How I started growing weed WAY more easily.

[UndergroundFarmer]

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

 

[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.

 

[Jimmynuetron]

This is my second year using Gia Green. I met a guy who used to work there, it’s 5 miles up the road, and he taught me a lot about living soil. I bought a fifty pound bag of power bloom and all the garden gets it. I buy worm casting from the same plant but under a different name. My grow is 90% organic. I tried some Big Bud once cause one of my girls was too stretched out.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

That's about as local as you can get! I'd like to try the GG stuff if they ever export it to the States. So far, the DTE stuff and castings and myco are making this new batch grow trouble-free except for the trouble I cause by myself.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

With pots that big, you can easily do one plant per tent and fill it! I'm considering doing something like that when I'm ready to break out the scrog nets and grow out some of my homemade seeds for bud production.

 

[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.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

Yet another week and not as much progress on the burn victims as I would like to see. But - I did have this tray to deal with:

I've got the whole Mr. C's grow method working up through early veg at least and now I need to get it together enough to finish. These guys were started in coco/perlite/worm castings plus 3-3-3 starter mix and are coming up on their third week. I started watering from the tray this time around and they grew fast! I transplanted them just in time - roots were sneaking out of the bottoms of most of the pots.

I had six sprouts but only five were big enough this week. I brewed a tea last night of molasses, worm castings, kelp meal and a helping of root excelurator and myco plus some quillaja and gave everyone of them some plus a double dose for the ones I need to recover. I bought saucers to go under the pots after the photos were taken to try watering from the bottom for the whole grow. All of the ones in early veg are larger now than they were Sunday morning!

Super Lemon Haze is on its way to chop, maybe this weekend.

The flower tent is still a bit too roomy for my tastes.

Wedding Cake and Pineapple Express are at least making bud after being burn victims themselves.

The Mangoes are slowly coming back but I still may start more seed and begin anew.

More seeds are in the nursery waiting to pop plus a Banana Blaze and an Alien Rock Candy seedling that need another week or two before transplant. At the rate things are progressing, the newer batch will lap the burn victims. I may just need to purge some of them, but I hate to.

 

[TOKABIGONE]

Hey UF, you def have a lot going on in there. I've been looking over your thread and see you are kinda where I am with soils. I am going for the never pH anything soil. I encourage a strong microbe colony growth and never check or adjust pH. Might I suggest you study Clackamas Coot approach to creating soil that does that. Good info about it on there. He suggests using Canadian Spahgnum peat moss but I won't use that for environmental reasons. However coir, castings and perlite with a recipe of organic and mineral amendments will achieve that for you. I just finished an auto grow using this with good results. Cali also is using this and doing well.
Even with your 9 pH water it will work as the microbes are feeding the plant everything they need and microbes care less about pH!

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

I'm absolutely on board with letting all of the so-called lower life forms do all the hard stuff for me! I still need to dive into CC's work and will probably do that after this post. I'm hoping the bottom watering will make it easier for all life involved to keep the pH stable at root level. The water in the saucers has become a helluva good gnat trap though. I found quite a few of them that were knocked into the water by my floor fan and drowned.

 

[TOKABIGONE]

I almost feel like those few of us beginning to go this route are pioneers of such trying to guide the way out of this never ending pH and chemical nute trap. Not so much it hasn't been done before, just a much more
natural and simpler way to grow that seems to have been forgotten in the wake of "modern" growing with chemicals. Not enough kids growing up on small farms with dirt on their hands anymore and the hydro hype that began this. Yes I'm an old guy who believes you can't say the new way is better just because it's new. Newbs see nothing but you have to buy all these grow nutes and flower nutes, Ph up/down and sideways! If you think about it you begin to see how we have been scammed by the fertilizer companies that you can't grow high test pot w/o them! MALE BOVINE EXCREMENT!

 

[TOKABIGONE]

Sticky traps are a great investment! When my soil was put into the tent to cook after mixing they came up in clouds and in a day they were all caught. Probably a couple hundred or more.