Nicopalm's CFL Afghan Skunk Cheapie Soil Grow

[Nicopalm]

So alas, it is time to start the first journal I suppose. I am a firm believer in trying to keep things free, or as cheap as possible. So far for this plant the only items that have been purchased are the light bulbs($45), and one bag of Pro-Mix that was on clearance at Walmart for $2.49. All nutrients are being fed by way of natural teas and juices made from gathered forage (weeds, dead flowers, leaves, etc.) that has been dried out, powderized, then mixed with some molasses and some guano and allowed to ferment.

So here we go:

Strain: Afghan Skunk, 70% Sativa 30% Indica

Currently at day #7 under 12/12, it was vegged for 35 days from seed.

Soil mix is a bag of Promix Garden Mix with added mycorrhizae, mixed with decomposed forest lumber which is soft and fluffy for aeration, and forest soil I picked up nearby that was rich in decaying organic matter.

Lights are 2x 60W 3000k CFL and 2x 40w 2700k CFL currently, was vegged under 2x 60w 6500k

Temps are always ideal between 18-24 celcius and humidity stays between 40% and 60%

No store bought nutes, only home-made concotions/love potions for this girl. She gets compost juice every second watering day, with regular waterings in between to give her a chance to process all the goodies in the juice.

Pot size is about 14 inches tall x 12 inches wide.. not sure how many gallons.

I topped the plant at the 4th node and kept the 3rd and 4th nodes. I topped them all again at the very next node, then again a 3rd time on 2 tops. Then I began LST and Super cropping it into shape with some mishaps and bandaids which are visible as yellow electrical tape. Everything survived and growth exploded

Oh, and I dont test my PH. I've kept an eye on problems and flush/reduce feeding accordingly and the plant has been very healthy thus far aside from some early PH fluctuations when the soil was fresh. I'm trying to avoid testing the PH for this entire grow, but if I run into serious problems, it will be the first thing I check.

I started taking pictures 1 week before 12/12 right after super cropping, here she is:

 

[Nicopalm]

As for only having tin foil on 1/2 of the space.. there was a portion of the wall that was painted green, and green reflects all the crappy light. Tinfoil was quick and easy, and better than green lol

 

[Nicopalm]

I also have one question. Everywhere on the plant, the fan leaves have green stems, except for the areas where I have super cropped. All the fan leaves near super cropping sites have purple stems. Could this be from the plant using all the available phosphorus in those leaves to repair the damage caused by the super cropping?

I just found it odd that only those areas had the purple stems.

 

[Nicopalm]

It is now day #9 of 12/12, the lights just came on. Its a good thing I was sitting here waiting for them to come on because this girl stretched 2 inches overnight and was touching all 4 bulbs. Raised the lights 4 inches for now and I'll raise them another 2 inches right before lights out. I noticed she is stretching less on the right side that has tinfoil, and the spacing is tighter between nodes compared to the side of the room with flat white paint.

Heres what she looks like this morning:

 

[Garage Grower]

subbed. though I went a little more into it than you, I'm still doing a relative minimalist grow, your topping & LSTing is looking great. should have a pretty decent yield. I'll be watching this one!

 

[Nicopalm]

Welcome, and thanks GG. The goal of the LST was to pull the branches as far out from the center as possible, as there will be 4 indentical colas in the center, surrounded by a ring of 12 more colas. Yield-wise I don't expect miracles with only 200w of CFL lighting, but I'm hoping to get at least 1oz of dry tops and some mid nugs for turning into some canna-butter for making cookies. Anything more than that will make me a very happy man

Glad to have you aboard

 

[Budworshipper]

Hi fellow grower

A grow using all natural/organic nutes, done cheaply with a smattering of DIY thrown in for good measure.... Sounds somewhat familiar.

+ reps for the great use of training techniques on your girl

 

[Nicopalm]

Hi fellow grower

A grow using all natural/organic nutes, done cheaply with a smattering of DIY thrown in for good measure.... Sounds somewhat familiar.

+ reps for the great use of training techniques on your girl

Hello Budworshipper, and thanks. I do alot of outdoor growing with all-natural/organic techniques with quite alot of success, and I really enjoy tending to my ladies. I've grown under CFL's indoors before with Coco/perlite mixes and store bought nutes and PH kits, and while I had success like that, it just seemed like I was spending loads of money for just a few plants. So I started thinking what store bought items could be substituted out for naturally occuring replacemets.

