Hey everyone

[Tokin Roll]

Welcome to 420 Magazine @stoned gnome

It sounds like growing is becoming a family affair, cool.
I know you said you are not ready, but when you are start a grow journal so we can follow along. Here's the link.

How to Make a Grow Journal

Until then, here the link, so you can see what other grower are doing.

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

Also, after you have over 50 posts you can vote and enter our contest to win free grow stuff from our sponsors.

420 Contests

Win cool 420 Magazine merchandise and prizes from our sponsors by entering one of our regular monthly contests

www.420magazine.com

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok..

 

[stoned gnome]

Welcome stonegnome! Great advice here.

great indeed, I'm learning a lot already.

 

[stoned gnome]

Welcome to the group.

A username like "stoned gnome" sounds like creative thought went into choosing it.

It caught my attention as soon as I saw it. The wife and kids don't seem to be happy when I talk about getting one of the concrete gnomes for the backyard, though.

that's a bummer, I'm of the opinion that a gnome livens up any yard.

 

[stoned gnome]

the idea of a shared bed is not a good idea with this predator plant... the weeds will attempt to dominate each other if given a chance. Therefore, most people, even commercial growers, mostly go with individual containers for each plant. Never fear, you will easily be able to totally fill a 2x4 canopy with just 3 plants, and they will be pushing things.

Living Organic Soil... by definition this soil will essentially be a slice of the forest floor, complete with all the mosses, molds, fungi, and critters. LOS means essentially creating a terrarium in a grow container. There are several aficionados of this method on this forum and a simple search of LOS should bring several names to the forefront. They all totally believe in this method and will tell anyone who will listen that this is the grow method of choice. The downside is that you will have to basically turn the floor of your entire 2x4 tent into a soil container to have enough soil to make this work... ok, its not that bad, but I think the minimum size container would be a 15 gallon and you are only going to get one of those in that tent. I'm not saying it won't work, but it is going to involve a lot of compromise.

I will give you a pat on the back for wanting to go organic, and by many definitions, the best way to go organic... but there are easier ways to still go totally organic without all of this effort. First, let me define organic by this, creating an environment where the microbes and fungi in the system work in symbiosis with the plant in "the organic feeding cycle" where each feed the other. The gardener in an organic garden does not feed the plant, she feeds the soil and the microbes.

Today, there are many ways to do this. I started organics with a system called TLO, True Living Organics. In this method a supersoil is created by adding the raw minerals and organic materials that will break down into nutrients for the plant, which is then composted for several months. In this way it is possible to pre-load soil with everything the plant will need, and then use microbes to feed these items to the plant. TLO teaches how to use layers of raw materials along with a supersoil in the bottom third of the container and in addition use spikes of mixtures of raw materials for the microbes to find and congregate around during the grow. It also teaches how to make specific actively aerated compost teas to provide supercharges of the the right microbes into the soil, depending on the week of the grow.

I moved out of that labor intensive system after some modern microbe inoculation products started showing up, eliminating the need to brew your own smelly teas. I really liked the supersoil idea, and I now use some supersoil in the bottom third of most of my containers. You don't need fancy soils though, and can still grow organically by top dressing raw nutrients and the microbes specialized in dealing with them, by using periodic topical applications of several products out there. Good soil helps, but you can actually now grow organically even in coco or a cheap hardware store soil, using my favorite organic nutrient system, @GeoFlora Nutrients, a sponsor of this forum. With the ability to buy freeze dried or liquified microbes in a bottle, organic growing has become much less of an ordeal for many of us. There is nothing like the fully expressed flavors and tastes of good pot grown organically, using one of many methods.

I think we can make your entry into organic growing a whole lot less painful than where you were planning to go. Check out the group Girl Scout Cookies grow for many examples of people using @GeoFlora Nutrients and the amazing results they got from simply topdressing the plants once every 2 weeks.

thank you for all the advice, it gives me a lot to consider, I'll be sure to check out @GeoFlora Nutrients though.

 

[stoned gnome]

I run LOS as in how The Rev sees it in the True Living Organics, book with everything including soil recipe and amending used soil. My best runs have been in 10 gallon cloth bags from geopot. My smallest pot size that I call fully LOS successful would be 5 gallon. Bigger the better though!

very cool, I will have to check out your journals!

 

[stoned gnome]

Welcome to 420 Magazine @stoned gnome

It sounds like growing is becoming a family affair, cool.
I know you said you are not ready, but when you are start a grow journal so we can follow along. Here's the link.

