The OBBT Grow Show!

[McDanger]

Eh, that figures

McDanger

Sulfer lowers the pH of a medium. Holly tone is meant for acid-loving plants so it only figures that it would pack a lot of S. That MagiCal sounds like just what you need. It may not be organically-derived but I'll look the other way this time.

With low moisture and no air the medium will indeed sit dormant. This is good. Flop it into a tub, wet it and bubble it when you are ready.

guess I should have waited a little while. I got the fast acting lime and added 10tbsp to 12gal . Even with no added air or water, when I mixed it by hand it was warm in the middle.
I made up 2 buckets today. Kitty litter buckets that hold about 4gal ea. Dammit, I need smaller airstones. I guess it all goes together tommorrow.
Thank for all your help.

 

[SwitchAvenger]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

ok i'm done how, It's funny the same names keep popping up.
Bitchin set up BTW.

Did a little playing around at walmart (and broke some glass Hoorah!) for some tubs that'll be fixn to stick in my rubbermade tubs (along with some new design modification) had to fill them up with water to see how big they were, ended up being 4 gallons so gonna use two of them with a platform looking doohicky intake thingy (need an upgrade to both intake / exhaust, think i've "engineered" a plan... maybe...

Its constructed with PVC plumbing bits and you therefore need to be a fuckin plumber... Never trust plumbers.

Don't forget about mechanics! We can turn a soda can into a flamethrower (slow days at work... heh)

Lady Largely

I'm sorry our little reunion had to happen this way. You know that I didn't want the................................................................................................................


-DM

man... all i can say is you should try breaking some glass or something at walmart that usually helps. If not you can always get a pitbull and try wrestling (btw the pitbull wins, it's great times)

Sorry being stupid
!!CHEERS!!

 

[Citizen024]

Y'all won't believe what I am trying to pull: I am going to try and rent a tray/light at one of the shops in there demo garden to bust out a decent size experiment. It will have to be with basil, but if I can get it to work- which I will know like real fast- then I am going to have to have a serious talk about converting. One of the guys from the shop swears he's gonna come read the thread and seems into the concept.

They just got back from the indoor garden show- teas and microbes are all the "new" thing in indoor industry. You know what- this design is basically a tea brewer with plants living in it. It goes far beyond making tea and watering it in.

We shall see what happens. Your all going to laugh your assess off if I post up a tray of basil pics. All I know is if it works or not, and I can test it to scale without having to risk my precious garden, then I am stoked.

 

[rrog]

Regarding Fish Emulsion and Bat Guano, any particular brands? There are different Guanos available.

 

[McDanger]

Regarding Fish Emulsion and Bat Guano, any particular brands? There are different Guanos available.

DM says he uses Indonesian guano, don't know the brand.

I started the inoculation yesterday in 2 buckets. Also did the rice wash for the LB. I don't have an extra airstone so I am using the method by jaykush, as far as I can tell the only difference is he does not add air so it takes longer. Hopefully my new air pump will come before I add the milk.
Here we go

 

[rrog]

Good luck McD

What type of "soil / organic compost" are you using? I need to buy a bagged brand without all of the additives (since I'll be adding those)?

I'm having a bitch of a time finding the "soil / organic compost" component. All the quality pre-bagged soils have many additives.

I wonder if I have time to compost my own. LadyL, do you have a "Speed Compost" recipe?

The more I work on this, the more I want to make compost from scratch. Make it good and proper like the Organic Gods like

Thanks

 

[McDanger]

Good luck McD

What type of "soil / organic compost" are you using? I need to buy a bagged brand without all of the additives (since I'll be adding those)?

I'm having a bitch of a time finding the "soil / organic compost" component. All the quality pre-bagged soils have many additives.

I wonder if I have time to compost my own. LadyL, do you have a "Speed Compost" recipe?

The more I work on this, the more I want to make compost from scratch. Make it good and proper like the Organic Gods like

Thanks

I just used my left over soil that my current grow is in. It is made by sta-green, and has 25% perlite added so I may be a little short on the soil component in my OBBT. I then added 50% ewc to the soil (2parts soil/perlite 1part ewc).
I just checked my buckets and they both have about 10% of the surface covered in grey fuzz.
They will have plants in them within the week.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Hey LadyL and friends

Can i have your thoughts on the following LL...

What PH do you shoot for when watering and feeding?
What are your thoughts on worms living in the biobox?
What stage in flowering do you start the flush and starve?

Cheers.

