3x LSD, 1x Bubba Kush

The last journal was incorrectly titled as I thought I was going to go with a different setup but decided to invest in a sun systems 315 watt LEC after hearing/seeing great things about their results. The plan is to add the backup 400w HPS during the final month of flower. Just switched from the 400w HID to Sun System w/4200k bulb yesterday.

Room
Unfortunately I live in an apartment and open the garage on a daily basis, so I've decided to grow in a tent in the living room. Temps also swing far more than I'd like in the garage. Plan on flowering during the winter, keeping it cool in here is a bitch as I don't have central AC and don't want to pull cool air through a window unless absolutely necessary.

Pots/Soil
Started off in 1 gallon pots, transferred to 3 gallon air pots. Soil is Happy Frog mixed with perlite, coco, EWC, mulch for top dressing, and amendments mixed into soil.

Nutrients
I plan to use almost exclusively AACT for feedings, trying to keep the grow mostly chemical free unless they need a kick.


Day 23

The LSD are looking very nitrogen hungry and I have a vegetative tea to feed these hungry plants consisting of EWC, piss, and various amendments. Bubba Kush (not sure if that was what it was called, it was a freebie) is dwarfing the LSD, blowing them out of the water vertically and looking far less starved. They were topped last Sunday above the second node and transplanted last Wednesday. The LSD seem to have a hard time rooting, probably stressed from topping and/or transplant, the foliage ranges from very light to dark green and they don't appear to be growing much at the moment, which is definitely concerning. Light spacing from canopy is ~20", temps reaching ~86 degrees F, unfortunately this unit isn't any cooler than my 400w HPS with adjustawing reflector.

Any advice/comments/tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for taking a look

One word: mycorrhizae. Get some granular endo mycorrhizae and sprinkle it directly into the soil when you transplant from the 1 to the 3G pots; place the roots directly into it or even better: ooze some aloe Vera gel on the roots & sprinkle myco all over the roots. This will help root them like nothing else & you'll see explosive growth once it sets.
They are hungry and overwatered too. Not sure what you are using for mulch looks like coco but a layer of straw topped with bark nuggets work better IMO & along with the fungi all help keep the root ball moist without having to water as much.
DONT use piss...you are concerned about using nutrient but are ok with piss? I'd rather drink pure technaflora than piss but that's just me. I think you can find much better N inputs than urine; maybe guano or kelp meal? What various amendments have you added already- besides perlite, coco, & EWC- which add very little actual nutrition btw.
Wing style reflectors are junk- get an air cooled hood for your 400w- yes they are worth the extra $$$ - add a ducted exhaust with speed control & you can easily dial in cooler temps.

Richard Drysift said:

One word: mycorrhizae. Get some granular endo mycorrhizae and sprinkle it directly into the soil when you transplant from the 1 to the 3G pots; place the roots directly into it or even better: ooze some aloe Vera gel on the roots & sprinkle myco all over the roots. This will help root them like nothing else & you'll see explosive growth once it sets.
They are hungry and overwatered too. Not sure what you are using for mulch looks like coco but a layer of straw topped with bark nuggets work better IMO & along with the fungi all help keep the root ball moist without having to water as much.
DONT use piss...you are concerned about using nutrient but are ok with piss? I'd rather drink pure technaflora than piss but that's just me. I think you can find much better N inputs than urine; maybe guano or kelp meal? What various amendments have you added already- besides perlite, coco, & EWC- which add very little actual nutrition btw.
Wing style reflectors are junk- get an air cooled hood for your 400w- yes they are worth the extra $$$ - add a ducted exhaust with speed control & you can easily dial in cooler temps.

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It's funny that you mention mycorrhizae fungi because that's exactly what I used during transplant. Actually stirred some into water and then saturated the root balls in the mixture. Probably should have sprinkled a bit directly onto them for good measure but didn't. I'm not drinking the tea, so what's wrong with using piss? lol. These are the ammendments: greensand, alfalfa meal, blood meal, bird/bat guano, feather meal, bone meal, bulb food, chicken manure, and kelp meal. This mix sat in bins for a couple of months before use and was turned several times. The plan is to feed with teas as a source of nutrition, maybe every other watering as I hear you can't really burn plants with them but not sheriff that's true.

