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Wanna Ask The Old Farts A Question?

yeah next time around I plan on mixing my own soils.

If I understand correctly, If amended properly you can make it
halfway through flowering without having to add much nutes at all.
yeah in fact you can ammend it so that you dont have to feed aqny butes just have to add molasses and carbs for food for your micro herd heres a recipe i use myself and use absolutelly no bottled nutes however i do at day 30 and day 45 add a liwuid steamed bone meal 0-12-0 and a EWC tea 0-3-0 they're really not needed but they really make the plants pack on the weight it's not a big name brand its just a small company can only buy it at one place i know of oregon constant gardener all phone orders google em for number have never been ripped off and yeah they're guano for 6 pounds is like 20 or 25 bucks for the right kind of guano even lol heres the recipe
2 #4 sunshine bales
2 35 pound or 30 pound whatever they are but 2 bags of earth worm castings 100% castings only DO NOT USE THE CASTINGS WITH ANYTHIG ELSE ADDED TO THEM WRONG KIND
1 6 pound box of down to earth fish bone meal 3-16-0
1 6 pound box down to earth bat guano 3-10-0
1 3 pound bag of feathermeal 12-0-0
a handful or two of calpril and if you cant get calpril use dolomite lime and epsom salt about 3/4 of a cup i think cant remeber been so long since i used dolomite try to get calpril it's a much superior product than dolomite lime and epsom salts
then a handful or two of azomite aka rock flour trace elements
1 bag of roots organic soil
mix all this together real nicely make sure all the EWC balls are broken up and that everythings mixed nicely then i use 45 gallon totes you can get at wal mart three of the 45 gallons or 5 of the 30 gallons is what its going to take to get it all in containers with lids then i add 5 gallons of RO water to each 45 gallon tote making sure to try to wet down the whole top so that the water spreads evenly but you will still have dry spots first few times you turn the soil after waters added put lids on and let compost for a good week if its really warm where you are maybe 3-4 days and take off the lids the top layer of soil should be covered with a fungus like material so this is a time to turn and keep doing this at least once a week for 2-3 months and soilzs in prime condition it can be used straight from mix with no water added till you water the plant after planting it as well but the more time it composts the better it is and you do not throw away any of the soil you remove the main stem and what roots you can the rest you toss in a seperate tote with the rest of the root balls and squish them up best you can and let them compost up turning them every 2 weeks or so becasue once you've gone through all your ammended soil your going to use that once used dirt again all you do this time is add the ammendments none of the soils such as sunshine bales or roots organic nothing like that just the earth worm castrings and the guano fish bone meal calpril azomite and the feathermeal you can use blood meal instead but this mix my brother actually made himself and he just found feathermeal to be a better product

