Plants in my 1st soil recipe are still alive after 5 days.

Bubba's girl said:

I look forward to your water experiment. I'm running into some Calcium def myself, and was thinking to add some tap water to my RO water. Seems much easier keeping plants green with tap water...

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Hi Bubba's girl
I wish I had added gypsum at the beginning and each month after that. It would have probably saved some fan leaves from drying up on the no-till pots.
I look forward to next grow doing the ro and ro + tap along with fresh soils vs the depleted no-till. I have done most of my growing in 3 gallon containers. I'll be moving to more 5 gallon containers next grow.

GimmieThe Loot said:

To get ro water do you absolutely have to have a ro machine...... I'm using tap water, letting it sit out for at 24hrs. Do any places sell ro water?

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Around me most supermarkets sell it from machines for $.25 a gallon. Walmart and other store usually have it. There is also a water store near me that sells for the same price and will steam clean the jugs for free. Both are good RO water. Before getting my machine I would do it that way, take my jugs and fill them.

Hey Buba Blend, any reason you don't grow in larger pots? Most organic growers seem to go 10 gals and up.

Bubba's girl said:

Hey Buba Blend, any reason you don't grow in larger pots? Most organic growers seem to go 10 gals and up.

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If I was going to experiment with a no-till again I would definetely us large pots or beds for soil. I would not recommend anyone try it the way I did it this time.
For me next grow 3 and 5 gallon will work with a short veg time and I'm not topping next grow.
If I was in a place like Canada where I was limited to 4 plants I would use the larger 10 gallon pots and veg longer for bigger plants.

Was bummed about missing the gypsum. The calcium damage stopped about 10 days after applying the gypsum. Could be the demand for calcium dropped after the stretch ended making everything manageable now.
The good news is my leaves look good overall. Should be able to ride it out the rest of the way.
Some plants topped and in the no-till show the damage from the calcium deficiency.
Some of the smaller plants that were not topped are looking good.

RO and tap mixed to 150ppms and a few drops of cal mag + the rest of the way till harvest.

Pictures are at 8 weeks 1 day from flip. Still looking at 3 to 5 weeks left.

9 1/2 weeks since flip.

One plant is finishing earlier than the rest. The crystals on it look like they are close to becoming cloudy under my 60x handheld scope. It's a plant that I started in a 5 gallon pot with 2 gallons of my 2nd soil mix on the bottom and on top I dropped a 3 gallon no-till in it.

I also under watered this plant. It was only watered 6 times by mid flower. I'll put together details later. I have many pictures from different stages and dates of when it was watered. Since about the 6th watering I began watering it more frequently. I did not think it would finish well if I continued to under water.

I will be doing most if not all plants next grow in 5 gallon pots.

Here is a picture of the plant that the crystal pictures below are from, it is the well lit plant, the tall plant on the left is the one I suspected earlier is going to be the last to finish.


It is finishing evenly, this picture is the lowest bud on the plant.



Same plant. Crystal pictures from the middle and top.



This plant topped and in a 3 gallon no-till is in the worst visible shape. Buds look good, hope it finishes well.



Happy Growing!

10 weeks 3 days from flip.
The pictures below are of the plant pictured in the post above that was under watered and is close to harvest. About 1/3 are cloudy, still a fair amount of clear crystals. Should be harvested soon, 1 week left at most, maybe sooner.
Here are some pictures today from the lowest branch that I just removed.

I used a cheap celestron digital viewer for the pictures.

long finish time on those girls! still clear at 10 weeks! holy cow! beautiful plants Buba. Thanks for sharing your grow

ShLUbY said:

long finish time on those girls! still clear at 10 weeks! holy cow! beautiful plants Buba. Thanks for sharing your grow

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Thanks for the kind words!

I like clay pots too, good for moisture management, Id like to try some larger ones, tried to finish in one that was probably 1.5 gallon, needed to bigger.

Edit - addin, nice work.

SSGrower said:

I like clay pots too, good for moisture management, Id like to try some larger ones, tried to finish in one that was probably 1.5 gallon, needed to bigger.

Edit - addin, nice work.

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Appreciate it!
Look forward to talking more about the clay pot grow. Right now I'm focused on the plastic party cups. I have grown a number of times in the 4" clay starter pots to a tiny harvest but never tried it in the party cups. 5 minutes ago I tried to move 6 of them using a plastic lid from one room to the other, all I'll say is they fall over easy without support. I have a feeling it won't be the last time that happens until I get a bunch of the 4" clay pots to support them. lol

Buba Blend said:

Appreciate it!
Look forward to talking more about the clay pot grow. Right now I'm focused on the plastic party cups. I have grown a number of times in the 4" clay starter pots to a tiny harvest but never tried it in the party cups. 5 minutes ago I tried to move 6 of them using a plastic lid from one room to the other, all I'll say is they fall over easy without support. I have a feeling it won't be the last time that happens until I get a bunch of the 4" clay pots to support them. lol
View attachment 4079023 View attachment 4079024

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Yeah, just wait till theyre about 6in tall. Gonna have to get a drink carrier from Sonic.

I plan to root prune on the selected one, ferment the cuttings, feed them back to plant. That and mega crop, perhaps some epsom, keep it simple.

SSGrower said:

I plan to root prune on the selected one, ferment the cuttings, feed them back to plant. That and mega crop, perhaps some epsom, keep it simple.

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I'll be starting with water only for a while in ffof, then my main 3 will be GO cal/mag+, gypsum and Epsom salt. Probably some cal/mag after a few times with 150ppm water only.
I have all the dry amendments.
My go to at the start of flowering will probably be Down to earth Bio Live. I have several other options and will try different ferts on different plants.
Not popular but I have a good feel for blood meal for any N problems.

Buba Blend said:

I'll be starting with water only for a while in ffof, then my main 3 will be GO cal/mag+, gypsum and Epsom salt. Probably some cal/mag after a few times with 150ppm water only.
I have all the dry amendments.
My go to at the start of flowering will probably be Down to earth Bio Live. I have several other options and will try different ferts on different plants.
Not popular but I have a good feel for blood meal for any N problems.

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I like bone and blood meals, they are part of my reammending regimine. Basically when I have enough used to fill a big tote or two I go through and back manures, ewc, insect frass, minerals, kelp meal, (phasing out alpha), sulphur, compost, drainage/aeration/water retention aides, (coco once, not again, will stick to peat)....
Go by what came out of the soil mostly.

Down to Earth will work well in this situation, as will ffof, both have what I will term as a very quick release imo, could work well but could run out of legs. I'm pretty sure my soil dosent have the legs for this so thats why the mega crop will be used.

SSGrower said:

I like bone and blood meals, they are part of my reammending regimine. Basically when I have enough used to fill a big tote or two I go through and back manures, ewc, insect frass, minerals, kelp meal, (phasing out alpha), sulphur, compost, drainage/aeration/water retention aides, (coco once, not again, will stick to peat)....
Go by what came out of the soil mostly.

Down to Earth will work well in this situation, as will ffof, both have what I will term as a very quick release imo, could work well but could run out of legs. I'm pretty sure my soil dosent have the legs for this so thats why the mega crop will be used.

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This one and her sisters are on there way. Nothing to do for a few days except slowly bring them closer to the light. My guess is I'll be watering in 3 or 4 days. I'm not sure. Only .6 oz evaporated from the cups in the last 36 hours. It will become difficult when they get larger.
Damping off should be no problem because I have plenty of cups going if any die from that.