First Organic Grow

Thanks for a few members here on here that has helped me and some who just post amazing threads that I troll.


For the past 5 to 6 months I've been gathering my resources- both intellect and a good soil mixture! I tried a Maricle Grow soil
last grow for my FIRST grow and I had no success. It was with CFLs & a very very hot room w/
no proper air circulation. Due to the stress, my ladies turned hermi and I had to chop, toss & clean the room very
very well.

Since then - I've bought FFOF and threw in my own amendments. Let it sit for a little over a month and started my next go.
Also - - I got a 600w light w/ HPS and the other light (can't think of it on the top of my head), a ducting system to exhaust the
old air out and pulling in the new breathable air.

Another cool thing aside of the grow it self, is I'm slowly collecting more information. But most importantly (!!!!!!!), I established
a healthy worm farm to collect some vericompost! MM MM MM

For you guys that are curious about my soil mix ; it's :

I take NO credit for this soil mix - this is all thanks to Sincerely420

Per 1.5cubic foot bag of Fox Farm Ocean Forest
-32cups Earthworm Casting
-32cups Ancient Forest
-16cups Perlite
-11tsp Rooters Mycorrhizae
__________________________
-1.5cups Indonesian Hi-P Bat Guano (.5-13-.2)
-1.5cups Algamin Kelp Meal (1-0-2)
-1.5cups Espoma Tomato Tone (3-4-6)
*Nutritional Amendments.
__________________________
-4 cups rock dust
-1 cup Azomite
-0.5cup Espoma Green sand
-1 cup Hi-Cal Lime
*Mineral Amendments.

___________________________


Diary :

7/1/13 : Germinated four seeds (Blue Cheese, Cali Connect, Bay 11, Toxic Blue 33)
7/3/13 : Seeds popped and put in a 18oz Party Cup
7/4/13 : (Happy 4th !!) One popped (Blue Cheese) out of the soil and placed under the light.
7/5/13 : Blue Cheese, Bay 11 & Toxic Blue 33 are in the light! Cali Connect is taking its
sweet time popping out of the soil. Lazy! Things are looking good - temps , fresh air and most
importantly - the flowers.
7/6/13 : Cali Connect seed was garbage! However, Lemon Haze was a backup seed and put it in the 18oz Cup
and it popped today. It's now under the light. So reporting in, all four plants are starting! Just one is a day
off.

Where did you get the mix recipe from?

Love to see people who do their homework before trying to grow. It saves people a couple shitty grows (which usually deters new growers) and gets right to the good stuff.

Id be carefull with that soil mix especially if youve let it it for a while. FFOF is already pretty hot and can insta-kill young seedling.

Try mixin a lil promix in with the top few inches if possible to avoid any burning.

Other than that run your set up for 24 hours to see when the temp gets hottest and when its coolest to gauge when you should set your timer so youre most efficient.

Whats your grow room look like?

Looking pretty good c4.

A couple things I'd point out at first glance:

- I'd consider mixing in a little more aeration. The worm castings and peat base can really compact. I'd add equal parts perlite (or whatever you choose to use for aeration) to your worm castings/humus.

- The mycorrhizae is best applied directly to your root zone at transplant. It's definitely not wasted by just adding it to your soil as you did, but it functions within the rizosphere/root zone so you can save some $$$ but not just mixing a bunch in to your soil. 1 tbsp sprinkled in to the root zone of each plant will do the trick.

- When you wet down your mix consider doing so with an ACT. Get that soil full of beneficial microbes doing their thing while it's sitting for the month and the plants will have an abundance of readily available nutrients in the soil when you plunk them in there.

- Somebody above already mentioned this, but it's worth repeating. FFOF is pretty "hot" right out of the bag. You may want to cut your mix with something a little more inert when you put new seedlings or clones in there, and then when you transplant in to larger containers use your amended FFOF mix once the roots (and plant) are better established.

Best of luck to you!

Mhhhmmm Looks like you're off to a nice start. Soil mix will be fine as is I'm sure. It won't burn anything due to the fact that you cycled it for a month before using it.
Look into odor control as well! All sorts of advise from this point forward will be at your disposal, so it's up to you to pick and choose what you choose to apply, or not! That could be as tricky as the grow lol.
I'll be around. Check your inbox.

PS. about to flip a Bay 11 to flower and this thing is something serious! Stinks like a flowering plant in veg and a verryyyyyy vigorous growing strain.

GandalfdaGreen said:

Where did you get the mix recipe from?

Click to expand...

Local organic nerd on the organic forum! Some pretty cool stuff out there bud!

budbro18 said:

Love to see people who do their homework before trying to grow. It saves people a couple shitty grows (which usually deters new growers) and gets right to the good stuff.