Well the perlite was replaced by decomposing lumber found on a forest floor that was about half rotted. It it very porous and fluffy, it retained lots of water while still allowing excellent drainage, and when it breaks down it turns into a food source.

Nutrients can be found everywhere, from the ground we walk on to the trees over our heads. Alot of people weed their vegetable gardens, and then throw those weeds away. Those weeds that have been sitting there were sucking up the nutes in their garden, and most of them are chock full of essential and micro nutes. So why throw them away? We can dry them, then grind them, then turn them into a nice cup of tea. And by doing this I have found that I cannot over-feed my plants with teas as most nutes are already in a usuable form for my plants. If you are feeding plants in veg stage, you make tea's from very leafy, green plants high in nitrogen and phosphorus. If in bloom, flowers and other blooming plants and weeds with lots of branching and stem growth, or even fruits and vegetables are usually higher in phosphorus and potassium. You add molasses to kick start the microbial life in the tea, and to help the plants absorb those nutes. you can even add manures and guano's, fish innards, or seaweed . But unless you live beside an ocean, don't bother with those, you can find everything you need nearby. Alfalfa Meal makes a very good tea, and you can grow it specifically to feed your plants. Also there's alot of places online where you can also find nutrient-specific tea recipes, but I like to experiment and make my own as I go, It's free and it's hard to mess up natural compost juice lol

I don't PH my water usually because I have 6.5 straight out of the tap and it rarely fluctuates, I only had issues in the first 2 weeks of growth with a sligh PH inbalance that caused brown spots on a few of the lower fan leaves, but with one flush it stopped progressing and hasn't been back since on this plant. Yes I'm pretty lucky to have almost perfectly PH'd water from the tap, but if I did have PH issues, some soft rock phosphate in the soil would keep everything balanced, and its not too expensive for a 20lb. bag if I absolutely needed it.

This will be the first time I've applied all this organic stuff to anything indoors though, but I've seen and read alot about enough indoor organic growers and their methods to know that it should work just fine for me with what I am doing. I'm still new very at this, and there's a whole lot of learning ahead of me, but I'm trying my hardest to understand how to keep harmony and balance in the soil while not dropping a lots of cash into the pot.


Also, amazingly enough, I do not have any pests. My fly trap in the room has a single black fly stuck to it and it didn't come from anything in the soil. This has been a miracle as I was expecting pests and have some old diatemaceous earth leftover from an outdoor grow cocked and loaded ready for the little buggers lol

Thanks for stopping by

 

[Nicopalm]

Today is day #11 of 12/12. Have had ALOT of stretching in the last 48 hours, 2 inches per day roughly. I had to do some more super cropping and LST to move branches away from the bulbs so they would be growing along side the bulbs instead of towards them. This has opened up a recessed area in the center of the plant so I can keep my bulbs lower and closer to the majority of the growth on the plant.

She received old fish aquarium water yesterday as I had to change the water in my piranha's tank.

Lots of pistils now showing everywhere, she should be in full bloom within a week. The top leaves are starting to show the sativa dominance of this strain finally. I find that odd because when younger, this plant seemed to be more indica dominant than others I had grown of this same strain outdoors, even though the genetics are supposed to be 70% sativa.

 

[Budworshipper]

Aquarium water too !!!... Nice job !!...

Organic redistribution at its finest...

Its great stuff aint it...good to hear about the lack of pests.... Thats been something i was wary of...

Its been raining big time here, so hopefully there will be some harvesting of worm casts tommorow. I put these into tank water and feed it a a sort of tea..

 

[Nicopalm]

Aquarium water too !!!... Nice job !!...

Organic redistribution at its finest...

Its great stuff aint it...good to hear about the lack of pests.... Thats been something i was wary of...

Its been raining big time here, so hopefully there will be some harvesting of worm casts tommorow. I put these into tank water and feed it a a sort of tea..

