Adventures in organics

Discussion in 'Organic Grow Journals' started by PineWeasle, Aug 21, 2015.

  1. I have decided to go organic. Three reasons, bottled nutes get very expensive, I want to try to get more flavor in my buds, I want to be able to use the same techniques and "products" in my vegetable garden that I do in my medical garden.


    I have 2 rooms set up, one for veg which has a 8 bulb t5 with vho blue bulbs, and a bloom room shining 600w HPS w/ hortilux opti-red. My rooms are kinda small but its all the space I have ATM.


    I have 5x G-13 Labs Northern Lights and 3x Pineapple Express all in 5gal airpots.


    As for the soil (i wish I read more on this site before making this) I made a version of "Subcools SuperSoil"


    6x Roots organics origional 1.5cf
    \t1x Pro mix MX 3.8cf
    30lbs EWC
    6lb fish bone meal
    7.5lb seabird guano
    \t5lb blood meal
    \t3lb rock phosphate
    \t1c dolomite lime
    \t3/4c epsom salts
    \t1/2c azomite
    \t1/2c roots elemental (mycorazine)
    \t2T bioag Cytoplus


    I mixed and cooked that up for 30 days, the rest I am storing in 35gal trash cans.


    In each pot (except for one hold over from my last run) I filled the bottom half with SS and the rest with a mix of promix & ewc


    Every week I am going to hit them with a foliar tea, so far I sprayed them with an AACT of kelp, EWC, molassas, and Cytoplus, then added aloe and EM-1. Once it is ready I am going to alternate in some EM-1 FPE that has nettle and comfrey. Other than the foliar spary these girls should only need water from here on out.


    Just did some LST and defoliation to keep the air flowing, and took some clones for the next run. Sorry for shitty phone pics.
    Let me know what you guys think, am I on the right track?
     

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  2. The one thing I see that might be a problem in the future is the way under application of lime. 1cup/CF is the normal application rate, 1cup for over 9cf is a bad joke. This is one of the problems I have with Sub's mix.


    Anyway, if you should happen to have pH issues down the line, you'll know where to look.


    Girls look good and no worries, your mix will evolve over time. You're in the right place, here. Welcome to GCO.


    Wet
     
  3. I guess I will mix more lime into the rest of my mix before my next run, but as for what is already planted can I top dress with lime or should I use crab meal or Oyster flour
     
  4. Top dressing with lime is fine. Oyster flour and crab meal are also fine, but I wouldn't spend money shipping oyster flour. Calcitic lime at Lowes, HD is an exact equivalent. No opinion on crab meal yet. I just got some and it will be some time before I can decide if it's worth the cost, like neem and kelp meal are. I mean, worth it to buy and ship 40-50 lb bags. Mostly, I just source locally.


    Wet
     
  5. #5 PineWeasle, Aug 21, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 22, 2015
    I do have one advantage of having an awesome hydo/garden store about 5min from my house so shipping is never an issue


    edit: and I just noticed that "Down to Earth" oyster shell four 50lbs is prime on amazon soooo free 2 day shipping [​IMG]
     
  6. Quick update, The girls seed to be doing great, leaves are nice and healthy and growth rate is as expected with as much LST and defoliating I do.


    They just got a AACT w/ homemade compost, EWC, kelp, aloe, molasses, and em-1. I made 5 gal and used 1 gal as a foliar feed, the rest went as a root drench. I may make a "double strength" batch and dilute it next time because I don't feel like it was enough to actually drench the roots, but then again I am not really sure if I should be giving it as much as when I just strait water which is until light runoff.


    I was able to transplant 7/10 clones into a mix of pro-mix, compost, azomite, and ewc. The last three should show some roots in the next day or two.


    I started to be a bit more diligent in my IPM. I have started to hit them with a neem oil solution at night at least once if not twice a week. I am trying to get a handle on some lingering mites. They were on my mothers so I ended up scraping them, the best of the new clones will become the mom. The are also in my bloom room, the have done some leaf dmg on a few plant but nothing catastrophic, ladybugs seem to be keeping them in check. Once this crop is fished, which should be within the week, I am going to sanitize that room, wait 3 days, and sanitize it again. I may even spray down the whole room w/ em-1 just to prevent mold.


