What up AFN! 
I've got my third grow underway, so here's where I'll be documenting the progress. The focus of this grow is to adhere to stricter organic inputs and methods and evaluate their results.
During my last grow, I used the entire General Organics line with success. I liked the results I got, and felt reasonably confident that they were truly organic. Recently however I went to the General Hydroponics website looking for some MSDS sheets on the products. None of the provided MSDS sheets gave ingredient lists and simply stated that the ingredients and proportions were "trade secret" and "deemed safe." Even the seaweed product hid under the same veil. While I bet they are actually safe and everything, I want to know exactly what I'm using. For this grow, I'll just stick to using their Bio Weed for the early stages.
I plan on honing my AACT brewing skills in order to really keep the soil microbes active and busy. I also like the idea of relying less on bottled nutrients.
Materials:
This will be my third time growing Dutch Passion's Think Different. What really stood out during my 2 prior grows of this strain was how dense the flowers were, even before the last few weeks of ripening. The high is incredibly strong, a definite head-changer with an appropriate name.
I haven't grown anything by G13 Labs before, and I received this seed as a bonus from ordering the others. I haven't looked into the strain much, and I don't think G13 lists it on their site anymore. But from what I could find, it's also supposed to be a trippy sativa high. Bout to go APE
Originally I was going to go with something like Gardner & Bloome's Eden Valley, but I wasn't able to source it in my area. I took a trip to a small garden center and saw that they had just received a shipment of Dr. Earth POTting soil. I was pleased to see that all their soil was stored INDOORS (a big deal in my book). I really liked the listed ingredients. It's a compost based medium, with plenty of nice ingredients, including some bat guano. If it's the same guano they sell as an amendment, then it should be pretty high in Nitrogen. Hopefully that will carry me through most of the vegetative stage until I begin to top dress with other fertilizers down the road. The soil has a great smell and texture. The lady at the garden center was so nice and gave me a free bag of Xtreme Gardening Mykos. I like Bioag's Vam-Endo mix better, but it was a really nice gesture. I mixed the entire packet of Mykos throughout my soil. Not sure how much it'll help, but I figure it couldn't hurt. I then took some plain peat moss and mixed it with the Vam-Endo. I used this mixture to fill a cubic inch hole in the soil of each pot to serve as a seed-starting entry point. I'm hoping that the fresh Dr. Earth soil, excessive Mykos, and Vam-Endo in the starting mix will ensure rapid and consistent inoculation of the roots as they spread throughout the medium. Autoflowers only have so much time to form symbiotic relationships, after all.
This is my second time using Smart Pots. There's things I like about them, and things I'm not so fond of. First of all, they work great. I'm sure my plants and the growing medium are receiving more oxygen from the textile nature of the pots. On the other hand, I don't really like the fabric pot. I have the handled version, which is convenient, but no matter how you pick them up, they sag and form into shapes from gravity, which *may* tug on the roots unfavorably. Additionally, I think they need to be suspended above surfaces to allow drainage and air exchange on the underside. I've built a mesh table from PVC pipes and plastic screening which has made watering and disposing of the resulting runoff much easier. In the future, I will go back to Airpots.
I plan to alternate between feeding Boogie Brew AACT and a light seaweed solution. I have some dry fish protein hydrolysate on hand in case of Nitrogen deficiency. I'll top dress with Worm Gold Plus EWC and about halfway through switch to using Dr. Earth's Flower Girl. If anybody has any experience with Dr. Earth products, I'd love to hear about your experience.
Still digging this Gorilla Tent! Two grows completed so far, and the tent is showing hardly any signs of wear. I open and close the tent multiple times per day to check on things, and the zippers are still just as smooth as ever. Having the height extension rules. I have plenty of vertical space, and it makes temperature management simple. I can keep my fan on the lowest speed setting, and canopy temperature is only ~ 1- 5 degrees warmer than the intake temperature. I use a small oscillating tower fan and a personal desk fan for air circulation. Having the 400 CFM fan on a speed dial works wonders for keeping it quiet, especially considering I sleep 5' away.
I really love this panel. It has performed exceptionally well for my needs, and I'm still learning how to properly utilize it. Last grow I kept it about 45" from the soil line until flowering when I lowered it to 39". The plants had good structure and the buds developed nicely even from such a distance (My ABB was even nominated for BOM in August!). Two grows completed and all the diodes are working just fine. 300+ actual watts in a 5 square foot space has been working quite well.
Catching Up:
Pictures coming soon!
I've got my third grow underway, so here's where I'll be documenting the progress. The focus of this grow is to adhere to stricter organic inputs and methods and evaluate their results.
