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Organic SFV OGKush
- Thread starter Crazy Composer
- Start date
Joe Organic
New member
omg it is all huge and ready to burst it is soooooo beautiful i wish i could taste it right now. is there seed in it? i wish i wish I could receive that seed from you but i know its not allowed.
Hahahaha! No seed in this here calyx. 
Pre-flowers are the first calyxes to show up, of course, so by harvest time they are the oldest calyxes on the plant. They have this plump appearance (like they're seeded) because they are the most mature flowers on the plant.
On a side note... for any aspiring home cannabis breeders out there... You can pollinate these pre-flowers, and get seeds ONLY on the stem... which is nice, because the rest of the flowers can be all bud... and when you go to remove your seeds, you know where they all are... in the pre-flowers, right along the stem.
To do this... just allow your males to pop, releasing their pollen onto the pre-flowers of the females. To ensure the rest of the bud is seedless... just remove the males before full-on bud-set occurs. I've used this method several times, and it works great. You really feel like you've got your cake and are eating it, too! Seedless buds, but seeded stems... It's a beautiful thing! cc
Pre-flowers are the first calyxes to show up, of course, so by harvest time they are the oldest calyxes on the plant. They have this plump appearance (like they're seeded) because they are the most mature flowers on the plant.
On a side note... for any aspiring home cannabis breeders out there... You can pollinate these pre-flowers, and get seeds ONLY on the stem... which is nice, because the rest of the flowers can be all bud... and when you go to remove your seeds, you know where they all are... in the pre-flowers, right along the stem.
To do this... just allow your males to pop, releasing their pollen onto the pre-flowers of the females. To ensure the rest of the bud is seedless... just remove the males before full-on bud-set occurs. I've used this method several times, and it works great. You really feel like you've got your cake and are eating it, too!
Seedless buds, but seeded stems... It's a beautiful thing! cc
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And for the sake of comparison, this is SFV OGKush crossed with Chemdawg D. Harvested about a month ago. Organic, fed ONLY guano, top-fed.
Green&Gold
Member
Hey CC
In this thread you mention that you just top dress with guano, using the scratching technique, and keep the top of the pot/soil moist. I apologize for the obtuse/obvious question, but does this imply that you do not subscribe to the general conscientious of allowing your pots to dry out between waterings?
Can you tell me more about how you water, and any theories you may have on the topic, regarding amount, frequency, tap v. r.o etc.
Namaste.
In this thread you mention that you just top dress with guano, using the scratching technique, and keep the top of the pot/soil moist. I apologize for the obtuse/obvious question, but does this imply that you do not subscribe to the general conscientious of allowing your pots to dry out between waterings?
Can you tell me more about how you water, and any theories you may have on the topic, regarding amount, frequency, tap v. r.o etc.
Namaste.
WATERING THEORY
Well, I used to be under the impression that letting the soil dry out between waterings was a good thing, however, I now think differently. With a well-constructed, well-drained medium, and under normal grow room conditions, there is truly very little worry of overwatering.
That said... Plants in dry soil show signs of stress. These signs of stress don't show up on plants that are never allowed to get dry.
I think dry medium hurts plants by drying out the tiniest, capillary-like roots. The plant can recover, sure, but any drought stress at all can reduce your yields and quality. Also, when these tiny roots dry and die, then you water the medium again... the result is something like gangrene... you wet the dead ends of the root system, and these areas rot off... not healthy to the plant, as you might imagine.
So... I've adopted a watering method that keeps the medium moist, or at least NEVER dry. Every plant gets at least a little water, every day.
Since the organic process relies (partially) on a fungal network to break down organic matter and distribute nutrient around the medium to where it's needed... It's important to keep the medium wet. If there's too little water in the medium, nutrient uptake can be slowed right down to near nothing. Also, bacteria and fungi are needed to convert the top-dressed guanos to nutrient for the plants... and the bacteria and fungi need a moist environment to do their work... that's another reason to keep the medium moist.
You asked about tap vs R.O. water... that depends ENTIRELY upon the quality of your tap water. You can pull of a grow with nearly any quality of water, but of course you're trying to get the best smoke, so if your tap water is terrible, you might consider R.O. However, R.O is slow, and wasteful. For every gallon of clean water you get, 6 are wasted! At least with the R.O. units I've used. Filling 20 gallons of water can take 8 hours to do! And... I don't know the science behind it, but it seems that R.O. water doesn't play the same way with ionic nutrients as tap or rain water does. So, it's also feasible to use 1/2 R.O. water and 1/2 tap water, if the tap water is not good enough by itself.
My preference is tap water, though, when possible. It's the easiest, and if it's of decent quality, there's no reason NOT to use it.
Now, this is something I rarely see mentioned anymore. I'm not sure if people aren't doing this, or it's such common knowledge that experienced growers don't even remember to mention it... but... it's a good idea to cure your water source before using it.
