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Makeing my homemade compost work. What i do is season it well then when it looks finished i shovel it into black glad trash bags and leave it in a sunny location for another month or more to hopefully kill off any remaining pest and other nasties. When i fill containers with it i start with a base of perlite then add my compost mixed with perlite and vermiculite then a good thick top layer of amended store bought planting mix also amended with per/verm. No other fancy stuff as i feel all the plants should really need is in my compost.
Other pest management things i use are three treatments of Oraganocide 3-in-1 insecticide, fungicide, miticide one dip at 7days of veg one at 14 and a finaly spray at 20days of veg just before i cut clones off the lower branches and flipped em to 12/12. Once a week after the flip i remove all plants from the box and clean everything with lysol or a bleach water solution. At the same time i have the plants out i carefully so no dirt falls useing a sheet of foil to hold it in flip them upside down and rinse them off with a firm spray of tap water. I continue to do that each week till say week five on a eight week strain and like week seven on a ten week strain. The idea is to rinse any mites or thrip off that might be trying to set up shop. But do it in a way that gentle enough to not be harming resin glands. This is usually all i need to get through till harvest.
Anyways enough rambling here's week six of flowering.
Almost forgot my Kratky kid! Im new to hydro but likeing this method so far. Can't get any easier. All ive done is planted a rooted clone in a homemade net pot filled with perlite and set it into a recycled ice cream containor filled with gh nutes and a cap full of peroxcide and coverd with aluminum foil so no algea grows. No ph'ing no testing anything just mixing with tap water. Gh maxigrow and maxibloom say it buffers the ph on its own seems to be working fine. Atleast far as i can tell being new to hydro. Any of u hydro guys care to comment please feel free.
Here is my Kratky method Sensi skunk tester six weeks of 12/12 from a rooted clone.
The girls are swelling up nicely. Been haveing a bit of weather here lately rain and wind upto 50+mph had my electricity flickering a few times enough that one of my fans shut off temps were upto 90% for atleast five hours before i relized and turned it back on. Strange only one fan went out my exhaust fan stayed on. Everything looks alright so no harm no foul.
At seven weeks the Critical Kush is definantly looking like its gonna be the biggest yeilder but one of the last to finish up im thinking 10weeks. The Cookie Glues are the tallest but my quess is they'll be the smallest yeilders although they do come on the last week or two, my quess they'll need atleast 10weeks to. The Sensi Skunk is looking like she can come down at 8weeks but im in no hurry. The Gorilla Glue is the frostiest right now but well all no its not just how much frost is there but the quality of the frost that's there.... Im thinking my gorilla glues will be done in 9weeks.
My Kratky test clone is looking real close already at the end of week six i changed out her nute solution for plain ph'ed tap water mixed with a little molasses. My plan is to flush for two weeks and cut her down at or around 56days of 12/12
A few days after my 90% temp/fan issue i started to see a few mites. I think the heavy weather rain and strong winds helped contribute to the issue but at this point i feel they cant win the fight! I see them on two Gorilla glue on the metal halide side of my box closes plants to the exhaust fan. Temps been running 75-80 humidty 32-38%. The flowers are heavy their floppin bigtime. Im useing sticks and scotch tapeing a few upper fan leafs to the box to support the heavest flowers. The Sensi Skunk are looking finished i decided to harvest a couple that yellowed up the most and let the others go untill 9weeks. At that point i'll take the rest of the skunk and all the gorilla glue then shut off the hps and just run the critical kush and cookie glue till done with the mh. Since the girls are getting so floppy now this will be the last group pic i'll post more but i got to figure out how to keep them upright for the shots.
After i finish this run thanks to alot of the led info i gatherd here i'll be rebuilding both my grow areas time to get more bang for my electricity $$$$.....