Id be carefull with that soil mix especially if youve let it it for a while. FFOF is already pretty hot and can insta-kill young seedling.

Try mixin a lil promix in with the top few inches if possible to avoid any burning.

Other than that run your set up for 24 hours to see when the temp gets hottest and when its coolest to gauge when you should set your timer so youre most efficient.

Whats your grow room look like?

Click to expand...

Pictures will be soon to come. With the summer time here - there is almost no good time in temp time - so I just run it in the usual day time so I can be awake to take care of things if needed. I understand that FFOF comes out hot - well see how this turns out!

st0wandgrow said:

Looking pretty good c4.

A couple things I'd point out at first glance:

- I'd consider mixing in a little more aeration. The worm castings and peat base can really compact. I'd add equal parts perlite (or whatever you choose to use for aeration) to your worm castings/humus.

- The mycorrhizae is best applied directly to your root zone at transplant. It's definitely not wasted by just adding it to your soil as you did, but it functions within the rizosphere/root zone so you can save some $$$ but not just mixing a bunch in to your soil. 1 tbsp sprinkled in to the root zone of each plant will do the trick.

- When you wet down your mix consider doing so with an ACT. Get that soil full of beneficial microbes doing their thing while it's sitting for the month and the plants will have an abundance of readily available nutrients in the soil when you plunk them in there.

- Somebody above already mentioned this, but it's worth repeating. FFOF is pretty "hot" right out of the bag. You may want to cut your mix with something a little more inert when you put new seedlings or clones in there, and then when you transplant in to larger containers use your amended FFOF mix once the roots (and plant) are better established.

Best of luck to you!

Click to expand...

Thanks all this information and more is welcomed! I didn't ACT the soil because I didn't have extra stuff so I just used some good ol H2O. Better than nothin' aye? I'll be working on some ACT's though once it's in the 1 gal. pots. I still need to buy a few things for a solid ACT mix. Any suggestions on any ? I like simple things btw ; nothing too complicated!

As far as perlite goes, I think I did well with it. It seems to have enough air but it's not over kill. When I do my transplant- I'll use my best judgement if I need to add in more perlite. But big ups man! I could use ANY help . Key thing is, I'm always learning and plan to ALWAYS excel in growing and/or being organic!

InternationalGreen said:

Mhhhmmm Looks like you're off to a nice start. Soil mix will be fine as is I'm sure. It won't burn anything due to the fact that you cycled it for a month before using it.
Look into odor control as well! All sorts of advise from this point forward will be at your disposal, so it's up to you to pick and choose what you choose to apply, or not! That could be as tricky as the grow lol.
I'll be around. Check your inbox.

PS. about to flip a Bay 11 to flower and this thing is something serious! Stinks like a flowering plant in veg and a verryyyyyy vigorous growing strain.

Click to expand...

So far the Blue Cheese is in the lead, bud!

OH- Yeah dude I got a carbon filter long time ago, duh!

ps;;;;;
Checked inbox and replied.

Good. Also replied!
And cool haha, just didn't know for sure if you got one!
I made it thru my frist two grows without one, but this Bay 11 is a stinker!
That chess probably is too huh?!

Also think about getting some Alfalfa meal, Diatomaceous earth, epsom salt, coconut water, and aspirin, for foliar feeding amongst other things..
Details are in the link that I inboxed you. All of the recipes I used are in the OP there. Seems to have made a BIG difference this time around.
Got that shimmering deep green going on and wouldn't want you to miss out on that.

PS. Got that worm bin started like you told me to go ahead and do! Haven't harvested any casting yet, but the critters and worms in there are doing a good job breaking things down for sure.

Also, ditch all your scales and anything paraphenalia related...Just tossing that out there.
Could be the difference between a felony drug charges and a nonconviction.
Haha haven't given any advice in a while, so here I go again!
And yeahhh I'm back! You hear that Beech?!

Bro,

I'm 10 steps ahead on that! I don't own any paraphenalia related! Plus I actually don't smoke! I'm in this for the art of it man. It's genius!

I love my beer(s) and liquids. Though I may get into oil

OH ? I got no links in my inbox! I still have the same email fyi. Do u?


edit :

Worms :

YEAH BOY. I have yet to harvest. But I do have some gold.. They've been working MAD HARD. I'm going to build a better box.. You only learn the more you do.
Bigger, better and more efficient box for m0re wUrms

New email lol. New everything. I'll send you the link again now!
And just tossing it out there for you in case you didn't know bro.
Tho it's not legal it's not illegal lol. Just gotta live in the gray area safely.

But in regards o the PM you sent, if you watered the soil down already and let it sit for at least 3wks, you'll be fine.
There is a 100% chance that the soil will NOT burn your seedlings lol. First hand experience tells me this.
About to send you the link.
And WHAT! You don't even smoke?! That's asinine!

