SpicySativa's Organic Garden

Yikes. Different strains running from the same res sounds like a headache in the making....

Glad to see you switched to organics!

It actually turned out pretty well considering the circumstances. The Querkle was the only disappointment. It was dwarfed by all the other plants. They all got cut down at 63 days. If I can get a hold of some of the pictures from my buddy ill post em

I love a good, organic journal...and this one is looking great!

Great job, SpicySativa. Subbed for sure!

Thanks M1DAmber! Glad you're enjoying the show!

This hasn't been my most spectacular round. Since day 1 in this rendition of my soil mix, the XJ's have been a little off... I suspect that I added back too much nitrogen when I remixed the soil. This is evident from the dark foliage (considerably darker than last time I ran XJ), slightly weak/viny stems, and slightly clawed leaves. Combined with this 20-something % RH (and NO rain!) we're seeing this winter, and my garden is a little less than stoked... I'll still pull some frosty XJ buds in a month or so, but unfortunately yield and bud size will suffer a little...

Live and learn...

Cheers,

~SpicySativa

What's up guys?

Well... Here are the XJ-13's in all their (less than glorious) glory. They are a little disheveled from some recent plant bondage, and just a little "off" in general. I've come to suspect that this soil mix was just a little too hot for their tastes. They've got the telltale downward cupping leaves that sativas seem to show when they are overfed. The symptoms got noticeably worse when I gave them some Ful-Power (humics/fulvics), which seems to confirm my suspicion; humic and fulvic acids help the plant uptake nutrients from the soil, which in this case wasn't a good thing.

I'll be erring on the side of caution next grow. I plan to "dilute" my other batch of soil with peat moss, compost, worm castings, and a mix of pumice/perlite. I remixed it similar to this current batch (TOO HOT!)...

Oh well. I'll still pull a harvest even if it isn't up to my sometimes unreasonably high standards. Live and learn...

I just started germinating a ten pack of TGA Vortex for next round. Can't wait to give them a try!

Cheers,

~SpicySativa

What's up, folks?

Quick update on the Vortex. After 24 hours in a moist paper towel, 8 out of 10 seeds have cracked. I imagine the last two will have popped by the time I'm home from work today. The six which had tap roots over about 1/4" got planted into small (1-qt?) pots filled with a seedling soil mix I put together the other day. Each seed got a little sprinkle of endomycorrhizal fungi innoculant in the bottom of the hole before it was dropped in (tap root down, of course).

Seedling mix:
1 part soil mix (my veg/flower mix that's been "cooking" for a few months)
2 parts Alaska Peat
1 part pumice
1 part compost (actually a 50/50 mix of my homemade worm castings and some Bu's Blend Biodynamic compost)

To this, I added 2 TBSP/gal of this "lime" mix:
1 part dolomite lime
1 part gypsum
2 parts oyster shell flour

Soil pH measured out at about 6.3-6.5 using the distilled water slurry method.

I think they're gonna like it. I'll post up some pics when they break the surface.

Cheers,

~SpicySativa

I'm getting the same cupping on my dream lotus plants. Maybe a touch too much N in the soil like you say. All the other plants seem fine. Either way, your girls are looking good bro.

Thanks, Stow. I'm sure they'll pull through.

After a few successful grows in a row, sometimes I need a little reality check to keep me on my toes! Still plenty to learn...

Hey not trying to start another ph conterversy, but i thought the "slurry" technique is false? Back in the day whwn i thought ph ing was cool i used to do random "slurry" ph and they where never the same

Foreverflyhi - The slurry test is WAY more accurate than runoff, but you're right. It's still not that accurate. What makes it more accurate is that you let the distilled water/soil slurry sit and equilibrate for 20-30 minutes before reading the pH. This is actually similar to the method that soil testing labs use.

Really though, I just use it as a "gut check" to make sure I'm in the ballpark. If it had read anywhere between about 5.8 and 7.5, I would have been OK with it.

Like so:

http://www.clemson.edu/sera6/SoilpHFinal081910.doc

What's up guys?

Time for a quick update.

The XJ's are starting to mature, and they smell DELICIOUS! Lemony, citrusy, piney funk. Mmmmm.... It's got that sharp, citrus/pine smell that clears your sinuses when you take a big whiff. The leaves still look a little haggard, and the buds are a little smaller than last time I ran XJ, but what'ya gonna do...

