Straw works fine too. It has less nitrogen and more carbon, so it sticks around longer on top and is more resistant to decay which is why outdoors many prefer it. The difference is that hay is also part of my nutrient source, as well as a moisture/protective cover so I want faster cycling. You can do the same with straw just by adding a bit more alfalfa pellets under it than you normally would - maybe 25 to 30% more? This isn't an exact science (yet). lol
One Pink Lemonade - no-till cycle 7 in 4 foot diameter pot, 5x5 tent
- Thread starter Northwood
- Start date
Straw works fine too. It has less nitrogen and more carbon, so it sticks around longer on top and is more resistant to decay which is why outdoors many prefer it. The difference is that hay is also part of my nutrient source, as well as a moisture/protective cover so I want faster cycling. You can do the same with straw just by adding a bit more alfalfa pellets under it than you normally would - maybe 25 to 30% more? This isn't an exact science (yet). lol
Well the 4 plants are starting to grow more quickly - even the runt has picked up within the last couple days. I didn't get a chance to check on them this weekend until now. Looks like I can do some LST today and spread these babies out a bit. I plan on flipping sometime in mid-to-late April. I think I'll skip doing an outside plant this year, so I didn't kill the runt and still won't exceed my 4-plant legal limit.
I had some issues with too much lighting earlier which might have set them back a bit. I've never used these lights for plants in this stage of growth, so I'm still on a learning curve with them.
I had some issues with too much lighting earlier which might have set them back a bit. I've never used these lights for plants in this stage of growth, so I'm still on a learning curve with them.
This was a great thread to stumble upon. Exactly the type of system I am trying to set up; I am on my first grow with a soil I built. Looking forward to seeing results. Although I am concerned there are issues with the plants, I am now at the end of week 5 flowering and seeing some leaves losing colour etc.
I prefer the term "soil I mixed" rather than "built". It takes a lot of time to build soil which is why the first cycle is always the most problematic. The good news is that soil builds itself so it doesn't take a lot of effort on our part. All we need to do is add the raw materials on top, and the biology does the work.
I wouldn't sweat it too much if you're losing leaves here and there at that stage of flowering. It's pretty normal and expected that the plant will get rid of the older leaves that eventually take more energy to keep alive than the food (carbohydrates) they produce. Your plants #1 goal at this time is reproduction and its long ago stopped growing new vegetative parts. Senescence is underway, and your plants regulate nitrogen by drastically impeding its own ability to absorb it (Nitrogen Uptake Regulation). That's another reason why lower foliage will yellow because further flower development will take more nitrogen from available leaves than from what's available in the soil. It just needs to keep itself alive long enough to reproduce, or give up trying. Hopefully in your case that will be sometime between week 8 and 10 of flowering
I have been trying to find a way to say this. I also do not like saying built, it implies I am doing something special; anyone can mix a soil
I've got hairy vetch and annual ryegrass as my cover for this first grow. I saw somewhere in this thread that you bought mung beans and lentils...I would never have thought of this. I'm now planning to try something similar on the next cycle.
It just needs to keep itself alive long enough to reproduce, or give up trying. Hopefully in your case that will be sometime between week 8 and 10 of flowering
Thank you for helping to ease my worries and thanks for sharing your knowledge, it's great to see the results that this system can produce
DoobieDoobs
Well-Known Member
Hey man I hope this finds you well.
Awesome thread, long time reader first time commenter, I love this growing style man, I'd like to move into it little by little, maybe start with one of those recycle bins from home depot like you said. I was wondering what size is your soil bed? Or how many gallons are in there of soil? In the first pages you said something like " the commitment of having 150 gallons of soil " I'm not sure if this was a manner of speech or littéral amount xD. Thanks for your response.
Awesome thread, long time reader first time commenter, I love this growing style man, I'd like to move into it little by little, maybe start with one of those recycle bins from home depot like you said. I was wondering what size is your soil bed? Or how many gallons are in there of soil? In the first pages you said something like " the commitment of having 150 gallons of soil " I'm not sure if this was a manner of speech or littéral amount xD. Thanks for your response.
