A little direction please?

[HenryPotter]

Hey Folks-

I started an indica hybrid strain from seed on June 28th directly in some Roots 707 soil and 2.5" pots. They sprouted on July 1st, and here we are 12 days later. I transplanted them from their little pots to some 7gal pots in the same 707 soil. I had planned to augment the 707 with some dolomite lime. Alas, I forgot.

So here I am with my 4 girls in 7gal pots. There's a picture below, but I'm hoping for a little direction on where to go from here. I'd like to stay as close to organic as possible, but I don't know enough about the 707 to know where to start.

Do I need to feed them something? Tea? Top dressing? Am I good to go and just water them out until they "ask" for something?

I don't know if it matters, but I'm growing in a 4x4x7 tent, I have a 4" exhaust fan sucking the hot air out the top, two oscillating fans, and 2x HydroFarms 4 Lap T5 HO with the 6500k bulbs. I know it's not ideal, but I'll be flowering under the T5s as well, possibly getting some of the "red bulbs" {I think}.

I'm not going for record yields or anything (obviously with my light choice), but I would like to do everything I can given that setup to increase my yield while still remaining organic.

Thanks!

 

[Graytail]

Nice soil. Are you planning to stay organic?

Blue Planet Nutrients is a 420 sponsor and has a well-received line of nutes ...

 

[HenryPotter]

Yes, I'd like to stay organic although I'm a bit confused on what exactly that means.

Some folks seem to say "organic" as in anything I feed my plant, put in or on the soil, or put in the water is organic. Other say that to be organic you don't feed nutes, but just let the soil do the work and feed just straight water, and finally there's a middle ground of teas.

Given that I've already put the girls in their 7 gal tub of 707, I'm here to here the pro's/con's of all my "organic" options from this point on.

 

[Conradino23]

Check what's in your soil. If it's natural, it should be a living one, which means there are gonna be microbes and fungi. These are crucial for a good development of the root system, which absorbs nutrients. You can figure easily if plant grows all right by checking the vigor and caring for lack of deficiencies. Leaves shoud be of a nice colour and stem fattening quickly after first two weeks. Then a lot depends on the strain, right seed and stuff like that. You can start fertilizing after 3-4 weeks time with organic goodies rich in nitrogen. Hope that helps

 

[JJ Bones]

Yes, I'd like to stay organic although I'm a bit confused on what exactly that means.

Some folks seem to say "organic" as in anything I feed my plant, put in or on the soil, or put in the water is organic. Other say that to be organic you don't feed nutes, but just let the soil do the work and feed just straight water, and finally there's a middle ground of teas.

Given that I've already put the girls in their 7 gal tub of 707, I'm here to here the pro's/con's of all my "organic" options from this point on.

Organic can mean many things because it gets tossed around in discussion often, many times those in that discussion don't fully know what it means themselves.

or·gan·ic
adjective
1.
noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.
2.
characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from living organisms: organic remains found in rocks.
3.
of or pertaining to an organ or the organs of an animal, plant, or fungus.

Basically organic fertilizers and soil only contain ingredients that are derived from earth. Synthetic soil or fertilizer contain ingredients that are man-made, in laboratories, such as pharmaceutical drugs.

I find some people just want to grow Cannabis because they enjoy getting high and find it fun. Others get deeper then this and also do it because they understand it's nature, from the earth etc. If one has the deeper mindset to Cannabis why would you use "chemicals" to grow something "natural" ?

 

[HenryPotter]

Thanks for the replies all.

I'm not really sure where I land in the organic grey area. I eat mostly organic produce, grass fed beef, locally sourced eggs and chicken and pork. I like to locally source as much as possible, and like to eat as "clean" as possible.

I'm trying to apply this lifestyle as much as I can to my grow, but being a first time grower, I'm trying to dig through the marketing hype, the buzz words, and just figured out WTF is going to help me grow without me turning into Mr. Wizard and growing a third eye from some smoking some nuclear infused herb.

The competitive nature and analytical guy in me does want to try and maximize my grow, but not by compromising to chemicals and crazy stuff - to each there own though, I won't turn down a toke just because you're growing in a nuclear plant.

