[oldschoolfarmer]

I'm flocking to soil for the summer heat. I prefer hydro, and you can sample some of my work here.

I've learned that DWC and summer don't mix so well, so I figured to play with soil and see what happens.

Current gene pool:
G13xHaze - from Barney's
Mexican Sativa - commercial bagseed from Florida
Mendo Purps - gifted from a kind grower in NorCal
PowerSkunk - from g13 labs
GHG - my personal breeding project strain
Booze - breeding strain
Root - breeding strain
Cali - commercial bagseed from california

As this will be my first attempt in soil, I greatly appreciate any advice one can give. I have been researching but am still a newb

I'll be updating at least weekly throughout the duration of the grow. Smoke reports and grow reports for all strains. This isn't a commercial operation, but moreso a breeding and learning experiment.

Thanks for stopping by

[oldschoolfarmer]

I tried editing the first post, but apparently that function aint workin right.

I'm trying to decide on which training techniques to use this grow. The plants will need to be moved, so Scrog is out of the question but LST may still be an option.

Also, anyone want to enlighten me on the use of foliar sprays?

[Greenlife1]

One thing about soil is that it is pretty simple. Hopefully you won't really have a problem with bugs. But you can mix up some neem oil and spray it on them with a pump sprayer every once in a while for a preventive measure. It dosen't hurt them. Also you will have to really make sure you don't bring any pest in with you when you bring them inside. This can cause all sorts of problems.

Foliar feeding is pretty simple just need a pump sprayer. Mix up a light nute solution(I use seaweed extract, and a little veg nutes, at 1/4 strength.

As far a s training the skys the limit.....kinda depends on the plants. Some like different things. Suppercropping, and LST are problally your best bet.

[BigGreen]

Here ya go oldschool. First I top em at about 8 inches then I lst em the rest of the way.

Hempy 8 days veg

Hempys 10 days veg
If you decide to go hempy you wont regret it its soooo simple.
Heres em 5 days ago
See the growth its very fast and you can get huge yield I expect at least a lb from them 4 plant maybe more. Let me know what you decide if you go dirt use fox farm ocean forest it kicks ass.
Good luck BigGreen

[oldschoolfarmer]

Thanks BigGreen. I'm researching hempys now. Always about the research ya know?

I'll be trying soil this go round I think. At least for the seedlings

Speaking of which, 8 seeds popped the first night. Considering 4 of them were of my breeding experiment strain (which will be known as "GHG" from here on in) I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm using the paper towel inside of a ziplock baggie on top of a linksys router trick. Hopefully a few more days and I can get all the seeds into their new homes.

[oldschoolfarmer]

Greenlife - didn't see ya last time, thanks for stoppin by!

BigGreen - do you LST them to the individual buckets? Just curious. I've done that before, but with this run I plan on moving the buckets around fairly often...

After much research and perusing the local nurseries... I've decided to give hempy buckets a try but with a twist.... Using organic soil as a top layer. (Following "HempyBucqet"'s idea)

It will be my first foray into organics as well as hempys; which should make for a lot of experimental fun

Yesterday I prepped the new grow space and transplanted 8 germinated seeds into plastic cups full of org soil mix minus the blood/bone meal. They're currently under 250W of MH.

Today I'll be putting up walls, ventilation, HID lighting and generally getting the flower and veg chambers fixed up. I'll try and snap some pics.

[BigGreen]

Hey bud I just tie em to themselves so you can move em around all you want. Try at least one or two hempy with out the dirt to see if there is any difference. Your gonna love this way of growing it so simple.

[oldschoolfarmer]

BigGreen - as always, thanks for your help! I think I will try a few with soil and a few without... just for kicks :-)

[oldschoolfarmer]

Well, it's a slow start. I've been having problems germinating seeds and have opened a detailed thread here

Any help is appreciated... I want to get this show going!

[oldschoolfarmer]

It's been almost a month since I had live plants around the place. I'm starting to lose my
ever-present paranoia and ninja like reflexes in dark places

Luckily we have a few jars laying around from the last run...




Ahhh... much better! Here we are friends, finally some progress albeit little. I got some
much needed advice and was able to get a second batch of seeds germed 6/17/09.

The majority of seedlings have made it through hell week and one survivor is left from round one.



This is the only seed that survived from the first "PS3-burned-too-death" germination round. Mendo Purp '08.
The bud it came from was one of the best smokes I had last year



This is another Mendo Purp seed. Almost identical growth pattern to the first, and twice the vigor of all the
other seeds planted thus far. (keep in mind, almost none of this grow will be using costly genetics



As always, advice and suggestions are appreciated.

Question for any organic growers... how long do you wait until amending bone/blood meal? I'm following
blazeoneup's recipe to a T and this is the onepart that escapes me (when seedlings/clones are ready for
the good stuff).