When does the compost tea go bad??
- Thread starter Chronicle_02
- Start date
kratos015
Well-Known Member
Glad to help. I foliar feed up until the last week of flower, personally.
What the community is supposed to be about, the sooner you share information and teach others, the sooner they can focus on new things. Eventually, they'll start making posts and things come full circle.
Definitely hit up that local store's EWC, see what the quality looks like. Ideally, you don't want something coming from a bag. The best stuff is from someone that makes the stuff themselves and have you bring your own buckets. Check your local Craigslist too, that's how I found mine in fact. Had a full blown nursery+worm farm not even 5 minutes away from my house at the time that I had zero idea about.
FF is good stuff, but as you pointed out it's pricey in the long run. $18 for Happy Frog is a pretty standard price, what I used to pay before making my own soil. $44 for 3cuft is a fucking rip off, fuck that store.
Look into making your own soil, it's significantly cheaper, will provide better results, and will teach you more about the soil than simply buying bags.
Just need Peat Moss, aeration (perlite, lava rock, pumice, whatever is cheapest and readily available), and compost.
- A 3 cu.ft. of compressed Peat Moss will expand to 6 cu.ft, and only costs you $13.
- A good hydro store will sell 4 cuft bags of perlite for $20-$25, if they charge more than that (most like to charge $40) then find a new hydro store. My local Ace Hardware sells 3.5 cuft bags for $20.
- Then you just need to source compost.
I buy one bale of Peat Moss (6cuft), 2 bags of Perlite (7cuft for me), and 4 cuft of quality compost/EWC. I mix 6cuft Peat, 6 cuft perlite, 4 cuft of compost. I only use 6 cuft of compost if it is of the highest quality. Mediocre compost will clump up on you and can cause issues, in my experience. That's why I go easy on the compost in the soil mix itself and opt to top dress as needed.
1 bale peat + 2 bags perlite + 4 cuft compost (2 bags for me) = $13+$40+$17 = $70 for 16 cu.ft. of soil. At this point, you simply need to lime the peat moss and amend it with basalt ($30 for 16 lbs on BuildASoil with free shipping) and something like that Gaia Green 4-4-4 product. Costs you ~$100 to make 16 cu.ft. of soil that will be significantly better than the 5 bags of Happy Frog (10 cuft) or 7.5 cuft of FFOF/etc.
This man speaks the truth. When microbes run out of food they'll straight cannibalize on each other.
I suspect that anyone that has better results with compost teas likely isn't keeping up with their top dressing, isn't watering properly, or both. Without food and water, there can be no life.
If one gets better results from using compost teas, that can only mean the living soil itself is running out of life which then becomes rejuvenated by dumping compost tea into it.
Compost teas are 110% superfluous. They were introduced ~7+ years ago shortly after Subcool debuted his supersoil. The nutrient teas are even worse, recipes included hot ingredients like Alfalfa Meal and Guanos and those teas will burn the fuck out of your plants.
I mean, AACTs are okay but the product "Grower's Recharge" does everything better with zero equipment and significantly less time involved.
A $20 bottle of Recharge will make over 100 gallons of "compost tea" and all you need to do is dump a teaspoon into a gallon of water, shake it up, and apply. No brewing for 24 hours, no airstones or pumps, no sanitation, and no more weird looks for buying panty hos in bulk xD
I haven't used teas of any sort for over 5 years now.
Chronicle_02
Member
I was thinking I will use those FF soils that I got as base and start adding more stuff to it. I guess I can add some peat moss and more pumice or perlite. And give it dry amendments. But that gaia green line is quite expensive in US sadly. So, I gotta look for something different. I was pretty set on those but shipping costs wayy too much. I would like a technique where you can use the soil right away. Is there a such a technique? Also, one of my lady dosent look too happy after xplanting and little bit of defoliation. It hasn’t grown at all in like 10 days. It’s been since x plant. What’s your thought?
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
I started with straight FFOF. The first few rounds I just added Craft Blend and just treated it like like no-till. But I've turned it into a proper no-till since. Added all kinds of stuff. Almost all of my stuff for my soil besides the FFOF came from Build a Soil.
I was ordering the bags, but last time I ordered the 25# bucket.
You can get $5 off through this link.
BuildASoil: Organic Living Soil, Fertilizers, and Soil Amendments
Everything you need to grow no-till with organic living soil. Our mission is to support organic gardeners and to provide the best products and information on how to use them. We carry pre mixed super soil, living soil, organic soil fertilizers, organic water soluble nutrients, soil minerals...
i.refs.cc
kratos015
Well-Known Member
Coots recipe, actually. The one I've been using for over 7 years now. I'll share my recipe below, but first I'd like to get into what prevents a soil from being usable immediately.
