pHarmers Sustained Organic Living Adventure w/ HiLEDs

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 16, 2014

Hello all and welcome!! (Updated 6/23/2015. To bypass the room build and get to where the soil/room outlined below is in full swing, skip forward to page 32.)

After countless months of planning & saving the garden is finally ready to be converted over to running all No-Till containers!! Mixed up over 100gal of soil to start off with & will mix up more as space becomes available. So here is how I went about mixing my 100+ gal of soil.

Went down to HD & picked up two 3cf compressed bales of CSPM (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss). Some names you might find it under would be Premier, Fafard, Sun Gro Horticulture (uses 3 or 4 names regionally). As long as you buy CSPM you'll be fine, just look at the sides & bottom of the bales to find the CSPMA (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association) logo. The name on the bale doesn't really matter, just the certification. Reason for this is two things:

Quality

Processing method (harvesting)

The key to the quality of the material is in its structure and due to the fact that they harvest in Northern Alberta which produces CSPM with very high levels of Microbial activity. Now some will argue that Peat isn't sustainable, in fact it is, we just have to be smart about the rates & methods in which we are harvesting it. Peat moss harvested from the ancient peat bogs in Canada are harvested at a rate that is a fraction of the production rate. Peat bogs in Europe however are in danger of being harvested at too fast of a rate. This is why it is best to source Peat Moss from Canada if possible.

Now when you get your CSPM it will be in a compressed 3cf bale and more often times then not is close to bone dry upon purchasing. After hydrating the bale you end up with around 6cf of CSPM, though to some it may not be so simple to hydrate this much Peat Moss. So I figured I would post how I went about hydrating my Peat Moss.

Hydrating Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss:

Take a 45gal trash can (or larger/smaller depending on the amount your wanting to hydrate)& fill it a little over half way with water.

Open up your bale of CSPM and start adding chunks to the water. It will initially repel the water so as you press the peat moss down under the water you will notice It is still brown in color.

You can take a shovel or pitchfork and stir the peat moss as you add more and more until the trash can is completely full. Let this sit over night and in the morning you will notice that it has completely hydrated. With smaller batches it is easier to control the moisture levels but with large bathes you may find that the peat moss is entirely too wet.

This is fine, all that you need to do is take more dry peat moss from the bale and add it to a separate area you wish to mix in. Then taking the saturated peat moss from the trash can, add it in small amounts to the dry peat. Using a rake, mix in the dry peat moss with wet peat moss & you will notice the water start to leach and even itself out. Do this until you have the consistency you would like and fill your trash can back up. There will be extra but that is fine just store it in another tub till next needed.

Now your peat moss is ready for use! In my opinion, besides the actual work of mixing the soil. Hydrating the peat moss is the hardest part about the mixing aspect! After you make sure your peat moss is at the right hydration level (wrung out sponge consistency) & your compost or vermicompost component is also properly hydrated. Mixing the soil is a breeze!

Mixing the soil:
Now that all the materials are ready to be mixed, time to set everything up.

I used a medium sized kiddie pool from Kmart to do the final mixing in. Wheelbarrow to hold the 3/8" Lava Rock, and the 45gal trash can for the CSPM. Had to do everything in a small space instead of out in the yard as we had 35-45mph winds for days, about a week! So had to do my best to keep everything from flying around everywhere. 

The compost I am using is "Bu's Blend Biodynamic Malibu Compost". It is made from Composted Dairy Cow Manure, Straw, Vineyard Wood Chips, Yarrow, Chamomile, Valerian, Stinging Nettle, Dandelion & Oak Bark. It is a very fine consistency, airy and light, a lot like beach sand. Yet has such a rich and earth smell, very pleasant!

I was able to source some 3/8" Lava Rock from a rock supply yard for $55.00 a truck load! So now I have plenty of Lava Rock for not only my soil but for filling my SIP trays as well.

I picked up a 1gal bucket from the paint section at HD, has 1-4 Quarts marked on the inside and this is what I used to measure out the Base amendments (Compost, CSPM, & Lava Rock).

What I did was take 4-4-2 (quarts) of each component to wind up with 2.5gal each of Compost, CSPM, & Lava Rock. For a total of 7.5gal or 1 cubic foot, add this all to the kiddie pool and you have your base.

I found it was easier to mix up the base soil before adding any amendments to it. So take a rake, shovel or pitchfork and move the soil about until you get a nice even mixture. You will notice the mix become very earthy in smell as it is close to being mixed thoroughly. When it is finished you should be left with something that looks along the lines of this.

Now comes the fun part, adding your amendments! It is rather difficult when ordering amendments online as you want to make sure you have enough to cover all of your needs. This is very difficult to do without a rough estimate of how much each item you will be using weighs. So I have included my weights in 1cup measurements & what that equates to in grams & pounds.
1.) Ahimsa Organics pure full strength Neem Cake- 1cup = 146.8 grams or 0.32lbs. Added @1cup per cubic foot of base soil.

2.) Crustacean meal- 1cup = 110.0 grams or 0.24lbs. Added @1cup per cubic foot of base soil.

3.) Acadian Seaplants Kelp Meal- 1cup = 178.1 grams or 0.39lbs. Added @1cup per cubic foot of base soil.

