Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to Get 2 or 4 Main Colas

perfect - just what I wanted to hear - I admire the creativity - and am amazed by the knowledge -
cheers.

and btw - I' ve gone the UB route and topped a couple medicine plants this morning - I'll document the results...

you mentioned seaweed - any chance either of you have ever harvested your own?
I live on the ocean and am curious to give it a shot - but time always seems to be my biggest issue-
I suspect one would need to leach prior to milling or making a tea? any thoughts?-
and if my inquiry is off topic for this thread I do apologize- total board noobie here...

Yea, some mornings I take a 2000mile stroll down to the seashore and do that..
JK, a garden store near me sold that.. I forget the brand details, and I remember there wasn't much more than general kelp benefit labeled.. I also liked seaweed extract for early growth/cloning.. One of the few things worth buying at a hydro store if you can't find it elsewhere IMO since if you only use it early a little goes a LONG way, and clones start off really well with it.. (I never did a side by side, but I was very impressed the first time I used it)..
From what I understand, seaweed meal is quite doable yourself so long as you're careful with desalinization, but extract is a bit tougher.. Most is made from the most easily obtainable kelps and other brown algae like rock-weed (which has a ton of other names)....

orchidboy said:

Gentlemen - hats off, and a cyber nod to you both-.......

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Welcome to the forum. Yep, lot's of nice peeps here, enjoy.

I used to live near a beach that had sargassum washing ashore, tons of it and there were folks that used it as a mulch and composted with it. You have to wash it well and then go from there.

Regarding organics, I'm not a purist. The green movement, the zealous organics push, is all about the money and control, don't want any part of it. One must reach a balance in their life and that includes gardening. I will not use any kind of pesticides on my veggies unless necessary cause I learned years ago that less is more, plus it takes time and money to apply. Do I think the general use of pesticides is a personal health risk, depends on amounts, frequency, application rates, etc. Read the label.

Having said that, here's my soil recipe drafted as a guide many years ago. Make sure you understand plant requirements before you go off and use this and that. IOW, seaweed's main function provides trace elements. When it comes to enzymes, vitamins, and other crap some vendors claim plants need and their products supply, it's just that, crap. Plants need 16 essential elements, the rest if manufactures.

My plants show no deficiencies when I don't use seaweed, quite the opposite, they are so vigorous that I have to flower 3 weeks from the time the seed pops the surface, and I still get 4' tall plants.

I use alot of brown sphagnum peat moss, a large bag of Schultz potting mix, and a bag of cheap potting soil (screened to get rid of the chunky stuff) to make up enough for 30 to 40 gallons of a final mix, which I mix on a cement floor using a shovel and store in large garbage cans. To this base which provides humates, an acidic hit, trace elements, etc. and a little silt to tighten up the mix and retain moisture, I add:

6 or so cups blood meal, 3 or so cups bonemeal, 4 cups dolomite lime, 1 large bag each of vermiculite and perlite (available at Casa dePOT) and alfalfa meal which contains a hormone called triacontanol (purported to increase vegetable production up to 60%). I buy alfalfa feed pellets from a farm and ranch supply store, put about 4 cups of the pellets in a bucket with a gallon of water and give it a good squirt of Ivory dish soap to cut the surface tension, let it stand for 30 minutes, and then dump the slurry into the mix on the floor. I sometimes add composted horse manure, maybe about 3 or 4 gallons of it. The final, slightly moist soil mix is turned well with a shovel and stored for a couple of weeks in garbage cans to "mellow".

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Good luck,
Uncle Ben

I never had nute def problems, I just noticed that the stalks and roots seemed more vigourous with the extract.. Maybe I had just gained skill the first time I tried it creating a placebo effect, maybe I did have too little K in the soil, but it didn't show (can't imagine why, but the extract was 2-2-7), and maybe those micros/vitamins did help alot..

Regarding organics, I'm not a purist.

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Weren't you banished from a dirt-hugger forum for your alchemy and blasphemy??

born2killspam said:

.....Weren't you banished from a dirt-hugger forum for your alchemy and blasphemy??

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You DO get around. Yep, that be The Tropical Cabanna aka TCC. They really went berserk when I recommended malathion for mite control and did a Griffin's Spin-Out ditty, hah!

Speaking of which, I have some photos in this ditty which the orchid man probably hasn't seen before regarding plant vigor and root system. Besides proper nutrition and culture, good root production is all about watering technique.
https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/9114-spin-out-chemical-root-pruning.html

Of course every organic wacko at TCC said that I was full of <cough> copper.

again - I am so very, very grateful -
Tio, I recall you mentioning "a second harvest" - or, something to that effect-
How would I go about removing my, um, one cola (until next harvest when I'll have 4 per baby - thanks to you) safely and accurately?
and thanks for the link -
Best,
Orchid

Would either of you mind assessing my work?
curious as to your input - and since this will be my first batch of medicine for my patients -
I'd like to be able to go over logistics with them?
I've recently noticed small white mildew and hit it with a spray of "Green Cure" and am now noticing some very slight tip burn - which I am attributing to operator error and a slight dose of orchid food (a test on my part)-
so, if possible i'd like to post a couple of images from my macro lens (from my old GD photog days) - and have you enlighten young grasshopper -
Cheers

Just start up a gournal thread and link to it in your signature..

beautiful - much appreciated - here it goes...

I like to think I had watering technique down before that, but who knows.. I spent ALOT of time watering when I did it.. I hate what dumping water into a pot does to the root-ball.. Unless your soil is perfect, say hello to compaction or errosion when you flood them each watering..
I started a side-by-each with typical responible watering vs frequent sip watering, but my Gramps was on his death-bed, so I had to ditch the experiment, set up an automated system and take off for a few weeks..
(I was pretty impressed upon return, I was expecting shrivelled plants since I had to RUSH the setup and hop on a bus.. Spent 40 minutes on it [granted I had a few 555/BC timer templates built already from another project, and some circuits/gear from my hydro days], and it made it to a decent harvest..)
On the note of the seaweed extract though, for what I used in early veg, $10 worth lasted me for about 600 plants, and I still had some left when I packed up.. So for 1.5cents/plant, who cares if the benefit is all in my head..

I wanna see what orchidboy has to offer, ppl versed in agriculture, and tough to grow plants usually teach me alot of shit.. I don't hang out in many journals, but yours I wanna see..

I have been denied the ability to upload photos - a security token? anyhow - going to attempt to ul via a hosting photo site and take that route - that should work..

this might work - and again, this is my first attempt - so, please - critique away - I've much to learn and am a willing student-
https://www.rollitup.org/members/orchidboy-albums-1st-attempt-being-caregiver.html

so i have my first grow going journal and all. i decided to go with the LST method. I'am wondering will topping of each cola be to much stress on the plant? the plants already bent over and going through stress but cutting each cola off at the same time what do you think suppose? and after regrowth i wanna pintch and snap the branchs where the topping method went into effect

great thread for beginners and pros rep 4 u

orchidboy said:

again - I am so very, very grateful -
Tio, I recall you mentioning "a second harvest" - or, something to that effect-
How would I go about removing my, um, one cola (until next harvest when I'll have 4 per baby - thanks to you) safely and accurately?
and thanks for the link -
Best,
Orchid

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Remove the one cola when it is ready, put the the plant back under the lights to bulk up the lower part. Only works if you have leaves left.

Well, the triploid that was topped above the 2nd node is now growing 6 tops. Kinda figured, sweet!