Hi everybody, and welcome to my first ever grow journal, and my first ever 100% organic grow. I hope I can make it interesting enough for you to tag along for the ride. Let's start off with a little music to set the mood, and of course, feel free to post your own selections throughout this journal. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijHA2BAguXI]Alvin Lee - The Bluest Blues - YouTube[/ame] I'll be growing 10 feminized Peace Maker plants (from clones) in 5 gal Smart pots. Peace Maker = Super Skunk x White Widow (AKA White Shark) from Finest Medical Seeds, purchased through The Attitude Seed Bank. They will be vegged and flowered under 2 - Eye Hortilux 400w HPS bulbs (in a single hood), mounted on a light rail with about 3' of lateral movement. Here are my mothers - 7 weeks from seed pop: Since I need to make a batch of soil and let it cook for a month or so, I would like to focus this first post on my proposed soil mix. I have read through the organic grow journals here (took about a month), and after digesting all the detailed and excellent information, I have come up with a mix I think might work for my situation. The quantities listed below make approx. 5 gals. For my clones I'm thinking of using the full mix cut 2:1 with the Humbolt mix (yes, no, maybe?). Base mix -- (12 cups ea.) Humbolt Mix (Canadian spagnum peat moss, Perlite, Yucca extract) Dr. Earth Pot of Gold potting soil. Perlite Amendments -- Major Worm castings: 6 cups Compost: 6 cups (from the Compost Farm Brentwood, Tn - seasoned and very active biologically) Steer manure: 1 cup (range fed, no steroids, aged for 1 year, granular) Algamin Kelp meal: 1 cup (Ascophyllum nodosum) Alfalfa meal: 1 cup (2-.05-2) Minor Blood meal: 2 Tbsp (12-0-0) Soybean meal: 3 Tbsp (7-2-1 Higher N than Cottenseed meal but neutral PH) Bone meal: 1/2 cup (6-9-0) Crab meal: 1/2 cup (2-3-0 nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium 23%, and magnesium 1.33%) Neem Seed meal: 3 Tbsp (5-1-2 immunity from fungus gnats, root aphids and other pests) Minerals Montmorillonite clay: 4 Tbsp (high calcium clay) Granular humate: 2 Tbsp (organic matter and nutrient-releasing organic acids) Rare Earth: 2 Tbsp (calcium, iron, magnesium, silicon & sulfur) Azomite: 2 Tbsp (67 major and trace elements) Soft rock Phosphate: 3 Tbsp Sul-Po-Mag: 3 Tbsp (0-0-22 Sulfur, Potassium, Magnesium) Growth/Bio stimulators & tea ingredients -- BioAg CytoPlus BioAg VAM Triacontanol powder (foliar application) Thanks Grandpa! Black Strap Molasses (sulfurless) Liquid Kelp Liquid fish Once I've mixed the 50 gallons of soil, I will moisten and activate it with a bacterial dominant tea and let it cook until I'm ready to plant the rooted clones. So anyway, that's my proposed soil mix. I invite everyone here, whether master organic grower or novice, to pick this mix apart and offer your opinions and recommendations. I'm a couple of weeks away from actually mixing the soil, so there is plenty of time to make any adjustments based on feedback I receive from the community. That's about it for my first post. Thanks for taking the time to read through it, and thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice. Best of success to all growers in 2012! May your girlz be clean and green, and your buds be dank and dangerous. See ya, ~Papawayne
Heya PW! You don't see a set of plants that healthy looking everyday! OMG those look great! That soil mix sounds killer. I don't know half of that stuff, but it certainly appears that you have your bases covered! Sounds like you've done your preliminary homework. I can't wait to see how this first grow of yours turns out. I have a feeling you're going to nail it!
Hey MX, thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the kind words. The mothers are growing in the same compost that is going into my bloom mix. All I did was add some ewc, kelp meal and perlite. They seem happy enough
Is this your first time growing something organically because you seem to have the works here, looking very good too.