4.) Classic Stone Gypsum- 1cup = 237.0 grams or 0.52lbs. Added @1/2cup per cubic foot of base soil.

5.) Basalt Microfines Rock Dust- 1cup = 225.2 grams or 0.49lbs. Added @4cups per cubic foot of base soil.

6.) Black Owl "Environmental Ultra" Bio-Char- 1cup =32.8 grams or 0.07lbs. Added @6cups (5%) per cubic foot of base soil

So for the record I am using (per cubic foot):
1cup Neem Cake
1cup Crustacean Meal
1cup Kelp Meal
1/2cup Gypsum
4cups Basalt Rock Dust
6cups Bio-Char


Added the amendments to the top of the base soil & mixed everything all together. The consistency was nice and fluffy, working on getting some videos going so once I do I will get a video showing the ideal consistency. Couldn't quite do it justice with a still shot, so I will be mixing more soil soon and get a video for you all. 

 


Everything was mixed on May 7th and placed into five 25gal pots. On May 13th the entire topsoil on all the pots were completely covered in mycelial growth! 

 
Here are some harvest shots from some previous harvests of mine in 7gal pots. GSC grown under two SolarSPEC-260's in a 4x4 area.
Bodhi seeds Pura Vida, taken at Day 60, grown under a SolarEclipse-350 +UV-B.

Hope all is well out there in the GC, if you have any questions or comments please feel free!

InternationalHarvester · Dec 16, 2014

First! Subbin up.

donothinggardening · Dec 16, 2014

mind if I grab a chair? lookin forward to the perpetual festivities

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 16, 2014

Don't mind at all, thanks for dropping by!!! Veg/Clone update:

GSC moms I plan on moving to flower are needing to be transplanted, was skeptical about doing this before the move as I couldn't find large enough boxes to hold both the pot and the plant size and the soil weight. But I have finally found the right boxes so tomorrow they will be transplanted into 7gal pots.

GSC mom #1:

GSC mom #2:

Sprouted a Bodhi seeds Pura Vida, have 3 clones one of which I plan on sending into flower to sex here soon. The mom is still undergoing heavy LST and will also be transplanted into the 7gal pots, hoping to set her up to be my first scrog attempt. She is an extremely lush grower and is NOT liking the 1gal pots at all!! She definitely needs her root space to grow.

Also have a Golden Goat that I am trying to re-veg that also needs to be transplanted xD Thinking this experiment is going to have to wait until after the move tho.

Group shot:

Off to the right are the babies, this is day 3 since transplant into cups. Trying out a new seedling/cloning mix of 20% Vermicompost 80% Peat Moss. My method of cloning is a home made coffee can cloner, I will fill it using tap water that has bubbled for anywhere from 24-72hrs. From there I will place both tanks inside of a humidome in a dark corner of my tent away from direct/intense light. I will add 2tsp of Kelp meal to 1gal of water and shake this up periodically over the coarse of 12 hours and then will add in 1tsp of AgSil16h Potassium Silicate to the gal mixture and add to my spray bottle. I will lightly mist the bottom of the cloning tray and the humidome but wont mist the cuttings at all. In between the two cloning trays is a seedling heat mat that keeps the bubbling water nice and warm as well as evaporates the spray mixture further adding it to the air.

I took the clones on December 4th and these pictures were taken on December 13th, 9 days later still perfectly green and healthy!

So I transplanted them into the 20/80 mix & everything looked fine (12-13).

However I think I need to wait a bit longer next time for the roots to develop more cause I started noticing some slight dropping in the leaves and minimal yellowing. Figuring ok well maybe everything will settle itself out, don't want to do anything crazy and mess them up more. So I just went to sleep, hoping next morning I would wake up and they would be all nice a perky. Well I woke up yesterday and they looked like this xD (12-14).

Tops were all weak and droopy, felt extremely lifeless and watery. So I stuck them back in the same tray/dome method I use for cloning & misted with an Aloe/Silica mixture while I mixed up another gallon of Kelp/Silica tea. Figured it would be ok to lightly mist the clones this time so I did. Well this morning when the Kelp tea was done 12hrs later this is what they looked like before the spray (12-15).

Noticeably more yellow and still dropping and I'm thinking "Oh man I just stunted their growth fersure"! Applied the Kelp/Silica mixture to the tray, dome & lightly misted the cuttings, less then 3 hours later and here they are!

Back to being their lush green beautiful selves and are nice and strong in the stems and the leaves are starting to pick back up! Thinking another 2 maybe 3 days like this and they will be more then fine to go back directly under the lights. There is 7 GSC clones one cup has 2 GSC clones in it tho. While there is 2 separate BPV clones one cup has 2 BPV clones in it as well (double planted cuttings didn't have roots yet and I didn't expect them to make it, but alas they did). Was worried about the mix as I have been thinking it may need some aeration but everything seems to be working out fine, looks promising if it continues to work well!

Peflora · Dec 16, 2014

While my diet over the last 30 years has included a lot of organically grown, plants do not benefit from it, at least not as much as the hype.

Unlike humans, plants do convert inorganic matter into food.

So, as long as that inorganic food is complete, the plants will be happy and healthy.

Some say soil grown smokes/tastes better. I have a sufficient sampling of professional smokers who rave about my end product's taste and high

So, with that said, why not set up a smallish hydro section?

