What am I doing wrong here?

[vonforne]

Hair, is a slow release form of N. there is nothing wrong with using it. You do need to add it to the soil and let it compost for quite some time. There is a link in my sig. that you could go to. We have been discussing the different types of ferts other than store bought.
And your father was feeding the soil not the plant. That is the main concept of Organics....feed the soil not the plant. I think you are on the right track, you just need to tweek it abit.

Good luck and good growing, Von

 

[Guest]

vonforne, "I think you are on the right track, you just need to tweek it abit."

Thank you you guys have helped alot (you know who you are). MindsI info was awesome about the ashes I knew I was on the right road (just the wrong lane). Let's make some potassium carbonate instead of lye. We've made soap before just used that stuff out of a can, NOW I remember being told you could use ash. But that's why I came here to knock some past lessons in to the 'ol brick.

I'm still wondering if by mixing the hair with ash it's breaking down the hair. My dad did "mix" his together in old metal grease buckets. He just dumped the ash over the hair, took it out in the spring and spread, could the moisture in the hair reacted with the ash and help break it down? Lye is a drain cleaner used to break down hair and all. or maybe he did add water and just forgot to tell me (or I wasn't hearing) that.

The new plants seem to be good in my mix, lot bigger leafs. I am sure I just made it too "hot" with me adding the extra ash in my veg room (WAY to much P\K). And the hair that I was adding might be just now starting to break down (so much for a fast N).

The mom \ cuttings have perked up a little the past week(hair breaking up? haven't done nothing), but I'm a still thinking that I messed up by replacing her with a weak cut (everytime I look at the seedlings I can just feel it). got a 50\50 chance of replacing her with one of the new plants.

The "show" looks like one of those micros grows I've seen (wasn't going that route), real sticky,dusted preaty good and a GREAT smell to bad the're so small, just a little taller then a "bic" Preaty fat thou.

Ya like how I like all my women, Short, Fat & Stinky

 

[Guest]

Well I still haven't seen no real improvements in the Mom \ her cuttin's.

New plants are doing good which still leds me back to BAD cuttings when I did the change to organics.

Looks like I'll be veggin' some extra in the bloom room this next go round to try to get them bigger.

Ya small harvest this time, but HOTDAMN sure smells good and dusted quite nicely.

Going to miss this MOM, one week of cutting down to 12 then 62 days everytime when she was prime.

 

[Guest]

Well... my son told me earlier today that the mom does look better (he hasn't seen it for two weeks) so maybe just maybe there's hope after all. He said the other six cuttings are the same maybe a little better but the mom looks a lot better then it did. It was good to have a fresh eye I think.

Weak cuttings = weak plants every time.

planted two beans and I took a cuttin' off each of my two seedlings (what do you call them before sexed?) last night. Two - three weeks I'll sex them. Wish me luck folks.

So I'm not going to kill her off right away I'll wait at least untill I get a good replacement for her in the next few shows. She'll just sit in the background, hopefully getting stronger.

 

[minds_I]

Hello all,

JS, Glad things are getting better- man, my first 2 years growing was a struggle and it seemed that the more I loved my plants the more I hurt them.

Then, I discovered some things along the way- firstly, I now start new beans in spent organic soil. I do this because in my experience hot soil toast seedlings- pretty simple right? Well, I had to turn more then a few perfectly good sprouts into toast before the epiphany slammed into my dome.

Find a good organic soil and use ewc/guanos/molasses/D.lime and liquid kelp and you will be happy. Add some mycorrhizea (sp) and you are golden.

Another thing I discovered is when to water and feed. There is no one method that is correct but the universal method of when is the lefting of the pot method-I works for me. I also use a long wooden shishkabob skewr to push to the bottom of the soil and wait a few minutes- I pull it out and can feel out moist the tip of the stick is and how deep. Others use moisture meters. As to when to feed-that depnds on many things such as the soil the plant is in and how long its been there. What the plant looks like and weather its hungry.

Reading the plants needs can't be learned explicitly from reading a page sadly.

Patients is another gardening skill to have- I have been working on mine but is much better now and since I have weed to get through to the next harvest....hopefully.

Yeah that first twenty four months I was growing was rough........I am sure looking forward to the next 30 years of continuous growing.

For the doctors recommendation and average cost of $65/month for electricity...$1000.00 for enough smoke for personal and friends (10 O's/year-hey, its a 250w hps alright?)

