Silky T's PPP and AK-48 Grow Journal

[Chester da Horse]

Okay, I finally went out and got the goods. I picked up BioBizz Alg-A-Mic Liquid Seaweed concentrate, Great White Premium Mycorrhizae and 15 pounds of earth worm castings. I also bought some bananas (again, I ate the first bunch). Now I need to find that recipe again. Oh, and I bought a fountain with pump from a friend. Just those three things were over $100 so after paying bills and putting a new laptop on layaway, it kinda hurt but I know that in the long run, it's worth it.

I wish I automatically knew how to convert grams and litres and milileters, etc.

google... if you type convert ' x gram to ounce' it just does it...

or remember your 2.5x, 16x, 450x, 28x tables and you can convert inches>mm or pounds or ounces > grams

now you have all the fancy brand name organics in the world!!! time + light + air + water + that stuff = bud

 

[eastcoastmo]

Okay, I finally went out and got the goods. I picked up BioBizz Alg-A-Mic Liquid Seaweed concentrate, Great White Premium Mycorrhizae and 15 pounds of earth worm castings. I also bought some bananas (again, I ate the first bunch). Now I need to find that recipe again. Oh, and I bought a fountain with pump from a friend. Just those three things were over $100 so after paying bills and putting a new laptop on layaway, it kinda hurt but I know that in the long run, it's worth it.

I wish I automatically knew how to convert grams and litres and milileters, etc.

Nice work Silky, you are on your way now! As you said, it hurts to begin with but now you have it, it will last a while and you will get it back in BUDS!!

 

[Silky T]

Nice work Silky, you are on your way now! As you said, it hurts to begin with but now you have it, it will last a while and you will get it back in BUDS!!

I made the tea and fed them their first time last night. Then, I panicked and did the same thing I did when I started feeding them the guano mixture, i added ph'd water afterwards. I wasn't sure if i actually added the water to the tea right. I mean, did I really add 1-5 ratio correctly? I didn't actually measure it, I just eyeballed it like I do when I cook and I'm good at that, but I still freaked. The reason being that I nearly killed the only two plants I have by letting them get completely dry before adding water because someone told me that the reason I was having a particular problem is my roots were trying to rot. I nearly killed them. I got 5-6 yellow leaves on each plant and freaked. So, I am very, very careful what I feed them. They seem to be doing okay this morning. Once the water they have right now absorbs a bit more, I'll add the tea. I actually added some ph'd water to it to make sure it wasn't too strong. I feel more confident about the tea now. Am I supposed to shake up the tea and get all the fine black stuff that floats to the bottom to go into the plant or am I supposed to just give them the light colored tea?

I loaded some new pics. Look at them in large and see the trichs. For some reason, tho, one plant is real frosty and the other plant is not and they look identical otherwise.

I keep seeing some of my long, blonde hairs in the plants but only see them when I view in large screen, I can't see them with the naked eye and really dont want to start messing with the frost by poking my fingers around in there, ya know? I don't think my hair is going to create a problem. Might taste my conditioner is all--Yikes!

 

[Silky T]

Now, about the two outside plants. I will take some photos and show you what I'm working with. I'll take ANY suggestions. I kinda put them on ignore for about a month to concentrate my efforts on getting these two girls in the house to mature on out to keep the natives happy around here. But I think they are nearly hopeless. So far, the natives haven't messed with me about the outside plants like I thought they would. I think they just got use to what I'm doing and the newness of it has worn off. That's a GOOD THING.

I have lots of good stuff to work with, I just don't know what to use for veg. Also, this place is lit up like a Christmas tree at night so the plants never really get to sleep in the dark. The last hurricane ripped a lot of the underbrush out in the waaay back so it's down to about 2 dozen trees spaced far apart. No good for stealth even.

I was thinking about putting a tomato cage around them so that I can drape a sheet over them at night. But I've really GOT to figure out how to bring them back to good health to start with.

 

[eastcoastmo]

Good work Silky, your girls will love you for the feed I feed at a ratio of 1:5 (usually 250mL of tea to 1.25L of water) and feed with it weekly with plain water in between. Always good to give it a shake too!
You have some frosty buds there to mate, should be some very nice smoke!! Ive had plants before that were identical but one had little resin, didnt seem to hurt it overall though.
LOL at keeping the natives out, always a good idea ha ha.
You've got heaps of good stuff for veg already, you want a little more nitrogen in veg with a bit less potassium and phosphorus. Adding a fine dusting of chicken or cow manure works well and always good to add worm castings too, that stuff is just amazing!

