Hadez411
Well-Known Member
So I never grew a pot plant before and hardly ever grew anything else either. A friend handed me a bunch of seed from an outdoor sativa that he said grew very well with nothing but good soil and molasses water. I tried his weed and I was sold. Decided to start them inside since it's cold here.
I figured I'd throw myself in the deep end, as far as soil goes, and try some rich looking mystery soil that was just slightly below a PH of 7, had high nitrogen, no phosphorous and high potassium. It was from a beaver dam that drained and was nothing but a huge compost pile of sticks, water grasses and roots.
I didn't figure out it had no phosphorous until I had signs of poor growth, did a cheapo test and then added bone meal to make up for it. It was free and there's mountains more of it if this works. Those beavers aren't using it anymore anyhow.
The lighting was a struggle. First I lit the plants with incandescent bulbs. Then they had a 3500k LED spot light bulb. Then they had a 50W HPS and LED spotlight. Then they had a LED 5000k garage light. Then a full spectrum 5000k garage light and a T12. Now they have 240W of 3500k EB Gen 2 strips. lol, it was a case of "oh shit, I started my seeds and DigiKey is back ordered on EB strips". As they stretched I re-buried them and got the LED lights which seemed to stave off the stretching.
It's going fairly well so far but they got stunted a little, I think. Maybe they're slow growers?
They stayed in red solo's for too long and became root bound, they had a week of inconsistent lighting, I took a while to realize my beaver soil was missing a couple pieces like Manganese and Boron. Also the power went out for most of a day. It was only when I put them under the EB strips that they started showing rusty-orange dots, brown patches and looking unhealthy in the lower leaves. I guess under lower light conditions and slower uptake, they were managing to get enough of whatever the soil had at low levels. Gave them some real wattage and they immediately struggled. I got Organic ProMix water soluble nutrient because it had the trace minerals I needed. Watered it in and they seem to be doing well. I'll see how often I need to keep up with it to keep them happy. I was looking for seaweed because it has a lot of that stuff too, but I guess this "organic" pellet and powder will do.
I am intending to do this organically and see how well I can get it to produce a super fruity sativa that was the outcome of the person who gave it to me.
I'm going to move them outside into a hoop house to ride out the summer then open them up to some full sun exposure towards the end of flower for some UV-B stress response. I have no idea how much to do though so I'll start small.
I figured I'd throw myself in the deep end, as far as soil goes, and try some rich looking mystery soil that was just slightly below a PH of 7, had high nitrogen, no phosphorous and high potassium. It was from a beaver dam that drained and was nothing but a huge compost pile of sticks, water grasses and roots.
I didn't figure out it had no phosphorous until I had signs of poor growth, did a cheapo test and then added bone meal to make up for it. It was free and there's mountains more of it if this works. Those beavers aren't using it anymore anyhow.
The lighting was a struggle. First I lit the plants with incandescent bulbs. Then they had a 3500k LED spot light bulb. Then they had a 50W HPS and LED spotlight. Then they had a LED 5000k garage light. Then a full spectrum 5000k garage light and a T12. Now they have 240W of 3500k EB Gen 2 strips. lol, it was a case of "oh shit, I started my seeds and DigiKey is back ordered on EB strips". As they stretched I re-buried them and got the LED lights which seemed to stave off the stretching.
It's going fairly well so far but they got stunted a little, I think. Maybe they're slow growers?
They stayed in red solo's for too long and became root bound, they had a week of inconsistent lighting, I took a while to realize my beaver soil was missing a couple pieces like Manganese and Boron. Also the power went out for most of a day. It was only when I put them under the EB strips that they started showing rusty-orange dots, brown patches and looking unhealthy in the lower leaves. I guess under lower light conditions and slower uptake, they were managing to get enough of whatever the soil had at low levels. Gave them some real wattage and they immediately struggled. I got Organic ProMix water soluble nutrient because it had the trace minerals I needed. Watered it in and they seem to be doing well. I'll see how often I need to keep up with it to keep them happy. I was looking for seaweed because it has a lot of that stuff too, but I guess this "organic" pellet and powder will do.
I am intending to do this organically and see how well I can get it to produce a super fruity sativa that was the outcome of the person who gave it to me.
I'm going to move them outside into a hoop house to ride out the summer then open them up to some full sun exposure towards the end of flower for some UV-B stress response. I have no idea how much to do though so I'll start small.
