There are many methods to grow any plant, some more popular than others. Most pop-farmers today (I think I just coined a term) pretty much roll with the program… you buy $$$$ worth of hydro gear, you pay a heady electrician to set it all up, and you go on the grow-store prescription, constantly returning to the grow store for $$$ worth of nutrients every month or week or what have you.
Well, we here at Roots & Harmony are all about doing things our own way… we believe in the ecosystem, in natural and organic produce and foods, and low-footprint farming methods that recycle, reduce, and reuse. After over 20 years of farming various things various ways (we’ve tried all the techniques for growing anything from summer squash to sour diesel), we believe we’ve arrived right back at what nature intended… soil, water, food and light. Today I want to discuss some of the reasons why soil farming is the way to go, and maybe even (yeah right) convert some of you noobs out there, and get you off on the right foot.
Eco-Friendly
Soil farming is eco-friendly. By using organic soils and food ingredients, you produce waste after each cycle that can be re-used in your garden, or simply spread on your land with no negative environmental consequence. Large reservoirs full of chemical nutrients and plant waste must be flushed and dumped… where they either go into our sewer systems, into the earth, or otherwise into our environment. Soil ensures your plants use only the water and nutrients they need, thereby avoiding toxic or otherwise unseemly water waste. Soil also requires no constant electricity, so you are able to reduce the power footprint required by your setup.
Forgiving
Soil has a slower uptake than hydro systems (it’s like eating a hamburger vs. injecting burger grease into your veins). Because of this, mistakes such as under-watering and overfeeding can be corrected easier and will not have as much of an impact on your plants or veggies. It also acts as a reservoir in it’s own right, so you have more lenience with watering and feeding, although we don’t recommend you use it… it’s just there when you need it.
Productive
Soil can be the most productive medium. It depends on how you use it. Soil is its own ecosystem, it can harbor many beneficial microbes and fungi that hydro systems cannot. This ecosystem needs food though, so you need to adjust your feeding techniques appropriately. We believe that by using a reasonable amount of liquid nutrients and a healthy soil top dress you can actually more effectively, safely, and efficiently feed your plants without need for expensive runs to the grow store. With a healthy top dress, you are actually feeding your plants every time you water, and as the plant uptakes, the food and water is re-distributed throughout the medium via osmosis and fluid dynamics. Effectively, the plant “pulls” as much as it needs from the medium, instead of the medium “pushing” the nutrients into the plant. This minimizes time spent recovering from overfeeding and hence maximizes your yield.
Functional
Soil is a hospitable and receptive environment, designed to do exactly what it does… grow plants. It provides a lattice-work structure for the roots to grow in, promotes stronger, thicker, healthier root-growth, and as well, provides a pleasant home for a wide variety of good things. These beneficial microbes and fungi were designed by nature to aid plant growth and make soil an ideal medium.
Natural
Because soil is the natural structure design to grow plant roots it provides many benefits that nutritive water alone cannot. These benefits do more than increase yield, prevent plagues, and keep your plants healthy and your costs down… they also make your fruit taste better. Tell me a lab-grown Safeway tomato tastes better than a farm-grown organic heirloom tomato. Exactly. After a properly executing a soil run, you should notice brighter flavors, no chemical aftertaste, and smooth smoke. These are the hallmarks of a well balanced plant chemistry and proper flushing, which soil is the natural way to get!
Give soil a try… it might change the way you farm forever.
For people that keep a small personal grow, the choice to either hand-water or setup a more sophisticated watering system can be a difficult one. Is the time and expense of setup and materials worth the payoff? It can be! This article will show you how to get going with the “Mandro” method… Man powered hydro.
What is the Mandro Method?
The mandro method is simple… it merges two aspects of the two most common watering techniques, hand-watering and hydroponics. Because a hydro system is constantly flushing water through the plants, it needs a reservoir to act as a constant water source. In a true hand-watering setup, water is transported to the plants via a container and applied manually. The Mandro method uses the best of both worlds, allowing you to keep plenty of well-prepared water (we’ll get into that later) on hand for lots of watering. There are two key benefits:
Consistency
To get the most from your plants, you should give them what they want when they want it, nothing less, nothing more. Having a reservoir of properly PH’d, nutrified, warmed, and aerated water on hand ensures that your plants will get the same thing everytime you water… same temperature, same PH, same nutrients (unless it’s time to change them).
Convenience
It’s easier! Watering is a chore when done the traditional way, this will put watering at your fingertips and make your nightlies a snap.
Awesome! How do I start?
You will need the following things:
1. 22 Gallon Trash Can
2. $60 1200 gal/hour sump pump.
3. Hi-quality gardening hose (approx 20′ is good)
4. Hi-quality watering wand with hand valve (to turn your water on/off at the wand)
5. Water heater (for fish tanks or from your local grow store)
6. Water aerator (for fish tanks or from your local grow store)
7. A No-Kink for your hose… it’s a spring that keeps the part of the hose near the wand from kinking and cutting of your water supply.
