Yea man were in a good spot, our next door neighbor's is a house full of Mexicans and my girl is cool with them and they got thrown little s*** going on and then the old lady to my left just left so nobody lives there and then behind us is just like acre homes and it's just like a junkyard basically it's like two old people that have a bunch of dogs and just old shells and cars and stuff back there so I'm pretty good man and there's a lot of trees and we have cinder blocks over here for backyard fences
I think you might've cooked the roots and or over watered, the roots looks real straight and thick as if they didn't have oxygen or it was too hot, they're brown so that's not a good sogn.. roots are supposed to look like fresh white silk feel me.. it mighve been root for or a fungus
Sup Bacon! Looks like you got the hang of things since I last checked in. Your plants are looking outstanding!
Thanks, 3Deez! I appreciate you taking the time to drop by! Other than two or three fan leaves on the auto white widow outside, all three plants look better than I feel like I've ever had plants look before, and it's because of the input from you and the others that have dropped by. This is seriously the most enjoyable grow that I've had to date!
Day 1 Flower: Y Griega CBD Lots of pictures today! Number 1 is on the left, and number 2 is on the right. In the separate photos, the lighting looks different (not sure why), but it's the same light. We've also got a side profile, and a close up of each pot, allowing for a nice view of the mulch, Blumats, and trunks. I chopped up some fresh leaves that I trimmed off for the mulch right after I took the photo. The roots from both plants, especially number 1 (pictured), are beginning to grow out of the fabric at the bottom of each pot. Guess I've created a good environment? Finally, I have one top on number 1 that was showing obvious signs of nutrient problems, and both girls are a little off-color. I determined that it was a zinc and iron deficiency, likely caused by a light phosphorus toxicity -I got a little overzealous with my teas. To tackle the nutrient deficiency, I foliar fed both plants and drenched both pots with a vermicompost, molasses, and micronutrient tea two days in a row. Molasses was only used for the second day because I forgot to add it into the brew prior to the first day. I used BioAg TM-7 for my micronutrients. The discoloration seems to have stopped so I'm only giving the plants my usual water through the Blumats. I'm maintaining an on-going trim of the lower leaves, and I've supercropped a few tops that are popping up. The plants don't seem to mind at all. Today, I set the light timer to 12/12 and turned the red spectrum lights on 50%! The plants are about 20 inches tall so I'm excited to see how much they stretch. I have about 70 inches to raise my lights, and I prefer to keep at least a 21 inch gap between the lights and the tops. Day 66: AutoWhite Widow This girl is looking pretty great! We've got a few pictures from different angles of the plant and of the top cola and the cola with the darkest pistils. I'm thinking around three weeks left? Any opinions? It's supposed to be ~70 days, according to the breeder, and it's at day 66 as of today. The two leaves on the left side of the plant that had a slight deficiency have darkened back up, and the mulch layer keeps disappearing! I think things are healthy. We've still got gnats and other minor pests around the garden, but I haven't seen any signs that this lady is suffering because of them. Anyone see anything that I'm missing?
(this update is from yesterday) Day 7 (flower) - Y Griega CBD The plants look pretty great! Pistils are coming in. The nutrient deficiency on that one top seems resolved. The plants are just getting straight water through the Blumats! Kind of on auto-pilot, right now. I'll probably trim up underneath pretty heavily in another week or so. As of the last update, the white spectrum was on 100%, and the red spectrum was on 50%. I turned the red spectrum up further, and it caused the circuit breaker to trip in this portion of my home so I turned the red spectrum back to 50%... I have a pretty large air conditioner in the same room so once the outside temperatures cool down and I take it out, I'll be able to turn the lights up a bit more. I may turn down the white spectrum and turn up the red spectrum so the plants get more red without tripping the breaker. Day 73 - AutoWhite Widow Looking pretty good -getting noticeably smelly and definitely showing some more frost! I figure that it's still a few weeks from harvest, but we'll see what the plant tells me as we go along. Temps are in the 90°s F for parts of this week, which is unusual for Seattle, but they're expected to drop back down into the 80°s F. The smoke blowing down from British Columbia is block some good sun, but the plants seem to be thriving (especially my basil!). Had a few other guests in my garden! Meyer lemon tree on the left and lavender on the right.
