Hi guys, I'm starting a new journal in the organics section. I started one in absolute beginners section, and although I'm still working on my first grow, my setup has changed so much, I can no longer call it a DIY CFL grow. I'm just starting my grow journey, and I'm trying to do it organically. I don't like the idea of dumping chemicals into my soil. I'm doing my research as I go. I must admit going this route at times feels like I'm in a very big cave, with a very weak flashlight. There is so much to learn, so much to read up on. So I'm learning as I go, and expect to make my share of mistakes along the way. I think it's pretty neat how we can create living soils, how enzymes work . I'm a student of the other threads in this section, and am using all the information I can get. Please let me know if I can make adjustments, as I want to understand this, and I want to grow great meds. I'm using a platinum p9-xml2 light, in a 4x4 grow tent, with a 735cfm fan, charcoal filter, and fan controller for my flower tent. Also using a mars2900w light in a 20"x34"x54" grow box, with a 95cfm fan as my veg tent. I have the tents beside each other, the 95 cfm fan vents the veg box air into my flower tent where it is filtered and cleaned. Temps are pretty consistent between both tents. Not exceeding 82 or dropping below 69 at night. For my newest soil, I started with 28L pro-mix organic vegetable soil. I mixed in 15L EWC, and 20L of perlite, and 4 cups of glacial rock dust. My amendments are kelp meal, alfalfa meal, fish bone meal, blood/bone meal, neem meal, domlite lime. I built this soil yesterday, am planing on letting it cook for 3-4 weeks. I have 2 AK47 feminized sees germinating in paper towels. Which I will eventually finish off in my new soil. Until then they will be just using the organic pro mix with ECW, and perlite, and weekly SST waterings. I have 4x northern lights currently vegging under my p9-xml2. They are 34 days from seed. These plants went into my first homemade soil. I put way to much amendments in, and the plants seem to be growing slower then I expected. No signs of any pre sex flowers yet, I'm hoping the 2 healthiest ones are girls. They should show their sex this week or next I hope. Plan to take cuttings from the healthiest one, and switch to flower by the end of the month. The plants are in lights out at the moment, but I will post pics tomorrow In the small cabinet I have 3 x sweet skunk seeds that are about 3 weeks old. These plants grow big and fast, was told to flower 2 weeks after germination to keep height manageable. They have been in flower for 3 days now. They are growing in my original soil that I over amended, but the soil cooked for a few more weeks, and I diluted it with more promix. They seem to be responding better then the northern lights. These plants are also on lights out, so I will post pics tomorrow of all my plants. So the idea is to keep a perpetual grow going. Using organic soil, with natural amendments, and weekly SST waterings to beef them up. I'm hoping to stop buying weed by the end of March. And after that I don't ever want to pay for smoke again. Thanks for stopping by, and help will be appreciated.
Gave them a light watering when I woke up, and snapped a few pics. these are my 3 sweet skunks, day 4 of flower. This is my platinum light in my flower tent Here are my 4 northern lights and my little blueberry seedling this one started slow, but is starting to look nice this one sprouted with a seed helmet, and has been deformed ever since this one is my tallest one the last 2 are my best looking plants and this is a blueberry, hard to believe it's about 22 days old! Growing very slowly. Kinda a dud. Let me know what you think
I built a small seedling box out of a Rubbermaid tub today. It's was pretty simple to do. I cut a hole for air to vent out, attached some vent tubing so I wouldn't have light leaking out. I cut a small hole in the lid, and then wired a homemade lamp shell, with an extension cord. Then attached a y splitter to make 2 bulbs. Pretty simple to do, and cheap. With lights on the temps are at 81. I'll be running this 24/7 for the next week or two, till my feminized AK47 get going.
You doing anaazing job . What type of lights are you using for each tent... im going organic also please feel free to follow my journal as we will be able to learn from each other. With your soil you will be able to recycle it for future grow..you say that march you will stop amd that is when you really get started..growing it self is very therapeutic and additive . Subbed
thanks goodgrace. Yeah I'm hoping to be finished with buying weed by March. I Spend too much money on it. Speaking of spending money, I ordered seeds today from the vault. Mephisto auto pack, sour bubbly, and ripleys OG. But I won't be trying them for a while. I'm pushing forward with my current one. Hoping for at least 4 girls between my 8 reg seeds. And my 5 AK47 Fems has yet to sprout, hopefully tomorrow I'll wake up to some lol fellas. Lights are a platinumLED p9-xml2 for the tent, and a Mars 2 900w for the cabinet. I Like the Mars, but the p9 is in a league of its own. Awesome light, can't wait to see what buds it can pump out. Soil, I'm trying man. I think I over amended my soil, and it really slowed growth. Seems to be picking up now. But yes, my aim is to rotate soils. I have my next one coking now, when I finish with these ones. I'll re amend it and cook it off a bit. But I'm new at this, this is my first full grow, so I might be full of shit. I'll sub your grow man, we can learn from each other.