for veg my plants go into rapid rooters to clone then from there they go into the 16 ounce red beer cups then into a 1 gallon pot they are fully veg'd in this 1 gallon pot and fed nothing just planted in nothing but roots organic soil which has plenty of nutes to grow a plant for two months then i transplant it from a 1 gallon to a 7 gallon for flower flower for 60 days using no chemical nutes 2 bottled organic additives and like i said really not needed soil will produce with or without them main thing is to watch your Ph preferablly want a 6.2=6.3 run off in veg beings i use a RO for water i add a small amount of epsom salt just for cal mag deff this soil you mixed is used for nothing but flowering trying to veg in it gets you uncontrollable plants and the ones that typically got a 4 foot stem then the canopy yeah the real nice ones sure but anyways only other bottles i got around are carbs molasses and Ph up and down so this is totally doable and i've added it up and done the math it's less than 5 dollars a run growing like this nutrient wise try to beat that in a bottle and i still get nice 4-8 ounce harvests feel free to take a look at my gallery not sure what all is there but i'm sure theres some eye candy in there somewhere :)
personally i've only ever talked one guy into actually doing this and the only way he became a believer and saw what kinda setup i had and was just totally amazed so in fact that he ran his last room of plants flowering using advanced nutes the trantula and pihrana shit and hasnt touched any of it since sure he's tried to make the soil better but i'm sorry you really cant most ammendments are so slow to act becasue it takes so long to break them down take greensand and dolomite for example takes forever you can take dolomite pellets put them in water and come back a month later and they'd still be a hard ass pellet there thats why i use the calpril it dissolves in water immediately i hope you take the leap of faith man amd give this a try i promise you'll never buy another bottled anything again not only that but you'll be amazed with how easy it really is to grow top notch medicine you dont need a biology botany degree just a good soil mix and water myself i pour one gallon of water on my 7 gallon pots once a week and have never had any kinda issue with over or underwatering keep in mind i run co2 and a sealed room with a window mount 12k btu ac unit so esspecially in winter here i get my rooms down in the 50's thats colder than a well diggers ass in February here in vegas :) anyways using this soil in a 10' x 6' room running 3 1000 watt HPS fully vented hoods sun system hoods and ballasts harvest pros vortex 800 series fan can 50 carbon scrubber well its going to cost me 1932 bucks to replace it but is what it is and with simple soil and simple equipment on a full room i pull down between 3-4 pounds dried if i'm running my 3 and my ole ladies 3 so 6 it's 24 ounces to 32 ounces still decent harvests and really if i had to try to measure up and figure out what all of this and that i had to feed here n there i'd have given up years ago so good luck to you you can also break this recipe in half if need be becasue it makes alot of material and costs roughly 300 bucks for me to get it made here in vegas after i pay for all the shipping becasue no one sells the right stuff here no earth worm castings i gotta get 70 pounds of worm shit mailed to me if i wanna re-ammend wish someone here would start picking up on it but atm myself and the guy i showed it to in the entire city of vegas runs anything even close to what we do they're either in soil and bottles coco n bottles or hydro i've been trying to get ppl involved for 2 years and have just come to the point of i'm done trying to help anyone becasue there always seems to come along some dumb fuck hippy with his dead lot story wait a minute where you growing on a dead lot i didnt know they ever stayed assembled for that long roll in thursday out by monday morning musta been growing some kill anyways like i said hope you take advantage of this but then again i'm just some douche bag on the internet what do i know huh :)
 

blwd67

Member
Hey old timers, I've got another question for you. The responses I recieved before were great, heeded your advice and things turned around nicely.

My issue now is with the Safari Mix plant. Everything was going well, it was pushing up new leaves daily and I think the ones growing now may even be seven fingers. I noticed yesterday, however, that it looked as though it was wilting. I had watered the day before so I knew it wasnt under watered; I dont water but every third day or so (pot weight dictated) so I am pretty sure it isnt over watered. I did peak at the bottom and saw a few roots starting to poke through. I transplanted into a 2l bottle w/ top cut off this morning.

Basically the leaves from the third node up are bending down; they are still pointing out at the stem, but each finger is curled downwards. They dont seem to be dried out or crispy, but slight yellow tips are visible. I dont really feed, although I did water with molasses and top dressed with kelp meal a couple days ago. The soil was amended, albiet not heavily.

Umm.. Plants are in soil (2l bottles), all organic. I dont measure pH, but my water is around 6.8 out of the tap. I have a well so no chlorine. They are now under cfls (one 23w, one 27w, and one 32w) about two- three inches from the lights.

Here are some pictures of what I am talking about. The first one was taken two days or so ago, the rest were taken about 20 min ago.



Edit: I am thinking too much N, 'claw like leaves', and the plant is definitely transpiring.
 

gabjaz

Member
Hey HempKat,

Just want to send you a GREAT BIG THANK YOU! Everything has been wrapped up for awhile now and I am so pleased with the results.... I would have NEVER been able to do this without your help....

One more question.. I still have a couple of jars that I keep in a cool closet. Is it okay to keep it that way for extended time or should I shrink wrap them too. I have been meaning to do some cooking with those, but I don't know when I'll get around to it. Also, do I still need to burp them after all this time?

Hugs, peace and grins, G
 

king_taco

New member
blwd67, couple back questions.

  • Is it only one plant doing this?
  • How long do you go between watering?

If its only one plant, and a strain/pheno you've never grown before I'd let it push up another node before doing anything really.


