Old lowcoast , new grow

I thought bas had all the nutes already and only needed phed water ,maybe some flowering nutes toward the end?

What do you mean by top dressings?
At pot up, so when I first plant?
Will that not be to hot?

Thanks for taking the time to help me as well, I've had a few grows in the past, so not totally green but things change so much....lol
The power of the Earth box comes from two things, the clean Nutrient free water in the reservoir and a nutrient mound........top dressings.

In Earthboxes, once the plant has established a root structure into the wicking area, it now has a source of nutrient-free clean water. The girl can now take up water without having to take up any nutrients. This means the girl can pick and choose what she needs and not what she is forced to take up through transpiration and growth.
So the plant basically develops two root systems. One is pretty much just for clean water and the other is for nutrients.

The cover over the Earth box keeps the top of the media moist for biological activity to help break down and make the nutrients in the nutrient mound available to the plant. Roughly 20 to 30 days, you will see feeder roots invading the nutrient mound. As you get more experienced, you can use the amount the roots have invaded into the nutrient mound to determine when the next top dressing should be administered. This takes time. This is why I established my nutrient mound at the time of potup, I'm giving it time for all the bacterial activity to breakdown and make everything available.

I've just recently tested the 3.0 media for seedlings sensitivity. It passed with flying colors. Your nutrient mound cannot burn the plants because it's not plant available yet. I'm not the only time you're going to burn your plant from the top dressings is if you let your reservoir stay dry for a few days. Forces the plant to take up the nutrients with what water is left in the media. And that's pretty much with any kind of container growing.

Really the only problem you're going to run into in growing earth boxes is if you pick the wrong earth box for the size of your girl or you wash some nutrients into the reservoir by top watering too much. For a simple beginner grows you won't be top watering any, other than maybe misting the top if it needs it. This comes into play when you're more advanced and using different flowering nutrients that are liquid, such as FFJ......Fermented Fruit Juice. I get around that by just mixing my liquid ingredients with compost to make like a wet slurry and apply that to the nutrient mound. But like I said, that's for later when you get more experienced in growing with Earth boxes.

Just using those ingredients that I have mentioned, you can definitely grow some really killer plants. With this setup you really don't have to worry that much about your nutrients and you can concentrate on providing your girls with the best environmental and lighting conditions.

And you really don't need to worry about pH'ing your water. 6.2-7,5 will work and up to 200ppm. Anything after that you should consider filtration and may be RO.

Really, the only hurdle you need to overcome with Earthboxes Is establishing that relationship with the wicking area. This takes time. In Jrs, it's about 10-14 days you can start limited water in the rez. I usually start with about 10 ounces only. This will wet the center wicking area in the junior and the roots will go toward the moisture directly underneath the plant. A couple of days later I will add more water, usually another 10 ounces. A little small flashlight will help you see into the reservoir to gage when to add water. Usually by day 21 you can add a half a gallon. Now this is just still going to depend to own the progress of your girl.

Establishing a good root system on autos is extremely important, especially in the beginning. Too much water or too little water you will stunt your autos and they will go into early flower. This is the same in regular pots or earth boxes.

This is why I now pot up the day that I'm planting my seedlings. I bring up the moisture level and use whatever biological inoculate to bring up the moisture level of the media to the proper level. It's the exact same level that I used in making compost. And if you haven't made compost, If you take a handful of media in your hand and squeeze it, you should not get any moisture out and the media should still stay very well clumped together.

This makes the media dry enough for the roots to need to explore and wet enough to encourage or enable it.
With the cover installed, it helps to keep this moisture level more even for a longer period of time.
Feel free to pull back the cover and use a simple moisture probe to give you an idea of when to add water. By potting up the same day and being extremely consistent with the moisture level, allows you to judge better when to add the water just through consistency from grow to grow. You won't have to use the moisture meter after you've gained a little bit of experience.

Here's Aunt Jenny's elixir at day 31. That's the day I fully filled her reservoir with one gallon for the first time. A couple of days later she kicked it into high gear. When they get that relationship established, they really blow up!

Regular Earthboxes are just a little bit different. Namely, it takes a little longer to get the relationship established. If you have a big enough Auto girl that needs a regular earth box, then planting on one end will help shorten the establishment of the roots to the wicking area, since Regular Earthboxes have the wicking areas on the ends. If you have the same girl planted on the same day, with one being in a regular and the other being in a junior, the junior will always jump ahead of the regular, but the regular will overtake the junior in the last half of stretch. Planting on one end also facilitates a very easy method of training. All you really gotta do is take a pull from the top main cola and pull it to the opposite end. I call it the layover method. done in small increments in this night stretched the girl done in small increments in this night stretched the girl any whatsoever and it makes for a lot of top buds.
img_20231005_223515036-jpg.1637181


If you go this route, just buy the Earth box itself. You don't need any of Earth boxes nutrients nor their methods.

