How I started growing weed WAY more easily.

[Dannyboy58]

I got fed up with my hydro setup and transplanted my youngest Afghan auto just as it was beginning to flower. I put it in coast of maine, stonington blend and a little extra perlite and put it outside. It stretched to almost 4' and is loaded with big buds. I've done nothing else to it except water it and gave it a little calmag two weeks ago when some leaves started to yellow. Very happy with the results so far of this low maintenance approach. I'll never grow hydro again and likely won't do much indoor growing from now on.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Very nice! I love to see them falling over because of their own weight. I like your idea of keeping grows outdoors except for the bugs. I just killed another leafhopper this afternoon. The little snot had been living in that tent for about two weeks now. The plants all responded to the real sun very very well, though.

I'm still debating myself about whether or not to rebuild the hydro setup. I might just do it and grow spinach or something like that. It's great for growing a whole bunch of the same plant, especially if vegetative growth is all you give a damn about. I'm getting super spoiled on being able to shuffle plants between tents and having access to the whole plant for the whole grow. I'm using less electricity not running air and water pumps too. I think the real tipping point is the smell and taste from coco and organics. I pulled out a few dead leaves off Blueberry, grazed a bud and now my hands reeks. I'm not really mad about that either. The fact that the recent 48 hour power outage this summer would have killed my entire garden if it were still in hydro isn't lost on me either.

[Dannyboy58]

UndergroundFarmer I haven't had any issues with bugs, YET, but I'm sure I've just been lucky. My biggest concern was deer but I found a spot where the scent of my dogs is probably strong enough to keep them away.

I just don't want to spend so much time babysitting a hydro setup. I'm just retiring and don't want to be tied to that anchor. If it's too high maintenance I'll just end up being a consumer again.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Blueberry got a few more days to get ripe. She may even get an extra week yet. No biggie, I've got two weeks off to play. Kosher Kush and Tangie are easily needing another week. This tent just reeks right now from the three in late flower. The smaller three aren't stretching much and none will likely get over three feet tall but they are all indica-dominant, so no surprise. Lavender seems to be a bit behind in flower making while PPD is making big hairy tops and GSC is making compact colas.

I've noticed some of the flowering plants showing deficiencies - especially the ones making seed. I also noticed that Blueberry didn't really fill out its colas as much as I hoped she would. I think I will have to go to biweekly feedings for any plants that is showing bud until the bottle nutes are gone. I do like the way the nearly finished ones are shutting down. I expect the smoke from Blueberry to be some of the mildest yet with the way she is flushing. (I'm only watering to keep moist and allowing her to use up what nutrients she can find, not drenching the coco.)

Anyway, here's the pics:


Back row is KK, BB, Tangie. Front row is PPD, GSC, Lavender. I tied Tangie's support stick to a tent post for better posture after taking this.


Wedding Cake, Peyote Z--z, Super Lemon Haze (back)
Pineapple Express, Alien Technology, Purple Kush (front) waiting their turn.

Super Lemon Haze was growing a bit unevenly with a short stem. Here she is after some LST to even it out.


I broke down and got a whiteboard to keep track of plants and dates a bit better.

Each box is a tent in its relative position in the grow room. I think I could make better use of the space though. I can't believe these two seed projects have been going on since May.

[GroBuddy]

I use fox farms happy frog to start seeds in, once they are ready to transplant photos go from starter pots to 2 gallons bottom half ocean forest top half happy frog since happy frog contains mycorrhizae I also sprinkle the roots with mycorrhizae. Normally my photos veg for 2 to 2 1/2 months depending on when I start them and how long my current flower tent takes. Around a month to 5 weeks in the 2gallons I'll top with 444 all purpose and worm castings. Normally their ready to go to the flower tent same time their ready to be transplanted into their final pot. I use 5 and 7 gallons. Final pot is full ocean forest. 4 to 5 weeks into flower I'll top dress with half recommended 444 and full serving of 394 with worm castings. Around week 8 or 9 I'll do 394 with worm castings. Most of my flowers last over 12 weeks so I take into consideration how much food they actually need to finish on that last feeding I may only do half servings just strain dependent and flower time. My autos get one feeding around week 5 or 6. I don't ph water my tap is 9.3 I use a boogie blue filter on my garden hose that's the water I use. Used to use r/o water I bought an expensive under the sink filter system, now I use the garden hose. You'll want to make sure you have dolomite lime as it's a calmag nutrient but also raises soil ph, if you ph organic grows your ph will be low in the 5's. You'll want gypsum gypsum is a calcium nutrient but doesn't effect soil ph. Epsom salt is a magnesium nute. I also have a bunch of others bat guano, seabird guano, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, blood meal bone meal, fish meal molasses. Just a variety of others. 1 incase I run deficient brewing a tea with foliar feedings can save a plant before it gets bad waiting on the new top dress feed to start breaking down.