Step 1 - install your water heater
Most in-water heaters have suction pads on the sides. Use these to squarely attach your heating wand to the side of the trash can, about 2/3rds of the way down, oriented vertically. Make sure no metal is touching the plastic of the water reservoir. At very high temperatures this can melt your resi and cause problems (aka flooding). Plug your heater into a constant power source.
Step 2 - fill your resi
Put your water reservoir (the trash can) where you want it to stay, cuz it’s heavy once it’s full of water - and very awkward to move. Fill it to the top, about an inch to spare.
Step 3 - install your aerator.
This is easy… plug it into a constant power source and turn it in, then dunk it on in there. It should rest at the bottom of the trash can, so the air travels through all the water.
Step 4 - install your sump pump.
Also easy… take the sump pump out of the box. Screw one end of your gardening hose onto the mount on the pump. Holding your power cord and hose in one hand, sink your sump pump down to the bottom of the resi, letting it come to rest flat on the floor of your trash can, not touching your water heater. Plug your pump into a switched power source, so you can turn it on/off easily for watering time! A power strip with an on/off switch is fine.
Step 5 - attach your wand.
Screw your wand onto the remaining end of the garden hose. Voila! You now have a 2-valve automated watering system for soil containers, aka a Mandro System! To use, make sure your valve on your wand is in the off position, turn on your pump switch, and now you have an interruptable flow of water at your wand just like you would if you had it attached to your household plumbing.
Step 6 - refilling your resi
The whole point of a reservoir is convenience and consistency of quality, so make sure you set yourself up to easily refill your resi when needed. Also make sure to schedule your refills so that the new water has time to heat and aerate before being applied to your plants. If you forget to fill it, then realize you need to water, and fill it in a rush (especially during cold weather) you’ll shock your plants and set them back, which you want to avoid.
So That’s It!
You are now all set to enjoy the convenience and quality of the Mandro method. For more information on what to do with your newly-handy stash of super awesome growilla water, check out our next two entries, where we discuss the benefits of using soil and go into the murky depths of what exactly makes up good water.
Even though it’s the dead of winter, if you are running an indoor room, you should be doing some healthy spring cleaning every few months. That’s right, I’m talking about your little personal closet, the tucked-away 8×3 that keeps the “grower’s reserve” coming in… it gets dirty between rounds, and that’s not good for your stuff.
We’ve talked about what to do with supplier-size operations when it’s time to start over, but today I’m going to focus on the rest of us - the personal farmers.
Small rooms are different than larger rooms for a variety of reasons. There are pros and cons to both, but both situations can be appropriate, so it just comes down to knowing what to watch out for so your next cycle goes off as well as this one.
Air Flow
Small rooms typically have less air movement than larger ones… why? Because larger volumes of fluid (air is a gas, which is a fluid substance.. check your chemistry book) produce convection currents (the movement of fluid caused by differences in temperature) more naturally and effectively, and larger rooms tend to have more natural sources of air flow (leaks, basically). The air in your room makes up almost all of it’s volume, so keeping it clean is very important. To do this, do three things:
1. Make sure you have a clean room when you start. A room full of dust mites, allergens, spores, molds, and mildews with only release those pests into the air - where they will come to rest on your plants.
2. Make sure you constantly move and recycle the air in your small space. For most small spaces, a decent filter/fan setup, an oscillating fan 6-16″ in diameter (depending on the size of your room or closet), and a 6-16″ inch intake hole will do the job. Remember, in more casual setups, your intake can be the sum total of any source of air that is allowed into the room (basically, all the openings, cracks, holes, crevices, etc). In my personal closet, a small curtain blocks the light while the door is left slightly ajar to allow for an instant wealth of air intake. This works fine.
3. After you finish a cycle, make sure you let your room air out well (at least a full 24 hours) before you thoroughly clean it. If you can, let a heater run warmly while airing out so you can dry the moist air left over after flushing your last round. This is the most important step, because the junk that accumulates during even a perfect grow cycle will only harbor the critters and funk that we don’t want in our air next time. SO… onto the cleaning.
Surface Area
Small rooms have less surface area for funk to collect on, so funk collects in a higher concentration. That’s why small contained areas tend to grow little funky mildew patches behind couches and on closet walls. While the the lights and airflow in your room will prevent those concentrations from building, those critters are still there, in the air, on the surfaces, and all around. That’s why it’s important to thoroughly sanitize all your surface areas between rounds.
1. Use a broom and vacuum to remove all the particulate matter, dust, dirt, remnants, and other funk left over. If you are using beds like we’ve built on this blog, or pre-fab water reservoirs, or anything else that has collected funk during your cycle, make sure you wipe it down as well and get it as clean as possible.
2. Using a solution of hydrogen peroxide concentrate (or bleach if it’s all you can get), mix about .5 oz. with about 3 or 4 gallons of water, preferrably in a sprayer (I like the Round-Up brand sprayers the best). Generously spray your walls, floor, and ceiling, beds, etc.. everything besides your lights, fans, and sensitive electrical equipment. If it needs it, scrub it with a rag. Rinse all this material with a hose thoroughly as you want no bleach or peroxide getting in contact with your water, soil, or materials once you are growing again.
