Glookies, Echo Thrive, Monster Crop

[Autofacade]

Sooo they were looking at me and persuaded me that they were ready to go up to a bigger pot they all finnished up there water and I'm kinda glad I did it tonight. I am absolutely gob smacked with the amount of root growth from the previous up pot! In the space of 7 days! I'm over the moon! So they went up straight into there 56ltr fabric pots watered in with some katana root booster, seaweed, bio wetter and a splash of silica. I always make the hole a perfect fit using the pots they are currently sat in, wet the hole with my foliar spray bottle and add some mycrohizae granuals. They are now snug and I will return to them on monday! The structure of some of these plants!!! how it's all changed! Glookies you are looking sexier by the day! Even the worms are loving it!

Question for you guys I have 2 plants that are perfectly fine just didn't make the cut compared to the others I have stuck them both into my seedling tent for now under a 300w cfl but I havent a clue what to do with them and I'd hate to cop em! Any ideas????

 

[Autofacade]

So its the beginning of week 4 now and the girls are very happy! Lower growth is really coming out. I have a question for you guys as I'm a bit torn as to what to do. On each of the plants they have 2 massive fan leaves blocking light to the collars underneath. I want bush like plants hense the fimming technique used. My question is do I sacrifice the two big solar panel leaves for light penetration or do I just let the collars eventually push passed maybe?? please advise and add your thoughts. Thanks! Heres a couple of pics showing you and a couple of my girls

 

[Kimber015]

Just saw your journal from your question you asked in the FAQ, I have no comment on that as an experienced grower, but it was nice to see another UK grower. I’m sure there is plenty here, just not often said.

We have quite similar set ups, from some of your pictures I’d have said it was my grow tent. Same lights, intake fan and hung the same way. I saw on the first part of your journal you mentioned about it being first grow indoors, no restrictions. Just to confirm, not your first grow indoors? Struggling to think where I’d plant a grow in this miserable weather outside.

 

[Autofacade]

Hi @Kimber015 Nice of you to pull up a seat! That's good news at least if we are running the same set up we can exchange info tips etc. Have you a grow on the go atm? I've had to move some bits around for it to work better moved the heater inside the tent and the position plus a humidifier. This is my first proper grow indoors, I had a nice grow outdoors 2019 during the summer had some monsters one 7ftx8ft was beautiful unfortunately outdoors is getting more and more difficult with more rain than I had ever seen before etc. But this is my first proper set up indoors where I dont have to stealth as much. I did one auto grow but that was in a little 75x75x90. But that went to shit also.

Yh having another grower in the UK is pretty awesome I have a couple people I have on WhatsApp a little bit of a community kinda thing. But gotta be very careful.

Just for everyones information. This set up and the cannabis grown is for personal use only and for medicinal purposes. This grow as much as I run it, grow the plants and do everything myself half of these plants and equipment are possessed by a partner in this project. Had to be said!

 

[Autofacade]

Just a little update on the grow. Day 22 today and there were screams and all sorts of shouting coming from the tent today. I had enough of them being comfortable and flipping the bird at me by refusing to spread out so they got bent right over and there collars played around with. By tucking the leaves down and under all the under colars are now exposed to light. Let's see if they get there act together. And to add to injury the two I was wondering what to do with I have kept in 30ltr pots and managed to squeeze them in the middle after re arranging the tent, I have topped aswell after first fimming. They are my test subjects that I will be playing with throughout the grow.

I also took a leaf out of @Emilya Grow journal and introduced nutrient spikes into the soil by using soil amendments. I poked a bamboo stick 1/2" wide down 6" around 2" in from the side, being in material pots I dont want it all drying out. And filled it with a mixture of:
Blood meal
Oyster shell
Alfalfa
Fish blood and bone
Palm tree ash
Life cycle
Charge
Seaweed meal
Multi purpose fert.

I put two of these in at the north and south of the pot and then put another two east and west of the pot but with a difference this is a flowering blend consisting of:

Oyster shell
Seaweed meal
Charge
Volcanic rock dust
Bat guano
Bone meal

Please check out @Emilya grow journal as I'm purely copying her idea on this one.

