The Vegan Temple
by Reverend Jef Tek
Founder of: The Michelle Rainey Foundation
I always choose quality over quantity when it comes to growing world-class grass.
I vow to use the finest methods, and the finest food. Recently, I was given a full compliment of General Organics’, fully vegan plant food to try out.
It was real nice of my man G to swag-me-up like he did, but he knows what comes around goes around and so do I. I had been slowly noticing the quality of my previous “organic based” product over the years- slipping! Yes, I always knew it was NOT a fully organic product but I did get excellent results from the simple to use one-part formula. You know?
Unfortunately, in order for manufacturers to get the nitrogen / potassium / phosphorus to stay in the correct ratios they need to use some pretty nasty chemicals to stabilize and preserve the formula.
EDTA and the likes… Yes, this fell under the heading of keeping things simple – one nute, one pH adjuster, simple! But, over the years I have witnessed an inconsistency, especially when buying larger two and a half gallon sizes of nutrients.
Four years ago I got yellow mushrooms in my grow beds (Leucocoprinus birnbaumii), at first I thought it was from overwatering the grow beds but a few weeks later I found the very same yellow mushrooms growing wildly inside a two and a half gallon jug of Liquid Karma. Coincidence? I think not.
When the back label of my nutrient, which was always in full color, suddenly switched to black and white, I began to get suspicious. When I inquired, my Hydro Guy confirmed; The company in question were having inter- nal issues, but I still used it anyway. When a normal batch of my favorite medicinal strain, Afghani Bullrider began yellowing way too soon into flower, I knew the nitrogen just wasn’t there anymore. And, if the nitrogen wasn’t reliable then what was I feeding my poor plants with? Believe me, a lack of nitrogen certainly isn’t the end of the world; clean burning, bright green nugs with tri- chomes literally jumping off their stems, a wonderful fla- vor/aroma – just a diminished amount of these delightful medicinal buddies. So, I began having smaller and small- er plants with smaller and smaller harvests throughout the first half of this year. That is not good when you have medical patients depending on you and you haven’t
enough for yourself, it leads to hurt feelings, and cops and courts and a huge waste of time for everyone involved. Sometimes things happen, like powdery mildew, pests or ungrateful patients who don’t know just exactly how hard it is to maintain everything, everyday, so they can have their medicine. IT’S NOT EASY. I haven’t had a vacation in a decade.
Switching to General Organics has been a breeze, their 6 liquid additives all balance right out when mixed in the recommended ratios. I also switched from just using Sunshine mix #4 and now cut it 50/50 with General Coco, to save money and increase drainage. I also switched back to buckets with holes in the bottom to facilitate free drainage and increase root aeration. The plants have all responded beautifully.
A typical Vegetative feeding will use 10ml of Bio Root, 10ml of Bio Thrive Grow, 5ml of CaMg and 2.5ml of Bio Weed per gallon of non-chlorinated water. As plants grow it is ok to give 1.5 – 2 times the recommended feed- ing for perfect results.
A typical Flowering feeding will use 5ml of Bio Root, 5ml of CaMg, 10ml of Bio Thrive Bloom and 2.5ml of Bio Bud per gallon of clean water. Again, it may be nec- essary to double the amount of Bloom food and or CaMg if you find it necessary to achieve your optimum results.
What I like:
Throw away your pH adjusters and the damn pH probe as well, this stuff balances out so perfectly each and every time I wound-up calibrating the pH probe with the solu- tion I just mixed up. The same goes for your ppm meter. At the recommended dosages I mentioned earlier you will acheive 800 ppm every time, on the dot! With 5.8 to
- pH every time, I literally disconnected my probes and I haven’t looked back. (By going to 1.5 times the feed, or 15ml per gallon, you will create 1000 ppm and the same perfect pH. How cool is that, no pH up or down to con- tend with. That stuff is caustic!
What I love:
Being able to taste the difference already! No fooling, the ash is whiter, the aroma is sharper, clearer and tastier than ever before. More berry flavors. The health and vigor has returned to the plants and they are responding beautifully to this product line. I am ecstatic that not only is this stuff organic but it is fully vegan! Each product smells so pure and healthy. Like good food, I keep it all in the refrigerator for perfect freshness! (Hey, it says, Once opened to store in a cool dark location?)
Oh yea, and the harvests are up again as well, maybe even a little bigger than with my old product, that is amazing. Others in my area have reported diminished powdery mildew as well when using General Organics, even one with a side-by-side setup using General Hydroponics and General Organics, he also confirmed a larger crop size with the Organics. I believe this is all due to the plant naturally taking up the nutrients they need rather than being force- fed nutrients they may not need at all. The nitrogen fixes it self so nicely it just may be impossible to overfeed using the grow chart provided and that is a great thing.
Downside: No downside!
It may cost a little bit more but who cares what it costs, the General has been at this longer than anyone, they have the knowl- edge and the research and development on their side, and now they have me on their side – Thanks General! You did it again!
They also offer 5 more products I don’t need; BioMarine for foliar feeding and soil drenches. (I don’t do either!) Diamond Black fulvic acid, (never saw any benefit.) Two subcultures, microbes and bacteria require a lot more than two months to work so I don’t use them either. Azamax, an OMRI organic insecticide, miticide and nematicide that I also don’t have any need for. Thank god I have been bug-free for almost 5 years now!
You may have interest in these last 5 prod- ucts but the only thing I am grateful for is that there is an OMRI insecticide, finally.
Seal your room, take a shower before entering your grow spaces and for the love of Christ, get yourself an Ozone Generator. They get rid of powdery mildew. Ugh! Enough said!