    Hopefully I can get these girls blooming in about 2 weeks, I cant wait to see their true colors. in the meantime I want to pick up some neem meal or cake, alfalfa meal and silica of some sort to work into my teas. I will also start recycling the soil of the crop thats finishing to get it ready for future crops.
     

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  7. #7 ladyluckybean, Aug 29, 2015
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2015
    Down to earth is expensive per pound. Try looking for regular ol' crustacean or crab meal. Get a big bag because you will use it. If you get free shipping, see if you can score some oly fish mountain compost or coast of Maine lobster compost. You can stop brewing teas and just use as a top dress. To stop mites you'll need an oil based product like neem every 3 days but when they're gone, use it weekly to prevent.



    I'd take your fpe and use it in a compost or worm bin. You don't need to ferment the nettles, etc because you have a very well amended mix so you don't need the extra nutrients. Same with alfalfa.



    Get the agsil silica powder and stop picking at your plants.



    Welcome.

    Oh and don't water till run off. 5% of container volume with established roots. Have you seen the SIPs?? Google Noobwannabe sip and you should find her thread to perfect watering and vigorous growth. It's the closest hydro version peat moss offers.
     
  8. So I take it you do not recommend defoliation. I have bee in the school of thought where removing some lower leaves I would improve airflow and have it "focus" on the top. is this yet another thing that is thrown out with organic growing? if so what about topping and branch removal?
     
  9. #9 ladyluckybean, Aug 29, 2015
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2015
    Most think it stresses out the plant and by not doing stuff like disturbing soil with multiple transplants, defoliating, topping, etc. these people have nice fat colas and use lst to encourage branching instead of pinching tips off or leaves.



    So as far as my opinion, topping seedlings really does stunt them just like explained in this .doc I'm linking. However, I personally think this isn't true of clones. If you search the organic lounge and no till using topping as a search, you'll see my explanation why I think this. I do try not to do this heavily though as if you read about abiotic stress, any stress can reduce yield.
    Oops!

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W98FskpKBr2kqQALN14fTa_eorDtslbKsHU12pArqtM/edit?usp=docslist_api'>https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W98FskpKBr2kqQALN14fTa_eorDtslbKsHU12pArqtM/edit?usp=docslist_api'>https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W98FskpKBr2kqQALN14fTa_eorDtslbKsHU12pArqtM/edit?usp=docslist_api</a></a>
     
  10. Well after some more reading, I will top no more. No more lobotomizing my girls. I will probably still remove the bottom most branches because they don't get enough light. But other than that all LST, hell at the rate ]the pineapple express grows I could probably bend it into some sick shapes.
     
  11. I'm fairly curious about this whole topic of topping. I got a bunch of seeds just sitting here waiting for me to deal with germinating, sexing, labeling for pheno's, ugh. but I can run them with some topped and some not. if I label each plant, grow it a second time, record the info and repeat this process a few time and it will give me an idea of how this theory works or if it does. I'm pretty skeptical about it but many folks here said they used to top and do the whole training, defoliating thing but since they've quit, their getting better yield and higher quality looking buds. I want that. so time will tell.
     
  12. That would be a great experiment. I am also curious as to how cloning plays into it versus from seed.
     
  13. Checking in for anyone that follows the girls a filling out nicely. I have been adding protek into my neem solution which is being applied 3 times a week now. I am also continuing with weekly foliar teas of EWC, kelp, aloe, and EM1. Although I think I may need to get a larger sprayer for next spring. My little 1 gal sprayer wont cut it when my garden is fully planted. I have been eyeing a chapin 4 gal backpack and I keep reading about how everyone has a chapin. They seem to love the foliars because all the leaves look and feel great (aside from a few mite damaged ones but that's being dealt with)even getting that "leathery" feel.


    My clones seem to be doing well. I was a bit concerned at first because the soil I mixed seems to be retaining to much moisture, probably from the leaf matter in the compost. The pot stayed near saturated for 4 days from the first time I watered it. Although I am already seeing roots poke out the bottom of the pots and 80% look super healthy.


