Dodo's Organic Grow

[dodo5678]

Hey all! This community has given me so much knowledge as a young grower, I thought it was time to give back and share one of my grows with you. I've completed a few other chemical grows with good success and wanted to try something organic this time. Hope you'll stick around, it's going to be a little bit of a slow start.


My last couple grows were with Grat3fulh3ad's GH 6/9 formula and it was awesome, but I keep hearing about how good organic tastes and smells. I've also heard that some people don't get a really good yield with organic, but seems that is also up for debate so it just adds to my curiosity.


Genetics:
2 Head Seeds - Wreck-D: Started with 4 seeds, only 2.5 have made it. One is just trying as hard as she (hopefully) can! All Un-Sexed as of now.


1 Unknown Breeder - Blue Berry: Started with 3 last grow, 2 were hermies. Were supposed to be femmed seeds. Last one smells like blueberry pie!


3 Unknown Breeder - Jah-Kush: Received as clone. Yields pretty good. Nice Indica Type


1 Unknown Breeder - Pure Sativa: Received as clone. I think this may be an outdoor plant, not too impressed with it, but she keeps rooting! I have one growing outside and seems to be doing much better. Maybe she'll like some indoor organic love?


Environment:
RO Water


2 – 600W HPS Lights. Maybe 1 depending on how I feel. They are dimmable lights as well so there are options...


7”x7”x10” buckets I think they are almost 3 gallons each. Not sure if I'll use these or construct my own bed (Soma style). Thoughts?


Soil Recipe courtesy of Organics for Beginners. Thanks BurnOne, LC & Bongaloid!


LC’s Soiless Mix #1:
5 parts Coco Coir
3 parts perlite (small, it's all i have)
2 parts wormcastings
Powdered (NOT PELLETIZED) dolomite lime @ 2 tablespoons per gallon or 1 cup per cubic
foot of the soiless mix. Sunleaves Soil Sweetener - pulverized dolomitic limestone




FOOD SOURCE - RECIPE #2
Bongaloid's Guano Mix.
Use all these items combined with one gallon of soil mix.
1/3C hi N Guano Sunleaves Mexican Bat Guano (10-2-1)
1/2C hi P Guano Sunleaves Jamaican Bat Guano (1-10-0.2)
1 Tbsp Algamin Kelp Meal (1-0-2)


Liquid Karma (0.1-0.1-0.5)


I'm a few days into my soil prep. I mixed it all up last weekend and I'm just waiting for the bacteria (micro herd?) to kick off. I pretty much just took the instructions from the first soil recipe and applied it to the 2nd recipe:


“Mix all the dry ferts into the soiless mix well and wet it, but don't soak it with
Liquid Karma and water @ 1 tbs./gal. Stir and mix it a few times a week for a week or
two so the bacteria can get oxygen and break down the bone meal and make it available...”


The clones/seeds are currently in a coco/perlite mix receiving GH 6/9 until I can get them transplanted into the organic soil mix. I don't really have anything to pot them up in, so hopefully that won't be a problem. Not sure the Wreck-D will be ready when the others go to flower next week, so I'm just planning to transplant them when they are ready.


Hope this goes well

-dodo

 

[cacamal]

sounds killer i am curious to what will prevail in your opinion... chem to organic

 

[3rdEye]

All about organics. I'm checking this out. I think you'll find the magic in organic soils. As far as yields go? I'm not sure how much chem or hydro growers are pulling, but i get right around 900-1000g per 1K W Hortilux bulb with plants that are a bit more sativa dom than most selections. These are still hybrids, until i get my pure sativas in, but my tastes run more towards energetic strains. This is with new strains and i recently was experimenting with new techniques, but i was quite satisfied with yields. More important was the quality. That was much more rich and complex flavors and smells. The smoke was smoother IMO also.

good luck

 

[dodo5678]

thanks guys!

thanks guys!

appreciate the support, we'll definitely see what happens here soon. Should be about another week and a half until transplant.