As I said, I've started Roots Organic 707 completely unaltered. I getting close to the point where I think I might need to start giving the girls a little something extra. The question now is do I:

Just keep it simple and stick to R/O H20 and hope Roots gets the girls through.
or
Start with some store bought compost teas to just keep the girls fed (if need?)
or
Mix up my own batch of teas with the fine information found here and on the interwebs
or
Top dress with some organic compounds (guano, EWC, epsom salts, etc
or
Keep it simple, but feed it Earth Juice (They seem to have a good line and easy instruction)
or
Pick up the $35 box of General Organics Go Box and try and be an Organic Mad Scientist
or
Some carzy combo of the above.

Right now, I'm leaning toward Earth Juice. I'm wide open for encourage in various directions.

Thanks again, they're all coming along pretty nicely.

 

[JJ Bones]

You will get 2-3 weeks from the 707 until you need more.

GO Box is a good option.

 

[HenryPotter]

So far 1 feeding with 50% Strength GO Box. Things are looking good. I'm pretty sure I over-watered the other day. I have a boat load of leaves kind of shriveling down and looking sad. They are dark green and growing well though.

I'm going to try to give them a few days without doing anything but letting them listen to music.

 

[Richard Richardson]

I think you are starting nutes too early.

Only use water until you see some sign of deficiency, i.e. Leaves turn lighter green, etc

 

[HenryPotter]

Here's what they look like. I'm 90% sure I've overwatered them. I think we started at nutes at right time. They were a bit lighter before them and have darkened up after.

 

[BigIrishDoode]

Since organic is a thing of importance to me I feel compelled to chime in, I run organic high brix style, since your in soil and want a simple food that's considered organic I will recommend a few things, Worm castings! Totally awesome! Black gold for plants, it's about as perfect an organic food you can get ,you can mix it in turmoil,top dress it,it will never burn,contains microbes,when I don't have any of my homemade castings I but worm gold plus,it has kelp and lava rock dust, I never grow without my worm poop!, another must have for me is AZOMITE! 70+ trace micro & macro minerals,this alone will up the nutrient density of anything you use it on! It's unique in the world and is so special I hear ppl drink it in water to get a boost of minerals, they have a site you can learn all about it flat out one of the single best amendments to get, !
For a basic all purpose 1 bag nutes system dirt cheap and widely scalable try Kellogg veggie nutes it is ormi listed and has macro,micro nutrients as well as a good range of mykos, it has directions for making tea,and runs 5-6 bucks at homie d's enough to feed quite a few plants seed to harvest, I have been using it on the veggies(2 5x8foot greenhouses,and a grip of outside ornamental plants, and my medicinal plants all summer, and still have half a 5lb bag and it too can be top dressed,(I would just brew a tea tho)
For a bloom booster in the last few weeks I would recommend making a tea with this:
5gal bucket ,1cup worm castings,1/2-1cup kelloggs veg nutes 2tbps bonemeal,2tbps Blackstrap molasses ,bubble it with an airstone & fishtank type pump,for 12-24hrs,it should have a nice thick foamy head on it you can keep it going for a few days so long as the odor does not turn foul it should not smell like rotten egg farty like a earthy musty sweetish odor is good, a good method is after the first full strength feeding add water to top it offand continue this for up to 2weeks (depending) at the end it will be basically plain water and what youve been doing is a bloom boost to flush then harvest, now depending on when you do this, if early in flower you would re add the goodies as soon as you get to the point where its getting close to being plain water
i hope this is making sense, lol see i keep up to 3 5gal buckets of different teas going all the time,(veg,flower,boost/specialty)
the boost recipe i only do that cycle twice during an 8-9 wk flower cycle,the second one is the one leading to harvest and it goes to plain water and stays like that(and is handy for any plant that just needs some water thats nicly aerreated) it also varies how often you re add the ingredients on how much water you need per plant,per day,
You can often get these things at local garden centers,homie d's,wallyz,ace, or online well I hope that helps,feel free to hit me up with questions,links to my journals in my sig,

 

[HenryPotter]

I figured I would check in and tell everyone how it was going.

I ended up going with the Roots 707 soil, then used the GO Box organics for soil at 50% of the recommended dose every other water.

Here's where I'm at today. 3 of the 4 were female, so I got lucky there.

 

[Rx-420dank]