If interested check out my DIY Mini-Me F & D http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/1342028-simple-expandable-mini-me-flood-drain.html

I use Hydroponic-Research V+B, which is a complete one part dry formula (available for tap or RO)

41Venom14 · Dec 16, 2014

Awww yeah let the party begin. Already off to a blazing start, can't wait to see it grow from here. All these puns lol. Subb'd up brah.

newhollander · Dec 18, 2014

pHarmerXxLEDxX said:

Hello all and welcome!!

Going to be making a move to the Cali High Desert and figured what better way to start documentation of the transition then to start the new thread for my 420th post!

So a little about the expectations once I get there,

I plan on building a 17'x10' room inside an existing area of the house, inside of this room I plan on running a fully perpetual grow. Everything is completely open for discussion and ANY advice or ideas on a setup someone would like to see is welcomed & greatly needed! But the general idea is to have two separate Flowering areas as I would like to shoot for a harvest once a month or close to it. A large enough Veg area to accommodate the alternating flower rooms. A drying room as well as a small spot for cloning/moms. In a rough sketch I did using the measurements I could have 2 side by side 4x8 flowering areas along one 17' wall while placing a 5x5 Veg room and a 5x5 Drying room on the opposite 17' wall. While utilizing a 2x4 tent for moms/cloning on the same side wall as the drying/veg rooms.

Now the problems I am already seeing from this setup is that,

1) I REALLY want to try a scrog and I know that moving plants once they are established in the table is next to impossible.

2) I plan on growing some very large plants thru veg before flipping to flower as one of the things I am looking forward to is moving out of tents and into rooms with much less height limitations. Now I don't see how a 5x5 space is going to be large enough to Veg out the 20 plants ill need for the alternating flower rooms. Maybe make it a 5x10 room and eliminate the drying room, or just make it smaller?

Only reason I want a drying room is I plan on running multiple strains at a given time and the harvesting times will be different. So I wouldn't be able to just cut and hang as is in the flowering area as there would still be growing plants around. Again any help or advice on this build is extremely appreciated!!

So now a little about my current cultivation methods.

I have been utilizing a 2x4 tent for my Veg, Cloning, & Moms while using a 4x4 section of a 4x8 tent for Flowering & Drying. I am using HiLED panels from Amare Technologies, they are High intensity LEDs that utilize Full spectrum White Lighting. I recently just finished a run utilizing two of their SolarSPEC-260w units (520w true) & with plants half the size as previous runs utilizing a 600w Hortilux HPS. They have outperformed the HID in both trichome production, density, overall color, aroma, as well as offering a much cheaper alternative to electrical/cooling costs! I am currently utilizing 7gal Geopots for flowering while using 1gal pots for veg/moms. Once I have the pots available I plan on moving over to No-Till methods and going straight from Dixie cup to 7gal pots. As soon as feasibly possible the plan is to mix up a large batch of soil and do a transition from the 7gal's to 20-30gal pots. To me soil stands for Sustainable, Organic, In-expensive, & Living. So organic living soil methods are all that I plan to continue utilizing!

My soil mix consists of (per cubic foot, 7.5gal of soil),

Base soil:
2.5gal of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss
1.5gal of Worm Power Vermicompost
1gal of Compost (previously used Eco Scraps from home depot but plan on finding a better source until I can utilize my own homemade)
2.5gal of Lava Rock (previously used Perlite but again plan on switching)

To that I will add:
1cup Ahimsa Neem cake
1cup Acadian Kelp meal
1cup Crustacean meal
1cup Gypsum
1cup Oyster Shell flour
2cups Glacial Rock Dust
2cups Basalt Rock Dust

Mix it all together and wet it down with an enzyme tea of Malted barley/Aloe/Silica/Fulvic acid & let it sit for a month watering occasionally to keep everything moist as if a plant was in it.

Here are some pictures from my latest run of Girl Scout Cookie, for a low yielding strain she did remarkably well under the HiLEDs! I started flower @9" due to time constraints with the move so they weren't very big at all. Finished up at 17"-20", would have liked to let them go another 2 weeks to finish up the density, color, & resin production. But again due to the move they had to get the chop a bit earlier then I wanted, currently on day 5 of drying:

Day before Harvest:

IMG_20141207_181218_132.jpg

IMG_20141207_181229_204.jpg

IMG_20141207_180823_447.jpg

IMG_20141207_181340_480.jpg

IMG_20141207_180528_433.jpg

GSC Trichs 1.jpg

GSC Trichs 2.jpg

Day of the Harvest:

GSC harvest 12-11 #1.jpg

GSC Harvest 12-11 #3.jpg

GSC Harvest 12-11 #6.jpg

GSC Harvest 12-11 #7.jpg

If anyone has any opinions on things I can improve on or am doing incorrectly feel free to let me know! All criticism is constructive criticism!!

Hope all is going well for everyone out there in the GC, cant wait to get this ball rolling! Happy Growing!!
Click to expand...

My idea of using your space: If I HAD to have 2 flower rooms (only real goal here is to adjust to one clone/plant per grow room for maximum efficacy and efficiency) instead of 1, I would still have only one veg/clone/24 room. Mom's don't take up too much space (if you trim according to your current and future needs), veggies can grow adequate heights/roots in about a month, so your two flower rooms can be filled every 8 weeks or less, which means you can grow short flowering buds, but you also have the extra time to flower long flowering buds (10+ weeks). Your dry room needn't be that big, you just need some wall-to-wall mesh nets to suspend your drying flowers.

