Gimiik's first Organics grow, NO Bottled Nutes!

Gimiik

Active Member
Day 37 Veg
Hi everybody! I can finally report back with some good news. Since transplanting into the Coots supersoil and into the 5gal fabric pots the plants have been exploding in growth! More importantly, the new growth looks very healthy, lush green leaves. The tips are slightly burned but its a strong soil so its not too surprising, everything else looks great!
Additionally, the straw I picked up is working perfectly!! It's been 5 days since transplanting and the top soil is still moist. In contrast, the top soil would be completely dry after two days. I'm sure the microbes appreciate the change :) I still have one plant to transplant but I've been swamped with work and school just starting up -- Maybe later tonight, probably tomorrow though.

Today I decided to top the 3 plants I transplanted into the super soil. They exploded with so much growth I had to slow down the vertical growth and start promoting the bottom branches to catch up.
Photo Aug 26, 4 50 21 PM.jpg
Photo Aug 26, 9 27 50 AM.jpgPhoto Aug 26, 9 29 59 AM.jpg
 

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Day 37 Veg
Hi everybody! I can finally report back with some good news. Since transplanting into the Coots supersoil and into the 5gal fabric pots the plants have been exploding in growth! More importantly, the new growth looks very healthy, lush green leaves. The tips are slightly burned but its a strong soil so its not too surprising, everything else looks great!
Additionally, the straw I picked up is working perfectly!! It's been 5 days since transplanting and the top soil is still moist. In contrast, the top soil would be completely dry after two days. I'm sure the microbes appreciate the change :) I still have one plant to transplant but I've been swamped with work and school just starting up -- Maybe later tonight, probably tomorrow though.

Today I decided to top the 3 plants I transplanted into the super soil. They exploded with so much growth I had to slow down the vertical growth and start promoting the bottom branches to catch up.
View attachment 4665901
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Woohoo!
 

Gimiik

Active Member
Day 42 Veg
Plants are thickening up nicely. Every since they recovered from the transplant/topping they have been side-branching like crazy and the middle of the plants are thick with growth. I'm super relieved that the deficiency issues seem to have gone away. Some of the discolored leaves are nearly dark green again!!

Today marks 9 days since I last watered the plants. The top soil is still moist and when I do the lift test there's still a good amount of weight to it. I find my self getting impatient/bored and want to water them but I'm going to hold off, the plants have yet to start drooping...I'm just waiting for them to tell me when it's time :)

This is the beginning of Week 6 of Veg and from what I've been reading it's around this time the plants will start to show pre-flower sex. Of the three plants, one of them is feminized so I've been trying to use that as a control to compare the bag seed plants too. Unfortunately, even the fem seed hasn't show pre-flower yet, I don't see any white wispy hairs sticking out yet. On the other hand, one of the bag seed plant appears to be showing white pistils, but again, I'm not 100% sure. I wish my camera would focus in that closely to the plants but it is too blurry =(

I setup my custom scrog net today to give me a sort of visual reference of where I want the canopy. I don’t think I’m going to use it to train the plants yet bc I don’t want to get em all tangled up in the net and find out I have some males in there. I’m just going to keep topping them to form an even canopy until they presex. Once I’m satisfied there aren’t any males in the mix I’ll fill out the scrog net and flower them.

Here is the fem seed. The twin is growing like a fooking champ too! It's about 10" tall and zero signs of issues. I'm not going to top it, just let it grow a single cola up top <3
Photo Aug 31, 5 07 25 PM.jpg
Photo Aug 31, 5 07 59 PM.jpg
Photo Aug 31, 5 08 40 PM.jpg



Bagseed #1
Photo Aug 31, 5 09 54 PM.jpg


Bagseed #2
Photo Aug 31, 5 12 06 PM.jpg

Photo Aug 31, 5 04 26 PM.jpg
 

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Day 42 Veg
Plants are thickening up nicely. Every since they recovered from the transplant/topping they have been side-branching like crazy and the middle of the plants are thick with growth. I'm super relieved that the deficiency issues seem to have gone away. Some of the discolored leaves are nearly dark green again!!

