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First try and recycling

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
I'm having a try a soil recycling. I've been growing tote filled the coco version of LC #1 mix amended with the kelp meal and guano (two kinds). I basically only want to do this is if is easy which means no screening soil, cleaning out old roots, or letting the soil rest. Thus, I'm taking a pretty simple approach to recycling.

Today I harvested this:
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After harvest I cut the root ball and transplanted in two seed plants and top dressed with approximately 2 cups of the Indonesian bat guano (which I thought was a mix consisting of Mexican bat guano, Indonesian bat guano, earth worm castings, and kelp meal). The stem and root ball from the old plant were cut up and worked in to the top layer of soil as mulch.
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I'll update this so folks can see if it is really this easy.

Pine
 
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guest2012y

Living with the soil
Veteran
Cool.....
I'm going to experiment by just cutting open a hole next to the stump and planting a clone. I think I'll do a few like this to get a good idea of what the results will be. I plan on topdressing with EWC,compost,bat guano,fish bone meal,alfalfa,and kelp meal applied at certain times through the cycle. The idea is to not disturb the world that has already been created below the surface,but allow the processes of nature to work with it like it does outdoors.
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
Cool.....
I'm going to experiment by just cutting open a hole next to the stump and planting a clone.

This is basically what I did. I only cut enough of the stump - root ball out so that I could get the new plants in.

The idea is to not disturb the world that has already been created below the surface,but allow the processes of nature to work with it like it does outdoors.

I've been influenced by the "do not disturb" advocates. It is a very appealing approach and it is pretty darn simple. I hope this works out for both of us.

Pine
 

wemary

Member
nicceee did you tie down branches or do scrog? btw when recycling soil, bugs get in the soil and shit easier, reccomend using some type of water mix with tobacco,garlic, dishsoap, etc. to try to kill the insects if they start gettin in the soil.
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
nicceee did you tie down branches or do scrog?

When I transplanted I put the root ball all the way at the left end of the container. Then I bent the main stem over to the right and started tying down side branches when they reached the edge. Thus, it is sort of a virtual ScroG - or screen-less-ScroG.

I'm going to do something similar with the new plants that I put in. They are going to be bent over the container's width in opposite directions.

btw when recycling soil, bugs get in the soil and shit easier, reccomend using some type of water mix with tobacco,garlic, dishsoap, etc. to try to kill the insects if they start gettin in the soil.

The main bugs that I'm concerned about are spider mites and I do practice preventative spraying of a neem based solution during veg and early flower. I wouldn't actually mind having balanced bugs ecosystem (including predators), but I think I would be difficult to get established in my small office closet cab.

Pine
 

icough2getoff

Active member
Hey pinecone, still growing healthy green plants I see. I'll keep an eye on this one. Right now I'm trying my first run with reused/undisturbed coco. So far so good. Gotta love anything that makes our lives easier.

icough
 

MrFista

Active member
Veteran
Nice one folks. I sincerely hope these smaller containers give you an easy ride like I've been having with my larger bed.

I HIGHLY recommend adding a mulch layer. Soil is most active on top, solar (e.g. lighting) radiation and drying out is not conducive to happy soil microbes.
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
Thanks for stopping by icough and MrFista.

MrFista - I've read about your beds. They were part of what inspired me to try this.

I HIGHLY recommend adding a mulch layer. Soil is most active on top, solar (e.g. lighting) radiation and drying out is not conducive to happy soil microbes.

I have come to believe in mulch and keeping it moist. I always mulch with leftover plants and any leafs and stems that get plucked off growing plants. The prior plant was mulched decently this way, but a lot of that got mixed when I transplanted and there wasn't enough stems and stump from the old plant to provide good coverage. Solution: I ran the trim from the old plant through water hash bags and saved the leavings for mulch. Now I have mulch and hash.

Pine

Cannamulch - there isn't enough, but there will be more once I get to pruning. Additionally, the plants will be bent over the container when they get a little bigger providing a shady, cool, and moist micro-climate.
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The hash turned out pretty good
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pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
update

update

one plant in particular didn't do so well initially. It starting growing pale green and showing some rust on the larger fans. So far I've watered with a EWC, fish, and kelp tea, foliar fed with a diluted mixture of the of the same tea, and top dressed with EWC. They seem to be on their way back to looking good. This is a learning process.

