Whats up RIU?
Been working like a jerk lately.. figured i'd better stop slacking and get an update out here.
I've made a big life decision recently.. I'm going Organic.
...Not my food.. but my plants food.
I SUCK when it comes to soilless mediums and bottled nutes! Ill fuck it up! Everytime!!
Besides.. I always wanted to but found it too difficult to acquire all the different amendments in my area.
I was probably just too lazy.
But my plants haven't been happy with me lately.. i fucked something up along the lines of ph and nutrient balance early on and struggled to fix it.
I just went easy on the nutes, threw old my 5yr old GO grow bottle, upped the mag and they started to look a little better.
Then i gave a couple good feedings (800ppm), then topdressed with my base mix and watered with distilled water (about a week ago) and they are looking MUCH better. all new grow is green and happy. Lost a few fan leaves along the way, along with a couple weeks LOL but things seem to be back on track.
My best grow was a wannabe organic grow about 7 years ago.. Super Lemon Haze closet grow in 5gal buckets of decent bag soil and a little botanicare grow and bloom when needed.
Shit turned out bomb. even had temps in the 90's in that small closet lol.
I've decided to keep it simple from now on.
I'm using a base mix consisting of equal parts EWC, potting soil, and perlite.
To each c.f. of this mix I am adding,
0.5 cup crustacean/crab meal - (still need to source this!)
0.5 cup neem/karanja meal - (still looking for this as well)
0.5 cup alfalfa meal
0.5 cup kelp meal
0.5 cup dolomite lime
1.5 cup glacial rock dust
1 cup greensand
I realize this may be a light mix, but its my first time so i'm keeping it simple and figure i can topdress or add some teas when needed.
Everything except this first two amendments, which i still need to acquire, is mixed and cooking. I know ill still need to cook an additional 4 weeks minimum from when i add the final two ingredients but i didnt see any harm in getting her mixed up with what i had. Its a head start.
I'm also trying to get some gypsum, fish meal and fish bone meal too. Some of these things are a bit harder to get in canada during the frozen season. Unless you live in Toronto, then you can probably get anything.
I'm very open, and looking for suggestions on my soil mix too.
Obviously this is in preperation for my next grow, which will be Mr. Nice - Super Silver Haze. Although I am about to flip to flower so ive just finished transplanting into 5gals for flowering and figured id see how they like the base mix (with a bit of dolo and glacial rock dust) and a little botanicare bloom when needed down the road.
They've all been tied down as well, with the exception of one of the more squat ones.. I really wanted to do a screen of green, those heads in the SCROG thread are doing some crazy shit!! But ultimately i decided I need to get my shit dialed in before I get them all tangled up in a net.
Here's some pics,
Time for a joint.
Peace Out.