thomasjeffersons veranda

Hey GCO!

A lot of my knowledge of organic gardening comes from this very forum and the awesome folks who frequent the Organic subforum. Thanks goes out to all of whom that I've gotten advice from. Blades from the past and the present. Surely I will learn from new people as this homegrown living soil movement gains momentum. I started this journal on another forum, and for the sake of sharing some learning and what-not, I've decided to set up a new spot over here. Luckily for you guys, you get to skip the whole first month of growth and get right to the exciting part!

Feel free to share stories, pictures, videos, music, ask questions,give advice, criticize, whatever--mi casa es su casa. I'm hoping that I can turn some other newbies onto this style of growing.

This is my very first attempt at growing the herb, or any plant for that matter. I spent a good year and a half reading books and lurking on this forum before I got an account and started asking questions.

Enough with the boring life story... let's get to the good shit.

I sowed 8 seeds on January 1.

Strains: (All from www.mandalaseeds.com)

Ganesh x1
8 Miles High x1
Satori x1
Krystalica x1
Hashberry x1
Chill-OM x1
Safari Mix x2

Lighting/Ventilation/Environment:

400 watt mh/hps with a dimmable, digital ballast by iPower. The cheap-o one on amazon. Started with the metal halide bulb.

4" Ecoplus 170 cfm exhaust fan with a 4" Rhino scrubber.

16" oscillating wall fan stuck up in the corner of the tent.

Secret Jardin DR 120 (4'x4') grow tent

Soil Mix:

Base Mix
15 gallons Sunshine Mix #4
5 gallons perlite
5 gallons worm castings from www.rockymountainwormcompany.com
4 gallons Coast of Maine Quoddy Blend Lobster Compost
1 gallon KIS Fungal Compost
20 cups rock dust

I removed about 7.5 gallons from this as a starter mix.

I tried to aim for something around 1/3 aeration, 1/3 peat, and 1/3 [vermi]compost.

I used Sunshine Mix #4 with added mycorrhizae. The ingredient label reads: "60-70% peat, 30-40% perlite, dolomite lime, yucca wetting agent". IIRC.. So I took that to mean about 1/3 perlite and 2/3 peat. Here is a list of the Endomycorrhizal fungi strains in the sunshine #4 and they all come at the same concentration:

Glomus intraradices
Glomus clarum
Glomus deserticola
Glomus monosporus
Glomus etunicatum
Glomus mosseae
Gigaspora margarita

0.009 spores/cc

Amendments: (used at a rate of ~3 cups/cf)

2 parts kelp
1 part neem seed meal
1 part alfalfa meal
1 part Espoma Tomato Tone
1 part oyster shell flour
1 part crab/shrimp meal

Extras:

1/2 cup per cf bokashi bran
1/2 cup per cf greensand

I made it nice and homogenous and mixed it several times for the first week or so. I then moved the soil to final pots, not to be disturbed so fungi can colonize. This soil mix is based off of the famous ITG soil mix which can be seen here:

http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1116550-easy-organic-soil-mix-beginners.html

I sow my seeds directly into the soil in 3" pots as per the breeder's recommendations.

seed starting mix:

3 parts Sunshine #4
1 part worm castings

I wet that down with a coconut water/aloe vera juice drench.

1/4 cup coconut water
1/4 cup aloe vera juice
1 gallon RO water

I transplanted into 1 gallons (pictured) full of the starter mix right when I saw cotyledons. Then I transplanted into 5 gallon "smart pot SIPs" (pictured) with the amended mix.

starter mix
This was the same as the amended soil except the only additions to the base mix were kelp meal and bokashi bran.

By Jan 1, the amended soil had been cycling for two weeks. So I had two weeks of growth in totally unamended soil, then I transplanted to the amended soil which cycled for four full weeks. Pictures of the progress will be in the next posts.

 

Here is a pic of the tent on day 1 as well as a 5 gallon smart SIP.

 

Hey chunk! I'm glad to have ya man, and I'm honored that you are checkin out my cavernous tent Got some more pics on the way. Thanks fer stoppin by. I must be VIP status havin Chuck as my first guest

 

8 miles high didn't survive my newbie hands for too long. On the second tp I dropped her on the ground and messed up the roots big time. So she became mulch pretty quick. Here she is on 1/4, 1/5, and 1/11 respectively. Pic quality is atrocious so my bad lol.

 

Ganesh also died pretty fast lol. She was dislodged from the soil early on.... little did I know that I could bury the stem n ewc!! Lesson learned. Here she is on 1/5, and 1/11.

 

I dug up a safari mix seed out of impatience and found a fat white taproot.. DOH! Lesson #2 learned--be patient MF!

Chill-OM was the most recent beb to die lol.. He was sprayed down with this stuff called Orange Guard which totally ravaged his leaves. Notice I say 'he'. Lol. Turned out to be a boy, n I ain't got room fer boys atm. Not even a window! So he became mulch. Here he is on 1/5, 1/11, 1/14, 1/21, 1/28, and... his final day... not sure the date on that atm lol..

 

Now onto the ones that are alive and well... Just wanted to show ya that killin plants and making mistakes is all kinda part of the learning process.

Here is Hashberry on 1/5, 1/11, 1/14, 1/21, and 1/28

 

On 2/4, I started LST and added modular wire scrogs. Here is Hashberry before and after some training.

 

Hashberry is also my first female to show sex. Here are a couple preflower shots.

 

Here is Satori on 1/5, 1/11, 1/14, 1/21, 1/28, and 2/4 (she has had zero training yet really)

 

Here is Krystalica (sex unknown) on 1/5, 1/11, 1/14, 1/21, 1/28, and 2/4 before and after training:

 

Here is Safari (another female!)on 1/14, 1/21, 1/28, and 2/4 before and after training:

 

Here are group shots from 1/6, 1/21, 1/27 (before Chill-OM was sprayed), 1/28 (after orange guard), and 2/4 before and after training:

 

And finally, some shots of mulch... lol. I've got some dutch white clover coming up thru a mixture cannabis stems, comfrey root, dandelion root, chamomile flowers, cannabis leaves, fern leaves, bark chips, buckwheat hulls... basically anything I can find. Satori has a volunteer blade of grass poppin thru also. That's enough ranting for today!

 

Welcome folks! I'm glad to have ya's!

http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-grow-journals/1281625-tmfj2s-endless-rant.html