Hey Vox, thanks for stopping by. I've been known to pop a bean or two, but this will be my first 100% organic grow, meaning no synthetic nutrients or additives. The notion of feeding the micro-herd of bacteria and fungus in the soil, and then letting them do the work of feeding my plants, as opposed to applying synthetic nutrients for uptake directly by the plant, is new to me. I expect I'll have a lot to learn and, as usual, mostly from the mistakes I make along the way. That my mothers look as good as they do, I can only attribute to the quality of the compost they inhabit, because there's not much else in the mix besides ewc and kelp meal. I'm about to make up a bacterial dominant tea to feed the micro-beasties, but all the plants have received so far is pure water and a couple of doses of high-N bat guano tea, which I perked through a coffee maker The soil mix recipe in this post was developed after reading hundreds of soil recipes and, hopefully, gleaning the whats and the whys of the best of them. But that, too, remains to be seen. So, stick around...you might get to see me fall flat on my face ~ See ya
No, no, no...don't use a coffee maker That was just me being ignorant before I found out how to make "real" organic teas. I don't think it hurt anything, but there are much better ways to go about it. Here's a pretty good pdf on the subject from the Rev: Tea Time You can also search this forum for "organic tea" and get a sampling of what other people are doing with their teas. Actually, I wouldn't copy anything you see me doing in this grow journal, at least not until it has proven itself over time. Do your homework and develop a plan and a strategy that you think will work best in your situation. And, if you're going to copy anyone, copy from the master growers on this forum, not from an amateur wannabe like me. Good luck!
Yea, I just have two small aquarium pumps and an airstone, not much of the huge compost brewer I want but it does the job. The best grower I have seen on this site would probably be Smoove, but he left a while ago.
Sorry, Vox. I couldn't remember seeing your name before, and the way you phrased your question I just assumed you were new to this. Didn't mean to talk down to you.
They are not, lol IMO anyways, my next go around is going to ripen longer, both in veg and flower. Thanks though.
UPDATE: WOW! (or...why Ill never go back to bottled nutes) [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-q7Mih69KE&feature=related[/ame] Here's the story: My mothers sprouted and were planted in the 5 gal containers sometime in the last week of October. The pic of them at the beginning of this journal was taken on Dec. 20. They had been in the ground for 7 weeks or so and looked good, but a week later the base of the leaves on the new growth was starting to yellow and get skinny. By the 4th of Jan. the upper growth had started to yellow as well. In my pre-organic days, I would have diagnosed that as a micro deficiency (probably iron), and would no doubt have hit them with some Green Up or other bottled solution containing a host of micro-nutrients, but... On the 5th of Jan. I made up an AACT instead (my first). I used 1/2 cup ewc, 1/2 cup compost, 1 Tbsp kelp meal, and 1 Tbsp of molasses - bubbled for 24 hours - then applied it to my soil just before lights out. I probably should have left out the kelp, but I'm learning The next day (yesterday, the 7th), I walked into the room and thought, "Hmmm...that new growth looks fatter." By 9:00pm today, all the yellowing was gone and the new growth was back to it's cranking good self! This is so amazing to me. I never would have seen that quick of a response or such a complete solution to the problem had I been using bottled nutes. I fed the micro-herd, and those little buggers took care of the problem - they were hungry! Lesson learned: feed your micro-herd regularly, and they will take care of feeding your plants. I'm JAZZED!
Highly unlikely. I would offer this - much of the benefit from your tea is a direct result of the kelp meal. Kelp meal (not seaweed extract) is one of the three (only) amendments that I use. I consider kelp meal 'mission critical' and would not consider growing any plant without adding it to the raised beds, potting soils, flower beds. I often apply a straight kelp meal tea - about 1x every week or so. HTH LD
Awesome, LD! Thank you very much for stopping by and putting my head back on the right track. I've been reading so much about teas/AACTs and their formulations, and it just hasn't sunken in completely. Like I said, this was my first one, and that it worked so well just blows me away. Please, feel free to straighten me out at every opportunity. I'm sure that will keep you busy in your spare time. See ya...
papawayne AACT mixes are good things to understand and to use when appropriate. So is basic soil biology and there is absolutely no other amendment that you could add to a soil, worm bin, thermal compost pile that is going to give you not only the full range of the elements (nutrients) that plants use (83 total) but it's the compounds consisting of Auxins and other phytohormones, Gibberellins (GAs), Plant Growth Regulators (PGRs), Systemic Acquired Resistance (SARs), biopesticides, biofungicides, chelation agents (Mannitol), water retention (Alginic acid) giving you more than 280 compounds, a huge range of enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, etc. All that for chump-change in the whole scheme of things. 1/2 cup of kelp meal to 1 c.f. of potting soil will take care of business. LD
LD...So you probably laughed your butt off when you saw my soil mix, eh? I've got everything in there except the kitchen sink. Hey, wait a minute...I've got a gnarly grinder attachment for my Dremel...and my kitchen sink is an old ceramic model from the 30's (well seasoned)...maybe just a couple of grams?