Hey All, Welcome to my adventure in organic growing! For starters, I think its appropriate to give ya a quick rundown of how I've gotten to this point and what I am working with for equipment. I have been interested in growing for myself for years, and about a year ago, decided to take the plunge, and give it a shot. Having been on several other kinds of forums over the years, I naturally started looking around at a few mj growing sites, including here, and decided to build myself a grow room. I built a 4x3.5x9' box, and picked up a 600 watt lumatek ballast, and HPS and MH bulbs. I also picked up an Aircooled reflector, a couple 400cfm inline fans, and a decent sized carbon filter. For some reason, I was really paranoid about overwatering in soil, controlling ph and all that stuff (yea, I know, how silly, huh?) so I decided to start off growing hydro, in DWC "bubble buckets". I ordered some seeds from the attitude seedbank, and started 3 freebies i got with my order. Once they got going, I started giving them AN bottle goop, and things progressed "well" on 2 of the 3 plants, I screwed one of them up as a seedling, so it never really grew properly..lol I ended up harvesting just under 3oz dry off one of them "syrup" from buddah seeds. It was decent smoke, certainly miles better than the commercial stuff I had been buying for years from local dealers, but had what I later started calling a "medicine" type taste (and no, not our good kind of medicine!). Since that first run had went decently, I started 2 Super lemon haze seeds, and once again did the bubble bucket "hydro" thing, with the AN "ph perfect" nutes. The plants grew well, but did show signs of nute burn, and I ended up harvesting them way earlier than I should have. Again, the smoke was good, but had that same "mediciney" taste to it. While the SLH was growing, I of course continued to research diffrent methods of growing, and between reading SG1's "cheap ole bastard" thread, and some of Lumperdawgs, jerrys, and others stickys and threads, became more interested in organics. I started reading up heavy on the different "water only" mixes, "super soils", ect., and decided to mix up my own soil, and give organics a try. I started off with a base mix that LD had posted, and went from there as follows. My base mix has: Premier brand peat shitty "happy frog" EWC (still working on getting better stuff here locally) perlite lime to that I added: kelp meal alfalfa meal bone meal blood meal azomite (I understand that is really basic, and have since started a list of things to ammend the soil with in the future) I put aside a couple 5 gallon buckets of the base mix for seedlings and what not, and mixed all that stuff up, then wet it down with a super basic compost tea of just some of my shitty EWC and moleasses, that i stired into a 5 gallon bucket of water that sat out overnight. I started a White Widow seed, a Critical Kush, and a Pineapple Chunk in solo party cups in the base soil, and the 2 widows, and the Critical kush all sprouted, but the pineapple didnt, so a few weeks later I started 2 more Widows for myself, and 5 auto ak's, that my cousin wanted to run outdoors. I just harvested the White Widow about 3 weekends ago, and it was by far the most flavorfull, healthiest plant I had grown up till then, and didnt have that "medicine" taste that the hydro stuff did! Meanwhile, my Critical Kush was a couple weeks behind the Widow, and it looked to be even bigger and better than the widow. I harvested it last weekend, and it is absolutly amazing. It ending up weighing in at over 3oz dry of super sticky, smelly, fire breathing shit that absolutly blows me away every time I smoke it, and it isnt even fully cured yet! I have been flowering them all in 7 gallon containers, and will be stepping up to 12-15gallon containers for the next round. While the Widow and Kush were vegging, I took some clones, and put them in a little veg box I built so I could stagger the plants for a more streamlined grow. A couple weeks before the widow and kush finished, I stuck the 2nd round of widows in the back of the flower box, and they are currently 4 weeks into flowering. I will start adding pics from here, here are a couple pics of the Critical kush right before I harvested it, and I will post some of the harvest in a bit. happy growing!
