Getting into organics and looking for advice or tips

[Stonedmoose]

First time organic growing, done a few pretty successful grows with GH but figured to take the leap into organics..

I've got 6 autos going right now and 3 photos. Going to wait to flower the photos after the autos are done. All plants are in 5g with a promix base living soil. I've got a gavita le900 and the tent is around 75-80 degrees with 65-70% rh...

I'll mostly be browsing the forums looking for tips and asking a question from time to time. Thanks!

 

[Keffka]

First time organic growing, done a few pretty successful grows with GH but figured to take the leap into organics..

I've got 6 autos going right now and 3 photos. Going to wait to flower the photos after the autos are done. All plants are in 5g with a promix base living soil. I've got a gavita le900 and the tent is around 75-80 degrees with 65-70% rh...

I'll mostly be browsing the forums looking for tips and asking a question from time to time. Thanks!

Welcome to the forums! You’re in a great place for organics.

Off the top of my head a few things you can do to improve your grows are:

Bigger containers/pots. If you’re gonna grow organic from seed with living or mineralized soils you’re gonna want bigger containers. I’ve found 7 gallons are the bare minimum size. At 7 they require spikes of nutrients and carefully balanced layers. I prefer 10s, I can get four under my light, they only need a light top dressing, and 10 is the minimum size required to keep a fist size area constantly hospitable to microbes. @Nunyabiz will tell you 25s minimum (maybe 20s, regardless, at least double what I use)

Watering. Your plants are swollen, pale, and look overwatered. Here’s a shot of mine currently

Notice the coloring, the turgidness (the plants are up and happy not weighted down looking), and the overall health and vigor of the plants. There’s a few ways you can fix this. Increase the aeration in your mix. I always cut my mixes with 25% perlite. Say I have 18 gallons of soil, I’m gonna add at least 4-6 gallons of perlite to that soil before I plant. I also add coco, EWC, etc but I digress, aeration.

Adding the extra aeration will make sure you can’t overwater your plants and will also greatly boost oxygen in the root zone which is a huge boon.

You can attempt a wet dry cycle. Allowing your soil to fully dry out before slowly and thoroughly watering. A lot of organic growers don’t like this though because it kills off microbes. Making a decision like constant moisture is something you can do with a little more experience.

If you don’t want to do that you can look into growing in SIPs (self irrigated planters) I’ll tag SIP spokesman @Azimuth on that one.

Temperatures.. If you’re under LEDs you wanna try getting your temps up a bit higher, closer to 85F for the majority of the grow. The microbes in the soil do their best work at warmer temperatures. If you’ve been growing at 78F you’ll notice a wonderful difference bumping it up to 85F. At those temps you’re gonna want to make sure it’s not bone dry in your room so have a hygrometer and a humidifier on hand. I won’t dive into VPD too heavily just know that with increased temps your plants work harder so you wanna make sure they’re not going harder or faster than the microbes can produce, and you do that by controlling the RH in your room.

That’s what I’ve got for just general tips. We can get way more explicit and involved in all this and more but I’ve already said quite a bit so I figure I’ll let you digest that and see what others have to say

 

[CaptainLucky]

First time organic growing, done a few pretty successful grows with GH but figured to take the leap into organics..

I've got 6 autos going right now and 3 photos. Going to wait to flower the photos after the autos are done. All plants are in 5g with a promix base living soil. I've got a gavita le900 and the tent is around 75-80 degrees with 65-70% rh...

I'll mostly be browsing the forums looking for tips and asking a question from time to time. Thanks!

Welcome to the @420 Magazine family @Stonedmoose. CL.

 

[Greenvein]

Welcome to 420mag good luck with the organics

 

[Tokin Roll]

Welcome to 420 Magazine @Stonedmoose

Nice and healthy looking plants you have there.
What strain are they?

Here's some helpful info.

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Here is some information if you would like to start a a grow journal How to Make a Grow Journal

If you want to see want other growers are doing, here's that link. This is where you place your journal.

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Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok..

 

[Bill284]

First time organic growing, done a few pretty successful grows with GH but figured to take the leap into organics..

I've got 6 autos going right now and 3 photos. Going to wait to flower the photos after the autos are done. All plants are in 5g with a promix base living soil. I've got a gavita le900 and the tent is around 75-80 degrees with 65-70% rh...

I'll mostly be browsing the forums looking for tips and asking a question from time to time. Thanks!

Welcome to 420Magazine my friend.
Great looking garden.
Girls could be a touch hungry though.
Could use a touch more N in your soil.
I grow mostly coco, feed every day.
More work bu5 I enjoy it.
Hope you enjoy yourself here.
Take care.




#VIVOSUN #Love What You Grow
Bill284

 

[Stonedmoose]

Welcome to the forums! You’re in a great place for organics.

Off the top of my head a few things you can do to improve your grows are:

Bigger containers/pots. If you’re gonna grow organic from seed with living or mineralized soils you’re gonna want bigger containers. I’ve found 7 gallons are the bare minimum size. At 7 they require spikes of nutrients and carefully balanced layers. I prefer 10s, I can get four under my light, they only need a light top dressing, and 10 is the minimum size required to keep a fist size area constantly hospitable to microbes. @Nunyabiz will tell you 25s minimum (maybe 20s, regardless, at least double what I use)

Watering. Your plants are swollen, pale, and look overwatered. Here’s a shot of mine currently

Notice the coloring, the turgidness (the plants are up and happy not weighted down looking), and the overall health and vigor of the plants. There’s a few ways you can fix this. Increase the aeration in your mix. I always cut my mixes with 25% perlite. Say I have 18 gallons of soil, I’m gonna add at least 4-6 gallons of perlite to that soil before I plant. I also add coco, EWC, etc but I digress, aeration.

