Stankie's Organics

Wanted to put the grow room back to use.

Bought some clones, all be it large ones, from my local dispensary today. 3 different varieties.

Red Dragon



Big Buddha Cheese



Purple Urkle

The Group Shot

 

Here is my grow room details and materials used:

4 foot by 5 foot closet. Lined with mylar and blacked out for privacy around door frame. Access to attic from closet.
Legal 3 plant grow.
400w HPS
3 - 5 Gallon Smart Pots
Home made drip pan supported by two end tables. Light distance is about 2 feet. Gonna let them grow up a little before flowering.

Strains:
Red Dragon
Big Buddha Cheese
Purple Urkle

Soil is my own mix:

I used a quality potting soil made by a local nursery. I made a lower mix of soil that I put on the bottom of the pots. I figured I would add a little more product to so the roots can grow into it and not have too much shock. It consisted of:

1 20 quart bag of potting soil
2 gallons of organic compost
2 quarts of high quality earth worm castings
2 cup and a half of local organic alfalfa meal
1/3 cup of In Full Bloom by Age Old Organics. It consists of Volcanic rock dust, bone meal, blood meal, poultry manure compost, and humic acid.


This are what my pots look like after filling with the bottom mix of soil.




Then I mixed another batch for the top portion of my pots. Kinda the same, just less product and some fungi spores:

1 20 quart bag of potting soil
1 gallon of organic compoast
2 quarts of high quality earth worm castings
2 cup and a half of local organic alfalfa meal
1/8 cup of In Full Bloom by Age Old Organics
3 table spoons of water-soluble mycorrhizae

I also soaked the clones in a root dip of mycorrhizae mixed with about a gallon of water. I planted each clone with a hand full of EWC as a top dressing. Water in with the root dip water and then another gallon to make sure soil was thoroughly wet.


Red Dragon on the left, Purple Urkle on the right, and Big Buddha Cheese in the middle.

I trimmed them a little so I can tie them down for a LST grow. I am going to go buy some of that velcro stuff tonight or tomorrow to start to train them.

Here a pic of my ghetto home made drip pan. It is triple lined with thick black plastic. The main pan consists of duct taped cardboard placed on a few boards for extra support. No more dealing with those little pans ever again!!



I am planning on only using water and fish/kelp hydrolysate as soil food. (Fingers cross) This is my first attempt at a organic grow, but I'm hoping for good things. I have read a lot of what LumperDawgz as well as others have posted here. The clones were fairly well rooted, but I want to make sure they jump off to a good start. I'm gonna brew up some ACT and give them a soak in a few days. I am using filtered tap water currently and am considering taking a few gallons from an irrigation ditch that runs near here for my watering needs from now on. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks CrazyPineApple!! I've been looking through your grow for a bit now.

Yeah. The only standard sized clones the dispensary had were all Durban Poison, which is what I grew last time. These ones weren't that much more expensive, so I went for the bigger clones. I had a mostly sativa grow last time with 2 DP and 1 white widow.

 

I just used twine to tie them down for LST. I poked small holes in the edge of the Smart Pot and tied twine through the holes. I also moved the plants closer to the light and onto a sturdier table. They are probably 18 inches from light to top of plant.




I ordered some Neptune's Harvest Fish/Kelp that should be arriving beginning of next week. I'm gonna give them a soak as soon as I get it. Probably gonna wait on the ACT until next weekend. Let the ladies settle in first, then give them a drink of tea.

 

Welcome aboard Chuck.

I hope I can keep them looking as nice throughout my grow! Hoping the organic way keeps me from burning them to all hell like I do with regular grows.

Should be getting my tub of Neptune's tomorrow, so I'm gonna give them some of that mixed in with some ditch water. Temps are ranging from about 80-90 F. It should cool off by the time I start to flower her, so temps will come down hopefully by then. Probably only gonna veg for 3 weeks or so. Wanna let the roots develop more and get a few more bud sites for the LST. My grow closet is in my bedroom . . . gotta get used to the 24 hour sunlight again.

 

Here is an update one week in. I don't think that the clones were that well established when I bought them. The roots did not fill the plastic tubs that much when I transplanted them. I have had them under a 400w HPS at a distance of about 2' for 24 hours a day since I bought them. I don't know what kind of light they were under at the growers place, but at the store there isn't much light. I think that the new growth is stealing nutrients from the older leaves in an effort to grow new roots and shoots. Some of the older leaves have yellowed and dried up on all 3 plants. Purple Urkle has been the most affected, Red Dragon has been the least affected.