InternationalGreen said:

New email lol. New everything. I'll send you the link again now!
And just tossing it out there for you in case you didn't know bro.
Tho it's not legal it's not illegal lol. Just gotta live in the gray area safely.

But in regards o the PM you sent, if you watered the soil down already and let it sit for at least 3wks, you'll be fine.
There is a 100% chance that the soil will NOT burn your seedlings lol. First hand experience tells me this.
About to send you the link.
And WHAT! You don't even smoke?! That's asinine!

Click to expand...

Well I smoke, but only oil now. But that's hard to come by. I want to start making edibles. I live a active life- so I try not to inhale smoke, #ufeelmebro ?

I watered it down as soon as I mixed the soil - only with 1 Gallon of water though. My Cali Connect seed must have gotten nute fried that or it was a bad seed. However I put Lemon Haze in its place.

c4ulater said:

Local organic nerd on the organic forum! Some pretty cool stuff out there bud!



Pictures will be soon to come. With the summer time here - there is almost no good time in temp time - so I just run it in the usual day time so I can be awake to take care of things if needed. I understand that FFOF comes out hot - well see how this turns out!


Thanks all this information and more is welcomed! I didn't ACT the soil because I didn't have extra stuff so I just used some good ol H2O. Better than nothin' aye? I'll be working on some ACT's though once it's in the 1 gal. pots. I still need to buy a few things for a solid ACT mix. Any suggestions on any ? I like simple things btw ; nothing too complicated!

As far as perlite goes, I think I did well with it. It seems to have enough air but it's not over kill. When I do my transplant- I'll use my best judgement if I need to add in more perlite. But big ups man! I could use ANY help . Key thing is, I'm always learning and plan to ALWAYS excel in growing and/or being organic!



So far the Blue Cheese is in the lead, bud!

OH- Yeah dude I got a carbon filter long time ago, duh!

ps;;;;;
Checked inbox and replied.

Click to expand...

QUALITY compost/vermicompost and some molasses. That's all you need to brew a beneficial ACT.

Doesn't get any easier than that.

InternationalGreen said:

Good. Also replied!
And cool haha, just didn't know for sure if you got one!
I made it thru my frist two grows without one, but this Bay 11 is a stinker!
That chess probably is too huh?!

Also think about getting some Alfalfa meal, Diatomaceous earth, epsom salt, coconut water, and aspirin, for foliar feeding amongst other things..
Details are in the link that I inboxed you. All of the recipes I used are in the OP there. Seems to have made a BIG difference this time around.
Got that shimmering deep green going on and wouldn't want you to miss out on that.

PS. Got that worm bin started like you told me to go ahead and do! Haven't harvested any casting yet, but the critters and worms in there are doing a good job breaking things down for sure.

Also, ditch all your scales and anything paraphenalia related...Just tossing that out there.
Could be the difference between a felony drug charges and a nonconviction.
Haha haven't given any advice in a while, so here I go again!
And yeahhh I'm back! You hear that Beech?!

Click to expand...

You can use aloe (organic) as a foliar instead of aspirin. It's the salicylic acid-like compound in aspirin that's beneficial .....and aloe is chalk full of it.

c4ulater said:

Well I smoke, but only oil now. But that's hard to come by. I want to start making edibles. I live a active life- so I try not to inhale smoke, #ufeelmebro ?

I watered it down as soon as I mixed the soil - only with 1 Gallon of water though. My Cali Connect seed must have gotten nute fried that or it was a bad seed. However I put Lemon Haze in its place.

Click to expand...

I feel you. Soil mix will be fine for sure. And hopefully my CC Sour Diesel will germ when I'm ready for it...And can't never go wrong with Lemon Haze.

st0wandgrow said:

You can use aloe (organic) as a foliar instead of aspirin. It's the salicylic acid-like compound in aspirin that's beneficial .....and aloe is chalk full of it.

Click to expand...

It's wheat bread and white bread. Basically the same ish. Pussy Willow Bark serves the same purpose. Also, you need fish hydrolysate and kelp meal for that ACT. You can get by with the basics no doubt...But you can also go above and beyond for better results with things like alfalfa, bat guano, etc. This according to http://www.microbeorganics.com/

InternationalGreen said:

I feel you. Soil mix will be fine for sure. And hopefully my CC Sour Diesel will germ when I'm ready for it...And can't never go wrong with Lemon Haze.



It's wheat bread and white bread. Basically the same ish. Pussy Willow Bark serves the same purpose. Also, you need fish hydrolysate and kelp meal for that ACT. You can get by with the basics no doubt...But you can also go above and beyond for better results with things like alfalfa, bat guano, etc. This according to http://www.microbeorganics.com/

Click to expand...

