SpicySativa's Atomic Northern Lights

What's up RIU?

Just wanted to share a couple pictures of some Atomic Northern Lights I've got going. They are at about day 10 of 12/12, living in 10 gallon pots of my homemade organic mix (same mix I've been amending and reusing for over a year now). No pests, no diseases, no deficiencies, no burning, no chemicals, no fuss, no muss... Just simple organics.

The only liquid inputs so far have been a little Pro-Tekt, Ful-Power, and occasionally a very small amount of fish hydrolysate.

I'll fill in some more details later, but for now I have to go to work...

Very nice, looking damn happy, would love to see a week to week of these. Great attention has gone into these ladies.

Thanks May11th. Week by week is the plan (or as often as I motivate). Things are just starting to get interesting in the cab.

Beautiful. Great choice of a strain. I ran her many years ago. I am excited to see it run right. I love Dr Atomic gear. I have run most all of his gear.

Looking good Spicy. Northern lights is one of top favs too.

Thanks, guys. Stay tuned for updates.

Quick update... Hash bowl awaits...

Things are going nice n' smooth. Gave them a compost tea about a week ago (1.5C worm castings + 4 TBSP balckstrap + 5 gallons water --> 24 hours in my vortex brewer --> happy plants). Other than that just water.

I'll try to update again in a week or so.

That's an awesome idea for a brewer. I never thought of making a vortex brewer or even looked at the construction of one. Does it still use an air pump n stones or does it create a whirlpool effect? I think I want try it..

Your NL looks dank and frosty too


edit:

I found your other thread... I think I'm going to build one next month.... Money is tight right now

Hyroot - That brewer works great. Highly recommended. Just make sure you have an air pump with enough cojones to power it.

SpicySativa said:

Hyroot - That brewer works great. Highly recommended. Just make sure you have an air pump with enough cojones to power it.

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Are there diy plans for your brewer floating around?
I did some looking & didn't see one like that.
I like.

Google "SpicySativa's Microbe Wrangling Experiments". I did a little writup over at ICMag.

Actually I wrote it up here, too:

https://www.rollitup.org/organics/634492-diy-airlift-vortex-compost-tea.html

Beautiful looking plants Spicy! That vortex brewer is really kick ass too. I'm gonna have to read your DIY link. Thanks for sharing.

Question for ya.... How often, and at what point do you add the fish hydroysate?

I don't really have a "schedule" for when I add the fish hydrolysate. I've been adding it maybe once every 3-4 waterings, but at REALLY low concentrations. I think the bottle (Eco-Hydro Fish Hydrolysate) says a full dose is something crazy like 4 TBSP/gal; I add more like 1 tsp/gal. In my system it's not really feeding my plants directly, just an extra little snack for my soil fungi and bacteria.

If my plants ever look like they're starting to fade a little early, I'll sometimes add the fish hydrolysate at up to 1 TBSP/gal for an added boost. It's really mild stuff, very forgiving and a little faster acting than a top dressing (my other strategy).

st0wandgrow said:

Beautiful looking plants Spicy! That vortex brewer is really kick ass too. I'm gonna have to read your DIY link. Thanks for sharing.

Question for ya.... How often, and at what point do you add the fish hydroysate?

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Feel free to bring my DIY thread back to life with a new post if you'd like. It seems like there is a lot of interest in teas right now, so maybe people could benefit from it.

SpicySativa said:

If my plants ever look like they're starting to fade a little early, I'll sometimes add the fish hydrolysate at up to 1 TBSP/gal for an added boost. It's really mild stuff, very forgiving and a little faster acting than a top dressing (my other strategy).

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I tend to go with the top dressings a lot. I've been brewing up more teas lately, and I'm liking the results ... and as you said, faster acting. I may pick up a jug of the fish hydrolysate and give it a whirl. I'm not a fan of guanos, so this seems like a good alternative.

SpicySativa said:

Feel free to bring my DIY thread back to life with a new post if you'd like. It seems like there is a lot of interest in teas right now, so maybe people could benefit from it.

Click to expand...

Shall do. I'm sure I'll have a few questions to bounce off of you....

Can I ask the benefits of teas over top dressing with guano's ?
Is it the O2 in the tea for the bugs ?

GreatwhiteNorth said:

Can I ask the benefits of teas over top dressing with guano's ?
Is it the O2 in the tea for the bugs ?

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A nutrient tea (with something like alfalfa) is bio-available a little more quickly, where as top dressing dry amendments need a little longer to break down.

Compost teas provide the benefit of multiplying the microbes present in your compost. Essentially adding more critters breaking down the goodies in your soil