Ah, thanks for the clarification. I have so much to learn. I use 200x aloe powder. I was smelling it before use each time and detected no alcohol odor. Still though, i am fully picking up on what your saying. Back when i was using dyna gro nutes, i learned that less is more and never used it any stronger than 1/4 recommended dosage and had great results. I guess that translates over to organics fairly well, no? Im already looking forward to my next run. I know I will be better prepared to deal with these situations. One thing though, im very curious about the specific attributes of all the various amendments. Do you know of any sites or stickies anywhere that might list each ingredient and what exactly its doing in my soil or should i just buck up and google search each one for more info? Thanks for everything. Take care, -Agg
my pleasure amigo, the more people that begin to grow organically, the better chance we all have of an abundant life or any life in general. lol apologize for not being more clear on the mix i use for seedlings, i use peat and perlite only for that, not straight peat but i add nothing to it since the seedlings have a couple weeks worth of nutrients in them already they need little added nutrients and often have trouble with higher nutrient loads. hey man we all live n learn!!! lmao you may have root aphids or fungus gnats but i tell you something you may not have learned already. this is to do in part to the plethora of propaganda big agro sciences has been putting out for ever. they tell everyone you need a fungicide, or and insecticide or a miticide etc. to keep your plants healthy, and in one way they are correct. that way is the way they propagate the lies through needing these chemicals to make up for poor soil conditions period. healthy thriving plants growing in a live macro and micro fauna soil, mineral and organic nutrient based soil will need little if any help to combat potential pathogens period. i dont want it to sound like these plants are invincible, but they require far less aid than perceived by many. every now and then i'll throw down some sticky traps or use some BT, Karanga and or Neem oils, but i rarely have to do anything but water. i water when the top inch or so is dry in a three gallon pot, keeps my plants happy and also helps keep the aphids and gnats to a minimum. i would just use water from here on out, although as an ex hydro, aero grower i can relate to not having much to do in the grow room being difficult at first, it's best just to water and leave the nutrient balancing to the microbes and food you added in the beginning. i use an acct every now and then, foliar applications only. you should have no problem keeping your plant going on just water, it's not nearly as delicate as ph balanced bottled nute growing. you can also put some neem meal on the soil surface in the pots to help with that, but it stinks up the grow room. haha you're on the right road brutha, just takes time to learn to let the soil do the work and not so much us. save that for the processing of the bounty!
Thanks for clarifying the seedling mix. No apologies necessary. I will be cracking some beans here in short order to replace the culled male and will use your mix. Its tough not having to do a bunch of stuff to keep the girls happy, i do enjoy it so. Someday ill have a bigger garden so maybe the quantity of plants to attend to will help. Thanks again, Al, i will follow your advice. You guys are so awesome, i feel as if i was standing outside in the cold, shivering, and some nice caring people came up and brought me inside, wrapped me in a blanket, sat me down by the fire with a hot cup of coffee, and told more stories of microbes and worm castings until i fell asleep only to wake up the next morning in my own bed with an organically grown jar of nugs sitting on my night stand with a little note saying "relax, take it easy, everything is gonna be awesome" signed: 'those that came before you'. Oh, what a feeling. Be well, -Agg
Ok, last one for a bit. Culled the male, tied down the girl. Its amazing how much heat energy the fan leaves absorb. Pulling out the male jacked my temps up 6 degrees F. No biggie. I wasnt going to do any real training this round, but since i lost half my potential....... First time i tied anything down. We'll see how this goes. Take care everbody, -Agg
Hi GC ! Today is day 9 of flower and things aren't looking too bad. She seems to be responding well to being tied down. I wish i would have started training earlier, but such is thus. Hopefully, she will stretch a bunch more or I will end up with a bunch of little buds. Not that im complaining. Anything is better than nothing. Especially since i was assuming that all was lost just a few days ago. The issues with the leaves have all but stopped. She looking much better since giving her plain water. Thanks again, Al and Thomas mother fuckin Jefferson for the good advice. #1 thanks you as well. Lol. You may have noticed the milk jug in the cabinet with the holes punched in the top. This is a diy co2 jug with activated yeast, sugar, and some baking soda, half filled with warm (110-115F) water. Im not doing this to increase yeilds, per se, its just to avoid having to open windows to let in subfreezing air (11 degrees this morning) for her to breathe. I guess you could say that im running a bit of a closed system for now. Its fizzing nicely and smells a bit like wort. I got the idea from a different forum which i will not mention here. Being in my cabinet also keeps my whole room from smelling like a brewery. There is something I am very curious about. Ive read that when you supplement your garden with co2, it's best to put the hoses or jug above the plants due to fact that co2 is heavy and sinks quickly. What about the naturally occuring co2 in the atmossphere? If its so heavy, how does it get to plants? Things is, i dont want to hang my jug above my light or my plant for fear of something going awry. My question is, do you think the co2 i am trying to provide is reaching the leaves, or is it just sinking down and collecting at the bottom of my cab? My first guess is that it is mixing with the incoming fresh air and being blown right at the leaves by my fan. Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated. Thats it for now. Be well, -Agg
natural levels of c02 will mix with surrounding air but when you super saturate, it can and will sink. i'm a little confused as to what you are doing, do you have the c02 supplement going in a sealed cabinet or does it still bring in ambient air and exhaust it? you can btw have extra c02 in the air just from living in your home as is what usually occurs to indoor air. LST training is what you're doing i believe, or did you prune? and that can be nice for getting the most out of plants. ideally you want to check out the LST sticky for more info on that. either way you should get more bud sites and cropping or LST training is designed to keep the lights on the buds over all.
