First organic grow.

[70's rock]

I've been growing for almost four years. I started in soil with chem nutes, but i never got the hang of it. Only one plant of about six was healthy from start to finish, so i tried coco, still with chem nutes, wich was very rewarding indeed.

But, i know for a fact that at least one grow shop in my area was under constant survaillance from the cops, lots of people got busted, and not only big grows. The postal service and delivery companies refused to have anything to do with one of the stores aswell. I don't think i'm paranoid not wanting to have anything to do with these shops anymore.

So my quest began, how to grow my weed in an easy way without buing weed specific stuff?

I finally found a good brand of soil that i can buy in the grocery store or my flower shop just around the corner. Most i've tried develops that crust on top that makes the water just sit there, and then flow down the sides of the pot staight out of the bottom. I also got heavy nuteburns. Not this one! Water gets sucked up right away and it mekes the medium evenly moist. It's got some horse poo in it, and some chalk aswell (not sure if chalk is the right word, but i guess you know what i mean, white stuff that raises pH).

I also found a good nutrient that i can buy at the grocery store. It contains leftovers from paper industry (they specify Birch tree), food processing industry, humus and active micro organisms, whatever that means. Sounds a bit nasty to me, but using leftovers is a good thing, right?

As you can see i follow the KISS-rule and so far everything been going great more or less. I had some issues with spots on the leafs. Perhaps three or four times during veg, it looked like a lot of them was burned by the bulb. Strange thing is it happened to the leafs in the middle of the branches, not in the top or bottom. It happens pretty quick, during a day or over night, but then it stops. So i'm not that concerned even though it's a bit annoying not knowing what it is. I don't have any pictures of it, but if you look closely you can see some of it in some of the pictures.

I don't bubble my water even though it contains some chlorine. I know i probably should, but since i share a pretty small apartment, there is no room for it. I guess i could let it sit over night, most of the chlorine should evaporate and if i stir it every once in a while it should be saturated with oxygene. Is this a good idea? I also have a watering method that worked great on my tomatoes. I pour about one litre of pure water in the tray that the pot is in and let it get sucked up. Then i top feed with 1,5-2 liters. I do this every other day. No thought behind this, it just works so i continue doing it.

From past grows i foud out that some extra pk in bloom really boosts bud production. I've been reading a lot here, trying to find out how to do it without my Canna pk13/14, but there is just too much info! You guys are great, but on a different level. So my question is: Is there an easy way to provide extra pk in an organic grow?

The plant is an AK-48, femmed from Nirvana. I've grown it before and it's a nice indica that i find most pleasing. The pot is just under 20L, light is 250w HPS, cab is 60x60x200cm. Growth is a lot slower than my coco grows, but this was expected. What i'm really looking forward to is to compare smell and taste. It's been pretty lame in the past to be honest. I always envy my friends organic weed, even though my yield is bigger. There seems to be some sort of consensus that organic grown weed is superior when it comes to boquet and i' lookink forward to finding out.

Here are some pics. First is from march 23, last from today, april 8.

Take care!

 

[70's rock]

Rest of the pics, 5 per post is maximum apparently.

 

[Guest02345]

beautiful bushes 70's!!!

 

[Midnight Hour]

Greetings, Bat or Sea Bird Guano will provide the NPK needed for veg or flower. Just check numbers for N/P/K.

 

[TheyCallMeJJay]

Be careful with the stuff out of Grocery stores. Usually they're loaded with fungas nats.

I'd go to the grow store. With someone elses car and be done with it. Stock up and always buy in bulk.

 

[70's rock]

Oh yeah, i've had those. PITA.

But i've found a store that sell the same soil as in growshops, quality stuff! It took a while to find it though.

Thanks for the heads up anyway!

 

[heady blunts]

nice job training!

hope you don't mind if i stick around for the show...

 

[IE2KS_KUSH]

Neat I do 48 too in fact got my mom flowering and also have a single seed that I discovered in da bud ..I agree with you its ok yields pretty decent but anyway..I take 12 clones off my mum let them go to shit only get one and popped that self'd seed so it will continue on in my shit but anyway interesting thread tagged.

 

[trichrider]

she has nice bush...now my stool has five legs.

fish bone meal and guanos should kick it for you.

chalk=dolomite lime.

keep it green.

 

[70's rock]

Thank you all for watching! And for the tips aswell.

I messed up a bit and burned one of the tops. Not that bad though as you can see in the pic. Or can you? My camera decided to act wierd, pics were only 700x500 pixels and colours are a bit strange. Well well, you can still see that it's a fairly healthy girl.

Wish i had vegged a little longer to maximize yield, i will have to give away a big part of it due to chemotherapy. If it helps the guy that is, he's the one deciding. But it really isn't me that should complain...

Here she is, two weeks since budding started, almost four weeks of 12/12 i guess, i don't really bother keeping track of time anymore.



Yeah! a hundred posts! This calls for a beer. And my team also won today! So i'll have two despite an early morning tomorrow. Wish i had weed.

 

[magiccannabus]

Looks really nice so far! I would strongly recommend you use chlorine-free water, and learn the ins and outs of aerated compost tea, it will improve your soil and move you more toward fully organic. You've clearly got care and training of the plants figured out, I look forward to seeing it pan out!

