First try and recycling

[pinecone]

Thanks for the kind words folks.

I chopped the two SSH plants. The maroon-purple one got chopped on November 28 and the larger green one got chopped today. My best guess is that they went 13+ weeks. The maroon one definitely got overgrown by its sister. I bet I have at least 4 times the bud off the bigger one.

I couldn't find any clover seeds locally so I just decided to replant my 4 Chimera GrapefruitXBlueberry seedings in my tote, even though they aren't sexed. I figure I'll sex them, cut out the males, and flower the females - or sex them, take cuts, and flower the cuts. I might even try to clone directly in the tote.

Pine

The bigger green plant right before chop

The new plantings: They are so small that they are hard to see.

 

[pinecone]

I ran all the trim from the last two crops through ice water extraction bags and mulched with the leftovers and stems. I love the smell of the canna mulch.

I'll be curious to see how new plants do when they are plugged in. Are they going to yellow they way that did on my first no-till crop - or is there now enough nutrients stored in the biomass of the soil ecosystem to keep them going without more top dressing more guano, castings, alfalfa, kelp, ect?

The early indication is that I'm not going to need to add much if anything despite the fact that the plants were yellowing out pretty dramatically at the end of my last grow. Three of the four new plantings were in good shape when they went in to the tote and have continued to do well in the tote. The largest-oldest plant was suffering from Mg and N deficiencies. If you look at that plant (front left in below photo) you can see yellowing leafs on the bottom of the plant and clear signs of a Mg deficiency in the middle of the plant. These deficiencies, which are a result of the plant being in my not fresh (1-year old) LC #1 mix for a month or so, immediately cleared up when the plant was re-planted in the tote.

Pine

 

[heady blunts]

i know this thread is more about your soil, but i wouldn't mind a few gratuitous harvest shots

 

[pinecone]

i know this thread is more about your soil, but i wouldn't mind a few gratuitous harvest shots

I could try and do that. The last harvest is already dried, broken up, and put away though - it being so dry here now. I'll try and get some dry nug shots though.

I think I weighed 5.5 ounces of dry bud from the most recent harvest so the yield was not great. I can't seem to get any of the SSH plants I grew to produce well. My all time record for me space is 10oz so these plants were quit a bit below what the potential is. Still, I really like smoking SSH. All the 4 of the plants that I grew out from the pack of seeds were very good to excellent.

Pine

 

[heady blunts]

yea. they were just such beauties as plants i wanted to hear about how the finished product smoked.

 

[pinecone]

yea. they were just such beauties as plants i wanted to hear about how the finished product smoked.

I tried to take some pictures of the dry bud, but my photo skills let me down. I really don't want to put up any of the pictures I shot. I'm going to try again another day.

Anyway...

This is the 2 week from chop maroon SSH plant. As you will see when I take some decent pictures, the buds from this plant are very frosty. The plant has a relatively low calyx to leaf ratio and doesn't yield very well. The buds are darker green in color with prominent red hairs. They smell very fresh - like pine, mint, basil, lime - with overtones of skunk and pepper. For appearing so resinous the smoke s light bodied with a mouth numbing menthol type quality. The high is strong and initially uplifting, but it eventually leads to a crash. I've mostly been smoking at night so this is no big deal for me. I don't find the high to be overpowering, overwhelming, or paranoia inducing, but I smoke this stuff (and other strong sativas everyday for a while now )

The joint below was rolled with this 2 week old weed. It burns and smokes good with a firm grey ash.

Pine

 

[pinecone]

The greener SSH plant has a similar high (I couldn't tell them apart), but looks, taste, and smells very different. This plant produces big fluffy flowers that smell like sandalwood, pepper, honey, and patchouli. This plant isn't anywhere near as resinous as her sister and the smoke is very mellow. For smoking purposes this is not my favorite type of SSH plat, but if I had to grow these two plants again I would go with this one as it will produce a decent yield.

________________________

When I last reported on my grow I had 4 un-sexed GFxBB plants at different stages of development with one plant being much more mature than the other 3. I was going to see how many were females and then decide what to do. Well - I think they are all females, so I topped the biggest one and flipped the switch.

A couple of other things of note:
- I really haven't been spraying but I have been inspecting. I found mites sucking on my plants. To knock them down I started spraying neem every other day or so.
- Some of my plants look like they are having a Mg deficiency. To get them back on track I have foilar fed with Epsom salts and watered Epsom salts in. I also gave the plants some tea (kelp, castings, molasses, emulsions). They look ok, but not perfect.