In the tea I used molasses, alfalfa, kelp, dry all purpose fert, liquid fish, bat guano, earthworm castings, and chicken manure that was all bubbled for 48hrs.

Well the medium adjust a wing is 95% reflective, it doesn't run any hotter than my sun system 315 surprisingly... Will look into air cooled hoods, thanks for the tip Richard. What about just blowing the air up with fans and using a 440 cfm exhaust to cool the tent?

Also concerned about how light the lower part of the plant, and the solar leaves are getting. Does that look like nute burn to you?

Well then your soil is plenty rich enough to keep them green. Adding myco to water does nothing- it needs to touch the roots directly or it has no effect on your plants. Piss on the other hand will burn them easily- that's why you shouldn't use it & plus it's fuckin nasty!!! Maybe you are not drinking the tea but your piss (or whoevers piss) is coursing through the veins of your plant & being deposited into the plant tissue so you will be smoking it- don't tell your friends if you make edibles!!!
Reflectivity is good...heat is not. Air cooled hoods allow you to put your light right down on them without singeing the tips- much better than passive air from a fan that just blows the heat around. Yes I agree maybe it is piss- burn but everything else you did sounds ok. I doubt your other amendments is what burned them.

Well its called "soluble root zone" and it said one can saturate the root balls when transplanting. Down to Earth makes it. Will throw the powder directly on it next time, was kind of disappointed at how undeveloped the LSD seemed in comparison to the freebie.. They are starting to look worse do you think I should flush? Didn't use piss until last feeding btw. The lower foliage is lighter than it looks in the photos.

Just give them water for awhile & see how they do- that burn is not severe. Different plants grow different. A flush seems drastic - I prefer just water them as normal & the nice green color should return soon.

Actually doesn't even look like a burn more like a def. maybe your ph is off. I still say give clean water- you are using non chlorinated water I presume?

Richard Drysift said:

Actually doesn't even look like a burn more like a def. maybe your ph is off. I still say give clean water- you are using non chlorinated water I presume?

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Yeah it's a Pure Water Products RO unit, great customer service I broke a minor part on installation and they air mailed it the next day free of charge.

they almost seem like they're a little too wet?? i know they're in air pots, but 3 gal is a big container for a plant that size. a couple pics just look a little droopy, you know?

what amendments and rates did you put into your soil?

ShLUbY said:

they almost seem like they're a little too wet?? i know they're in air pots, but 3 gal is a big container for a plant that size. a couple pics just look a little droopy, you know?

what amendments and rates did you put into your soil?

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Not too wet, they have been watered in small amounts with a pump sprayer. The fourth plant would likely show signs of overwatering if that were the case, as they have received equal watering. Amendments are posted above, don't think it's too hot.

Richard Drysift said:

Actually doesn't even look like a burn more like a def. maybe your ph is off. I still say give clean water- you are using non chlorinated water I presume?

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pH is 6.05, kind of spaced on checking it so thanks for the reminder. Will try to get it back up around 6.5-7.0

DesertGrow89 said:

pH is 6.05, kind of spaced on checking it so thanks for the reminder. Will try to get it back up around 6.5-7.0

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I noticed there is no Ph'ing amendment in your soil mix.... Oyster Shell Flour???? and with a living soil... how are you going to change the Ph of the soil? i thought the point was to not have do that. and another thing... i know in the top you say that you're going to use nutrient teas for feed... but you have all the amendments in your soil, so why all the nutrient teas? Just curious, that's all

ShLUbY said:

I noticed there is no Ph'ing amendment in your soil mix.... Oyster Shell Flour???? and with a living soil... how are you going to change the Ph of the soil? i thought the point was to not have do that. and another thing... i know in the top you say that you're going to use nutrient teas for feed... but you have all the amendments in your soil, so why all the nutrient teas? Just curious, that's all

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Didnt mention that I'm using super sweet (calcium carbonate) as a pH stabilizer. Because I don't think the nutrients in the soil are concentrated enough, the purpose of tea is to build microlife in the soil.

DesertGrow89 said:

the purpose of tea is to build microlife in the soil.

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i understand this. but the purpose of a AACT, is to breed microlife. you are confusing AACT with nutrient tea to be adding guanos and stuff. a good AACT to good soil should only need a applied a couple of times in the entire cycle.

what makes you think the nutrient contents in the soil are weak? did you apply them at a low rate? also if you're worried about the micro life in your soil, just water in some BSM once in awhile, they will consume the BSM and repopulate and get back to work.

just trying to save you from making so many nutrient teas, from how i interpreted what you've written. maybe i'm misunderstanding your plan lol. this type of soil should be a water only kind of garden, you know?

DesertGrow89 said:

pH is 6.05, kind of spaced on checking it so thanks for the reminder. Will try to get it back up around 6.5-7.0

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DesertGrow89 said:

Didnt mention that I'm using super sweet (calcium carbonate) as a pH stabilizer. Because I don't think the nutrients in the soil are concentrated enough, the purpose of tea is to build microlife in the soil.

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6 is a bit too low - if you are checking runoff it's not accurate; you need a soil ph probe meter to be sure. If it is lower than 6.5 it's possible you are locking out N & that means your soil may be too hot which could be a result of not letting it cook long enough. I wait til my ph probe meter- which is a cheap one- says 6.5 or higher which takes about a month or so. I really think you do not need as much as you are giving these plants either. And piss is highly acidic or alkaline depending upon the diet, metabolism, and what time of day it was when the piss was acquired- plus it's fucking nasty- did I mention that? Piss can throw off ph so stop that will ya?
Oyster flour in your mix does help regulate ph so you should have a big bag on hand to add to your soil. I don't know what super sweet is but it sounds bad...ph should be regulated by the soil itself not adjusted with stuff from a bottle. I think you are making the same mistake as I did when I started growing organically: you have to get your head away from that nutrient mentality & instead maintain the soil food web by giving just clean water and little else. Shluby is right: there's a huge difference between a nutrient and AACT teas. These plants are still in early veg: they shouldn't need even half what you are throwing at them. I say give just water for a week or 2 & see how they look then. If it gets much worse then you know you've got either a ph issue or your mix is simply too hot. Either way plain water should fix it - if you need to boost the ph you could give some hydrated dolomite lime or even grape juice but these would only help temporarily.

Richard Drysift said:

6 is a bit too low - if you are checking runoff it's not accurate; you need a soil ph probe meter to be sure. If it is lower than 6.5 it's possible you are locking out N & that means your soil may be too hot which could be a result of not letting it cook long enough. I wait til my ph probe meter- which is a cheap one- says 6.5 or higher which takes about a month or so. I really think you do not need as much as you are giving these plants either. And piss is highly acidic or alkaline depending upon the diet, metabolism, and what time of day it was when the piss was acquired- plus it's fucking nasty- did I mention that? Piss can throw off ph so stop that will ya?
Oyster flour in your mix does help regulate ph so you should have a big bag on hand to add to your soil. I don't know what super sweet is but it sounds bad...ph should be regulated by the soil itself not adjusted with stuff from a bottle. I think you are making the same mistake as I did when I started growing organically: you have to get your head away from that nutrient mentality & instead maintain the soil food web by giving just clean water and little else. Shluby is right: there's a huge difference between a nutrient and AACT teas. These plants are still in early veg: they shouldn't need even half what you are throwing at them. I say give just water for a week or 2 & see how they look then. If it gets much worse then you know you've got either a ph issue or your mix is simply too hot. Either way plain water should fix it - if you need to boost the ph you could give some hydrated dolomite lime or even grape juice but these would only help temporarily.

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supersweet is lime

Richard Drysift said:

6 is a bit too low - if you are checking runoff it's not accurate; you need a soil ph probe meter to be sure. If it is lower than 6.5 it's possible you are locking out N & that means your soil may be too hot which could be a result of not letting it cook long enough. I wait til my ph probe meter- which is a cheap one- says 6.5 or higher which takes about a month or so. I really think you do not need as much as you are giving these plants either. And piss is highly acidic or alkaline depending upon the diet, metabolism, and what time of day it was when the piss was acquired- plus it's fucking nasty- did I mention that? Piss can throw off ph so stop that will ya?
Oyster flour in your mix does help regulate ph so you should have a big bag on hand to add to your soil. I don't know what super sweet is but it sounds bad...ph should be regulated by the soil itself not adjusted with stuff from a bottle. I think you are making the same mistake as I did when I started growing organically: you have to get your head away from that nutrient mentality & instead maintain the soil food web by giving just clean water and little else. Shluby is right: there's a huge difference between a nutrient and AACT teas. These plants are still in early veg: they shouldn't need even half what you are throwing at them. I say give just water for a week or 2 & see how they look then. If it gets much worse then you know you've got either a ph issue or your mix is simply too hot. Either way plain water should fix it - if you need to boost the ph you could give some hydrated dolomite lime or even grape juice but these would only help temporarily.

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Is there a brand of soil probe pH meter that you recommend? I have a basic one from hannah instruments that requires frequent calibration to be accurate. Previously I was removing some soil, mixing it with (tested) water, letting it sit for about half an hour and then testing that. But that it a PITA with a top dressing to remove and a layer of earthworm castings. Wow that was a bad idea not testing the teas before applying them, oh well. Super sweet was mixed into the soil, it's in a small pellet form. I've heard that fine dolomite lime is the best to use for stabilizing pH, unfortunately I couldn't find any at local stores or online. Is calcium carbonate a good pH stabilizer? Apparently piss ranges from a pH of 4.6 - 8.0... Will stop using it. How often do you recommend feeding with teas about once every two weeks? Appreciate all of the advice!

ShLUbY said:

i understand this. but the purpose of a AACT, is to breed microlife. you are confusing AACT with nutrient tea to be adding guanos and stuff. a good AACT to good soil should only need a applied a couple of times in the entire cycle.

what makes you think the nutrient contents in the soil are weak? did you apply them at a low rate? also if you're worried about the micro life in your soil, just water in some BSM once in awhile, they will consume the BSM and repopulate and get back to work.

just trying to save you from making so many nutrient teas, from how i interpreted what you've written. maybe i'm misunderstanding your plan lol. this type of soil should be a water only kind of garden, you know?

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The contents are weak because it was diluted with more happy frog soil to be safe.

DesertGrow89 said:

Is there a brand of soil probe pH meter that you recommend? I have a basic one from hannah instruments that requires frequent calibration to be accurate. Previously I was removing some soil, mixing it with (tested) water, letting it sit for about half an hour and then testing that. But that it a PITA with a top dressing to remove and a layer of earthworm castings. Wow that was a bad idea not testing the teas before applying them, oh well. Super sweet was mixed into the soil, it's in a small pellet form. I've heard that fine dolomite lime is the best to use for stabilizing pH, unfortunately I couldn't find any at local stores or online. Is calcium carbonate a good pH stabilizer? Apparently piss ranges from a pH of 4.6 - 8.0... Will stop using it. How often do you recommend feeding with teas about once every two weeks? Appreciate all of the advice!

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Hannah is good but like i said checking it with water is not giving you true soil ph reading. You need a soil ph probe- I got a cheapo genetic one which works fine. I only use it to determine if my soil is ok to use & never bother checking ph the rest of the grow. I hear blue lab is the best but you don't have to get one of those; any soil ph meter with a digital readout will do. I never test ph of my teas either & many growers never check at all because they know what their inputs will do & how long to wait before using their recycled mix. The best ph regulator I know of in soil is oyster flour but it must be in your mix in direct contact with the roots to work. Oyster flour regulates ph at the rhizosphere where it's needed. I also add some dolomite lime & garden gypsum which help also but they take a long time to actually affect the ph of your soil. If you bubble the lime in water- called hydrated lime it has a more immediate affect but you'll need a soil meter to see the difference in ph.
I suggest giving teas not in a scheduled way: think of adding tea like riding a wave. AACT provides microbial life which increased activity in your containers. It adds very little actual nutrition to your plants but instead feeds the microbes that wil fuck, fight, eat each other & multiply which in turn will aerate and enrich the soil. After awhile this wave will subside & you'll need to keep the party rocking by giving another boost of microlife populations. You can physically see how your plants react when you get it right. Your plants will be vibrant and try to stretch toward the light; always upright, never droopy. Yo can give teas as often as every 10 days or even as infrequent as once or twice during the entire grow. It really depends upon how active your soil is to begin with. More active soil that may contain live worms has an established soil food web & fresher soil that has not been recycled might need more of a microbial boost. I have no idea about calcium carbonate - never heard of it. If you are looking for a place to order organic amendments like dolomite lime check out kelpforless.com- they got everything ya need & a lotta stuff you don't lol.