I also added an avocado to each of the pots with an x cut into the top and the insides pushed out. This is a trick I found that will act as a baby centre for worms. It should create them to breed like wild fire the more worms the better my soil gets!

 

[Kimber015]

Hi @Kimber015 Nice of you to pull up a seat! That's good news at least if we are running the same set up we can exchange info tips etc. Have you a grow on the go atm? I've had to move some bits around for it to work better moved the heater inside the tent and the position plus a humidifier. This is my first proper grow indoors, I had a nice grow outdoors 2019 during the summer had some monsters one 7ftx8ft was beautiful unfortunately outdoors is getting more and more difficult with more rain than I had ever seen before etc. But this is my first proper set up indoors where I dont have to stealth as much. I did one auto grow but that was in a little 75x75x90. But that went to shit also.

Yh having another grower in the UK is pretty awesome I have a couple people I have on WhatsApp a little bit of a community kinda thing. But gotta be very careful.

Just for everyones information. This set up and the cannabis grown is for personal use only and for medicinal purposes. This grow as much as I run it, grow the plants and do everything myself half of these plants and equipment are possessed by a partner in this project. Had to be said!

Yeah that’s what I was thinking, I had a bloody nightmare first time round. Yeah, I think it shows in my signature my current grow. They are about 17 days old from planting. I’ve got the tent in a room with central heating, so I’ve not had to worry about the cold too much fortunately, my problem has been with heat, I’m dreading the summer.

I’m using 20 litre fabric pots, I used 11 last time, seeing your pots make me wants to go bigger next time, it seems you’ve got plenty of space still.

Yeah I saw you moved the extract and filter and hung it in the tent, that would of been my biggest recommendation, that almost silenced the extract fan and it kept it out of the way. My humidity sits at around 40/50 at the moment, it could be better but I’d have to invest in a humidifier and I’m already spending too much. I had to purchase a dehumidifier around week 4 in flower as without it my tent was happy to go into the 90s when the lights went off, was a right pain.

I’ve attached a photo of my fans and intake, I plan to replace the stand up fan with another hanging fan soon. I found the clips on ones just too weak for my liking.

That’s pretty cool with the WhatsApp, I know a few people personally, but nothing is ever shared online, they wouldn’t dream of doing a journal themselves.

 

[Autofacade]

Yeah that’s what I was thinking, I had a bloody nightmare first time round. Yeah, I think it shows in my signature my current grow. They are about 17 days old from planting. I’ve got the tent in a room with central heating, so I’ve not had to worry about the cold too much fortunately, my problem has been with heat, I’m dreading the summer.

I’m using 20 litre fabric pots, I used 11 last time, seeing your pots make me wants to go bigger next time, it seems you’ve got plenty of space still.

Yeah I saw you moved the extract and filter and hung it in the tent, that would of been my biggest recommendation, that almost silenced the extract fan and it kept it out of the way. My humidity sits at around 40/50 at the moment, it could be better but I’d have to invest in a humidifier and I’m already spending too much. I had to purchase a dehumidifier around week 4 in flower as without it my tent was happy to go into the 90s when the lights went off, was a right pain.

I’ve attached a photo of my fans and intake, I plan to replace the stand up fan with another hanging fan soon. I found the clips on ones just too weak for my liking.

That’s pretty cool with the WhatsApp, I know a few people personally, but nothing is ever shared online, they wouldn’t dream of doing a journal themselves.

Yh our sets ups are pretty similar indeed! Yh 8x 56ltr fabric pots fit in there nice under the 2 600w hps I've just used the rest of the space cos I had 100% germination rate and couldn't bare to throw the last 2 girls away. Then I went even further and gunna chuck a couple autos in the 3 10ltr pots cos I fancy trying a couple varieties quick time.

All I would say is with 56ltr everything gets more expensive and the less plants more soil normally means increase of veg time but for those who wait kinda thing.... I'm creating a 100% organic living soil (or at least trying) so I am using the ecothrive set up which is a great starting block and apparently only add water soil but sod that! That's boring and there is always room for improvement. But at £30 for 40ltrs its expensive! But I will never need to buy soil again. I've been trying to encourage a high bio diversity of life in the soil etc when growing in this style it soon becomes all about the soil and the plant secondary. I make teas and ferments throughout the grow I only use one bottle feed and that's an organic PK for the very end apart from that everything is made at home. @Emilya And @Nunyabiz Have some seriously good journals if you wanna go organic growing direction. Which I'd advise as reading your journals you like a good project and reading into things.

