Hello all, today's post has to do with compost! Luckily, I got my hands on some very lovely coffee grounds! I have a tumbling compost bin which works quite fabulously if I do say so myself.
In total I added about 25 lbs of coffee grounds to my nearly barren bin - if you are wondering how I acquired such a heaping amount of grounds you can thank my friends at the local Starbucks. The well known coffee shops are usually happy to let you haul away their old grounds so just call ahead and they'll get you squared away.
I usually add some egg shells in the bin every morning, food scraps, and dry leafy material.
Before:

 After:

As you can see, the bin is not nearly as full as you would expect for 25  lbs of grounds, but this thing is HUGE.

So, in the near future I will be gathering more ingredients for this concoction. STAY TUNED.

As for my babies:

4/6 not bad - The Waterfarm is torture, I'm thinking of just transplanting that poor little thing into soil just to put an end to its misery.
The yellow pest catcher plant looks a little rough, that's mainly because I messed up and stuck the leaf to the sticky underside. Still works like magic though - naturally.
I'll post more on the pest catcher as I personally find it great.
Hopefully theses plants progress and become stronger.
Give me your opinions, do you think I should transplant the waterfarm sprout or just adjust the system itself?

8/15 - Re-potted the stunted seed into a plastic pot with ONLY happy frog soil, and Subculture M ... Some interesting facts about the differences in Subculture B & M:

Subculture B (Bacteria)
-Works to consume organic matter, in turn producing nutritious waste that make uptake easier on the roots.

Subculture M (Fungus)
-This fungus, when activated with water, bonds & communicates with the roots; the fungus then attaches itself and transforms itself into the plants cell walls, making root growth skyrocket.

There is so much info out there on mycorrhizal and the beneficial bacteria, if interested take a look at the links below:
Mycorrhizal Networks
General Mycorrhizal Info

How to use both together

Bacterial Growth

Leave a comment if you feel that there are any improvements or test you feel I should run on this blog.

Thanks!

Welcome to the Sensi Garden, a blog created specifically for those interested in beginning  a hydroponic garden or for those who would enjoy learning more about the different styles of growing indoors and outdoors.

For the next 10 weeks, this experience will track my first grow room from start to finish, with loads of great info in between.
Luckily I have been able to gain advice from experienced growers in my community, leading me to run a few tests of my own.
The goal is to find the greatest medium,  drain to waste vs recirculating. I will not be testing NFT as I do not have the system for it yet - perhaps next year I will conduct a test on it.

In this experiment - all test subjects are 3 weeks old (sprouted in a rapid rooter)and are all under a T5 light.
The picture is numbered from the top left as follows:
1- Recirculating
2- Purposefully stunted
3- Geopot and root inoculate
4- Liquid Nutrient & geopot
5- Plastic pot with Root inoculate
6-Yellow pest cone in geopot

There are many who will say that recirculating is the cleanest and healthiest option for growing any type of plant, with nutrients synthesized to provide ease of uptake. Although there are plenty of others who would argue that the "ease of uptake" is due to man-made chemicals that could be harmful to humans and plants alike.

Usually nutrients are derived from mined minerals which can vary greatly in purity. It
also depends on how you as a grower define purity. Some would say that a natural mineral from an underground well is more pure than what a scientist can produce in a sterilized lab. Again, it all depends on the growers opinion.

Relating to soil, I have learned that a rich soil is often the best source of potency that a plant can live in. If over fed, it could result in disaster. Taking that fact into consideration, I will only be feeding my soil plants pH'd water and a root inoculate named  Subculture M manufactured by General Hydroponics. The soil itself is a mixture of Happy Frog and a compost mixture that I have cultivated from food scraps and yard waste.

As for my the recirculating system I will use Flora Nova base nutrients in pH'd water. The recirculating system I am using is a simple one bucket/pump Waterfarm which includes a reservoir, air pump and a drip line. It also come with hydroton which are clay pebbles designed to retain moisture.

I will post pictures for observation - if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to contact me.
More info to come!