Gas Basket: organic soil + COB LED

ALOHA & welcome, friends! I'm starting this journal at week six since germination began because, well, this is where things finally start getting interesting! STRAINS I titled this grow Gas Basket because everything in this line up has some fuel in the lineage. I'm a fan of Humboldt CSI after my last grow of T1000 -- that was my favorite strain out of the 8 I grew. I was sitting on more of Nspecta's seed stock and decided to keep his gear rolling. I moved to Hawaii from the PNW in 2010, so I lost a lot of access to clones of my favorite strains. Only recently have some of those clone-only outliers become available in seed form from reliable breeders. Humboldt CSI has earned a reputation for quality and accuracy with respect to genetic heritage -- it is what it says it is. All of the below are S1. Chemdog '91: I've been desperate to have some great Chem around, so this was an obvious choice. I smoked this frequently '07 - '10 as it was easy to come across and it's still some of my favorite herb. I just haven't had a good sample since then! This is my most anticipated grow in years and I look forward to being transported back a decade+. PHK x T1000: I LOVE a good indica. I'm a big fan of both of these strains. I always try to include a knockout, sleepy-time indica with each grow and I'm hopeful this will fill that place in the medicine cabinet. Lemon Party: This is supposedly a select phenotype of Lemon Tree, which is itself a select pheno of Lemon Kush x Sour Diesel. I've never had an intense lemon strain before, so this one is mostly for fun. But I'm also curious how the experience turns out -- Lemon Tree is a coveted cut for a reason and I'm eager to discover why. F-13 x (Sour Diesel x Bubba Kush): This technically isn't an S1. This was an accident that's, so far, proving to be very fortunate. A couple of years ago I grew out a pack of DJ Short's F-13 from stock I purchased way back in '07 during its initial release. At the same time, I was running some Sour Bubba (Sour Diesel x Bubba Kush) from Katsu Seeds. Well, one of the Sour Bubba girls decided to drop a few pollen sacks and... voila! It very lightly pollinated the F-13 girls next to her. So here we are! And I'm stoked about both of these phenotypes. The mutant is especially intriguing. She looks really weird but she's got vigor and is keeping up with her sister. BACKGROUND I aim to keep things as simple and effective as possible while producing the highest quality medicine. I've tried all kinds of growing methods -- DWC, rockwool, flood & drain, DTW, chemical soil -- and throughout all of it I've found I achieve the best results with a well-prepared organic soilless blend, plain water and compost teas once per week. During flowering, I supplement with a bit of top dressing (if needed) and some organic liquid bloom booster (usually HPK by Roots). I hope what I've learned can help others simplify their set up, decrease inputs, remove confusion, reduce mistakes/problems and, ideally, produce a better crop. Here's my go-to general base substrate. I use it for everything from seedlings to clones to full size transplants. - 5 parts soilless mix - 3 parts perlite - 1 part castings - 1 part coco coir NO amendments for seedlings or rooted clones going into 4” pots. For the amendments below, it's important to WEIGH your inputs because that's how the ratios are calculated by the manufacturer, i.e. a 10-0-0 contains 10% N by weight (not volume). Precision pays, people! Down to Earth is the source for all of the amendments. VEG BLEND For this, I made a balanced blend of quick and slow release amendments to achieve a 3-2-4 ratio. You can define "1 part" however you wish. I like easy, round numbers so I use 10 grams as 1 part. But it all depends on how much amending you plan to utilize. Langbeinite @ 1.75 parts Bone meal @ 1.5 parts Alfalfa meal @ 3 parts Kelp meal @ 1 part Blood meal @ 1 part Feather meal @ 1 part TOTAL = 6.2 - 4 - 8 ***Use 10g VEG mix + 1 tsp azomite per gallon soil BLOOM BLEND Soybean meal @ 1 part Feather meal @ 1 part Bone meal @ 1.5 parts Kelp @ 2 parts Langbeinite @ 2 parts Shrimp meal @ 3 parts TOTAL = 7 - 7 - 8.3 ***Use 12g BLOOM mix + 1 tsp azomite per gallon of substrate. This will be supplemented with compost teas + Roots HPK + top dressing w/ bat guano as needed. My program starts with seedlings/cuttings in 4" pots (no amendments). They get transferred to 1 gal pots with the VEG BLEND added to the base substrate @ 10g + 1 tsp Azomite per gal. Once they've sexed and cuttings have been taken, they're transplanted to 3 gal pots with the BLOOM BLEND added to the base substrate at 12g + 1 tsp Azomite per gal. Throughout all stages of growth, I use the following compost tea once/wk. Otherwise, it's just plain water. 5 gal batch: 4 cups compost or castings 1/2 cup alfalfa meal 2 T molasses/fruit juice/cane sugar to the water to encourage bacteria growth 2 T EM-1 (if you have it) Aerate/bubble for 24-36 hours. Use immediately. Compost is the base additive (Worm castings can be used as a substitute). Put the compost/castings & alfalfa meal together in a strainer bag (paint strainers, pantyhose, cloth bag -- anything to filter and keep the airstones from getting clogged). Cannabis likes bacteria-dominant substrates and teas. Mycorrhizae are less common in soils used for vegetable growth. I'll be back in 2 weeks with updates!