 

[Kimber015]

Yh our sets ups are pretty similar indeed! Yh 8x 56ltr fabric pots fit in there nice under the 2 600w hps I've just used the rest of the space cos I had 100% germination rate and couldn't bare to throw the last 2 girls away. Then I went even further and gunna chuck a couple autos in the 3 10ltr pots cos I fancy trying a couple varieties quick time.

All I would say is with 56ltr everything gets more expensive and the less plants more soil normally means increase of veg time but for those who wait kinda thing.... I'm creating a 100% organic living soil (or at least trying) so I am using the ecothrive set up which is a great starting block and apparently only add water soil but sod that! That's boring and there is always room for improvement. But at £30 for 40ltrs its expensive! But I will never need to buy soil again. I've been trying to encourage a high bio diversity of life in the soil etc when growing in this style it soon becomes all about the soil and the plant secondary. I make teas and ferments throughout the grow I only use one bottle feed and that's an organic PK for the very end apart from that everything is made at home. @Emilya And @Nunyabiz Have some seriously good journals if you wanna go organic growing direction. Which I'd advise as reading your journals you like a good project and reading into things.

Funnily enough, I do 10 and only keep 8, but I’ve not had the heart to chuck the other 2. I’ve left them under the 210 watt T5 light. I don’t plan to flower them, I’ve just repotted them to 2 litre pots and I want to just practise mainlining with them. If I F*ck it up it’s no big deal. I’ll send them your way and you can add even more to the tent.

That’s pretty incredible with the soil. I first saw your price and thought no way, but realising you don’t have to change it each time sounds good. Disposing the soil with the perlite in is just another thing I’ve got to be careful about and it’s a pain so I’m interested to see how you get on with this.

How long are you planning to veg?

@Emilya has been helping me through out my journal and it’s been so helpful, I haven’t had a chance to check out @Nunyabiz journals but I’ll put that onto the list to check out tonight while I’m staring at the plants. The organic really does have my attention. I’ve realised there is just an endless amount of experience on this forum, I keep finding new journals and following them.

What will you do in regards to flushing when using organics?

 

[Autofacade]

Haha I chucked em in my seedling tent under the 300w cfl but could hear crying and sniffles coming from the tent so I gave in and just chucked em in the tent I'm gunna use them as my test subjects as I'm not overly keen on there pheno's ones tight as a ducks bum and the other just a mutant but either way they will be flowered and I'll treat em just the same as the others lol.

Yh if you are worried about perlite and will be changing your soil each time look into plant magic soil they use alternatives and I really like there soil had good results with there stuff. Or keep your old soil and re amend leave it for 30days to cook and off you go again with your own organic super soil .

Veg how ever long it takes to fill the tent I'm currently on day 23 so into my 3rd week so I am aiming for 6-7weeks veg.

Oh yes this is by far the best forum and well maintained i have been on. Very rarely do you find a douche on here.

Organics is awesome for this. As I am not feeding the plant directly I am feeding the soil and the life within it I dont need to worry about flush. My feed is not salt based so there is none of that, there are no chemicals or build ups of any sort. The only thing I will do is split the stem but shoving a spike through them a week before harvest. But that has other benefits also.
Even when using organic liquid feeds I know of people feeding up until the last water when they just add water and the smoke was great. That's the awesomeness of organics yes you can argue set up can be more pricey but once you have everything its Penny's the end result is amazing taste aroma and smoke plus your not smoking chemicals. And tbh when people say you loose time growing organics, I know of people getting better yield using super soils and doing organics properly and keep up with the likes of DWC.

 

[Nunyabiz]

You will probably need to do a soil test about every 3 years or so.
I just did one for my two pots after 7 grows on them.
Everything was fine or even a little high except for Potassium and Magnesium were a bit low so I am going to do a good top dress of some langbeinite to bring those back up. And a little extra Comfrey Peach Fermented Plant Juice.