right now i've just been mixing the soil daily. it's getting a nice smell unlike the guano's i started with! man, bat shit and pig shit are two shits that sure do have a unique smell to them, hehe. so far, no need to add water to the soil as of yet to keep the soil moist. i just see when i come in that the top tips of the dirt are a little dry in the morning, but overall there is a good deal of moisture in there, so i'm not going to add more water now.

i gotta do a little math, but i'm probably going to make a planter box like Soma calls out in his book. i think that'll give the plants access to the most nutrients throughout the grow instead of relying on the 3 gallon pots. if i see they need more nutes, i assume i can whip up a tea to give 'em a boost.

as far as yields go, i've read that peeps like VerdantGreen are getting up in the 2 grams per watt in his organic ScrOG grows. i just started to pay attention to stuff like that so i'm going to see what my last harvest came in at, but it's still curing.

i'll try to post some pics of the planter when i get underway with construction.

-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

last weekends update

last weekends update

Been a little busy lately, but i have some updates. completed the construction of the planter box last weekend. you can see the stages of how it was filled with the media:





Here are the whole set of clones. i held off on transplanting the Wreck-D until they got a little bigger. the three Wreck-D will be kept on a longer light cycle than the others being transplanted. hopefully they can catch up.



I was a little short on LC's soil mix so i picked up a bag of fox farm ocean forest soil as a top dressing. i think the ocean forest may be a little more light on nutrients than LC's mix so it could serve as a good buffer that'll go a little easier on the little clone's roots at first before they dig down to the good stuff.



more to come. i have more pictures of the wreck-D from this weekend, but i'm waiting for the light to come on.

-dodo

 

[killerweed31]

very very good example man, i like your job and i''ll be watching for sure mate...
i'm curious to see how they coming..

 

[dodo5678]

this weekends update

this weekends update

Thanks KW!

alright here is this weekend's update. the three wreck-d seedlings are looking awesome, really starting to take off =)

i decided to go ahead and transplant them into the planter now. not sure if i'm jumping the gun or not, but i figure i'll let the whole lot go another week or so before switching the lights to 12/12. i have vertical space issues and i'm not sure how much the wreck-d will stretch, so i'll error on the side of short plants this time around.



as of now these three are not sexed yet. i'm going to wait as they progress in the flower stage to see what comes of them. then decide what to do from there.


-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

almost end of week two for veg

almost end of week two for veg

the plants were getting big enough that i wanted to trim them up. this should help to encourage new growth so i can take cuttings for the next run. I also thinned them up a little leaving about eight nodes on each plant. at the middle to end of next week i hope to take cuttings.


Before:


After:


some cut tops:




the blueberry isn't doing too hot. pruned the bottom of the plant in hopes to encourage some upward growth. not sure how she is going to turn out, but no big loss if she bows out. i wasn't impressed with her flowers anyway!




-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

a time to clone

a time to clone

This is my second attempt cloning in straight coco so we'll see how it goes! i started my prep by rinsing some coco with RO water. Then using an old window screen placed over a 5gal bucket to strain the saturated coco squeezing out as much water as i could with my hands.

these are some supplies that were helpful. in the second picture you can see i took the initial cuttings of the clones i wanted and let them soak in the water for an hour or so giving them a chance to get as much water as possible.



I decided to use clear cups so i can see when the roots start to form. while the clones are soaking i drilled holes in the bottom of the clear cups for drainage and filled them loosely with the straight coco.




cleaning up the bottom node and making the final cut


I halved the leaves to encourage root growth and lower transpiration. i gave them an initial watering of just straight RO water to help settle the coco. it also gave some additional support to the stem. in future waterings i was thinking about giving them RO water with a little liquid karma. thoughts about this anyone?



here are the little bitches nuzzled in their beds. only had room for 9 in the tray so i used an extra clear cup i had leftover to create a dome for the 10th clone. guess we'll see how that one turns out.



i reused parts from Head's cloner 'cause I like the way the dome diffuses the light and it creates a nice seal to keep the humidity in. It's pretty dry climate here so I'm going to try to leave the dome on for a couple days and then start to crack it to let a little fresh air in. I'm not using the heat pad right now as the temp in that room is in the mid to low 70's. i have a 60w CFL daylight bulb on in the room pointed indirectly at the domes.