Pine

Cab as of this morning:

Signs of slight Mg deficiency I think:

Mulch: Some of the mulch is run bubble hash trim from seeded bud so I do have some SSH F2s sprouting in the tote.

 

[h.h.]

The mulch may be providing shelter for the mites. A little DE might help.

 

[pinecone]

The mulch may be providing shelter for the mites.

No doubt the mulch is providing shelter. The only food id my plants though so they can't just hang out in the mulch. I assume the previous crops had some mites (though I didn't notice any). I also assume they ended up in the mulch when I chopped and climbed on up to the new plants looking for food.

Mites are everywhere and are an inevitable part of growing cannabis IME. The first time I got them I wasn't paying attention and they wiped out my grow. Now I just monitor and spray neem to kill them or to knock them back to undetectable levels. They don't scare or bother me. I would be afraid of doing damage to other arthropods with the DE. I don't have an fungus gnats so mites are my only known nuisance pest.

Pine

 

[h.h.]

I like a pretty loose mulch myself.
I'm putting about a 3" diameter ring of DE directly around the plant. It keeps the mulch away from the plant and allows me to stack it higher. I have about a 3" high layer of mulch and topdress bound together with oats. To what benefit. I dunno, but if the mites crawl up the plant, it would provide a barrier while leaving a playground for your beneficials. It's certainly not hurting the plant. Maybe a little more difficult with your setup.
Luckily, I'm not too familiar with mites. Mostly gnats in which case I tighten up the mulch a bit. Top dressing with ewc fills in some of the spaces.
Just some thoughts. Sounds like you have it pretty well handled. Looks like it anyway.
How'd the epsom foliar work out for you?

 

[pinecone]

I like a pretty loose mulch myself.
I'm putting about a 3" diameter ring of DE directly around the plant. It keeps the mulch away from the plant and allows me to stack it higher. I have about a 3" high layer of mulch and topdress bound together with oats. To what benefit. I dunno, but if the mites crawl up the plant, it would provide a barrier while leaving a playground for your beneficials. It's certainly not hurting the plant. Maybe a little more difficult with your setup.

I've been following your oat flour thread. I keep my stumps in and plant in different spots with each rotation so if I put 3" of DE around my plants I would have a lot of DE in my mix. Toward the same end I could put some pure neem oil or Tanglefoot around the trunks of the plants. Either of these two things would prevent bugs from crawling up from the mulch.

Luckily, I'm not too familiar with mites. Mostly gnats in which case I tighten up the mulch a bit.

You probably will have to deal with them eventually. Honestly, they cause a lot of people serious headaches, but mostly because they don't take preventative measures or notice the damage soon enough. If growers would just inspect their plants and spray periodically in veg they would not have problems with mites. It is actually pretty frustrating to watch so many people struggle and use toxic pesticides to deal with a problem that shouldn't be a problem.

How'd the epsom foliar work out for you?

Foilar spraying should work pretty quickly. Some plants are still showing the variegated leafs that indicate Mg deficiency despite multiple applications so I don't think it solved the problem (if there even is one). I just gave them the tea a couple days ago. I'm anxious to see what this does.

 

[xmobotx]

just advised someone that NSM makes sense when recycling because it helps control bugs including mites

some dont want to start a fervor but lavender FPE as foliar is vicious and outright hostile to them; i used dried lavender flowers and 1 application about 20:1 day 1; then another about 50:1 day 2

between the 2; no mites ever

 

[prowler]

Also introducing some random leaf mulch from outside could bring in some precious predators to help fight those little buggers. Keeping my eyes closely on this. I want to get rid of nutrients in my blumat reservoir for good because they just complicate things. Maybe soon i'll take my steps out of the box and try to run with only water and random amendments.

Looking good as always.

 

[pinecone]

I've got two SSH F2 random sprouts growing along with the other plants in my tote. The seeds were from the mulch material. I'm thinking of just letting them go with the other plants (12/12 from seed).

Also introducing some random leaf mulch from outside could bring in some precious predators to help fight those little buggers. Keeping my eyes closely on this.

just advised someone that NSM makes sense when recycling because it helps control bugs including mites

So I've been following all the root aphid threads here. Why? I don't know. Probably for the same reason I like depressing movies.