Hi Al! Thanks for stopping by. Yeah my little cab has proper intake and exhaust. Im just messing around i suppose. Its just really cold here and opening windows sucks. They were doing just fine without the co2 jug in there. The reason i have it in my cabinet is so the carbon filter can remove the brewery smell. Which it does. Lol. After a day of watching it fizz and bubble, i figured it wasnt really doing anything special. Oh well. Doesnt seem to be hurting anything. As soon as it fizzles out, I'll remove it and see if my plant notices. I topped her at the 5th node back when she was like 3 weeks old. It gave me 4 main branches and 4 secondary branches. I wasnt going to LST much with what was supposed to be two plants. However, since i removed one, i tried to increase my yield a bit with a litlle LST. Im not really trying to go all out like the guys on the plant training thread. I just wanted to even out my canopy, especially since my 300w light only penetrates down so far. Id say im fairly happy with the results so far. All the budsites are in direct light and she has formed into a cup like shape withe the large ones on the ouside and the little ones on the inside. All in all , id say she is doing pretty good. Water only has really helped. She is much happier now that she doesnt have me pouring all kinds of shit down her throat. Thanks again! Be well, -Agg
Here we go, day 12 of flower. Shes really starting to take off. The problem leaves are really starting to green up. I watered her last night with straight aerated water. Nothing added. I think she is grateful for that. It had been 5 and a half days since her last watering. For what i think is six gallons of soil, she took 3 quarts of water with just a few ounces of run off and thats lasting at least 5 or 6 days. I like that. Im thinking i could have gone another day or two before i watered her again, but i wanted to make sure the soil is kept moist at all times instead of allowing wet/dry cycles like some people do. Just something I read. Thats all for now. Be well, -Agg
Hi! Just me again. Nothing special. Day 14, no hps shot. Budsites starting to thicken nicely, especially on the two original main tops. I really like this way of training with the milk crate planters. Very versatile. Roots are growing like crazy out of the bottom into the little air pockets of the planter. Good stuff. I think shes really happy. She never droops. Not even just before the lights go out. Take care! -Agg
Thanks SN, things are really starting to get juicy. She grows like an inch a day and is really starting to go through the water. I wonder what she look like had i not over fed her and given her such a hot soil. Next round im definately going to dilute my soil with peat, vermicompost, pumice. That should keep things from getting too hot again. That and go way easier on the water extras like aloe and coconut water. I cant wait til next spring when i start Outdoor Organics on the Sneak with 10 - 10 gallon geopots and a fresh batch of organic soil. It will be my first outdoor adventure and will take place along a creek and up a few ravines in the hills to the south. Just went and scouted out some spots today. I cant wait!! I will be running all Oregon Green Seed gear as well. They have some varieties especially suited to my needs. Restock coming in a week! Take care! -Agg
Hey man I apologize I thought that I had replied to this a while ago. I would definitely agree that less is more with organics. I find that the less I mess with the plants/soil, the better they perform. LITFA is really the number one lesson in organics. Every so often I "spoil my plants" but most of the time I just give them plain water.... with maybe a little protekt. There isn't really a concise listing of soil amendments (that I know of) that accurately describes their functions and uses. I've seen a few here and there but most are incomplete or the info is not all there. If there is any specific amendment you would like to understand more I could do my best to try to help you out. I've compiled info regarding things like neem, kelp, crab, gypsum, oyster etc but it's not all on one concise document or anything.
Hi TJ! Good to see you around. Apologies are never needed, my friend. I know how things go. Besides, your journal is so active, i bet responding to all that keeps you plenty busy. That and i notice you frequent many different topics and journals. So, no worries mr. President. All is well. As far as the info goes, i was just hoping for some kind compendium or something that you might have had quick access to n stuff. No biggie. If you're willing to type all that out for one guy, you might as well type up the whole shebang on all the admendments we use and compile it and sort it and edit it, etc., and post it for all. I bet it becomes a sticky in short order. That would be a very handy thing to have. Otherwise, i dont mind looking all that stuff up myself. Research always leads me to new and exciting things. Thanks again for the good advice. The effects of doing less is really starting to show. Shes growing like a champ. Take care, -Agg
Yeah, unfortunately no really good compendiums that I know of. If you look through the stickies and the organic sticky library, there are a few good threads full of info.. the higher learning thread has some links to info on different amendments. If you use the search function on grasscity, there is also a huge amount of info on each of the amendments just strewn throughout the forums. You can narrow down your search by looking at posts from Clackamas Coot, ComfreyQuery, Lumperdawgz, and Lumperdawgz2. All the same person. I've got a few links handy that you might like to check out. Kelp meal: http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/seaweed.html Neem Cake: http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/982164-whats-neem.html Rock Dust: http://remineralize.org/research-database/ Silica: http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/980786-silica-–-hidden-cost-chemicals.html forgot, I do have this bookmarked. It's ok. Some of the info is hit or miss: http://www.natureswayresources.com/gardenarticles.html This is a really good one, but not so much directed toward actual soil amendments that we use here: http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/01aglibwelcome.html That should keep ya busy a while lol!
