Another Grow Thread (Organics, Conventional and OC+)

Grower Z

New Member
This is what I've got going:

Varieties - Blue Haze and KC-33.
Medium - Fafard Organics Potting Mix (55% Canadian sphagnum peat moss, aged pine bark, perlite, vermiculite, dolomitic limestone, gypsum, and all natural Perdue® organic fertilizer)

First off a quick overview of how these two groups were treated differently. The KC-33 were planted first, I think a week earlier, but are about to be passed in growth rate by the BH. All seeds were sprouted in a paper towel. The KC were planted in coarse perlite and later transplanted into 5" cups, the bottom half filled with coarse perlite and the top with Fafard OG mix.

The Blue Haze were planted in the Fafard OG mix the 5" cups directly after sprouting.

Initially they all were fed with plain water only but over the last week Neptune's Harvest Fish & Seaweed twice, my hydro solution at 0.8 EC and plain water once.

KC-33:
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Blue Haze:
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I also have a group of eleven Blue Haze and one Black Domina flowering around a bare, vertical 1K, but can't figure out how to take photographs with the lamp on. Eight of the BH are in a 70/30 coir/perlite mix that are fed 1.0 EC of my hydro solution.

The BD and three of the BH were transplanted tonight into version 1 of my organic/OC+ mix. Version 1 because the base medium is completely different.

They are planted in the Roots Organics Potting soil (Coco fiber, peat moss, perlite, pumice, premium worm castings, bat guano, kelp, fish bone meal, soy bean meal, feather meal, greensand, leonardite, and alfalfa meal) with additional Kelp Meal and Oscmocote Plus.

I will attempt to get some pictures of them away from the bulb tomorrow.

The RO potting soil is a nice mix, but expensive.

The destination mix for the plants pictured above has Fafard FOF 30 (almost exactly the same as the Fafard OG potting mix) as the base medium with Espoma Bio-Tone Starter Plus, Kelp Meal and OC+.

I think the plan going forward is it to once a week water the plants in that mix with a compost tea or if I'm a bit lazy, just an immediate mix or one of these (fish/seaweed hydrosylate, humic acid, molasses).

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Yes we do think alike.

I mixed the Bio-Tone, the Kelp meal and the OC+ all the same time and evenly throughout.

The instructions call for 2.25 cups per cubic foot of "potting mix". It doesn't say much else. This is my first time using the Bio-Tone.

The tap water is very good and the source is only a mile away. current TA = 40-45 ppm and pH = 6.8 I never use pH down accept if conditioning rockwool cubes for cuttings.

The KC-33s are ready for transplant and the 600w bulb.
The seedlings were planted in Fafard Organic potting mix, but I'm going to stick with the FOF-30 or 3B from now on. They are much fluffier, which is the aim here - for a medium that can be watered more often.

Speaking of cuttings, I was gifted three blueberry last week, they were kind of big, so from two of them I took nine. I also took 17 from the Blue Haze plants that just started flowering a week ago and have 8 others from a Black Domina seed. I am Testing several different cloning methods for efficiency - a wick cloner (w/dome) with Turface MVP, a bubble cloner and rockwool cubes vs jiffy peat pellets under a dome.
 
Two quick photos to show how the bulb is hung.

A piece of wood is nailed to the studs in the ceiling.

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Cheapo fan to dissipate heat from the bulb.

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So I'll put the KC-33 around this bulb until their big enough to flower. Hopefully no more than two weeks.

In the flowering room, it's different at the ceiling, but the same concept.

I've done two 600w HPS stacked one on top the other with plants that finished up 4-5 feet tall and that worked extremely well.
 
Two quick photos to show how the bulb is hung.

A piece of wood is nailed to the studs in the ceiling.

1028001128a.jpg


Cheapo fan to dissipate heat from the bulb.

1028001128.jpg


So I'll put the KC-33 around this bulb until their big enough to flower. Hopefully no more than two weeks.

In the flowering room, it's different at the ceiling, but the same concept.

I've done two 600w HPS stacked one on top the other with plants that finished up 4-5 feet tall and that worked extremely well.

I'm loving the lights!

Do you rotate the plants at all, the get light on the backside, or do you just let the plants arrange themselves?
 
No I don't rotate. Some do, but I think more don't because what happens is you'll see the plant basically stopping to turn and grow back towards the light. Gravitropism. So I let the plant shape it self around the bulb. The light is off right now, I will take a picture later, but the plants grow in a shape almost like a V with the leaves of course facing the bulb. It forms a front and back face instead of a top and bottom canopy. The "back" nodes fan out towards the side, like a bat extending wings. Also this means there isn't one giant cola at the top, everything grows a little more uniform.
 
I don't have enough power on that floor where the veg room is to run an AC, which is the one downfall of the separate veg room...it's at the mercy of the general outdoor temp. Usually though, it's a consistent 75/60 with the 600w on and that's with me running a humidifier on most days during the fall and winter.
 
No I don't rotate. Some do, but I think more don't because what happens is you'll see the plant basically stopping to turn and grow back towards the light. Gravitropism. So I let the plant shape it self around the bulb. The light is off right now, I will take a picture later, but the plants grow in a shape almost like a V with the leaves of course facing the bulb. It forms a front and back face instead of a top and bottom canopy. The "back" nodes fan out towards the side, like a bat extending wings. Also this means there isn't one giant cola at the top, everything grows a little more uniform.

Very cool.

Oh...just to needle you a little bit....when you said gravitropism, you really meant phototropism. I know you know that....:blunt:
 
To give an idea on the vertical growth, this Blue Haze (Coco and perlite, not OG) has been in 12/12 for a week or so now, but vegged for about two weeks after being transplanted to a 1.5 gallon square.

front view:

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side view:

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You can see how the leaves are not perpendicular to the main stem, but instead on an angle towards the bulb that hangs in front of the plant, 16" away.

This plant is in the group of 12 around a 1k HPS. With just a single bulb, I hang it a little bit off center during the stretch part of 12/12, raising it as the plants grow taller than than drop it a little bit lower towards the center when the stretch period is over.
 
Transplanted on 10/31 into 1 gallon containers with Fafard FOF 30 + Espoma BioTone Plus / Kelp Meal / OC+

I tried to block the HPS with a hand with while shooting these.

KC 33

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Blue Haze
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group

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It's blinding even to look at the damn bulb in a photograph.

I would like to these to grow to an average of 18" tall before the onset of 12/12. The two big ones are BlueBerry clones that were transplanted from huge rockwool blocks, with some of it ripped away, into 2 gallon pots surrounded by the same Fafard based mix.

Another thing to do today is buy some bricks so these in the pool can be elevated for open drainage.
 
This is what happens 48 hours after mixing the Bio-Tone plus / Kelp Meal (and OC+) evenly throughout the Fafard FOF-30 and covering. No water added and the FOF-30 is relatively dry out of the bag.

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can you see it? pretty exciting stuff. I need to get access to a microscope!
 
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