Gimik's First Organics Grow: No Bottled Nutes!

[Gimik]

Day 23 Veg
Currently all my plants are suffering from deficiency. The first two plants that I transplanted to the 1gal are the worst off. I asked around on a couple forums for help on identifying the cause of the problems. The general consensus seems to be that the clover I had growing in the pots consumed some of the micronutrients along with P/K, so by the time I transplanted the cannabis from the red solo cups --> 1gal, the soil was already deficient.

I didn't want to make things worse by reacting too quickly, so I let the plants sit for a several days until the transplant shock wore off to see any potential changes, and to avoid overwatering. Well, its been 6 days since transplant and the discoloration continued to get worse. This morning I top dressed with 1.5 Tbs Kelp Meal (Micronutrients) + 2 Tbs Neem Seed Meal (6-1-2) for P/K but I'm a dumbass and forgot to mix the amendments into the soil before watering so its all caked on the surface in one of the pots, the other I remembered to mix in lol Time will tell if this helped or not. If things don't improve I may just have to transplant into my super soil.

As for the other two plants... I transplanted both of them yesterday from the red solo cups --> 1gal w/ FFOF. I mixed in EWC + malted barley just like the other two plants. I waited too long to transplant because both plants were showing signs of deficiency from being root bound in the red solos. I'm hoping once transplant shock wears off they will bounce back as well.

The twin plant is still alive and kicking, although as i mentioned it is also suffering from deficiency. The big one is cruising right along but the small one hasn't grown vertically in awhile.

 

[Gimik]

Day 32 Veg
The plants are much bigger now but unfortunately still suffering from some of problems. A real life friend of mine thinks its nutrient burn and is telling me to flush the soil and re-inoculate with microbes. On the other hand, people online have been telling me its nutrient deficiency. Tell me what you think?

I'm beginning to think I should just transplant into 5gal fabric pots with my Coots style soil recipe where the soil is buffered and contains everything the plant will need. The soil has been cooking for nearly two months.

This first plant is bushing up nicely but you can see in the pictures the leaves are clawing super hard as well has yellowing on the edges of the leaves. This was one of the plants I top dressed with Neem Seed Meal / Kelp meal. Could that be the reason for the clawing?

This next plant is tallest and already has a lot of lower growth/side branching that's going on. I want to top this plant soon but I also don't want to start cutting stuff off the plant while it's clearly not fully healthy. This was one of the plants I top dressed with Neem Seed Meal / Kelp meal.

Third, this plant seems to be doing the best out of all four plants. All I have given this girl was fresh FFOF during transplant and water. There seems to be some discoloration occurring but not as bad as the other plants. Why is this?

Lastly, the TWIN!!!!
Surprisingly, both plants are still alive! The tall one is about a foot tall and needs to be topped soon. Unfortunately, there is a lot of yellowing going on so I don't want to cut stuff off the plant until its healthy. All this plant has been given is fresh FFOF during transplant and water. I've never had issues when using FFOF before now... maybe poor genetics?

The little one is still alive. Some yellowing but alive.

I am at a loss as to what my next move should be... flush soil and re-inoculate. Or do I transplant into 5gal of coots soil??

 

[Gimik]

So another quick update.

Of the above plants I posted pictures of, I just transplanted plant #2 from the 1gal --> 5gal fabric pot filled with coots style super soil. I'm hoping this is what the plant needs. I made sure to follow Emilya's water technique and circulate some of the fresh, nutrient rich soil into the root ball. I plan on transplanting the other girls as well later today.

 

[Gimik]

Today I transplanted two of the remaining three plants. Given I only had 21gal of super soil on hand I decided to just use 5gal fabric pots instead of 7gal pots. I have enough remaining super soil to top dress all the pots several times so I figure I should be alright.

With the 5gal pots being so wide I felt it necessary to hook up an additional quantum board so the plants could get even lighting and not start leaning towards the one panel. I lowered the wattage draw of the boards down to 100w each and raised them to about 30". I will slowly lower once transplant shock wears off, don't want them stressing out from too much light as well! I sealed the tent up and left it for a few hours before checking the temp/humidity. It got up to 88 degrees and 54% humidity. I read online that you want to run a little warmer temps than with HPS/MH because LEDs don't typically heat up the surface of the leaves as much as they should but I will need to open up a flap or two cuz 88 is a tad high. I also attached a small fan to blow across the led panels/drivers.

I also went down to a local barn feed store and picked up some straw. Got a huge bag for only $3, the guy said it was quality stuff but couldn't guarantee it was pesticide free but said other customers use it for ground cover in their gardens without any issues. I struggle with low humidity so the top soil tends to dry out rather quickly, I hope using the straw as ground cover will help combat that. I spray the leaves with a light misting each day to keep them hydrated.

 

[Gimik]

Day 37 Veg
Hi everybody! I can finally report back with some good news. Since transplanting into the Coots supersoil and into the 5gal fabric pots the plants have been exploding in growth! More importantly, the new growth looks very healthy, lush green leaves. The tips are slightly burned but its a strong soil so its not too surprising, everything else looks great!
Additionally, the straw I picked up is working perfectly!! It's been 5 days since transplanting and the top soil is still moist. In contrast, the top soil would be completely dry after two days. I'm sure the microbes appreciate the change I still have one plant to transplant but I've been swamped with work and school just starting up -- Maybe later tonight, probably tomorrow though.

Today I decided to top the 3 plants I transplanted into the super soil. They exploded with so much growth I had to slow down the vertical growth and start promoting the bottom branches to catch up.