Today marks 9 days since I last watered the plants. The top soil is still moist and when I do the lift test there's still a good amount of weight to it. I find my self getting impatient/bored and want to water them but I'm going to hold off, the plants have yet to start drooping...I'm just waiting for them to tell me when it's time :)

This is the beginning of Week 6 of Veg and from what I've been reading it's around this time the plants will start to show pre-flower sex. Of the three plants, one of them is feminized so I've been trying to use that as a control to compare the bag seed plants too. Unfortunately, even the fem seed hasn't show pre-flower yet, I don't see any white wispy hairs sticking out yet. On the other hand, one of the bag seed plant appears to be showing white pistils, but again, I'm not 100% sure. I wish my camera would focus in that closely to the plants but it is too blurry =(

I setup my custom scrog net today to give me a sort of visual reference of where I want the canopy. I don’t think I’m going to use it to train the plants yet bc I don’t want to get em all tangled up in the net and find out I have some males in there. I’m just going to keep topping them to form an even canopy until they presex. Once I’m satisfied there aren’t any males in the mix I’ll fill out the scrog net and flower them.

Here is the fem seed. The twin is growing like a fooking champ too! It's about 10" tall and zero signs of issues. I'm not going to top it, just let it grow a single cola up top <3
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Bagseed #1
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Bagseed #2
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View attachment 4670855
Looks like a big improvement! Keep an eye on the newer nodes — those preflowers should be showing up any day now.
 

Gimiik

Active Member
Hey guys, question for you.

So I went with Coot's style mix:
Base Soil: I mixed up enough for 21 gallons. (~3cuft)
  • 1/3 Sphagnum Peat Moss (7gal)
  • 1/3 EWC (compost) (7gal)
  • 1/3 Perlite (Aeration) (7gal)
I then amended the base soil with the following dry amendments: 1/2 cup per cubic foot (1cuft = 7.5 gal)
  • Fish Meal (9-4-0)
  • Crab Shell Meal (4-3-0)
  • Kelp Meal (1-0-2)
  • Neem Seed Meal (6-1-2) + Pest Control
  • Oyster Shell Flour (Calcium)
  • Gypsum (Calcium / Sulfur)
  • Glacial Rock Dust (Trace Minerals)

I transplanted from 1gal pots filled with FFOF --> 5gal fabric pots with my soil mix. It is now time to water for the 1st time since transplanting them. However, the soil is hard as a rock!!! I literally cannot poke my finger through the surface. I was using Emilya's watering technique where you let it pool on the surface twice... Well the water literally ran straight through the soil and pooled in the drip tray. Literally none of it pooled. It slowly got absorbed up through the bottom like ghetto flood table but I'm concerned about the soil quality/texture.

Is the hardening because I used so much EWC? How do I remedy this problem? I can add gypsum but IDK the application rate and have not performed a soil test.

Any and all help appreciated!
 

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
My guess is the soil has simply formed a hard layer on the top and should be OK beneath. Have you tried poking your finger to see how it is underneath the crust? If it is just a crust, you can gently break it apart using a knife or fork or whatever implement works. It won’t really hurt the roots. Sometimes when I get a thick crust outdoors I use a rod to poke holes in the ground to aerate and improve water absorption. Never had an issue with root problems.
 

Gimiik

Active Member
I believe the culprit was the peat moss returning to its hydrophobic state due to drying out too much. Next I'm going to shorten the time between waterings and see if that helps.
 

Gimiik

Active Member
Day 49 Veg
Hey everybody! Hope you guys are enjoying your Labor Day!

I was asking around various forums about my hard soil issue and the most likely cause of this phenomenon is the peat moss going hydrophobic. I must've let the soil dry out too much so when it came time for me to water, it repelled it straight to the bottom. Moving forward I'm going to be more diligent on my water routine.

I'm fairly confident all the plants are indeed females because its the start of week 7 and two of the plants are showing the little white hairs, and while the 3rd plant hasn't shown either... I don't see any balls so I'm taking the chance of assuming it's female as well. Because I'm operating under the assumption they're all female I intend on flipping to flower in the coming days. I gave them a mild defoliation to open up the middle of the plants, and removed some of the small growth from the under carriage.