Curing water: It's really easy... Fill up a tank of water after your daily watering... then let that water sit for at least 12 hours before using it. Since I water about the same time every day, my water is usually 20-24 hours old by the time I use it.
Water should sit for two reasons, that I know of... To let it reach room temperature (cold shots of water can stunt a plant), and also because most tap water, will have the gasses of fluorine and/or chlorine dissolved within. These halogens are not ideal to present into your medium because they change the chemical reactions between the roots and the ionic salts the plants are trying to consume.
Notice that, after filling a bucket with water, and waiting an hour, the sides of the bucket become lined with bubbles? These bubbles contain these gasses as they evaporate... And this is one of the reasons we cure our water.
Amount of water... that depends on several factors, really. If I just fed a plant that is really hungry, I will water only enough to saturate the medium. If the plant is hungry, there's no point in watering more than the medium can take.
However, if the plant is well-fed, and I know there are salts and minerals in the medium that I could do without, I add a little more water than the medium can take. Some people call this flushing. Also, at the end of flowering, when you want the medium to be as free of excess salts as possible, a heavy overwatering can be employed to try and run those salts and minerals out of the medium. So there's different methods for different times and situations.
Check it out... There is a school of thought that says organics don't need to be flushed... But to this school I say... Mother Nature flushes. Where do you think stalactites and malactites in caves come from? These are the salts and minerals from the surface, that are washed down into the caves by rain. These minerals are FLUSHED from the organic soil at the surface.
When it rains, salts and minerals are moved down, away from the reach of the plants on the surface... Effectively cleansing or douching the soil. The organic matter on the surface continues to decompose, and the soil gets salts and minerals released once again.
So remember... MOTHER NATURE FLUSHES... AND SO SHOULD YOU!
Well, I used to be under the impression that letting the soil dry out between waterings was a good thing, however, I now think differently. With a well-constructed, well-drained medium, and under normal grow room conditions, there is truly very little worry of overwatering.
That said... Plants in dry soil show signs of stress. These signs of stress don't show up on plants that are never allowed to get dry.
I think dry medium hurts plants by drying out the tiniest, capillary-like roots. The plant can recover, sure, but any drought stress at all can reduce your yields and quality. Also, when these tiny roots dry and die, then you water the medium again... the result is something like gangrene... you wet the dead ends of the root system, and these areas rot off... not healthy to the plant, as you might imagine.
So... I've adopted a watering method that keeps the medium moist, or at least NEVER dry. Every plant gets at least a little water, every day.
Since the organic process relies (partially) on a fungal network to break down organic matter and distribute nutrient around the medium to where it's needed... It's important to keep the medium wet. If there's too little water in the medium, nutrient uptake can be slowed right down to near nothing. Also, bacteria and fungi are needed to convert the top-dressed guanos to nutrient for the plants... and the bacteria and fungi need a moist environment to do their work... that's another reason to keep the medium moist.
You asked about tap vs R.O. water... that depends ENTIRELY upon the quality of your tap water. You can pull of a grow with nearly any quality of water, but of course you're trying to get the best smoke, so if your tap water is terrible, you might consider R.O. However, R.O is slow, and wasteful. For every gallon of clean water you get, 6 are wasted! At least with the R.O. units I've used. Filling 20 gallons of water can take 8 hours to do! And... I don't know the science behind it, but it seems that R.O. water doesn't play the same way with ionic nutrients as tap or rain water does. So, it's also feasible to use 1/2 R.O. water and 1/2 tap water, if the tap water is not good enough by itself.
My preference is tap water, though, when possible. It's the easiest, and if it's of decent quality, there's no reason NOT to use it.
Now, this is something I rarely see mentioned anymore. I'm not sure if people aren't doing this, or it's such common knowledge that experienced growers don't even remember to mention it... but... it's a good idea to cure your water source before using it.
Curing water: It's really easy... Fill up a tank of water after your daily watering... then let that water sit for at least 12 hours before using it. Since I water about the same time every day, my water is usually 20-24 hours old by the time I use it.
Water should sit for two reasons, that I know of... To let it reach room temperature (cold shots of water can stunt a plant), and also because most tap water, will have the gasses of fluorine and/or chlorine dissolved within. These halogens are not ideal to present into your medium because they change the chemical reactions between the roots and the ionic salts the plants are trying to consume.
Notice that, after filling a bucket with water, and waiting an hour, the sides of the bucket become lined with bubbles? These bubbles contain these gasses as they evaporate... And this is one of the reasons we cure our water.
Amount of water... that depends on several factors, really. If I just fed a plant that is really hungry, I will water only enough to saturate the medium. If the plant is hungry, there's no point in watering more than the medium can take.
