much better individual plants.

If you go this route I would advise using intermediate pots of say 6 inch round would do, grow your plants on until fully rooted then move them to their final pots. Grow on again until you are fully rooted before going to 12/12. Do not set a time table before hand, go by what your plants are doing. To check with the big pots don’t knock them out just look for roots at the drainage holes on all the pots, any time after that, assuming you are satisfied that the top growth is big enough, then you switch to flowering.

The more light you use the shorter the veg/rooting period will be.