My first ever no till cycle.

[HighGradeNoTilliDie]

Hey guys, hope everyones high af!
Ive just started a no till indoor grow and things seem to be going well. I got , blue og , royal gorilla, diesel glue and darkstar all fem photo periods. One of the seedlings have gone a little light green and the lower leaves are just starting to crisp up.
Im growing in a 5x5 tent with a mars hydro 600 LED. Environment:75f- 50%rh - 18-6off. Fully controlled. They are in a mix of coco, perlite, clay balls, 2 composts, rock dust and worm cast. So nothing too nute heavy just base mix. I was wondering if this could be due to over watering or lack of nutes as they are getting bigger. Ive just transplanted out the solo cups as the roots started to poke out. I didnt water them as to try soak out some from the root zone. Its been two days and they are still growing with no tp shock. Been spraying top layer. Just abit worried about one. (Close up picture soz about led pic i couldnt hold a light and take a pic)
The 5gal pots they are in have my 8week cooked soil mix ive layered it so its strongest at the bottom of pots and 50/50 base mix then just base mix at top so hopefully they just need the nutes. I watered only with mollases and a touch of organic liquid seaweed and Ive just inoculated with microbes and seed sprout tea. 6.5 ph untouched mineral water from store. Im new at growing so not sure if there is anything i can do or should i just wait it out and not panic too much let those microbes and the worms get to work? Ive got a cover crop of clover coming through the straw. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch guys and grow/smoke on!!!

P.s the two 3gal if you're wondering, one os a amnesia haze i burnt with salts as a seedling im trying to bring her back(the reason im goin no till)
And one in middle is a random venom og bag seed going to see if i can grow it and sex it for practice if i have space. Not sure if ill keep these two.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Hey good morning, your story sounds a lot like mine recently. Sorry, Ill probably write a book. Lol Here's my story. I'm not an expert yet, but I've sure grown some awesome pot. I think ive experienced just about every issue you can have out doors. I either self caused or mother nature caused issues. Heres where im at. 30yr veteran organic medical grower for tutor. A lot of cool guys on here in the rols and organic threads for help etc as well. A history of organic gardening outdoors prior to pot being legal here in CO. My grow gear. All soil recycled and added to every year. Various use of earth juice grow and bloom to compliment my amended soil as needed. This year I changed things up. I'm in my first year of indoor growing now. Have grown for 4 years now in an outdoor greenhouse.(modified 8x14 dog kennel) Yearly weather issues with hail, temps, rain, pests and early snow sent me indoors this last fall. (Horrible yield last summer, fucking hail caved greenhouse roof in). I did pretty much the same as you did with the cooked lightly amended soil( 6.5ph buffered soil), 3500K led lite, (mines a diy, 6 cobs on a 480w driver) 3x5 grow area in a 4x5 room. 72* at 40-55%RH usually. 9 Chemdog indica dominant from seed. From starter box seedlings put in 5 gal fabric pots, watered with a molasses compost bacterial tea few days after transplant and within 2 days had all sorts of issues. They were very healthy prior to tea. I did another soil test, lowes $10, and my K had went from middle range to high as I was. Wtf. Did some backtracking and diagnoses, testing etc. Compost used in tea was mid to low for all npk when tested alone. The molasses I used was super high in K per testing, was maxed out on the test. K induced lockout of micros and mg is what happened to me. Was a lot of varied symptoms. Tried a couple diff plans in groups of 3 plants each. Here's what worked for me for the good plants in pics. Others have been slower or in stasis. I flushed plain water through for excess runoff 3 diff times over a course of days and then fed a lite tea mix of earthjuice microblast, some 0-12-0 bird poop, some 16-0-0 plant protein, and a bit of Epsom salt for mg to replace/replenish everything non K that got washed out as well. Interim while in lockout I made 2 foliar sprays. One of earthjuice microblast and one of Epsom salts. Used one in am and the other in pm with lites on and then out. They're back to getting sexy again now for the most part, still a few lingering K tox signs though. Will probably do one more rinse and repeat tomorrow morning and I think I'll have fixed my issue. Another note, I've had to relearn my water I g for indoors vs outdoors. Dries out much slower in vs out, a lot less watering. Have added more aeration to soil mix that's currently cooking for the next batch. Next batch is also much more amended to hopefully have a water only/mostly grow. My led does wash out alot of the green color when i take pics, too bright for camera.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Oh, and I do LST on all of them developed enough for it. Here's some pics of my 2017 crop that was gorgeous george, 2.5 lbs from 8 plants. And then the last ones were my poor crop from 2018 that moved indoors emergency like. 5 plants, only about 8 oz yield. Early Cold weather during prime flower time and they did nothing for weeks except stay alive. I did get very good herb quality from them, just very poor yield.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Oh, and the last part about that K issue was that i tried to wait it out at first and they almost all died. Soil test was key to know what was going on. Fyi when you take pics pls use normal light. Hard to tell a lot with the purple light.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Hope that helps figuring it out man.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

I must be high, i keep leaving out details like this. That was the first time I used molasses in my grow as well. Here is what i used at 1 tbls per gallon with 1 spadeful of compost mixed and aerated 24 hr prior to pots. The compost tea has done great every other time when done alone.