Ahh yes, I keep a bucket of worms outside just for that reason lol

nice job on replying at exactly 4:20

 

[Budworshipper]

Ahh yes, I keep a bucket of worms outside just for that reason lol

nice job on replying at exactly 4:20

Haha... Great timing i guess

 

[Nicopalm]

It is now day #13 under 12/12. Not too much to report. I''ve been letting the pot dry out for the last 2 days, tomorrow will be a heavy feeding day. Stretch is still in excess of an inch per day and growth has stopped accelerating and she is cruising along nicely I believe. Bud development is starting slow, but I already expected this from previous grows of this strain. it's a 10 week+ flowering time usually. Here's some more pics from today, I've been raising the lights alot lately lol

 

[Nicopalm]

It is now day #15 of 12/12. Bud growth is accelerating and stretch is starting to decelerate. I went ahead and pruned alot of lower growth, anything that was below the line of light penetration came off. I may still trim off more in a week but I'll wait and see how much more she stretches first. Gave her a complete soaking of compost juice yesterday until I had runoff. I also replaced the two center bulbs with a single larger bulb, and I placed one of the original bulbs over the top that was furthest away from a light source. Pistils are getting nice and thick now, but still no sight of those sparkling little delights we call trichomes. No yellowing anywhere, and no dying leaves. The only leaves she has lost are the ones I have been plucking off.

 

[Nicopalm]

Hello to anyone who is reading this, it is now day #17 of 12/12. The benefit of super cropping the stems is becoming evident, with all stems becoming very thick all the way to the tips of the plant. By the looks of things so far, yield should be more than I expected. She is drinking 1.5 liters of water/food per day, and im allowing her to dry out in between waterings/feedings. Bud growth seems to be doing very well, and I'm still pruning lower bud sites as I raise the lamps. I'm not sure how much more stretch she has left so I'm being cautious as to not remove too many bud sites. Still zero signs of any trichome development, I expect her to start frosting up around day #24 or so. I also apologize for the quality of my pictures, I'm using a cellphone for all of these.

 

[Nicopalm]

It is now day #21 of 12/12, and its about time for an update. My mistress is still growing nicely, her buds are filling in and the very beginnings are trichomes are visible to the naked eye finally on the calyxes along the main stem of the buds. I am now feeding her twice before giving her straight water, and she seems to want water or food every second day. A typical week would look like this: Monday-feed, Tuesday-dry, Wednesday-feed, Thursday-dry, Friday-water flush, Saturday&Sunday-dry.

I know the amount of light I'm using is not ideal for a plant of this size, and I am doing my best to maximize the amount of budsites that are within 4 inches of a lightbulb. Any buds that are not developing fast enough are being pruned off.

If anyone is reading this I would love any comments or feedback, Its pretty quiet in here lol

And here's some pics to look at:

 

[Nicopalm]

In a few of the pics above, you can see how the lower leaves on the plant more closely resemble an Indica, while the upper leaves look pure Sativa. It confused me for a little while making me think this plant would show Indica dominance, but in the end, the sativa came through during stretch

 

[Nicopalm]

Day #23 of 12/12, and I am now noticing a lingering skunky odor in the rooms, and adjoining room. Trichomes are developing nicely and this is probably where that odor is coming from. The buds should be nice and frosty in another week or two, as the trichomes are still fairly small and hard to see. I increased the molasses from 1/2 a tablespoon to a full one per 4l of water. I also added dried clover flowers to the last tea as I figured the glucose in the clover flowers would be loved by my lady in bloom and is already in a form the plant can use along with the various other nutrients found in clovers. Stretch has almost stopped completely with vertical growth being 1/2 inch or less per day now. As usual, here's a few pics from today. Hope someone enjoys these as much as I do lol... take care and peace to everyone!

 

[Garage Grower]

funny you mentioned it - I haven't caught up with this in a few days and was just about to ask after seeing the pics... I bet the smell coming off of that has got to be STRONG... while the buds I can see aren't necessarily huge, there's a TON of them which I think, personally, might be better that just a few humongous ones. + Reps to you for a great job there especially with the limited lighting.

 

[Nicopalm]

Thanks GG, I appreciate the compliements

And yes, I wasn't expecting huge buds with this amount of lighting, so I tried to get as much light as possible to as many budsites as possible to hopefully maximize yield that way. I wont be smoking the entire thing, I only smoke the tops. The rest will be turned into some awesome cannabutter for my girlfriend to bake us some cookies. I will be adding more light to this work in progress sometime next week, at least 2 more 45W 2700k cfl's. I have also picked up a Canon Powershot HD and will be taking pics with this from now on.

Edit: Forgot I already mentioned im turning half of her into cookies lol

Here's the first shots from the Canon to show bud development better: