Gonzo Organics Grow - Girl Scout Cookies, Lost OG, Bay-11, Darkstar, and LA Chocolat

[GonzoOrganic]

I want to start this thread with a brief introduction. I've been a grower for going on 5 years now and I've played around with several genetics in that time. I grow for myself so my number one priority is always quality, im not a cash cropper looking to pull pounds off a plant.

When I first started i was hardwired into a synthetic/hydroponic mindset, as far as i knew that was the best possible way to go. I saw indoor soil growing as an old school method that yielded sub par results. I bought into the Advanced Nutrients hype and found myself buying additive after additive, not knowing why, other than the fact that their feeding schedule told me to.

As i began to research making the switch to soil i stumbled on to Subcool's super soil recipe and i was pretty much sold. But it still didn't completely make sense to me, i get that you combine the ingredients and get results but I wanted to know why.

 

[GonzoOrganic]

At the same time I began reading Skunk Magazine every month. I found it a refreshing change up from High Times. A frequent contributor to the magazine,named Rev, quickly started to stand out to me not just in the style of his writing but by his mindset and completely different way of looking at growing.

He calls his method True Living Organics (TLO), but its really just a change of mindset. Instead of constantly force feeding your plants as much liquid nutrients as they can handle inside whatever medium you choose, you instead concentrate on building a healthy living soil mix where your plants root system can already find everything it needs.

They key to a good living soil mix is all of the microbial life inside of it. The microbes are what do the work, they make all of those nutrients available to the plant and in return the plant provides them with the sugars and nutrients that they need to survive and thrive. Its a mutually beneficial relationship, the happier the microbes are, the happier the roots are. Happy roots = Happy plants.

The simple trick for maintaining healthy microbe populations in the soil mix is the addition of healthy compost, fresh earthworm castings, and compost teas. The compost or castings are added to the soil mix globally and are by far the most important part.

It's really that simple. Once you find a soil recipe that you like, or if you have good quality soil available, just make sure you add the compost or castings to kick start that micro-life explosion. The teas are used to keep that life active once the soil is in a container, you're not feeding the plants with it you're feeding the soil.

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Soil Mix

Soil Mix

After reading Rev's book, I felt like I had a better understanding of organic growing and the importance of having a good soil mix. Using Subcool's recipe as a starting point and combining it with parts of Rev's Master Soil Mix Recipe 2.1, I landed on what i feel like should be a pretty balanced mix.


Subcools Super Soil

1/4 Recipe

2 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
6.25 to 12.5 lbs of organic worm castings
1.25lbs or 20 ounces steamed bone meal

1.25lbs or 20 ounces bloom bat guano
1.25lbs or 20 ounces blood meal
3/4 lbs rock phosphate
3/16 cup or 3 tablespoons Epsom Salts
1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons sweet lime (dolomite)
1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons azomite (trace elements)
1.5 teaspoons powdered humic acid


Rev's 2.1 Master Soil Mix Recipe

Base mix
2 Gallons quality organic soil mix (or healthy organic recycled soil)
2 Gallons thoroughly rinsed coir (coconut fiber)
2 Gallons perlite (small nugget size)
2 Gallons Earthworm castings (fresh, or fresh compost)

Amendments
1 1/2 cup Grow or Bloom "Pure" by Organicare (or 1 cup 5-5-5)
1/2 cup Greensand
3/4 cup ground oyster shells (1 cup if no crushed oyter shells)
1 cup crushed oyster shells
1/2 cup dolomite lyme (powdered)
1 3/4 cup prilled (pelletized) fast acting dolomite lyme
1/4 cup blood meal
1/4 cup high N bat/bird guano
1/2 cup feather meal
1 cup un-steamed granular bone meal
1/2 cup bulb food
1/4 cup powdered soft rock phosphate
1/2 cup powdered gypsum
1/2 cup kelp meal

4 heaping cups composted steer maure (this inoculates your mix with specialized microbeasties and primo organic matter)

1/2 cup azomite (ad additional 1/4 cup greensand if no azomite)
1 cup granular humic acid ore
1 cup alfalfa meal
1/2 cup rock phosphate granular(optional)
1 heaping cup organic rice (important for the good fungi in this soil mix)

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Gonzo's Custom Organic Soil

Gonzo's Custom Organic Soil

Gonzo's Custom Organic Soil Veg Mix 1.0 (simple mix)

This mix is the base soil mix without the amendments and is best for use with seedlings, rooted clones, and vegetative plants. This mix doesn’t need to be cooked before use.

1 Part Fox Farms Ocean Forest
1 Part Earthworm castings
1 Part Coco Coir
1 Part Perlite


Gonzo's Custom Organic Soil Flower Mix 1.0 (super soil)

Soil mix is for flowering plants only, mix is too hot for seedlings and clones. Fill only bottom 1/3 of pot with this mix and never place roots directly on top, use base soil or veg mix for filler.

Base Mix

2 bags (3 cu ft) FF Ocean Forest
1 bag (1.5 cu ft) Earthworm castings
5 gallons (~3/4 cu ft) Coco (75% coir 25% husk)
1 large bag Perlite

Amendments

1.25 lbs Bone meal
1.25 lbs Bat guano (high P)
1.25 lbs Blood Meal
1-1/2 cups Peace of Mind (Flower)
2 cups Grow “pure” by Organicare
1-1/2 cups Greensand
1-1/2 cup Kelp Meal
1/2 cup Azomite
12 cups Steer Manure
2 Tbsp Dolomite Lime
3 Tbsp Epsom salt

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Directions - Mix thoroughly, cover and let compost in the sun for a minimum of 4 weeks in order to break down all ingredients into a useable form for the plants.

Base Mix

Fox Farms Ocean Forest - contains; composted forest humus, sphagnum peat moss, Pacific Northwest sea-going fish emulsion, crab meal, shrimp meal, earthworm castings, sandy loam, perlite, fossilized bat guano, granite dust, Norwegian kelp meal, oyster shell

Earthworm Castings - inncoulates mix healthy living microbe population to soil mix, excellent source of micronutrients

Coconut Coir - pH buffer keeps from dropping too low, releases available potassium(k) as it breaks down in mix, retains moisture

Perlite - Aerates the soil mix, acts as reef for microbe populations to colonize, smaller is better (more small particles = larger surface area)

Amendments

Peace of Mind (flower) - contains; feather meal, bone meal, hydrolyzed fish, fish meal, fish bone meal, sulfate of potash magnesia, alfalfa meal, blood meal, bat guano, rock phosphate, kelp meal, gypsum, humic acid, mycos fungi, baterial fungi

Bone Meal (unsteamed) - slow supply of phosphorus(p) nitrogen and calcium and trace elements, buffer for ph

Blood Meal and Bat Guano - High nitrogen and phosphorus sources, supplies iron and trace elements, must be cooked into mix before use

Dolomite Lime - major source of calcium and magnesium, also buffers soil mix ph from dropping too low, DO NOT USE HYDRATED LIME, fast acting dolomite is best

Greensand - enhances soil structure and airflow, supplies potassium(k) and iron(fe)
over 30 trace elements in very slow release form

Steer Manure - high nitrogen and potassium (k) source, packed with microbes

Epsom Salt - source of magnesium and sulfur

Azomite - over 60 mineral and trace elements, long term micronutrients

 

[GonzoOrganic]

The Grow

The Grow

Now to the fun stuff.

After mixing the soil and leaving it to cook, it's time to get back to work. I started by doing a massive cleanup of my space. Moved everything out and literally scrubbed for 2 days. Everything was bleached, all walls, ceilings, floors, tables, lights, fans, containers cleaned. Next, all equipment was inventoried, and organized.

Fresh start always feels good.

For my Veg room I'm currently running a single six bulb high output t5 with a wall mounted air conditioner and a oscillating fan. Lights are on 24 hours and temperatures stay 78-80 F with 50-60% relative humidity.

Now that the room is clean and ready, let the germination begin.

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Germination

Germination

For seed germination I have always used the moist paper towel method and I get almost 100% successful germination rates with it.

