New to organics, first grow - AK Auto & Great White Auto

Hey folks, thought I’d start up my own thread to track some of my progress and learning... mostly for my own memory and documenting, lol, but if it can help out even one other person, then mission accomplished! Have been learning a great deal recently from the stickies and some of the other great contributors here on GCO, so thank you to everyone who has helped me with some of the questions I’ve had. Let’s see if I can pay that forward.

Have always had an interest in growing, my background is in farming. Pretty excited about being about to grow organically, not only from a sustainability standpoint, but from an ease of simply applying water.

The master plan
I’m aiming to get my first crop underway in about a month. Starting off with 2 autos, Great White Shark and AK, in organic no-tills. Plan to do some LST to get some nice spread and try to follow in Organic Sinse’s footsteps (if I’m lucky!). Following that harvest, I have some Critical Mass CBD that I am thinking of setting up in a scrog. From there, back to autos likely.

The set-up
I built my own grow space in my unfinished basement. 6’ x 4’ footprint, 80” high, lined with panda poly and seams taped with vapour barrier tape. I installed two containment barrier zippers to add sealed access to the inside.

I have two Viparspectra 450w (200w draw at the wall, each)... the ones with the bloom/veg switches. I also received a 250w MH ballast from my in-laws when they shut down their little greenhouse. It came with a 4200k MH bulb, and I managed to source a 220w HPS conversion bulb (2000k) to run in the MH ballast for flowering. Growing in 2 -10gal no tills, hard plastic pots with smart pot lining - 1-2” of lava rock under the smart pot.

Have an in-line exhaust fan and charcoal filter set up to help knock down any odour. I’m also going to pick up some dry-core subfloor tiles, they’re insulated subfloor tiles. Figured it will help insulate from the cold concrete and keep that soil and air temp up.

The soil
Mostly based on the recipes in the no-till sticky, but modified with what I could source locally, and some of the recommendations in other GCO grows. About 6wk cook time by the time I’m ready to plant. Each pot has roughly:

10.5L Pro-mix BX peat
7.5L SeaSoil organic compost
3L EWC
4.5L perlite
7L lava rock (smaller than 1/2” pieces)

1.5L biochar (uncharged)
~625ml volcanic rock powder
~375ml dolomite lime
~330ml kelp meal
~330ml neem seed meal
~250ml alfalfa pellets, ground to a meal consistency - was top dressed after mix as I forgot it originally
~150ml gypsum
Extra EWC for top dress later, MBP for preflower, and mycorrhizae for seed planting.



I’ll toss up a couple photos of where things are at right now. Don’t have the MH in there yet since I am just vegging this year’s pepper crop right now. Once they’re out, it’ll be go time! The tent is doing pretty well, I’ve been able to maintain 24 C with a little thermostatically controlled heater and 60-70% RH, which should be right about ideal for my canna. I may not need the heater once the MH is running.

Hmm, I’m sure there are some other things that I’ve already done or planning, but that would be the big ones. Looking forward to getting this underway!

 

Thanks guys - and completely agree Smokey, I'm hoping to replicate os' success. I have read through his thread twice now, learning more each time I go through it. Still reading up on teas and foliars as it seems there is some additional benefits to be had from those methods - may not try teas this first grow, but we'll see how it goes. Going to swing by Walmart and see if they have bottled aloe though.

I'll pop some updates in when there is some news to share. Happy growing all!

 

Not much news for an update, peppers are bumping along nicely, flowering out, with some fruit starting already. Should be transplanted outside in about 2 weeks, and then I’ll germ my canna seeds and drop them in my pots.

I did want to share the following link, I see lots of questions around fertilizers, or knowing what each amendment adds to your mix. This PDF (from the University of Maryland) has some excellent info, and has really helped clear up a lot for me. Worth a read if you’re new to soil mixing... it’s not solely focused on organics, but does cover off the typical organic amendments I see in our mixes, and talks a bit about teas and foliars.

https://extension.umd.edu//sites/ex...ions/HG42_Soil_Amendments_and_Fertilizers.pdf

 

OK things are happening! At Day 8 for both plants, although GWS was officially a little behind on emergence.

Fixed up my lighting arrangement so I have the 250w MH/HPS in there, but won't run it for veg, I think the two Vipars are sufficient with a good veg spectrum. I'll fire up the HPS conversion bulb for flower, to get the extra red spectrums. Should be roughly 600-620w of consumption between all three, which should hopefully provide a decent yield. Hindsight is always 20/20, if I was doing it over, it would likely be a QB in there, but going to see what this can do. The way I have it set up, I'm hoping to get the LEDs to provide a bit more light to the outsides of the plants. I can angle the LED panels towards the centre of the light coverage for some direct side lighting, depending how bushy these plants get (hopefully!)

