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**MeestaFeesha** · 07-06-2019, 05:10 PM

Moving along, slowly I will add. Progress is progress!

Edit: 2nd Pic added 3:50pm

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-06-2019, 07:18 PM

All finished, tired. Need. Food, water....haha, in all honesty everything went well, here's a "finished product" picture, with the details to come.

**SoOrbudgal** · 07-07-2019, 09:23 AM

Today you need to sit and admire your work. I dig the tiny mantis and your plants & garden is beautiful. Boy I love this time of year

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-07-2019, 09:33 AM

[July 6] They say if you enjoy/love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. I love my work and hobbies! With that, yesterday there was not a ton to do, but it must be done carefully (and properly). I up-potted (3) plants from 1gal to 7gal and (3) from 7gal to 25gal. I use this soil volume chart to estimate the amounts that I will need at any point. I used 10cu ft yesterday, 5 bags. This leaves enough leftover to transfer the remaining (3) into 25gal should I choose, while still having 1.5 extra bags of soil.

I'm gonna go over a few things here in this post. Soil. For us growing in it, the most important ingredient aside from genetics. In the photos, I've got shots of Happy Frog and then Premium Potting mix. I have added perlite, vermiculite and earthworm castings to the premium potting mix, but still do not use it for my plants. All plants require different things at different stages of their life, soils that are already catered to cannabis are an easy button that I chose to push this time round. If I were to use something else, it would be creating my own Super Soil, which will be a build to be utilized next year.

Just because I chose those route, doesn't mean all do the same, or will achieve sub par results doing differently. There's millions of different ways on how to do things, difficult to say who's right or wrong. So, let's talk a bit about the most important quality of a soil, in my opinion, is that its breathable for the roots, holds water and drains well.

Perlite is used in soil to increase aeration and drainage. Those little white things you see hold the soil apart. Vermiculite is used for water retention, so if you're pots are drying up too quickly (and it's not because of your pot size) you can look at adding it into your mix to assist. These are the two main things I mess with, being that I'm using Happy Frog, I've only added more perlite to the mix when they were seedlings. Let me say, I love perlite. Helped enough people who have used none in the past that I have started feeling like a broken record over the years.

Alright, what's a Meesta Morning Grow post without some rambling, coffee shop is almost open, and I'll dive into the sense of accomplishment from yesterday.

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-07-2019, 12:27 PM

Alright my pot people, I will warn you now, I feel a long post coming...I'll break it down as we go.

Transplanting! It can be a stressful time for both grower and plant alike. Let me say, I love it and have fun while repotting or up-potting! Ok, ok, let's look at how it went for me. This is Up-Potting with fabric pots. [July 6]

First off, gotta undo all of the training that you have in place. With twist ties, I undo my anchor point on the edge of the pot and then remove it from the branch/stem. This way there's no tension as you take them off. Some movement is fine, although the key to all of this is being gentle.

Once that's taken care of, go ahead and get that bag of soil you'll be using. I use a knife and cut the top completely off, create a nice open bag. Here's some fun, get in there!! Mix up the soil, break up clumps, turn it around with your hands. I use an old nursery pot to scoop soil out of the bag and into the new pot I will be using. Fill'r'up until you can set your current pot inside and you like the height. Don't fill in the edges yet, remove your current pot from where it's sitting in the new pot. Take your watering can (no nutes) and get your soil damp, not soaking (the soil in the new pot)...Get in the new pot with your hands! Mix it up, get down in the corners, turn it all around. Go ahead and level it off, do not pack down.

Now, place that current pot (with the plant still in it) into your new pot with its damp soil bottom layer. Get the pot situated in the center, or close, I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times. Take a cup/old nursery pot and slowly fill in the sides. By sides I mean the area between your current and new pot, let's call it the 'trench'. I fill in one smaller area, and after each pour of soil I lightly spread it around the 'trench' with my fingers. It takes time, continue doing so until you have reached near the same level as your current pot. Do not pack anything down.

