Goshawk's Chemdawg #4 - Space Dawg Organic Soil

[Goshawk]

As im currently unemployed, i have a few handy man skills i like to use here n there.. I can spend sum time checking my girls, but i dont just sit on my ass! So sometimes she may get an extra hour of light here and there if im busy but they havent shown me any signs of stress, its usually only if the dark is interrupted that any probs have occurred. I have made my own light track -frm a hospital bed curtain rail, i use the plastic runners just drill out the hole a little bigger, not much, as it will weaken it..And then just add my nylon rope to it and mount it across my grow area using self tappers. works great for $10! Ive made my own cfl reflectors frm drink cans,but thats nothing that new.. Im looking into a DIY smell reducer ( charcoal cannister type thing ) for my outside venting, or induction atm..Usually i am lucky enuf to get fresh air in and out in adequate amounts, but am always looking for new ways ppl are doing this, there seems to be a few really plausible ideas being used. Its probably bin answered in FAQ but im not really sure as to how much co2 a single plant would need to grow to its full potential? If its getting well vented and has plenty of air circulation, with fresh air, right temps,ph and right nutes would it need an extra co2 increase during flower or veg? Like mayb a homemade yeast mixture?? Thanks.. Goodluk and Happy Harvesting

That's great Smokemupm8 you have the talents and motivation to get projects like the light mover done!
I was thinking about making my own carbon filter but I have been putting it off. I know it seems like I always have
three jobs to do and have to do them in the order to what's important at the time. I think as you say a good stable environment, ventilation, air circulation, fresh air, temperature, humidity etc is what's important and using supplemental Co2 would or should be low on the list of things to use when setting up a first grow room or two. I say this because the benefits gained from using using Co2 may not be worth the large expense involved depending on the situation. I did not plan on using Co2 for quite a while but this winter the outside air was too cold for me to use so I thought Co2 would be the answer. Right away I had the opposite problem of the grow room getting too hot because the Co2 generator puts out a lot of heat. So I had to buy a cooling tube for the Co2 generator and another 6" inline fan. Still that is not enough and now I have to buy an air conditioner. The DIY methods like yeast, water and sugar or those Co2 bales they sell at the hydro store may be just the way to go especially in smaller grow rooms....... .....

 

[Goshawk]

Hello everyone I hope you're all doing well and your gardens are happy and healthy! I finally got the plants transplanted into the smart pots and moved out to the flower room. So far I have had a couple challenges with this grow that has set the plants behind an ideal schedule. The first was white flies invading my garden. Although I probably only saw about five adults the whole time I believe most of the damage they do is when they are too small to see. I treated the plants with repeated soil drenchings and foliar spraying of Azatrol every ten days for five weeks to kill the eggs and larvae in the soil. I also set off a Doktor Doom fogger once a week to kill the adults. Both of these products are natural and supposedly safe for organic gardens. Since I had this same problem last year at about the same time I needed to get at the cause of the problem and practice prevention instead of just killing the flies after they start eating my plants. This can be very frustrating because white flies which look like little moths are very common where I live. So one day I was outside watering my tomatoes when I noticed the white flies coming out of the lawn! Since they lay eggs in the soil I knew I had to do multiple sprayings of my yard and bushes. What I used is Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer which comes in a spray bottle that you hook up to the hose. Also I was unable to get the bat guano I like using which is from a farmer in California who scrapes it from a barn floor he found so I tried using a commercial brand but found I do not like it because it seems way too strong for the plants even at 1/5 the recommended dosage and also seems to be lacking in micro nutrients and minerals. So until next spring when I will be able to acquire the guano I like I will be using seabird guano and alternating with Advanced Nutrients Iguana Juice and microbe teas. I apologize for not having pictures this time and for not updating this journal sooner. I will let the plants grow in the new pots for a couple weeks and then make the switch to the 12/12 lighting schedule. So until next time y'all take care and Keep it Frosty!.........

 

[Goshawk]

Hello everyone I hope you're all feeling good and you're having a great summer!..................
I extended the veg cycle because my plants had some issues and I had to fit 2 new lights into my budget. I used kelp meal as a soil amendment and overlooked the fact that it is a raw organic that needs to broken down by the microbes before a plant is added to it. I should have kept the soil moist and let it "cook" or age for two weeks to a month. Since I did not as the kelp meal gets broken down it creates heat in the soil just like a compost pile and also throws the pH off. Definitely not a good thing. Since my soil seemed real hot when it should not have been I decided to let the plants let me know when they needed nutrients. The plants did not like this at all and it has taken some time to get them back on track to being healthy again. You can still see damage done to the leaves in the pictures but overall the plants are recovering and the best is yet to come! A new 1000 watt hps and a 4 ft. 4 bulb T-5 light should arrive Monday so I will be taking clones in search of a good mother plant and when the roots show I will do the the flip to the 12/12 flowering phase. Y'all take care and thanks for checking out my journal!.........

 

[gittergreen]

Good to see you back Goshawk! You have a great set up man!
What is that lining the floor? Looks like a french drain from here! LOL

 

[UrbanGrower]

That's a sweet set-up you got, those are the biggest smart pots I've seen in my life.
I'm going for the same type of layout and you have things very dialled in. Before you added the generator, were your temps manageable with one inline fan? and how is the drainage set-up for the rocks underneath? (very cool)

 

[Goshawk]

Good to see you back Goshawk! You have a great set up man!
What is that lining the floor? Looks like a french drain from here! LOL

Thanks gittergreen it's good to be back and thanks for sticking with my journal!
It's a bare earth floor with six inches of pea gravel on top so I guess it is like

a french drain except for no drain!..........