With out a doubt. My Lemon popped out of the soil after one day of putting s/him in there. Hope the Lemons a girl! The other seeds however are fem. So it says.


The ACT - I'm strapped on cash to get the Fish Hydrolysate. But I have Alfalfa and Bat Guano! No Molassas tho- local stores don't have it! I checked. Looks like Amazon. Does it have to be a certain kind?

It's wheat bread and white bread. Basically the same ish. Pussy Willow Bark serves the same purpose. Also said:

http://www.microbeorganics.com/[/URL]

Click to expand...

"It's wheat bread and white bread."

Exactly. One is processed and inorganic, the other is organic. This is the organics forum.

"Also, you need fish hydrolysate and kelp meal for that ACT."

That's simply not true. You don't "need" either of those items to brew a proper aerated compost tea. The goal of an ACT is to multiply the microorganisms present in your compost/vermicompost. Period. Molasses acts as a food source of sorts for the microbes, and is all that's needed for that purpose. c4 asked for a simple, non complicated recipe. That's what he was given. If you want to brew a *nutrient* tea you can toss in all sorts of goodies like kelp meal, alfalfa meal, guanos, etc.

"But you can also go above and beyond for better results with things like alfalfa, bat guano, etc. This according to http://www.microbeorganics.com"

Yes, he knows his stuff. He posts over at ICmag under the username "MicrobeMan". If you're interested in his take on the topic, take a look at the tea thread in the organic soil section. You can skip right to the end of the thread.....

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=110620&page=109

c4ulater said:

With out a doubt. My Lemon popped out of the soil after one day of putting s/him in there. Hope the Lemons a girl! The other seeds however are fem. So it says.


The ACT - I'm strapped on cash to get the Fish Hydrolysate. But I have Alfalfa and Bat Guano! No Molassas tho- local stores don't have it! I checked. Looks like Amazon. Does it have to be a certain kind?

Click to expand...

Strapped for cash and you growing lol! Boyyyy stopppp hahahah!
What are you doing over there?! Lol J/k.

The fish Hydro will run you $10 @ 5th.
Go to your local grocery store whatever that is, and they should have it. If they don't Wal-Mart will.
And yep, it has to be UnSulphured or either Blackstrap Molasses. Only one of those two. Should cost no more than $5

PM me or hit me up on my thread with question if you need some help from this point lol. #SMH

st0wandgrow said:

"It's wheat bread and white bread."

Exactly. One is processed and inorganic, the other is organic. This is the organics forum.

"Also, you need fish hydrolysate and kelp meal for that ACT."

That's simply not true. You don't "need" either of those items to brew a proper aerated compost tea. The goal of an ACT is to multiply the microorganisms present in your compost/vermicompost. Period. Molasses acts as a food source of sorts for the microbes, and is all that's needed for that purpose. c4 asked for a simple, non complicated recipe. That's what he was given. If you want to brew a *nutrient* tea you can toss in all sorts of goodies like kelp meal, alfalfa meal, guanos, etc.

"But you can also go above and beyond for better results with things like alfalfa, bat guano, etc. This according to http://www.microbeorganics.com"

Yes, he knows his stuff. He posts over at ICmag under the username "MicrobeMan". If you're interested in his take on the topic, take a look at the tea thread in the organic soil section. You can skip right to the end of the thread.....

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=110620&page=109

Click to expand...

Right on. To make the most basic ACT you're right. All you need it some compost/vermicompost and molasses....And some oxygen.
I was wrong to say you NEED those other things...You don't. Please ignore my posts from this point forward

dude im dude my first grow. im so nervous i want it to go right. i just planted 11 juicy fruit seeds and i got a 2 tga strains and one bag seed with is beating right now. fox farm happy frog and unclorinated water i let set out for a few days its just tap water.

ibob said:

dude im dude my first grow. im so nervous i want it to go right. i just planted 11 juicy fruit seeds and i got a 2 tga strains and one bag seed with is beating right now. fox farm happy frog and unclorinated water i let set out for a few days its just tap water.

Click to expand...

Happy growin' bud! As always - I'm anxious on growing right! But mistakes can always happen and you can always learn. This is why I love this.

Nice! I've never had good success with bag seeds. But maybe it was just my luck. Nice where'd you score some juicy fruit?

7/13/13 :

Everything is good. The three that I have going is looking REAL strong. I know lack of pictures may show lack of interests from other RIU fellars . It's been well over a week (7 days +) and they're still in the party cups. I plan on keeping them in the party cup for maybe another week. Then transferring them into a 1 gal plastic pot.

QUESTION : How long should I keep them in a 1 gal pot? I mean - root bount blah blah blah. I know that part - but really. I heard you can do 1 month in a party cup before causing some kind of root bound problem.