I was under the impression I was killing any microbial life in my soil by my using dyna gro synthetic fertilizer products. So I guess I should start caring about all these products I’ve been ignoring that promote soil life? I was also, wrongly it would seem, under the impression that if the soil wasn’t “organic” or “living” these concepts didn’t apply.
The article is focused on a singular aspect of soil microbiology, and in the author’s thesis “used properly” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
There’s a good deal of misinformation in organic ag; I’ve promoted some of it myself. But combining synthesized (from petrochemical sources) ionized nutrients with an organic soil mixture is a recipe for problems. And I don’t believe the author is trying to argue differently. He’s saying that fertigation with ionic nutrients won’t obliterate soil microbiology when used properly.
IMHO, if you’re going to use fertigation and want to be precise, successful, and practical, run a relatively inert media like ProMix. That way you can fine-tune inputs to address any deficiencies, and rely on runoff measurement to effectively gauge uptake. Soil will adsorb some nutrients out of fertigated solution, and release others into runoff; it does not make sense to try measuring runoff EC in soil. A colorimeter is what you’d actually need, for starters.
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Thanks for your thoughts! I’m with you on the soil readouts. I gave measuring my ppms in and out a shot. I got enough numbers that didn’t make sense based on what I was seeing i gave it up and only test runoff now if flushing…which I’m having my doubts about the efficacy of nowadays anyway.
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I’ve thought about pulling the root ball out of soil in the final 48 hours, and placing it into a DWC for a final shock intended to (who even knows…) but it seems like it’s just a thing to distract me from the anticipation of harvest.
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I pulled one out of a three gallon recently because I wanted the pot 
. I let it sit in pot shape for the 48 hour dark period. I’ll try what your saying next time for fun. Been needing an excuse to get an air pump and stone anyway.
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