The pot was advertised as holding 150 gallons. I only filled it about 2/3rds full though so I have around 100 gallons of soil in there.
I've been able to make this work with 15 gallon plastic bins before. Of course that's one plant per container only, and I wouldn't veg it for more than 2 months before flipping. But if you can, go for something that has less depth and more surface area. I still managed to pull respectable harvests from those smaller containers though. The important thing is that you provide the bacteria, fungi, and everything else living in there with a constant source of food, oxygen, moisture, warmth, and your loving protection.
DoobieDoobs
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the advise. After this grow I'm doing, I might get one that is around 26 gallons, those seem to have a larger surface than depth. Also I think I'll go digging in my backyard as well in search for some worms, and to gather a good amount of leaves. I'm very impressed about the 100 gallons xD, I guess it makes sense after taking a good look at the enormous plant you just harvested.
I put the net over them this morning. I was going to LST and super-crop only this time to avoid the inconvenience of a ScrOG, but anyone who can manipulate those thick indica stems without breaking them clean off is way better than I am (and has more patience too maybe). So I thought I'd just make it easy on myself and put up with the minor inconvenience this will cause later.
I'll let them grow into the net and just start tucking until the tent is filled, then flip and tuck a tiny bit more. Like the Pink Lemonade, I don't think these will stretch much anyway.
The good news is that the runt doesn't look like a runt anymore; it just looks further behind. She's started to grow pretty quick now, so I'm glad I kept her. In about a week I'll do a light defoliation and lollipop what's really close to the ground. In about 2 weeks they'll cover the pot completely and I'll just be concentrating on filling the corner holes.
The rest of this grow will be pretty boring and standard. Just water until flowers are ripe and ready for harvest. I already bought the seeds for cycle #9 and they're supposed to be an "improved' version of Pineapple Express. I'll hold off on any alfalfa pellets next grow depending on how these look in flower. I definitely have no shortage of nitrogen in there so a cycle with water and hay mulch without alfalfa might be good for it. It's what I also did with grow cycle #3, #5 and #7 and the plants had no problem and yielded well. Sometimes I think the hay mulch eventually provides more nutrients itself than I give it credit for.
The exciting thing about this grow is that it's actually going to yield some lentils! Lol Pods have formed and are now filling out. It should be interesting.
I'll let them grow into the net and just start tucking until the tent is filled, then flip and tuck a tiny bit more. Like the Pink Lemonade, I don't think these will stretch much anyway.
The good news is that the runt doesn't look like a runt anymore; it just looks further behind. She's started to grow pretty quick now, so I'm glad I kept her. In about a week I'll do a light defoliation and lollipop what's really close to the ground. In about 2 weeks they'll cover the pot completely and I'll just be concentrating on filling the corner holes.
The rest of this grow will be pretty boring and standard. Just water until flowers are ripe and ready for harvest. I already bought the seeds for cycle #9 and they're supposed to be an "improved' version of Pineapple Express. I'll hold off on any alfalfa pellets next grow depending on how these look in flower. I definitely have no shortage of nitrogen in there so a cycle with water and hay mulch without alfalfa might be good for it. It's what I also did with grow cycle #3, #5 and #7 and the plants had no problem and yielded well. Sometimes I think the hay mulch eventually provides more nutrients itself than I give it credit for.
The exciting thing about this grow is that it's actually going to yield some lentils! Lol Pods have formed and are now filling out. It should be interesting.
The runt reached the net a couple days ago so I'm starting to tuck her too now. She's smaller so I'll be directing it mainly to the left-front corner. I didn't do any defoliation or anything yet. Once the net is about full, I plan to pinch or prune off every growing node below the netting or anything not assigned an official hole. Then I'll give it another couple weeks to develop some vertical structure before I flip. I expect very little stretch with this strain. A few days ago I cranked up the light so that combined they're now drawing 550W from the wall. Fully cranked they pull just a hair under 1,000W.