In LOS no-till 15 gallon fabric pots should be the absolute minimum size pot.

I have found 25 gallon to be just about right to maintain a really good little ecosystem.

 

[Autofacade]

You will probably need to do a soil test about every 3 years or so.
I just did one for my two pots after 7 grows on them.
Everything was fine or even a little high except for Potassium and Magnesium were a bit low so I am going to do a good top dress of some langbeinite to bring those back up. And a little extra Comfrey Peach Fermented Plant Juice.

In LOS no-till 15 gallon fabric pots should be the absolute minimum size pot.

I have found 25 gallon to be just about right to maintain a really good little ecosystem.

I'm interested to know how you test your soil for these elements? Would be very interesting to know. I would love to test my pond water which I use to water my plants to see what's in that aswell!

 

[Autofacade]

Another little update on the grow. He have quite literally thousands of new guests joining the party! May I welcome you all to white springback mites. These little critters work wonders at breaking down material you add especially as top dress and work together with the worms. A match made in heaven!

 

[Nunyabiz]

I have predator Mites and Rove Beetles in my soil.
They do a great job of killing fungus gnats and any soil borne pest.
Plus help break down soil and since they only live about 20 days leave all kinds of fras and little dead bodies .

 

[Nunyabiz]

I'm interested to know how you test your soil for these elements? Would be very interesting to know. I would love to test my pond water which I use to water my plants to see what's in that aswell!

I take samples and send them to a lab

 

[Kimber015]

Haha I chucked em in my seedling tent under the 300w cfl but could hear crying and sniffles coming from the tent so I gave in and just chucked em in the tent I'm gunna use them as my test subjects as I'm not overly keen on there pheno's ones tight as a ducks bum and the other just a mutant but either way they will be flowered and I'll treat em just the same as the others lol.

Yh if you are worried about perlite and will be changing your soil each time look into plant magic soil they use alternatives and I really like there soil had good results with there stuff. Or keep your old soil and re amend leave it for 30days to cook and off you go again with your own organic super soil .

Veg how ever long it takes to fill the tent I'm currently on day 23 so into my 3rd week so I am aiming for 6-7weeks veg.

Oh yes this is by far the best forum and well maintained i have been on. Very rarely do you find a douche on here.

Organics is awesome for this. As I am not feeding the plant directly I am feeding the soil and the life within it I dont need to worry about flush. My feed is not salt based so there is none of that, there are no chemicals or build ups of any sort. The only thing I will do is split the stem but shoving a spike through them a week before harvest. But that has other benefits also.
Even when using organic liquid feeds I know of people feeding up until the last water when they just add water and the smoke was great. That's the awesomeness of organics yes you can argue set up can be more pricey but once you have everything its Penny's the end result is amazing taste aroma and smoke plus your not smoking chemicals. And tbh when people say you loose time growing organics, I know of people getting better yield using super soils and doing organics properly and keep up with the likes of DWC.

Yeah I have thought about popping them into the tent, but it does help me figure out timelines for my next grow, plus I’d like to see how big I can get them under the veg light, allowing me to then overlap the plants longer and save even more time between harvests.

Amazing, I also have a mutant, but unfortunately it did find its way into the tent in one of the 8. Well, I call it a mutant because one half seems to have all larger leaves and it looks odd. However the 2 I didn’t put into the tent were struggling, 1 looked at least a week behind and the other was drooping real bad. It has however perked up so I’m considering swapping the mutant over. Need to make this decision quick but just don’t want to regret it.

Yeah you are right with that, I’ll veg until they have filled the tent, no point in flowering early.

Yeah I thought a flush wasn’t required when doing organics, but with it being sound a touchy subject with a lot of people I thought I’d ask, everyone appears to have a different opinion on that.

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone split the stem near the end, I’ll research into that to see the benefits rather than bug you for something I could likely find out on here already, but I look forward to hearing your views on this after you’ve done it.

Yeah my views on coco being faster came from just a few journals, so now you’ve got me intrigued with organics I’ll take a look into that. The comments I saw on coco vs soil was just a basic soil comparison, rather than organic so maybe that’s why it was said.