Whether or not a soil can be used immediately has to do with whether or not the composting process is taking place or not, and if so whether or not it is happening at a fast enough rate to generate heat or not.
This is why soil/organic inputs are considered "hot" or not, because they decompose at such a rapid rate that it creates lots of heat. The composting process can result in temps between 100-150 degrees (Fahrenheit). This is why soil and organic inputs are considered "hot" sometimes, because over 100 degrees is definitely hot. You'll literally fry your roots if you attempt to grow anything in something so hot.
This is why people (myself included) advise against blood, bone, alfalfa meals, and guanos of any sort. Don't get me wrong, those are all great ingredients but they decompose so rapidly that you'll end up frying your roots. This is why you have to "cook" soil with these ingredients in them, because you have to wait until they've decomposed enough to where there is no longer temps that high in your soil. They even sell soil probes for this exact purpose that look just like one you'd use in cooking when checking a piece of meat.
This is why I not only use Coot's recipe now, but have avoided all of the aforementioned ingredients listed. They not only have potential to cause issues, but there are other organic inputs that do the same job while providing other benefits.
My latest mix included 4 cuft of compost, 6 cuft of peat moss, and 6 cuft of perlite for a total of 16 cuft (120 gallons) of soil.
Pretty much, equal parts aeration and peat moss with slightly less compost in the mix. Unless you have some of the best quality EWC (i.e. making it yourself over a 9-12 month period) then you do not want equal parts compost in your mix, it will cause too many issues and you can always top dress with compost as needed.
The best organic amendment blend to use is Coot's blend, the Holy Trinity if you will: neem meal, kelp meal, and crab meal. Due to my calcified water, I replace the crab meal with Insect Frass and Dr Earth's Herb & Tomato blend (4-6-5 NPK).
To the above mix, I add 1.5 cups of your organic amendment blend of choice (Trinity listed above, Gaia Green blend, Dr Earth blend, Down to Earth blend, etc) and 4 cups of basalt for every cubic foot of soil.
That soil can be potted and used immediately. I top dress with my organic amendment blend and cover that with compost once a week. Twice a week in flower if the plants are large enough and can actually make use of all the food.
By the time your plants go into flower, the 6-1-2 Neem Meal will be fully decomposed and you won't have excess nitrogen going into flower.
In flower, replace Neem Meal with Karanja Meal for your top dress. Karanja Meal has zero NPK value, so you get all the benefits of Neem Meal without the Nitrogen.
Why is the Holy Trinity so amazing?
Neem Meal: Doesn't just provide great Nitrogen, but unlike Blood/Alfalfa/etc meals, it offers pest resistance.
Crab Meal: Same as above, great NPK ratios, but also offers pest resistances.
Kelp Meal: Severely underrated, look into the amount of trace minerals Kelp is loaded with. Source the best quality you can find, its worth it.
The above 3 ingredients do the same job as guanos/meals/etc, but are much "lighter".
Compare it to eating sushi/salad vs eating a burger/steak. The latter has potential to leave you bloated and uncomfortable if you eat too much, but salad/fish is much lighter.
Remember, you can always add more of something. But you're fucked if you overdo something.
Transplanting is incredibly risky, and as such I've stopped transplanting if I can avoid it. I plant in the final pot.
I'd be willing to bet that when you transplanted, you noticed chunks of dirt falling on you yes? Your plant wasn't fully rootbound and likely wasn't ready to transplant, when those chunks of soil fell it took some of your roots with it.
Plants can handle tons of stress and problems, but fucking with the roots is literally the worst thing you can do to a plant. When the roots of a plant are fucked up, your best case scenario is getting mediocre yields/quality. It is that big of a deal, unfortunately.
On top of the stress induced from transplanting, defoliation is unbelievably stressful as well.
That poor plant is going to take weeks to recover. To be honest with you friend, you'd be much better off just starting a new plant because it will provide better results for you in the same amount of time it will take for this one to recover.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Also, unless you're removing leaves/branches from the bottom that don't receive light, defoliation helping your plants is a complete myth.
Leaves are like solar panels, quite literally in fact. Without those leaves, your plant cannot go through photosynthesis. The idea of leaves "covering the buds" is a complete and utter fallacy.
Removing bottom branches/leaves, on the other hand is not.
My personal rule of thumb for removing branches/leaves, divide your plant into thirds.
If your plant is 1ft tall (12 inches), remove any branches/leaves on the bottom 4 inches of the plant.
2ft tall (24 inches), the bottom 8 inches of the plant.
etc, etc.
Stop doing this after week 4 of flower.
HTH!