Honestly. this is pretty simple way to grow cannabis! You'll be amazed at the root system after you chop one! It's nothing but one big root ball...................... If you did it right!

If you really want to learn more about Earth boxes, the same place I did, then check out Jeremy of BAS 10x10 Youtube series at the beginning.
Here's the first episode of the series


I think this is the easiest method for the beginner to learn and grow quality cannabis. That's why whenever it becomes fully legal here, this is the method that I'm going to use to teach other Veterans on how to grow their medicine.


And after the grow, all you gotta do is dump out the boxes into a tote, chop up the rootballs, add your re-amendments and let cook for 3 weeks.

If you wanna go down this rabbit hole, I'll definitely help you in any way I can.
 
Self-feeding/watering bases work very well. I use the AC Infinity ones.

But I add multple more wicks/ropes dipping into the reservoir, and spread them around the base. I've seen no downsides at all from adding more wicking. Post-harvest examination of roots shows fine roots throughout the pots except for the top inch or 2 (seems optimal). Otherwise you risk the roots concentrating in a much limited area at the bottom of the pot vs. growing throughout the pot.
 
Okay, got a spot where I'm gonna place a few autos outdoors
Gonna use living soil.
Is it still ok to use the self watering bases outdoors?
Gonna be using 5 gallon fabric pots as well.

Any other tips you guys have would be appreciated, thanks and hope all is well

I'm down south so temps will be from 70 to 80 degrees
 
Okay, got a spot where I'm gonna place a few autos outdoors
Gonna use living soil.
Is it still ok to use the self watering bases outdoors?
Gonna be using 5 gallon fabric pots as well.

Any other tips you guys have would be appreciated, thanks and hope all is well

I'm down south so temps will be from 70 to 80 degrees
If you're going to use BAS 3.0 media....... I highly recommend it, The only other thing you really need to buy from them is the Build a Bloom. I would suggest getting a microbial input and BAS has a quite excellent one that I've used the last several grows and got really good results is the Rootwise Complete. Keeping and enhancing your roots health is extremely key with autos.
For a first run just starting out, You're really only going to need two other ingredients for top dressings. I highly recommend Coast of Maine lobster compost. I've always just bought it online through Amazon and have had absolutely no problems with it.
While you're not gonna get the absolute best quality of earthworm castings at big box stores, They still work quite well. Definitely a long ways away from what I use with my own. While you will get some good microbial input, You won't get any of the beneficial insects.
I have used this in the past with absolutely no problems and good results.

When sprouting your seeds in a router or in a Dixie cup, I only pot up my media the day I transplant my seedlings. I put all my media in a tote to add water to bring it up to the proper moisture level. I have always used either compost tea or now the Rootwise Complete. the easiest way to describe the moisture level is to squeeze it as hard as you can and there should not be any water dripping out and the material should stay clumped together when you open your hands.
Fill your pot within a couple of inches of the top and then pick it up and drop it a couple times on the floor to settle the media. Add a little bit more media to get it a couple inches down below the top. You want to leave a little bit of room for your top dressing. To help keep the moisture in the pot as best as possible, go ahead and add your worm castings and compost after you transplant. For a 5 gallon pot three or four handfuls of each should be sufficient. I would highly suggest a layer of straw on top of that and that is also to keep the moisture level more stable. I have been using alfalfa hay found at pet stores. Dumor brand.

By waiting to the day of transplant, the moisture level in the pot will be optimal for the roots to explore and you won't have to worry about watering for about 5-7 days. You will have to water manually probably once or twice before you can actually turn on the automated watering. Usually 14 to 21 days. You want the roots to be well established before you turn that on. That's extremely key with autos! if you turn it on too soon you will stunt them and they will start to flower early and they will be small plants.

That should be enough to get you started and through the first two weeks.
Document what you do! It can help you later and also help us if you run into any problems.
 
If you're going to use BAS 3.0 media....... I highly recommend it, The only other thing you really need to buy from them is the Build a Bloom. I would suggest getting a microbial input and BAS has a quite excellent one that I've used the last several grows and got really good results is the Rootwise Complete. Keeping and enhancing your roots health is extremely key with autos.
For a first run just starting out, You're really only going to need two other ingredients for top dressings. I highly recommend Coast of Maine lobster compost. I've always just bought it online through Amazon and have had absolutely no problems with it.
While you're not gonna get the absolute best quality of earthworm castings at big box stores, They still work quite well. Definitely a long ways away from what I use with my own. While you will get some good microbial input, You won't get any of the beneficial insects.
I have used this in the past with absolutely no problems and good results.