As for the Vortex, all 10 sprouted the other day and they're lookin' good. It's REALLY dry out here in California these days, so I'm keeping a VERY close eye on these seedlings. If I don't water them at least once a day, they're likely to dry to a crisp.

That's about all I've got for now. The veggie garden is cranking out all the salad greens I can eat right now, which is always nice. I just started another flat of 1/2 lettuce 1/2 arugula, so that I can keep my salad fixin's cranking perpetual-style. The worms are happy, and the compost pile is starting to look like compost...

All's well around here.

Cheers,

~SpicySativa

Quick update. Here are the Vortex at day 9 (ish) since they poked their heads above the soil.

Next photos of the XJ-13 will probably be on harvest day (likely this Saturday).

Cheers,

~SpicySativa

What's up organic heads?

I'm back with an update. Today is day 64 for the XJ's; they'll probably go 70. They REEK right now. Nose-tingling sweet, citrusy lemon funk.

The Vortex are looking good, too. Today is day 10 or 11 or something like that...

Both sets are just getting plain water. Nothin fancy right now since I've been pretty busy with the rest of my life...

That's about all for now.

Cheers,

~SpicySativa

Looking stellar Spicy. But that's no great surprise.

The wheels are turning... This weekend I'll be getting started on my next project; expanding my cabinet to 4x8 and adding a second 600 watter.

Since I'm not terribly interested in taking clones or keeping mothers, I won't really have any need for my separate T5 veg area. It's helpful with my current setup because I can harvest every 3 months instead of 4, but that won't be necessary if each harvest is twice as fat . I will build one 4x8 cabinet that will run my 4' 6-bulb T5 for early veg, one 600 MH for mid veg, two 600 MH for late veg and 1st week of bloom, and two 600 HPS to finish them off. No more vegging the new babies during the last month of the previous round's flower cycle; just one round at a time, start to finish, clean/decon, and start up another.

Based on my calcs, this will actually only increase my electrical usage by about 16% averaged over a one-year period. Instead of four 600-watt harvests per year, I will have three 1,200-watt harvests; roughly a 50% increase in production.

Looks like I'll be playing carpenter all weekend. I'm also building a nice new bed frame with some drawers underneath for storage.

Pics to come...

Hey,Nice pics, and your expanding plan sounds great!


Curious if you ever experimented with leds?

I still haven't played with LEDs. It seems like folks either really love them or really hate them, depending on when they hopped on board the LED train. I see LOTS of potential in LEDs, but the technology is still evolving quickly and the highest quality units are still a little out of my price range. Maybe I'll give them a try in a couple years when my current equipment starts to wear out and the "shake down" period for the new technology has passed.

As for my current expansion... I really like to keep my garden as uniform as possible, which is why my second light will be in the same type of hood, powered by the same type of ballast. Even growth and a nice flat canopy is my goal.

What about you? Are you an LED guy? If so, were you running HPS before switching? I'd be curious to hear from some guys who have really put in some time with HPS before making the switch. That way they have a solid base to compare to.

Hehehe completley understand and agree with you about leds.

yes i am a led grower, long story short, about 3 years ago i decided to experiment with leds.

first couple harvest, FAILED, i was hoping for results similar to my hps grows, but nope, garbage, then i tried one more time with slightly better quality led, half led half hps, and much better results.

here are my journals on my succesfull led grows, keep in mind this was happening during a time when i started to figure out what true organics is, in other words i was still a hydro way of thinking grower.

some nice pics in there, you can quickly go thru them

half led half hps
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/512001-357-magnum-plus-led-600-a.html

2nd run with all led
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/521297-two-357-magnum-plus-4x4.html

3rd
https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/537663-art-vegging-flowering-dr120twin-2x357.html

4th with led / plasma
https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/580405-plasma-2x-magnum-plus-leds.html

Today im personally growing with plasma and hps, i have donated my leds for suplimental lighting in a much larger grow.

In less then a month i will be growing with these
[FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI]http://a51led.com/store/[/FONT]
[FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI]These are probley the top 5 companies in the led industry, they are well priced and made from quality parts, backed with growers who have documented great results on this here website.[/FONT]
[FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI]
[/FONT]
[FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI]Im scrapping my hps, no more dynasour technology for me ![/FONT]

Nice. I'll check those out when I have a chance. For now, I'm at work... Fun times.