    Still waiting on my last 3 sour diesel x white widow to finish up. I wish i had kept a clone of that now, this was by far my best run of it and I think it would do very well with my new setup. Oh well, i still really like the strains i'm growing plus I have more seeds waiting in the wings to try. If only I had more space.


    My worms have been making quick work of the restaurant scraps i've been feeding them, lots of cuke and carrot peels, lettuce, onions, peppers, and cabbage. All that plus coffee grounds from the "metric shit ton" of coffee I drink and some shredded newspaper, soil, and coir. I open the bin and it sounds like stirring mac & cheese. I will have to make a trip to the hardware store to get some 1/8in screen and harvest some of this soon.


    Till next time when I will inevitably learn something new and change my grow somehow.




     

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  14. Nice ladies! So your worm bin sounds like Mac n cheese? Lol gross. Wish mine sounded like that. Fall leaves will be on the ground soon. Worms LOVE leaves.

    Leathery feel? I think mine feel soft and maybe like a feather. Sounds like a lot of spraying. How long have your mites been "gone"?
     
  15. By leathery i mean tough, more like a nice soft leather couch. In the past the leaves seemed thin and delicate, now they seem thicker and more resilient. I haven't seen any active mites in the past few days but i think I will err on the side of caution and spray 3 times this week then go down to once a week after that. Sometimes I feel like my mites are never really gone, just managed. They seem to be very prevalent in outdoor gardens as well in my area.
     
  16. i would go a couple weeks after the last sighting then down to once a week but use a jewelers loupe to scout in the middle of the week. scouting is going to help you keep on top of things. also making sure everything is clean and wiped down will help a lot. what i just started doing after i tore down and cleaned is keeping hand sanitizer and some disposable gloves right by the entrance. you can get a coverall suit at homedepot in the paint section and remove your shoes or buy booties to go over so you don't track anything inside. act like you are entering the room of a patient who has a compromised immune system. treat these areas as seperate spaces and make sure nothing comes in or out. that will help you a lot. [​IMG]
     
  17. At one point I very much would take those kind of precautions, and don't get me wrong I still bleach my rooms between grows. But I have gotten to a point where I am fine with insects as long as my plants are healthy. Sterile conditions don't feel realistic, I like the natural approach. Yeah if they pick up a bit i will step up the neem or release some ladybugs (ladybugs are the best), but my days of bug bombing are over. And hell my green bean have mites and they taste better then ever this year with a huge yield.
     
  18. i'm not saying to remove any beneficial bugs. i'm just saying if you keep your grow room clean and not bring in any more pests from outside the environment, you'll be able to keep them out and off your plants. the mites get transferred through out the house from outdoors to inside. if you go out to your veggie garden and pick some up on your shoe or your sleeve then come inside and go in your room later, you have a good chance of reinfecting your garden. the go dormant and can pop up at any time so keeping it clean helps. i brought them home on clones. they got into my one grow room, then i got them in another room, then in a brand spanking new room i built trying to avoid them, then it got outside in our veggie garden. all of this by me going from place to place. i'm not bringing infected plants from the one grow into other areas either. so i'm just trying to stress to you the importance of not spreading them every where. :)
     
  19. Yeah I try to limit this by doing all my indoor gardening befor my outdoor gardening. The only thing that comes in is compost.
     
  20. Bloom Time!!!


    So I harvested the last few plants from my last run and got my bloom room all bleached out. Wiped everything down, cleaned the filters and sprayed w/ neem.
    While the room dried I made a run to the brew shop and picked up 5lbs of malted barley, 50/50 2 row and 6 row. They had a mill right there so I got it ground up. I also hit up the hydro/garden store for some neem meal and oyster flour.


    To get the girls ready I mixed up some EWC, malted barley, oyster flour (to correct the low lime in the mix thanks wetdog), azomite, neem meal, and coir and topdressed with that mix. I also gave them their weekly foliar of EM1 and aloe mixed into a kelp/ewc tea. I also moistened the soil with the remainder of my biotic concoction.


    Overall they are looking very healthy, cant wait to see their buds[​IMG]


     

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