However, if the plant is well-fed, and I know there are salts and minerals in the medium that I could do without, I add a little more water than the medium can take. Some people call this flushing. Also, at the end of flowering, when you want the medium to be as free of excess salts as possible, a heavy overwatering can be employed to try and run those salts and minerals out of the medium. So there's different methods for different times and situations.
Check it out... There is a school of thought that says organics don't need to be flushed... But to this school I say... Mother Nature flushes.
Where do you think stalactites and malactites in caves come from? These are the salts and minerals from the surface, that are washed down into the caves by rain. These minerals are FLUSHED from the organic soil at the surface.When it rains, salts and minerals are moved down, away from the reach of the plants on the surface... Effectively cleansing or douching the soil. The organic matter on the surface continues to decompose, and the soil gets salts and minerals released once again.
So remember... MOTHER NATURE FLUSHES... AND SO SHOULD YOU!
truly inspiring CC just amazing skillz growing and photography
Chesticles
Member
hey JH, you know EVERY organic fert/amendment/whatever u call it has soluble(ionic) and insoluble(organic matter) fractions including bat guano, my mex guano is 5%soluble and 5%insoluble N, if CC listened to people like you that see organics as just black and white he'd be wasting half the nutrients in his guano
Don't worry about him, Chesticles. Just another troll.
Chesticles
Member
from your link
"Fungi need N, P, K, Ca, and all the other nutrients as well, and obtain those from organic matter and from inorganic sources as well."
inorganic as in ionic???hmmmm
"Fungi need N, P, K, Ca, and all the other nutrients as well, and obtain those from organic matter and from inorganic sources as well."
inorganic as in ionic???hmmmm
MaryJohn, aka Merry Jawn, aka JamHorny, etc. etc. etc... Please stop trolling.
Ok, This year im gone a grow CC style....Peacefull
Man, I always love reading your detailed opinions of strains. Now throwing down some plant nutrition and soil theory, I dig it.
Green&Gold
Member
Hey CC Many thanks for the bounty of information. much love to all who share information, and love discussion. 
question: since you do not allow your pots to dry out completely, how often do you water? how do you water? what signs do you look for to initiate watering? How much to you water? At what point in watering do you know you have added the correct amount of volume?
When curing water, (which I do do) I have always been concerned that any oxygen in the water, had the same opportunity to exit the water in the same manner of the chlorine etc. Should I be bubbling this water to add some life/oxygen?
I am currently in a very very large city, our water contains chloramine (chlorine which requires activation), I have been using a very small amount of 90% soluble humic acid powder to perform this task, then allowing water to come to at least room temperature before use. We of course also have flouride and any number of other water "purifying" chemicals. So I'm not sure how much harm I have actually mitigated.
question: since you do not allow your pots to dry out completely, how often do you water? how do you water? what signs do you look for to initiate watering? How much to you water? At what point in watering do you know you have added the correct amount of volume?
When curing water, (which I do do) I have always been concerned that any oxygen in the water, had the same opportunity to exit the water in the same manner of the chlorine etc. Should I be bubbling this water to add some life/oxygen?
I am currently in a very very large city, our water contains chloramine (chlorine which requires activation), I have been using a very small amount of 90% soluble humic acid powder to perform this task, then allowing water to come to at least room temperature before use. We of course also have flouride and any number of other water "purifying" chemicals. So I'm not sure how much harm I have actually mitigated.
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Green & Gold, apt questions, all.
Let me see... How often to water. Well, Every day, every plant will get at least a small shot of water. There ARE exceptions to this, where a plant is just still so obviously wet from the last watering that I skip it, but this is pretty rare. In the winter, when temps stay a little cooler in the garden, I see more of these plants that require no water... but most of the times, especially in summer, every plant will get at least a small amount of water every day.
What signs to look for to initiate watering... The top of the medium will start to lighten up in color. It will go through several degrees of lightening until it's bone dry. Since the soil is alive, you want to make sure it never gets bone dry anywhere on or in that medium. Ideally, the plants are watered when the surface is starting to lighten up from dryness. But my garden gets one visit a day, so all my watering is done at one time. Since a good medium drains so well that overwatering is about impossible, you can water all plants at the same time, every day, and they will stay happy.
How much do I water... Depends entirely on how dry they are and if you feel a need to douche, flush the medium. The how much part is something that you can figure out for yourself. It takes some experience to know the amount of water it takes, by eye, to saturate a pot. As long as there's enough to moisten the medium, you don't need to worry.
CURING WATER/OXYGEN RETENTION... I put this one in bold because you're going to love this answer the most, probably. When I fill my reservoir up, I add a teaspoon or two of hydrogen peroxide. The H2o2 breaks down slowly, into Oxygen, keeping the O2 levels high, and therefore also protecting your water from ANY anaerobic bacterial activity. The water will stay crystal clear for DAYS, even in very high temperatures. This tip has actually revolutionized some gardens recently, who had trouble with bacterial growth in their reservoirs. Even Rezdog of Reservoir Seeds now uses this technique, and swears by it. No need to bubble when using H2o2. Also, you can mix any liquid ferts in your tank and it will not go putrid when there's H2o2 present... VERY handy, revolutionary IMO.
