Helping start a grow in Oklahoma with some people who know nothing really. They wanna use living soil… Won’t change their mind they buy fox farm and say the bags already dialed in. The flower room is 2,600square feet and veg is 2000. Separate rooms but only 1 flower. Wondering if anyone has any tips or help they can give with living soil in a commercial grow…
2 Likes
As a dwc grower, all I can say is “I hope your dirt costs less than your margin”. Not a cheap option at scale from my understanding
20 Likes
Man, it seems like you’re gonna just have to hang on for a bumpy ride. Which of those two are you using primarily? I’m a big fan of coco personally and have built commercial farms. What exactly would you want pointers for? Also I wouldn’t exactly call that stuff living soil. Anything out of the bag soil-wise I have serious question about the bacterial population that constitutes it as living, but that’s more of a trust issue with me.
Let me rip a few dabs and I’ll answer whatever you want. I feel for you. Seems like you’re in your dream situation but it’s also hella frustrating if you’re on here. Let’s see if we can find something to gently nudge them in the direction you want.
11 Likes
There were a few successful living soil companies in Colorado. So it is possible… those companies really wanted it because that was their philosophy, so it was okay that it ate into their margins.
So I have no idea how to dial in living soil. From what I was told it can take 1-2 years to dial it in…
2 Likes
Yeah that’s if you make your own honestly. It’s like a five star meal you buy at McDonalds, it doesn’t seem five star, you don’t know what went into it to make it five star, etc. If you want to control your own living soil I strongly recommend reading books dedicated to Korean Natural Farming. ‘Dialing in’ the dirt isn’t really a thing since proper living soil doesn’t need anything else along with it. If you need to add things to get the desired result it isn’t “living” to the extent that your partner is expecting. Proper KNF you shouldn’t have to do shit but add water
I would say from the size of your facility the REAL issues you’ll be running into is dialing in the climate properly, we had a big pain in the ass trying to normalize humidity in our main flower warehouse. You’re in OK so you’ll have less of an issue but normalizing the climate is hella big when it comes to large facilities like that. Also I would recommend making sure your co2 is on point in terms of generation, with that many plants in one place chances are you’ll have some co2 cannibalization going on there so you’ll need to supplement that.
Bear in mind any information you get from me is literally based upon me building farms roughly the same size and is pure experience, not none of that fancy booklearnin` shit
Like honestly I motherfucking love this shit more than anything else in the universe - I could talk about proper buildouts all day long. A room full of frosty donkey cocks is my fucking purpose in life.
11 Likes
If you can convince them to start with a better living soil I HIGHLY recommend sensi sci soil out of southern oregon. They have a water only soil that puts out some incredible products.
The owner Collin can also work with the soil you currently have and have it tested and get you a better idea on how “alive” your soil is and what needs to be added to bring it back to life.
Yeah we aren’t using any co2 systems the first time just 50 bags in there. Have ac units that collect condensation and goes through hepa(I’m not sure how to spell) filters. They aren’t ph the water because the said the waters fine out here. No ro system either because of that theory. Have a irrigation system I’ll send in a second
Your gonna need BTI to kill the fungus gnat/larvae that will come with those ffof bags. I’ve been using ffof for 8yrs now.
Light warrior is great for seedlings.
5 Likes
Deciding that the water is fine out there - doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still be checking it. I’ve got fine water too - and it swings in pH from 5.5 to 8 throughout the year. Maybe you can convince them to at least track it… so if things go sideways you have some data to support root cause analysis?
Not using any filtration… there’s really not municipal water system that doesn’t have coliforms in it. Are you getting it from a well perhaps? If not… there’s so many bad things in municipal water that will mess with your micro biome in the living soil. And they almost always add stuff and treat it - which can also seriously mess with your micro biome in the living soil.
Just cause its living doesn’t mean it isn’t controlled. Its just a different method of control.
Good luck to you!
3 Likes
I use city tap, bubbled 24hrs before use. I’ve NEVER had any issues using that water.
Edited
All of my 2.5 gallon aero cloners use TAP water direct from the faucet. Zero issues. I do ph the tap. No bubbling, straight tap.
My tap is 108ppm
3 Likes
What is the benefit of running living soil? Is the end product going to look different, test different or yield different?
4 Likes
I used city water at our commercial spot and continuously got root rot before our RO and UV sterilizer.
@Bagled sounds like you’re working for Chad and his brother Brad.
9 Likes
I’ve always thought that RO was overkill outside of super controlled indoor environments. Listen to @Demontrich regarding inputs. Dude knows his shit big time. I’m just the motherfucker that gets his hands dirty and knows what to scream at the help.
Irrigation systems - fucking awesome. You will get the best results out of these. I hand watered for damn near a decade and now i’m kicking myself in the fucking ass because I could have been handling so much other shit at the same time so that’s a good thing there that you’ll have extra time. My go-to irrigation lately after building a few systems from scratch is netafin. they do .5 gph drippers and 1gph drippers that I utilize and my god the last crop came out with unmatched frost and smell compared to my last few.
But really, I would sort of push them to install at least a co2 generator. If you have a lot of plants in one room your ambient co2 level is about 400ppm and that’s without them, if you’re stuffing those rooms you’ll have some kinda withering that wouldn’t happen if you boost a bit of co2 in there. You don’t need to kick it up to 1500ppm but enough so they’re not decaying. If you’ve seen plants wither due to lessened co2 you’ll know how awful it is to watch.
The ph is worth checking EVERY SINGLE TIME. WITHOUT FAIL. The people who taught me how to grow felt that PH wasn’t worth consistently checking. That amongst other trains of thought are why they’re mad at me right now because my shit looks 10x better than theirs. I do 5.9-6.1 for my reservoirs depending on how the plant reacts.
4 Likes
I really don’t know I wanted to go with coco. They’ve tried it before and yielded 3-4 lbs with 12 lights. I think other people out here tell them it’s the best. I told them they should be going for 2-3 lbs a light. Imma show them some of yalls reply’s so maybe they listen to y’all.
1 Like
Fak coco!
Nutrient cost is way higher for coco vs other types of growing type.
4 Likes
Yup chad for sure
10 Likes
2-3 lbs a light with conflicting techniques and no co2 is just simply not gonna happen. I’m really not trying to be a dick but they need to focus on synergy between products, hardware and techniques and get their ducks in a row
That was my ‘oh fuck…’ moment. Going to the investor’s son’s apartment and immediately getting asked ‘HEY HOW THE FUCK DO YOU EVEN GET THESE THINGS OUT OF THE CLONE STAGE?’
4 Likes
Lmfao!!!
I pull boutique flower in my garden every run. 4x 315 cmh (1265w total) and I pull 3.5lbs easily.
And NO pgr ! With pgr I can do 4-4.25lbs
6 Likes