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ButterWeasels
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Registered: 08/11/06
Posts: 275
Loc: Saskatchewan
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Coir Additive Ratio's
#7498057 - 10/08/07 03:44 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Well I cant get coffee grounds for a few days and It's time to make more substrate. [Used search function]
How much calcium carbonate per brick of coir is generally enough to raise the PH to 7-7.5? Don't have a PH tester.... yet... and its 1 Teaspoon of blood meal to each brick of coir right? Sooner you answer the sooner I mix.
And yea all I have is blood meal, no worm castings or coffee grounds. I've heard mixed things about blood meal, will it add more good than harm to the substrate?
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Edited by ButterWeasels (10/08/07 09:05 PM)
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
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Loc: Seattle
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No. Blood meal is ineffective if it isn't composted along with the manure or compost. Coir is fine by itself, or you an add horse manure, worm castings, etc. I stopped at starbucks yesterday and picked up ten pounds. They keep it in bags right by the door. The employees at your store must be lazy and throw it in the garbage.
Nitrogen is WAY overrated for much besides agaricus growing. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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ButterWeasels
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Registered: 08/11/06
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Loc: Saskatchewan
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
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Re: Coir Nitrogen Sub Question [Re: RogerRabbit]
#7498143 - 10/08/07 04:02 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yea I figured they were just lazy. I went to 2 different ones too lol.
could worm castings be a safe and effective nitrogen additive, im sure my old roommate left some of that crap laying around too. I know it's not required but I wanna make the best substrate without having to use poo. I know where a horse ranch is but id rather just mix stuff together from a bag than rather than leeching the poo (I don't think my roommates would be too thrilled to have horse poo in their house).
Thanks as always RR, I might as well buy your video lol i read alot of crazy stuff on these forums sometimes
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DigitalNomad
Neophyte


Registered: 08/03/07
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As someone who works at starbucks... Even if they're not putting it out in the bags, just ask for the spent espresso pods from the machines. they get dumped into a box in the machines and it's really simple to dump it into a bag. It probably wont be as much as you could normally get, but it should be plenty if you're doing the standard 80/20 coir coffee. If they say no, remind them of their 'just say yes' policy.
-------------------- Here's to the first step...
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ButterWeasels
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Re: Coir Nitrogen Sub Question [Re: DigitalNomad]
#7498359 - 10/08/07 04:44 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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well I asked my roommate and she says they go through about 3 cups of coffee a day at work so she's going to save me some and im going to see if my friend nate will save the winchell's coffee grinds for me every day too.
until then what Is safe to use? I have Bone meal and Blood meal, but no worm castings. which is the best nitrogen additive (besides coffee)? As I plan on making more substrate tonight for some WBS jars itchin to be spawned.
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simplemachine
Manfly


Registered: 09/14/03
Posts: 1,981
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I have never used blood or bone meal, but I can say from experience that coir alone will provide excellent results. I recently quit drinking coffee, and as a result I stopped using it in my coir substrate. I can't tell a lick of difference between the coir/coffee and straight coir.
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mycocurious
Mike O. Kuerias



Registered: 02/09/07
Posts: 1,265
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If anyone at starbucks gives you crap, just tell them it's part of their corporate "Grounds for Garden's" program and if they still give you flack you can print off a copy of it and take it in for them. To date the only locations that have ever offered me any resistance are the ones located inside malls and retails stores (such as Target's)...
Be diplomatic though, doesn't do any good to rub someone the wrong way when you're on the receiving end of _free_...
Composting season (fall) is pretty much upon us and it's not uncommon for me to go out and collect 100 lbs or so at a time from several stores to mix into my various compost piles out back.
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Don't mistake my tone for a "matter-of-fact" attitude. I'm just presenting what I believe to be correct, until I'm corrected... - How Myco-Curious Prepares Coir & Compost Substrates - How Myco-Curious Builds A Bulk Humidifier - How Myco-Curious Builds An Automated Greenhouse ------------------------------------ figgusfiddus said: Keep in mind that inoculating or whatever in front of a flow hood won't help your bad substrate, your bad inoculant, your bad sterile procedure, etc. etc. etc. It's not a +3 flowhood of magic, it's just a tool.
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DigitalNomad
Neophyte