Adding the extra aeration will make sure you can’t overwater your plants and will also greatly boost oxygen in the root zone which is a huge boon.

You can attempt a wet dry cycle. Allowing your soil to fully dry out before slowly and thoroughly watering. A lot of organic growers don’t like this though because it kills off microbes. Making a decision like constant moisture is something you can do with a little more experience.

If you don’t want to do that you can look into growing in SIPs (self irrigated planters) I’ll tag SIP spokesman @Azimuth on that one.

Temperatures.. If you’re under LEDs you wanna try getting your temps up a bit higher, closer to 85F for the majority of the grow. The microbes in the soil do their best work at warmer temperatures. If you’ve been growing at 78F you’ll notice a wonderful difference bumping it up to 85F. At those temps you’re gonna want to make sure it’s not bone dry in your room so have a hygrometer and a humidifier on hand. I won’t dive into VPD too heavily just know that with increased temps your plants work harder so you wanna make sure they’re not going harder or faster than the microbes can produce, and you do that by controlling the RH in your room.

That’s what I’ve got for just general tips. We can get way more explicit and involved in all this and more but I’ve already said quite a bit so I figure I’ll let you digest that and see what others have to say

Thanks for the advice, I've been doing daily LST so that might be some of the drooping that you are noticing. My pro mix Bass is with 3 cubic feet of Ali mountain fish compost and 1 and 1/2 cubic feet of worm castings. Every water I put in seaweed extract and molasses, and once a week I do a compost tea with recharge in it. I'm still getting down the watering though, with synthetic newts I was watering when they were dry but now with organics I'm still trying to figure out what moisture to keep the soil at.

 

[Azimuth]

If you don’t want to do that you can look into growing in SIPs (self irrigated planters) I’ll tag SIP spokesman @Azimuth on that one.

Thanks, Keff.

SIPs are pots with a water reservoir in the bottom and an air chamber between the water and the soil. You get perfect watering every time because the plant waters itself.

There are those than think you should learn how to water properly first so you'll be better at reading your plants, and there's something to that. But watering a SIP is so damn easy. You literally pour a set amount of water down a fill tube and move on with your life.

See the link in my signature if you want to explore, but I don't want to hijack the thread.

 

[Keffka]

Thanks for the advice, I've been doing daily LST so that might be some of the drooping that you are noticing. My pro mix Bass is with 3 cubic feet of Ali mountain fish compost and 1 and 1/2 cubic feet of worm castings. Every water I put in seaweed extract and molasses, and once a week I do a compost tea with recharge in it. I'm still getting down the watering though, with synthetic newts I was watering when they were dry but now with organics I'm still trying to figure out what moisture to keep the soil at.

Did you add any sort of perlite or aeration to that mix? The drooping is definitely a root issue, you can tell by the severity of the droop, the coloring, and the swollen appearance of the leaves. The plants I posted have been topped 3 times and tied down into an 8 cola manifold that is adjusted daily and this does not cause drooping in my plants.

Most commonly the drooping is due to a lack of oxygen from too much moisture for too long. If you’re going to be trying to keep them moist all the time you definitely need more aeration. Otherwise you can still do a wet dry cycle in organics if you like. Regardless I really cannot emphasize enough how important good aeration is. Typically when going with a mix like yours I would add in an almost equivalent amount of perlite to EWC. I.e. 3 CU ft of base, 1.5 EWC, 1.5 perlite. I would also add in a little coco for carbon but I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you’re interested I can keep going and giving tips but I don’t want to hammer you with information if you don’t really want it. If you can’t tell yet, I write a lot lol.

 

[Stonedmoose]

Not at all man, I'm digging the info. I would've never thought to put more pearlite into promix. It's obviously too late to put more in this run but when I re-amend the soil I will dump some there. The main plant in the pictures is a forbidden runtz , I've got two of those two stardawg and two gorilla cookies all from fastbuds.

The pictures are from this afternoon and the plants seem to have perked up a bit since the last picture. Definitely growing fast, possibly stretching right now but I've never done autos so I haven't a clue...

Do you know if autos need to be lollypopped or defoliated at all? I can't find any definite answers with the research I've done. Also, at what week should I top dress in flower?

Thanks again man.

 

[Keffka]

Not at all man, I'm digging the info. I would've never thought to put more pearlite into promix. It's obviously too late to put more in this run but when I re-amend the soil I will dump some there. The main plant in the pictures is a forbidden runtz , I've got two of those two stardawg and two gorilla cookies all from fastbuds.

The pictures are from this afternoon and the plants seem to have perked up a bit since the last picture. Definitely growing fast, possibly stretching right now but I've never done autos so I haven't a clue...

Do you know if autos need to be lollypopped or defoliated at all? I can't find any definite answers with the research I've done. Also, at what week should I top dress in flower?

Thanks again man.

Oh man you’re gonna be thrilled with the results you see after adding perlite, I’m excited for you lol. @Grand Daddy Black grows some of the best autos I’ve seen so I’m gonna tag him for your auto questions

 

[Vegan4life]

Welcome to 420Mag! I grow in Living Organic soil in 20 gallon pots. Look up "Coot's mix", it is a easy soil recipe that has great results.

 

[SmokingWings]

Welcome to the group. Feel free to wander around the many forums and sub-forums found on this message board.

There is a forum dedicated to organic growing and methods and it also has a few sub-forums.
https://www.420magazine.com/community/forums/organic-gardening.336/

Also, at what week should I top dress in flower?

Depends on what you are using. Most of the time the fertilizer company will have a schedule or amounts to use and when. Or with some nutrients they will have a general recommendation.

Either way, either the back of the bag or box will give basic scheduling and the web site might go more advanced.