Alrighty! We've got pot, inside a pot, inside a pot. 🤦*♂️. Our next step is to remove the current pot, but if we do that right now, all the soil will fall into the void created when we lift our pot. So, what I do is water the 'trench' (and current pot lightly). Lightly is a relative term, I give my 7gal plants 2gal of water every watering. Watering the trench here, I gave 1/2 that, 1gal. Do keep in mind to water the current pot a little bit, however the 'trench' is the focus. I let the soil soak up the water, and drain a bit to allow the soil to take shape. I also at this point pull up on the edges of the new fabric pot to get rid of any sagging. I give nutes at half strength here, and the final watering.

Now this is the real enjoyment of fabric pots. Pull the plant out, if done gently and your watering skills were on point, you'll have your current pot in hand, and a perfect void to place it in! I move to a shady area, and pull my old fabric pot off. Having one hand support the stem, I tip the plant just a bit more than 90*, I do not like going upside down. With my other hand I squeeze the bottom of the fabric pot, around the edges at first and then from the center of the bottom. Should come out no problem! Then you can go ahead and plop your lovely plant into their new home. *With fabric pots, the roots are pruned away from the edges and bottom of the pot. This allows for much easier transplants, in my opinion, as it's a simple fill, pull, drop.*

Our finals steps are as such, get a nice dressing of soil on top of our new transplant. Scoops at a time, spreading the soil gently and evenly. Once finished, administer your final watering (For me, it was my remaining 1gal w/ nutes). Let me add again, don't pack anything down! Your watering will do an excellent job at that, for you, over time.

Whoaaa, didn't expect my thought process to go there. 😂, I can only hope that someone finds this useful. Well, in my next post I'll get into the larger ones, more of what 'I' did, and how much fun it was. Thanks for stopping by, stay classy GWE community 😎.
-Meesta

**Canuck147** · 07-07-2019, 01:24 PM

Good read MeestaFeesha - must have been some good smoke you had - hehehe - And that's why us lazy guys grow autoflowers. Germinate the seed and plant into the final pot you are going to use. Me - I use 2 gallon Geopots - fabric. These pots do come with a Velcro opening down one side - very convenient for transplanting - as well as handles, if you desire. The handles are very convenient on 3 gallons or larger. Last year I thought I would try 7 gallon outside - not good with autoflowers - they took too long to spread out their roots, and didn't get as big as I thought they might.
Good luck growing.

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-07-2019, 04:06 PM

Woohoo, that long winded speech...hmm, not making any promises it won't continue.

We had left off with the larger plants, the three WW. Same principle as before transplanting, just a little pruning of leaves that would otherwise end up in the dirt. Also, I've learned you can get fabric pots with Velcro! I'd spend money on that to save me from burning it here, I cut my 7gal bags wide open! Ah, live and learn. These ones took more time (and soil!) but were just as easy. Well, they take a lot of water too..a lot. 😅.

For all these transplants I was giving a small dose of nutrients. I have been using FoxFarm liquid nutes, at this specific point giving 'Big Bloom', 'Wholly Mackerel' and 'Boomerang'. All at 1/2 strength, which is quite easy to mix up in 2gal cans.

After being released from their twist ties, and finishing up-potting everyone, they're reaching out for the sun and blowing in the breeze! Happy today, I do hope it continues. Once I do my first or second round of watering, I'll wait a day and then continue with LST.

Final note: As I was sweating yesterday a new batch of mantids hatched! This was great because I think I scared a lot of them off in the transplant process.

**SoOrbudgal** · 07-07-2019, 04:13 PM

LOL great write up.

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-07-2019, 04:19 PM

Today has been a lovely day. Keep wandering into my little gardening corner and getting those happy feels, just need a camping hammock to throw down.

Gave myself a little work, stopped by Home Depot and increased my watering can to person ratio, we're a 12:1 now. Also, picked up some containers and pots for new marigolds and peppers, on top of potting the tomato plants from my sister into containers.

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-08-2019, 07:01 PM

Snapped a shot as I got home today. Plants seem happy, plenty for them to drink still...been a bit windy, was hard to find the mantids. While I was looking I noticed more defined pre-flowers coming in. Gave me a little scare (as it had done a few weeks ago when pistils started popping) thinking they'd started their flower cycle a month early.

If my knowledge serves me right, I know to not worry...but there's this plant I keep smoking that gives me second thoughts! I'd like to ask those who stop by; I need not worry, right? Thank you for your time, I do appreciate it! 😎🤘

-Meesta

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-11-2019, 09:19 AM

Just a little before work update, plants are happy with their new pots. I haven't watered them since the transplant, they've still got a bit to drink before I do.

So, current events, I had trimmed an oak tree back (got a pine to trim as well) to allow more light to get to the babes. In doing so it opened up what I'm dubbing the 'evening wind tunnel'. All the plants are doing well with it, with the exception of one.

Sugar Black Rose is getting hit by the brunt on one side, as the WW are large enough not to care, and the other two are protected by one WW. I'm not the most concerned at the moment, a mix of transplant stress and a wee bit of wind burn is what I'm seeing here I believe. Clawing leaves on the windy corner.

-Meesta

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-11-2019, 11:45 PM

Allllllriiighty then. Warmer weather yesterday and more so today definitely helped deplete the babes precious water resource. Had started off for home after work with the idea of only watering Sugar Black Rose, and perhaps the rest in the morning. alltatup had the right idea with Sugar Black Rose being thirsty. Getting home and seeing droopyness among the lot showed me it was time to water 'em and feed a little. It had been since the 6th since they had a drink!

I'm content though, now I'm aware of the longest without a drink they should go, only decreasing as time goes on. I fed the three younger ladies (Sugar Black Rose, Larry OG and Strawberry Diesel) 1/2 strength Big Bloom, Boomerang and Wholly Mackerel. The very much ready to mature WW women were given Grow Big at regular strength and Big Bloom at 1/2. Happened to end up on the phone during the process, but here's an idea of what watering all this (4 cans not included) looks like..all mixed one at a time as needed. Also my gardening partner sleeping on the job!

Will try to take and add more pictures in the morning before heading out.

-Meesta

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-12-2019, 09:17 AM

True to my word, took some pictures and here! I present them 😋. The younger plants have different needs than that of the more developed WW, going through a little more stress than the older ladies. My Rosenthal book should be showing up today, we'll see if I can chew through a bit of it tonight. Knowledge is power, y'all! Until I get some more, allow me to lean on all you wonderful people 😅🤘.

I ended up moving some of the lattice I haven't installed yet, idea of adding some frost fabric to it in order to block some wind. Plan of action this afternoon will be starting to apply LST to the WW once more, maybe including Larry and Strawberry Diesel. My only gripe being how easy it is to water now, and how that will change with the placement of twist ties.

As always, thanks for stopping by! Happy Friday, now lets get through the work day, eh?!

-Meesta

**MeestaFeesha** · 07-12-2019, 08:29 PM

Checking in here, hello all! I'm at a halfway point in LST here...on one WW! 😋. Taking my time and laying out how things will be with my hands before putting any ties on. Bringing the elevation down and the circumference up.

**SoOrbudgal** · 07-13-2019, 09:46 AM

I'm loving the way the WW photo is looking. My photo WW has only been topped once and then her large lateral branches spread with bamboo. She's abit over 5ft. right now. Flowering won't be long down your way, we will be about 2-3 wks behind you I believe. I'm usually 2-3wks behind nor. cal. Great weather for outdoor here. It's cooler than last summer so far. Damn that's a big container hurts my back thinking about possible move to GH. That WW should hopefully finish by mid sept. I have sun gold tomats real little sweet orange minis.

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