we'll see how this goes... updates to follow... peace
-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

flower time! 12/12

flower time! 12/12

alright.... let the show begin! just switched to 12/12 last night. All the mother plants are coming along. definitely appears to be enough nitrogen in this mix as most of the plants have dark green leaves under normal light. i also noticed that some of the tips are a little burnt, but nothing to crazy.

i have some heat issues due to this little summer thing going on, but they'll just have to cope with that for now. both lights are on as well, but dimmed down to 60%. We'll see how the heat issues pan out before i decide to up the output.

again this is my first attempt going organic so there is tons for me to learn. initially i was using RO water, adding cal-mag to add back the basic building blocks back to the purified water. turns out that's not such a good idea as the cal-mag contains EDTA which kills the micro herd. needless to say i stopped using it, so i'm now mixing 50/50, well water/RO. so far so good.

the whole gang, second shot here is of the 3 Wreck-D's.


Got Balls?
these pictures are not very clear, but i think 2 of 3, or 3 of 3 of the Wreck-D may be males i'll keep an eye on them moving forward but it'll be a drag if they are all dudes. i took clones of each of them so maybe i can do something with them later. if it turns out they're all males i may germ more seeds here soon.


here is the blueberry clone. the trimming i gave it last week seemed to give it a little encouragement, but i don't think enough to catch up with the rest of the group.this is a drag as it smelled awesome and tasted good too. this will be it's last run.


I'll give more updates on the clones as they progress and updates on the flowering weekly most likely unless something comes else up.


-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

cocks and balls =(

cocks and balls =(

well, the verdict is in. all three Wreck-D plants got the balls. didn't get to take any pics of them, but they're there. after thinking through the timing i decided to go ahead and germ the remaining 8 seeds i have in that pack. once they split i'll go ahead and put them in cups with soil.

i've recently adopted the soaking technique. just regular water in a small glass. drop the seeds in and either wait for them to sink or split open:





i'll go ahead and pull the males up from the bed in the next couple days. planning on keeping the clones of the males for a little while, wouldn't mind making some seeds at some point as i've never had the opportunity let alone proper genetics.

-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

clone and flower updates - end of week 1 - 12/12

clone and flower updates - end of week 1 - 12/12

couple days ago i mixed up a quick tea for the plants in the flower room. consisted of a gallon of non-ro water, 1 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses, 1/4 C. Earthworm Castings and 10ml of Liquid Karma.

mixed it up really good in the gallon container and fed it to the plants spreading it all over the planter box. this should keep the micro-heard flourishing with the stretch coming on. i may decide to do this once a week, but need to keep an eye on the amount of water collecting at the bottom of the planter before i commit.




As far as the clones go, i waited a couple days after taking the cuttings and cracked the lid a little to allow some fresh air in. i also have been watering the clones every other day to change out the stagnant water from the coco as well as draw in fresh air for the roots.

one of the Wreck-D clones was not looking so hot so i swapped it out for the one cutting outside the box and it's looking better now with it's personal dome. you can get an idea of the vent crack from the pics below. Temps are still in the mid 70's and indirect light 60w CFL.





a couple days ago i started to take the lid off during the day and put it back on at night, i've been keeping an eye on them and will probably start to keep the lid off from now on since there isn't much/any wilt.

life is good,
-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

clone and flower updates - end of week 2 - 12/12

clone and flower updates - end of week 2 - 12/12

end of week 2 and things are going pretty good. i lost one jah-kush clone to mold. it first turned really light green almost yellow & started to wilt.