Not having to phvqve with blood sucking money grubbing back stabbing asshole dealers ever....Priceless!

minds_I

PS: JS, really- you can do better then wood ash- liquid kelp and you are good to go. Also, liquid kelp has a pH of 8-8.5 and that will sweeten your soil as well as wood ash.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Minds I,

Ya I jumped into the organic thing to quick, should have gone slower. If I had ran it side by side I wouldn't be in the boat that I sail. And I have the room, I am only using like half the room anyways.

The first time I filled the room three years ago, my god; had too kill that mom 'cus I had well over a years worth (16 months). If I'm going to keep a mom I want three - four "shows" a year. Makes me feel like I'm not wasting money on power.

Dig ya on that Hot soil, I just use cheap store bought pottin' stuff on my seeds & cuttin's 'till the're rootbound in a 8oz cup.

Love that idea of a wooden skewer, that is one of my weakest links... still.
Patience is not a real big problem BUT that AADD sure sucks.

Wish I had a couple of those 250's I'm way overkill with my 400's for my needs BUT mine were FREE and all. One day I'll find some, always looking for lights. Got a 1000 hps ballast with a old bulb, it fired no extra buzzing, out of the trash of a hotel just last week. Probably just a bad eye didn't try it without the tape. Need to find someone to barter with around here (area, not icmag no pms please).

 

[Guest]

I have been surfing around and found that by me adding water\molasses shaken, was not a hot idea. It seems that by me doing that I was fermenting in my soil. By making a tea the fermenting is done in the bucket were the bad gases have a chance to escape and it's not stealing oxygen from the soil.

Bubbling the molasses into a tea is the ticket. The plants are perking right up now (second watering). Mom is getting alot healther (bigger, fatter leafs) and the six others are getting lots of new nodes.

The two seedlings really are groovin on the soil mix. Seems that using the ash in place of the dolomite lime may not be bad after all, just don't add it as a fertilizer, at least in veg. Unless I see a problem I am going to use the ash as a PH buffer in my soil. I not telling anybody else to use my soil mix. But the only thing I changed was, I stopped using ash/hair as a fertilizer and started using teas. Either my EWC is extra high in N because of the hair or the hair I used in place of bloodmeal in the soil is breaking down. All the plants are\were very green and are getting there N from somewhere.

Untill my flower worm bin gets going I will still use ash as a bloom booster just cutting from 1 TBS to 1 tea pre gallon every other feeding. Even using 1 TBS 3x in this bloom, last night my runoff was 7.2 PH (water only this watering)

Harvest date was tomorrow (62 days) but when I looked tonight (first time @ 30x) all cloudy, but no real amber. So looks like 69 - 72 days this go round. Looks like I lost a week to bad health.

Still since switching to organics; the smell, stickieness and richer colours are so much better then this same plant. The flavor of the last harvest was tremendous and from the smell this one it will be even better.

ORGANICS is the way to go.....

 

[Guest]

Well Nine days past normal bloom date and very little amber so far. Looks like atleast seven more days. The veg room is back on track can see growth from one day to the next.

Was doing more surfing and found out that the hair I'm putting into my worm bin is most likely being eaten/broke down by the microrganisms in the castings. The worms don't seem to mind the hair. I put a clump in a corner by its self and a week later it was gone just a waxy spot were it was. I don't know if the worms ate it or just tilled it in for the micros.

I don't know why my worms don't eat orange\lemon peals. From what I've read they should be eating them. Everytime I've put these into my bin the're still there when I refeed, when I screened the castings I've found chunks of them. Maybe I am putting to many in the bin(two orange, one lemon peal everyday was going into the feed bucket) or it's not one of the worms favorite foods. I been tring to eat more apples instead of the oranges, but over thirty years of eating them (oranges) everyday its hard to break.

 

[Guest]

Well Havested last night. I will try to get some pictures posted as soon as they're dried. Looks to be about 2 1/2 quarts thats half of what I need but O-well got some in the pantry for back up.

The biggest buds are 6-8" but only a hand full most are 3-5". Nice and fat and the smell, well we just can't beleave it's the same mom from when we used that evil nasty stuff to feed her. Darker colors, much sweeter smell and smoother taste (ya quick dried some popcorn for a taste) then before organics.

