I've Smoked Weed for over 4 Decades; this is my First Attempt at Growing Anything.

shotrocker

Active Member
I have my clones in a separate area in my cold cold Canadian basement and have them on a elevated surface (as suggested by Green Revolution) and I also put this down:
View attachment 1974099

It has an R value of 5 or 8 and you can get it at Home depot for about 30-40 dollars for a 5 x 40 foot roll... has the added benefit of being really reflective.. I lined the whole seedling/clone/veg area with this.. use my tent for flower
I got this + some foam to sit the plants on above it. I can't believe i overlooked the cold basement floor problem. that was just dumb. Thanks for the catch.
 

Green Revolution

Active Member
Anytime Shotrocker, glad to be of help.

I see you have chosen good 'ol dirt, a fine choice. If you would like a great soil mix for a beginner (or expert BTW) that involves very little care and no feeding whatsoever check out Subcool's mix. It takes a little time to prepare but might work real well for you.

https://www.rollitup.org/subcools-old-school-organics/44686-subcools-super-soil.html

I use my own version of this recipe and it works great, just add water. No feeding schedules, no bullshit. Can't thank Vic High enough for coming up with the original mix way back when. For the organic grower, it is a great place to start and learn the basics... while still growing dank instead of mid-grade schwag.

Once you get the basics, the sky is the limit.

Keep up the good work!
 

tomat0

Active Member
Above all else, I would suggest you to keep things simple--particularly if you are new to the practice. All the fancy 'tweaks' and 'tips' really hinder your learning experience while starting off.

You're growing a flowering annual foliage weed. It's relatively hardy and can grow with minimal care. Keep it simple and you'll be glad you did. It'll adapt the environment you have created with your tent.
 

shotrocker

Active Member
Above all else, I would suggest you to keep things simple--particularly if you are new to the practice. All the fancy 'tweaks' and 'tips' really hinder your learning experience while starting off.
Thanks. Tomato. I'm a professional photographer and your advice mirrors what I tell people starting out and buying a camera.
 

shotrocker

Active Member
Its been 4 days since they had a drink, so I am attempting to overcome my Fear of Overwatering Again. I just ran some tests and my well water is 57 ppm and pH of 7.0. Tested some melted snow also, that came in at 200ppm and a pH of 7.4. (Acid rain?) Assuming I bring everything down to a low 6 pH would you use the well water, the melted snow or distilled or RO water?

 

shotrocker

Active Member
Looking good man.. are you adding any of your GO products yet?
Not yet. I think it has been suggested to me by an experienced grower that the there'll be enough in the soil (Happy Frog) for a couple of weeks. They are definitely growing leaves so they are vegging. They still all look smaller than clones though so, because of mistakes, they are not following a normal timetable.
 

ottawaliquid

Active Member
You might want to consider adding some of your goodies. You are using organics so you are not feeding your plants (like traditionally nutrients) you are feeding the microbes in the soil.

At the very least I would consider adding some of the black diamond, bioroot, biomarine and bioweed. Those are all pretty low n-p-k values (but again from my understanding these are not biologically available to the plants but are simply feeding and promoting your microbes).

Don't wanna mess anything up on you though as things are going well for you now! Perhaps once you transplant to your larger pots.

What pot size will you be using?
 

Green Revolution

Active Member
I just ran some tests and my well water is 57 ppm and pH of 7.0. Tested some melted snow also, that came in at 200ppm and a pH of 7.4. (Acid rain?) Assuming I bring everything down to a low 6 pH would you use the well water, the melted snow or distilled or RO water?
200 PPM for snow?!:o That's interesting.... or frightening depending in how you look at it. "Chemtrails" is a word worth googling. I would avoid using it in the mean time.