 

[Goshawk]

That's a sweet set-up you got, those are the biggest smart pots I've seen in my life.
I'm going for the same type of layout and you have things very dialled in. Before you added the generator, were your temps manageable with one inline fan? and how is the drainage set-up for the rocks underneath? (very cool)

Thanks UrbanGrower and........to my journal! Most of the time I was able to except for hot days over 80 degrees. The Co2 generator does put out a lot of heat but it's all good now since I bought an air conditioner. I first bought one that was 5000 btu for a 10' x '7 x '7 room but it wasn't enough to cool it so I exchanged it for a 10000 btu one and it works fine. I would recommend an air conditioner as one of the first things to get when setting up a grow room. It makes controlling the temperature so much easier! Under the pea gravel there is bare earth so the water just drains into the ground.........

 

[UrbanGrower]

I have an 8k btu ac that I use to use in an 8'x8'x8' room when ambient temps would go over 75 but now I got a basement that's 12'x15'x6' and it's never above 60 in there, even on the hottest days, so hopefully I don't have to use it lol(expensive as shit for me). How much did all that soil cost you? Did you use over 20 C.u ft? Can't wait to see this unfold, keep up the primo work bro

 

[Goshawk]

Re: Goshawk's Chemdawg #4 ~ Space Dawg organic soil

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends!
So earlier in the grow I had three Space Dawg plants which I ended up giving to a good friend.
Right now I have five of the original Chem 4 plants that are 56 days into the flowering cycle plus
4 clones of these plants and 4 new seed plants that about two months old.

day 49 flowering cycle

day 32

day 27

top row clones from 1st run
bottom row new seed plants

 

[Cona]

These are just gorgeous plants. Whats your soil recipe? Very nice...really. I try really hard and dont get plants that look like those in your veg.

Cona

 

[Cona]

I see in your first post that you use Happyfrog like I do. I havent used hygrozyme in about a year but I have some. I wuz under the impression that if you use teas and multiply the microbes in the soil that you dont use hygrozyme type products. I thought that hygrozyme type enzyme products kill off the life in the soil....am I wrong about this? Mabey I should use the hygrozyme as well as the teas. Looks like me and you grow useing almost the same formulas as far as soil and ammendments.

Humboldt honey.....is this good stuff you think?

Cona

 

[JB42]

Hi Goshawk,
Nice Journal and Amazing plants. Just getting into this organic way myself so Im on board to learn a thing or 2.

 

[Goshawk]

These are just gorgeous plants. Whats your soil recipe? Very nice...really. I try really hard and dont get plants that look like those in your veg.

Cona

I see in your first post that you use Happyfrog like I do. I havent used hygrozyme in about a year but I have some. I wuz under the impression that if you use teas and multiply the microbes in the soil that you dont use hygrozyme type products. I thought that hygrozyme type enzyme products kill off the life in the soil....am I wrong about this? Mabey I should use the hygrozyme as well as the teas. Looks like me and you grow useing almost the same formulas as far as soil and ammendments.

Humboldt honey.....is this good stuff you think?

Cona

Thanks Cona you do excellent work! To get a lot of flowering positions I wait until after regular seed plants show their sex or as soon as clones show roots and are transplanted I start topping and every time a new node grows I top that too all the way until 10 days or so before the switch to the 12/12 flowering cycle. I like Happy Frog as my base soil and Ocean Forest for plants that like a lot of nutrients. The best things I've found is using 1/3 Perlite for good drainage, mycorrhizae, and Azomite which is full of trace minerals. I have not heard of Hygrozyme killing the living organisms in the soil. I will have to research this. One product which I forgot to list and believe is harmful to living soil is almost all of the cal/mag supplements since they contain EDTA. I use Biomin Calcium and Biomin Magnesium which uses a different method for chelation because I am using RO water. Humboldt Honey seems to be a good product for carbs and sugars which also contains volcanic ash and yucca extract. So yeah it seems we are on the right track...

 

[Goshawk]

Hi Goshawk,
Nice Journal and Amazing plants. Just getting into this organic way myself so Im on board to learn a thing or 2.

Thank you JBC420 and welcome!

 

[UrbanGrower]

I have been trying to mimic your grows since you first started on this site. Mad props Goshawk

 

[Goshawk]

I have been trying to mimic your grows since you first started on this site. Mad props Goshawk

Thanks UrbanGrower only the good parts I hope!

 

[Lifted731]

Hey Goshawk! My name is Aaron Williams and I live in the Seattle area of Washington State. I work at a local collective and have been wanting to grow since I was 18 (23 now). I have helped with other people's grows but never a full grow cycle on my own. With that said, I have some questions I hope you don't mind answering.

I couldn't PM you because I have to post 50 times first so I hope its within the rules. If you don't want to go into all of this here, I guess we can just talk after I have 'done my time' haha.

1. I saw in your first journal that you had a run in with the law, Do the medical cannabis laws in the state protect me while growing in an apartment? (moved here last November from So. Cal.)

2. I love the products that you use in your feeding solution, can I get a complete run down on the measurements and where to get the products cheap and fast?

3. How hard do you find it to control the temp (without AC)? If its significantly hard I might just spring for an AC unit.

4. I want to do my first grow as best as possible, I want to grow 6-8 at a time. What are some tips to help me make sure I'm gathering the right equipment?

5. Lastly, How much do you think the start up cost would be?

Thanks so much for your time and help! I loved your first journal. Keep on rockin'!


THANKS!

-Aaron

 

[Goshawk]

Hello Aaron I sent you a private message.

 

[Lifted731]

Thanks

 

[David Bowman]

How did this grow turn out?

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