No pictures right now, but the plants all look pretty great. The Y Griega CBDs are showing some obvious pistils (day 12 of flower so not a surprise). I top dressed with some neem meal, kelp meal, oyster shell, langbeinite, and ground malted barley a few days back. I watered that stuff in with some 100% organic coconut water. I tried to confirm that the coconut water was raw, but I couldn't find any at any grocery stores around me that specifically said raw. It shouldn't hurt the plants if it isn't raw, but it just won't have the same benefits. I also just got some tinctures from MOFO -tonic and aloe. Looking forward to giving the girls their first aloe tonight! I'll hold off on the tonic for a bit, but I'll probably give them some towards the end of the month. The blumats are keeping things very well moist without runoff, except for one runaway blumat that I had a few days back. I had adjusted that blumat a day or two prior because the pot seemed dry on that side, and I think that caused the runaway. The auto white widow is doing really well. Today is day 78. I was hoping that she would finish up this week, but the smoke from the wildfires up north is blocking a lot of sunlight so I'm not sure. It seems like most of the tops have mostly orange pistils, but there are a few tops that are still mostly light colored pistils. I checked out the trichomes under 60x zoom, and there were almost no amber, but it was definitely almost all cloudy on the tops that are further along. She could definitely pack on some more weight though. Just a waiting game (a weighting game?) In other news, I picked up a 25 gallon fabric pot for my next grow in the tent. I'm going to need to mix up some more soil (running out of room in the garage...), but I think it'll be worth it to have a healthier soil environment. I have a bit more than a cubic foot that I mixed a while back so I think I'll mix up another cubic foot, and then I'll rejuvenate the nine gallons that I've got in my current pots and mix it all together. I'd like to have between 20-22 gallons of soil in the pot, leaving room for a good layer of cover crop (planning on using white clover, unless anyone has recommendations) and a mulch of wheat straw and fan leaves. My only concern is that the deeper pot is going to require more precise tuning of the blumats because I won't have a drip pan large enough for the pot... The tent comes with a small liner, but I'm not confident that that is waterproof. Anyone have any thoughts?
I just transplanted a clone into a 25 gallon fabric pot, and I also don't have a large enough splash pan. I would say just err on the side of caution. I won't ever give it more than 2 gallons at a time, and probably will just stick to 1 gallon at a time. With my mix, I know from experience that it won't drain out the bottom if I keep to these limits. If you are still concerned, you could place a towel underneath the pot to catch runoff. I have done that in the past and it works, but can be a pain if you want to switch the towel out. Your mileage may vary.
Hey, thanks for chiming in! I'll definitely have to be conservative with how I water, and I think that I'll have to settle for not having the pot perfectly and evenly moist 100% of the time, like it is right now, because I'll have to avoid runoff. Do you use a wet/dry vac to suck up excess? I've used towels to clean up runoff in the past, but I've never had one underneath the pot. I think that I'd be concerned with it getting gross. I've seen these mats that lift the pot up off of the ground so more air gets in there, but I'm not sure if that would just allow water to get down there and prevent me from cleaning it up. Thoughts?
Man, for somebody who was seemingly unsure of what to do a short time ago when I first subbed, you are kickin ass over here Bacon! Your plants (inside and out) are looking most excellent! Nice work man. FWIW, I've used towels in the past underneath my fabric pots as well. I was actually using them to intentionally keep moisture in pots while I was out of town. I soak em wet and place the pots on top then water to pot (basic wicking method). I can tell you for sure that they will begin to stink pretty good after a while so the bigger the pot the more likely it'll be a PITA to keep replacing them...at least it was for my lazy self. Just food for thought.
