Indoor Living organics in small and very small pots.

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey guys.

***What started as a thread in which I was seeking help in order to successfully start a living organics micro grow has turned into a grow journal that starts a bit lower on this page. Keep reading if the subject interests you.***

Original thread:

I am a micro grower and after years of growing in coco I finally decided to go full on organic. My first few grows, years ago, were mostly organic with biobizz nutes in cheap soil but I never went full on organic as I am about to do now so I need some help.

The thing is, as I will be growing in a very small space, about 1sqft with about 2ft height (believe it or not, this is actually an upgrade for me), I will have to limit my pot size to 2gl/4lt smartpot when growing just one plant or 4x 1lt pot when growing for seed production. I understand that these are ridiculously small pot sizes, even for dwarf autos and I need some guidance as to how to prepare my mixes.

Before going further, here is a list of what I have available:
Growing medium:
Coco coir (compressed)
Biobizz light mix
Biobizz allmix
Perlite

Nutrients:
A bottled nute that is just sugar beet extract (smells exactly like biogrow)
Maxicrop seaweed extract
guanokalong bat guano
pelletized farm animals manure (cow, horse, goat and chicken)
AN Nirvana

Conditioners/microbes:
Cannazym
Bottled Humic and fulvic acids.
Myccomadness
Mykos

My plant/s will be dwarf autos grown under CoBs, in a small closet.

Starting with the soil. I guess I will have to go for improved water retention over aeration. I was thinking of making a mix of 50% coco, 30% light mix and 20% allmix (at the bottom) with just a small hand of perlite over what's already in the light/allmix. I would go with about an inch of pure coco as top dressing. Are these ratios all right?

My big problem is with the amendments. I am not sure if or how much bat guano and/or pellets to put in my mix as I am afraid it will burn my plant/s. Maybe just a teaspoon of guano mixed with the coco and a small hand of pellets at the bottom of the pot. Or maybe not?

I think that most of the feeding will come as teas during the flowering stage. I will start a worm farm pretty soon so I'll have fresh worm castings for my teas along with a few drops of the bottled stuff I have, to feed the micro herd and the plant.

I need some fresh eyes on this, any help/opinion is greatly welcomed.
I know the space is very tight but I know I can pull this off. I just need a little help to be sure I'm heading the right way.

Cheers guys.

 

[MickJ]

Wow, that's a project, your idea sounds reasonable but you have variables I haven't seen before in the same grow, anyway! Lol. Not sure where to point you. Try @hecno for a start on soil and making do on nutrients.

Sent from my comfy chair
[emoji41][emoji2956][emoji848][emoji12][emoji42]

 

[hecno]

Very interesting . I believe it will all boil down to your moisture holding capacity of you soil . I know nothing about coco or biobizz soils , but I would say 3.4 ltr [ 1 gallon ] you would need holding capacity to retain you microbes and are not flushing them out with the amount of watering using light soils .

 

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey guys,

So this project is now up and running and I decided I should make a grow journal out of it. Normaly, I would have created the journal in the micro growing section but I will clearly need more help on the organic part as I am used to growing in very small spaces but I am not used to organic growing.

Talking about very small spaces. My box is about 1sqft (usable surface) with about 2ft of height. I use COBs and SMDs as my light sources, 3 circuits on 2 drivers from a gutted mars hydro 300 that I had lying around. First circuit are 2x CREE 2540 3500k @700mA that will be used for the flowering phase. Second and third circuits are switchable on the same driver between 2x CREE 2540 4000k @700mA and 2x CREE XHP50 6000k + 2x CREE XHP50 3000k + 1x CREE XHP70 6000k. So, roughly 50W per circuit with 24h/0h lighting.

Now the fun part. This grow is one single plant in a 2gl smart pot. The seed is a feminized Dr Feelgood F2 by yours trully.
I would normally set up a Blumat Tropf watering system as I had great results with it in the past (in coco) but my very limited space would just not allow the placement of a reservoir for this system, so, after spending many hours on the net, searching for a solution, I discoverred the SWICK system which is a very simple yet very efficient capilarity watering system. I set up a food grade plastic reservoir with 6lt of perlite that will be used as my watering source once I see the first roots coming from the bottom of the pot.

Since I opted for a SWICK system, I had to take into acount that my soil will have to contain more perlite so that it can "breathe" while remaining moist. I went with a layered soil set up as it seemed to make sense for root development.

here is the diagram of my layered soil:

1:Bottom layer. 1lt, 50/50 allmix/perlite
2:bulk layer. 2.5lt, 25/25/25/25 allmix/lightmix/perlite/coco plus 3 tbsp manure pellets and 1tsp bat guano
3:Seedling layer. 0.5lt, 75/25 lightmix/perlite. The seedling is in a jiffy plug on top of that layer. I sprinkled mykos and myccomadness on top and bottom of that layer.
4:Top layer. 1lt, 100% coco coir prepped with Humic/fulvic acids, sugar beet and seaweed extracs, AN Nirvana, cannzym and organic calmag extracted from algae.

I feel pretty good about this soil but I have no idea if I amended too little or too much, hopefully it will go well. If needed I will use drench/teas along the grow.

Here's a couple of pics of my set up and a couple of macros from the first 2 days of my plant's life.

That's about it for now, see you around, guys.
Jimmy, out.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

nice neat job no idea about cobs and organics but i like what i see
good luck n keep er lit.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

The problem I would tend to have in smaller containers is the foods and life having enough of each other to fully grow out.usually it'll tend to wain around the second or third week into flower with nitrogen as well and other flower building minerals.So might have to hit it with an AACT and/or top coating.help me when I do larger plants in smaller containers.happy harvesting.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

nice neat job no idea about cobs and organics but i like what i see
good luck n keep er lit.

Thanks, mate. I worked my ass off on this box and I am pretty happy with the end result. It could be tidier but it's good enough to grow in.

The problem I would tend to have in smaller containers is the foods and life having enough of each other to fully grow out.usually it'll tend to wain around the second or third week into flower with nitrogen as well and other flower building minerals.So might have to hit it with an AACT and/or top coating.help me when I do larger plants in smaller containers.happy harvesting.

I do expect to have to top fertilize a few times and I am prepared for it. Where I am really unsure is the timming and amount of it. Add that to the fact that Dr Feelgood is a dwarf strain that I have never grown in pots larger than 1l and that I have no idea how strong and long lasting the bat guano and manure pellets are, plus the fact that I have to shake off my coco coir habits and it's safe to say that I have "a few" challenges ahead. Thanks for chiming in, mate, I will need your expertize for sure.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

Day 5 of her short life. Happy and healthy, so far so good. Sprayed her for the first time today with Maxicrop Seawwed, AN Nirvana and cannazym. she gets 23/1 hours of light a day, the one hour of darkness comes right after spraying her to avoid getting burned by the CoBs.

Not much action but still worth a few shots.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey guys.

Day 8, all is good, she gets 2 foliar feedings a day and she seems to love it. First branches are pointing their tiny little "noses". She doesn't grow too fast but she is vigorous. She gets water every other day, in small quantities. I think I'll put her on the perlite bed in a week or so.
Brown spots are from the foliar feedings.

 

[STILLSMOKIN]

Nice clean setup! Good luck on grow!