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End of Germination week. Seed took 3 days to pop, looks pretty healthy so far.
So after my previous 4 grows in coco I decided I wanted to try something different and have a go at an organic soil run this time.
My soil mix is equal parts: Loam/Coir/Sand/Vermiculite/Diatomite. For a mulch layer I am using all the leaves & stems from my previous Gorilla Glue run, along with some of my ABV.
I have also used some Ecothrive Life-Cycle and Biosys to get things going on the fungi/microbes.
Once the soil is well established I will be experimenting with different amendments and organic flowering boosters as time goes on but for this run I will be keeping things simple.
I haven't decided if I will add any worms or cover crops yet.
Wish me luck, thanks for stopping by!
End of week 2.
Happy 4/20 - Still not much to report, going ok so far!
Watering organic soil seems much easier than coco so far, and I notice the plant has a lovely rich green colour. Some of my plants in coco have looked almost like artificial plastic at this stage but this plant looks a little more compact and natural.
Not feeding the plant anything other than seaweed and molasses so far, will be keeping an eye for any deficiencies and probably use some organic flowering nutrients later in the grow.
End of week 3.
Lots of growth this week, looks like it will start flowering any day as it's already starting to stretch.
Decided to experiment with this grow and let the plant go without topping - in fact I actually removed a couple of the lower branches instead to encourage a better main cola. I'm curious to see how tall the plant will get in soil vs coco, if it remains compact enough I will try planting 2 plants side by side on the next run. If not I will just run a single plant and train it out to fit the space better.
Also decided to add some beneficial insects this week, some earth worms, springtails and isopods - hopefully they will settle in and colonise the soil!
End of week 4.
Well the plant has definitely stretched a lot this week, I was hoping it might stay quite compact in living soil vs previous coco grows. No chance I could take it to harvest without running out of vertical space in my small tent so I decided to remove the top of the plant and leave 6 main colas. Pretty late in the game to be topping but not much choice!
I still think this is the healthiest looking plant I have grown so far, no sign of deficiencies at all. So far no pests either.
End of week 5.
Well I definitely have got an answer to whether soil grows stay more compact than coco - no!
May have to abort this grow and start over with some heavy training, rapidly running out of vertical space every day. I have removed a lot of leaves and growing points to hopefully slow the stretch down but she's still going pretty strong. If I had not removed the main growing point I could easily see this plant going to 4-5 feet in height.
Overall though it's been a good learning experience for working with organic soil so far, aside from the height issues with my very limited growing space the plant is extremely healthy compared to my previous coco grows. No deficiencies at all and very healthy growth. The main factor in the next grow will be to top early and train hard to make the best use of space.
Will give this plant another week to see if the stretch slows down then make a decision whether to just cut it down and start over.
End of week 6.
Things are getting uncomfortable now! Very little space left left until they will hit the grow light and I have dimmed it to its minimum setting.
It's a shame I was not able to keep this plant more compact as it is looking incredibly healthy and has really strong stems. I'm going to leave it one more week and see if I can bend the stems down a bit but if they stretch much more I will definitely need to chop and start over. Good learning experience either way, and my living soil seems to be providing everything the plant needs.
End of week 7.
Kind of managed to salvage this grow I think! Spent the last week defoliating, super cropping and bending branches down and although it's still uncomfortably close to the light the actual canopy is not half bad now. Stretch seems to be slowing down now so hopefully I can keep things under control.
Not expecting a big harvest for obvious reasons but something is better than nothing and a valuable learning experience for the next run. So far I am blown away by living soil growing, so much easier than coco and the plant has not had a single issue with deficiencies/excesses, every leaf is a perfect deep green colour.
Thanks for looking!
End of week 8.
Comparing to last week the buds are starting to fill out quite nicely. Stretch is almost over (hopefully!) and the top of the canopy is about 2-3" from the light now... Will probably have to do some more defoliation and bending stems down this week but should be able to see this grow through to harvest just about. For my next grow in this living soil I will perform lots of training earlier on to keep the height in check...
Plant still looking very healthy, all green leaves no marks or blemishes at all.
End of week 9.
As you can see from the photos the plant is almost touching the light now. Despite my best efforts of bending branches down they just pop right back up again!
Still looking pretty good though under the circumstances, flowers are stacking up nicely and getting pretty stinky too. This plant is not as frosty as my last run of Gorilla Glue from FastBuds but still looking decent,
I'm curious to see how the terps end up towards harvest time because right now it's a strong sweet funky smell. Still another 3-4 weeks left at least I reckon.
End of week 10.
Still going OK despite being so close to the light, the buds have packed on some decent size since last week but 95% of pistils are still white so at least 2-3 weeks left to go I guess.
Not much else to say for this week!
End of Week 11.
Still going OK under the circumstances, buds are filling out nicely and getting pretty stinky now.
Hoping it will be ready in another 2 weeks or so but it may go longer I think judging by how many white pistils are still popping out of the buds flowers every day!
End of week 12.
Another week down, and not looking too shabby despite all the problems I had with the stretch.... I think there's another 1-2 weeks to go on this, I want a strong couch lock effect so need to wait for 1/3 amber trichs or so.
Looking forward to the end of this run so I can start a new one with proper training to keep the canopy much lower. Unfortunately a larger tent is just not an option as I have to grow stealthy.
End of week 13.
Almost 100 days in now and not a single amber trichome yet.... just looking forward to end at this point.
Shouldn't complain too much because it smells awesome but holy shit this has been a long grow....
So I am approaching 15+ weeks on this plant and there is not a single amber trichome to be found anywhere.... The plant absolutely stinks and there are tons of milky trichomes so I am wondering if some strains just don't turn amber?
Correct, some strains will never have amber trichomes and some will have 70%+ amber after only 4 weeks of flowering, it is all down to genetics.
This is why I am continually advocating for not basing your entire decision on when to harvest based ONLY on trichome colour.
Once the plant has 98-99% brown pistils, they are in the "ready zone".
Chop!
This could have run for another week honestly to fatten up even more, but we have a heatwave approaching so I was forced to chop a little early.
Still I am pretty happy with the results regardless, will update diary after drying/curing.
cactoman420