Red Dragon




Purple Urkle




Big Buddha Cheese




I watered them on Tuesday with a gallon of some ditch water and 3 tablespoons of Neptune's Fish/Seaweed per plant. The yellowing seems to be slowing now that the roots are hopefully growing profusely. I watered each plant last night with a gallon of the ditch water mixed with 4 tablespoons of Fish/Seaweed with 1/2 tablespoon of epsom salt (the new growth was a little too lime greenish). The soil was pretty dry but still moist just under the crust on top. Each plant started to drain right at about a gallon. I'm thinking the new growth will borrow the nutes from the older leaves and they will eventually mostly fall off. I"m also thinking that maybe the soil hasn't started to collaborate yet and the microbe life is still reawakening. Gonna get some compost tea bubbling sometime today and give it a good jump start!

Temps with the light on 24 hours a day were ranging from 70 in the morning to about 85 in the evening. I set a timer today to start a 20 on/4 off schedule starting tomorrow morning. I am thinking/hoping to start flowering in no more than 3 weeks from now. I think the roots will be big and hopefully the top growth suits my tie down method. I am going to trim the lower bud sites to try to get all the growth into the nice upper canopy buds.

My last grow was with a 150w HPS, so I'm curious to see the difference in size/quality with my new light. I grew a mostly sativa mix with 2 Durban Poison and 1 White Widow last round. I tried to keep them small, but didn't tie them down enough/efficiently. Yielded a little under 2 oz from each Durban and just under an Oz from the Widow. Which is actually one of the reasons I went for Smart Pots on this grow. My soil in the Widow pot got too compacted or something and didn't drain properly. My Widow yielded half of the Durban's and the roots were pathetically small after examination post harvest.

Like I mentioned I am going to hit them with some ACT tomorrow. I am then going to bubble up some alfalfa tea to add to the next watering. I don't really want to use city water. Even though it is good quality where I live I am going to do this grow using the ditch water. It runs near my house and it's purpose it to irrigate crop fields outside town. It runs all year, but does get iced over in some spots in the winter, dependent upon temperatures. I am eventually going to buy some ph strips just to check.

 

I just hiked down to the stream/ditch and took 3 more gallons. I currently have a batch of ACT brewing and some alfalfa soaking.



Used 1 1/2 gallons of the ditch water to make ACT. Mixed in 3/4 cup EWC and 3/4 cup thermophilic compost with 2 tablespoon of Fish/Seaweed. I am using an air pump that is optimal for about 7 gallon brews. It is a 70L model. I don't know the temp, but I will probably let it brew about 16-18 hours. I also started a 'fungal enhanced' portion of EWC and compost mixed with ground oats, slightly moistened. I will apply this in probably 2-3 weeks from now. I have 1 1/2 gallon of the ditch water mixed with 2 1/2 cups of ground alfalfa. It seems to be a high quality product. I am going to start bubbling this for at least a day after the ACT is finished. I will use both the ACT and alfalfa as root drenches, diluted as necessary. I have done heavy drenches on my house plants with other ACT brews, so I know they can tolerate a good soak.

 

Here are some more pics. I tied them down a little more today. Some I just adjusted and made the branches lower. Some I added a new tie to. A small amount of trimming.

Group Shot




Red Dragon




Purple Urkle




Big Buddha Cheese




Here is a group shot w/ no flash.

 

I have thought of that. I believe it is pretty clean, but am not sure. Still think it better than city water. I have some extra 1 gallon jugs I may fill up this weekend with some mountain spring water.

 

Well Possuum .... you got me all paranoid, so I actually did a little research last night/today and found the source and destination of the ditch. I call it a ditch simply because that is what it's name is, but it is essentially a stream between 2 lakes in my town. I think it was an irrigation ditch before any houses were here, but has now been made into a greenway.

The water originates from a clear mountain stream. I live about 6 miles from where the mountains start/stop in Colorado. I believe the ditch gets some runoff, but exclusively from grass cow pastures and not any farms/commercial livestock areas. Being an old privately owned ditch for irrigation, I don't *think* that the street runoff is drained into the water. I am almost sure of this fact. It does partially empty/drain from a weird shallow lake on the other side of town. I call it weird because it is no more than 9 feet deep but it is a fairly good sized lake (About 350 acre lake). I like to fish and I have taken my kayak out with a depth/fish finder so I know the depth is accurate. It has a fair amount of fish, but they are mostly carp and cat fish which will pretty much live in anything. It has a lot of suspended stuff in the water and is murky. The ditch drains into a reservoir. It is a public res where lots of people boat/swim/fish. That lake is what I would consider clean/clear water for being a city reservoir.