After the watering I gave them two days ago they've really exploded with growth! So many branches poking up over the scrog I have to tuck them under daily. The twin plant has nearly reached the scrog net!! I stripped all the lower growth so it can focus on producing one cola at the top, I'm incredibly excited for it to start flowering haha

Before:

Before.jpeg

After:

Photo Sep 07, 12 29 24 PM.jpgPhoto Sep 07, 12 29 18 PM.jpg


Photo Sep 07, 12 29 48 PM.jpg
 

Attachments

MajorCoco

Well-Known Member
If I can give you one suggestion for next time, it's to go light on the amendments. Good wormcastings (from worms fed with the correct foods which have P and K) on their own will sustain your organic plant with just water right through to harvest....with virtually zero chance of nute burn if you mix it down correctly.

Simple just tends to be best. My current plant has been on nothing but water since day 1 and is 2 weeks from harvest...
 

Gimiik

Active Member
If I can give you one suggestion for next time, it's to go light on the amendments. Good wormcastings (from worms fed with the correct foods which have P and K) on their own will sustain your organic plant with just water right through to harvest....with virtually zero chance of nute burn if you mix it down correctly.

Simple just tends to be best. My current plant has been on nothing but water since day 1 and is 2 weeks from harvest...
Yeah I agree good worm castings can a game changer that's why I started my own worm composting bin. It's only been active for a little under two months so I'm still building up the worm population but I plan on adding in my dry amendments to the worm bin so the EWC that come out of it are already nutrient rich.
 

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
LOL hydrophobic is another word for crust. Seriously just break it up with the implement of your choice to improve filtration/aeration. People like fancy words but it’s just a crust.
 

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Clay can become “hydrophobic” not just pest moss. Any “fine particulate matter” — I prefer to call it “small stuff” — can form a crust. Break it up.
 

Gimiik

Active Member
Sup Everybody!

Today I decided to begin the flowering process!!! :) I turned off the lights and giving them 24hrs of darkness before switching them over to the 12/12 light cycle.

Super excited to see how these girls flower :D
 

Gimiik

Active Member
Day 26 Flower
Hey all. My updates are a little behind mainly cause I haven't had time to sit down and type anything up. The photos you see are from Day 26 Flower, however, I'm including information from previous days.

About a week ago I topped off the pots with an additional 1-2inches of my leftover super soil. I figured I should top dress early into flower as it'll take a few waterings for the nutrients to work its way into the root system.

The plants are looking incredibly healthy and vibrant green. They have stopped stretching and are focusing on fattening up the buds. I was gone for a weekend around Day 10 of flower, and when I came back most of the branches shot up past the net so my canopy is super uneven now. Oh well. You can really see the crystals coming in already =)

I originally tried to hookup a 3rd panel to really blast the girls and ideally give each plant its own light. However, having the drivers mounted to the boards the tent simply got too hot. It would get as high as 93 degrees @ 23% humidity. No good. I tried hooking up my carbon filter/exhaust fan hoping it would pull the cold air from my room and cool the tent. It brought temps down to 86 but still too high. I introduced an evaporative cooler in hopes to cool it down a bit further and increase humidity. It brought temps down to 83 and raised humidity to 40% -- slight improvement on VPD. I ultimately decided I had to give up on the 3rd lamp. =(

Photo Sep 30, 9 16 03 PM.jpg
Photo Oct 06, 6 48 46 PM.jpg
 

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Day 26 Flower
Hey all. My updates are a little behind mainly cause I haven't had time to sit down and type anything up. The photos you see are from Day 26 Flower, however, I'm including information from previous days.

About a week ago I topped off the pots with an additional 1-2inches of my leftover super soil. I figured I should top dress early into flower as it'll take a few waterings for the nutrients to work its way into the root system.

The plants are looking incredibly healthy and vibrant green. They have stopped stretching and are focusing on fattening up the buds. I was gone for a weekend around Day 10 of flower, and when I came back most of the branches shot up past the net so my canopy is super uneven now. Oh well. You can really see the crystals coming in already =)

I originally tried to hookup a 3rd panel to really blast the girls and ideally give each plant its own light. However, having the drivers mounted to the boards the tent simply got too hot. It would get as high as 93 degrees @ 23% humidity. No good. I tried hooking up my carbon filter/exhaust fan hoping it would pull the cold air from my room and cool the tent. It brought temps down to 86 but still too high. I introduced an evaporative cooler in hopes to cool it down a bit further and increase humidity. It brought temps down to 83 and raised humidity to 40% -- slight improvement on VPD. I ultimately decided I had to give up on the 3rd lamp. =(

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Looks good!
 
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