Already have some gnats, but have started knocking them down between an EWC/Neem top dress, and some yellow sticky traps... seeing less of the little buggers now at least. Have some neem oil I may start using for a foliar/IPM, if needed. Will be putting down some straw mulch but was holding off until I am confident the gnats are under control/gone. Any advantage to putting the mulch down now? I figured it would be better to apply neem oil IPM directly on the soil.

 

@Chunk - I realized there is an organic grow journal sub-forum, would it be possible to bump my thread over there?
This likely fits better there... if you're able to, thank you!

Things are cooking along nicely, was out of town for about 48 hours. It was nice to come back and see some significant difference just in a couple of days.

AK is at day 12 - quite happy with her so far, seems to look nice and healthy.

GWS is also on day 12, a smaller sized plant than AK (so far), but expect that might be the difference between strains. Not quite as wide or tall as AK but if I didn't have anything to compare to, I wouldn't think anything of it.

If anyone has some feedback on gnats - what would you normally see for gnat damage? Do they mostly feast away under the surface of the soil, or do they attack the leaves? I haven't noticed any visible issues on the plants themselves. I haven't seen nearly as many lately, so perhaps it's resolving between the neem in my mix and the neem/ewc top dressing I did last week.

 

Small update, Day 17 for both girls.

AK was a little droopy when I took this shot. Had a ponytail on her this morning, so thinking the droop is just due to the LST. Side branches starting to get to a decent size. Will be staking them to grow out of the shade when they get a little bigger.



GWS is coming along, a bit behind the AK but I believe this was around 2 weeks longer to harvest, so might account for the slightly slower growth.

 

Saw first pistils on AK on Day 18, both are coming along nicely.

Some pics from Day 20 LST - pony-tailing and staking both plants out, gettin that light to the side branches!

AK

GWS

 

Day 24 - have been running the 250w MH with the LEDs on either side, plants seem to be responding well to the added light. It's quite a bit of wattage but I think it'll be more helpful when I swap out to the HPS bulb for flower.

AK is growing almost an inch/day, getting more light to the side branches now.



GWS is spreading nicely too

 

Day 27, was gone for a few days and came home to see quite a bit of new growth, a solid inch of growth per day. The side branches are clearing the main cola & fans now, and have done quite a bit of fan leaf tucking and staking to get the side branches to light.

AK had a bit of a tomato cage mishap, it fell over and snapped off a side branch on the 3rd node, right at the stem. Cut off some aloe from my plant and gobbed it on the split, and taped it back to the main stem. I lost the side branch but the main stem and upper nodes seem healthy and not showing any signs of major stress - phew!

AK


GWS


It looks to be into the initial stages of flowering now, I've added the bloom spectrum from my LEDs, and cut out the veg. With the 250w MH ballast, I should be getting sufficient blues for now. I'll switch the MH out for the 220w HPS bulb soon I think.

 

Thank you @Organic sinse for the help with the yellowing tips I have on my plants, seems like a bit too much N. Top dressed some EWC and neem a few weeks ago to combat gnats, and thinking it's just working through that.

 

The girls are 30 days old, happy 1 month mark!



AK - 18" tall


GWS - 15" tall

 

Day 34, amazing what a difference a few days can make. Both received some defoliation on Day 32 to open it up. Seems to have enjoyed it, side branches are reaching up on both plants.

AK - just under 23"


GWS - just under 21"

 

Day 37 - some solid growth on both plants, GWS has kept up and isn't far behind now. There's a tiny bit of smell in the tent now too.



AK - 28"


GWS - 26.5"

 

Day 40 - stretching has slowed down, AK is just under 30", and GWS just over 29". AK has started showing some frost and has a great smell already. Side branches on both have stretched up nicely too. Have removed some more fans that were blocking sites.



AK


GWS

 

Day 40 w/o blues

 

Day 46 update - AK has a nice dense bud structure as compared to GWS, but both are doing well overall. Have been getting water about every 5 days now, about 3L per pot.

I picked up a humidifier to help keep the environment in check, it has a built in humidistat, so I can keep the room at a fairly consistent RH, +/- a few %s. I find it hardly runs for the first few days after a water, with the humidity the soil gives off.

Side branches on both plants seem like they'll produce some reasonable amounts of bud, AK sure looks like it will weigh in more at this stage. GWS is a more stretched out structure.

AK


GWS

 

It's been a minute! Quick update - Day 57. Defol'd both plants the other day, lots more light getting through now. Plants are listed at 70 day harvests, but we'll see. Some pistils going orange, but just a handful right now.



AK


GWS