Registered: 08/03/07
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Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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Re: Coir Nitrogen Sub Question [Re: mycocurious]
#7498945 - 10/08/07 06:52 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yeah the ones in Targets and the like aren't actually part of Starbucks corporate, so they might not do it. But still, just ask them to empty the damn espresso machines! :p
-------------------- Here's to the first step...
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ButterWeasels
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Re: Coir Nitrogen Sub Question [Re: mycocurious]
#7499217 - 10/08/07 07:54 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yea I asked the girl at starbucks and she said they didn't save them anymore. Same thing at the one inside albertsons (expected that though). But apparently my roommate said they go through about 3 pots of coffee a day and she can save me some .. as long as she doesn't forget (stoners...).
Do you think 7 Pint WBS Jars crumbled and cased with MGMC, Verm, and CaCo mix would produce decent but quick results in a monotub without substrate?
Any anyone know how much Calcium Carbonate goes into 1 brick of coir? (basically any 66 quart monotub substrate recipe that involves coir would be of great use if shared, im not trying to make ridiculous amounts but just enough for every monotub at the time)
It's my first serious bulk attempt and I just wanna get decent results instead of let down by cakes last time. Casing is almost done colonizing, its 9 BRF cakes spawned to Hydrated Coir cased with 75% MGMC + 20% verm + 5% CaCo. Most of it colonized except for a few isolated sections of coir that were spread over the white substrate. Casing layer was added 2 days later and today very few spots of MYC have broken through. I will initiate pinning soon wish me luck guys
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Edited by ButterWeasels (10/08/07 08:12 PM)
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ButterWeasels
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Registered: 08/11/06
Posts: 275
Loc: Saskatchewan
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
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bumped... 1 Coir Brick + [How much] CaCo + [1 Teaspoon? Tablespoon?] Blood Meal
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mycocurious
Mike O. Kuerias



Registered: 02/09/07
Posts: 1,265
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In my humble opinion...
You do not add anything to balance the pH of your substrate unless - and i'm hard pressed to think of a substrate that wouldn't be - for some reason it's not in the 6.0-7.0 range. Your favored mycelium needs a slightly acidic substrate to thrive and making it alkaline will only stress it unnecessarily, which in itself could cause a contamination in it's weakened/stressed state.
Casing mixtures, on the other hand _should_ have it's pH balanced into the 7.0-7.5 range. The idea is to deliberately create a hostile, non-nutritious environment for any contaminates which may land on it. The healthy mycelium colony below will have no problems powering it's way through this environment after the substrate below is fully colonized but new, fragile, spores/endospores of contaminates would not.
As for the bloodmeal, I'd suggest you omit it altogether, it will little to no good and could end up causing problems - nitrogen burns, etc. to your mycelium.
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Don't mistake my tone for a "matter-of-fact" attitude. I'm just presenting what I believe to be correct, until I'm corrected... - How Myco-Curious Prepares Coir & Compost Substrates - How Myco-Curious Builds A Bulk Humidifier - How Myco-Curious Builds An Automated Greenhouse ------------------------------------ figgusfiddus said: Keep in mind that inoculating or whatever in front of a flow hood won't help your bad substrate, your bad inoculant, your bad sterile procedure, etc. etc. etc. It's not a +3 flowhood of magic, it's just a tool.
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cbiegel
A Dude

Registered: 02/19/07
Posts: 284
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: Coir Nitrogen Sub Question [Re: mycocurious]
#7502172 - 10/09/07 04:55 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yeah, remember that this is growing pot. You don't need N in the same quantities and you certainly don't want to add a component that isn't in itself mushroom food the way coffee is. Leave out eh blood/bone meal.
-------------------- Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.
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ButterWeasels
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Registered: 08/11/06
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Re: Coir Nitrogen Sub Question [Re: cbiegel]
#7530608 - 10/18/07 09:41 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Went to starbucks yesterday and thankfully this skater kid I met a few times was working and I asked them again if they save their coffee grounds and they said no, so I was like hey can you just write a note or something to save them for my parents compost heap lol. So I'll have tons of coffee to work with soon. The blood/bone meal is leftover from my roommate's failed herbal grows. 2 of them couldn't even keep a sprout alive long enough to re-plant, even after buying all the right organic soil shit and reading grow books. The only thing I found that was usable was some perlite, but I'm not planning on growing cakes again, ever. crumblin for life.
Edit: My 1st Monotub yielded ~360g wet Would've been more but I had a real uneven pinset. seems like most of them grew in 2 clusters, the biggest cluster had over 20 attached to it. The right side of the terrarium pinned late. I'd say I got 50+ mushrooms from that tub which is decent, and I was only hoping for an Oz dry at least. Casing was probably too thick, and I didn't take out any sticks or anything from the MGMC. Good 1st grow I only wish I had pics to share (especially the clusters, I love the clusters). Such a good feeling when your scale says 'error'
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Edited by ButterWeasels (10/18/07 09:52 AM)
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