 

[Emilya Green]

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone split the stem near the end, I’ll research into that to see the benefits rather than bug you for something I could likely find out on here already, but I look forward to hearing your views on this after you’ve done it.

Check out my last grow, the one that won GJOTM, and you can see that right at the end, I didn't split the trunk, but I did screw a very large drywall screw into it right at the end just to let them know that death was approaching. The reasoning for doing such an outlandish thing is described in the journal.

 

[Autofacade]

Yeah I have thought about popping them into the tent, but it does help me figure out timelines for my next grow, plus I’d like to see how big I can get them under the veg light, allowing me to then overlap the plants longer and save even more time between harvests.

Amazing, I also have a mutant, but unfortunately it did find its way into the tent in one of the 8. Well, I call it a mutant because one half seems to have all larger leaves and it looks odd. However the 2 I didn’t put into the tent were struggling, 1 looked at least a week behind and the other was drooping real bad. It has however perked up so I’m considering swapping the mutant over. Need to make this decision quick but just don’t want to regret it.

Yeah you are right with that, I’ll veg until they have filled the tent, no point in flowering early.

Yeah I thought a flush wasn’t required when doing organics, but with it being sound a touchy subject with a lot of people I thought I’d ask, everyone appears to have a different opinion on that.

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone split the stem near the end, I’ll research into that to see the benefits rather than bug you for something I could likely find out on here already, but I look forward to hearing your views on this after you’ve done it.

Yeah my views on coco being faster came from just a few journals, so now you’ve got me intrigued with organics I’ll take a look into that. The comments I saw on coco vs soil was just a basic soil comparison, rather than organic so maybe that’s why it was said.

Yh we are very similar in approach for sure. I wanna see what a 300w cfl we will soon see with my clones when I get them.

Yh bro the amount of time you spend vegging it's all about prepping for flower getting that hench stem and getting everything mature.

Splitting the stem is an extremely high stress method to get the plant to shit itself close to the end causing trichome production and a last push. And it stops as much moisture and nutrients travelling up the plant, instead the plant uses up what it has left stored.

Yh have a look at it but there is a difference to organics and living soil but defo. Take a look at it all!

 

[Kimber015]

Check out my last grow, the one that won GJOTM, and you can see that right at the end, I didn't split the trunk, but I did screw a very large drywall screw into it right at the end just to let them know that death was approaching. The reasoning for doing such an outlandish thing is described in the journal.

As always, providing me with everything I need, thank you Emilya I’ll be taking a look at that.

 

[Kimber015]

Yh we are very similar in approach for sure. I wanna see what a 300w cfl we will soon see with my clones when I get them.

Yh bro the amount of time you spend vegging it's all about prepping for flower getting that hench stem and getting everything mature.

Splitting the stem is an extremely high stress method to get the plant to shit itself close to the end causing trichome production and a last push. And it stops as much moisture and nutrients travelling up the plant, instead the plant uses up what it has left stored.

Yh have a look at it but there is a difference to organics and living soil but defo. Take a look at it all!

Yeah it’ll be good to see how you get on with the clones, it may change my whole approach to this.

Some of the stems I see on here look insane, it’s one of the things I’d really like to see an improvement with on my current grow compared to my last.

That’s pretty cool, I’d heard of stressing the plant out near the end, just not to that extent.

I actually thought organics and living soil was the same, so that’s good to know, yeah I try to suck up as much information as possible with all of this.

 

[Emilya Green]

there is a difference to organics and living soil

basically there are two main branches of organic growing.... Living Organic Soil, LOS that Nun does, that requires huge containers and an ongoing effort to keep the life within the soil going.... and True Living Organics, TLO where it is possible to use as little as 2 gallon containers so you can fit a lot more in a room and not have to veg forever, but the soil is simply mineralized and cooked so the elements are beginning to break down, and then constantly during the grow the SYSTEM is brought to life by artificially adding in the microbes and fungi that make everything happen. In that type grow the soil is not considered to be living, whereas in LOS, the large container of soil could stand alone like a terrarium for months without any additional input, a complete living ecosphere.
Two completely different methods to get to the same end, the organic feeding cycle, controlled by the plants and the microlife.