 

[Silky T]

.

Good work Silky, your girls will love you for the feed I feed at a ratio of 1:5 (usually 250mL of tea to 1.25L of water) and feed with it weekly with plain water in between. Always good to give it a shake too!
You have some frosty buds there to mate, should be some very nice smoke!! Ive had plants before that were identical but one had little resin, didnt seem to hurt it overall though.
LOL at keeping the natives out, always a good idea ha ha.
You've got heaps of good stuff for veg already, you want a little more nitrogen in veg with a bit less potassium and phosphorus. Adding a fine dusting of chicken or cow manure works well and always good to add worm castings too, that stuff is just amazing!

Thanks for the excellent advice and for being there when I need you. I really need the coaching for this first indoor grow. But I think I screwed up again. I broke down last night and gave them the tea after all because I figured they were flushed enough and I had diluted the tea. When I checked on them this morning, I had some new yellow leaves and two of my large fan leaves near the top of the cola has yellow in the veins. Some of the new, small leaves are also yellow. I'm not going to pluck them this time. I flushed them again and am going to let them completely dry out, well almost and try the tea again, a little more diluted. I must have done something wrong-- so much for eyeballing the measurements! Anyway, I don't know whether to add more water to the tea again or not shake it up this time because they may not like something that's in that mix and that makes it stronger. I haven't given them any of the kelp or Great White before the tea so I don't know if they were not liking one of those.. It might be the Great White because the other items are more organic. I don't even know what Great White is except the guy at the hydroponics store said it would help build a good root structure and would, therefore, make the plants healthier and strong. Which is true from what I've read but it is soooo concentrated that I could have added too much. It says 1 scoop (and the scoop it tiny) to 10 gallons of water! How do you measure that when you're only working with a gallon? (the tea turned out to be about 1.5 gallons of concentrated tea-does that sound right?) Remember, half a liter of banana and bone meal mixture. I just don't know what to do. They seemed to like and tolerate the seabird guano mixture with Big Bloom and squid and altho i didn't get any yellow leaves, it just seemed like they stopped growing. Now I have uh oh, I only have 6 gallons of tea and I should have closer to 7 to 7.5. There's the problem. I did screw up. I need to add more water, my bad. That can be fixed. I went ahead and mixed it up because I had the chance.

I made up a solution of kelp, seabird guano, molasses and a tad of Great White for the outside plants and fed them last night. I'll add the worm castings. I'm thinking bone meal would be good for veg as well as I've hardly used any except for the tea. Do I make a tea out of the bone meal and/or worm castings or add some straight to the mixture? The only thing they've had in the last month is water out of the hose and our water has a very high ph. That's why they look so bad.

Got some good news yesterday. The main native is headed to college in the next town over and moving out the first of August. Yeah! Now I can actually grow the outside plants out like they are supposed to be and actually get a yield for all my efforts. There have been times when I didn't water them because she was outside talking to her boyfriend on the porch every night. I've got a lot of work to do with them. Let me shut my coffee mouth up and close up this post, it's wayyyyy to long. Thanks again Coach! Oh, one more thing about the two girls. Even tho i have some yellowing leaves, it didn't seem to effect the buds. They are frosty all the way down the bottom of the plant and look healthy. So, that's a plus. Maybe I was supposed to lose some leaves to make room for the new growth, huh?

 

[Silky T]

Now, about the two outside plants. I will take some photos and show you what I'm working with. I'll take ANY suggestions. I kinda put them on ignore for about a month to concentrate my efforts on getting these two girls in the house to mature on out to keep the natives happy around here. But I think they are nearly hopeless. So far, the natives haven't messed with me about the outside plants like I thought they would. I think they just got use to what I'm doing and the newness of it has worn off. That's a GOOD THING.

I have lots of good stuff to work with, I just don't know what to use for veg. Also, this place is lit up like a Christmas tree at night so the plants never really get to sleep in the dark. The last hurricane ripped a lot of the underbrush out in the waaay back so it's down to about 2 dozen trees spaced far apart. No good for stealth even.

I was thinking about putting a tomato cage around them so that I can drape a sheet over them at night. But I've really GOT to figure out how to bring them back to good health to start with.

