Organic soil growers mosh pit collective of peeps

If any of you are looking for a soil meter I just got this one in yesterday and have put it through its paces and so far am happy with it. Can do both direct soil PH and liquid PH measurements.
I needed something more accurate than my old analog soil meters as they as all meters do fail over time.
It’s great that I can now calibrate a soil meter and not have to wait 5 minutes for a reading. The only drawback with this meter I’ve found so far is that it isn’t that long so getting down lower in the pot farther than about 5” won’t happen. My old meters went down up to 12”.
I primarily use a meter to check my PH of the soil mix before planting in it making sure it’s in the range. It also gives you the temperature of the soil at that depth.



Below is another I found after I order the one above and apparently it has an app for data logging to your phone to better keep track of individual pots and their PH and temp histories. And they offer option to order with an extra probe if original one goes bad. Mine doesn’t so if I need to replace it I’ll probably try this one next.

Anyway just thought I’d share as I had been looking at the big names in meters but Blue lab was triple the price and they don’t have replacement probes you just throw away the meter.

Enjoy the day

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If i were growing outdoors i would be doing the same thing… maybe once my state gets its head out of it a$$, i will be growing outdoors also…

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@Skydiver @ChittyChittyBangin I’ve been using RO water for my last couple of grows, my water is hard and about 250ppm mostly calcium carbonate based on municipal water report. How do you think that would work in an organic soils or should I stick with the RO? Thanks :sunglasses:

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I was just having this conversation last month here on a different thread somewhere in here and if i remember correctly Calcium carbonate is not good. It has a tenacity for rasing the pH because it accumulates in the soil. Avoid using pH up products as this adds to the mess… go easy on the Silica too…
I use Tap water for all my plants but my ppm is 150-180, in the safe zone but i still had high pH at the end…

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Well with RO water you are starting with a blank slate so you can better control inputs without those additional things.
RO by itself doesn’t require any PH adjustments so when just watering its easier.
That being said there are those who use dechlorinated tap water but if heavy in calcium can raise PH over time. If you’re using peat based soil as it breaks down over time it can acidify later in the grow.
If my soil PH is low I’ll use my tap but if it’s in range I’ll use RO
My tap is around 8.2 and 250 ppm and my soil ph has to be under 6.3 or so but don’t use it often.
There is only so much buffer in soil mixes.
If you can use RO I would
Subject to change without notice as I’m always learning as I go

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This ^^^ sorry late to the party…

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Thanks, at least I won’t have to water to runoff so I’ll save a little on water :sunglasses:

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This is a good point. My pH tanked up to 7.5 towards the end around mid flower. I could’ve been watering to too much runoff and rinsed the buffering out of the pots? I am still trying to understand why my pH did this so that i can avoid for my next run…

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I don’t think buffer can be rinsed out as it’s literally the “life” of the soil that’s the “buffer”

Now could it be drowned or dried out very possible.

My understanding of organics is to keep the soil happy that will in turn keep the plants happy.

I’ve never done organics. I’m planing to do living soil so I’ve done a bit of reading and I think ph isn’t something we are majorly concerned with in organics. Obviously we can’t intentionally add something that’s a 1 or a 14 on the ph scale and expect it to be ok. And seems most tap water is around 6-8ph. Which isn’t even harmful to a well groomed soil!

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Hey all. I have a question for some of you more in the know on how it all works.
I’m looking at getting some of the Build-a-Soil 3.0 mix and some of their other stuff. They recommend growing in a 15 gallon. However I’d like to grow more than one at a time, from time to time anyways. I would like to grow one monster (15 gallon) and then once that’s done maybe do a smaller run with some 5 gallons. Do like a 4 week veg and keep em fairly small. My thought is have a nice supply of one solid grow, but have a little variety sprinkled in.
The question here is that if you grow in a smaller pot (5 gallon or possibly bucket SIP) does that just mean you’ll have to start top dressing with compost a little earlier or what??? Anyone doing anything similar. I know ideally I’d just have multiple tents but just bought a new boiler so that ain’t in the cards hahaha.

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I’ve done many grows in 5 gallon pots and smaller starting with the base bagged soil and throughout the grow top dressed various amendments during the grow till harvest. Not just compost but things that cover the NPK needs plus calcium magnesium etc.
Part of the equation is as you mentioned keeping veg time shorter which will not use as much of the nutrients.
This is my first run using BAS 3.0 nutrient mix. Because they are in approximately 12-13 gallon of soil mixed with the 3.0 it provides more nutrients than if in a 5 gallon pot which hopefully will get me all the way to harvest but I’m not there yet so I will find out.
If needed I will top dress as needed.
I need to contact BAS and ask them about how best to set up for the next run in that same soil using additional 3.0 mix doing no till as far as timing and amounts.

Hope this helps and if anyone else here has had experience using their 3.0 mix please chime in with your thoughts.

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As always your knowledge is amazing. Thank you. Do you have a journal with the BAS 3.0 going??? Are you digging the BAS???

I am looking at using the BAS with some of their craft blend as a top dress and some of their bloom compost for flowering. I’m getting some worms ordered up to do my own compost but that might be a minute before I get that going so for now figure I’d order their stuff and see how it goes.

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I have a journal that I am posting in. Just a continuation from where I left of 2 1/2 years ago.

The 3.0 mix is in 5 of the pots (15 gallon pots with about 12-13 total gallons in each using 4lbs of the 3.0 mix per 1.5 cuft FFOF soil.
So far so good except for me not letting it cook after mixing before needing it. My bad but worked around it.
I tossed 2 autos into each pot (2 pots with bubble gum and X and then X and X) as they were small when transplanted and already in flower.
Those big bushy ones are in the mix as well Gillato OG and X Banana as well as the blue dream.
Other than my own mistakes with not cooking prior and having to adjust my soil PH again my fault I’m happy with it so far.
I will be adjusting my day hours down to transition to flower starting today and dropping 30-40 minutes off day hours for the next 8 days or so until I reach 14/10 so it’s not all at once.

I bought three of their 40lb bags of 3.0 mix so I’ll be using it for quite awhile moving forward.

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Ok cool beans. I thought I saw that but must’ve forgotten to watch it. Watching now hahaha
Thank you for the info!!! I’ll be following in your footprints if that’s alright!!!

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Hold my beer
Watch this
Follow at your own risk lol

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Hey life ain’t worth living if you ain’t gonna take a risk or two. Gotta risk it for a biscuit!!!

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I use BAS 3.0 in Earthbox’s (sip) I grow 1 plant in each box but I’ve seen people do 2 small plants in 1 box I topdress ammendments through veg and flower then after harvesting, I reammend the soil and grow again. I use coconut water with saponin in my reservoir until flower then just saponin water. I have an auto water system that keeps my reservoir topped off. Its an easy grow system for me. My boxes are on wheels, making moving around a breeze. The sips could easily be homemade with 2 tubs and a pvc pipe. 5 gallons pots is doable with adding ammendments. Always leave room in the top of the pot for topdressings. Bigger is better with living soil though.

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Beautiful grows my friend!!!

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Thank you :blush: :v::green_heart::dash:

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Well your system and plants seem pretty happy
Beautiful plants :potted_plant:
Thanks for sharing
Cheers :beers: :clap: :v:

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