Well I finally jumped in head first and put together my no till organic bed. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and finally got it together. My tent is a 5x5 secret jardin with an 8" max fan and 6x24 phresh filter along with custom window ac. Lighting is 1k hortilux with an adjust a wing hood. Here she is!
10 plants but 2 are runts. I'm sure you're doing fine. Thanks for looking. Yeah I'm getting that feeling too. Should keep getting better and better as I develop the full compliment of "benes". At the start of next round I will have some beautifully finished compost to top dress. I also plan on using FPE's to add nutrition as needed. At the moment I have yarrow, comfrey and dandelions. I also have some nettle seeds that I will germinate soon too. Check out my "little Nikita" aka Bocking 14. Just need to find a spot in the yard to plant it.
After it's been in the ground a few months, remove a long piece of root and cut the root into 3/4" pieces. Plant those and you'll have new Comfrey plants. In your weather zone you should get massive growth year round. I know that you were doing thermal compost and I thought you had a worm casting deal set-up as well. I'd mix the thermal compost with worm castings at 1:1 and top dress with that. I believe that you'll be pleased with the results and especially with the botanical materials you have to work with. Yarrow - great stuff for the development of flowers. Combined with the Comfrey and Dandelions you're over the top on the nutrient profile. LD
In case anyone was wondering, my soil is a homemade mix I've been working on for about a year now. It consists of the following ingredients: Base mix is peat moss, coco coir, compost, ewc and pumice/perlite. Amendments are neem seed meal, fish meal, fish bone meal, alfalfa meal, soybean meal, soft rock phosphate, kelp meal, crab meal, k mag, oyster shell powder, gypsum, dolomite lime, and a hefty dose of glacial rock dust. My compost component is made up of homemade compost, malibu bu's blend and marwest.
I haven't got the worm bin up and running yet. All I need is the worms. For now I have to rely on the agrowinn castings. I spread a layer of castings on top of the soil (indoor bed) before I spread the bark mulch. How big of a space would you recommend for the comfrey?
organicterra From the 'experts' in England and Australia the recommend spacing is 24" on center. From my experience in my Comfrey patch I'd go with 3' - 4' and especially in your area with perfect weather all year round for this plant. If you had 9 plants up and running by next January or so then you could expect to harvest 350 - 450 lbs. of biomass each year. I can only get about 4 cuttings per year in Oregon whereas you should be able to pull massive cuttings every 60 days or so - again all year round. LD
organicterra Here's a simple worm bin that will give you 7 or 8 c.f. by Valentine's Day. Take a #65 SmartPot and fill with a mix of 'something' with rice hulls 4:1 - thermal compost, aged horse manure, composted chicken manure, etc. Hydrate completely and let the water drain off and fill your SmartPot and add a pound of Red Wigglers and cover the 'worm bin' with several layers of wet newspapers, a couple layers of cardboard, whatever to keep the moisture level intact. Monitor weekly for hydration levels and add small amounts of water as necessary. The advantage of using the SmartPot is that you can spray the sides of the worm bin precluding the process of simply adding water from the top which results in too much water in the bedding. Cheap. Effective. Productive. LD
How wide is that 150 gallon pot? I am looking forward to seeing this. Pot size matters more then people think. Whether it be indoor or outdoor. Strains?
It's 45"wide x 22"deep. I'm hoping to have an extensive mycorrhizae network eventually so that each plant that goes in will be able to tap into the matrix, so to speak. By continually adding thermal compost and worm castings along with ACT and other "teas" and plant inputs I should be able to provide as close to a complete soil food web as possible in an indoor environment. (That's the idea anyway) The strain is OG Kush (Fire cut). Here's a couple shots from last round that just came down.
Hmmm I never heard of the fire cut. Got to go read about it now. I got the abusive cut myself. I would never let her die. Don't know if its your skill but the fire cut looks like a hefty yielder.
Just throwing it out there but, fish emulsions are awesome for the mycos everything is looking great man
Is there a diff between the 2? Yeah I <3 my fish tho it's my base fert, between the 5-1-1 and 0-10-10
I have read better articles but can't find them so I will link you this. But basically emulsion is missing a bunch of goodies because it is heat processed instead of using enzymes. http://www.saferscapes.com/files/Facts-Info_Hydroylzed_Fish2.pdf
Oh yeah for sure, they have almost no trace mineral content, so need cal/mag and stuff still but I might look into the other kind just cuz I love my fish so much