 

[eastcoastmo]

No worries Silky, I'm happy to help out a fellow grower if I can
The tea can burn your plants if it hasn't bubbled for long enough. The reason for bubbling is to get the beneficial bacteria going and feed them with the molasses. The beneficial bacteria break down the fertilizers into a form that can be taken up by the plants roots. I'm assuming the great white product you have is mycorrhizal fungi which is a beneficial fungi that is symbiotic to the plants roots, ie they need formed roots to survive. Basicially, they eat the organic nutrients and directly feed the roots but they only give the plant what it requires and no more.
So you made 7.5L of tea, can you tell me how you did it? Did you mix in the castings, compost and molasses to the water and bubble for 24 hrs? You have to watch the molasses, if it isn't 'eaten' and broken down to carbohydrates, it can cause the plants to burn due to pH swings, i only add about a tablespoon to my mix and find that's plenty to feed the microbes, i do a quick pH test once i add it to the water to make sure its around 6.5 to 7. I think the guano mixture you were using was ok, it just needed potassium from the bananas for the flowering stage.
The bone meal and castings are good for veg, add in some kelp and compost and you should have a good mix. If you can, buy a NPK soil test kit, they're about $30 and will at least give you a rough idea of the ratios in your soil.
Great news about the native too, now you can concentrate on getting your girls healthy

 

[Silky T]

No worries Silky, I'm happy to help out a fellow grower if I can
The tea can burn your plants if it hasn't bubbled for long enough. The reason for bubbling is to get the beneficial bacteria going and feed them with the molasses. The beneficial bacteria break down the fertilizers into a form that can be taken up by the plants roots. I'm assuming the great white product you have is mycorrhizal fungi which is a beneficial fungi that is symbiotic to the plants roots, ie they need formed roots to survive. Basicially, they eat the organic nutrients and directly feed the roots but they only give the plant what it requires and no more.
So you made 7.5L of tea, can you tell me how you did it? Did you mix in the castings, compost and molasses to the water and bubble for 24 hrs? You have to watch the molasses, if it isn't 'eaten' and broken down to carbohydrates, it can cause the plants to burn due to pH swings, i only add about a tablespoon to my mix and find that's plenty to feed the microbes, i do a quick pH test once i add it to the water to make sure its around 6.5 to 7. I think the guano mixture you were using was ok, it just needed potassium from the bananas for the flowering stage.
The bone meal and castings are good for veg, add in some kelp and compost and you should have a good mix. If you can, buy a NPK soil test kit, they're about $30 and will at least give you a rough idea of the ratios in your soil.
Great news about the native too, now you can concentrate on getting your girls healthy

Thanks again. I used the recipe that you gave me. And did it to the T. I bubbled the first set of ingredients for 24 hours then added the banana and bone meal mixture and let it bubble another 24 hours. I may have overdone the kelp and cold pressed squid because you called for half a capful of each and that seemed awfully minute for 2 liters of tea so I added a bit more. The directions on the side of the bottle says 1-2 teaspoons per gallon so I kinda put an in between amount. Maybe I needed to test the ph after I made the tea to make sure it's at the 6-7 range.
Yes, the Great White is mycorrhizal fungi and must be super concentrated because it calls for 1 scoop per 10 gallons. That's really concentrated stuff and I could have put too much of that. I hate to throw out the mixture but I'm not sure where I messed up. I also have the left over banana peel and bone meal mixture in the fridge.
Once the plants dry out to almost dead dry, I'm going to use my regular flowering mixture (seabird guano (it has no N) and Fox Farm Big Bloom). Give them that first to get them back on track and then give them some of the tea that i added more water to. I'm thinking they just had a reaction to the new recipe and need to get use to it. If you use it, then I should be okay with mine.
Thanks for the info on the outside plants. How do I use the worm castings? Make another tea or mix it in the top soil in the plants. I'm really not sure how to use it. I used it in my garden and my cucumbers and squashes are already coming up in less than a week. I also put it in my tomato plant when I transplanted into the large pot but haven't seen any yellow flowers yet. They're still young.

 

[eastcoastmo]

Yeah it sounds like you did everything right, as you said, it may just take a bit for them to get used to it. I only feed once a week with the tea too and then water in between. Definitely check the pH if you can, the molasses can make it swing if it's not digested by the microbes enough. If you are going to use both the squid and kelp, only use 1/2 strength of each as they both are high in phosphorus and this may be what they didn't agree with.
With the myco, it needs to be used when transplanting as they require roots to attach to and grow, I don't know if it would work simply by sprinkling on top and putting it in tea wont work.
The worm castings you can just sprinkle on top and lightly work into the top layer of soil.