I tried to save it with a cup dome which just perpetuated the mold growth as the humidity climbed. I also noticed some of the leaves at the top of the cutting had some black rot on them.

needless to say i quickly threw the clone away as not to infect the rest of the group. i also turned on a small fan to keep the air circulating. this air circulation should help keep the humidity and mold at bay.

still no roots on any of the clones and 7 of the 8 Wreck-D seedlings have come up.





as for the flower room i went ahead an pulled up the 3 wreck-D males leaving a good deal of free space. at the time they were less than 2 weeks into flower so i decided to do a little LST on the remaining mothers. the pictures show the progression of the plants coming back from being bent over. During the next week the stretch will continue and the buds will begin to fatten up! the remaining pics show the flowers starting to form.









so far i'm really impressed with this soil mix. it's pretty damn simple. mix the soil, wait 2 weeks, transplant then add plain water. still trying to get the water cycle dialed in on the drip system while keeping an eye on the water level through the vent tubes. no deficiencies that i can see, still some heat issues, but they'll just have to keep dealing with it.


-dodo

 

[killerweed31]

coming nice bro, great job you do in this grow man, sure i'll be watching tha progress!!!

 

[hashit]

Looking great so far..I'll be taking a seat for this one..

 

[dodo5678]

killerweed31 / hashit Thanks for stopping by!

appreciate the support, hope you like what you see. Getting ready to do and update here... things are looking good =)

-dodo

 

[dodo5678]

clone and flower updates - end of week 3 - 12/12

clone and flower updates - end of week 3 - 12/12

here goes the end of week 3 update and every thing is going pretty good. 7 of the 8 Wreck-D seedlings are thriving. I don't have much hope for the last one as it had not done much at all =(

as for the clones, I was kinda experimenting with them to see what they can take and looks like i pushed them a little too far. i bumped them up from a 60w CFL to 125w CFL and looks like they didn't have enough root structure to support that type of heat. the 125 is about 3' away from the canopy, so it's not like it was sitting right on top of it, they just were not ready yet.

2 of the clones did hang in there. One was the wreck-d male which has rooted! and the other, that damn sativa. as for the others i put them back in the bin with the dome, they are starting to rebound so i'm not that worried. guess we all learn from messing up once in a while!

I also decided to give the clones a dose of the EWC tea. going to see how that turns out, not expecting any adverse effects (fingers crossed)





as for the mothers they are doing pretty awesome. been playing around with the white balance in my camera to offset the HPS light. i trimmed the hell out of the sativa in the back right corner 'cause she can get pretty lanky. really not expecting much from her, but want to see how she'll taste after getting organic ferts.

I'm also going to start giving EWC tea to these plants every week. Or at least top feed molasses. currently i'm at 1Tbsp molasses per gallon. i may decided to double that every couple weeks from here on out, but need to do a little more reading on how much they should top out at.








another update to come in about a week...

-dodo

 

[GeorgeSmiley]

Lookin good so far Coming along nicely.....

Smiley

 

[Rusty420]

i think your on top of things man!

 

[dodo5678]

seedling and clone updates

seedling and clone updates

Geroge! Rusty!
thanks for stopping by guys

been pretty busy lately so have not had a chance for some new journal entries.

i believe i'm getting some nutrient problems with the seedlings and clones. i'm not trying to over react and give them a bunch of stuff all at once. what i am giving is in small amounts over the last two weeks. i am also giving them time to for my tweaks to take effect before moving on to do something else. i feel this is a good approach to learning how to read these bitches.

personally, some of what i see here looks like Ca/Mg def even some nitrogen. so a few days ago i fed them some epsom salts at around 1/2 Tbsp/G. There is dolomite lime in the soil, but my thinking was that because the cups are so small. when i water, it may be washing the lime away?. not sure how much sense there is to this, but thought it was a good place to start.

i'm still learning about teas, so a few more days after that i decided to give them some compost tea with high N/P guano in a stocking at a very low dose to see if that would help out and didn't see much change...

reading the forums a bit more it seems that compost tea shouldn't be given that often, just to boost the soil here and there etc, so i recently gave them low dosages of N/P guano on it's own mixed in a gallon of water, at about 1tsp/G each. i let the guano sit in the water for about half a day shaking it about every hour then fed it to the plants.

these are pics from when the issues started. i think the straight guano tea is working as they are not getting darker green, but look a little better. the first pic with the necrotic spot has gotten bigger, but the seedling looks like it's starting to grow again. so we'll see.

last pic is of the wreck-D with it's roots showing... clear cups are kinda cool







-dodo