 

[rrog]

Seems awfully quiet here these days. I hope all the conflict hasn't turned the Grow Show into the No Show

 

[ripman]

I guess it's just people in vacation

 

[McDanger]

Seems awfully quiet here these days. I hope all the conflict hasn't turned the Grow Show into the No Show

I agree. Now that some of us have started this technique, I for one will certainly have questions for the mentors. I would think Lady L will be back with an update soon.

 

[RipVanWeed]

Please Advise
Primarily for LadyLarge, but anyone and everyone chime in.

I've just flipped to 12/12. 5 gal. buckets...fully instep with the Drunk Mess and LL. The bottom 5" of the bucket is about 1/2 full so I'm soon to add.

I'm looking for suggestions for nutrient adds to encourage flowers. 2 days ago I topped up the reservoirs with a shot of kelp extract tea.

Should I try a guano tea, or more kelp, or just water?

Drunken Messiah thought I was a little light on K in my soil mix to start, he suggested that I give them Fish Emulsion...done.

With the preload of nutes in the soil/coco, how do I cut back on the N to help reduce leaf in the buds?

With the preload of nutes in the soil/coco, how do I starve during a flush, starve, feed regimen?

Is it critical to maintain a certian minimum level of water in the bottom of the bucket?

I have an improvement to the system, it takes awhile for the water to filter through the grow medium, and I have on occasion overfilled the rez. and had water overflow the exit hole. When this happens I put a cutdown soda bottle under the elbow I use at the overflow. Onetime the overflow filled up, right up to the top, when I was emptying the overflows, I noticed bubbles....seems air is escaping. With the air seeking the path of least resistance, I surmise a significant loss of air. Hence, I corked the overflows, I will uncork during refilling so the drains can function. I suggest others consider the same.

Thanks for help in advance,

RipVanWeed

 

[RipVanWeed]

I dropped this post in DrunkenM's thread as well.

I too am in need of mentoring

RipVanWeed

 

[LadyLargely]

Whoo!

Busy Busy Busy!

It has been a rough, action-packed weekend viewers. Things got a little hectic for me IRL. I may be behind schedule for the grow updates but I've been right on time with real-world progress. Placed beans in the incubator on:

July Thirtyfirst, 2009 4:20 AM

Here are the contenders:




Despite all these exciting dutch genetics I've saved a seat for some genetics of my own design. Sheerah is the culmination of various fancy bagseed along with some promising commercial weed. She is pictured here along two white widow seeds for scale. She has been selected for maximum size, vigor and yield which she has been whipped up to admirably. I think she could use some help in the potency department and that's the plan with this round. A couple of generations of cubing on Sheera with mixed dutch genes should yield some wicked hybrid vigor.


The gang as it will be planted. From left to right: White Widow #1, Dutch Mystery #1, Sheerah, DM #2, WW #2



1st and 2nd 24 hours of incubation.

After this things start to get a bit fuzzy. In the next 24 hours I realized DM #1 was a stillbirth. It was swapped out for Dutch Mystery #3. At this thime the first four where removed from their seed casings. 24 hours later they where placed directly into the incubated OBBT as show in the build-up.

Surprisingly, Dutch Mystery #2 has been the most vigorous so far. It got over 2 inches long in the towel, even sprouting forked ventricle roots. All 4 sprouts had their 1st set of serrated leaves plainly visible before they ever hit dirt. After planting they all look very even:



Thats a group shot, White Widow #1 and Dutch Mystery #2. No point in showing them all induvidually, they all look the same. No real action at the end of the first 24 hours of veg. The girls have chlorinated nicley but nothing other than that.

I sure got held up a bit but good ganja the box is finally done:



Ventilation took some fighting and I got delayed throwing the filter together. Still, all is now well and I'm ready to let everything sit for 3 months.

It is now exactly 4 days and 12 hours since officially starting the grow. 4 out of 5 seats filled, hopefully there won't be too much delay in getting DM # 3 sprouted and caught up. That's all for now, will be in to answer questions very soon!



Nighty night girls!

 

[rrog]

RVW, did you see my pic of an overflow idea in that other thread?

 

[RipVanWeed]

Rrog,

Yeah, I saw your idea....Overflows or overfills are always a pain . I went through several redo's of the drains on my first grow, and was never happy. One elbow and a cork = simplicity.

The farther I get in this journey, the more I live by the mantra "KISS".

My primary method for overflow control will be, don't overfill in the first place!!! Be patient, more patience has been my personal improvement goal for EVER.

