Stanky old and new

[Franklin]

Just planted four seeds for my first all organic living soil grow. My soil is a combination of brand new local organic potting soil from home Depot, homemade worm castings, homemade compost, store-bought chicken manure compost, perlite, pumice, several cups of base Earth dust, 14 gallons of used soil from my last run, a dash of kelp meal, home sprouted barley corn alfalfa and lentil seeds, and a Rootwise mycorrhizal drench. Each plant is in a 15 gallon pot although I left probably 3 gallons open on top to facilitate top dressing and no till amendments for my next run.

Decided to mix stinky strains old and new. I have one OG Kush by seedsman, one super skunk by Nirvana, one sour diesel by Royal Queen, and for the new school I have an American cookies by pyramid. The only breeder I'm familiar with here is Royal Queen, the seeds from Royal Queen and from seedsman OG Kush definitely looked bigger, darker, and healthier than the seeds from pyramid and Nirvana which both looked rushed, tan and small.

I hate buying stuff and I hate wasting stuff so my ultimate goal is to regenerate my soil using my own compost and other materials i make myself. I plan on taking clones from each of these plants, using colloidal silver on one of them, probably the sour Diesel, and throwing in some other seeds I have for a Sea of green pollination party. Then maybe I won't buy seeds again for many years.

If any of you have experience with any of these strains I'd love to hear it. I've heard some negative things about Nirvana seeds on this forum lately so we'll see about that. I've also read that many of these strains are probably not the real strain, that the true sour diesel and skunk are lost forever and that cookies is truly cuttings only, but who knows, I'm keeping an open mind. If anyone knows anything about any of this I'd love to hear that too.

Much love to all of you, I've learned so much from this place.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Best of luck on your new grow there Franklin you must have a large tent for 15gal pots. I've grown bubba kush an a different cookie strain look forward to seeing your grow.:smile:

 

[Franklin]

I got square pots measured to fit perfectly in my 3 by 3, with a bit of air space, but yeah it's tight in there.

 

[Blowdout2269]

Looking good. Best of luck to ya.
I'll be here lurking!

 

[LemonBud]

I have og kush at 2 weeks in flower.nice tall lanky stems. Good Luck

 

[Franklin]

I direct seeded into soil on December 29th and two of the four seeds have popped. The OG Kush and the skunk have not come up yet and it has been 6 days. How many days until I should give up and re-seed? This living soil is kind of fun, I can already see predator mites running along the top of the soil, along with some fungi or bacterial tendrils beginning to form. I was reading about the predator mites because they concerned me at first, but it sounds like they are a really good thing to have, they eat spider mites and thrips and other pests.

 

[Franklin]

Well, I had some bad luck with two of the four seeds, the OG Kush and super skunk never sprouted so I replanted both, the super skunk replacement finally sprouted but the OG kush never came up. So then I put another OG Kush into wet paper towels on top of my aquarium where it's nice and warm and sanded the edge of the seed and... Nothing. Three freebie OG Kush from seedsman and none of them sprouted. Must have been old seeds. In the meantime I planted a freebie White widow as a replacement in a small container and it sprouted, but then I ended up blasting it too hard with my rotating fan during a programming accident with my new controller, and it looks sad. So, I planted a Blackjack from Sweet seeds instead where the OG Kush and then the White widow was supposed to go. The blackjack just popped yesterday I have to say this is the most catastrophic start I've had in a grow for a while but finally things are coming together. The sour Diesel and cookies are now over two weeks old and doing great.

 

[Going2fast]

Lol I've been there. Your luck will improve. I have a feeling.

 

[MagicMike66]

Commenting for updates on this one, good luck 👍🏻

 

[Franklin]

The cookies is at 25 days since popping, and raging. The sour D is at 23 days and doing very well, super ruffly fat leaves, the white widow is 16 days and outgrowing it's pot, not sure what I'm going to do with that thing. Super skunk is at 15 days and looking really good, the black jack is at 9 days and a little bent over but will straighten. Everything going so smooth with these huge pots. I put my hand in the soil to check moisture and occasionally find a worm, which is startling and fun, I'm loving the living soil so far.

 

[OlderNOTwiser]

I did a quick look at my diary from Sour Diesel last year. Mine was a Seedsman Sour Diesel but who really knows what is what these days. Anyway, I looked through for anything that jumped out plus or minus. My experience showed this as a slow starter and then hold on! The stretch was about 2.5 times the original height. My soil blend is very similar to yours and I've found that I needed to add a calcium source and more than I would have initially suspected. Near flip time they showed a calcium issue. I believe that it was a lack of calcium in my blend and a pH that was too low for the soil to properly buffer over the course of months growing in it. My tap water and filtered water came in at 5.8 pH consistently. When I started to pH up to 6.4 for waterings it cleared up. I use baking soda to raise it up.

 

[Franklin]

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on the calcium. It has been a little bit of a slow starter so far but not extremely so. The leaves are incredibly fat and ruffly.

 

[Franklin]

Well I'm doing everything I can to slow the cookies and sour d down so that the blackjack and super skunk have a chance to catch up. I've topped All of the plants and I have cut the cookies back to get a new single node growth for each cola. If all the seeds sprouted on time I'd be starting flowering by now. That's okay though I like spending time in veg. I think I'm going to have eight colas on the cookies and six on everything else, I want to have big fat high quality colas rather than high quantity tons of branching and I think I have space for it. I just absolutely cannot believe how healthy everything is, big pots, super healthy soil with lots of my own compost, and a dialed environment is working out pretty well

Have also taken clones of the cookies and sour d, And then planted a bunch of seeds including three different types of my orange Skittles cross, going to grow everything out in small half gallon containers just to pollinate them with the sour d.

 

[Franklin]

Things have really exploded in the twelve days since my last post. The girls are now five days since the switch to 12/12 and stretching like mad. I've tried to prune them to have only a few main colas, aiming for six to eight per plant, but the cookies has been so large that it looks like I'll have many more. My goal isn't yield but big fat beautiful colas. I can't say anything more highly about living soil, so far everything has been super easy. Just watering with filtered water. Thanks to many of you for the one problem I did have with light burn.

 

[AGH]

Looking very happy and healthy! Thanks for the update!

Off-topic, looks like your clip-on fan is one that oscillates? Or is it just in different positions for the different pics? If it oscillates, would you share what brand it is or where you got it?

 

[Franklin]

Yes! AC Infinity, got it from Amazon and you can get 15% off with code GROWCAST15, maybe only from the manufacturer. I love it. I also have one of their in-line fans and it's fantastic, the best in the game I think. This last year I broke down and got one of the AC Infinity controllers and I'm able to monitor and control both fans from anywhere with cell access. Kind of fancy for my tastes but it's been really great for keeping things dialed in

 

[AGH]

Thanks! I looked it up and may add it to my list when I'm feeling like adding stuff! I have the AC Infinity exhaust fan and you're right, it's great! Maybe one day I'll get the controller...

 

[Franklin]

Starting to show flower!

 

[AGH]

Very healthy looking plants! Keep up the good work!

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Franklin will you please say as i don't remember if you said..........size of tent, your light and how faraway your lights are from the top canopy of plants please. I find this very importaint to new growers and old like me but new to indoor as i'm always picking up something. Sorry for the blabber. I'm just thinking about my tents an lights trying to find a happy place for them. Thank you