As I researched and talked with all of you guys more, I realized a more diverse soil would be better, so I am in the process of gathering more stuff as I go along, I picked up some "organic gem" fish hydroslate a while back, and have been giving the plants a bit of that once every couple weeks or so, and also was able to source some Coast of Maine Lobster Compost (thanks jerry!) and am trying to get some of theyre EWC at least. I am also planning on ordering some neem meal, along with some kind of crustation meal, and since I've been following jerry's threads on the rock dust, planning on trying some locally sourced stuff that is used on local little leauge ball fields. The city I live in orders it thru local landscape/building materials suppliers, and its just called "stone dust" or "rock dust". im planning on trying it on one bucket first to see if I notice a diffrence good or bad before adding it to all of them. Like most of us here, I'm eager to learn more about this awesome hobby of ours, and I am hoping that you guys can help me continue to learning about what makes this all work! I would also like to thank all of you guys that have helped me learn all that I know about gardening, and organics, without your help, I definetly wouldnt have had nearly the sucsess I have had so far. SG1, jerry, LD, sean, OBN, h2t, and all the rest of you who post up here, thank you. I really appreciate everything. I'm gonna post some pics of the Critical Kush harvest in my next post.
Hey Presure2, Your story is an often repeated one here in the organics section of GC. It's good that you've found your way to organics, and even better that you found your way here. Welcome to the world of organic ganja! See ya...
nice! I'll follow it! also maybe learn one or two things.. today I learned the guy with the top hat makes some hash that has had me soaring all day .. there's much to learn! If only I had a greater budget I would learn it all
Papa: thanks, don't be a stranger! SG: so glad you made it by bro! Hope I do you proud! H2t thanks for stopping by, hopfully we all can learn here, from each other! Smoked some of my critical with the ole lady after posting earlier...and yea, nodded out watching the game, ill get some pics up in the am to get this bitch on the road!
So here are some pics of the critical kush, both with and without flash. Tonight when I get home ill post some pics of the flower room with the 2 widows going, and the veg box. Happy growing everyone!
[quote name='"Mashiro"']Very nice harvest! Can't wait to see your flower room.[/quote] Thanks, mashiro! The flower box isn't anything crazy right now, I only have 2 white widow plants that are about 4 weeks into flowering in there, but over the next couple months it should get better and better, I have the larger critical kush clones that I took that will go in next, and have a few random strains I got as freebies I want to run, as well as a special project that will be coming up soon as well. A friend was trusting enough in me to allow me to grow some of his beans, which should be very interesting seeing as how the seeds are from a f1 cross, so there should be some good variety among the plants. Just for the Hell of it, here's a pic of the critical kush a week before I chopped it.
So, here's a couple current pics of the flower box, just the 2 white widows in there, about 4 weeks into flowering. They are both about 33" tall. Also a shot of the little veg box, its got 3 critical kush clones, and 4 more widows. I have 4x23w CFL's in there 3 are 5500k, one is 2700k, that run on an 18/6 cycle. Happy growing!
[quote name='"SG1"'] Those are nice[/quote] Haha, those are babies compared to your grows, bro, but they definetly are consistant. I've grown 3 of those from seed, and they are look identical in structure, height, ect..only diffrence between these 2 and the last one was these were vegged the whole time in the mini veg box under the cfls, which seemed to produce more branching. I'm certainly not complaining! I just had a Hell of a good time, my cousin and I just made some dry ice hash for the first time. I started with just about 1.5oz of dry trim, (about .5oz widow, and 1oz of the critical kush), and a few lbs of dry ice. We used a 220 Micron bag, and wow, I was very impressed! I took a shitty video, but I need to edit it, we get all excited and start saying each others names and shit, I'd rather not have that out there..lol I would have to say I prolly got at least 5 or 6 grams keif, total, I seperated it into 3 diffrent piles as we did it, as it went from a nice pale blonde to a more greenish brown. Here's a couple pics of some of it I just tried, and its some fucking killer stuff! Now, I need to get me a proper rig to smoke this shit..I have a few diffrent hand pipes, and one larger old school bong, that's all bulky and shit, I need to step into 2012..Lmao! Anyway, pics! Now, I know some of the "purists" will say "see, it has plant matter in it!"...frankly, I don't care, I'm not selling any off this shit, its all for me and my friends and family to enjoy, so fuck it. Besides, this shit just got me high as fuck! Lol I also scored some nice 15 gallon buckets to finish in, I'm hoping that allows the plants to stretch more and get bigger vs the 7 gallon buckets I finish in now, plus I think they will work better for the no till setup I'd ideally like to employ in the flower box. Happy growing all!