 

[Gimik]

Hi Everybody
I have a quick tent update for you. I setup my custom scrog net today to give me a sort of visual reference of where I want the canopy. I don’t think I’m going to use it to train the plants yet bc I don’t want to get em all tangled up in the net and find out I have some males in there. I’m just going to keep tipping them to form an even canopy until they presex. Once I’m satisfied there aren’t any males in the mix I’ll fill out the scrog net and flower them.

 

[Gimik]

Day 42 Veg
Plants are thickening up nicely. Every since they recovered from the transplant/topping they have been side-branching like crazy and the middle of the plants are thick with growth. I'm super relieved that the deficiency issues seem to have gone away. Some of the discolored leaves are nearly dark green again!!

Today marks 9 days since I last watered the plants. The top soil is still moist and when I do the lift test there's still a good amount of weight to it. I find my self getting impatient/bored and want to water them but I'm going to hold off, the plants have yet to start drooping...I'm just waiting for them to tell me when it's time

This is the beginning of Week 6 of Veg and from what I've been reading it's around this time the plants will start to show pre-flower sex. Of the three plants, one of them is feminized so I've been trying to use that as a control to compare the bag seed plants too. Unfortunately, even the fem seed hasn't show pre-flower yet, I don't see any white wispy hairs sticking out yet. On the other hand, one of the bag seed plant appears to be showing white pistils, but again, I'm not 100% sure. I wish my camera would focus in that closely to the plants but it is too blurry =(

Here is the fem seed. The twin is growing like a fooking champ too! It's about 10" tall and zero signs of issues. I'm not going to top it, just let it grow a single cola up top <3

Bag Seed #1

Bagseed #2

 

[Gimik]

Hey guys, question for you.

So I went with Coot's style mix:
Base Soil: I mixed up enough for 21 gallons. (~3cuft)

• 1/3 Sphagnum Peat Moss (7gal)
• 1/3 EWC (compost) (7gal)
• 1/3 Perlite (Aeration) (7gal)

I then amended the base soil with the following dry amendments: 1/2 cup per cubic foot (1cuft = 7.5 gal)

• Fish Meal (9-4-0)
• Crab Shell Meal (4-3-0)
• Kelp Meal (1-0-2)
• Neem Seed Meal (6-1-2) + Pest Control
• Oyster Shell Flour (Calcium)
• Gypsum (Calcium / Sulfur)
• Glacial Rock Dust (Trace Minerals)

I transplanted from 1gal pots filled with FFOF --> 5gal fabric pots with my soil mix. It is now time to water for the 1st time since transplanting them. However, the soil is hard as a rock!!! I literally cannot poke my finger through the surface. I was using Emilya's watering technique where you let it pool on the surface twice... Well the water literally ran straight through the soil and pooled in the drip tray. Literally none of it pooled. It slowly got absorbed up through the bottom like ghetto flood table but I'm concerned about the soil quality/texture.

Is the hardening because I used so much EWC? How do I remedy this problem? I can add gypsum but IDK the application rate and have not performed a soil test.

Any and all help appreciated!

 

[Gimik]

Day 49 Veg
Hey everybody! Hope you guys are enjoying your Labor Day!

I was asking around various forums about my hard soil issue and the most likely cause of this phenomenon is the peat moss going hydrophobic. I must've let the soil dry out too much so when it came time for me to water, it repelled it straight to the bottom. Moving forward I'm going to be more diligent on my water routine.

I'm fairly confident all the plants are indeed females because its the start of week 7 and two of the plants are showing the little white hairs, and while the 3rd plant hasn't shown either... I don't see any balls so I'm taking the chance of assuming it's female as well. Because I'm operating under the assumption they're all female I intend on flipping to flower in the coming days. I gave them a mild defoliation to open up the middle of the plants, and removed some of the small growth from the under carriage.

After the watering I gave them two days ago they've really exploded with growth! So many branches poking up over the scrog I have to tuck them under daily. The twin plant has nearly reached the scrog net!! I stripped all the lower growth so it can focus on producing one cola at the top, I'm incredibly excited for it to start flowering haha

Before:

After:

 

[Gimik]

Sup Everybody!

Today I decided to begin the flowering process!!! I turned off the lights and giving them 24hrs of darkness before switching them over to the 12/12 light cycle.

Super excited to see how these girls flower

 

[Gimik]

Day 13 Flower
Today I gave the girls a nice Lollipopping I waited until towards the end of the stretch phase to do this because I wanted to give the lower branches a chance to stretch up to the scrog. Whatever didn't reach, got chopped.
Here's some before and after pics.

 

[Gimik]

Day 26 Flower
Hey all. My updates are a little behind mainly cause I haven't had time to sit down and type anything up. The photos you see are from Day 26 Flower, however, I'm including information from previous days.

About a week ago I topped off the pots with an additional 1-2inches of my leftover super soil. I figured I should top dress early into flower as it'll take a few waterings for the nutrients to work its way into the root system.

The plants are looking incredibly healthy and vibrant green. They have stopped stretching and are focusing on fattening up the buds. I was gone for a weekend around Day 10 of flower, and when I came back most of the branches shot up past the net so my canopy is super uneven now. Oh well. You can really see the crystals coming in already =)

I originally tried to hookup a 3rd panel to really blast the girls and ideally give each plant its own light. However, having the drivers mounted to the boards the tent simply got too hot. It would get as high as 93 degrees @ 23% humidity. No good. I tried hooking up my carbon filter/exhaust fan hoping it would pull the cold air from my room and cool the tent. It brought temps down to 86 but still too high. I introduced an evaporative cooler in hopes to cool it down a bit further and increase humidity. It brought temps down to 83 and raised humidity to 40% -- slight improvement on VPD. I ultimately decided I had to give up on the 3rd lamp. =(