Happy growing and Sub'd and taking a seat...

Lumperfan · Dec 21, 2014

Hope you don't mind if i pull up a chair, sounds like a great show! LF

donothinggardening · Dec 21, 2014

Nice! Dude, I am hoping to get a cutting of some golden goat here soon. Some killer smoke been looking at bodhi seeds too lol. things are looking good in there man

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 21, 2014

Peflora said:

While my diet over the last 30 years has included a lot of organically grown, plants do not benefit from it, at least not as much as the hype.

Unlike humans, plants do convert inorganic matter into food.

So, as long as that inorganic food is complete, the plants will be happy and healthy.

Some say soil grown smokes/tastes better. I have a sufficient sampling of professional smokers who rave about my end product's taste and high

So, with that said, why not set up a smallish hydro section?

If interested check out my DIY Mini-Me F & D http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/1342028-simple-expandable-mini-me-flood-drain.html

I use Hydroponic-Research V+B, which is a complete one part dry formula (available for tap or RO)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I can agree with plants not benefiting from an organically grown method, but then again I suppose that would all depend on ones take of the word 'organic'. For me if something is 'organic', it is rich in minerals, extremely nutrient dense, chalked full of different enzymes & is just teeming with life. Now the big thing for me is that scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how a plant grows as well as still trying to figure out all the various compounds contained on/within the plants we are growing & what it is that facilitates their growth & production. Same goes for most of the compounds used in the various things utilized in growing. Only 110 compounds created by Neem trees have been identified & cataloged, leaving the other 252 compounds for further research. It took over 18 years for scientists in India to break the molecular structure code on Azadirachtin alone!

With that being said I find it hard to believe we have yet reached a point where we can accurately say we know everything that a plant needs, how much of it they need, & when they need it. Especially to classify it to "16 essential macro/micro nutrients" & then break them down into their ionic form and pump feed it to the plant. While I can understand how hydroponics can be useful and even yield better results across the board when compared to a depleted outdoor soil or even bagged soils. When it comes to a well put together, biologically diverse organic soil, I don't believe anything can hold a candle to it. I did have a question tho, what is it that qualifies someone to be a professional smoker? As this is a new term for me xD

But I will have to look into it more and perhaps do a small test with an organic hydro method utilizing microorganisms to break down the organic food into the inorganic nutrients needed. Where this is not possible with conventional hydroponics as the organic compounds in the hydroponic solution show phototoxic effects. The thought of utilizing aquaponics has always intrigued me so I may do a small test between the two in the future!

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 21, 2014

Alright, sorry to keep everyone waiting, been a pretty crazy week getting everything packed and ready without the grow skipping a beat. BUT I am finally here in the new place and getting nice & settled!

The previous run of GSC finished up drying & was put into jars on the 16th w/ a yield of 140.8grams, not bad for such small plants. With all of my previous runs I had only needed 3 glass jars for all of the end product. With this run I filled up all of those jars then dumped them into my new jars 3 times. I even had 2 more plants in 1gal pots my last grow I did with HPS & I still outperformed all previous grows with plants half the size.

I got a top dress kit thru Buildasoil and did a test between my old Roots Organic soil and the soil I mixed up and let cook. I added the top dress kit to the Roots Organic right after transplanting into the 7gal pots, everything got the exact same treatment, only difference was the soil. While my mixed soil yielded 37.9g, the Roots organics only yielded 21.1g. There was also a noticeable difference in taste, density, & overall high.

Another thing I noticed is that the plant directly under the middle of both lights had the best flower development. The way the lights were set up it technically had half of one panel directly over one half of the plant while the opposite panel covered the other half of the plant. So in a way it was directly under the light, so I am thinking of picking up another 2 SolarSPEC-260w panels to run 1040w in a 4x4 area with a 260 over each corner.

This is the basic development from the side plants:

This is the middle plant directly under the light:

Everything still has a bit of moisture in it but the density is unreal, I have never felt buds this solid that didn't just crunch and turn to dust when you squeezed it. Even with time left for everything to get more solid & dense I can already squeeze a nug as hard as I can and it barely has any give to it. It actually makes the blood rush away from my finger tips cause of how hard I am squeezing it. Once I figure out how to do the whole video thing I plan on getting a better video showing this!

Ill post an update tonight or tomorrow with a detailed smoke report but for now an update on everything going on in Veg. I transplanted one GSC and the BPV into 7gal pots on the 16th, would have transplanted both of the GSC moms but I thought she was going to be leaving us to go on another adventure. So she will be transplanted probably tomorrow along with the Golden Goat re-veg. After transplanting I stuck one of the 260's over top @42" and went back to packing, thinking everything would be fine it totally slipped my mind to keep going and checking on them. Came back a bit later and they were already bleached pretty good and showing this weird bronzing color on the edges. I felt extremely bad, its like I can feel them yelling at me "What were you doing leaving me un-attended for so long?!?!" xD

GSC:

BPV:

Group shot of tent:

So transplant shock plus light intensity shock, took them 5 days to get better and have the "praying leaves" again. But now everything is back to growing and is starting to green up real nice, girls are bushing up perfectly! For now I am just using the small 100w light for the entire 2x4 area until everything gets nice and settled.