 

[ShLUbY]

Ok guys. I have some quick tidbits for you to chew on.

1) in my experience you do not need to have a lightly amended seedling mix. I run my regular mix for seeds, never had issue.

2) just get rid of the molasses. Soils have so much bacteria. Yo should be focusing on your fungal components. Research is showing mid successional annual plants (cannabis is one of these) prefer a fungal to bacterial biomass ratio of .5-.8:1. I see so many people on here having trouble with plants and find that they are using molasses in their regular watering.

If you want to brew a compost tea, absolutely no more than 1 tsp per gallon of molasses. One thing I’ll say though, if you don’t have a scope and the knowledge to analyze a compost tea, how do you know if your tea is any good? Pardon my being blunt but just because you throw some shit in a bucket and bubble it does not mean it’s going to have the desired effects. I highly recommend just rinsing a couple lbs of good quality compost with 3-5 gallons of water (this is compost extract) and using that as your tea.

3) to @HighGradeNoTilliDie you don’t need to layer a pot like that. It’s actually backwards from how Mother Nature operates. I’m guessing you picked up this technique from subcool but I could be wrong. The vast majority of plant nutrition and microbial activity occurs in the soil horizon nearest the surface Of the earth. In other words, the top 6 inches. This is where the highest diversity of life is found on the planet. This is also where the most carbon cycling and nutrient cycling occurs. Plants have evolved feeder roots that explore this surface layer for nutrition.

That is all the time I have for now. I’ll check back in later. Happy growing Remember you should always have a purpose or reason for adding something to your garden. And you should understand why you are adding it.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Thanks shluby, your awesome, I highly respect your feedback. The compost brew you spoke of is what I've done in the past out doors, heard a lot about molasses so I tried that. Oops. I've been following your grows and info in your threads has helped. The rols thread has been great. I did omit the molasses as you said in another thread as well. I was trying something new and it fucked up my grow. Lol, another learning experience. I've been checking out greens gorilla glue setup and am making one of those sips for next batch. Also making some sips followings hyroots version with the fabric pots. I'll see what I like best. For now I'm in my 5 gal fabrics as years prior and will follow my old regimen while the soil is cooking for my hopefully water mostly grow attempt.
@HighGradeNoTilliDie how are your plants?

 

[ShLUbY]

Thanks shluby, your awesome, I highly respect your feedback. The compost brew you spoke of is what I've done in the past out doors, heard a lot about molasses so I tried that. Oops. I've been following your grows and info in your threads has helped. The rols thread has been great. I did omit the molasses as you said in another thread as well. I was trying something new and it fucked up my grow. Lol, another learning experience. I've been checking out greens gorilla glue setup and am making one of those sips for next batch. Also making some sips followings hyroots version with the fabric pots. I'll see what I like best. For now I'm in my 5 gal fabrics as years prior and will follow my old regimen while the soil is cooking for my hopefully water mostly grow attempt.
@HighGradeNoTilliDie how are your plants?

thanks dude, happy to help out. it's okay to make mistakes as long as you learn something from them.

ideas are brewing in my head for a new thread, which I will be able to pursue in the latter half of the year. I just don't have time while I'm still at university. Going to be lots of experiments, primary research analysis to postulate correlations between cannabis growing and other horticulture practices, microscope wet mount slides, and just generally being more scientific about growing cannabis and try to address some of these myths and practices growers have adopted through the years. I've been really inspired lately, but i've just been trying to finish this last semester of university haha.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Ya man you've got some interesting stuff going on and a wealth of knowledge. I'll be following along on your road to discovery. I've made a he'll of a lot of mistakes, but I've learned from most of them lol. Like moving my grow indoors haha

 

[HighGradeNoTilliDie]

Thanks for the info guys alot to think about.
I will keep a eye out for a soil nutrient test ive recently bought a ph test for soil.
What ive done so far is water with liquid seaweed and mollases(didnt see this thread lol) then i let it dry out a little for 3 days then today ive top dressed with compost and wormcastings 50/50 on top of the straw and watered mostly the top layer in as they are still damp at bottom.
Two are still doing well(on the left) but the blue og is starting to go the same way.(two on right) i have awapped them about a few times. Ive got some
Better pictures now.
Thanks again for your advice guys. Much appreciated. Ive taken alot on board im going to ditch the molasses. I thought it helped with feeding the soil life and keep them going but ive since learned the organic matter in the compost is more then enough. Also using seed sprout tea for the enzymes works well. So molasses has really no scientific benefits i only used it as i seen youtubers using it for no till.

 

[HighGradeNoTilliDie]

Oh, and I do LST on all of them developed enough for it. Here's some pics of my 2017 crop that was gorgeous george, 2.5 lbs from 8 plants. And then the last ones were my poor crop from 2018 that moved indoors emergency like. 5 plants, only about 8 oz yield. Early Cold weather during prime flower time and they did nothing for weeks except stay alive. I did get very good herb quality from them, just very poor yield.

Looks good bro

 

[HighGradeNoTilliDie]

Oh i might water in some calicified seaweed for cal and mag. Im aware now that when you multch you get most of the roots in that top few inches so putting all the nutes at the bottom hasnt helped i could top dress them too but will take a while to break down im guessing. Heres what i used.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Sounds like your watering alot from what youve said. Or im high so maybe i read that wrong. But prob don't need to water em much at all right now. Big pot, tiny plant. Id just keep an eye on em and see if they change for better or worse after a day or so. Easy to over water and cause defs. Your compost that's in the soil should be enough food for them for awhile, I'd let em go a bit between waterings. Feel the weight of the pot trick. Keep a mulch on top to keep top from drying out and help avert pests. I think you'll have some happy plants man. I'd recommend reading through shluby and hyroot s threads. They've got some really good info on there. They both know way more than I. I really enjoy growing and really enjoy the learning journey were all having with this plant. Your issue was just so like mine I had to chime in with my story. Love to see how they turn out.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

The rols thread too. That's a big one but full of info.

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Your choice of strains sounds like choices I'd prob make. I love the OGs and the Diesels. I love the chemdog strain I've got too, those seeds came from a local dispensary. Their stuff lab tests at 30-33%, been a winner of the North America cup. I hope to get even close to that. Down the road I'd like to add some super lemon haze and an OG of some choice.

 

[ShLUbY]

Sounds like your watering alot from what youve said. Or im high so maybe i read that wrong. But prob don't need to water em much at all right now. Big pot, tiny plant. Id just keep an eye on em and see if they change for better or worse after a day or so. Easy to over water and cause defs. Your compost that's in the soil should be enough food for them for awhile, I'd let em go a bit between waterings. Feel the weight of the pot trick. Keep a mulch on top to keep top from drying out and help avert pests. I think you'll have some happy plants man. I'd recommend reading through shluby and hyroot s threads. They've got some really good info on there. They both know way more than I. I really enjoy growing and really enjoy the learning journey were all having with this plant. Your issue was just so like mine I had to chime in with my story. Love to see how they turn out.

part of the reason why i have so much drainage (upwards of 45%) is so i can have more water in my soil. just consider the loss of water for a minute. Increase in salinity, decrease in osmolarity, decrease in microbial motility, stress induced on microbial life, decreased rates of transpiration, and there are definitely more pieces to this puzzle. now i could still definitely overwater, but it would be difficult. and as you mentioned, it is possible to overwater a tiny plant in a big pot. it's just so important to have consistent even moisture, and I never can stress that enough. Not to much, but not to little. no wet/dry cycling. I'm sure you've all read this 1000 times before

 

[Jesselikes2grow]

Yep. I have. Actually from yourself schluby, was passing the advice along. Took it as good advice and now keep a pumice mulch on top of em all, and less water more often. Keeps the gnats gone and the moisture much more even. I used the pumice as I already have a bunch on the side of the house for free. If I had to buy I'd prob go with the rice hulls for mulch.

 

[ShLUbY]

Yep. I have. Actually from yourself schluby, was passing the advice along. Took it as good advice and now keep a pumice mulch on top of em all, and less water more often. Keeps the gnats gone and the moisture much more even. I used the pumice as I already have a bunch on the side of the house for free. If I had to buy I'd prob go with the rice hulls for mulch.

yeah the pumice was great at keeping away the gnats. now that i've switched back to straw, i've noticed the gnats have come back. i'm bout to order some larvae predators to help keep them at bay.

 

[HighGradeNoTilliDie]

Ok so ive done nothing for the last couple of days just kept the top multch moist to keep the worms happy. The troublesome two are slowly turning a light colour on there main two fan leaves the new growth is green still and underside leaves are crisping up at the edges. I think they will be due a little watering tomorrow or thursday. It looks like a lockout of some sort from what i can gather. Or the light might be still too close at 3ft away maybe? Weird as the other two are doing well.

I get alot of good info off these threads i often am scrolling for ages thanks a bunch guys ill keep you updated heres som pics two individual have the issues on blue og and one RG. The diesel glue
The two doing well are the darkstar and diesel glue.
Thanks again for your advice guys much appreciated