K-Mintz in living soil

Please feel free to comment and/or offer suggestions.

I had planned on starting one journal and just putting all of my grows in it. I don't like it, it is just getting too hard for me to find things. I am going to stop posting in my other thread and just do a different journal for each grow starting right now.

Anyways my current grow started with me sourcing all the ingredients for my soil.

Peat:
-7.5cu.ft. Sphagnum Peat Moss

Compost:
-2cu.ft. Sheep Manure Compost
-1cu.ft. Mushroom Manure Compost
-1cu.ft Sea Soil Fish Compost
-2cu.ft. Worm Castings

Aeration:
-4cu.ft. Coarse Perlite
-2cu.ft. Rice Hulls
1cu.ft Charged Bio-Char (not traditional airation but...)

Fertilizer Amendments:
10 Cup Kelp Meal
10 Cup Neem Cake

Mineral Amendments:
20 Cups Basalt Rock Dust
10 Cups Oyster Shell Flour
10 Cup Gypsum



I let this cook for a couple months. Once it was ready, I put it in 20 gallon fabric pots.

On September 8th, I put 5 K-Mintz by Ripper Seeds out of Spain into damp paper towel. I love their genetics but have never tried this strain.



4 of 5 germanated.

On September 10th I planted the 4 germanated seeds into some orcganic soil I bought at the dollar store to avoid putting seeds directly into my hotter living soil.

On September 13th I had seedlings poking their way through the soil.



The above seedling had 3 Cotyledons!

I am calling to first week the seedlings stage since not much happens above the soil since the plants are building a root structure below the soil.

So day one of veg began on September 20th.

On September 26th Day 6 of veg I transplanted into the 20 gallon pots with the living soil.

Cover crop is a clover/rye grass mix that boosts nitrogen in the soil. The straw below the cover crop is wheat I gathered from my wife's uncles field.

Added some myco for shits and giggles.




The lights are running at 45% power giving each plant about 400μmol.

October 20th - Day 30 of veg.

Definitely slower growth in veg with the living soil. I started adding ¼ cup of each Bokashi Pro-Gro and Gaia Green veg 4-4-4 to each plant once a week.

November 2nd - Day 43 Veg.

Things have started to speed up. I am thinking about 55 days of veg to fill my 3'x8' scrog net.

I made the grow area smaller this grow to make it easier to reach the back of the scrog net. Last time it was brutal trying to reach over a 4ft wide canopy.

Lighting is at 55% giving each plant about 600μmol
CO² is at 800ppm
Temp is 80⁰f
Humidity 75%
VPD ~1KPa

November 4th - Day 45 Veg

Today I fed the plants ¼ cup of each Gaia Green 4-4-4 & Neem Cake.

I added the Neem cake because there are a few tiny flies in my room and this week they have really started to multiply. They don't seem to be doing any harm but who knows what their larva is doing to my roots. Hoping the Neem cake can slow them down.


Here is a picture of the feeding prior to running my fingers through it to shake it off the cover crop.


Here it is after shaking the food off of the clover.


When I water it, the cover crop will be clean again.

About a week ago I had what suspect was a magnesium deficiency but it seems to have cleared itself up. No new leaves are showing signs of any deficiencies.



Temp 80⁰f
Humidity 75%
VPD ~1KPa
CO² 800ppm
Lighting 600-650μmol

This morning I was looking at the plants a little closer and I think I need to bite the bullet and add some magnesium. I suspect a the plants need a bit of a mg bump to get rid of the purple stalks and stop the bigger fan leaves from going yellow/rust/brown in colour. Only a few leaves are doing this but I would like to have the girls go into flower with everything the need to bust out some fat buds.

Mixed 3 tablespoons of epsom salt in 8L of water and fed it to the 4 plants. If this works, I will probably have to add a bit every few weeks to keep the girls happy.

I started training the plants with the scrog net. Once I tied everything down, the scrog net started to look fuller. It's starting to look like day 55 of veg will be enough time to get this net filled up enought to flip to 12/12. Almost twice as long as it took my last grow to fill out a bigger area.

