Dummy's Organic Run

Ive been looking at the stuff the nurseries sell in ragards to organic items that I can use. Alot of hydro stores carry some of the same things but the nurseries have them in bugger bulk and at cheaper price. My local nursery just started selling Fox Farms products. They never had them before. I guess so many people bugged them about it that they decided to stock it! This ofcourse was after I decided to go organic.

They are struggling to get their organic section up to snuff but I have been able to snag alfalfa meal and oyster shell there for a little cheaper than the hydro store sells it for.

 

Skunk!! It is an absolute honor to have you here!! I have followed your journal for a while now and learned alot from your posts with LD in a past!!

Yeah, those guys in the hydro store that I go to tend to run off when I ask them questions. With me though, its more because they really dont know enough about organics to even fake it with customers. The one guy who tries to explain stuff to me pretty much gives the same info that I've read from the Rev in Skunk mag....yeah, I admit it, I read skunk from time to time. Its really not so bad. Those guys have a good stock of amendments but they dont really know much about it. When I start talking about how to use stuff (the way I learned it from here at GC), they look at me like Im some sort of guru and actually start asking me questions!! Imagine that!!! Hahahaha!!!

 

Hey farmers, just a quick update before I get on the road...

The babies are doing great. Thanks again Papawayne for the advice to let em dry out. I let em all dry out really good and just hit em with a foliar spray on Saturday right before lights out...then I watered them lightly when the lights came back on last night. I checked em when I got up today and snapped some pics. The bottom leaves that were suffering obviously wont be looking good ever again but the top growth shows that the plants are happy again!!

 

Snapped another pic of one of the babies thats starting to stretch. I lowered some lights on the sides and now Im starting to see some side growth at the internodes. Once I upgrade my lights one day, I wont have this issue I guess...

 

I never wrote it down before. I was just on a water schedule of Sunday and Wednesday...but that was with the FFOF I used on prior grows. This soil that I mixed and use now seems to take longer to drain so I do need to start taking note of my watering so I can figure out my new soil. I might have to go to once a week watering.

 

Yeah, I really need to get back to keeping some notes. I used to keep a log for my feeding...but I got lazy as heck. Guess I better get back to to it.

 

Another pic update!!

I checked my worm bin last night and found that all of bedding and food looks like its finally broken down!! Im not sure if its ready for harvesting so I posted another pic (pretty much the same one) over in the vermicomposting thread. I thought that I had a bit more time before harvest. I started the bin back in February so I guess its about that time!! Homemade worm castings!!

 

Thanks, this is exactly what I was thinking about doing! I saw a video on another thread that showed the compost tumbler (I think that it was Jerry who made it). I was thinking of either doing that or just using two screens like you suggest. I did notice some more of the bedding in the bin that still needs to break down. Since Im not in much of rush to harvest the castings, Im probably going to wait a bit longer so I can get everything ready.

Hi Pearl, thank you for stopping by!! Im going to post some more pics tonight. The plants are looking MUCH better now (IMO). This is the first time that I have actually had to "learn" the water retention of my soil. I used to take that for granted but thanks to Papa's advise, Im back on! More pics to come!

 

As promised, I got some more pics to post! The plants are doing great! They were pretty thirsty at lights on....leaves drooping and the whole 9...I gave em some water and left em to do their thing. Came back an hour or so later and those babies were perked right up!

Most of them are 4-5 nodes tall and working on the 6th. Im going to give em one more week and then transplant them into 6 inch pots....

Hey! That reminds me, I never finished telling you all what my plan is for the girls once they are sexed! Cant believe I forgot that...well, here goes.

My plan is to sex them and find out wich ones are female. The boys will go outside where they will get transplanted to big pots. Hopefully of the eight babies, no more than two will be boys. Then once I pick the best two from the girls, the rest will go outside to get it on with the boys. This way I can store up some seeds for later on when Im desparate for more bagseed. Then I plan to bonzai the chosen girls. I dont have alot of space for my mother plants so I need to figure out how to maximise my space. If I undertand things correctly, I will be able to take clones from the bonzai'ed moms and they will grow into normal sized plants. Only thing that keeps em bonzai'ed is the training and the root pruning...without that, they would grow normal.

SO...the moms will stay short and the clones will grow normal. Thats my plan! Correct me if Im wrong!

okay now for those pics

 

Here's a pic of my little one that originally grew missing a leaf when it sprouted. I call it 3leaf. You wouldnt know by now though! Its coming in just nice now...and to think that I was planning to throw it out because I thought that it was defective...