Try amending your soil with jobe sticks without having to wait to use it .... they work well for you autos. I also have seeds for the summer and just set up my journal for if you can check out the seeds makes sure you find the sex as early as possible so that you can kill those suckers
thanks Smitty, appreciate the support man! This is my first real grow, I've never gone this far before. My first attempt was all CFL, and I had to shut it down after 4 weeks. Im in uncharted territory man. Lol.
Really healthy looking plants DB After catching up on your grow I didn't see what type of water you were using Tap or? Also may I ask what you paid for the Platinum? It appears to be a great light. I switched over to Amare after a run with advanced p300. I'm really liking the Amare panels but a friend wants to purchase the p9. Good luck on your current adventure. Subbed up for sure Feel free to follow along with my second run with a few new strains. Like you I'm just getting started.
thanks HuntAK, I'll sub up for sure. This site is almost addictive! How did you like the advanced300? The p9 is pricy bro. But worth it. It's listed at 999$ US, but with a grasscity promo code it knocks it down to 950$. That's a lot of cheese, but worth it. I hear Amare is a great light. And pricy too. Lol. Just using tap water bro. I have these 10 gallon buckets I use for watering. I fill it up about half full after every watering. Let it sit for 3-4 days, then mix in a fresh SST. Stir and pour. Wash it out, refill it and let it sit for another 3-4 days to burn off chlorine.
Subbed up to this Deez! Love seeing ppl gettin these P9s and P4s when I went to buy mine nobody had one and now they r exploding. Hope mark has his production team on standby lol. This is jus a thought bro but u hitting the girls wit the ssts every week might b what is keeping ur growth from exploding like u think it should if I were u I would go every 2-3 weeks wit a compost tea in between to have more microbes ratting up the ssts. U hitting them wit all those ssts ur forgetting about the microbes that eat the ssts to even make those nutes available to the plant. Like I said bro it's jus a thought I would run it by the organic guys to see if I'm right but u shouldn't need to do a sst or even a compost tea every week jus every once in a while I would say once a month or if ur soil drys out a lot do a compost tea when ur soil drys out the microbes dry out wit it so the tea will introduce more microbes to ur soil. Lookin damn good tho bro u won't b disappointed in that light I promise these plants have been grown under his lil bro
a lot of good info on here and people that help I had to take a break for a lil bit but I am back now
thanks NeeF!, I'm learning as I go man. I need all the help I can get man. Im a total noob in growing anything, and I didnt know much about organics until a little while ago. So this grow is a couple of firsts for me, I'm learning as I go. I really could use your advice on what kinds of teas to use, and when. I thought it was a good idea to go heavy with it. I'm using alfalfa, buckwheat, and sunflower sprouts. I just started as well, my last 2 waterings were SST. I read a post in a SST thread where someone said they do it constantly. I'm really new to this, and kinda take everything I read here to be fact. I'll give a few waterings in between to see is it sparks faster growth. I would like bigger plants after 43 days from seed. This is my first run, and I've made many mistakes. Mostly just over amending, and not cooking my soil. I've got my next soil brewing now, and I feel really good about what I'm going to do next round. But they are starting to grow now. Only one of the four has shown her tits yet, the biggest one is a girl The rest I think might be male. But I'm not sure. I'll do a full update with pics tomorrow. I have something in my tent eating my shit. Not sure what it is. It's not mites or anything, whatever it is it's taking chunks out of my leaves. Like ripping them off. It looks bloody savage! I'll take pics and post them tomorrow morning. Thanks for subbing bro, I'll hit yours too.
I'm new to bro so well b learning together as well. U have to think so ppl have their soil dialed in to a point where they soil is top notch so the consist ssts might work for them but as us building our soil and jus getting started it will take a cpl more runs for us to get to that point. And also I would say if u over amended the soil adding that much ssts prolly wouldn't b good and could throw ur soil off. Like I said I'm new to so I'm guessing and only giving my opinion so I would ask these ?s in the organic lounge as well. But I think adding in jus a simply compost tea wit compost ewc and molasses would boost that microbe life in ur soil and start to even out those nutes in the soil. And if u have the kelp and alfalfa on hand u could see how much to add in there as well. I have the CC kit from BAS and I've added that to my compost teas b4 really don't see much from doing those teas or ssts but wit being new idk what I'm really lookin for lol. In my cycle this run I have done 3-4 compost teas and 3 ssts thinkin about doing one more compost tea wit some lil ful-power for this last cpl weeks I have left. Organix is super easy and really can b done wit jus using water. Like I said I don't see an immediate response to my plants from these acts or ssts but they don't hurt either lol. I do notice tho when I add an act my guys do get to pointing towards the light and on one of the ssts I have seen that to that was wit the mung beans I've tried alfalfa seed tea and it doesn't seem to have that same affect as the mung beans did. Ur lookin good bro I would get a compost tea brewing now tho for the next watering tho to get that life jumpin in that soil again. And as far as recipes go for the teas basic one is compost and molasses and from there u can add in things that r already in ur soil the microbes that u create in the tea will eat it and make it available to ur plant when it needs it. Jus don't go crazy adding things that aren't in the soil already damn near killed my plants adding in some tm-7 thinkin it would help but that bac fired on my fast. At this point bro I would LITFA like they told me at the beginning and jus do the basic shit til u get that soil dialed in
The advanced sat above an Alaskan strain I had and it grew really nice buds but I passed it on in favor of the Amare. I'll see if I can pull off the 950. Was that delivered? We use spring water here and have had pretty good results. Our tap water has chlorinate and fluoride so we steer clear. Sounds like you have it figured out. I'll do a sst once or twice this veg cycle But mostly just water only with an occasional act and top dress. I'll be watching good luck!!