I personally haven't drank city water for almost 4 months. I am convinced that water is bad mojo. I don't really want to give it to my plants either. I live in Colorado so the tap water is clean, clear, neutral and all that, I still just don't trust it. I am going to stop using the ditch water, except in emergencies. I do think it added some more microbial diversity to my soil, I just am kind of paranoid about it now. I can fill up jugs of spring drinking water for 25 cents, but it is about 20 miles from my house and usually a line. Or I can go into the mountains and fill them up at a stream or lake for free.

Thanks. Good to hear!!

I had never even heard of it until I bought the clone. The dispensary only had 6 clones that were all giants. I just bought 1 of each variety. I'm looking forward to all 3, because I have never tried any of them

 

For ventilation I just leave my closet door wide open all the time. It has been starting to cool down, so my house doesn't need a/c. During the day I close all my windows in my house. I obviously leave my curtains to my room down all the time. I leave either a box fan or a stand fan blowing directly into my grow room from my bedroom. Normally tops out at about 85 F during the afternoon.

At night I have a blanket up over my closet that I drape down. I then set it up so the stand fan or box fan is blowing into the blanket in a way which isn't directly shinning in my eyes when I'm trying to sleep. I leave a table lamp on in my room so it isn't so telling with the orange glow. I have the lights set up for a 20 on/4 off schedule. They go off at 1:30am and turn back on at 5:30am. I get up and turn off the table lamp and fan after the light go out. Temp usually gets down to about 70 F over night in my closet. Usually about 60-65 in my house at night. I open windows on opposite sides of my house and let the night air cool down my house.

I also have a small circular fan that blows air directly under the light. It does a good job of keeping the heat off the plants and circulating air directly over the plants. I am thinking on starting to flower sometime after next week to before two weeks from now. I kind of want my grown, trimmed and cured bud to be first smoked on Christmas. Sort of a celebratory smoking, not for Christmas, but something else I won't get into on here ! I am going to prune and tie down later tonight, so I'll post some pics.

 

Here is what I have been up to ... I trimmed, tightened, and re-tied my LST strings, if needed. I also trimmed all the older discolored leaves. Trimmed some growing meristems if they were getting too high, too low, too little light etc . . . I try to take the profile shots with no flash so the shadows are reduced.

Red Dragon Before - Looking good!




Red Dragon After - Trimmed some fairly large stems coming off the top of the main stalk. Trimmed some lower shoots and leaves off.




Red Dragon Close Up - Notice how there is almost no purple on the stems! If I were growing this the "conventional" way they would be purple and all the leaves would be burned or messed up somehow!




Purple Urkle Before - Looking good!




Purple Urkle After - I only had to trim some leaves and a few shoots on her. Tied down 3 branches. She needed the least amount of attention.




Purple Urkle Close Up - She has a little more purple, but I believe that is strain related.




Big Buddha Cheese Before - Looking good!




Big Buddha Cheese After - She needed a lot of attention. Had to cut and retie almost all strings. Added a few new strings and did a fair amount of trimming large stems.




Big Buddha Cheese Close Up - Those leaves look darn near perfect!!




Group Shot - Top of canopy is approx 22" under light. I believe I can get within 16" - 18" safely within the light. I am going to make some lifts to get the plants closer to the light tomorrow. I will then be able to remove them individually to adjust the light when flowering begins.

 

Thanks Possuum! This is my first time doing this active of a tie down. I always topped/tied, but never this early into the growth cycle.

Do you let your plants grow mostly natural with flowering sites, or do you trim down heavily? I was thinking about cutting shoots down to a limited number before I start flowering to try to get juicier colas.

 

Well I just spent a while taking bong hits and visualizing what my ladies will hopefully look like when they are maturing. I did some finesse topping and fimming. I also adjusted the tie downs now that the tips have oriented toward the light. I trimmed a good number of shoots to make sure each eventual bud branch will have plenty of access to light and sufficient space to plump out nicely.

Does anybody have any recommendations on how many budding branches is optimal? Or should I keep more branches around and settle for smaller nugs?