GSC #1, 12/21:

Bodhi Pura Vida, 12/21:

GSC #2, 12/21:

Clones, 12/21:

Golden Goat re-veg, 12/21:

Group shot of tent, 12/21:

Going to have to make a trip to Home depot and get everything to set up a scrog table and some velcro plant ties for training. Going to try setting it up to flower out my GSC in the 2x4 tent using a scrog while I wait for the room to finish up. It was awesome, first day arriving as I am coming into the community I saw a portable AC sitting at the edge of someone's driveway. I knocked on the door to see if the guy was selling it and he told me "I got a bigger one that works better for the house and didn't need it anymore, just tossed it out there figured someone would pick it up for free. Been sitting out there thru all this rain tho so idk if it still works, but it did when I put it out there" so I snagged it!!! xD Got it home, cleaned it up a bit and fired it up. Man can this thing move some air!! Couldn't get the cooler part to turn on but I am thinking its because its already so cold outside, going to tweak with it some more see if I can get it working. If not, oh well a free bad ass oscillation fan is always needed, especially with the new room build! xD

Asked if he had anymore interesting things he didn't need and was just laying around, he said actually he had a heater that he didn't need as his new AC could do heat & asked if I was interested. So for 15$ I picked up this new heater as well! Can heat up to 90 degrees and doesn't use any fans to blow hot air around but slowly raises the temperature in the room to the desired temp in about 1-2 hours. I can keep this thing right next to my tent and nothing is warm to the touch, works extremely well when the temp here in the desert is in the 30's!

As for the new room, the plan is to get started as soon as I can. When that is I am not sure but I want it to be done within a month & that's what I am aiming for. The 17' wall will be put up just to the left of the blue dollie with a 10' wall running across from there along where the guitar case is to the furthest line on that wall in the second picture. (Excuse the clutter, still trying to un pack and find places for everything)

The air will be brought in thru the window, into the rooms, then out thru a hole leading into a space above the roof (kind of like an attic) which has air moving thru it due to vents set up on the out side of the house.

I also plan on building my own compost and setting up my own worm bins as soon as I can, along with a full blown veggie garden. The goal is to get enough plants/tree/shrubs/bio-accumulators going to be able to make my own Leaf mold as well as use the dead yearly plant matter in the compost. I have quite a large space to play with, only issue is it all needs to be brought back to life first. So here is a few pics of the playground, any ideas on where to start? I planned on having the veggie garden area in the more open part of the yard to the right (first picture). But again nothing is set in stone.

LOL well that was quite the long winded post, hope all is well out there in the GC! Glad to have you all following along, Happy Growing!

41Venom14 · Dec 22, 2014

Congrats on the fantastic yield and new home mate! My brother just moved into his new place so I know the feeling it's awesome. I also can't wait to see what you can do with all that open space both inside and outside. I'm hoping I can pull off the density of your buds with my grow using the same light.

On a side note I put Silver into flower! Been two days or so with her on 12/12 schedule. I hope she can compete with your GSC. How is the smoke report from your GSC? Any notable differences in flavors and intensity with the organic growing??

Peflora · Dec 22, 2014

pHarmerXxLEDxX said:

I'm not sure I can agree with plants not benefiting from an organically grown method, but then again I suppose that would all depend on ones take of the word 'organic'. For me if something is 'organic', it is rich in minerals, extremely nutrient dense, chalked full of different enzymes & is just teeming with life. Now the big thing for me is that scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how a plant grows as well as still trying to figure out all the various compounds contained on/within the plants we are growing & what it is that facilitates their growth & production. Same goes for most of the compounds used in the various things utilized in growing. Only 110 compounds created by Neem trees have been identified & cataloged, leaving the other 252 compounds for further research. It took over 18 years for scientists in India to break the molecular structure code on Azadirachtin alone!

With that being said I find it hard to believe we have yet reached a point where we can accurately say we know everything that a plant needs, how much of it they need, & when they need it. Especially to classify it to "16 essential macro/micro nutrients" & then break them down into their ionic form and pump feed it to the plant. While I can understand how hydroponics can be useful and even yield better results across the board when compared to a depleted outdoor soil or even bagged soils. When it comes to a well put together, biologically diverse organic soil, I don't believe anything can hold a candle to it. I did have a question tho, what is it that qualifies someone to be a professional smoker? As this is a new term for me xD

But I will have to look into it more and perhaps do a small test with an organic hydro method utilizing microorganisms to break down the organic food into the inorganic nutrients needed. Where this is not possible with conventional hydroponics as the organic compounds in the hydroponic solution show phototoxic effects. The thought of utilizing aquaponics has always intrigued me so I may do a small test between the two in the future!
Click to expand...

You want inorganic nutes. The plant will convert them. Although I suppose raw mined minerals are organic by nature. Purity trumps organic/inorganic. An assay showing mineral impurities is essential to assure high quality

(I prefer Hydroponic Research V+B as it is a complete formula, including fulvic

Professional Smoker: someone who consumes mass quantities of quality meds over decades, and is very picky

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 22, 2014

41Venom14 said:

Congrats on the fantastic yield and new home mate! My brother just moved into his new place so I know the feeling it's awesome. I also can't wait to see what you can do with all that open space both inside and outside. I'm hoping I can pull off the density of your buds with my grow using the same light.

