H.A.F. growing stink-flowers in dirt with QB's

I just realized it's been almost 2 weeks since I fed anything. And they all look healthy and still have ppm in the run-off. So I am going to start placing a little more trust in the dry top-feed stuff than the liquid feeds. There are 5 components with different NPK, based mostly on different ratios of the same ingredients.

I am now adding amino acids based on a tip from @J.James which is supposed to help the plants absorb nutes better by breaking down protein chains and whatnot... Sciency stuff. I happened to have a jug on hand that I forgot about that came with the Nectar for the Gods nutrient sample-pack - that I never used because it was so different from other soil systems (calcium based and complicated).

The top feeds are basically like a time-release miracle-gro for weed, which is keeping the run-off ppm relatively consistent. So cal-mag and silica just because I like them, the sweetener which is supposed to feed the microbes, and everything else can probably be dropped to 25% or less. But when it comes time for flushing, I may have to go "dust-bowl" on them and remove all loose topsoil first.

So here's the veggies
The front two got the lowest set of shoots removed, and I snipped those oddball shoots off of shorty to see if it would stretch. @J.James If structure is anything you need info on for the RM, 2 of those nodes I pruned were still symmetrical, and 2 beginning to stagger, on each plant.
And the BW is ready for it's last topping. In the group photo (top-left) you can see the two leaves meeting together and shading the middle, here's what I was looking for before the next topping.
Those shoot leaves are opening now, so right before lights out I'll top it. With the combination of removing the shade and everything above them that needed fed, and also making them the only shoots left to be fed, they should take a day or so to recover from the shock then start stretching.

Random stoner ramblings - I've been smoking on everything I could but the skunk just because I finally could. I still have some of my other skunk harvest that was primo and almost crystalized but looking at a half gallon of flowers from the contest I wanted to make sure it was worth keeping as is - (instead of making oil or something).

The clones need flushing - so massive quantities of water for 6 plants. In the interest of sanity I checked the "waste" run-off from the RO which produces about 4 times the volume.

After stage 3 the water was a perfect 6.5, and 50ppm
After stage 4 is was 7.0 and roughly 1-2ppm.

I am thinking about just strapping both hoses together from now on and not waste anything. but I know I can use it for flushing. Having a few more ppm in there makes pH-ing easier after adding the calmag.

Canna caps. I LOVE my NOVA and Decarbing everything.

I thought about the canna cap thing, but it seems like a hassle because you can really just eat it as is. I mean, you could carry it around in a snuff can and put a pinch between your cheek and gum LOL. The dosage thing is why that would be chancy. But I think I may be on to something.

I still like my smoke, but those roaches are harsh. But they are packed with resin, so I just decarbed them I got rid of the ashy bits, decarbed, then ground them up. Pollen press. Canna-tablets. On the right is some regular decarbed flowers. And surprisingly they don't taste like ass. It ain't candy, and you would probably choke trying to swallow it like a one-a-day, so there is some refinement needed, but the dosage thing is figgered LOL

I also made some nasty-good peanut butter cookies. You can taste the weed, but they are about 100mg each and will put you on your ass.

I figured out the cheap easy way to work out the dosage on baked goods. I was looking for those cheap packets of cookie or brownie mix that called for butter or oil - a lot don't. Then I was Decarbing weed, infusing oil or butter, etc.

Get whatever cheap-ass cookie, brownie, muffin, fudge, cornbread, whatever mix. Grind up the decarbed weed and mix it in the dry ingredients. Duh.

I just followed the recipe after that, and had to add a bit more water because of the weed.

And the dosage is fairly easy. If it says you can make 24 cookies, you need 2400mg of THC for 100mg cookies. 1200mg for 50s, etc.

All weed is either 15%, 20%, or 25% THC for easy math. period. Be honest with your guess and that's close enough.

20%THC weed has 200mg of THC per gram. So my cookies had 12g of bud (2400mg) ground up and mixed in.

It's a best guess from the start, but an educated one. Tried half a cookie to start, and it is enough, so I'm counting that as close to 50mg, which means the math was close enough.

Ready for a flushing project. I think this might work.
I don't want to save over 20 gallons of run-off for anything, and just need to check it every once in a while during flushing.

I pulled the wheels off the plant-caddies (so I don't have an OOPS!), and they have a central drain hole. I can fit 4 of the 6 plants over the sink, and slide the tray in to get samples. The other two are going to drain into buckets for my veggies. It's been raining like hell for the past few afternoons, so any feeding I gave them before is gone.