 

[SwitchAvenger]

RVW you have one two many Http:// in your sig... and!

rrog i gave you an overflow idea. I was also looking at LL set up and she doesn't have any kind of air trap or cork on her overflows. Maybe she will have something to add to this, seems like DM is AWOL so I'm not sure you'll get an answer about his "unnecessary" swan yet but hopefully

LL - lots of love towards your grow hopefully that 5th one with grow into it's shoes like planned

Another question to you though. I remember you said you were going to explain why growing this ways produces more female plants. Did I miss that or are you waiting for a later time?

 

[LadyLargely]

Hoof, lets see here:

First off, let's clear up OBBT drain design.

DM and I learned long ago that a simple hole drilled in the side of the tub for an overflow is far from the best solution. As some of you have found a lot of air flow is lost through this sort of simple drain. To keep the efficiency of the OBBT up some kind of blockage is in order.

Some of you have already gone with a simple corking solution. This works fine. My design is tougher to build but easier to run. Take another look at my construction pics along with this:



That is how I plumb an OBBT. Water gets to the overflow from a hole drilled in the otherwise sealed plumbing way down at the bottom. This sealed column of water acts as a U-bend and no gas comes out of it. All air from the stone gets routed out through the medium. This construction also doubles as a float tube to measure the water level and can be integrated into the lower dump valve for flushing.

I don't think this setup is ideal and therefore have not covered it very well. This appears to have caused confusion. An ideal setup needs to be worked out and posted, I'm not the one to do this.

RipVanWeed

Seems you have questions about timetables. I was hoping just to demonstrate this for people but it seems a lot of you are well ahead of me in your grows.

Feeding OBBTs is simple business. You got a lot of it out of the way with the pre-loading.

First off, here's how I work my schedule:

Veg (lights: 17/7, mix of 6500K and 5000K)
2-3 weeks long, fed only pre-loaded nutes with a little fish emulsion during watering. Worked heavily with the veg foliar spray. Desired primary nute ratio: 3/1/1

Sex (lights 13/11, mix of GE P&Es and 5000K)
2-3 weeks long. This is where a lot of the pre-loaded nitrogen gets used up. Fed weak bat guano tea, no heavy K yet. Switch to flower spray. Foliar treatments are heaviest at this point. First flush come around the end of second week when all plants have sexed and budsites have appeared. Starve for 5-7 days after flush then hit with first round of flower nutes. Desired primary nute ratio: 1/2/1

Flower (lights 12/12, mix of GE P&Es and UV-B tubes)
7-9 weeks long. All pre-loaded primaries have been used up. Plants start this phase off of the first flush when they are nailed with the first strong flower tea. Heavy bat guano for P and kelp extract for K. Supplement with flower fish (2-4-0) for small amounts of N. Flush/starve happens on a 3 week cycle. 2 weeks into flower 2nd flush is initiated and plants starve for 5-7 days afterward. Back off foliar treatments after second flush. Second round of flower nutes come at the end of week 3. Repeat the cycle for the second 3 weeks. Final flower tea comes at the end of week 6. From here it is down to the specific plant, but they will linger on for an additional 1-3 weeks. When tric maturity has hit the desired point flush them one last time but do not re-fill the res with clean water (or only fill it a little bit). Plants will languish for a week or more. When the stems have withered and the fan leaves have dropped off put the plant in the dark for 72 hours if possible and then cut down at the base to hang. Desired primary nute ratio: 1/3/2


And that's the basics of it. Only 3 full flush/starve/feed cycles throughout with the incomplete final 4th one to initiate the curing process. I could lecture all day on how to best make teas but stick to my nute ratios and all shall be well. You can sneak some salt nutes in without hurting anything. This can be especially helpful during later flower.

Now

There seem to be a lot of questions regarding my seemingly magical ability to get mostly females from mixed seeds. A lot of you seem to be waiting for a "how to get all ladies" post. Sorry dudes and chicks, but don't hold your collective breath.

There's no silver-bullet for feminization, it comes from a ton of different factors. I will be pointing these out along the way. I don't like to over-simplify, but here's the basic list:

Pre-sprout to completion, that means a full set of leaves present before they hit dirt (more on this in an imminent post)
Run a very nitrogen-heavy veg (3/1/1 primary ratio, like I keep telling you)
Keep K down until proper flower (post-sexing)
Supercrop
Use passive air flow. DO NOT blow directly on the plants with a fan.
DO NOT TOP THE PLANTS
Run very blue light during veg (6500K)

And above all, proper use of this stuff:



Bonide's Tomato Blossom and Set Spray.