BTW these are non-fem Green House Seeds Super Silver Haze seed plants. I started super cropping them a few days ago. The plant on the right is the one that has had more issues, but I think it is on its way back. On a scale of 1-10 (1 about ready to die and 10 perfect health) the plant got down to about a 5. I would put it at a 7 and improving now.
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guest2012y

Living with the soil
Veteran
Quote: "BTW these are non-fem Green House Seeds Super Silver Haze seed plants."
Well that explains it^^^......kidding.
I'll definitely be watching to see how this goes. Good luck.
CC1
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
Hi Capt.,

As you probably know GHS doesn't sell standard (non-fem) seeds anymore. I saved a male and am going to knock up some branches on these plants to produce what should be some of the last F2s produced from GHS stock. Fuck buying more seeds.

Pine
 

MrFista

Active member
Veteran
2 very distinct phenos there. One hungrier than the other. The compost tea really helps align things for plants. Watching keenly.
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
update

update

They got more fish, EWC, and kelp tea and look a lot better. I think they are "plugged-in" now and I should be able to treat them similarity to plants in a fresh soil mix.

I like switching to 12/12 on notable days (so I can remember). I'm thinking the tax filing deadline (April 15) would be appropriate for these plants.

Pictures
The new growth looks good (if a little bit too green). The rough looking leaves are from the first few days in the tote when they weren't doing so well.
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2 very distinct phenos there. One hungrier than the other.

Astute observation. There are definitely two phenos.

# 1 (on left above) has alligator scale leaves, shorter internodes, and feeds lighter.
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#2 (plant on the right in above photo) has smoother leaves, longer internodes, is more branchy, and feeds heavier. It was the smaller of the two plants when transplanted, and suffered more the first few days after being transplanted, but has since outgrown its sister.
picture.php
 
Recycling soil is mandatory. The plants like it better the second time around. Here's a couple things to watch out for.

a. A thorough flush is required to wash away any unused PPMs. Small clones don't like HOT soil.

b. Capture and measure the runoff created to get an idea on the PH and PPM left in the medium.
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
Nice...this is good news. I have a feeling this will work out fine.

This is really is an experiment because I don't know what the outcome will be, but I had a strong feeling that this would work.

Here's a couple things to watch out for.

a. A thorough flush is required to wash away any unused PPMs. Small clones don't like HOT soil.

b. Capture and measure the runoff created to get an idea on the PH and PPM left in the medium.

Yeah, but this a PPM, pH, and run-off free zone (no drainage holes).

In all seriousness, the old soil was apparently pretty well depleted of nutrients in the prior grow. The only threat to the plants is that they would starve before I could get the soil going again. Luckily, it didn't take very long.

Pine
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
update

update

The plants are very healthy. I would rate them as 10/10 on my 1-10 scale. They were switched to 12/12 on April 13, 2011 – or after about 2-weeks from transplant. I wanted to wait a bit longer, but they were growing really fast and I was worried about being overgrown. Height shouldn’t be an issue, but the footprint of my 400w cab is only 30”(wide)x24.5” deep and can only support so much plant mass.

I grew SSH previously and was so concerned about the vertical stretch that I underfed a bit and the resulting yield was not great, with the two SSH plants taking up half my cab and yielding a combined 3 oz. This time I’m not going to make the same mistake. Since the last update I’ve top dressed with
- 1 cup of dolomite lime,
- 1 cup of gypsum, (after I read that CC1 uses it)
- 1 cup of the guano flowering mix (approximately 1 part each of EWC, high N guano, high P guano, and kelp meal),
- and 1 cup of high N guano.
This might seem like a lot of stuff, but the guano is slow release in my experience and the my tote holds 20 gallons or so of mix.

Also, I’m going out of town for 5 days so I watered the plants in really well and removed the paint cans that I was using to get the plants closer to the light. I now have one foot of clearance between the plant tops and the light which should be fine for 5 days of stretch). I gave the plants 2-gallons of water this morning, whereas I’ve been giving them about 0.5 gallons per day. I might water in another gallon early tomorrow before I leave just to make sure things stay properly hydrated. I could easily lift the tote this morning after watering in the 2 gallons so the soil-coco-mix isn’t anywhere near saturated. Since I’ve gone to this tote system there have been a few times where it was heavy enough that it was a bit of a strain to lift.

Stay safe and happy 4/20,

Pine

Front shot: They have stretched a bit already.
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Top shot: It is hard to tell where one plant ends and the other begins now
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Under the canopy: You can see a chunk of the root that I cut out of the plant that was in the tote before. Most of my cannamulch got mixed in to the top layer with all the top dressings.
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The cab this morning:
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jaykush

dirty black hands
ICMag Donor
Veteran
looking great it only gets better and better from here on out as long as you take care of the soil.
 
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