3. Lightly dampen a clean rag with some of your cleaning solution (peroxide/water or bleach/water) and wipe down the in and outside of your light hoods, your fan blades, fan housing, and anything else that shouldn’t be sprayed but has exposed surface area. Wipe it dry with a dry, clean rag.
Preperation for the Next Round
Now that your room is clean, we want it to stay that way. If you can, do all your preperation work in a seperate space… do not mix soil, fill pots, mix nutrients, or do anything else inside your space that doesn’t absolutely have to be there. If you have your beds ready to just roll in, all clean and potted, then you minimize the chance that material will be found laying around that can be colonized by pests and parasites.
Finally, a tip that I’ve used everytime… NEEM your surfaces after you clean and before you start up again. Neem oil is a exactly that, an oil… it suffocates/starves any mites, mildews, or molds that land on it, and creates a seal over the top of your clean surfaces that makes them an inhospitable enviroment for critters and funk. To do this, follow the directions on your bottle of neem oil, mix it in a CLEAN (never the one you used for your cleaning solution) Round-Up sprayer, and generously coat any crevice or opening where mites could enter, as well as the walls, floor, beds, sides of your buckets, and anything else with a solid surface from about your knees your waist down.
Voila!
Now your room is clean, sealed, sanitized, and ready to go. Roll in your fresh, clean beds full of veggies and let the next round roll!
See ya next time.
Hey Gang,
Growilla is taking a bit of a summer sabbatical. In the meanwhile, the 2009 Lunar Growing Guide and Calendar is about to go to press. Soon it will be in our shop for purchase!
If you live in a state that allows you to grow medical marijuana for others, you should make sure to keep your recommendations in order to safely cover your plant numbers. Always have a phone number for a good medical marijuana lawyer in your wallet. For a list of lawyers, check out High Times Legal Directory.
When your ladies are ready to be harvested, the first thing to do is start organizing your trim party. (Stay tuned for our “T-Party” article to be posted soon!) When harvesting, we recommend using garden pruners and having someone else there to hold on to the clipped buds. Take care when cutting the thick stalks of the big plants. Sometimes they fall over into the dirt or on the ground, and sticky buds pick up dirt particles quite easily. Once you bring in the buds for trimming, cut them down into hanger-size branches. The best length is 3-5 inches. Any more, and the branch may flop over when I hold it up to trim. Any less, and you might end up with popcorn (buds with nothing to hang on to, so they have to dry in a bowl). Now you’re ready for your trim team to go!
June 20th is a great start date for the second greenhouse depro.
TIme to start flushing your greenhouse for harvest. Keep PH at 5.0-5.8. This will ensure the last available P and K (Phosphorus and Potassium) are still being taken up by the plants. We apply water for the last two weeks, and during the last week, we feed the plants 2-3 times more water than usual. This flushes excess salts and nutrient from the medium, ensuring the sweetest of flavors from your medicine. Remember to withhold water for the last 24-48 hours to help trigger the natural defense of the resin to stop the plants transpiration. We find this helps the resin glands swell a bit more. And as an added benefit, your buckets are a lot lighter to move.
June is the month to plant outdoors in all but the coldest climate, such as alpine. Growers in warm climates should plant now for a full harvest. If nighttime temps dip below 50 F/10 C, protect your tender seedlings and transplants by covering them with a remay cloth or milk cartons. Pay attention to your local TV and Newspaper for weather forecasts. Plants in alpine climates will need to be under plastic or glass until temperatures warm above 50F lows. When moving plants from indoors to outdoors, make sure to “harden them off”. For a week to 10 days, set clones/plants outside to expose them to outdoor elements. Increase outdoor time by one hour per day. Bring plants in at night.
p.s. This should be close to your last fertilizations for your greenhouse flowering cycle.
In your greenhouse, you should be half way through flowering cycle. It’s not too late to thin and release (also known as skirting) and stake and tape. See the Growilla Speeks blog post, “To Skirt or Not to Skirt” for more info.
Plant transplants now and continue planting until end of July to ensure that you will harvest from mid-September to end of October. You may be transplanting 6-inch clones to a full 6-foot mother plant. Watch for over watering and over fertilization during the first few days of transplant. Mulch around plants the day you transplant. Mulch is essential because it protects soil and retains nutrients. We use native foliage as our mulch for a few reasons- it’s readily available, light impact on area, and it’s good camouflage. Inspect for slugs, snails, grasshoppers, gophers, deer, etc. At Roots & Harmony, we use a microbial insecticide (Bacillus Thuringiensis, aka. BT) for bud worms and caterpillars. Do not use slug or snail baits, because this can kill warm blooded animals if slugs or snails are ingested by them.
p.s. Security first! Curious neighbors and kids are out and about now. Be sure to leave no trace for the safety of the land and your plants.