On a side note I put Silver into flower! Been two days or so with her on 12/12 schedule. I hope she can compete with your GSC. How is the smoke report from your GSC? Any notable differences in flavors and intensity with the organic growing??
Click to expand...

Thank you, it feels really good to be here! Haven't slept this good in years! Congrats to your brother and I hope all is going well with his transition as well. I myself am super excited to get everything started!!

With everything your running there should be no reason as to why your not blown away by the results. Your more then welcome to continue your picture documentary here!! I would love to follow her along and see how she does & I am pretty sure you'll see better results then my GSC as she is naturally a low yielding strain.

The smoke is absolutely amazing! When you crack the jar open this intense smell of fresh shortbread cookies comes out, even people who don't smoke agree it smells like cookies. xD The bud burns really slow and the smoke is quite expansive, feels as tho you took 3x the hit you did as smoke just keeps on coming. On the inhale it hits your throat slightly but not in a harsh way, more like when smoking a hash or other concentrate. There is a nice flavor that I still cant describe as it changes to often but is quite amazing. Me and my girl both say it makes our mouths water as apposed to getting dry. The high is quite amazing, since I pulled them about 2 weeks early its not to much of a body high but more so a cooling head high that was perfect for moving! Last night tho I did try another hit and as its still curing there was a much stronger head and body high, after two hits I was ready for bed and slept very very well! So we shall see how she finishes out, for now I cant do a fair comparison between the two as they are both still changing. But with the new soil everything just smells so much more potent and has that strong cookie smell! Plus what I have smoked of the Roots plant it wasn't as flavorful, the high wasn't as strong and it wasn't as expansive.

41Venom14 · Dec 22, 2014

That is awesome mate. I had some GSC before and I wondered why it was called Girl Scout Cookies when mine didn't smell like anything close to it. Now I see why haha, when grown well it'll actually smell like cookies. Goes to show what a proper grow can pull. I don't think anything I've smoked will be able to compete with what I will grow.

I wonder if the smoke expansion is due to the fact that the buds were so dense? Hmm. Think you can keep from smoking all of it till it's cured for at least a month? Lol. I'm looking forward to what you can do with your grow room. Have you finalized a layout plan yet??

By your grace, I will continue my documentary on Silver! After being on 12/12 for two days she is looking quite lovely.

After I did some minor LST adjustments. Pulled her outer bud sites further out to even out the canopy.

I won't lie. I've been on GC for a good while and I've read a lot and I've never seen LST done in such a way that resembles my own. Her main stem is only about an inch or so off the soil and has been curved into a half circle. Any further LSTing will be only done to even out the canopy, but I will probably just allow her to grow straight up, since she is a sativa, she is gonna stretch like no other I assume.

Secondary note. I'm partially obsessed with scientific pieces. I'm always on the look out for something unique and I've been in love with Mobius who I feel is one of the better glass blowers out there. This is my Christmas present to myself.

The stereo matrix perc is by far one of the best diffusion percs I have seen. On the 60T and 65T the entire body will be a mass of bubbles, it really is a sight to behold. Check it out on youtube sometime if you ever get a chance. This has the same style mouthpiece as my Mobius Atom.

So I am loving the idea of having my own little collection. The Atom is my daily driver, I have about 9 other pieces (vapes, pipes, bongs) but the Atom is just phenomenal so I cannot wait to see what my new piece can do.

What kind of pieces do you and your girl use? I love looking at different glass pieces and how they smoke.

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 24, 2014

thomasjefferson said:

Nice! Dude, I am hoping to get a cutting of some golden goat here soon. Some killer smoke been looking at bodhi seeds too lol. things are looking good in there man
Click to expand...

Yeah I had some issues with her early on and thought she was done for. But I tossed her outside and she came back to life and the buds smelled remarkable for being so small and under developed. So I decided to cut them off and try and re-veg her for a clone or two hopefully! The Pura Vida is growing absolutely perfectly! I wish I could have got her into a bigger pot sooner as it seriously stunted growth. But she's getting much better now!

Thanks man can't wait to get this scrog started, gonna be fun!

41Venom14 said:

That is awesome mate. I had some GSC before and I wondered why it was called Girl Scout Cookies when mine didn't smell like anything close to it. Now I see why haha, when grown well it'll actually smell like cookies. Goes to show what a proper grow can pull. I don't think anything I've smoked will be able to compete with what I will grow.

I wonder if the smoke expansion is due to the fact that the buds were so dense? Hmm. Think you can keep from smoking all of it till it's cured for at least a month? Lol. I'm looking forward to what you can do with your grow room. Have you finalized a layout plan yet??

By your grace, I will continue my documentary on Silver! After being on 12/12 for two days she is looking quite lovely.

IMG_0726.jpg

After I did some minor LST adjustments. Pulled her outer bud sites further out to even out the canopy.

IMG_0727.jpg

I won't lie. I've been on GC for a good while and I've read a lot and I've never seen LST done in such a way that resembles my own. Her main stem is only about an inch or so off the soil and has been curved into a half circle. Any further LSTing will be only done to even out the canopy, but I will probably just allow her to grow straight up, since she is a sativa, she is gonna stretch like no other I assume.

Secondary note. I'm partially obsessed with scientific pieces. I'm always on the look out for something unique and I've been in love with Mobius who I feel is one of the better glass blowers out there. This is my Christmas present to myself.

FullSizeRender.jpg

The stereo matrix perc is by far one of the best diffusion percs I have seen. On the 60T and 65T the entire body will be a mass of bubbles, it really is a sight to behold. Check it out on youtube sometime if you ever get a chance. This has the same style mouthpiece as my Mobius Atom.

IMG_0316.jpg

So I am loving the idea of having my own little collection. The Atom is my daily driver, I have about 9 other pieces (vapes, pipes, bongs) but the Atom is just phenomenal so I cannot wait to see what my new piece can do.

What kind of pieces do you and your girl use? I love looking at different glass pieces and how they smoke.
Click to expand...

Honestly I think the smoke is so expansive because of the curing process. As I said it keeps getting better and better, I have to make this last me until next harvest. So I'm sure one jar will cure for at least a month if not more.

As for a layout plan this is what I've come up with. I want to grow big plants, at least 2x2 each at the smallest. So I'm assuming it will take about 2 months to grow them to the size I want. The idea is to test everything out and see how much room I will need to veg everything out comfortably. So here is the first idea for the layout plan:

I think I'll have more then enough room to veg everything out. I'm going to take 8 clones well established in Dixie cups & drop them into 7gal pots (Group #1). I will train and grow them for a month then put in another 8 clones in 7gal pots (Group #2). Veg them both out for another month then put Group #1 into Flower Room #1, now being in veg for two months.

At this time I'll add another 8 clones in 7gal pots into the veg room as Group #3. Another month will go by and I will add Group #2 into Flower room #2. So again I will add another group of 8 clones in 7gal pots into the veg space, Group #4.

So now all together I would have,

Group #1: In Flower for one month.
Group #2: Just got moved to flower.
Group #3: Has been in veg for one month.
Group #4: Just started Veg.

After another month goes by,

Group #1: Will be harvested from Flower room #1.
Group #2: Has been in Flower for one month.
Group #3: Now in Veg for two months can be moved to Flower room #1.
Group #4: Has been in Veg for one month.

After another month goes by I'll chop Flower room #2, plant new clones & the cycle will continue. Hopefully giving me a harvest around once a month. But will take 4 months to get into a perpetual cycle, which I am OK with. (Hope that all made sense xD if not feel free to ask questions)

BUT if I find I don't need that much space, I'm going to put up another wall in the middle of the 5x10 veg space. This way I can run everything mentioned above as well as a 5x5 scrog that will be flipped whenever she is trained and ready for the flip.

Any ideas anyone?

Yeah man my LST technique is similar, I'll post an update right after this. I got some new plant ties that REALLY help out on training! But before I would attach them to the rim of the pot with twist ties. Leaving the stock and plant, more times then not, touching the mulch/topsoil. But whatever works! Silver is looking really good tho! If worried she will start stretching to far out you can flip the red switch on your panel off to control the height for sativa dominant strains. Should help out tremendously!

I myself am also obsessed with glass! Unfortunately I haven't had any spare spending money so I've been rocking the same few pieces for the last 4years! xD I'm thinking first harvest here tho I'm going to get myself my "dream piece". I've always had a fascination with bubblers or bongs. The bong I want to get is a Dave Goldstein Rooster using a Fritted Disk perc. Also wanna pic up a fat bubbler using the same Fritted Disk. Everything just looks so smooth and the bubbles are outrageous! I'm not a big fan of all the chambers and this or that attachment. I'll take a few pictures of the various pieces we have, got a nice bubbler my girl made a bad ass stand for, I think you'll love it! I'll def look up your new piece on the tube.

Update coming right after this, I'll try and snag a few shots of the pieces we have!

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 24, 2014

Well I went to Home depot yesterday and picked up some Velcro plant ties and did some pricing on the scrog table build. Looks as tho I can build a nice one for 18$ so not bad at all! The Velcro ties are absolutely amazing, it makes training so much simpler if using a fabric pot. As the growth comes in you can adjust and re arrange where you have them as well as take them off to move lower down the stock as it grows. They were only 3$ & change so well worth it!

Was able to get the GSC bent over really nice!

GSC 12/23:

Also tied down the BPV to get her opened up.

BPV 12/23:

Today everything has responded beautifully! They are back to growing and will be taking off in no time, going to start applying foliars again.

GSC 12/24, everything turned towards the light and is ready for take off:

BPV 12/24, Starting to green back out and get those praying leaves, hoping to see her start throwing those 7 blade leaves again:

Golden Goat Re-Veg 12/24, Finally starting to show some growth come thru in some areas. Looks as those she will be throwing the typical 1-3 blade leaves for a bit:

GSC #2 12/24, REALLYYY need to transplant her and stretch her out like the other GSC so I can start training her for the scrog but I don't have enough room to do that just yet. Going to tinker with a few things and see what I can come up with:

Clones are doing fine, one wasn't looking so good so I removed it from the cup. Others are starting to get nice and settled, still waiting on the few in the top left corner to really take and start growing:

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 24, 2014

Now as far as pieces go here are the ones I have:

I have a standard bubbler that I didn't like how it lay's down so my girl made a stand for it. The bubbler without the stand looks like this:

With the stand it looks like this:

The boulder unscrews so you can hold screens or whatever in there, the little mushroom also comes out and is a bowl poker.

Lol The original idea was to have Steam boat Willie and his tugboat with the bubbler on the back but due to clay limitations at the time this was as far as that idea got xD

The waterfall can hold a silicon container for hash or other concentrates, the block with the hummingbird on it can have the top lift off for another storage spot for seeds found or whatever.

The large mushroom has a metal coin at the bottom and can be lifted off the stand to put out a smoking bowl or when smoking a hash bowl that is stubborn and wont stop smoking. xD It also has a stand that can hold any Bic lighter (where the shadow from the mushroom is), got tired of always searching for one! haha

As far as my bongs go, I use this one for the daily smoking and it gets the most use.

But whenever I want a really big hit to just knock me out ill get this out.

All of which are very standard lol nothing to crazy, have a few pipes and such but they are still packed up. I have a plug in Vaporizer, I really love this thing whenever your sick or throat is hurting at all. The high is also something else in itself entirely!! Haven't used it in over a year tho xD

I also have a few hand held portable ones that I have NEVER used. xD They were gifted to me and figured I would love to use them say if we went on a trip and rather then needing to slip away from the fam and pack a bowl and smoke. Could just take a puff or two and be on your way again. SO i have always wanted to make something that i can use but I know nothing about this stuff. So if anyone has a recipe for something I can make simply to use in the chamber at the top on the bubble wrap, it would be greatly appreciated!! Especially during the holidays at family outings!!

Hope all is well out there in the GC!! Feel free to post your smoking utensils, whatever they may be, always interested in seeing new glass or a piece in general. Happy Xmas eve everyone, hope you all have safe travels and a happy holiday!

41Venom14 · Dec 24, 2014

Do you defoliate as you see fit? I'm also trying to figure out how the hell you do your LST. It almost appears to be a perfect circle of bud sites all coming out from the center. It's beautiful but I don't really see how you manage it? But damn they look good in their new home! Naturally, I wasnt expecting you to lose your touch with the move haha.

God, stoner moment. I've seen all your pieces before lol just seem to have skipped my mind. Still always nice to look at some glasssss. And there are tinctures you can make to run in the vape pens. I've been looking around because I like to vape the e juice due to helping me stop smoking for awhile but I have not found a perfect recipe for it yet. I'll have to do some more digging and figure out a good way to mix the hash with the PG/VG e juice. Maybe when I get through harvesting I'll have a little collection of kief to play with and can do some experimenting.

I like the Velcro strips a lot actually. Right now I'm using these soft wire ties that are banging. Very flexible yet strong enough to hold her down steady and they are soft so they cause no harm to the plant. It's a beautiful thing.

Since the Golden Goat is a reveg I will assume you harvested it so how was the smoke on her?

SoCal Nature Farmer · Dec 27, 2014

41Venom14 said:

Do you defoliate as you see fit? I'm also trying to figure out how the hell you do your LST. It almost appears to be a perfect circle of bud sites all coming out from the center. It's beautiful but I don't really see how you manage it? But damn they look good in their new home! Naturally, I wasnt expecting you to lose your touch with the move haha.

God, stoner moment. I've seen all your pieces before lol just seem to have skipped my mind. Still always nice to look at some glasssss. And there are tinctures you can make to run in the vape pens. I've been looking around because I like to vape the e juice due to helping me stop smoking for awhile but I have not found a perfect recipe for it yet. I'll have to do some more digging and figure out a good way to mix the hash with the PG/VG e juice. Maybe when I get through harvesting I'll have a little collection of kief to play with and can do some experimenting.

I like the Velcro strips a lot actually. Right now I'm using these soft wire ties that are banging. Very flexible yet strong enough to hold her down steady and they are soft so they cause no harm to the plant. It's a beautiful thing.

Since the Golden Goat is a reveg I will assume you harvested it so how was the smoke on her?
Click to expand...

Honestly I guess I do defoliate as needed, which is hardly at all when plants are healthy and well. But if a leaf is blemished and gets to a point where more of the leaf is damaged than green. I will remove the leaf at that point as I don't want the plant to use any un needed energy on trying to repair what is already so far gone. Otherwise I don't like to remove anything if its green and the plant is fine. I need to transplant the other GSC and then stretch her out so I will document it in detail so you can have a better understanding of how I do it, it really takes very little managing.

If you find a way to make it please share been trying to find a simple vape recipe for sometime. Would you happen to know the name of the tank on the bubble wrap for the handheld vape I posted? As I said it was a gift so I don't even know what kind of oil it would need.

Yeah since using these Velcro ties I doubt ill switch to using anything else! They are extremely convenient!! The Golden Goat was nice but it didn't get to go longer then 20 days so there wasn't much to smoke, more of an extremely strong fruity aroma that I got a wiff of and said "mmmmm I need to try & keep you around!" So I cut off the tiny nugs that were there and that was that, really excited to see what she can do fully grown out tho! Especially for as stinky as she was with the small amount of time she spent in flower.

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