Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
This chronicle is the sum of all I know. Everything I have learned thus far about growing cannabis was either from reading posts by enlightened growers here at rollitup or from these two books which are highly recommended:
True Living Organics
by The Rev
Teaming with Microbes
by Lowenfels and Lewis
So here is how I do dank: plants are grown in recycled organic soil. They get water reclaimed from a dehumidifier which is augmented with locally sourced well water and rain whenever feasible to be collected. Compost is sourced from my own worm bin which also produces leachate from the bottom spigot. I add various amendments to the soil during the recycle process:
Crushed oyster shell
Composted chicken manure
Azomite
Dolomite lime
Garden gypsum
Insect frass
Kelp meal
Neem seed meal
Used to add more inputs but this is what is in stock. Don't even bother with teas anymore; fresh ewc in the soil keeps the microbial party raging. I give liquid fish as needed to keep em nice and green usually late in veg. For mid-late flowering worm leacheate diluted with water is pretty much all they get. Watermelons & strawberries are in season this time of year so the worms are getting fat. The worm leacheate from feeding the worms so much fruit smells so sweet I could almost mix it with vodka and have a cocktail.
While I consider the worm bin to be the heart of my grow; the bluemat watering system is the life-blood. I watered plants with a rusty old can for years until this summer when I wanted to go on a vacation and not come home to withered-ass plants.
At first a 5gal bluemat system did not seem sufficient because the plants typically suck down more than that in a week. I knew that during a typical warm summer day my plants use more or less about a gallon & 1/2. So after 5 days the bucket would be dry which sort of defeats the purpose.
The solution was simple. Added a pump, hose, and timer with another 5 gal source bucket directly under the reservoir bucket. The source bucket feeds the upper reservoir every 12 hours for 11 seconds which pumps about a 1/2 gallon. Now all I do is top off the source bucket every time I empty the dehuey each day. There's just a cork float glued to a stick with white tape indicating the water level. If the bucket gets low I turn on the pump by restarting the timer in e or twice. Easy breezy....
There are 2 separate lines from the bluemat reservoir: one goes into the flower room while the other goes to a vegging tent. There are 2 bluemat carrots in each 10 gal smartpot for flowering and just 1 in the 3 gal bags for vegging. Some plants get transplanted to a 10 and are kept in veg to bulk them up or monster cropped after sex is determined.
In the bloom room there is a 600w eye hortiluxe hps and small leds for targeted side lighting. A 4' fluorescent fixture fitted with 10k agromax finishers and hortiluxe FS + UV bulbs go over the plants closest to harvest. For vegging I use a 400w mh to get tight nodal stacking. There's another small veg area I use for clones and seedlings that runs a T8 but it is not currently in operation.
Perpetuity is the goal but a never ending weed supply remains elusive. Timing is critical when space is limited and setbacks can cause delays at the worst possible time. I still end up at the dispensary sometimes to fill in any gaps waiting for plants to dry or be ready to cut.
A few years ago I embarked on a breeding mission with the goal of acquiring a shit-ton of seeds from my own crosses. Selected the stinkiest male out of the bunch and let it flower until it started throwing pollen. Took a small branch into the bloom room and tapped on a few of the girls. Every dam plant was full of seed which killed the yield but accomplished the mission. Now I have like a thousand beans to choose from 5 different crosses all from the same candyman haze daddy. After discovering several different phenotypes and finding out which crosses I like the best I selected a few mothers and cloned the hell out of them. A few of my favorites are:
Blue Dream x Candyman Haze
Strawberry sour diesel x CMH
CMH X CMH
My favorite cross I found so far is the CMH dad x a CMH momma. The original breeder must know what they are doing unlike myself. It is quite potent, yields well, and tastes like cherry licorice or something. Very sweet & not at all skunky. Big beautiful chunky buds. The SSD is a close second but just doesn't yield as much; still has that distinct sour diesel flavor & punch but it's sweeter on the exhale from the CMH. Tight compact buds. Here's a pic of a recent harvest of the CMH; started trimming and realized I forgot to take a photo...
I have just started a new set of plants from seed. All the mothers were getting very woody in the stems and cuttings were taking forever to root out so they are currently flowering. The last set of clones I tried to root died after 3 weeks without roots. I think it was due to a clogged aero pump.
