True Living Organics - The Ultimate Guide to Growing All-Natural Marijuana Indoors (2012)

like the larger pieces for their artificial reef qualities, and for the length of time it takes them to break
down. Elements in a living TLO mix tend to break down much faster than is stated in many organic
grow books. My crushed shells last about 90 days, from what I can see.
Dolomite Lime is really important for you to understand, when growing in containers especially. It is
made from both calcium and magnesium, and cannabis plants love plenty of both of these elements.
There are many kinds of lime, so be careful here. Using hydrated lime, for example, could very easily
become a disaster in a living soil mix. Dolomite lime is what you want here, and I use this as one of
my only magnesium sources, with the other being CaMg+ liquid by General Organics. There are
several grades of Dolomite lime, so let’s take a look at these first.
There is a granular version of Dolomite lime that looks like tiny reddish volcanic rocks. This is a
very dense form of Dolomite, and really takes a long time to break down. This grade is virtually
useless in container growing in my experience. There is also a granular version that looks like small
shards of rock salt, and this works well for global applications for buffering. It is also a readily
available source of calcium and magnesium for all the life in the container, including the plant!
Another granular type is called “prilled” and this is little round reddish balls with a soluble shell of
Dolomite lime, with a smaller harder rock in the center—sort of like a Peanut M&M—and this stuff
is awesome for global applications. Both the prilled and the rock salt–looking granular types say
“fast acting” on the bag, and this is a key phrase to look for when shopping for it. Fast-acting granular
Dolomite works really well, but avoid the granular dense rocks that are not fast acting. Powdered
Dolomite is an essential element in a custom soil mix and it is also super important to “cook” (as
above) any soil mix to which you have added powdered Dolomite lime globally, or root damage is
likely to happen.
Dolomite lime is one of my major sources of magnesium and calcium, and it also buffers the soil
mix pH from dropping too low. The powdered version really helps to keep bacteria happy during the
soil mix cooking process, because they tend to not like any drops in the pH of the soil. Fungi will take
over the container soil mix if the pH drops super low in my experience, and once they have a certain
level of dominance they seem to me to kill most or all of the bacteria present. Plant roots are not
happy in the super low pH ranges that these fungi enjoy, and these fungi also tend to keep the pH
down as well from their natural exudes. When mixing a lot of powerful nitrogen sources like blood
meal and bird/bat guanos with Dolomite lime, make sure to see the section below regarding soft rock
phosphate, to avoid losing some nitrogen before it’s had a chance to affect the soil.