Day 1 Flower

After 56 days of veg it's time to flip these girls. My last grow was with chem ferts and 8 plants. It took them 30 days to fill the scrog net but these living soil girls are considerably bigger plants.

My parameters are:
-Light are at 65% power giving the canopy ~1000μmol
-CO² is 1420ppm
-Temp 80⁰f
-Humidity 70%
VPD ~1KPa

Day 5 12/12

So things are pretty uneventful in the old grow room right now. The girls are starting to stretch a little which is good as there are still a few squares in my scrog net that need to be filled out.

Took a few more leaves off under the canopy but there is still a little more work to do under there before we get too far into the bidding stage.

All in all, I am happy the way things have been going with this grow. I am gonna lose weight compared to the last grow but I honestly have no use for that much weed.

Day 7 - 12/12

Well the center of my scrog netting is getting pretty thick with tops. I have decided that even though the edges of the scrog net isn't quite full to stop tucking and just let things go. K-Mintz is a mostly Indica strain so it shouldn't stretch too much in the next week or so and then most of the stretching should be mostly done.

Not much of a change.

Day 14 12/12

Been fighting what I think is a slight magnesium deficiency but other than some slight purple on some leaf tips I think it isn't affecting things too much..... hopefully.

For my first time using this a living soil and no chem ferts, I think things are going pretty well. It's all new to me.

I would have liked to see the scrog net a little fuller but it is what it is.

Day 18 of 12/12

Everything is just cruising along. I should get some nice colas when the buds develop a little more.

Lighting is at 65% averaging 800μmol on the outer edges and 1150μmol across the rest of the canopy

CO² is at 1420ppm

Humidity is at 70%

Temperature is at 85⁰f

VPD is around 1.2-1.25KPa

Day 20 of 12/12

So I had a few small flys in the room this entire grow. They did not seem to be getting any worse until about a week ago when I noticed them almost everywhere.

They do not seem to be affecting the weed plants but they are not doing my cover crop any favors and have thinned it out quite a bit.

I think the tiny black flies are fungus gnats. I have ordered a bunch of nematodes as I do not want to spray anything at this stage of budding. Hopefully they can kill the larvae of the fungus gnats.

King Avitas said:

Day 20 of 12/12

So I had a few small flys in the room this entire grow. They did not seem to be getting any worse until about a week ago when I noticed them almost everywhere.

They do not seem to be affecting the weed plants but they are not doing my cover crop any favors and have thinned it out quite a bit.

I think the tiny black flies are fungus gnats. I have ordered a bunch of nematodes as I do not want to spray anything at this stage of budding. Hopefully they can kill the larvae of the fungus gnats.

Click to expand...

You've never had to deal with fungus gnats before? That's pretty incredible. Lots of yellow sticky traps. The nematodes probably won't be able to mature enough for this grow, but since you're using soil they will pay off down the road.

King Avitas said:

Day 20 of 12/12

So I had a few small flys in the room this entire grow. They did not seem to be getting any worse until about a week ago when I noticed them almost everywhere.

They do not seem to be affecting the weed plants but they are not doing my cover crop any favors and have thinned it out quite a bit.

I think the tiny black flies are fungus gnats. I have ordered a bunch of nematodes as I do not want to spray anything at this stage of budding. Hopefully they can kill the larvae of the fungus gnats.

Click to expand...

Find yourself some gnatrol on ebay. That and sticky traps will clear it up in a couple weeks

Thanks guys. Last night I found the long yellow sticky ribbons and hung up 12 of them all around the room. They caught quite a few last night but there are still a few flying around.

lusidghost said:

You've never had to deal with fungus gnats before? That's pretty incredible.

Click to expand...

I had spidermites a few times when I first started growing years ago and that taught me a lot. I am pretty strict with what gets near my plants. Up until now I have always started with sterile gear, grow mediums and seeds.....I won't accept clones from anyone, that bit me in the ass twice.

But now being a living soil and using composts, there are no guarantees as to what might be living in there. I just have to adapt.

Day 21 of 12/12

Buds are starting to really take off now. They should be forming colas soon.