If the soil never gets dryer than it is in those pics I'd guess over watering. Roots need o2 just as much as they need water so if your medium is never getting any dryer the roots are never getting o2

-just my :2cents:

~~Grow Free~~
king_taco
 

blwd67

Member
Thanks for the reply, king taco. I am watering every two or three days, in the pic I had just transplanted, the new soil was moist.

I have two plants going and only the one is having problems. It is still throwing out new growth regularly; I would say close to a node a day. It's only been like this since yesterday, though, but I'll keep an eye on her and not do anything for another day.

Thanks again, I'll post more pics if it gets worse.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Hey old timers, I've got another question for you. The responses I recieved before were great, heeded your advice and things turned around nicely.

My issue now is with the Safari Mix plant. Everything was going well, it was pushing up new leaves daily and I think the ones growing now may even be seven fingers. I noticed yesterday, however, that it looked as though it was wilting. I had watered the day before so I knew it wasnt under watered; I dont water but every third day or so (pot weight dictated) so I am pretty sure it isnt over watered. I did peak at the bottom and saw a few roots starting to poke through. I transplanted into a 2l bottle w/ top cut off this morning.

Basically the leaves from the third node up are bending down; they are still pointing out at the stem, but each finger is curled downwards. They dont seem to be dried out or crispy, but slight yellow tips are visible. I dont really feed, although I did water with molasses and top dressed with kelp meal a couple days ago. The soil was amended, albiet not heavily.

Umm.. Plants are in soil (2l bottles), all organic. I dont measure pH, but my water is around 6.8 out of the tap. I have a well so no chlorine. They are now under cfls (one 23w, one 27w, and one 32w) about two- three inches from the lights.

Here are some pictures of what I am talking about. The first one was taken two days or so ago, the rest were taken about 20 min ago.



Edit: I am thinking too much N, 'claw like leaves', and the plant is definitely transpiring.

I doubt it's too much N since you say you haven't really been feeding it anything other then kelp and molasses. What sort of air circulation are they getting?

You just transplanted this morning too so now give it time to react to that, things don't move quite as quick in the plant world as you seem to want them to.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Hey HempKat,

Just want to send you a GREAT BIG THANK YOU! Everything has been wrapped up for awhile now and I am so pleased with the results.... I would have NEVER been able to do this without your help....

One more question.. I still have a couple of jars that I keep in a cool closet. Is it okay to keep it that way for extended time or should I shrink wrap them too. I have been meaning to do some cooking with those, but I don't know when I'll get around to it. Also, do I still need to burp them after all this time?

Hugs, peace and grins, G

Depends on how extended is extended? If you plan on extended only being a few month then you should be fine where they are and without shrink wrapping. If on the other hand extended could be a year or more then you should probably shrink wrap them into sensible portions (So you don't have to open more then you need when you need it) and store in some place refrigerated if possible.
 

blwd67

Member
Thanks, hemp cat.
It was exhibiting the same symptoms before I transplanted, the reason I think there may be too much N is the soil was already amended, probably too hot already. Could definitely be something else, but I think what I mistook for a deficiency earlier was actually the plant saying the soil was hot (along with my crazy high temps).
 
S

snuffalupagus

hello all, i have a question.................

if fresh seeds have a slight dark green tinge(mostly darkish brown/grey with stripes), does this mean they are not fully ripe? if so, can they still ripen once they have been taken off the plant?
:peacock:
 

dondeago

Member
How do old farts........
I would like to ask some advise about an LED unit i purchased.
I got a 300 watt unit for £250 ( bargin!!!) but im really unsure on the distances to hang the thing from the top of the canopy. The last thing i want is to bleach the tops off all the main colas....
I only have about 48" of space in total to flower in as the cab is currently set up but if i needed, i could take out my mother section and go this way.... Oh , by the way, i usualy grow in soil and used to manage a 250 watt hps in the space described...

Any advice please.....
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Thanks, hemp cat.
It was exhibiting the same symptoms before I transplanted, the reason I think there may be too much N is the soil was already amended, probably too hot already. Could definitely be something else, but I think what I mistook for a deficiency earlier was actually the plant saying the soil was hot (along with my crazy high temps).