Thanks, 3Deez! I really appreciate the compliment. I'm amazed at how much I didn't know about organic gardening three months ago lol. I still feel a bit like I'm a bit behind in developing a health soil web, but I'm still reading. Thanks for commenting on the towels. I'll probably lean away from doing that. Do you have any experience rejuvenating old root balls? I'm trying to decide which method is the best -EM-1 or malted barley (or both)? If malted barley, should I basically apply a top dressing and water it in or should I make a tea?
I put dry towels underneath so the rocks or concrete doesn't cook my roots, even tho the pots release heat it's just to hot here for all that... but your saying you wet the towel first? And what does that do?
Hey AZ, I was gonna let 3Deez respond, but are you familiar with using a wick system in hydroponics? You have a water source beneath your growing medium and use a wick running through the growing medium and into the water source. As the medium dries out, the wick pulls up more water and keeps the medium moist. What I gather is, 3Deez needed a way to get away from watering for a few days, and he placed damp towels near the base of his fabric pot so as the pot dried up, it would wick the water from the towels to keep moist. Good temporary solution! I'm a fan of my blumats though
Bingo! I use the towels or any other material suitable to allow for slow wicking of moisture. This keeps the pots moist for me during extended periods where I'm away from the garden. Last time I did this, my plants went 13 days between waterings and still we're not dried out. I don't really like using towels for this if I don't have to. They can get pretty stinky so I rather use a perlite bed to set the pots on top of. There is a really good thread here in organics on the wicking methods that can be used. Might be the complete opposite of what y'all are talking about now that I think of it, lol.
My experience with EM-1 is very limited. I purchased a bottle years ago. Didn't notice anything special but then again, I don't believe the difference would be that big of your soil is already running good. It's just an inoculant to increase your microbe diversity. It does work but my personal opinion is that if you're gonna go the route of using this sort of product, you'll save yourself a bunch of money by doing most if not all of it by making your own. The subject of natural farming involves harnessing indigenous microbes that you have locally that allow you to do pretty much the same. Ive kinda moved away from making all the ferments and stuff this sort growing calls for. Instead I've gone back to just relying on good quality compost/vermicompost top dresses or full on soil recycling.
lmao, yeah, originally, I was expressing concern about capturing runoff if I soil drench when using blumats. Right now, the pans that my three gallon pots are in work well, but since I'm upgrading to a 25 gallon pot... I'll just have to be more cognizant of how much I'm drenching and how much time I give them medium to soak it up. Did you see my above question about rejuvenating old root balls (my current three gallon pots)? Basically, I need three cubic feet of soil. I have one already mixed, and I'm mixing a second one. I was hoping to use the soil that my current three plants are in to fill up the remainder, but since roots are coming out of the bottom of the fabric pots, I'm pretty sure that they're basically just root balls, by this point. Would I be better off just mixing up new soil, or can EM-1 or MBP break down the roots pretty quickly after I harvest? Thanks for the help... Edit: just saw your response. I'll look into 'full on soil recycling'!
So I found a few older posts that discuss how to break down old root balls, but I think the process is going to take longer than what I'm willing to wait to fill up my 25 gallon pot for the next cycle in the tent. I'm still going to break them down for future use, but I'll just mix up another couple of cubic feet for immediate use.
FWIW, I take a sort of no till approach. I just chop my plants at the soil level and leave the root ball in tact. I just plant the next plant next to the stump of the old and continue providing new inputs via top dressing aka soil building. In a few weeks to months...or whenever I notice the old stump, I give it a tug and it comes right up with roots completely broken down and gone.
Yeah, that's definitely the plan, but since I'm upgrading pot size, I didn't really feel like I could just drop the 3-gallon root balls in the larger pot. No biggie. I'll toss some EM-1, MBP, and Malibu compost in with these root balls and let em sit for a while. They'll work their way into the garden eventually -maybe not till next year's outdoor, but eventually! Thanks for the help!