Thanks for all that, Thomas. It will, indeed, keep me busy. Its a labor of love, for sure. WARNING! STONED RAMBLINGS AHEAD!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION! I was pondering an idea i heard on the interwebs last night. It asks, "if you had a year to live, what would you do?" A common question, no doubt. However, this time i really gave it some thought. I tried with great difficulty to think about this without any usual bias. Not easy for me. I decided that i would pour every penny into geopots, living organic soil, and the best genetics i could find. I would then commence to placing a 10 gal. plant in every nook and cranny i could find outside and hope for the best. Then i would harvest as much as i could, process, and pass out as much RSO to as many sick people as i could find before i depart. They claim that this is what im supposed to do with my life. I figured that was good cause thats basically what ive been up to minus the outdoor grow part. Next outdoor grow season, i reckon, will be a game changer for me. I've been thinking about moving back to Oregon, considering it will be legal next year, to grow outside. 4 plants a person. Hell, 4 plants, each in 200 gallon smartpots, could pump out a mountain of sweet organic cancer killing cannabis. Anyways, i just realized i was rambling. I love wake and bakes. All my best thinkings come in the early a.m. with a bowl. Have a killer day, everbody! -Agg
Hi! Not much to say. Everything going smoothly. Great growth. Prettiest plant I ever growd. Here she is 19 days into flower. Im writing this on the next day and she already starting to put out some frost. This is too easy. Its hard to LITFA. I cant wait until my mastadon seeds get here so i can have something else to do. Patience, grasshopper. Lol. Be well, everbody, eat lotsa turkey. -Agg Just before lights off Right after lights on
yeah LIFTA can be tough in the beginnings of organic change over, but in time you will have other things to do, worm bins, bukashi stuff if you get into that, out door leaf mold piles to use and compose, all the bud processing you will have to do and the list goes on but all in fun n pleasure my man. plants looking nice btw, you should feel good about that.
Thank you, Al. I do feel good about the way she looks. All the problems of the past have all but disappeared. No more burning leaf tips. No more spotting. Nothing but vigorous growth. And tons of white hairs all over. Just the way we like it. Remember when you first showed up here? I was getting ready to bombard this sweet girl with all manner of fungal soil drenches and who knows what else, all to try and battle a problem that didnt exsist in the way i thought it did. Sure i see a fungus gnat or an adult aphid flyer from time to time, but its never been anything my soil and plant couldnt handle themselves. I actually have more activity going on in my soil cycle bin than i do in my planter. Thanks again for the heads up on that, Al, its made all the difference. I cant wait to start some worm bins. Ive got lots of ideas rolling around on what im going to do. Big or small, bin style or flow through, diy or bought, and i love building stuff. Possibilities are endless. I figure i will wait until spring, though, its too cold to have a bunch of worms shipped in right now. Im not messing around with bait worms from wal mart either. I think my soil and another box of worm power from Build a soil will get me by until then. Her leaves have taken on more of a sativa appearance, showing off some of the c99 and blue satellite heritage within her, I reckon. Shes still stretching a smidge, but thats ok cause i dont think it will be much more and right now she is only 18 inches tall. Still lots of time left to stack flowers and swell up nice and fat. From what ive read, the high DIF in my grow box is going to cause stretchier buds, but higher resin content due to the large temp swings. Im pretty happy with her structure right now. So ill settle for frostier nugs, if thats truly the case. I do suppose that when i start Mastadon soon, the purple potential they have will be accentuated by the large drop in temperature at night. Thats all very exciting to me. Ive never grown a purple plant. Be well, -Agg
I tried to make a black backround as best I could. A few shots with my tablet camera. Someday ill get a real camera and a tripod cause i love taking pics. 22 days flowering. Strong cheese odor when rubbed along with what are starting to be some tropical fruit undertones. Be well, -Agg Wtf? Sideways? Sorry. Filling in nicely A touch of frost. Things are smellin cheesy in here.
Just scored a pack of Willamette Valley Pineapple just a bit ago from Oregon Green Seed. I couldnt be happier. Ive been waiting all day for these to come up for sale and i finally have them. Its all so very exciting. They made us wait until the evening so everybody had a chance at getting one their limited packs. So suspenseful. I feel very lucky to have picked one up. The Cindys Blue Cheese i have in flower is doing splendidly. Shes really packing on the flowers. I love Cannabis!! -Agg