When the soil is hot the plant's reaction is for the leaves to burn up. This starts at the tips of the leaves and works it's way back. The hotter it is the more damage will show up on the leaves. Droopy leaves is almost always moisture stress, either too much water or not enough. In this case my quess would be too much. I know you say you are watering to weight but I'm wondering if your judging that weight properly. I also suspect over watering because you seem to be expecting things to happen much quicker then they usually do.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
hello all, i have a question.................

if fresh seeds have a slight dark green tinge(mostly darkish brown/grey with stripes), does this mean they are not fully ripe? if so, can they still ripen once they have been taken off the plant?
:peacock:

That's how I would read it, that it wasn't fully ripened. I've never checked on it to confirm it true or not but I've heard they'll continue to ripen in the bud after harvest but I don't know if they'll do it once they've been removed from the bud.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
How do old farts........
I would like to ask some advise about an LED unit i purchased.
I got a 300 watt unit for £250 ( bargin!!!) but im really unsure on the distances to hang the thing from the top of the canopy. The last thing i want is to bleach the tops off all the main colas....
I only have about 48" of space in total to flower in as the cab is currently set up but if i needed, i could take out my mother section and go this way.... Oh , by the way, i usualy grow in soil and used to manage a 250 watt hps in the space described...

Any advice please.....

To be honest I have no idea how high the LED lights need to be from the plants but my guess is that they need to be pretty close to the plants. I doubt that your 300W system is going to cause any serious bleaching.
 

3finglid

Member
Hello...
This weekend is feeding time for my plant that has started showing preflowers. I've been feeding veg nutes for the past few weeks. Should I switch to flowering nutes now or wait a little longer to give it some exta nitrogen? Thanks.
 

hoosierdaddy

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
hello all, i have a question.................

if fresh seeds have a slight dark green tinge(mostly darkish brown/grey with stripes), does this mean they are not fully ripe? if so, can they still ripen once they have been taken off the plant?
:peacock:
Seeds can fool you. Often they may seem immature, but will germinate just fine. I don't know about ripening, but they need to set/dry a few days before bagging them up. Often after they do cure a few days that green tinge will leave.

3finglid, you can continue to feed as you are until you put them in flower. If they are sativa or are known to stretch lots, stop the N a week before flower. Most others do well with N for the first feed or two in flower. Many will tell you that a small amount of N is always needed for a balanced diet.
 

blwd67

Member
When the soil is hot the plant's reaction is for the leaves to burn up. This starts at the tips of the leaves and works it's way back. The hotter it is the more damage will show up on the leaves. Droopy leaves is almost always moisture stress, either too much water or not enough. In this case my quess would be too much. I know you say you are watering to weight but I'm wondering if your judging that weight properly. I also suspect over watering because you seem to be expecting things to happen much quicker then they usually do.
Hempcat, The plant at this point is probably over watered, but when it first started showing symptoms it was in a small pot with loose soil and its roots were showing throught the holes. I transplanted before I took the picture, the new soil was moist. When it was a seedling this plant showed yellowing of the oldest (single finger) growth as well as a slight browning of the tips, which dried and crumble to the touch. Not having any idea, along with insane temps and yellowing cotyledons I fed the thing. First with a top dressing of Alaska all purpose (9-4-4), then with kelp meal. At this point, yes, I was in a hurry to see good things and rushed it.

I ended up transplanting it again into some diluted soil. I did some research on the possible strains it could turn out to be and many of them suggested light feeding. I know you are probably sitting there like dumb kid rushing things, and your probably right, but I think I just really missed the mark with this soil for this strain. I stand by my watering practices, but after that massive failure with temps and vetalation I'm not proud. Definitely stil a newbie.
Thanks man
 

Weezard

Hawaiian Inebriatti
Veteran
Did someone say LED?

Did someone say LED?

To be honest I have no idea how high the LED lights need to be from the plants but my guess is that they need to be pretty close to the plants. I doubt that your 300W system is going to cause any serious bleaching.

Aloha Hempkat, I'll get this.:tiphat:

Aloha, dondeago.

Give them 6" buffer and you will be fine.
If that is a decent LED unit they WILL start bleaching at 3 - 4".
Probably halt photosynthesis at around 5".

If the top leaf gets noticeably thicker than the middle leaf, raise the light a bit.

Happy growin'
Weeze
 
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