What I have going on rn in the amendments listed. Tent is 8 autoflowers supposed to have went outside when we went legal. Before I sat them out I looked up the outdoor grow laws. Plants have to be hid unless I built something I couldn't hide 8 plants. So I got stuck with them in my flowering tent. Aurora borealis, Euphoria, and durban poison. The vegging tent are photos 2 Alaskan thunder fucks, 1 laughing buddha, and one birthday cake kush.

Last ones are me not phing water. After 2 months

I'll add with that said this can be plant and strain dependent on when or how much to feed. This is just a basic break down of how I grow.

[UndergroundFarmer]

A little midweek bud porn!

Blueberry


Tangie


Kosher Kush


PPD


I love how PPD is growing out purple and frosty at four weeks.

If you look closely at Kosher Kush, you can see finished Blueberry Kolache seeds peeking out from the cola. I got more than I bargained for when the fan swept across when I was pollinating KK. Blueberry is only showing a bit of purpling but we have another few cool nights ahead. Tangie is showing frost and a bit of potassium deficiency on the bud fans.

I'm going to try out a few different ways of growing after this week. All the plants I have now will finish out on Megacrop which came highly recommended and all new starts will grow a la that famous Canadian grow bro on YouTube. I'll be using Down To Earth Starter (3-3-3), Vegetable Garden (4-4-4) and Rose and Flower (4-8-4) since Gaia Green isn't available here. It will be Feed Every Time You Water vs. Feed A Few Times, Plain Water When Needed. It won't be scientific, but I just don't have the resources or the motivation (especially if motivation counts as a resource) for that. I'll just look at which way grew the best bud over a number of varieties.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Another accidental cross! I found developing seeds low on the Blueberry near where I dusted GSC with Tangie pollen. Now I've got to look up what that's called.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Six plants got cut yesterday!


All tents were emptied and wiped down at some point and the produce is drying in the 3x3 where Deuxberry was. I took the BBs down first. After I cut up the unpollinated one to dry, I had a hankering for a big-ass bowl of Boo-Berry. KK has ripe seed showing in every other bud from that Blueberry cross. Tangie surprised me by maturing faster that expected. All seven of my flowering plants wound up in the 4x4 with Murcott. With this tent freed up, it was time to clear out the nursery and start more seeds!



Three days ago, I laid all the stuff out and premixed my coco, perlite, worm castings and 3-3-3 plus some myco. I'll say one thing about DTE Starter Mix - the inside of that box is smells exactly like agriculture. I'm using these half gallon cell pots because they were laying around and I'm really tired of ripping small plants from small fabric pots at transplant. I got the mixing a bit bass-ackward. I figured on needing six gallons total for a dozen of these pots, used proportional numbers of pots to measure out the big ingredients but forgot that half-empty bag of coco was plain coco until I woke up and noticed no perlite. Thus, two gallons of perlite meant a bit too much potting mix. I moistened the whole thing and let it sit two days until I needed it so that the dry fertilizer might have a chance to get hydrated.



The soil was in fact nice and moist two days later and much nicer to deal with than a bunch of dust. The seeds are BC Mango, ILGM G-13, Expert Sweet Zombie, Pyramid Romulan, Humboldt Seed Org Chocolate Mint OG, Pyramid Purple Urkle, Greenhouse Cloud Walker, Seedsman Magnum Auto and Canuk Cheese Auto. The beer is 4 Hands Fest Bier 'cause the Oktoberfest stuff is out.

The BC Mango will be a seed project called "Ambika". The six other photo fems are the next wave for regular flower and the autos might just go in the backyard until the outside temperatures say otherwise.

[UndergroundFarmer]

GSC and PPD are getting close to chop.



Here's the rest of the tent from this morning.



I like the purpling I'm already seeing in those two. I've put them on the do-not-feed list. Lavender is only just fattening up and starting to smell.

I've transplanted all but three of the seedlings. I mixed three 1.5 gallon pots of 70/30 coco with one pot of worm castings and 6 oz of D-T-E 4-4-4 Veggie Garden. I needed to do this for three batches.


All the babies seem happy in their new places in the veg tent, even the two autos. I moved them in 3 gallon pots to finish in. When veg is over for the photos, I'll transplant them to 5 gallon fabric pots. I'm trying the 1.5 gallon plastic ones because I hate transplanting out of a fabric pot.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks! After a cool night and a big drink, they are already fading and showing color in the upper fans.