Sucks about the Fluoride in the water, but lots of people grow in big cities.
Let me see... How often to water. Well, Every day, every plant will get at least a small shot of water. There ARE exceptions to this, where a plant is just still so obviously wet from the last watering that I skip it, but this is pretty rare. In the winter, when temps stay a little cooler in the garden, I see more of these plants that require no water... but most of the times, especially in summer, every plant will get at least a small amount of water every day.
What signs to look for to initiate watering... The top of the medium will start to lighten up in color. It will go through several degrees of lightening until it's bone dry. Since the soil is alive, you want to make sure it never gets bone dry anywhere on or in that medium. Ideally, the plants are watered when the surface is starting to lighten up from dryness. But my garden gets one visit a day, so all my watering is done at one time. Since a good medium drains so well that overwatering is about impossible, you can water all plants at the same time, every day, and they will stay happy.
How much do I water... Depends entirely on how dry they are and if you feel a need to douche, flush the medium. The how much part is something that you can figure out for yourself. It takes some experience to know the amount of water it takes, by eye, to saturate a pot. As long as there's enough to moisten the medium, you don't need to worry.
CURING WATER/OXYGEN RETENTION... I put this one in bold because you're going to love this answer the most, probably. When I fill my reservoir up, I add a teaspoon or two of hydrogen peroxide.
The H2o2 breaks down slowly, into Oxygen, keeping the O2 levels high, and therefore also protecting your water from ANY anaerobic bacterial activity. The water will stay crystal clear for DAYS, even in very high temperatures. This tip has actually revolutionized some gardens recently, who had trouble with bacterial growth in their reservoirs. Even Rezdog of Reservoir Seeds now uses this technique, and swears by it. No need to bubble when using H2o2. Also, you can mix any liquid ferts in your tank and it will not go putrid when there's H2o2 present... VERY handy, revolutionary IMO.Sucks about the Fluoride in the water, but lots of people grow in big cities.
nice chem dog cross!!
i also like the advice on not letting the soil dry out,i too also dont let my media dry.
the idea i believe was to let the soil dry out to encourage roots to spread and look for water,but i find that if you just water around the sides of the container, the roots expand just as well.
i dont water every day but i do water more then once a week, occasionally. fungi like mycorrhizal help a great deal on root growth/health, imo more then any drying out the media will do.
douching the soil lol
from time to time i get water leaching out of my containers, when i water or drench.
but i consider that a sign that i watered enough more then a flush.the excess water is recycled to drench other plants or it gets taken to the garden...
when you flush cc,do you do this near the end of flowering or do you do it every week or so? To fix problems or as a precaution?
well nice plants, good read thanks cc
i also like the advice on not letting the soil dry out,i too also dont let my media dry.
the idea i believe was to let the soil dry out to encourage roots to spread and look for water,but i find that if you just water around the sides of the container, the roots expand just as well.
i dont water every day but i do water more then once a week, occasionally. fungi like mycorrhizal help a great deal on root growth/health, imo more then any drying out the media will do.
douching the soil lol
from time to time i get water leaching out of my containers, when i water or drench.
but i consider that a sign that i watered enough more then a flush.the excess water is recycled to drench other plants or it gets taken to the garden...
when you flush cc,do you do this near the end of flowering or do you do it every week or so? To fix problems or as a precaution?
well nice plants, good read thanks cc
On flushing... I believe that Mother Earth flushes, and so should we. When it rains hard, which it does sometimes, the soil's dissolved salts/minerals get swept down, away from the reach of the roots at the surface. They are flushed down into the earth where they sometimes become crystals, stalactites, stalagmites in caves, etc. Just thought I'd reiterate that fact to help people understand that flushing IS a natural process.
In clean grows, where very little excess salt/mineral is lingering in the medium, very little if any flush is ever needed... But I LOVE to overwater sometimes anyway. The thought of a freshly douched soil is always very comforting to me. After the flush/good rain, organic soils will continue releasing their fertilizer without skipping a beat. Also, toxins may build up in the medium as a result of long periods of time supporting microherds and plant roots... a flush is NOT necessary in truly clean grows, but it is certainly not a bad idea, either. Just like a good rain isn't a bad idea on a farm.
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right on, CC... very good perspective on "flushing" organics... I've not used H2O2 with my gen-hydro recipe, but when I was growing organic used it frequently...
When I used to clone straight into dirt, the peroxide was integral to my method...
When I used to clone straight into dirt, the peroxide was integral to my method...