Using two matching saucer sized plates I lay down 4 pieces of paper towel roughly the size of the saucer and soak with distilled water, drop the seeds onto the wet paper towel, cover with 4 more pieces and soak the top pieces down. Put one of the saucers on top of the other to keep in the moisture and keep out the light. Move the saucers on to heating mat and keep slightly warmer than the room. Check once or twice a day to maintain moisture throughout the paper towels and check seed progress every 12-24 hours.

 

[GonzoOrganic]

After 2 days or germination 1 out of 1 Darkstar (thseeds), and 1 out of 1 LA Chocolat (dna genetics) have sprouted with 1+ inch roots showing. Both seeds are feminized but as always will be watched closely for hermaphrodites.

Seeds are moved to small pots with Veg soil mix and placed in Veg room with 24 hours of lights on at 12-18 inches above the soil. These high output T5's are bright and run really cool, perfect for vegging young plants.

After vegging for about 2 weeks roots were showing at the bottom of the pots. Both Darkstar (DS), and LA Chocolat (LAC) were transplanted to 2 gallon containers. A layer of Mykos (Mycorrhizal - benificial fungi) is added over the soil where the root ball is placed. This stuff works.

http://www.hydroponics.net/i/135356

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Next, I started 2 regular Bay-11 seeds the same way. After 2 Weeks those were nearly ready to transplant into the 2 Gallon containers.

LA Chocolat, Darkstar, B-11(a), B-11(b)

Bay-11 (b), Bay-11(a) at 4 days

Bay-11 (a) at 7 days

Bay-11 (b) at 7 days

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Darkstar at 14 days

LA Chocolat at 14 days

 

[Stayfoolish]

I like your name. Now I will read the thread.

Grab yourself a few books. Rev is good but I feel like he's bast bastardizing organics. Great to show people the door but I feel like it leads down the wrong path. You seem to got it going nice. Grab the intelligent gardener and the ideal soil . Two great books.

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Darkstar and LA Chocolat at day 18, Bay-11's day 10

Darkstar and LA Chocolat day 18

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Darkstar day 18

LA Chocolat day 18

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Bay 11's day 10

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Noticed some purple on the underside of a leaf of the the LA Chocolat, little bit of a deficiency I'm guessing.

Also noticed this whirled blade on the Darkstar, not sure what that means.

 

[Stayfoolish]

Lots of white boxes

 

[GonzoOrganic]

Topped Darkstar and LA Chocolat above the 5th node at 21 days

Darkstar

LA Chocolat

 

[GonzoOrganic]

And that pretty much brings us up to date. Now that I know my Veg room is running smooth its time to start a few Girl Scout Cookies (cali connection) and Lost OG (hso) seeds. They got mixed up so I know i have 3 of each and they're feminized but I'm not sure which is which.

After 24 hours all 6 have roots showing, 2 of each will be going into soil. Going to give the other 2, 1 of each, another 12-24 hours in the paper towels before placing in soil.

 

[hle144]

I read Rev's book, it wasn't anything you can't find on the many forums here and elsewhere...
I'm organic soil. I feel it's better for karma and also my wife is involved so we try to keep it simple. I tried hydro, very effective but more maintenance.

Skunk magazine, if I wanted to see pretty girls taking bong hits, I'd rather watch a Russ Meyers film.

There are so many different ways to grow good herb, your ladies look great do far. I take what works for us from these guys, read the leaves and basically assist the ladies without being overbearing. I am not a slave to the ladies but I kinda let them know that we gotta do this together. My wife is a key factor in this as she keeps me in check and makes sure I'm not obsessing....

 

[GonzoOrganic]

All 6 new seeds have germinated, are in soil, above ground and looking happy. Darkstar and LA Chocolat responded well to first topping and are bushing up like crazy. Topped both again today at the end of 4th week of veg. Bay 11(a) continues to outgrow (b), but (b) is starting to give off the strongest smell of any of my plants in veg. Bay 11(a) was topped for the first time today after pictures were taken.

Darkstar(front), Bay 11(a)(front)
LA Chocolat(back), Bay 11(b)(back)

Girl Scout Cookies and Lost Coast OG seedlings