They might as well call it "Liquid Motherfucking Gold". If you see it anywhere buy it. I go through two 32 ounce bottle per grow. Been looking for it in bulk/concentrate for years.

Apply it at the very end of the day. Spray liberally over all foliage and then turn the lights off. Try to time your foliar treatments so that you go in to spray them within 20 minutes of the normal lights-off period. Then you can hose them down and immediately turn the lights off with manual override without fucking up the light schedule. I spray them with pure tomato spray at the end of days 1 and 3 of veg. From there I switch to:

Lady Largely's Super Foliar Spray

Take 1/2 gallon de-chlorinated tap water. Add to it 3 ounces liquid kelp and 1.5 ounces liquid fish (5-1-1). Then throw in a cup or two of our Lacto B culture. Add an air stone and wait.

The bad boy should foam up within a day or two. Remove the nasty as usual. Give it 3 or 4 days to make sure its totally finished. Then add one 32 ounce bottle of Tomato Spray.

Shake the whole mix well and you are ready to go. Spray liberally over the plants with a nice pump-sprayer at the end of every day you supercrop (basically every other day through sexing). Make yourself enough so that you've used most of it by the end of veg. Then you will mix it up again when you switch to flower only now use 2 ounces liquid kelp and 2 ounces liquid fish (2-4-0). Continue using it through sexing and up till flush #3.

Fwoo! I think thats enough info for one post. Sorry if I've missed any questions, I'll be combing through for them again here shortly. More updates to come!

 

[ripman]

And above all, proper use of this stuff:



Bonide's Tomato Blossom and Set Spray.

They might as well call it "Liquid Motherfucking Gold". If you see it anywhere buy it. I go through two 32 ounce bottle per grow. Been looking for it in bulk/concentrate for years.

Apply it at the very end of the day. Spray liberally over all foliage and then turn the lights off. Try to time your foliar treatments so that you go in to spray them within 20 minutes of the normal lights-off period. Then you can hose them down and immediately turn the lights off with manual override without fucking up the light schedule. I spray them with pure tomato spray at the end of days 1 and 3 of veg. From there I switch to:

Lady Largely's Super Foliar Spray

Take 1/2 gallon de-chlorinated tap water. Add to it 3 ounces liquid kelp and 1.5 ounces liquid fish (5-1-1). Then throw in a cup or two of our Lacto B culture. Add an air stone and wait.

The bad boy should foam up within a day or two. Remove the nasty as usual. Give it 3 or 4 days to make sure its totally finished. Then add one 32 ounce bottle of Tomato Spray.

Shake the whole mix well and you are ready to go. Spray liberally over the plants with a nice pump-sprayer at the end of every day you supercrop (basically every other day through sexing). Make yourself enough so that you've used most of it by the end of veg. Then you will mix it up again when you switch to flower only now use 2 ounces liquid kelp and 2 ounces liquid fish (2-4-0). Continue using it through sexing and up till flush #3.

Fwoo! I think thats enough info for one post. Sorry if I've missed any questions, I'll be combing through for them again here shortly. More updates to come!

Hey Lady, I've tried to find such a product but it is not distributed AFAIK in my country... my question is, which other product can I use to substitute it? I have access to Growth Technology Nitrozyme is it similar? And, by the way, I know Kinetin is contained in Kelp, have you gotten how does the Bonide product differ from normal kelp? I guess that perhaps using Kelp and Nitrozyme I could do as well without it, what do you think?

 

[rrog]

Thanks for the update LadyL. Obviously DM is gone for good. Closed his photobucket account and headed for the caves. So thanks for not leaving us all hanging.

I'm still reading your post, but notice a large difference between your flowering Foliar and DMs:

DM's ultimate flower spray:
1 32 ounce bottle Bonide Tomato Spray
1 20 ounce bottle liquid kelp (ascophylium nodosum)
5 tablespoons fish emulsion (2-4-2)
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon coco moist (organic wetting agent)
Dilute with 128 ounces of Lacto Bactilli culture


Lady Largely's Super FLOWERING Foliar Spray
½ gallon water
2 oz liquid Kelp
2 oz liquid fish (5-1-1)
1-2 cups lacto B culture

<<bubble for 3-4 days>>
Then add 1 32 oz bottle of Tomato Spray


I know you have refinements in your mixes since DM quit a year ago, but wanted to double check. There's a huge difference in the amount of kelp.

Do you see no value in the coco-wet?

Also, do you have a preferred Fish Emulsion and "Liquid Fish?"

I assume "Liquid Fish" means Fish Hydrolysate?

Thank you.