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reserve your ad hereHey-hey my green friends, welcome to another article/episode of Rev (that’s me) babbling about stuff, heh heh. Today I’ll be babbling about a simple organic growing method using living soil in containers. You could apply these techniques to outdoor in the ground plants for sure. But let’s keep the focus on container plants today.
Most def no AI had anything to do with writing this article, I mean, obviously 😊 it’s all me.
As some of you may know, I use True Living Organics (TLO) style growing. This dynamic is for sure TLO approved. Even though this style uses a bottled liquid fertilizer (fish fertilizer), it’s all good and organic for living soil. Grab a copy of my latest book: True Living Organics – the Druid’s Edition by Rev, today! In my latest book, I really get into the soil mixes, as this is keystone. Then I give you a plethora of tools you can dial into your own environment and availability—not so heavy on specific recipes, just some guidelines here. It’s a buffet, use what you need. The knowledge you will gain is invaluable in life. Okay, on with the show…
A Simple Organic Growing Method Challenge for Rev
I was recently in a conversation with a grower friend. He’s a newbie organic grower evolved from synthetics. Anyways, he says to me: “Yeah, but Rev man, what if you didn’t have worm juice or aquarium water and you were just starting out a new grow, what would you do?” I gotta say, that hit me solid, heh heh.
Since I’m way old now, harvesting my castings from my stacked worm farm is becoming more of a problem. So, I was ready to take this challenge. For my latest grow I am just using Alaskan Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1 N-P-K, and some Big Bloom, by Fox Farm (both pictured above). Along with these I am also using some top dressings of things like crab meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and granular chicken poop. Since I’m using liquid nutrients, I am running my water pH a little lower down around 6.3 ish pH. You can see they below are doing well with about 25 days left to go.
Simple Organic Growing Method Feeding
Okay, now when you are growing in living soil letting life do its thing, I don’t like to upset the container life a bunch by using a nutrient blast every 10 days or whatever. This entails higher than normal PPM values and altered pH range, normally pretty drastically. Shock to the soil life for sure, and kinda knocks them off their routines—ya feel me? Soooo … What I like to do is feed them a little bit every time I water them, just a little bit. This way everybody gets used to their consistent environment and kicks some serious (consistent) ass.
I have used this simple organic growing method from their beginnings. I don’t really need to amend their water much until they get into flowering. But I always do add just a little bit of the fish fertilizer and tweak their pH a bit lower throughout their youth and in vegetative mode.
I have two flowering tents, I flower in 3 gallon containers normally. My plants come in just under 3 feet if all goes well—LoL—sometimes they get a little larger. I use recycled TLO living soil, and I’m currently using 2, 400 watt 420h LED lights, running at 300 watts each.
The Recipe
A simple organic growing method indeed… I use ½ gallon-ish of water on each flowering plant, each watering. Since I usually have 8 plants flowering, that equals 4 gallons and I end up using about 4.5 gallons when all is said and done. I water every 3 days at first and closer to every other day for their last several weeks before harvest. Since I use a 5 gallon bucket as my water reservoir, I keep 5 gallons of dechlorinated groundwater bubbling between waterings. I add a tiny amount of dolomite lime to this bubbling water, like a coke spoon’s worth (approx. 1/32nd teaspoon) as soon as I fill it up.
Just before I water, I add about 20 to 30 drops of fish fertilizer and about 10 to 15 drops of Big Bloom to the bubbling 5 gallons of water. As long as my PPM isn’t over 65 PPM, I’m good, and 57 PPM is all fine too, or even lower. Dial it in. 55 to 65 PPM as an initial target zone. I let it all bubble for about 10 minutes, then give a quick PPM and pH check to make sure I got it right. I use the Apera PH20 and the Apera TDS20 meters for this. Check out this article for more info about that: TDS Meters and PPM. As you approach flowering, I would use less Fishy Ferts and more Big Bloom starting about halfway through flowering (no more fishy fertilizer starting 3 weeks before harvest).During the last few weeks of flowering lessen any additions so your last week or 10 days is just ground water.
Simple Organic Growing Method pH Control
I add a small pinch (about 1/16th of a teaspoon) of pH-Down crystals to my 5 gallons of bubbling water—here’s the link, Earthjuice pH-Down Crystals on Amazon. Or, I use about a ¾ teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. Either of these additions takes me from 6.8-ish pH down to around 6.3ish. Just do a little trial and error and you’ll be able to dial it in to where you land right where you want to. The higher the PPM value of your water, the more pH modifier you will need to use, and so, the reverse is also true. Getting your pH right is important, here’s an article by yours truly with more info on that stuff: You pH Meter and pH Stuff.
Note: The pH is affected temporarily by both the crystals and the apple cider vinegar. The crystals last longer than the vinegar. The vinegar lasts about an hour or more, and the crystals last several hours or more.
Afterword
Okay man, this is a quite inexpensive way to employ a simple organic growing method, yeah? My Plants still have a few weeks to go here but I can tell they will be all good. Plants that are in good living soil, they cannabilize themselves very slowly. You should see first signs of this about halfway through flowering. Don’t panic, many of the plant’s leaves have a new job of being “food and water batteries” for the plant in later flowering. That’s just how annuals do baybee.
It does need to be said that my run with this style uses my TLO style, built and recycled soil which is very powerful. My latest book has all those recipes in detail so use that link in the intro and get a copy. Also check out my YouTubes channel if ya wanna: Rev’s TLO YouTubes Channel. And stop by over at Kingdom Organic Seeds and grab you some cannabis varieties with very different “personalities” high germination rates, and excellent sexual health. Sourced from all over the globe. Grown and bred all naturally TLO style.
I haven’t tested this yet, but I’m pretty sure with the addition of these pH-Down crystals, or AC vinegar to your water, this also should dechlorinate the water—not sure about this yet, but I will be testing it soon. I’m outty for now, see ya back here soon. L8r G8rs.
- REv 😊
