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I used to put bone meal, blood meal and dolomite lime into my soil mix for long acting slow release fertilizers to supplement the Shultz 10-15-10 plant food. My early grows had Ca and Mg deficiencies and lockouts from salt buildups from the Shultz.
Since I have moved on to A/N Sensi Grow and Bloom, it's been a 100% fertilizer with only Dolomite Lime added. On this last grow I ran 100% Sensi and Big Bud with no D-Lime. I'm going to add the D-Lime back in to the next run cause it's a good source of Ca and Mg without adding salt residue. Most of the nutrient manufacturers don't add enough of these minerals because they are abundant if you have hard water.
My style of growing is a hybrid between soil and hydro with a soil-less medium. The soil-less medium of peat moss, perlite, vermiculite gives a nice stable and forgiving medium with the qualities of soil. This medium can be flushed out if needed.
The hydro nutes that I'm using are top shelf and don't cause salt buildups. I'm following a nutrient schedule that gives the plant what it needs at the right time.
I like what I'm doing right now. I'd like to get the A/N Final Finish enhancer to try that out and would like to do an organic run with the A/N Iguana Bloom and Big Bud.
The only thing I'm lacking is a ppm meter, which would dial me in a bit tighter.
jesus red, that sounds like a lot of work. I could never keep up with that, and all the lockout business.
If you ever go back to organics, I find that the most crucial thing is having the biggest container possible in terms of volume. when it is not enough soil mass things dry out too much for the biology to operate properly, the system breaks down and you have to resort to liquid nutes. that's why I am using those homemade containers made from rubbermaid waste baskets.
Hey MaryJohn, I haven't had a noticible lockout or a deficiency since I switched to A/N nutes. It's been several grows since I had to flush out my soil due to lockups. The Shutlz was salt based but not the A/N.
I'm following a weekly schedule. All I do is mix up 4l of nutrients for the week. I feed once and water in between. All I do is watch the runoff pH that it doesn't fall below 6 which indicates the nutes are building up.
This past run, I stuck to the plan and was pretty well bang on for the indica's on a 7 week feeding schedule but I lost it a bit on the Thai-Lights which is mostly Sativa. I've gotta change her to a 8 or 9 week feeding schedule cause she showed buildup in week 7.
I honestly don't know if I'd ever run "organics" by using worm poop, compost and teas. I simply can't get most of that stuff. My organic methods are going to be by picking a good liquid fertizer made from all natural ingredients and basically do what I'm doing now.
Hey Padawan - I usually flower at about 8"-10" and have done 12-12 from seed. One thing my growbox is 39" tall so it can take a sativa if it takes off like the Thai-Lights did. The first round of SOG plants in the 8" pots ended up about 24". The TL used up the full 39" and the LUI in the larger pot was about 36" tall.
I'm really liking the Organicare line and Pure Blend Pro as well they have been very easy to use and end up at the perfect PH when I mix up my nutes with tap water!!! I rarely have to adjust and if so it's only off by a few points I just like to keep my PH at 6.0 which is piss yellow in my drop test kit and that's what I always get!
Man, you have this lighting thing down to a science!
Ya Know, my last grow was using the soiless mix (your mix), & the grow before that was a hydro grow. I don't know if it's because I'm getting more apt at growing, but the resultant weed quality of my soilless grow is much much better then my hydro grow, I got some really GREAT weed from my last grow - no comparison between them, really.
Now, I used different ferts for the soilless grow, and I also added a bloom enhancer. I guess I need to get another hydro grow under my belt - but I'm wondering if, in general, you'll usually get a better quality weed from a soilless grow?
I'm talking quality, not quantity - I didn't get any near as much from my last grow - what I did get was world-class however!
That's awesome, you're last grow was textbook!!! I'm sure the pot is world class. One of my friends says my Thai Lights is the most potent he's smoked!!!
I've been doing some reading lately about Sativa's. Your Doc Atomic seems to have a lot of Sativa in it. They are a bit touchy to grow and do better in small pots where they can get rootbound early to shorten up the flowering cycle. I think that's why your Atomic NL wouldn't finish and go amber cause it couldn't get rootbound in a hydro setup.
Hey red, nice harvest! The thai looked real fine, lovely colas for sure, and the LUI looks sweet. No mistaking the indica in that one. 9 weeks and it seems to fatten up pretty well. Always nice to have some freshly filled jars.
It's been a while since my last grow and I'm getting the urge to get one going again. I've been off work sick with a cold so I've had a chance to work on the old growbox.
I mounted a medium socket base for my 150 HPS light. Now I can run a mixture of HPS and CFL's. Here's a pic of 238W of lights in a 2 square foot area. I plan to run the 150 with 2x42 CFL's for a total of 21,400 Lumens. This puts my growbox at the top end of the optimal lighting range of 8000-10000 L/sqft.
Now I'm getting ready for seedlings and have 4 x 13W CFL's installed. I sure like the easy access to the lighting chamber for swapping out bulbs!
All I need is some perlite and I'm set to pop some beans and get growing.
Hey Anti, it's nice to have visitors in the Lodge. I've been pretty quiet since I harvested my last run. I popped in your thread a few days ago. You're doing really well!
Hi Tilt, welcome to the Lodge. I guess you can call it a hybrid, I call it mixed spectrum lighting. All I'm trying to do is max out my light potential. The optimal range of flowering light is 8,000 to 10,000 Lumens/sqft. The 150 HPS alone is 8,000 L/sqft and with the 2x42W CFLs, the light intensity is increased to 11,400 which should be just about perfect.
Hey I2KanGrow - Great to see you back in the Lodge. Are you getting a grow going soon or just lurking in the bushes?
I'm just doing some grow box fiddling right now and need to get some growing supplies before I get some beans down. I've struggled with getting seedlings started and need perlite to mix up a good draining seedling starter mix.
Hey I'm getting the Lodge back in operation. Boy it's been a while since the old place has been opened up.
Just started some seed's today. I'm starting some Shiskaberry x Dutch Treat, the last 5 seeds from my breeders pack. I'm hoping for a good germ rate from these old seeds.
I'm also starting 4 Thai Lights x LUI which are my own cross from Dr Atomic's Thai Lights and Legends Ultimate Indica. How does Ultmate Thai sound as a good name?
My beans are placed on damp paper towel covered with saran wrap and placed on the hot water heater under a towel. I've got my soil mixed and in the starter cups. I'm using a 50/50 mix of Miracle Grow Starter Soil and Perlite.