Thanks NeeF, appreciate the feedback bro, your lady is looking great. I am going to listen to everything you said bro. I'll keep the SST feedings to a minimum. It's a lot of work anyways. One thing I did read was to make more sprouts then you need and freeze the rest. So I have a ice cube tray filled with my last SST that I blended up. So in the future I just drop a cube or two in my bucket, and let it thaw. I have enough then to last these plants till harvest then. As far as compost teas, I've never made one. You said some molasses, ECW or compost, and some kelp and alfalfa meal. I'm going to be putting these guys on flower at the end of this week. Would you put in fish bone meal? It's in my original mix. What kind of molasses do you use? Haha I have a dozen questions for you bro, I'll fire them as they come bro. I have never grown anything before trying this. I just want good clean meds. I'm trying to LITFA, but it's hard man. I find myself looking on them all night. Just ask my wife, she hates it. Lol Thanks for the feedback bro, much appreciated.
thank you, and good luck to you too man. The shipping to Canada brought the total to 971$ U.S. I thought it was a pretty good price. After 2 weeks I would diff buy again. I agree with Smitty about future side lighting with p150, when budget allows. But this light is awesome, and worth 971$ IMO.
I use unsulphured molasses gotta use the unsulphured and I found that my compost works best and I get more foam action wit the compost then I did wit the ewc but my next one I will use both ewc and compost. I don't kno about the fish bone meal I see the gurus using kelp and alfalfa all the time tho. I don't have any single amendments jus the mixed kit I got from BAS and jus add in like a 1/3 cup to the 5gal bucket and brew for 24hrs and u can use the slush at the bottom as a top dress once ur done brewing it. I know it's hard to LITFA alone I'm jus tryin to prevent anybody from doin what I did this is from adding in some tm-7 at week 3 damn near killed em so that's y I say LITFA don't want to see u choppin half ur plant away like I did Organic is super easy once u mix ur soil jus add water lol and depending on how long u vegging for I would do a act and sst once a month that's it.
Been a while since I've updated, really trying to take your advice NeeF and LITFA. It's been hard but I've managed to not poke them to much. And only gave them water. I bought organic blackstrap unsulphered molasses. I haven't used it yet, going to brew some for next feeding. I had to cut down 3 male plants Thursday night. Only one had balls, but the other two had no pistils after 7 weeks, and 4 days into flower. I was trying to make room. And wanted to make my area more manageable. I have a suspicion that I've got one more make NL but it's a really nice looking plant and I want to make sure before I chop it. I'm going to give it a few more days. I had to move my tent and grow area in my basement. I've been just letting it vent into my basement, and I noticed that my RH in my basement had risen to 61%. I can't have that. I'm freaked out about mild and mildew developing, but also if I ever get pinched doing this, I want it to look as legit as possible. Not that it's going to matter much, but it might help. So I moved it to another wall, ran some venting, and tomorrow I'm going to buy a 4" hole saw and cut a hole in the side of my house beside my dryer vent, and blow it out there. I tried to use a y splitter and vent it out with my dryer, but I was finding the damp dryer air was blowing back toward my tent. It wasn't going to work, it was going to make it worse. I wanted to avoid cutting a hole, but fuck it I own my house, and I'll have to add a vent if I ever develop the basement anyway, so it doesn't phase me. I can't wait to have it vented properly. So to my plants. The 2 NL are doing awesome, the girl is the biggest at 18" and the one I'm hoping is a girl is 16" . My 2 sweet skunk aren't doing to good. I think I shocked them to much, I'm not sure. But I think it might have been the double dose of SST I gave them last week had a bad effect. The NL seemed to take off in growth tho, especially in the branches getting bushier. this is the best looking plant I've got, the only confirmed female NL. and this is the plant I think is a male these are the sweet skunk, and they don't look great at all I moved my area around, and added a green light bulb near my tent. I read that plants reflect green light, I don't want to make a habit of it, but sometimes I work late, and can't get into my tent till lights out. So if I have to water them after dark, I can at least And tomorrow I'll properly vent it outside, and be stress free about humidity mold and mildew