When sprouting your seeds in a router or in a Dixie cup, I only pot up my media the day I transplant my seedlings. I put all my media in a tote to add water to bring it up to the proper moisture level. I have always used either compost tea or now the Rootwise Complete. the easiest way to describe the moisture level is to squeeze it as hard as you can and there should not be any water dripping out and the material should stay clumped together when you open your hands.
Fill your pot within a couple of inches of the top and then pick it up and drop it a couple times on the floor to settle the media. Add a little bit more media to get it a couple inches down below the top. You want to leave a little bit of room for your top dressing. To help keep the moisture in the pot as best as possible, go ahead and add your worm castings and compost after you transplant. For a 5 gallon pot three or four handfuls of each should be sufficient. I would highly suggest a layer of straw on top of that and that is also to keep the moisture level more stable. I have been using alfalfa hay found at pet stores. Dumor brand.

By waiting to the day of transplant, the moisture level in the pot will be optimal for the roots to explore and you won't have to worry about watering for about 5-7 days. You will have to water manually probably once or twice before you can actually turn on the automated watering. Usually 14 to 21 days. You want the roots to be well established before you turn that on. That's extremely key with autos! if you turn it on too soon you will stunt them and they will start to flower early and they will be small plants.

That should be enough to get you started and through the first two weeks.
Document what you do! It can help you later and also help us if you run into any problems.
Thanks bud, but the self watering. Bases are the ones that use the wick and you fill the reservoir, and plants drink from the bottom, so no turning anything on, forgive me if I'm not wording right.
So are you saying don't fill the reservoir for 14 days? And just hand water?

Also with the top dressing,when I had water, will that not been to much for the autos with the stuff that's already in the build a soil.

Like when I have the top dressing and top water, will that not be to hot for the babies and burn them? I'm not a total noob and have had a few successful grows, but I just used good soil , phed water and some tiger bloom and big bloom.
I also tucked all the fan leaves so some light lst.

Your way sounds much better and awesome.
So would like to try your way.
Just don't wanna fuck it up ..lol


Thanks for the time to teach me and for passing the knowledge along.

Hope all is well and look forward to hearing from you

Also I will not be transplanting, will start seed directly into the 5 gallon fabric pots
 
Thanks bud, but the self watering. Bases are the ones that use the wick and you fill the reservoir, and plants drink from the bottom, so no turning anything on, forgive me if I'm not wording right.
So are you saying don't fill the reservoir for 14 days? And just hand water?

Also with the top dressing,when I had water, will that not been to much for the autos with the stuff that's already in the build a soil.

Like when I have the top dressing and top water, will that not be to hot for the babies and burn them? I'm not a total noob and have had a few successful grows, but I just used good soil , phed water and some tiger bloom and big bloom.
I also tucked all the fan leaves so some light lst.

Your way sounds much better and awesome.
So would like to try your way.
Just don't wanna fuck it up ..lol


Thanks for the time to teach me and for passing the knowledge along.

Hope all is well and look forward to hearing from you

Also I will not be transplanting, will start seed directly into the 5 gallon fabric pots
Yes, don't fill the rez until the plant's roots are well established. It is usually two weeks before you can feel the reservoir in an earthbox so this should work pretty similar. It does depend on the progress of your plant. A good gage is the plant covering a large percentage of a pot. If you have any questions about when to fill it, Just tag one of us specifically and I'm quite sure you'll get your answer fairly quickly.

None of the stuff you put on your top dressing at a seedling stage could possibly burn it. While I have not direct planted in 3.0 media, I transplant very early and the media had no negative effect on the seedling.

Since you are direct planting, you can wait a couple of days after the seedling is up before you put any top dressing on. A week is fine. When you add the top dressing you don't need to water it in, just wet it. The biggest thing about putting the top dressing on when transplanting is the conservation of moisture in the pot.

Get you one of those really cheap moisture meters let you stick in the ground. The simple kind that just measures the conductivity. Once you have your pot filled with the media as I described earlier, take that moisture meter and check your pot. Note where the pot is sitting on the meter. On a 5 gallon pot about three inches inward is a good place to start to get accurate data. That'll give you a good reference on when you need to rewater your seedling. You'll also see the difference in a fully watered pot once you get the system going.
Be sure to cover your freshly planted seed with the clear Plastic cup that you mist just before you put it on top of your seed. Two days after it's fully unfurled, you can take that cup off.

Just make sure your environment is ready!

You'll be fine! Just remember, the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask!
 
Also need to point out, where I'm growing it's not exactly legal, so this will be a guerilla grow in the back of my property.

Gonna put some pallets around the garden, and then plant tomato's and sunflowers on the outside, to hide the 3 autos I grow in the middle?
Any thoughts on this?
Anyone have any better tricks or ways to hide them?

Thanks and hope All is well

@WildBill
@Lil Dab
@Entombed
 
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