Hey guys, I’ve been here too long as is and it’s about time I post my journal. Although the laws are changing there are still a lot of draconian morons who have control of our government policy so paranoia has kept me from starting a journal till now. I was a caregiver in my state to several patients before now becoming a patient myself. This will be somewhere around my 14 or 15th harvest but my first organic no nutrient endeavor. Here are a few better pictures from my first grows I’m about to get my card in so it’s all good anyway. They’re trying to pass legalization in my state while also attempting to make home growing illegal which is just ridiculous all around. Pretty much out of resources and money to spend for this run. I couldn’t even imaging having to waste the money on bottled nutrients. Definitely would have been 1500 Dollars if not more for medium and nutrients but this cubic yard of soil was blended for a little more than $500 if even that much. I know someone who works at a hardware store so I got the bags of high quality COM compost for $5 each the bale of peat was $8 all the pro mix I purchased -8 cubic -feet was $65 the perlite was $30, I did spend 150 on bio char and pumice the coco I had lying around. EWC- $20 then I spent about $150-200 on all my nutrient amendments I did spend $25 on a bag of malibu’s just because I knew I would use it and today I bought a cubic foot of green tree worm castings since I ran out mixing the soil. I am aiming for a full no till style grow, I just put in a mulch layer of leaves mixed in a little EWC neem kelp and some perlite into the mulch layer for good measure IPM and what not. and then I threw them on there. Still need to collect some more clean leaves but I’m out of energy till tomorrow. 4 plants still need a mulch layer and a few just need some more leaves. Also threw a little MBP on there too. Been a little heavy on the inputs lately but I was a little lite on my soil inputs. Here is what is in my pots; 20 gallon smarties from 247 garden filled a little over 2/3 with- 8 parts Coast of Maine lobster compost 2 parts Malibu’s bu’s blend 1 part EWC 4 parts limed peat 6 parts pro mix 2 parts coco 8 parts pumice 3parts perlite 1 part biochar Then for amendments per cubic foot 1 cup Basalt 1/2 cup MBP 3/8 cup azomite 1/2 cup kelp meal 1/2 cup neem meal 1/2 cup crab meal 1/2 cup dr earth home grown w/mychorrhiaze spores 1/3 cup green sand 1/4 cup fish meal 1/4 cup granular humic acids 1/4 cup gypsum 1/6 cup bat guano 1/6 cup seabird guano 1/6 cup shrimp meal 1/2 cup local organic chicken manure A friend gave me some of his soil with beneficial mites and I also mixed a handful into each pot. Mixed all of those in a kiddie pool in the middle of my kitchen. Took about two shifts around 3-5 hours long to mix it all up thoroughly and get a good measuring system going. and it felt like an eternity. Luckily my fiancé was there to help mixing and with cleanup too. So after mixing the soil I let them sit for a little less than a day. Some had been sitting a little longer because they were mixed earlier. I did mix two a day before I got the hang of everything. The secret to getting a good flow was mixing all my dry amendments into their own separate plastic bags so instead of having to take a scoop out of 15 boxes and bags for each pot I mixed, I just had one bag to slit open and dump into the kiddie pool after measuring and mixing all my hummus aeration and soilless material. So fast forward a few days and I took 32 gallons of R/O water heated to about 72° with an aquarium pump and bubbled with an air stone. Mixed in a good chunk of aloe, some MBP, coconut water, then before watering I threw in some home made Lactisbacillus given to me by a friend and an equal amount of organic blackstrap mollasses toninnoculate the soil. I then let the pots sit for about 4 more days and I already had mycelium 2 days later. So I decided not to cycle my soil for 10 days after reading many no cool no till recipies and concluding my mix was close enough. I transplanted just about a week ago. When I did I watered them in with another 1/2 gallon each this time I had aloe, some hydrated kelp paste, and I also used a little bit of NFTG Zeus juice and Gaia mania because I have some nectar for the gods left over and those are decent products. Gaia is good for sick plants so I thought i would just give them Some in case anything is going to go wrong. Next time i watered was 3 days later. A little worried about my soil not being cycled and maybe having an over acidic Ph. My leaves are a little lime colored ar the new growth, Some Of the older leaves have had the N sucked right out of them but they had been in the last pots a bit too long. They werent root bound but they had definitely used up most of the available nutrients. I had been supplementing with some various teas for the last couple weeks before transplant. So being worried about things I mixed in about 1/2 cup of pulverized lime into 8 gallons with some aloe Vera and kelp and I watered the pots mostly focusing on the outside and not the freshly transplanted area as much. That was about four days ago and today I watered them with only a bit of coconut water mixed in at about 74°. Then I mulched what I could and called it a day. Still worried about the soil and it’s ph. This is my first run in these containers/ this soil so it is supposed to only get better with time. I’m hoping it’ll at least be a pretty bumper crop the first go around too. The leaves coloration looks a little bit concerning but they do look pretty healthy all in all. I’ve Been lazy with my LST regiment. Just got some butterfly binder clips to clip on the outside my fabric pots folded edges so I can have more anchor points for my stainless steel wire. They already are set to be quite monstrous bushes with lots of top sites just need to do more tying down. Trying to veg for another 4 weeks give or take. Still have a lot of work to do before then. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Good morning GC gonna start my day with an early morning pineapple dab and my Cutest kitty sprinkles. But first; I Need to put some ice in the rig The light comes on at about 6 am so I’ve been getting up earlier and earlier since I hung the HID fixture. They were under a flourescent till last week and that was on 24/7 (unfortunately all the seedlings in this pic died, not enough light so I’ll be buying one of these osram cob led bulbs I found on amazon for these seeds I just got to replace some that never sprouted) Here is the pack of seeds There is also one seed I found in my friend’s no till outdoor bud. I’m pretty sure it was from the dark dragon because I was grinding it up at the time and some cannabis fell on the ground and when I went down to find it there was this seed! So hopefully it’s something decent With this seeds I’m going to use pro mix with a little EWC and then probably a little less than an equal amount of perlite and pumice. My seedlings likely died from not enough light in combo with cold temps in the root zone and transplant shock. They began dying after I transplanted them from solo shot glass cups to 16 oz solo cups. Just started falling over one by one :’( rip hazelnut cream, gigabud, grapefruit, and blue gelato 41 Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Looks like a good mix. Probably a little light on the amendments but like you said can fix with top dressing or teas. I usually use 2 cups per cf of the rock dusts and 1 cup per cf of amendments. 1/2 cup per cf of guanos. My plants always veg well but the flowering part has always left something to desire with organic practices. I have a veg mix and a flower mix, so I can transplant at the right time and continue to feed water and microbes only as long as possible. I’m going to try kelp and neem top dressing early flower, MBP mid flower, and high K FFJ’s with molasses or Epsom salts to finish. Can’t ingest chemicals anymore with stage 4 cancer, so I’ve gone back to organic. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Man, that’s a bummer to hear Keep fighting brother, Gonna roll a nice cherry Garcia joint in your honor Idk if you’ve read into alternative treatments much. Antineoplastons look promising but our damn government / the corrupt FDA won’t fund anyone who comes up with alternatives to chems and rads. Even cannabis has more potential. I am in the process of making a banana ffj. I wanted to go heavier on the basalt but it was almost a 200 mile drive to western mass organic grow supply, couldn’t find a closer supply of even glacial rock dust. It was definitely an awesome shop and I was mostly going that way to visit a friend and help him trim / hang out. The store owner ended up giving me over 20 lbs of the local rock dust microfine basalt for only $10 so I also bought some guanos green sand humic acid granules and fish meal. He showed me a nug of his super silver haze and I was blown away by quality. Pretty much used no inputs besides 5ml a gallon of hurculean harvest for flower but I don’t want to depend on any bottled nutes even nftg although I have some bottles lying around I mostly went so light on the amendments because I went by the boxes recommendation and I ended up using almost all of everything I had. I also wanted something that would not require a month of cycling before safe transplanting. I’m switching to organics mostly because I want the highest quality and best flavor at the lowest possible price point. I have been blown away by the results I have seen from no till and organic runs and I’m so tired of wasting thousands of dollars on bottled nutrients. While mixing my soil I decided to premix the dry amendments into shopping bags so I could pour them in easily and not have to take a different sized scoop from 15 different containers. But I mixed an extra 2 bags so I have about 8 pounds of a pretty kick ass all purpose fertilizer blend for using in the future. But I definitely need to get some more rock dust in the next few months. Also in the process of designing and building a pretty awesome 5 gallon 3 bucket worm farm bin. With a bottom bucket to catch the lechetate and the first bucket I’m going to be cutting most of the plastic out and leaving a frame of a bucket and then fill in the empty spots with 1/4” Hardware cloth screen and also have a hole in the center of the bucket to put a metal rod so it can be spun to harvest finished castings. Going to make a tutorial thread and advocate for it to be stickied for our low budget diy organic home growers.
