James 1st
New Member
Re: Vapedogg223's Got a Brand New Bag! All Organic - High Brix -Nirvana Ice- 49 Plant
HOLY SHIT!!! That's a lot of pests right there until I read what you typed in I thought I was looking at some germinating seeds.
Okay...so I had said I wanted to take a few minutes to go over some mistakes I made along the way. Here goes!
1. Pot size and type - I knew any kind of organic grow was going to be a challenge in 3 liter (.8 gallon) pots...furthermore, the very reason I like Air-Pots, is one of the things that make it more difficult...all the air holes in the sides and bottom. This design is key in how the Air-Pots work, but the downside is that the beneficial microbes in the soil need moisture to stay alive. The combination of a small volume of soil to start with, along with the Air-Pot design, means the pots can dry out very quickly if not watched closely. I was able to stay on top of it for the most part, but there were a couple times the pots were left to dry out more than I wanted them to.
The size was an issue simply because the plants/microbes can very quickly consume all the nutrients in that small volume of soil, and they must be replenished more often with minerals and fertilizers.
For grows using chemical nutrients, the size is much less critical, and as long as the grower can keep up on the waterings they'll be fine. For a setup like mine with Air-Pots, I think a drip irrigation system would be ideal for someone using chemical nutes!
Take-aways - Next time use bigger pots! I'm also going to move away from Air-Pots for an organic/high Brix SOG type grow. I can fit a larger volume of soil in the same footprint by using square pots.
2. Early in the grow...week 2 of bloom to be exact, I let the pots use up their energy - I had only added one cup of hen manure per 1 cubic foot of soil when I prepared the mix. This was half of the amount recommended by the manufacturer. A few days earlier I had sensed something was up, and fed with a light dose of fish fertilizer. It turned out that wasn't enough and overnight they started to yellow. Doc had just warned me to watch the soil energy, and I thought I was on top of it...but things happened very quickly. I immediately top dressed with more minerals, some hen manure, and worm castings and watered everything in with some freshly brewed tea. the next day they were greening up again and by the second day they looked like they hadn't skipped a beat...except for some of the leaves that I'll discuss below. From this point on, it seemed like I was constantly trying to keep things green! As Doc explained it, too many beneficials can also be a culprit for using up the soil's energy.
Take-aways - I should have started with the recommended dose of 2 cups hen manure per 1 CF of soil...to be honest, this strain is a very heavy feeder, so I probably could have added a bit more than that. Also, regularly top-dress with minerals and manure BEFORE the plants show signs of a deficiency. That part is tricky, and I think just a matter of experience to time it right. I also need to consider diluting the microbe tea more than the recommended 1:9 ratio. This might not be necessary with all teas, but the Natures Own I've been using is teeming with microbes, and could probably stand to be diluted down more for container gardens.
3. Bleached leaves - I was very careful about lowering the light slowly early on, but the plants took off and were doing great. They seemed to be loving the light, and I had let them get maybe 10-12 inches from the hood. This would have been fine, but it was right then my soil ran out of energy, and the plants started to yellow. The lack of chlorophyll in the leaves combined with the bright light caused some bleaching. When the plants greened up again these bleached areas never recovered. I'll be more cautious with the light next time.
4. Fungus gnats - When I cured my soil energy issue by top-dressing with manure and worm castings I also created a layer in the pots that was like a fungus gnat love shack!I very quickly had thousands of the little bastards! Fungus gnats eat fungi and decaying matter in the soil, and as long as they have food available, they leave the plants alone. But we still don't want these pests in our grow rooms! If they run out of their normal food source they will start eating the plant's roots...not good! They can also spread soil borne disease, but in a clean grow room with a fresh soil mix I don't think that's a huge concern. There's also the issue of fungus gnats stuck in your trichomes...also not good! These things multiply quickly, each adult only lives 7-10 days, but females can lay 100-300 eggs in that time!
Take-aways - Be proactive with fungus gnats! Use mosquito dunks or Gnatrol to kill larva before they are adults, and sticky traps on the pots to catch the adults before a serious outbreak occurs. A couple waterings a week apart with mosquito dunks absolutely decimated my fungus gnat population!
Just to give you an idea...this is how bad it got before I used the dunks.
These traps were were all out at the same time, and filled up in about a week. After the treatment, two weeks later, there were only a few left in the room...I didn't even put out any more traps!
5. Environment - This was a constant battle for me. My grow room was supposed to be temporary, and was not set up for hot weather. We had a very hot early Spring, combined with some crazy swings in the temperature and humidity. I ran the light at night, and was able to maintain ideal temps early on, but later on in the grow, if temps were below 90º I felt like I was doing well! My nighttime temps were also quite often above my daylight temps...I have no idea if and how that effected the plants.
Take-aways - Environment is key! Being able to tightly control the environment is the one advantage we have as indoor growers. I already knew this, and was kicking myself the entire grow once the temps began to rise. Next grow I WILL master the growing environment. I'm constructing a new room that will be fully environmentally controlled...heat, A/C, humidity, and CO2.
Closing thoughts - Once I'm in the new room, I'm going to keep the grow-trays on casters, but move away from PVC for the stand. I used just under 40 gallons of soil for this grow, but when I switch to larger pots...say twenty-five 3 gallon pots, that will be 75 gallons of soil...with that much weight I'm going to construct something a bit more rigid, probably out of lumber.
I also found a couple of seeds in my harvest...4 so far, to be exact. This is very interesting to me. All the seeds I've ever grown here were feminized...there's never been a male plant in the house. There was also so sign of any male parts on any plant. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that there must have been some stray pollen that got into my grow room from the outside world. I'm tempted to grow out these seeds...for all I know I might have a cross with some kind of super-spectacular local strain!The lesson though, is that if pollen can get in, so could mold spores, mites, etc. The new room will be sealed, and I'll be very careful filtering air. So as long as I don't cary anything in on me, I should be fine.
I'd like to thank everyone that followed along, or stopped in! It's everyone's input and discussions that really make the extra work of running a journal worth it, and I loved every minute of it!
With a smoke report being all that's left for me to post...a task that's proving to be more difficult than I anticipated...I'd ask one of the mods to please move this to completed journals, at your convenience of course.
HOLY SHIT!!! That's a lot of pests right there until I read what you typed in I thought I was looking at some germinating seeds.
I sort of remember something like that... 
I've come to the conclusion that everything is better high Brix!