[Dannyboy58]

I took a couple cuttings from my autos and they didn't grow much. One was just a 4" tall runt with one big cola. The other was about 10" tall with 5 fat colas like the one pictured in my hand. I started them in hydro and moved them outside in July in fabric bags with coast of maine soil and no other nutes. I will definitely never grow in hydro again. Way too much hassle for the return and I feel like the weed has an odd almost chemical flavor and aroma to it. Much happier with what I produced outdoors.

[UndergroundFarmer]

That's a nice one!

Ain't it the truth! I'm starting to think that hydro is great for leafy greens where the climate forbids outdoor growing but not so great for cannabis. It could be that hydro still persists because there is so much more equipment to buy and therefore more money to be made per grower selling that equipment. I was at a place where it was either install a reverse-osmosis system or quit hydro and that's where I broke. I hadn't even gotten into automation either! If I could send a message to myself in 2017, I would have grown organically in coco since the beginning and saved all the big bucks for lights and first-rate genetics.

The big difference in the bud I've grown is all in the fade in organics vs. flushing in hydro. It's just too hard to limit the nutes without killing the plant in hydro near the end of flower. Going organic is like a cheat code: You get all the colors and smells you used to miss, none of the harsh flavors and all of the frost, especially when you amend with worm castings.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Without further delay, here's the temporarily crowded veg tent:



All the transplanted ones are still happy. I even got away with transplanting a Cheese Auto and a Magnum Auto at bottom right corner. The rest are BC Mango (center three plus bottom left corner), Cloud Walker (bottom left near the door and Sweet Zombie between the Mangoes.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Today was haircut day for eight of the new batch!



Two more were added after the extra Cloud Walker and the G-13 were repotted. Here's the BC Mangos for Project Ambika:



It seems using the 3-3-3 in big cell pots without reamending caused some nitrogen deficiencies. The new growth after transplanting was all nice and green.

It's getting very close to chop day for two of the three in the 3x3 tent.



PPD and GSC are getting really close. I could cut now but they'll be better in a week or less.



PPD (left) may just turn burgundy all over. GSC is getting its own shade of purple going on in its buds and sugar leaves.

Lavender is still building bud mass slowly and is only starting to show orange stigmas.



Lavender has such a long way to go to fade out those dark green leaves! I like the way she needs no extra support. Skunk #1 is the only thing sturdier that I've grown yet.

Super Lemon Haze and Lavender are the only ones in flower being fed any more; they are back on their Soul nutes and worm castings until time to fade them. I gave the Tangies some of the leftovers and no more. It would be nice to be able to chop six plants next weekend because I need the space.

[UndergroundFarmer]

PPD and GSC came down Friday night. The rest of the Tangies came down this morning and are all drying in the nursery tent. I started the manifold for the remaining uncut photos G-13 and Cloud Walker. Lavender got its final feed and SLH got a dose of Soul nutes too. They are now finishing in the 4x4 that the Tangies were in. Project Ambika is now in its home in the 3x3 and I was just sharp enough to remember to reset the timer to 18/6! I noticed pH was running in a range of 5.6 - 6.2 in all of my DTE grows. I gave them all a few cups on straight tap water (pH 9.0 to keep lead from leaching) to bring it back toward the mid sixes. I poked around the GWE site and found that I need to ditch the pH Down and get an organic-friendly substitute. I finally got back to defoliating the Pineapple Express and the Wedding Cake now that they are showing new growth again. Purple Kush may be hopeless. I trimmed her too and will be watching for fresh shoots but most growth nodes look too burnt. I think I need to brew another compost tea for midweek watering.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks. It's almost a second job some weeks. The goal is to work it smarter and not as hard. I probably won't be running 19 different varieties at once after I burn through some odd fem photos I just had to try. I might even be at a place where I'm only using my own seeds by '23.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I spent the weekend jarring up my latest harvests. I now have nine jars of seedy Tangie and two jars each of GSC and PPD. The PPD made me want a big bowl of Crunchberries. I ground up some of the cookies Sunday night and burned through a bowl. GSC kicked my ass! I underestimated her power and it will be added to my mental list of varieties that make me "check out". I can't wait to try the PPD just for the flavor.

These successes help a bit to deflect from the latest setbacks with pH Down screwing up a few of the batch in veg. I'm still sticking to the program though. I can always go back to coco/perlite/worm castings with Soul nutes if I must because I can absolutely rock that method. Damn growing pains.