LST time Still have half of them to tie down. Using these things with some stainless steel wire to hold the branches down Just need to figure out how to go about pruning these they’re already getting pretty massive, just need some thicker branches and a nice even full canopy before I get ready to flower Also need to hang 4 different hoods, hook up ventilation buy an electrical adapter and new bulbs and also wire up my extension cord. But I have about 27 days or so till My deadline. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I know people have been dropping by, don’t be shy, say hi! Just completed the first step in the construction of my two in one worm bucket / spinning castings harvester. I scored out all the spaces I’m going to use 1/4” hardware cloth now to fill in the empty space to expose as much material surface area to the worms as possibles Just need to cut the hardware cloth to fit the spaces and secure it to the bucket. The debate is wether I should use machine screws with washers and nuts, or an epoxy putty. If I use an epoxy putty I will let the putty cure for a week before finishing the bucket, i may attempt heating the edge of the hardware cloth up with a soldering iron at the points it overlaps the plastic in hopes that the heated metal will melt the plastic enough to embed it in there. I can drill holes and use machine screws and washers, but I think epoxy putty or melting the metal into the plastic would provide the nicer finished product. Hopefully the weight of the food scraps worms and castings won’t be too much for the bond of the epoxy putty to metal and plastic. That shouldn’t be a problem actually but I would rather just melt the plastic and sharpen it around the hardware cloth but that may not be a plausible alternative.For the sides I am going to cut an individual piece for each rectangular opening, but for the bottom I’m probably going to use one circular piece with a little hole cut out of the center maybe even folded upwards to create a little basket effect. Will figure it out tomorrow afternoon, should have a finished product and a posted tutorial in a week. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Almost done with my ultimate five gallon bucket worm bin. Cut all the hardware cloth prices to fit the cut outs on the bucket and made a circular basket like piece for the bottom which is the more difficult aspect about this design. I also decided to use both fasteners and epoxy putty for the best results. Used my soldering iron yesterday to melt holes for machine screws. Now I just need to get some more washers and nuts. I did some more LST tie downs but still have more to go. Also sprayed about a half gallon of foliage feed yesterday. The one non organic product I’m using is floraliscious plus but it is an all naturally derived product with humics. Only reason I am using it is because I have it. Also mixing in some chaos bloom from NFTG. Tried making my own foliage last week but I ended up busting two sprayers even after attempting filtration before spraying. It’s been about six days since I’ve watered but my soil still feels pretty moist. And the pots are heavy but they are heavy even when dried out. Want to let my pots dry out a little more than I probably should so their roots can really stretch out into their new home. They’ve been in their new pots now for about 10 days and have gotten bigger but I want to see some explosive growth. They did seem to get bigger since my heavy handed foliage feeding yesterday and now I have some more tying down to do. Also turned on some music for them today because, why not? I need to do some defoliation and get on my pruning game, but I’m not doing any apical pruning (topping/ fimming) only opening up the plant and tying down her main stalk and other off shooting branches to expose as many secondary and tertiary flower nodes as possible. I am also super cropping as many of those branches as possible. But if anyone has any good tips or tutorials on defoliating pruning and or lollypopping to increase yields then send me a link!!! Here they are today. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Hello and you’re doing the damn thing Big Time lol Very nice work!!! How big do you expect them to get sheez I wanna see this grow! Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Subbed pulling up a seat! You’ve got a lot of good things in your soil I’m very interested in the worm bucket I really wanna make one and feed them this compost I’ve got. So it spins? And twirls out the EWC? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I’m hoping to get them around a meter maybe a little under before I make the flip. And yes, The worm bucket will be a spinner. Have a threaded 1/4” rod and some matching nuts I was going to epoxy to the center of the top lid and the bottom of the bucket it will them sit in a rectangle of wood boards with no top side so the bucket will fit in the top and the metal rod will sit in two notches centering it so it can spin like an axle. Then there will be a tray beneath to collect and harvest the castings. I got a lot of advice from the organics community here and I hav a good friend who has been like a mentor to me the last ten years and on his advice I’ve decided switching to the no till organic style. Just made sure my mix was ok. Dead recommended to let the mix cycle but it is light on amendments. I made sure I had a lot of high quality biodiversity in my soil. I only let them sit for about 6 days and then planted right in as soon as I saw a mycelium Matt growing on the soil Still have to set up my exhaust and get a few more pieces of essential equipment but 12/12 is over the horizon. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Good afternoon ladies and germs. Gave my gals a heavy drench today really focusing on the outside soil around the transplanted root zone. 1.5 gallons to all but 3 who received around 1 gallon each because of their size. It had been over a week since I had given them anything but their daily foliar feeding. The soil still felt moist so I felt that I could have waited longer but having lots of experience with coco coir I honestly just couldn’t wait any longer. So I took a couple large aloe leaves, maybe about a quarter pound and a little more, blended it up with about a full cup of hydrated kelp paste and made almost 25 gallons of 72°-75° water then watered all my ladies and have them all a heavy foliar spray as well. This will be the first watering since they were mulched, 4 still need a mulch layer but I’ve been busy/lazy buislasy. The mulch layer also had a good amount of EWC, neem meal, a little kelp and a few tablespoons of MBP. They look droopy right now from the weight of the water but after all the moisture dissipates and brings my humidity up to 80%(really need to get my exhaust hooked up ASAP) they will be praying to the metal halide sun goddess. Not much progress from yesterday, lots of the under growth is growing up and getting fuller. I have more shoots I need to tie down now and I need to figure out a good pruning and defoliation plan. Pretty much out of cannabis at the moment. Just 1/4 gram of pineapple oil and a roach left May the cannabis goddess please have mercy on our souls and stash. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Thank you! And Good morning It’s nothing fancy, pretty minimalistic. I’ve been slacking I really need to get my exhaust set up, my humidity has been out of control and it’s been really wet in my area, mist fog and rain non stop the last two weeks. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
So I'm a minimalist as well I really tried to not spend a lot but also have quality product one thing that I would suggest if you are fighting humidity is to get a dehumidifier and use the water to water your plants because it's reverse osmosis which is like the best type of water for your plants to have because it's already been filtered and cleat Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
Eh, I already have a good aquarium R/O I bought on Craigslist for like 60 bucks a long time ago I have a really nice to that I broke but it just needs some new snap adapters. But the old one still works like a charm, but it is time to get a pre filter replacement. I just fill up a 30 gallon fish tank a day or two before I need to water. I doubt my dehumidifier would be able to get me enough water to really work with. I do need a dehumidifier though but I think hooking up my exhaust fan will make a big difference. Just being lazy and a little worried about the noise. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
My dehumidifier covers 3000 square feet area so I empty it at least twice a day if not more and I just collected in a bin that I used to water my plants I have seen a tremendous difference in u the water that comes from my dehumidifier vs tap water if that makes any sense Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
It does, I just would not drink what comes out of an ac/ dehumidifier. There has to be a lot of air contamination that ends up caught in the filter and maybe into the water. It’s probably fine for plants. I just like being able to turn a faucet on and just wait to fill something up. A friend of mine has one of those new iponics controllers and I’m pretty jelly. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Put my exhaust fan in, but I’m an idiot and I fastened it to the wrong side because I swore I put the exhaust vent on the right side, so I had to figure it out the hard way, this is just temporary till I get my carbon filter but that’s money I don’t even have right now. But here the girls are today. Instead of going so craZy on tie downs I’ve begun buckling them/ supercropping and bending them over. Need more defoliation and some pruning this weekend. I have less than a gram of cannabis left, send me thoughts and prayers. Do have some shitty oil in the freezer made from trim that had been shaken and sifted to death. Going to have to deal with it till I can get some cash. It’s going to be a tough 3 months. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum