Get by with a little help from my friends

I am new to growing. I started with a couple 400 watt flourescent lights and a couple deep water buckets(home made). I made every mistake I could and grew and learned along the way. This was six month ago. Today I am using a custom built cabinet with two sides. Each side is about 3.5x3.5 with the flowering side being a little bigger. Each side is equipped with an adjustable 600 watt digital light with a cool tube. I have each light hooked to a carbon filter and fan(1 inline to push air on each light and one 440 cfm on top pulling air through and out of house). I have two fan in each side for air movement and one oscillating fan out side that is on when the doors are opened. The veg side is MH and set to 75% which if my math is right is 405 watts, and the flowering side is HPS and set at the full 600 watts. Along the way I felt it was in my best interest to go soil and organic instead of chemical nutes and hydro., so I switch to a start to finish soil. The first round I tried a couple different soils and the first round though with this water only routine was suspect to say the least with each plant yielding under an once(the smoothness and flavor were unreal!!). I believe the culprit to be the wife though, it seems the light was turned to 50% for a decent amount of time during the most critical time(this was due to the fact that we are selling and had to com seal the plants). This time around I settle on m3 or michigan made mix as it did have the healthiest plant in the second round. Also I started to use a guano tea. It's a high p bat guano, some fish emulsion, molasses and Epsom salt bubbled overnight and applied in weeks 3,4,5, and 6 of flower with strait water the rest of the way. So far so good the plants look healthy and the bud sites are numerous. I love the organic way and will continue to improve, which brings me to the point here. I have read every grow bible there is and am currently finding and reading organic gardening books, any suggestion on books would be nice. I started to look through some organic forums and realized the info to be very fragment, so I thought I would start a thread for some great tips on organic gardening, what are some simple things that I can incorporate that would make a big difference?

Ok, you lured me in, I love Joe Cocker.

Here's a thread already started. If you don't find what you need, let me know. Also, don't forget to read the first few pages (at least) of the ROLS thread. Highly informational.

EDIT: forgot link lol - http://rollitup.org/t/organic-gardening-books-e-books.837168/

ROLS Thread: http://rollitup.org/t/recycled-organic-living-soil-rols-and-no-till-thread.636057/

Now, let's ROCK!


P-

m3....this soil is near bullit proof when used with clean water and some grow wisdom....that does not mean one will get the best of your meds though...I used m3 for 3 years at different compacities...as base soil( ffor my custom mix)...as primary soil with and with/without papas poop...and combonations therein...all with same strain. prob 20 harvests or so involving m3 , same strain, same environment , and same water....I consider myself learned with the m3 based on 3 years trials...it is truly a plant it and forget it soil.
but it puts too much into the overall development of plant until harvest. too much energy goes into the cellular fortitude of plant(too much chlorophyll during flower)...this drastically reduces potency....too much misdirected enegy into things like leaf health and stalk beef wich steals from resin expression potential....for real

Yoyo, I would like to mix my own soil and even recycle it but lack the space at the current moment. I picked the m3 due to the ease and thought as a newb it would give me a good starting point, plus there are only a couple of options for start to finish soil. What do you use now that you don't use m3? How did you like the m3?

Patta, I started to read that thread and read about 15 pages when I realized that it had too much great info. As I stated I am new(6months). I have all kinds of book knowledge as I have spent countless hours in those six months reading grow bibles and searching for info online, but lack experience. I guess I was looking for the next simple but logical step to take to grow better meds. Also I would love to Segway into the newly forming legal market for pot as I feel that growing Mary for a living would be awesome. Thanks for the vid it's always good to hear a great song in the morning.

Some pics of my current round these are just past four of eight weeks, give or take!!

Happy growing y'all!!!

Also Patta,

Just starting to read teaming with microbes last night!!

yoyogreen said:

m3....this soil is near bullit proof when used with clean water and some grow wisdom....that does not mean one will get the best of your meds though...I used m3 for 3 years at different compacities...as base soil( ffor my custom mix)...as primary soil with and with/without papas poop...and combonations therein...all with same strain. prob 20 harvests or so involving m3 , same strain, same environment , and same water....I consider myself learned with the m3 based on 3 years trials...it is truly a plant it and forget it soil.
but it puts too much into the overall development of plant until harvest. too much energy goes into the cellular fortitude of plant(too much chlorophyll during flower)...this drastically reduces potency....too much misdirected enegy into things like leaf health and stalk beef wich steals from resin expression potential....for real

Click to expand...

Ditch the bags build your own soil.

This may be stupid but, can you compost inside the grow room? I have six 7 gallon containers so I would need enough composting for the next round, and recycle the dirt from the flowers after harvest?? When I say composting I supposes I really mean recycling the dirt, which I currently know nothing about.

Hey Agw, teaming with microbes is going to start you down the right path. Pay special attention to how the soil food web works. Be careful of the canna lore that leads people astray. Also beware of any products even if that have that worthless omri logo on them. Yell if I can help.

P-

Agw said:

This may be stupid but, can you compost inside the grow room? I have six 7 gallon containers so I would need enough composting for the next round, and recycle the dirt from the flowers after harvest?? When I say composting I supposes I really mean recycling the dirt, which I currently know nothing about.

Click to expand...

Imo one of the best things you can do is keep them in the grow room and plant a cover cropin your pots not being used. Just to clarify this is different then composting.

Is that this no till method I have seen around here? My thought was to get a barrel composted and throw the dirt and scraps from harvest into it for a month or two. Of course this is going to require me learning how to properly recycle dirt. I thought an increase in co2 might happen if it was located in the nursery? I am limited on space how much light would the cover crop need?

Agw said:

Is that this no till method I have seen around here? My thought was to get a barrel composted and throw the dirt and scraps from harvest into it for a month or two. Of course this is going to require me learning how to properly recycle dirt. I thought an increase in co2 might happen if it was located in the nursery? I am limited on space how much light would the cover crop need?

Click to expand...

Yes, this is what many to-tillers do. I'm a little confused about the composting and dirt scraps, but I'm sure it would work. The dirt is still good after you use it no matter what some guy says in high times.

My cover crop pots are on the perimeter of my actual plants. I usually don't have pots sitting, but I do atm. So, they don't take a lot of light.

Ok gotta run! Peace!
P-

Patta,
What I mean by composting is putting the dirt, roots and stems from harvest into the composter and amending in some Fresh organic nutes and letting it chill in there till I need the dirt again prolly like a month or some, cooking so to speak.

?????

Agw said:

Patta,
What I mean by composting is putting the dirt, roots and stems from harvest into the composter and amending in some Fresh organic nutes and letting it chill in there till I need the dirt again prolly like a month or some, cooking so to speak.

?????

Click to expand...

This would be reamending soil imo. Composting is going to be a little different. But that sounds exactly like what I do. I'm no-tilling this round, but often I'll dump the pots, reamend, throw a cover crop in the pots and let them sit till needed. We want the soil to be alive!

Joe Cocker

I posted some new pics in my journal if any one is interested check them out. Comments always welcome.

Also I need to know more about coconut water. Could I put this in my teas? Or aero cloner?