trichoderma fungus and chitosan???

hello. I'd like to say I'm doing it all organically, but I'm not sure.

where I retired and live, potting soil (among many things) are not all that easy to locate. what I've been using hasn't been good through my first grows but very recently I found a soil comprised of mushroom substrate, trichodema sp fungus and chitosan. I'd never heard of the last two items before and Googled what I could without being able to find any direct connections to this stuff and my plants. there must be a hundred kinds of that fungus and I have no further information on this soil. (I can barely speak the local language much less read it.)

the bag brags of a pH of 7 but my meter says 6 and 6.5 which should be acceptable, right?

I had a couple of auto flowering seeds left over from the second attempt at growing and I transplanted the seedlings into the new soil and they seem to have taken to it well. I've top dressed four more pots and the plants seem to have liked that. but I'm looking for someone else's take on it. the 3 little birds say they've used mushroom substrate with success but I gather they add it to soil and no mention of my found combination of stuff, for instance.

I'm also growing veggies as much to screen off my plants as for the food. I've transplanted some of them into this soil and they seem to be doing OK. the exception was one cloned celery plant which I don't think is going to make it.

when this soil is watered, the run-off is black, black, black. I haven't had the soil long enough to know when or whether this ceases after multiple waterings and I wonder if I'm flushing all the good stuff away. am I?

so a two part question: is this considered organic soil? I obviously don't want to produce ugly tasting smoke. second, is this OK as the sole growing medium or should I be mixing it into the miserable potting soil which is somewhat more available to me?

I may have other questions and/or follow ups, but I'll leave this here and hope somebody has advice on this topic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Farang

hello. I'd like to say I'm doing it all organically, but I'm not sure.

where I retired and live, potting soil (among many things) are not all that easy to locate. what I've been using hasn't been good through my first grows but very recently I found a soil comprised of mushroom substrate, trichodema sp fungus and chitosan. I'd never heard of the last two items before and Googled what I could without being able to find any direct connections to this stuff and my plants. there must be a hundred kinds of that fungus and I have no further information on this soil. (I can barely speak the local language much less read it.)

the bag brags of a pH of 7 but my meter says 6 and 6.5 which should be acceptable, right?

Actually better than 7.0 for cannabis.

I had a couple of auto flowering seeds left over from the second attempt at growing and I transplanted the seedlings into the new soil and they seem to have taken to it well. I've top dressed four more pots and the plants seem to have liked that. but I'm looking for someone else's take on it. the 3 little birds say they've used mushroom substrate with success but I gather they add it to soil and no mention of my found combination of stuff, for instance.

I'm also growing veggies as much to screen off my plants as for the food. I've transplanted some of them into this soil and they seem to be doing OK. the exception was one cloned celery plant which I don't think is going to make it.

when this soil is watered, the run-off is black, black, black. I haven't had the soil long enough to know when or whether this ceases after multiple waterings and I wonder if I'm flushing all the good stuff away. am I?

Probably not.
Easy to check though.
Use that run-off to water , say celery, in poor soil.
If it gets all perky, there's more than color in the run-off.

so a two part question: is this considered organic soil? I obviously don't want to produce ugly tasting smoke. second, is this OK as the sole growing medium or should I be mixing it into the miserable potting soil which is somewhat more available to me?

Sorry, have no clue.
Had you included the name of the product, including the manufacturer's name, we could then look it up and offer useful advice

I may have other questions and/or follow ups, but I'll leave this here and hope somebody has advice on this topic.

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Suggest that you ask one clear question at a time.
There is still some talent on this board, but you have to work with them.

Give as much information as you can and be clear in your request.
We'll be tickled to help, if you make that easy to do.

Aloha,
(Helpful, but lazy.)
Weezard

yeah. I can get wordy.

sorry about that.

you're not going to find this stuff on line. it's a local thing and I'm in SE Asia.

try as I might, I found nothing about this combination of stuff and cannabis/marijuana, using those words.

I transplanted two auto flowers (who cares? I had no luck with them anyway, so they were a test) into that mix and they've done fine. I'd like to transplant the balance but am a little worried/need assurance.

I filled other containers with it and put vegetable seeds into it. I'm a little surprised that after five days only a couple of sprouts anywhere. so while my seedlings seem to adapt to it, the soil may NOT be a complete solution for me.

but in this reply to my original question, you raise that dolomite question as well. everything I read says that cannabis prefers a pH below 7. some say 5.5. but if I understand what everybody writes about dolomite, it always brings the pH back to 7 and after adding dolomite to the soil, there is no way to get the pH down. ever. so I'm confused. often the same people who advocate for dolomite go on to talk about lowering the soil pH. seems contradictory.

I've overstepped your last suggestion as I've already re-potted all of my celery into this new soil and I'm not sure what I can test that run off on, but it's a good suggestion.

I noticed that there isn't as much activity on this forum as the one I just quit because I couldn't get ANY responses. I'll work with people here and perhaps try another forum, though I haven't chosen another yet.

I appreciate your input and I hope I don't bore you.

thanks!