Anyway, the neem seed meal (NSM) seems like it would be a good preventative root aphids. If I were building another mix I would consider using it for this reason. As a preventative for mites - I don't know. I'm not really sure if neem is a systemic and spider mites don't live or eat in the soil or mulch. Will you have some arthropods in soil mixed with NSM?

As for leaf material from outside. I used some and have bugs in my mix now as a result. Of course I have no idea what they are, but there are crawling things in my soil. I do not have fungus gnats and I suspect that these other bugs might be the reason why.

I've read that root aphids lay their eggs on the leafs of poplar trees so this might be a potential issue with leafs from outside depending on what sort of trees are in the area. Honestly, I don't really know if this is a concern in true organic grows. Rood aphids don't seem to be wreaking havoc on organic grows.

Keeping my eyes closely on this. I want to get rid of nutrients in my blumat reservoir for good because they just complicate things. Maybe soon i'll take my steps out of the box and try to run with only water and random amendments.

Organic nutrients in a with the blumats sounds like a mess. You should certainly be able to take a basic soil mix and top dress stuff if needed. Give it a try.

Pine

 

[pinecone]

Since I last updated I top dressed with a few handfuls of EWC and 1-2 teaspoons of a guano mix per plant. The plants look pretty good. This will likely be the last fertilization of the crop. I'm also done spraying neem.

I wasn't happy with the amount of stretch I was getting out of these plants 11-12 days into flowering so I took my CMH light out and put a HPS light in.

Pine

Some pictures with the new light (I hate the look of HPS)

 

[t33to]

Wow Pine! I'm blown away! Every IC'r should be forced to check out this thread before being allowed to do anything else! Just think of the much less environmental impact indoor gardening provides when done this way! Fantastic!

Just some quick questions for you.

1. Was the smoke quality better than petro-chemical?
2. Was there much Powerdery Mildew or bugs?
3. What are them pipe looking things in the corners of the grow tub?
4. What is your best yield for this system and how many watts is your bulb? hps? digital?

 

[xmobotx]

idk if neem is systemic but it works and you do still have beneficials i just figure neem for soil and lavender for foliar and that works

 

[pinecone]

1. Was the smoke quality better than petro-chemical?

I really have no idea because I have never grown with chemical fertilizers. The quality of this smoke from buds grown in this system is on par with the quality of buds from my other organic grows using different methods (bagged soil mix - no recycling). I will also say this - all my homegrown weed is leaps and bounds better than what people are buying. I almost always pass on other peoples weed.

2. Was there much Powerdery Mildew or bugs?

I thought I had powdery mildew on plants in veg once, but not in my cabinet. It may not have been PM. I do have some harmless or even beneficial soil arthropods. I either have or have had spider mites. I don't have any fungus gnats. Overall, I don't see pest as any bigger problem with this system, and I think the fact that I have soil mites may prevent some soil dwelling pest (fungus gnats and root aphids) from getting established.

3. What are them pipe looking things in the corners of the grow tub?

The pipe looking things are a perhaps misguided attempt to allow for some air exchange in the root zone as there are no drainage holes in my tote.

4. What is your best yield for this system and how many watts is your bulb? hps? digital?

My cabinet footprint is 28.5" (wide) x 24.5" (deep) and uses a 400w switchable magnetic ballast. The cabinet is really a bit small for the light. I usually run CMH bulbs, but I have HPS and MH bulbs that I will use to control stretch (HPS=more stretch, MH=less).

Anway, I haven't been weighing all my harvest, but I would have to guess my biggest yield with this no-till tote system is 5.5 oz, which isn't great. The thing to consider is that I've only grown 3 random seed plants in the tote and none of them were big yielders. My best guess is that with the same plants this system will provide similar yields to the types of grows I was doing before (4 plants in fresh soil in 4-gallon pots).

To be honest, I'm not very focused on yield. My goal is to have plants that look healthy to 3/4ths of the way through flowering. I figure healthy plants 3/4ths of the way through flowering will produce close to their genetic potential.

Pine

 

[h.h.]

I get those mites. Very few. They're always running around doing something. I guess making themselves useful. They're not hurting anything.
Looks like that no drain is working for you. I'll have to try it. Practice my watering.
Any worry about salt build up?

 

[pinecone]

Any worry about salt build up?

I'm not concerned about salt build-up. I figure that the nutrients are mineralized at rate roughly equal to plant take-up of said nutrients. Thus, there shouldn't be a bunch of residual salts.

Pine