I was a little over ambitious. I fit 5 instead of 6. Had to do the runt separate.

So here they are post-flush, feeding in the morning and have to be done before 7 am... Or I might wait until tomorrow at 7pm
The ppm were initially 1900-2100, and after 5 gallons each it was down to 900-1100. Close enough.

Still stacking with no sign of browns.
Random top that came put clear in the picture.

They seem to like the aminos (or they like the water, and the amino's haven't killed them)

The BW got topped before lights out, 6 hours of dark and a few of light and the shoots are rockin'
And the GDP got her first bottom-feed (plain RO). The little heat mat is perfect for that dome. I have the little channels that aren't under the pot filled with water, and they'll be dry in about 12 hours. Keeps the rH high but not too high (80% compared to 55% in the house).

I have accomplished what I set out to, coming up with a simplified feeding schedule for my nutes. I took this which never really worked because pots take either 3 or 4 days to dry. a 7 day schedule just don't work.

And reduced it to this

And the plan is to do the liquid feed by itself (at 25%), 3-4 days later the dry top-dressing with RO, then RO every 3-4 days as needed until the ppm drop. It takes a bit with the top feed stuff.

After what I have seen with the Royal Mystery, I can go 14 days without feeding them. I think that is because of too much top dressing so that has all been reduced by 1/3. But if it stays about 4 waterings total before starting the next feed, I probably won't even use the veg one. The 'mid-flower" feed may be a few cycles, from the first brown pistils until they die or foxtails and mad growth start, then shift to late flower - otherwise skip it.

I still need to add the amino's but I don't have them figured yet.

Since the dry stuff is about $10 for 4lbs, this should be economical too.

I have felt like those schedules are a loose reference at best. You do a good job reading the plants, they tell you what they want.

colocowboy said:

I have felt like those schedules are a loose reference at best. You do a good job reading the plants, they tell you what they want.

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I think the schedules present the best ratios. If you lower everything by the same %, the ratio of part 1 to part 2 are the same. That's all I did, then try to adjust it to what I will actually feed - then stick with it for a while and see what happens.

Day 34 12/12 for the NL
Still stacking, still no browns

Day 52 for the RM, 43 for the BW.
I pinched another round of shoots off all. The plan is to flip them sometime next week. I want to keep them small, and they are finally getting some thick trunks. I'm planning on the 2 in the back being male, and the front right being female just because 2 are double the height of their little sister?
I'm flipping them in here, but whatever is female will get jammed in the flower room as soon as there's room.

But I have plenty of time before I need a veg-room...
Day 11 for the GDP

And day 6 for round 2 of the seeds. I can see 3 popping on the CJ (upper right was the one with the tail and is just under the hole) but the Bison Breath are either lollygaggers or duds. @J.James if you were wanting to chuck some seeds to check, try the BBr. If these 6 don't pop I'm leaving the last 7 in water until I see tail-nubs (or not). I'm giving them another 4-5 days.

And my new toy

This has a smaller diameter that the T-press (both size pucks pictured)

Each one of those little pucks is one of those decarbed nugs (about .3g each - about 50-60mg THC)), pressed whole. No need to grind.

H.A.F. said:

But I have plenty of time before I need a veg-room...
Day 11 for the GDP
View attachment 4380635
And day 6 for round 2 of the seeds. I can see 3 popping on the CJ (upper right was the one with the tail and is just under the hole) but the Bison Breath are either lollygaggers or duds. @J.James if you were wanting to chuck some seeds to check, try the BBr. If these 6 don't pop I'm leaving the last 7 in water until I see tail-nubs (or not). I'm giving them another 4-5 days.
View attachment 4380636

Click to expand...

I'll drop a few and check them out, Thanks for the help brother

J.James said:

I'll drop a few and check them out, Thanks for the help brother

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Part of it might be me - who knows. The 3 on the CJ is officially 2. the other one looks like it's pushing up but time will tell.

Since the only issue I had using straight soil was letting it dry out I may go back to that - AFTER I see a tail

It's kind of funny that each time I've tried to run seeds, I end up with 2 batches of plants about a week apart... This time it's the black widow flipping early, next it will be the GDP going longer waiting on the others.

The Royal Mystery seems to be a "smart" plant. I was pinching off shoots and noticed that the main stem on every limb put out a shoot towards the center and the main stem did a dog-leg away from center for more space.

Day 35 12/12, and I believe that the Northern Lights is foxtailing already, before the first brown pistil.