They're drinking about 15 to 20 litres of water now every second day. Humidity is finally over 35%! It's because the forced air gas furnace isn't on so much now because it's getting warmer outside. All that mess of foliage helps too obviously.
They're definitely passed the seedling stage now at least.
Now the exciting part: the lentils! I should get a mega-harvest soon (NOT!). It turns out the pods grow in little clusters of about 3 pods, but each pod only contains a single lentil seed. I estimate that you could hand harvest a $2 bag worth of lentils with only a year's work! LOL
They're drinking about 15 to 20 litres of water now every second day. Humidity is finally over 35%! It's because the forced air gas furnace isn't on so much now because it's getting warmer outside. All that mess of foliage helps too obviously.
They're definitely passed the seedling stage now at least.
Now the exciting part: the lentils! I should get a mega-harvest soon (NOT!). It turns out the pods grow in little clusters of about 3 pods, but each pod only contains a single lentil seed. I estimate that you could hand harvest a $2 bag worth of lentils with only a year's work! LOL
This is weird. I was outside in the backyard checking on the pots and bins outside I use to grow veggies in. Then I saw this:
We grew 2 hot pepper plants in this particular bin last summer and I know this is definitely NOT a pepper plant. This is Eastern Ontario and the bin has been outside all winter covered in ice and snow the entire time with temps often going below -25 C. I did grow 2 female plants outside last summer, but I never found a single seed or nanner on it and there are no seeds sprouting in the bins I grew them in. WTF? Neighbour playing tricks on me by throwing seeds over the fence maybe?
Anyway, someone should inform this little guy that last frost here isn't guaranteed until late May!
We grew 2 hot pepper plants in this particular bin last summer and I know this is definitely NOT a pepper plant. This is Eastern Ontario and the bin has been outside all winter covered in ice and snow the entire time with temps often going below -25 C. I did grow 2 female plants outside last summer, but I never found a single seed or nanner on it and there are no seeds sprouting in the bins I grew them in. WTF? Neighbour playing tricks on me by throwing seeds over the fence maybe?
Anyway, someone should inform this little guy that last frost here isn't guaranteed until late May!
MiselfCare
Well-Known Member
Dang lookin frosty
Yeah I've never seen a plant that young covered in so much crystal before Lol
I do wonder if such a tender little seedling can survive 2 degrees below freezing. I'm pretty sure the seed came from the bubble hash I made with my 2 outdoor plants last year. What's funny is that if you go back to the summer photos of the parent plants in this thread, I have a photo of them covered in snow too. It took a long time for the buds to ripen to my liking before I ran all the material through the washing machine outside in the backyard.
Depends. Usually they fall apart by the time spring planting comes here in late May so I don't worry about it too much. For early stuff that's already planted like radishes, usually I just smooth it over the existing soil or sometimes mix it in with the top layer a bit before directly sowing the seeds.
myke
Well-Known Member
Yeah this will be all root veggies,thanks.Im about one month from planting.
DonPetro
Well-Known Member
Frosty.
Almost time to flip, just a few more scrog holes to fill and a whole lot of cleaning up to do. Spring is the time I'm pretty busy around here, so the only attention these plants have had from me so far is watering and tucking tops under the netting to the next available hole. Anyway, here they are today:
The volunteer plants outdoors suffered even worse the next night when a few inches of snow covered them up completely and the temperature dropped to -3 C. They survived and are now growing well, but slowly due to the continuing low temps. It's amazing the abuse a tiny cannabis sprout can take. I'll grow them out and if my neighbour's plants die this year I'll give it to them.
The volunteer plants outdoors suffered even worse the next night when a few inches of snow covered them up completely and the temperature dropped to -3 C. They survived and are now growing well, but slowly due to the continuing low temps. It's amazing the abuse a tiny cannabis sprout can take. I'll grow them out and if my neighbour's plants die this year I'll give it to them.
greenguy024
Member
I powered through this whole thread last night. I really appreciate all the information you've laid down here Mr. Northwood. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge my friend