If your faucet water is coming out at only 57 PPM consider yourself blessed my friend, you have AWESOME tap water which will work like a charm. That is unless your municipal supply uses chloramine (a more and more popular choice these days.) You can find that out by either looking up your latest water quality statement or by buying a chlorine test at the local pet store. If you need the statement, most providers will post them for easy reference of their website. If you get the test, bubble the water on an airstone for 24 hours, if the test still comes back positive, you've got chloramine. Let me make note this is not the same as chlorine, which will off-gas. Chlora-MINE is stuck in your water. You must use a carbon filter to remove it.

You said it's coming from a well, so you should be good either way.

A small boy filter would be the most you will ever need, and then I would only buy it if I intended on running hydro. Soil growers can have the luxury of not having to work with 0 PPM to start. Just PH it to the proper range and you will be good.

One last thing... at a waste/supply ratio of 3:1 or more, RO will simply be a waste. Save your money and the gallons. I wish I had water as good you you! :wink:


 

shrigpiece

Well-Known Member
Still looking good my man, I would'nt look at ppm or ph or those charts. The soil you brought is already ammended at the correct everything and will last the plants lifetime. Im a soil grower and all i do is water and feed. You know what a healthy plant looks like so go by that. I seriously dought you are gonna overfeed with your level of common sensebongsmilie:peace: PEACE
 

ottawaliquid

Active Member
3 gallon. They've only been in the new Happy Monkey soil for 4 days now and seem to be doing much better so I'll probably wait a little more on the nutes. Unless someone convinces me otherwise.
Nice, you'll have some nice bushy ladies once they fill out those pots
 

shotrocker

Active Member
Day 28 and 29. It's so much better to see this plants change every day now after their rough start. I have not fed them anything yet, although i have, on hand, a General Organics Go box with 8 bottles in it. I guess the next advice I'll be looking for is when to transplant them. I plan on going right to their final destination, 3 gallon pots._MG_6686.jpg_MG_6681.jpg
 

shotrocker

Active Member
Of the 10 this 1 (of 3) chocolopes has something funky going on, it seems. Not worried about losing 1; just curious what this is._MG_6687.jpg
 

ottawaliquid

Active Member
Again, I'm not very experienced as others on this site so they would have a better idea of when to transplant.. but if you're not in a hurry I would wait a little while for the stems to get a little bigger/stronger and the roots to become more established. Say 5-7 days. Let the plants dry out so that the cups feel like you are lifting air when you pick them up before watering. This encourages root growth as the roots branch out in search of water/moisture within your soil.

Also ensure you have a fan blowing on them gently to establish a thicker main stem. In case you didn't already. The air flow encourages a hormone in the plant which bulks up the main stem.

Because you are using an organic line I would look into getting some mycorrhizae from your local garden centre or hydro shop as well. This is used when it comes time for transplanting I'll be posting a few photos soon about the differences I've noticed with my mesclun lettuce and mycorrhizae use vs non-use. It's not expensive. Things are more expensive up here north of the border and I was able to find a small tub for $13.99 at a hydro shop and it was 11.99 at my local garden centre. Just ensure you buy a mycorrhizae that is for annuals or perrienials as it will have more endomycorrhizae (as opposed to ectomycorrhizae which is more for trees, shrubs etc)

Again, because you are using an organic line. I would be giving tiny amounts of your nutrients (Bioroot, Black Diamond, BioMarine to these plants) Most of the nutrients are not biologically available to the plants but are there to add nutrients to the soil for the microbes who in turn will break up your organic matter and feed the plants They all have low NPK values so you are not going to "burn" your plants. but it will add some nice humic acids and other goodies for you girls.
 

riverchaser

Active Member
Looks like you got them coming your way now. Time to play the waiting game. Personally I wouldn't feed them until they are bushy lil monsters. Once burned, twice shy for this fella. I just gave a 4 week old auto its first feeding cut down to about 1/4 of the recommended dosage. Grow/ calmg+/ root/weed got mixed in a gallon of distilled, then cut with more water before I gave it to the plant. Better safe than sorry, plus you got all the veg time you need with photos.
 
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