[SoOrbudgal]

LOL munchies are awful for me. You sure did a fine job documenting all about the grow, well done i hope some new folks will take the time to read through the soil mix. Beautiful colors enjoy the harvest.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks. I think I've got my "growing pains" down to me not being used to watering in plastic pots instead of fabric and overdoing it, especially when trying to fix pH. I've started running an airstone in the water overnight before I use it just to bring myself more in line with the way Mr. C. does it. Holding off on water until pots are light is already starting to improve the health of some of the babies. Mango for sure doesn't like overwatering!

[UndergroundFarmer]

I took action this weekend to fix my pH problems caused by phosphorus buildup. Only a few of my girls tested OK after watering. Some were as low as 5.4! I flushed them all with straight 9.0 tap water until the pH was acceptable in all of them. Pictures of the sick ones to come later. I may have to replace all of the Mangos and G-13, possibly more. Purple Kush may start growing again too. I would have trashed her already but for her huge stems. Either way, I'm done with pH Down and have been using apple cider vinegar in its place. I've also got some FloraNectar (or something like that) which is naturally acidic. I noticed that when I started a compost tea for Tuesday's watering. The tea didn't look frothy enough after 24 hours so I packed the sachet from the previous one with fresh worm castings and added that this afternoon. I've also been staying busy rinsing the hell out of all my reclaimed coco\perlite. Whew.

Lavender has been moved to the little used cloning tent with a garnish of ice cubes on top of the coco to help it show some fall color besides yellow. Chop is Wednesday.

[UndergroundFarmer]

A week later and I'm a bit wiser. Once again, I waited until after watering to check pH. Guess what? mid fives across the board with just a few of the larger healthier plants around 6.0. I wound up flushing again to correct pH to 6.5, even using a bit of pH Up in the water because the tap water is only weakly buffered to 9.0. I went on a research blitz. I wasn't finding what I needed online so I hit the books - Ed Rosenthal's Grower's Handbook and Jorge Cervantes' Cannabis Encyclopedia. Both are great but the Encyclopedia is much better indexed. I learned why sodium is such a bad thing in soil on the side before learning that vinegar is generally safe for organic growing, BUT vinegar encourages bacterial activity which acidifies the soil. Bingo! Apart from sampling a few pots to get a picture of soil pH before watering, I'm probably just going to stop adjusting pH in plant water until I see it approach 6.8 at the root level. It seems that the plants in flower can prevent phosphoric acid in pH Down from building up by absorbing the phosphorus ions but vegging plants just can't. I'm tempted to try a different DTE formula with much less phosphorus for veg. At this time, only the Super Lemon Haze is healthy as it is the only one still being fed liquid nutes. Wedding Cake and Pineapple Express are getting there and are just starting to flower. Lavender was cut down last Wednesday and is drying. I was forced to trash the autos because they were too far gone. I've got five of eight new starts sprouted for the next generation. What they get fed in veg will depend on how well I can pull the sick ones out of their funk.



Right is the veg tent. Middle is the flower tent and Left is Project Ambika. By a nice coincidence, this is their arrangement in the grow room too. I just put the pics up in no particular order.

Low pH has damaged most of these with Boron deficiency being the most telling. This is what causes new leaves to come in crinkled and thick then eventually they stop growing. This afternoon they were looking alive at least with Purple Urkle and one of the Cloud Walkers looking the best. I've got fingers crossed for saving the ones I haven't chopped yet.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I am almost about to pull another batch out of the crapper, knock on wood. I've also got sprouts ready to take the place of the unhappy ladies in veg in case things still go sideways. Everybody got reamended and watered yesterday and as of a half hour ago, most tops are showing wisps of new leaves! Several (especially Purple Urkle) are drinking water again and even smell again. (Grape!) Wedding Cake and Pineapple Express are just beginning to show flower development and Super Lemon Haze is roughly two weeks from chop.


I was finally able to do defoliation on WC and PEX! SLH is smelling tart.


Project Ambika is still hanging in there. A few of them smell like Mango again.


I cleared out the veg tent and gave the floor a much-needed cleaning and one new yellow sticky trap. They are just about to burst forth with some new growth!


These six are now hardening off alongside another batch of eight mixed-variety seeds waiting to pop. I pulled the grass from MAC-1's pot and started another seed. GelatOG is down to its last strike as I've just started the third and final seed from the pack. The big one blocking its name tag is Expert Gorilla and I'm expecting a lot from this one. Romulan may get a few clones cut from it.


I finally figured out that if I take this picture in darkness, there's way less glare. That nursery is super busy!

Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving weekend or a great normal weekend for those outside the states.