Here is a close up of the dry ice hash my cousin and I made last night. its got a bit of plant matter in it, but I am sure as hell not about to complain!
So...its amazing how we learn new things every day. Today, I finally noticed a diffrence in the 2 widows I have in the flower box. One of them is developing a lot more trichomes, and seems to be filling in quicker than the other. It has also shot up about 2" above the other. I am wondering if the position of the plant relative to the bulb had somthing to do with it, because being on the left side of the hut puts the plant more under the base of the bulb, and, there is more heat at that end. So, I swapped positions of the 2 plants, and we'll see what happens. Things are moving along nicely in the veg box, the critical kush clones are really growing quickly, in another couple weeks I think they will be ready to flower. I can't wait to run those in the 15 gallon pots I got! Here are a few pics. The frostier plant is now on the right. Overall flowering room "frosty" #2, this one is more like the first 2 I grew. the critical kush clones, vegging away..lol I am going to start some "special" beans this weekend, one of my mentors was kind enough to hook me up with some of his own seed stock, and I cannot thank him enough for giving me the opportunity to do so. Happy growing!
Hey Presure2, Nice pics and great looking girlz! "Frosty" has a beautiful configuration: a cola bust with a necklace of secondaries and a boa of budz draped over her shoulder...so fine. See ya...
[quote name='"papawayne"']Hey Presure2, Nice pics and great looking girlz! "Frosty" has a beautiful configuration: a cola bust with a necklace of secondaries and a boa of budz draped over her shoulder...so fine. See ya...[/quote] Hahahahaha that's awesome, papa, thanks! Best plant discription I've heard! That dry ice hash I made the other day is incredible. The more I smoke it, the more I like it, very smooth, but super strong, very effective for night time use!
So this weekend has been fun as all hell! It started off yesterday with me once again, going down to the hydro shop and fuckin with the owner, I usually buy a few small things, and he rambles about some new bottled goop that makes your grow improve 182.634% or whatever the hell, and I reply with some organic mumbo jumbo that I've learned here about how I have the best, tastiest buds I've ever grown without touching any "bottles", and just feeding my soil. lmao So, I grabbed a few things, (trimming sissors, and run-off trays for under the buckets) and headed over to a local landscape supply place to see about getting some rock/stone dust. Now, these guys normally deal in bulk, so the little portugese old man who owns the place was like "ahh, my friend, just take it.." when I told him I only needed about half a 5gal bucket. lol Once I got home, I started prepping the soil that was left from this past harvest, 2x 7gal buckets. (almost 2cu.ft.) I had talked with Jerry about the massive amount of roots in the soil, and told him I was a bit concerned about planting right back into that soil because of them. He told me not to worry about it, that they would disappear quick, like magic..and he was right. Just a couple weeks after the harvest, and when I dumped the buckets, there were just about no roots left in them! amazing! I added a bit of alfalfa, and kelp meal, and about 7-8 cups of the stone dust, a bit of azomite, and a bunch of EWC+ lobster compost, and mixed it all well, and put it into the big pots I have, which turned out to be 13.5 gal, not 15 like I thought, which isnt a huge deal I dont think. lol I'll let that cycle a while, while I wait for the 2 Widows to finish. I'll be running 2 plants with the extra rock/stone dust, and 2 without, to see what kind of diffrence it makes for me. Once the lights come on in the flower box, Ill add some pics of the girls in there, and some of the veg box as well, gonna start a bunch of seeds today!! The DARKLORD cometh!