The cuttings I put in the bloom room are already as big as the ones I just harvested. So a week of 18 and a week of cutting down from 18 to 12 hours and I should be back on track.

Only one of the new seedlings turned out to be a female. A clone or three from it will be in the next bloom. but now I got two moms to take care of... The old mom already has a few healthy cut sites but I am going to wait 'till she's a little healther this time around.

 

[Guest]

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[Edit]
The pics of the nugs before canning were blurry, but with a little tweaking I got a few too turn out.

[Edit]

I feel SO DIRTY, this is the first and last time I'll ever weigh my harvest. Only dealers "need" to know weight, to which I'm not and never will be...

My other two jars from "grows gone by" where 43g and 48g so got more in the jar with smaller nugs(1 1/2 quart by weight). Smoked five doobers from popcorn also, two harvest night and one last night and two more on the tray.


So ironic, worst harvest ever... but best high/tasting so far...

The new plants in the bloom room are rock n' rolling, so back on track. Three more days of 18 then cut 1/2 hour a day untill it's 12. I do this for cost more then anything else. My bloom timer rocks, INTERMATIC ET70215C got it for 6 hours of labor.

So top feeding is a outdoor concept, when growing indoors/pots use teas. That way it cooks/breaks down in your bucket instead of your soil.

I still haven't bought anything for my garden I'm still using only everyday/household stuff and it seems to be working. I may never get the "best" or the "biggest" but like I stated "I don't care" NO PISSING CONTEST HERE . As long as I can grow enough for us to smoke, I'm a happy camper. I don't "need" bigger/better I need enough, no more no less...

 

[Guest]

Congrats on your harvest!

I share many opinions with you JS, there is more to life than what you can buy at a store, whether it be a garden supply store or otherwise.

It is possible to grow indoor without store bought ferts, personally I'm a newb so I'm playing it safe and taking lots of advice until i get my system dialed, then I too will experiment, but first I need to get to know the cannabis plant really well, gain some more confidence and try things without the fear of killing them all.

Kudos to you for trying out old school gardening methods indoors, I've learned from your experience here.

Lots of people just follow the flock and don't think for themselves, good on ya

 

[Guest]

Such a simple fix to my boogle, just make tea instead of top feeding. So many folks were trying to put me down, they will(see below) see that if "you" want, "you" can grow without store bought ferts. If the micros can/will break it down, your plants can/will eat it. As for the ash I flushed my "spent" soil 3:1 with water so I don't think I'll get a salt build up. The "spent soil" PHed at 6.2 after flushing, so I added 1 TBS ash per gallon with no lime this time. I'll check the PH again in two weeks sure would like a 7.0 like my tea is now. When I first started making my tea it's PH was 7.8, I don't know why, but a pot of brewed coffee per two gallons when making the tea brings it right down to 6.9 - 7.1 PH. Makes the tea smell a little better too...
EDIT one pot of coffee per ONE gallon grounds and all, drops the tea almost 1PH. Sorry my bad...

My advice to a new organic grower would be, split your garden, grow how you know and throw in one plant to tweek with. If I had done that, I would have never a small harvest just one small plant out of three. But hey, the plants seem to be back on track and I should be getting a normal harvest in about 3 1/2 months, so all is good.

I got the bins to build a new duel worm farm also, two side by side, one for grow and one for bloom. I might start a thread on this, because I haven't seen one on this forum. "What do you feed your worms" sounds like a good name...

Stay tuned for a new grow thread as soon as I figure out this damn camera....

 

[Guest]

Coffee?....hmm....well it is very acidic....nice find!

I got the bins to build a new duel worm farm also, two side by side, one for grow and one for bloom. I might start a thread on this, because I haven't seen one on this forum. "What do you feed your worms" sounds like a good name...

start that thread right away!

I am just about to start my own worm bin(s) also.

so what your saying is........feed the worms in the first bin waste with qualities for veg, and the other for bloom? genius! I was just going to start one.......

 

[Guest]

Taking out image of the bud...

Taking out image of the bud...

[Edit]
I was looking at my pics and this one ain't to bad. That's what I broke up last night.

so what your saying is........feed the worms in the first bin waste with qualities for veg, and the other for bloom?

That's right, but can't take the credit, it was Subys post here that made me step back. Let's not forget Relik and minds_I got me looking at why I should be using teas. Still reading the OFC over and over.

I might start the bins in the morning, I'll get pics and start the thread ASAP.