How to Make a Grow Journal

Until then, here the link, so you can see what other grower are doing.

Grow Journals

Index of real-time growers showcasing indoor and outdoor grow journals in soil, coco, hydroponics - compare LED grow lights, nutrients and methods of growing cannabis

www.420magazine.com

Also, after you have over 50 posts you can vote and enter our contest to win free grow stuff from our sponsors.

420 Contests

Win cool 420 Magazine merchandise and prizes from our sponsors by entering one of our regular monthly contests

www.420magazine.com

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok..

it's a fast growing tradition, and for good reason. thank you for the warm welcome and helpful links.

 

[Slipdog01]

Greetings, It can be educational, but also alot of fun!

 

[Sierra Natural Science]

Welcome to 420!

You came to the perfect place to get questions answered & see other's grow!!

 

[stoned gnome]

So I've done some more research and my new tentative plan is to grow each of my plants in a 5 gallon pot, layered with: Happy Frog soil, Ocean Forest soil, Ocean Forest soil mixed with SoHum soil and a final layer of SoHum soil, along with DYNOMYCO between each layer. I plan on feeding them with GeoFlora throughout the grow. I'm unsure whether to start my seeds in their forever pots or to start them in a smaller pot first to let them build a root ball and then transplant them over. any feedback?

 

[HappyHazmat88]

So I've done some more research and my new tentative plan is to grow each of my plants in a 5 gallon pot, layered with: Happy Frog soil, Ocean Forest soil, Ocean Forest soil mixed with SoHum soil and a final layer of SoHum soil, along with DYNOMYCO between each layer. I plan on feeding them with GeoFlora throughout the grow. I'm unsure whether to start my seeds in their forever pots or to start them in a smaller pot first to let them build a root ball and then transplant them over. any feedback?

Hey how ya doing? For autos I always start in a forever less handling less possible issues but for your plan with the soil I actually did the same thing except I only used ocean forest (bottom) and happy frog (top 3-4 inches)....plants seem to have liked split soil.

 

[stoned gnome]

Hey how ya doing? For autos I always start in a forever less handling less possible issues but for your plan with the soil I actually did the same thing except I only used ocean forest (bottom) and happy frog (top 3-4 inches)....plants seem to have liked split soil.

very cool @HappyHazmat88 , thanks for the advice. what strains have you been growing?

 

[Emilya Green]

Without constricting the roots in a smaller container it is hard to ever create an actual rootball. It might be a lot easier to start in your final container, especially with a fast moving auto, but it is certainly not the best way to develop a good root system or be in control of the watering cycle. I love the soil layering ideas though... but imagine doing that first at the solo cup level, then mid size and finally the final container, with all those layers in each. Picture how many different layers the roots have by the time they get in the final container!

 

[HappyHazmat88]

very cool @HappyHazmat88 , thanks for the advice. what strains have you been growing?

Currently local strains Twizzlers, trikz, and whiskey zulu autos... One is half way others a week behind

 

[stoned gnome]

Without constricting the roots in a smaller container it is hard to ever create an actual rootball. It might be a lot easier to start in your final container, especially with a fast moving auto, but it is certainly not the best way to develop a good root system or be in control of the watering cycle. I love the soil layering ideas though... but imagine doing that first at the solo cup level, then mid size and finally the final container, with all those layers in each. Picture how many different layers the roots have by the time they get in the final container!

thanks for the answer, that does make sense. the only thing I don't get is what exactly makes a ball of roots a better system than letting them grow naturally? I'd be very curious to know the technical reason behind it.

 

[stoned gnome]

Currently local strains Twizzlers, trikz, and whiskey zulu autos... One is half way others a week behind

those sound delicious! I'll have to check out your journal soon.

 

[Emilya Green]

thanks for the answer, that does make sense. the only thing I don't get is what exactly makes a ball of roots a better system than letting them grow naturally? I'd be very curious to know the technical reason behind it.

Good question. The answer is that when you have achieved a rootball, described as a solid mass of roots all throughout the container, you end up with much more root mass or many more roots than you would get by growing the same plant naturally. The natural growth will result in a set of roots that mostly go downward from the center, roughly forming a mirror image of the plant above. Lateral growth, that which fills the container by growing sideways toward the edges, will be minimal, since without restrictions the roots mostly will mass up down at the very bottom, where there is always water and feed. The plant does not have to work very hard to get at the water and nutes, so it becomes lazy, as compared to a plant that has been stressed a bit by forcing it to find water in a constricted space where the roots have been forced to fill the available space rather than bunch up at the bottom.