Indoor Hot soil grow.

[Joe383]

So I have started a Red dwarf by Buddha seeds in a base soil I have that consists of Roots organic soil 1.5 CF bag, 1/2 gal of steer manure, 1/8 cup+ 1 table spoon of lime, 1/8 cup+ 1 table spoon crushed oyster shell and 1/2 teaspoon of humic acid. I planted in a 1/2 gallon pot filled about 2" of soil added about 1 hand full of super soil and them filled the rest with soil mixture. The soil has only cooked for about 2 weeks so it might have the PH way off so we will see if the plants reacts badly to it. If all goes well I will transplant at week 3.

I also started today a Dedoverde Haze auto from Humboldt Seeds that will be frown I happy frog soil and fed with the fox farm trio pack, cal/mag and potassium silicate. The seed is being soaked over night so it will be about 4 days behind the Red dwarf.

The plants are being started under a 250W CFL and will be moved under a 600W HPS as soon as I can get a fan for the grow space. I do not plan on feeding the red dwarf but plan on transplanting in about 3 or 4 weeks to a larger pot and either adding amendments to base soil or diluting my super soil and filling the lower part of the pot with diluted mixture. Not sure yet on size cuz if I stunt this thing I don't wont to waist a 5 gallon pot on an 8" tall plant. The haze auto will either get a 3 gallon or a 5 depending on size as well.

 

[Joe383]

So far the plant looks ok. I have the haze in soil now. The 3 plants in solo cups are a breading project that I am planting out side today to get out of my way. Been working too much to do any thing with them and had to leave them in the solo cups way too long. Thank god there only for seeds. Can still spot the pheno types I want out of the bunch when there lanky. I had more but these were the ones I kept. Going to be my summer crop next year.

 

[Joe383]

So here is an update on my grow. The large plant is the red dwarf. It was transplanted a few days ago. I put about 3" of soil in bottom, added about 1 teaspoon of 0-12-0 bat guano ( mixing it in to soil ) about 3 more inches of soil followed by about 4 scoops of super soil using a 12 oz solo cup ( again mixing it in to the soil below it ) I then set plant in and filled the rest of pot with the soil mixture that it was originally planted in. So far it looks pretty good. I have had the lights on 24 hours the whole grow so far. I will switch to a 20 hour light cycle in a few days. It is showing pre flowers and should be in full bloom soon. Have used DE for pest control.

The haze in the fox farms is nice but not as nice as my red dwarf. I have used the happy frog for years and had one bad experience with the roots so this is only my sec time using it. I will be using it more now. I am using the happy frog trio on this plant. I have used the grow big, cal/mag and silica last week for my watering. I mixed about 1 teaspoon of grow, 1 teaspoon of cal mag and 1/2 teaspoon of silica for PH up to 1 gallon and used about 1/2 gallon last week. I am using big bloom at 2 teaspoons in 1 gallon this week and will be transplanting to a larger pot. My nitrogen levels are good but I am noticing a little def on P.

Thanks to Eyes on fire and Eekman in particular both of you have had very helpful information. It has helped with the red dwarf grow a lot. I will now be using a lot more lime in my roots soil and will be letting it sit for at least 1 month before I use it or more if i can. I like the layering method though and will be tweaking things over time. We will see how the rest of the grow with the red dwarf goes and I hope I will not have to feed. If I do than I will but I hope I don't have to. Obviously if my haze auto is not growing as good as my red dwarf than my nute program is not correct. I am under feeding. This is what I get for not following the feeding program. Next grow I will do the same grow comparison and use the fox farm program and start it at 1/4 strength. Not a fair compare though cuz I am not using the same genetics but so far the haze is doing about how I expect and the red dwarf is doing killer. The soil for the RD is super hot though and could still end up nuking the plant later as the roots expand in to the mixture so although it looks good now it might fail later( Lets hope not ). But so far I know the base soil that I mixed is fine and I like it a lot. I could see it had a def that looked like low PH but I used the soil about 2 weeks after I mixed so the lime had not had time to fix the PH yet and it quickly went away.