 

[Silky T]

Yeah it sounds like you did everything right, as you said, it may just take a bit for them to get used to it. I only feed once a week with the tea too and then water in between. Definitely check the pH if you can, the molasses can make it swing if it's not digested by the microbes enough. If you are going to use both the squid and kelp, only use 1/2 strength of each as they both are high in phosphorus and this may be what they didn't agree with.
With the myco, it needs to be used when transplanting as they require roots to attach to and grow, I don't know if it would work simply by sprinkling on top and putting it in tea wont work.
The worm castings you can just sprinkle on top and lightly work into the top layer of soil.

Oh, okay, well, I've definitely been over-medicating (I'm familiar with that! ) them. I thought I had lost them and have been really watching those girls closely for the last two days, to the point of talking to them more than usual and cheering them on. Here are a couple of new photos, albeit, blurry, but I like them. It's both of them. I think No. 6 is one and the other two are of the other one.

 

[eastcoastmo]

Oh, okay, well, I've definitely been over-medicating (I'm familiar with that! ) them. I thought I had lost them and have been really watching those girls closely for the last two days, to the point of talking to them more than usual and cheering them on. Here are a couple of new photos, albeit, blurry, but I like them. It's both of them. I think No. 6 is one and the other two are of the other one.

LOL I have a bad habit of over medicating too
Yeah with the next tea just back the kelp and squid off and it should work fine.
Wow Silky! You got some goooood frost on those girls, I bet your hanging out to try them! Doesn't look like they have long left too, another week or two

 

[Silky T]

LOL I have a bad habit of over medicating too
Yeah with the next tea just back the kelp and squid off and it should work fine.
Wow Silky! You got some goooood frost on those girls, I bet your hanging out to try them! Doesn't look like they have long left too, another week or two

Oh, cool, another week or two. Because I didn't know when the cut-off was. I was hoping the main cola would fill out all the way down and some of the side branches would make colas too. If I only have a week or two, then I'm not going to get much yield. Maybe 20-30 nugs and that's about it. I'll do better next time around, since this is my first indoor grow. Am I supposed to cut off all the yellow leaves that i caused by over-medicating? They look terrible. I didn't take a pic of those, but i will. Thanks for the help-- I couldn't have done it without you!

Addendum: Just found this and it makes me feel better:
Do you defoliate?

1. Yes a little to stop shading
   21 vote(s)
   43.8%
2. Quite a lot
   14 vote(s)
   29.2%
3. Loads, but you are a nutter Semper.Fi!!!
   1 vote(s)
   2.1%
4. Not a single leaf leaves!!!
   12 vote(s)
   25.0%

Looks like I'm okay with the minor trimming. Whew!

 

[eastcoastmo]

Yeah it looks that way to me from the pics, have you got a little pocket microscope to check the trichs? That will give you the best idea. But to me 2 weeks
I think you'll be surprised with 20-30 nugs, if they are 2g nugs, thats 60g!!
You can definitely take off the yellow leaves, they're just taking up valuable energy of the plant!!
Not long to go Silky!! Then it's time to smokey smoke!!

 

[Silky T]

Yeah it looks that way to me from the pics, have you got a little pocket microscope to check the trichs? That will give you the best idea. But to me 2 weeks
I think you'll be surprised with 20-30 nugs, if they are 2g nugs, thats 60g!!
You can definitely take off the yellow leaves, they're just taking up valuable energy of the plant!!
Not long to go Silky!! Then it's time to smokey smoke!!

I cheated and broke a branch off that only had a nug on the end and let it hang upside down for a week then put some in my pipe and BAM! I staggered like a drunk around the house for an hour. It was powerful but gave me energy and is def not couch whatever that term is that means you can't move. It was really nice and I have more. One nug filled my blue medicine bottle halfway which was a nice surprise. I think it's time to start weening them off their black water and just give them plain ph'd water for the duration. But I'm just now seeing real results from that mixture you turned me onto that I diluted down. The main cola is really starting to bulk up and fill out. Look.

 

[eastcoastmo]

Oh Silky, nice work! So happy for you mate, I'm really glad to hear it's working out for you! Those nugs look great, some good trich coverage too. Even better that it's good snoke too, you should be proud of yourself

 

[Silky T]

Oh Silky, nice work! So happy for you mate, I'm really glad to hear it's working out for you! Those nugs look great, some good trich coverage too. Even better that it's good snoke too, you should be proud of yourself

Matter of fact, I am since it's my first indoor grow using something besides water and really learning the tricks of the trade. But I screwed up again. I watered it for about 4 days, then got impatient and took the smaller one out and cut her down to hangable branches and let them hang for, well, not long enough apparently. I was so afraid that I was going to dry the bud out too much and they felt kinda dry so I went ahead and trimmed them and put them in large medicine bottles. When I went to open the bottle(s) afterwards there was moisure on the inside of the bottles and the weed felt really, really, I mean REALLY sticky. What do I do? I've already cut it into buds and a main cola and turned them out into a plastic baggie and don't know what to do. I can't hang them anymore because they're buds so how do I cure them now?

 

[Silky T]

On another note, I still have a lot of that "black water" as I call it. I still have two outside plants that now need a new kind of attention. Since I used organics, many dif organics, on the inside plants, I feel compelled to use some on the outside plants. Like I said in a previous post, our water here has a high ph so I've been treating the water each time before I water, but not always with the outside plants. One is in the grown and hopefully the roots will find the tap that I found in that spot and self-water so that I will grow on its own but the other plant is in a 2-3 gallon bucket and in organic soil with worm castings and been using blood meal in the soil as well. But as far as organics go, I don't know what to give it. It's about 5 feet tall, and has a rather thick stalk but the branches are really thin. There are much closer together than the small plants that I grew inside, so that's a good thing, but they are really thin. What an I do to get them to thicken up? Also, this house is lit up like a Christmas tree outside on all sides so it doesn't ever get complete darkness. My niece moved out to go to school on Friday and we've been moving her out all weekend. My mother asked that I move the 5' plant to the back yard since it's on the side of the house and if you look through our fence you can see it. So I need to move it to a spot that gets at least 12 hours of darkness. It's the same age as my inside plants and it's amazing to see how differently they can grow under different conditions. I mean, the one outside is five feet and the ones inside that I just harvested didn't get more than 2 feet tall and full grown. Anyway, I don't know what I should feed her once she's moved.

 

[Mr.Head]

It's long but contains a lot of good information on compost teas. Also lots of other good info on his channel if you can deal with his anti GMO rants

 

[eastcoastmo]

On another note, I still have a lot of that "black water" as I call it. I still have two outside plants that now need a new kind of attention. Since I used organics, many dif organics, on the inside plants, I feel compelled to use some on the outside plants. Like I said in a previous post, our water here has a high ph so I've been treating the water each time before I water, but not always with the outside plants. One is in the grown and hopefully the roots will find the tap that I found in that spot and self-water so that I will grow on its own but the other plant is in a 2-3 gallon bucket and in organic soil with worm castings and been using blood meal in the soil as well. But as far as organics go, I don't know what to give it. It's about 5 feet tall, and has a rather thick stalk but the branches are really thin. There are much closer together than the small plants that I grew inside, so that's a good thing, but they are really thin. What an I do to get them to thicken up? Also, this house is lit up like a Christmas tree outside on all sides so it doesn't ever get complete darkness. My niece moved out to go to school on Friday and we've been moving her out all weekend. My mother asked that I move the 5' plant to the back yard since it's on the side of the house and if you look through our fence you can see it. So I need to move it to a spot that gets at least 12 hours of darkness. It's the same age as my inside plants and it's amazing to see how differently they can grow under different conditions. I mean, the one outside is five feet and the ones inside that I just harvested didn't get more than 2 feet tall and full grown. Anyway, I don't know what I should feed her once she's moved.

Sorry for the late reply Silky, been flat out with work!
Don't stress about the sticky buds, just keep the lid off the jar until they are touch dry, then take the lid off for an hour a day until smokable but still a little sticky to chop, then burp every 2-3 days for a few weeks...done
Are your outdoor girls still vegging? If you are, the castings and blood meal will do fine for now, just water with your tea once a week with water daily in between. If they start to look hungry during the week, just give them another dose. When making teas try to make only what you will use that day as all the beneficial microbes die off after the air pump gets turned off. Keep it simple mate and you'll be sweet