Decided to go with the BD x CMH cross for the first set. Will be updating with more pics as I go so strap in buckaroos it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Thanks for dropping by and checking out my thread. I am always happy to answer any Qs about my grow or yours. Peace
True Living Organics
by The Rev
Teaming with Microbes
by Lowenfels and Lewis
So here is how I do dank: plants are grown in recycled organic soil. They get water reclaimed from a dehumidifier which is augmented with locally sourced well water and rain whenever feasible to be collected. Compost is sourced from my own worm bin which also produces leachate from the bottom spigot. I add various amendments to the soil during the recycle process:
Crushed oyster shell
Composted chicken manure
Azomite
Dolomite lime
Garden gypsum
Insect frass
Kelp meal
Neem seed meal
Used to add more inputs but this is what is in stock. Don't even bother with teas anymore; fresh ewc in the soil keeps the microbial party raging. I give liquid fish as needed to keep em nice and green usually late in veg. For mid-late flowering worm leacheate diluted with water is pretty much all they get. Watermelons & strawberries are in season this time of year so the worms are getting fat. The worm leacheate from feeding the worms so much fruit smells so sweet I could almost mix it with vodka and have a cocktail.
While I consider the worm bin to be the heart of my grow; the bluemat watering system is the life-blood. I watered plants with a rusty old can for years until this summer when I wanted to go on a vacation and not come home to withered-ass plants.
At first a 5gal bluemat system did not seem sufficient because the plants typically suck down more than that in a week. I knew that during a typical warm summer day my plants use more or less about a gallon & 1/2. So after 5 days the bucket would be dry which sort of defeats the purpose.
The solution was simple. Added a pump, hose, and timer with another 5 gal source bucket directly under the reservoir bucket. The source bucket feeds the upper reservoir every 12 hours for 11 seconds which pumps about a 1/2 gallon. Now all I do is top off the source bucket every time I empty the dehuey each day. There's just a cork float glued to a stick with white tape indicating the water level. If the bucket gets low I turn on the pump by restarting the timer in e or twice. Easy breezy....
There are 2 separate lines from the bluemat reservoir: one goes into the flower room while the other goes to a vegging tent. There are 2 bluemat carrots in each 10 gal smartpot for flowering and just 1 in the 3 gal bags for vegging. Some plants get transplanted to a 10 and are kept in veg to bulk them up or monster cropped after sex is determined.
In the bloom room there is a 600w eye hortiluxe hps and small leds for targeted side lighting. A 4' fluorescent fixture fitted with 10k agromax finishers and hortiluxe FS + UV bulbs go over the plants closest to harvest. For vegging I use a 400w mh to get tight nodal stacking. There's another small veg area I use for clones and seedlings that runs a T8 but it is not currently in operation.
Perpetuity is the goal but a never ending weed supply remains elusive. Timing is critical when space is limited and setbacks can cause delays at the worst possible time. I still end up at the dispensary sometimes to fill in any gaps waiting for plants to dry or be ready to cut.
A few years ago I embarked on a breeding mission with the goal of acquiring a shit-ton of seeds from my own crosses. Selected the stinkiest male out of the bunch and let it flower until it started throwing pollen. Took a small branch into the bloom room and tapped on a few of the girls. Every dam plant was full of seed which killed the yield but accomplished the mission. Now I have like a thousand beans to choose from 5 different crosses all from the same candyman haze daddy. After discovering several different phenotypes and finding out which crosses I like the best I selected a few mothers and cloned the hell out of them. A few of my favorites are:
Blue Dream x Candyman Haze
Strawberry sour diesel x CMH
CMH X CMH
My favorite cross I found so far is the CMH dad x a CMH momma. The original breeder must know what they are doing unlike myself. It is quite potent, yields well, and tastes like cherry licorice or something. Very sweet & not at all skunky. Big beautiful chunky buds. The SSD is a close second but just doesn't yield as much; still has that distinct sour diesel flavor & punch but it's sweeter on the exhale from the CMH. Tight compact buds. Here's a pic of a recent harvest of the CMH; started trimming and realized I forgot to take a photo...
I have just started a new set of plants from seed. All the mothers were getting very woody in the stems and cuttings were taking forever to root out so they are currently flowering. The last set of clones I tried to root died after 3 weeks without roots. I think it was due to a clogged aero pump.
Decided to go with the BD x CMH cross for the first set. Will be updating with more pics as I go so strap in buckaroos it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Thanks for dropping by and checking out my thread. I am always happy to answer any Qs about my grow or yours. Peace