What do you guys think so far?

 

[Joe383]

O ya will have to take a picture of my seed project for you guys too. The purple Kush mother is looking killer. Have a good male for pollen. Hope to have some killer grows later from these.

 

[BR549]

I had a bad experience with Happy Frog my first grow with horrible pH, but the bags I opened for my current grow were fine.

 

[Joe383]

I have never had a problem with PH on happy frog so I would not shy away from it as I have used it for years. The only problem I have had is with it compacting over time and not letting water drain well. I have added pearlite to it quiet a few times but stopped as it is a fine line between adding enough and burning the plants for some reason. No joke I have added too much pearlite and had my plants burn for some reason but the soil is great out of the bag as is for seedlings if your going to transplant later in to something else. I like the roots so far but I am not running it strait out of the bag. I had low PH once at around like a 5 and did not use it again untell now and that was like probably 2 years ago. I know the roots is low out of the bag though. I like the texture of the roots more for sure. So far it has not compacted like the happy frog. The compacting and not liking to have to feed so much are the reason I am trying something new this grow. The happy frog seams like it is missing something but I also have not used it with there nutes so I guess that's not quiet a fare statement. I Usually use the roots organic nutes. Now I am using the happy frog nutes but it is my first grow with them and I am not following there feeding schedule. I will probably follow the feeding schedule next grow but I started with only the grow big cuz I could not afford the nutes at the time I started the grow. It is nice to grow 2 different ways this grow. I usually try 2 different things when I grow but most of the time I am using the same nutes in different amounts or adding something extra to a plant. This time it is a bottle fed plant next to a soil fed plant. I left room in the pot for top feeding on the RD. I want to try to avoid feeding it but if I think I am going to sacrifice weight or quality I will. So far it looks good. Also the haze is 4 days behind which is a lot in this stage of both there grow cycles. I need to take pics of both plants at the same day of there grow cycles to compare them so in 4 days I need a pic of the haze to compare to the RD today. The haze seams a little behind so far though but it is a different strain.

 

[Joe383]

So noticed the PH looked low on my RD and my haze has a mag def which would explain the small size. I mixed in lime with the RD soil but not the haze. I checked the run off of the RD and it was 6 with 7 going in which looks about rite on how the plant looks today. I watered with some silica and cal/ mag to bring PH back up and will check PH next watering in a few days. I also fed the haze with a little bloom/veg and some cal/ mag. You cant tell from the pic that the PH is low cuz the pic is from yester day. It is getting dark green on the edges of the leafs and lighter in the centers. Will post a pic later tonight so you all can see what I mean.

 

[Joe383]

Here is a pic of my side project I have been working on too. The light purple plant and the father plant is a strain I made last year. Its a 50/50 mix of Purple Kush auto with MI5. I am pollinating another Purple Kush again as you can see and going F2 on the Purple MI5. More projects to come from both strains later. I like the smell of the Purple MI5, its very unique. It has a strong smell of lemon and lime with fruit and floral. Its an odd smell for a pot plant but smells very good.

 

[Joe383]

So here is my plant from today in the "Hot soil" Something is a little off but so far the plant is doing ok. My run off was PH 6 and looked like it was low to me from what the plant looked like so I have watered with a gallon of water mixed with 1 teaspoon of cal/mag and 2 teaspoons of silica to raise PH. The water PH was 9.0 but that is not that accurate cuz the water dose not have much to buffer the PH. I will check run off next watering and see were I am at.

 

[BR549]

I have never had a problem with PH on happy frog so I would not shy away from it as I have used it for years. The only problem I have had is with it compacting over time and not letting water drain well. I have added pearlite to it quiet a few times but stopped as it is a fine line between adding enough and burning the plants for some reason. No joke I have added too much pearlite and had my plants burn for some reason but the soil is great out of the bag as is for seedlings if your going to transplant later in to something else.

Now you've got me wondering. My soil is fine this grow, but I added significantly less perlite than I did last time. It never occurred to me that it could have been the perlite; I'll have to investigate this a bit!