 

[70's rock]

Thanks! Yeah, i,ve been doing some more reading on compost teas, might give it a shot. But there is always a few ingredients in every recipie i can't get a hold on. But i will look some more and try to find replacements and then post it here and then perhaps someone can give a thumbs up if sounds ok.

 

[heady blunts]

the more ingredients in an ACT recipe, the less trust-worthy it is IMO.

i use microbeman's recipe since he does extensive testing, and so i can trust if i follow his directions, i will end up with a healthy ACT even if i can't check with a microscope to be sure.

a lot of folks are under the false impression that pouring in all your "nutes" will make a stronger tea. since ACT is a biological culture, and not a nutrient solution, this generally crashes your tea, and you end up with a bucket of shit.

KISS: using olnly EWC and molasses will get you a successful brew if your compost is active and your brewer is decent.

if you want to use nutrient solutions like guano tea, brew and apply them separately from your ACT.

 

[70's rock]

Thanks for helping out. I'm not sure what EWC is though, i did a search but couldn't find any info.

But it sounds simple enough. If i try it, hoe often will i use it! And should i still use the nutrient i use now, since the ACT is only bioculture?

And how can you see if it's good in a microscope? Do you see the bacteria?

 

[magiccannabus]

I second the point about being careful what you feed your tea. Less food is way better than more in most micro-biology-dependent ecosystems, otherwise whatever favors that food the most will just take over everything, and sometimes that something is not beneficial. EWC may not be your only choice though. I've used a variety of bio starters. Most particularly I use Espoma Bio-Tone StarterPlus, and Jobes Organics(a couple different types) with BioZome, and I also have composted manure, soil samples from various wilderness areas around here, and a variety of grains and rock dusts. Just because you have a huge variety of foods though does not mean the amounts should be high. Whenever I put too much in, I get a sludge in the bottom that goes anaerobic if I don't stir or shake the brewer every few hours. My brewing method is not amazing, and I only brew really small batches, but it makes tea that smells good and always makes my plants happier. I don't have a good enough microscope to see the microbes, but when I do things to kill the tea(as experiments), it really changes it. For example: started tea with chlorinated water; started out fine, but as the brew continued it just got a bad smell. My suspicion is that air-borne microbes started to infest the fairly sterile brew. I've also raised the heat too high, and dropped a bit of bleach, and also some dish soap at various times. Each of these lead to a less-foamy brew that didn't have that rich earthy smell of a good tea. I had no other way to verify life in my brews, so I tried micro-genocide lol

One other thing. Find out if your city has water that uses chlorine, or chloramine. Chloramine is not possible to remove by aeration alone. I have heard that vinegar is possible to use for this, but a small bottle of Aqua Safe(or something similar) is pretty cheap and effective. If you just have chlorine in your city water(or if you are on well water), just let your water sit for a day or two in a jug, make sure you crack the lid sometimes.

 

[70's rock]

Thanks!

It's only chlorine in the water, so letting it sit should do the trick. Time for watering tomorrow, so i'll fill up a bucket now and let it evaporate.

Still don't know what EWC means...

 

[Guest02345]

EWC= earth worm castings

 

[70's rock]

Of course, i should have known!

So a little of that and some molasses in a bucket with an aquarium pump for a few days should make a decent tea?

Come to think of it, i have a distant friend who told me he uses what he calls "nettle water". I guess it's some sort of ACT. But shouldn't plant material ferment for quite while before it becomes benificial? I was quite drunk when we talked about it, but i know he's a good grower who's been doing it for many years. Anyone heard of it?

 

[heady blunts]

fermented nettle is the shit (and it smells like it too)!

i use a number of fermented plant extracts (FPE).

bio-accumulators are the best plants to use. they make excellent foliar sprays and can be added to the water when you give the plants a drink. nettle, yarrow, dandelion, borage, etc.

keep them separate when you make and store them. they are generally very concentrated, and since the fermentation process digests all of the nutrients and makes them soluble aka plant-available, you must dilute them a lot. like 1:100 at the most concentrated.

i also use lavender FPE as a foliar spray to discourage mites and other sap-sucking pests from dining on my plants.

back to ACT. i use ACT a few times per cycle if that. it's good to use early on in veg to establish a healthy soil microbe population. i usually give them their last ACT drink during stretch.

of course, there are folks who use ACT multiple times a week. the nice thing about it is if you're making good brews, they will never harm your plant.

makes a good foliar in veg too.

molasses can neutralize the chlorine in your tap water. just add the molasses a few minutes before the EWC.

aquarium pumps are generally not powerful enough to sustain the appropriate dissolved oxygen levels for the ACT culture to function. the largest aquarium pump available at petco is 5w, and can brew a decent two-gallons of tea maximum. i use two 5w pumps and an airlift to brew 4gal at a time.

check out the DIY ACT brewer sticky. link in my sig.

 

[70's rock]

Again, thanks a lot for helping out, really appreciate it!

Me and my roommate have been talking about getting a wormbox as pets, and now i got one more reason doing it. Fun thing to make your own, don't you think?

Learning organics is almost like being a total noob at growing. But from what i understand it's worth it. You get great weed, and once you have a system that works for you it seems kinda hard to mess it up. With chems you can more or less kill a plant in a day if you do something wrong. When i grew in soil with chems i had constant pH-issues, that's why i really like coco, you don't have to care about that. From what i understand it's the same with organics and so far my plant is telling me the same.

I will check your threads out, take care!