Chronicle_02
Member
Thank you so much for your detailed reply, my man!!
So, in that case. If I had almost dead soil mix and I needed to use it right away, I can use the blood, bone, alfalfa, and guano as top dress and start growing right away?
I’m always kind of confused when people say compost. I’m not from US. So, bare with me. But I always wanted to ask what can be considered a “compost”? FFOF & FFHF are considered a compost or a super soil? Can I use those as the compost you mentioned? And by basalt, meaning basalt rock dust? Also, what size pots do you start and finish yours with? By the way thank you so much for sharing that and ur amendment mix.
I am currently going transitioning from veg to flower now and I have a few questions about top dressing. So in early flower you top dress once a week and in late flower you top dress twice a week? The stuff you top dress with is Dr. earths tomato and herb kind? I am going to top dress mine with 4-4-4 dr earth and spread some EWC on top of it before I water. I ordered the EWC from eBay from some farmer in Ohio or somewhere for 23$ 15lbs bag. And my local ace hardware has dr earth stuff.
As far as the plant I posted. It happened to be a male and it grew out some balls so I had to pull it out and kill it. I was surprised at how big the roots had gotten. It almost filled the whole 5 gallon pot. After seeing that I think I’m going to upsize my pot on a next run. Possibly 8 gallon? But I think the main reason that plant was unhappy was because i topped and defoliated quite a lot about a day or two ago before the xplant lol.
Well, lesson learned that that’s too much and thank god that it was a male plant. All my plants looks healthy except one plant that’s turning yellow on the bottom and having heat stress issues where leafs are curling up. So I put it to the side where it dosent get as much direct light. Here is a pic
kratos015
Well-Known Member
No, blood/bone/alfalfa meals and guano are very hot ingredients. You need to let those ingredients cook or they'll burn whatever you transplant into them, pretty much suicide for clones/seedlings. Use Neem/Crab/Kelp meals as a top dress instead, these ingredients don't burn and can bring a dead soil back to life. Look into a product called Grower's Recharge too, $20 for a tiny bottle that goes a LONG ways. Its pretty much just inactive microbes, they'll activate when mixed with water and will put some life back into your soil.
Compost is decomposed organic matter, FFOF and FFHF are bagged soil mixes. Bagged soil mixes will eventually decompose over time and turn into compost, but are not compost.
You know how people mix manure with straw/peat into a pile and turn it for over a month? That is an example of compost. Earthworm Castings are another example of compost. I highly recommend doing some research on compost, watching videos and/or reading articles. I already type long enough books as it is haha. Plus, they'll explain it a lot better than I can.
Yes to the basalt. I start in the same pots that I plan to finish in. Outdoors, I don't even use pots and plant straight into the ground. Indoors depends on the space, as well as how long I plan on having my veg cycle last. For indoor grow, I have found that 5g pots are the absolute sweet spot for a variety of reasons. Pots larger than 5g are useless unless you can fill the entire pot with roots.
Glad to help, though not my mix. Just Coots/Cornell University's mix that I've just made my own personal adjustments for my current growing situation (no Calcium inputs because of my well water, etc.) Through your own personal trial and error, you'll find things that work well for you and things that don't.
Exactly. I top dress with amendments, then compost on top once per week. Twice per week if the plants look like they can use it. But, this requires having organic amendments that don't burn like the ones listed above. Having more gentle amendments like Neem/Crab Meals are key to being allowed to top dress this often. If you use "hot" ingredients like Guano and Blood/Bone meals, you could potentially burn your plants. While it is much more difficult to burn plants during flower, I still shy away from those ingredients unless its all I can source.
I like Dr Earth products, kinda jealous you can get them at your local hardware store haha. 4-4-4 is great for veg, the Herb and Tomato blend is 4-6-5 if I recall and if you look at the ingredients on the back of the bag you'll find that all the ingredients are rather light in nature. Some of these blends have bone meals in them, but in small amounts. If they had "hot" ingredients in large amounts the NPK ratios would be much higher than 4-6-5, etc.
Don't judge pot size by male plants IMO, males grow MUCH more vigorously than females do. 7g is the highest I would go, but as mentioned before I find that 5g is in fact the sweet spot for indoors.
Definitely don't top/defoliate after transplant, and avoid transplanting if at all possible. Defoliating is a complete stoner science, do a side by side and see for yourself. Those fan leaves are crucial to proper plant growth.
There is a big difference between defoliation and cleaning up/pruning a plant. Defoliation removes most of the fan leaves; no fan leaves = no photosynthesis = no growth.
Pruning/cleaning a plant, however, is highly recommended and I believe people confuse pruning and defoliation and hinder their yields greatly as a result. Prune everything on the bottom 3rd of the plant, do this until buds start forming.
Tiny branches that produce tiny buds are actually one of the most common causes of bananas on a plant. This is because the tiny branches/buds on the bottom of the plant receive little to no light, they get stressed and think they're dying, and can shoot bananas out.
Defoliating your entire plant will NOT help the bottom buds grow larger, it will just make your top buds smaller.
Also, that curling on that plant is actually a Mg deficiency (lockout more likely). You see how the bottom leaves have those spots on them? And how they don't exist on the plant to the left? Mg lockout, could be because of excess Calcium, bad pH, overwatering, etc.
Deficiencies are somewhat rare, it's most often a problem with lockout.
Chronicle_02
Member
I think I went with the 4-4-4 because tomato and herbs one had couple of those hot ingredients you mentioned but 4-4-4 only had alfalfa, fish, kelp meal and potassium sulfate. I actually ordered the 10kg of gaia green bloom for like 125$... i will do more research and see if I can make my own top dressing amendments down the road. Sadly they get here in about 3 weeks and I’ll probably be able to feed them once or twice with it. I guess I’m going to be top dressing with 4-4-4 once a week for now. I took your advice and been foliage feeding with like 5grams / 800ml mag sulfate. Since then the yellowing kind of stop but tacoing is still there. I heard good things about recharge also. Local friend loves it. I will probably get a small bag and try that out also.
I’ve seen at ace hardware that they have local organic compost. Couldn’t figure out the price because it wasn’t tagged and no one was outside at the garden center. I’ll just a buy a bag of that and some perlite and mix it up with the FF soil that I’m currently using and amend that with some EWC, kelp meal, basalt rock dust, Dr. earth 4-4-4 and Gaia green bloom. I will indeed do more research on soil mixes and compost/ composting.
Ah, I see didn’t know males are normally bigger in plants too. My local Ace does not have them but I can order them online and get it delivered to local one. They give out 5$ coupons all the time and have good selection for growers for sure.
I actually did it before transplanting. I topped and I guess I should call it pruning. I removed some leaves on the bottom that does not get any lights penetrating thru them and I left all the ones that are well exposed to the light. I guess it’s the over/under watered. I’ve been pruning and cleaning up bottom leaves frequently. Maybe a couple leafs from each plant every other day or so.
It’s just weird because I water them with all same treated water which is 24hr aerated tab water with GH ph down solution at about 5.9 to 6.3. About a gallon of water between 5 of em at a timeI guess it’s watering issue I need to find out a perfect spot for watering. Any recommendations on water consumption for 5 gal soiled pot?
Rest of the plants are doing great. They settled down from xplant quite well and now are praying. But on my auto-flower that’s flowering currently have a few leafs that has lighter color in the veins of the leafs. I think she’s running out of the nutrients from the bagged soil since I started her from the 5 gal pot and never xplanted her. I top dressed her yesterday. I’m going to top dress it again tmrw with more 4-4-4 and kelp meal this time.
By the way thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and know how’s. I greatly appreciate it and when i become a better grower I’ll do the same to anyone that needs help.
Ps. I can’t wait for my harvest. Done / doing some research on drying / curing. Any advice on that one?
Coots is a huge proponent of using alfalfa. Much better source of chitin iirc.
kratos015
Well-Known Member
Glad to help how I can, I'm nothing special but try to share what I know personally.
Either choice you made for amendments, both sounded good. Even with the "hot" ingredients in both blends, take fish bone meal for example. Usually pretty high in P (8 or above) but the amendment blends NPK never has a P above 8. Means that while this is in fact an ingredient, it isn't enough to cause absurdly high NPK ratios. You don't want your P to be too high anyway, you run the risk of killing off certain fungi that cannot survive in soil too high in P.
Again, either way you made a good choice. Gaia Green stuff sounds perfect!
I'll look at the bag of organic compost I get from Ace, I forget the exact name of the brand but I've had good results with it. I just remember its $8.49 for 2cuft of the stuff and it smells pretty good for the price, considering I live in the middle of nowhere. Very satisfied and thankful for it.
As for overwatering, that can definitely cause low pH issues. Among other issues. Both overwatering can easily breed acidic soil conditions that are the result of anaerobic bacteria taking control of your living soil. Controlling the overwatering will kill off the anaerobic bacteria and allow the good guys to come back, especially if you help them out a little with the Recharge.
The needs of any plant will always vary. The size of the pot is irrelevant, its the size of the root mass inside of the pot that counts. You will never have stagnant water (which causes the anaerobic bacteria mentioned above) in a pot that is root bound. However, a newly transplanted clone can easily result in stagnant water.
The watering needs will depend on your environment, temps, humidity, root size, soil drainage, water retention, and so forth. So unfortunately, I cannot give you an exact response.
What I can tell you, is underwatering is significantly better than overwatering. Watering is a science, and something I still fuck up when my environment/situation changes. I'd go as far as to say that 90% of problems growers face is related to watering in some way.
Two personal experiences of mine with both scenarios.
5 years ago, indoor 5500w grow with 2 15k BTU air conditioners easily keeping things cool. One day I came into the grow room, both ACs were off. The 122F temps hit me like a ton of bricks compared to the 100F outdoor temps at 10am. Only one plant was droopy, I think CO2 was my saving grace. Anyway, corrected the AC issue, watered the girls and they were good as new within 24 hours.
Overwatering? I've spent weeks chasing phantom deficiencies, dealing with gnats, correcting my soil, and a host of other issues. Weeks.
tl;dr: Better to underwater than to overwater, infinitely better. Weeks vs 24 hours better.
Drying and curing.
Personally, I do it in my shed. Most can do it in their grow tents. What matters is a controlled environment. I keep the room at 70F and 30% humidity with tons of fans for airflow. Any room you can control temps in. Stay under 40% RH and you won't risk mold, but with enough airflow 40-45% RH isn't much of an issue and will result in an even slower drying time.
Low and slow.
Consider cooking, especially if you're a BBQ guy. Low and slow at controlled temps/wind/etc is the best. Instead of letting the juices in a brisket/pork butt/prime rib gently distributing itself around the meat, imagine your buds doing the same thing.
At the environment I listed above, depending on bud size I spend anywhere between 7-14 days drying before they hit jars.
First week you gotta keep an eye on the jars, get a hygrometer to make sure humidity in the jars is where it should be (~55-60%) and open/close the jars accordingly. Never let the humidity in the jar fall below 55%. Above 60% can be corrected, below 55% cannot.
When I do it this way, I don't have to eyeball my jars after a week or two has passed. Again, depending on bud size. Moisture content of those fatty 7g+ nugs is much different from popcorn nugs. I like to use the bigger nugs to help regulate the moisture of the little nugs.
That's the nice thing about using "light" organic inputs. The worst case scenario here is just diminishing returns as opposed to burning/harming your plants/roots/microbes. I get much better results using lighter ingredients.
kratos015
Well-Known Member
I've heard he loves using alfalfa for his worm bins, along with Confrey and other inputs. However, alfalfa meal specifically can decompose at such a rapid rate that it can harm one's roots. Alfalfa Meal is good stuff, but I've found top dressing with Kelp+Neem Meals to be just as effective without the potential burn issue.
I've not heard anything about the chitin. Care to share the source? If so I'd very much enjoy incorporating it into my worm bins next year when I can hopefully get those going. And some damn Confrey, wanted to start Confrey for years but I'm renting and don't want to screw my landlords over with such an invasive plant lol
Yeah I need comfrey as well myself! Might go hunting in the Bush lol
As per the chitin thing, I remember him talking about it in his podcast with KIS organics. I think it was the pt 1/3 video. I'll try and track down the actual quote!
kratos015
Well-Known Member
I loved that interview, the amount of information in it is just nuts. Almost like a college course or something lol
Biggest takeaway I had from it is that very few of us actually have compost (worm castings specifically) of the same caliber as he does. As a result, we need to compensate accordingly. I've found that going 40% perlite in my mix has helped tremendously.
The guy is a well of knowledge. Such a quality podcast.
Thanks for the info also, I'll be sure to try it out!
Chronicle_02
Member
A gallon between 5 plants was enough but as they are getting bigger and going into flower I think I need at least 2 gallons at a time now. Plus I turned the intensity of the light to about 70% 80% now. And took out the humidifier so I think they are drying out a lot quicker.
I got a dehumidifier for late flower and drying procedure. It’s a 4500sq ft dehuey. I do have to put it in my tent right? Or just in the room where the tent is sitting? Drying the buds at 45% rh for a longer time is what I’m thinking I will do. I’ll have the dehuey working in there at 45% setting for 24/7 and will create a lil vortex under where buds hang using 2 fans for 24/7 plus the exhaust fan will be running at slow speed or might set the high rh setting to 50 and let it run once a while.
2 out of 5 plants are female for sure right now. Hope the rest 3 of them turns out to be all females too.
Chronicle_02
Member
What’s his podcast called?
kratos015
Well-Known Member
A gallon of what, exactly? Are you talking Gaia Blend? If so, when you say gallon you don't mean bottled products correct? I'm not quite understanding, if you don't mind elaborating.
And what did you take out the humidifier for? Plants absolutely need RH% to be 40-50% in veg, you can even get away with that same RH% in flower but only if your airflow/ventilation is up to par.
Remember, mold and mildew are spores. If there's too much airflow for these spores to land/establish themselves on your plants, it doesn't matter if your RH% is high enough to grow mold. I like 45-55% RH during veg, and 35-45% RH during flower.. but I have plenty of fans. Both floor and wall fans, the airflow in my indoor rooms is constantly circulating to the point that spores can't even land on my plants, let alone establish themselves enough to grow into a problem. Only time I've had issues with moldy buds is due to caterpillars, and don't even get me started on those fuckers.
Anyway, unless you live in a humid environment, you shouldn't need a dehumidifier. And like, your environment has to be SUPER humid if an air conditioner can't handle it (Remember, air conditioners are dehumidifiers.. to an extent).
45% RH is only okay if you have sufficient enough airflow. That being said, I have tons of airflow in both my grows and drying environments and still like to keep things around the 40% RH level when I dry. That way, if something goes wrong with my fans, or anything else outside of my control becomes an issue then the humidity is barely high enough to sustain mold/mildew growth. 35-40% RH and 70-75F is the sweet spot for me for drying, always takes me a week at a bare minimum.
I don't mean exhaust fans either. The exhaust fans exchange the air, but don't circulate it in the same manner that oscillating fans will. When I say fans, I'm not talking inline fans unfortunately. I'm talking about oscillating wall mount fans in conjunction with those tiny 8-12inch oscilating floor fans. I've got 2 of each in the room I dry in.
Drying is a very fine balance. Let it dry too quickly and you risk having shit weed. Let it dry too slowly (without proper fans/ventilation) and you run the risk of mold and/or mildew ruining your entire crop.
And don't let anything I'm saying intimidate you much. True, drying/curing is one hell of a science. But this current grow you're doing now? It's just one of many in the long run. Successful or not, you'll always look back on your last grows and laugh at yourself.
I've had 2000w grows that didn't even net me a pound. I've had outdoor plants that were such fluffy shit that I didn't even bother to make hash out of them, let alone harvest them. I've had another 2000w grow with a Trainwreck strain I thought I had under control.. only to discover each and every plant was seeded because they turned hermie. Not just nanners, but full blown pollen sacks with pistils. Full hermie. 1.5 lbs of purely seeded bud that I could only make BHO out of. I still have the resulting seeds in the hopes that I can stabilize the strain. Some day.
This is like any other hobby, take cooking or woodworking for instance. How many times are you going to waste wood/food until you actually get good at it? The sad reality is that fucking up, and the humility associated with it is the price we must pay in the process of attaining mastery at something.
I recently watched a sushi master talk about the years worth of humiliation he had to endure for sucking so bad at it before he could become a master. Without that humiliation, without that embarrassment/defeat, he could have never become a master. If you don't fail, what do you have to reflect on? And thereby improve upon?
And guess what? Even when you do fuck up? Your harvest will still be better than half of the shit on the shelves in dispensaries. Don't be afraid to fuck up friend, embrace it and learn from it. Therein lies the secret to mastery.
The true secret to becoming a master though? Being your own worst critic, and always thinking you can improve something, always thinking you fucked something up, and always willing and able to learn from even the most unsuspecting of sources. Maintaining that humble attitude is what inhibits mastery. After all, even a bad example can be a good example. Yes?
Apologies for the rant/wall.. but unless you live in Florida or somewhere that has over 50% ambient humidity then air conditioning and/or proper ventilation will work just fine for regulating humidity.
Not sure if you've seen this thread on drying/curing, but it has some great information in it. Absorb all of the information you can, and combine it with your own personal experience/situation.
You'll do just fine though man. Realistically, getting quality weed isn't difficult. Its getting yields that is tough.
Episode 3: Clackamas Coot Talks Worm Castings, Malted Barley, Peat Moss, & Coot's Soil mix
In this episode, we talk with Clackamas Coot (Jim Bennett) about how he came up with using malted barley in his soils and sprouting seeds for teas. He explains the benefits of neem and the importance of worm castings. Coot is famous for his soil mixes and all the information he freely shared on...
www.kisorganics.com
Episode 7: Clackamas Coot Talks About Worm Bins, Peat Moss, & Building Soil
This is the 2nd part of a 3 part interview series with Clackamas Coot. We talk more about neem, IPM strategies, worm bins, peat moss, how to evaluate potting soils, and much more! Important links: Functional Blocks of Neem Oil The Growing Importance of Neem in Agriculture, Industry...
www.kisorganics.com
Episode 8: Clackamas Coot Weighs in on
This is the final part of an interview series with Clackamas Coot. We settle the questions regarding using neem in soils, talk about seaweed, weigh in on the idea of no-till, and hear the history of
www.kisorganics.com
He was more of a guest on the KIS/BuildaSoil podcast, and in it he shares a wealth of information that could very well be worth its weight in gold.
Why I always say I'm nothing special, this guy does everything right and I just essentially regurgitate this information with the disclaimer.. while also incorporating what helps with my own particular situation, environment, materials, etc. Everyone's mileage will vary, really.
@kratos015 I think the issue is that everything about cannabis growing and harvesting involves compromises, and it's up to the grower themselves to determine what compromises they want to take for their particular growing style and results they want. For example, harvesting. Most check the easiest top cola to scope for ripeness. The middle of the colas could be still be putting out stigmas with the trichomes still perfectly clear. If you wait until the lowers are down, there is like 50% amber on the top!
It's the same with drying. If you don't break colas down at all when drying and just hang branches, then your smaller buds will be crispy AF while your huge beer bottle sized dense colas will be still wet as hell and could be molding - particularly with your drying parameters. For that reason, and since I'm not into the Reddit's "biggest dry bud competition", I generally break up those on a screen but pre-bucking them. I've been through the mold thing before while drying back in the late 1970s. Lost a lot of one harvest because of it too.
It's the same with drying. If you don't break colas down at all when drying and just hang branches, then your smaller buds will be crispy AF while your huge beer bottle sized dense colas will be still wet as hell and could be molding - particularly with your drying parameters. For that reason, and since I'm not into the Reddit's "biggest dry bud competition", I generally break up those on a screen but pre-bucking them. I've been through the mold thing before while drying back in the late 1970s. Lost a lot of one harvest because of it too.
Chronicle_02
Member
Water my friend lol haha I thought you would catch up on what we’re discussing before about watering issues haha and yes lol i do live in a very humid area 55% inside the building.A gallon of what, exactly? Are you talking Gaia Blend? If so, when you say gallon you don't mean bottled products correct? I'm not quite understanding, if you don't mind elaborating.
And what did you take out the humidifier for? Plants absolutely need RH% to be 40-50% in veg, you can even get away with that same RH% in flower but only if your airflow/ventilation is up to par.
Remember, mold and mildew are spores. If there's too much airflow for these spores to land/establish themselves on your plants, it doesn't matter if your RH% is high enough to grow mold. I like 45-55% RH during veg, and 35-45% RH during flower.. but I have plenty of fans. Both floor and wall fans, the airflow in my indoor rooms is constantly circulating to the point that spores can't even land on my plants, let alone establish themselves enough to grow into a problem. Only time I've had issues with moldy buds is due to caterpillars, and don't even get me started on those fuckers.
Anyway, unless you live in a humid environment, you shouldn't need a dehumidifier. And like, your environment has to be SUPER humid if an air conditioner can't handle it (Remember, air conditioners are dehumidifiers.. to an extent).
45% RH is only okay if you have sufficient enough airflow. That being said, I have tons of airflow in both my grows and drying environments and still like to keep things around the 40% RH level when I dry. That way, if something goes wrong with my fans, or anything else outside of my control becomes an issue then the humidity is barely high enough to sustain mold/mildew growth. 35-40% RH and 70-75F is the sweet spot for me for drying, always takes me a week at a bare minimum.
I don't mean exhaust fans either. The exhaust fans exchange the air, but don't circulate it in the same manner that oscillating fans will. When I say fans, I'm not talking inline fans unfortunately. I'm talking about oscillating wall mount fans in conjunction with those tiny 8-12inch oscilating floor fans. I've got 2 of each in the room I dry in.
Drying is a very fine balance. Let it dry too quickly and you risk having shit weed. Let it dry too slowly (without proper fans/ventilation) and you run the risk of mold and/or mildew ruining your entire crop.
And don't let anything I'm saying intimidate you much. True, drying/curing is one hell of a science. But this current grow you're doing now? It's just one of many in the long run. Successful or not, you'll always look back on your last grows and laugh at yourself.
I've had 2000w grows that didn't even net me a pound. I've had outdoor plants that were such fluffy shit that I didn't even bother to make hash out of them, let alone harvest them. I've had another 2000w grow with a Trainwreck strain I thought I had under control.. only to discover each and every plant was seeded because they turned hermie. Not just nanners, but full blown pollen sacks with pistils. Full hermie. 1.5 lbs of purely seeded bud that I could only make BHO out of. I still have the resulting seeds in the hopes that I can stabilize the strain. Some day.
This is like any other hobby, take cooking or woodworking for instance. How many times are you going to waste wood/food until you actually get good at it? The sad reality is that fucking up, and the humility associated with it is the price we must pay in the process of attaining mastery at something.
I recently watched a sushi master talk about the years worth of humiliation he had to endure for sucking so bad at it before he could become a master. Without that humiliation, without that embarrassment/defeat, he could have never become a master. If you don't fail, what do you have to reflect on? And thereby improve upon?
And guess what? Even when you do fuck up? Your harvest will still be better than half of the shit on the shelves in dispensaries. Don't be afraid to fuck up friend, embrace it and learn from it. Therein lies the secret to mastery.
The true secret to becoming a master though? Being your own worst critic, and always thinking you can improve something, always thinking you fucked something up, and always willing and able to learn from even the most unsuspecting of sources. Maintaining that humble attitude is what inhibits mastery. After all, even a bad example can be a good example. Yes?
Apologies for the rant/wall.. but unless you live in Florida or somewhere that has over 50% ambient humidity then air conditioning and/or proper ventilation will work just fine for regulating humidity.
Not sure if you've seen this thread on drying/curing, but it has some great information in it. Absorb all of the information you can, and combine it with your own personal experience/situation.
You'll do just fine though man. Realistically, getting quality weed isn't difficult. Its getting yields that is tough.
Episode 3: Clackamas Coot Talks Worm Castings, Malted Barley, Peat Moss, & Coot's Soil mix
In this episode, we talk with Clackamas Coot (Jim Bennett) about how he came up with using malted barley in his soils and sprouting seeds for teas. He explains the benefits of neem and the importance of worm castings. Coot is famous for his soil mixes and all the information he freely shared on...
Episode 7: Clackamas Coot Talks About Worm Bins, Peat Moss, & Building Soil
This is the 2nd part of a 3 part interview series with Clackamas Coot. We talk more about neem, IPM strategies, worm bins, peat moss, how to evaluate potting soils, and much more! Important links: Functional Blocks of Neem Oil The Growing Importance of Neem in Agriculture, Industry...
Episode 8: Clackamas Coot Weighs in on
This is the final part of an interview series with Clackamas Coot. We settle the questions regarding using neem in soils, talk about seaweed, weigh in on the idea of no-till, and hear the history of
He was more of a guest on the KIS/BuildaSoil podcast, and in it he shares a wealth of information that could very well be worth its weight in gold.
Why I always say I'm nothing special, this guy does everything right and I just essentially regurgitate this information with the disclaimer.. while also incorporating what helps with my own particular situation, environment, materials, etc. Everyone's mileage will vary, really.
I do have a maybe a 10”inch ground oscillating fan but I don’t really use that option I just have a hurricane clip on fan and that ground fan facing each other and slightly missing each other to create a vortex kind of. Some of my local friend told me that he dosent use any dehuey or anything and have a fan blowing at the wall and it’s perfect 90 percent of the times. I’ll check daily at 45% and see if they are too wet(?) haha. I just like to share and see what other ppl are doing and maybe I can find some methods that’s perfect for my situation. I’ll post a picture before I chop em haha and no apologies needed man I asked for attention and opinions and you delivered. Thanks man. I’m also thinking about using those 62% packages that control the humidity in the area. And if I have humidity issues I’ll throw one of those in the jar.
I will definitely check out the thread and the pod cast. I been listening to a lot lately. Thanks for sharing and spending the time to give out all this golden information you threw out. I’m also looking for some seeds. Any preferred seed banks??
kratos015
Well-Known Member
And even once the compromises are met, there truly isn't a blanket statement of advice to give to everyone. Environmental factors and conditions definitely come into play, and must be considered. On your harvesting note, I've always done it in stages. Only pull the entire plant if they're small plants (<4ft tall), otherwise I chop the top half and let the other half go another couple weeks.
As for the difference in bud sizes for drying, I've kept the branches separate for that exact reason. In fact, I don't even mess with the fluff anymore. Goes straight into the freezer ASAP to be turned into concentrates. Makes this so much easier, for many reasons. That, and I love bubble. If I didn't have patients that preferred flower, I'd only do bubble.
I've used Attitude for seeds for over a decade and have had zero issues with them. I've had two packages intercepted by customs, but Attitude did right by me both times with absolutely zero bullshit or issues.
I recently picked up some seeds from CropKing Seeds. They're in the states, and not overseas, so no issue with customs. Had my seeds in less than a week. However, I've only just put the seedlings into pots and I am personally uncomfortable recommending a seedbank without having a full grow under my belt from a seedbank.
That being said, what I'm seeing from them so far is rather phenomenal. Seeds cracked in under 24 hours, and the tap roots I got on most of them are some of the best I've ever seen. But, I've never used them so I'd more comfortable/confident recommending Attitude until I finish the seeds from CropKing.