During my last grow, I used the entire General Organics line with success. I liked the results I got, and felt reasonably confident that they were truly organic. Recently however I went to the General Hydroponics website looking for some MSDS sheets on the products. None of the provided MSDS sheets gave ingredient lists and simply stated that the ingredients and proportions were "trade secret" and "deemed safe." Even the seaweed product hid under the same veil. While I bet they are actually safe and everything, I want to know exactly what I'm using. For this grow, I'll just stick to using their Bio Weed for the early stages.
I plan on honing my AACT brewing skills in order to really keep the soil microbes active and busy. I also like the idea of relying less on bottled nutrients.
Materials:
- Seeds - Dutch Passion Think Different and G13 Labs Auto Pineapple Express
This will be my third time growing Dutch Passion's Think Different. What really stood out during my 2 prior grows of this strain was how dense the flowers were, even before the last few weeks of ripening. The high is incredibly strong, a definite head-changer with an appropriate name.
I haven't grown anything by G13 Labs before, and I received this seed as a bonus from ordering the others. I haven't looked into the strain much, and I don't think G13 lists it on their site anymore. But from what I could find, it's also supposed to be a trippy sativa high. Bout to go APE
- Soil- Dr. Earth's POTting Soil
Originally I was going to go with something like Gardner & Bloome's Eden Valley, but I wasn't able to source it in my area. I took a trip to a small garden center and saw that they had just received a shipment of Dr. Earth POTting soil. I was pleased to see that all their soil was stored INDOORS (a big deal in my book). I really liked the listed ingredients. It's a compost based medium, with plenty of nice ingredients, including some bat guano. If it's the same guano they sell as an amendment, then it should be pretty high in Nitrogen. Hopefully that will carry me through most of the vegetative stage until I begin to top dress with other fertilizers down the road. The soil has a great smell and texture. The lady at the garden center was so nice and gave me a free bag of Xtreme Gardening Mykos. I like Bioag's Vam-Endo mix better, but it was a really nice gesture. I mixed the entire packet of Mykos throughout my soil. Not sure how much it'll help, but I figure it couldn't hurt. I then took some plain peat moss and mixed it with the Vam-Endo. I used this mixture to fill a cubic inch hole in the soil of each pot to serve as a seed-starting entry point. I'm hoping that the fresh Dr. Earth soil, excessive Mykos, and Vam-Endo in the starting mix will ensure rapid and consistent inoculation of the roots as they spread throughout the medium. Autoflowers only have so much time to form symbiotic relationships, after all.
- Pots - #3 Smart Pots
This is my second time using Smart Pots. There's things I like about them, and things I'm not so fond of. First of all, they work great. I'm sure my plants and the growing medium are receiving more oxygen from the textile nature of the pots. On the other hand, I don't really like the fabric pot. I have the handled version, which is convenient, but no matter how you pick them up, they sag and form into shapes from gravity, which *may* tug on the roots unfavorably. Additionally, I think they need to be suspended above surfaces to allow drainage and air exchange on the underside. I've built a mesh table from PVC pipes and plastic screening which has made watering and disposing of the resulting runoff much easier. In the future, I will go back to Airpots.
- Food and Supplements
I plan to alternate between feeding Boogie Brew AACT and a light seaweed solution. I have some dry fish protein hydrolysate on hand in case of Nitrogen deficiency. I'll top dress with Worm Gold Plus EWC and about halfway through switch to using Dr. Earth's Flower Girl. If anybody has any experience with Dr. Earth products, I'd love to hear about your experience.
- Grow Space - Gorilla Grow Tent 2.5' x 2' x 7' with 6" 400 CFM exhaust + carbon filter
Still digging this Gorilla Tent! Two grows completed so far, and the tent is showing hardly any signs of wear. I open and close the tent multiple times per day to check on things, and the zippers are still just as smooth as ever. Having the height extension rules. I have plenty of vertical space, and it makes temperature management simple. I can keep my fan on the lowest speed setting, and canopy temperature is only ~ 1- 5 degrees warmer than the intake temperature. I use a small oscillating tower fan and a personal desk fan for air circulation. Having the 400 CFM fan on a speed dial works wonders for keeping it quiet, especially considering I sleep 5' away.
- Light Source - Topled's Mars II 700 LED panel
I really love this panel. It has performed exceptionally well for my needs, and I'm still learning how to properly utilize it. Last grow I kept it about 45" from the soil line until flowering when I lowered it to 39". The plants had good structure and the buds developed nicely even from such a distance (My ABB was even nominated for BOM in August!). Two grows completed and all the diodes are working just fine. 300+ actual watts in a 5 square foot space has been working quite well.
Catching Up:
- 8/11 - Soaked seeds in water until they cracked open
- 8/12 - Sewed seeds into soil
- 8/14 - Seeds emerged! (Day 1)
Pictures coming soon!
