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Greetings, fellow growers! This is my third indoor grow, and I will be moving from a super soil mix that I found to be a bit too hot (Kind soil) to Clackamas Coot’s organic soil recipe, purchased premixed from Buildasoil. I popped four Acapulco Gold seeds from Barney’s Farm, and all four germinated. After germination they were moved to a small 2’ x 2’ veg tent under CFL lights. I will keep them in the veg tent while my current grow finishes up, moving them from CFLs to a 135 watt LED after I transplant into 1 gallon smart pots.
Once the flower tent is free, I plan on experimenting with a no-till grow. I am thinking of running two plants in the flower tent, putting one in a 20 gallon smart pot and experimenting with a self-watering SIP setup in a 27-gallon plastic tote. Because this is a large sativa-dominant strain, I will probably try my first SCROG. Each container will have a handful of earthworms added from my worm bin, and I will occasionally top-dress with worm castings, kelp meal, and malted barley powder. Once a week I will be doing a neem / karanja oil foliar spray for pest remediation.
All plants rooted very quickly in their solo cups, and have been transplanted into 1 gallon smart pots. I’ve turned off the CFLs and am now using a 135 watt LED. I’ll be switching from a 24 hour light schedule to 18 hours. Other than that, not much to report this week - all seedlings are growing vigorously.
UPDATE: On November 2nd, I setup a "ghetto SIP" (Self Irrigating Planter) as described at https://forum.grasscity.com/threads/noobwannbs-self-wicking-smartpot-ghetto-setup.1151159/. This uses the adhesion qualities of water to create a self-watering wicking system. Plants reportedly thrive using such a system, so I figured I'd give it a try on this grow. I purchased some 1/4" - 1/2" black lava gravel to use as the wicking agent and placed in a dishwashing tub. I cut the bottom off a transparent plastic cup and placed it into the tub so that I can have a visual indication of how much water is in the reservoir tub. I placed the left two plants onto the tub, and left the right two plants as controls to see if the system is effective / has any impact. I then gave all four plants a watering in the evening.
On checking the tent the next morning, the SIP does seem to be working: leaves are reaching out / praying on the two SIP plants more than the controls, and there is still noticeably more moisture at the top of the plant containers.
For more information on SIPs and some alternative (more complicated) design ideas, this site has great information: http://albopepper.com/SIP-raised-bed.php#.
@MovingOn, for the grow where I saw the root issues, I started with GG # 4 clones and vegged them for about a month. I staggered the harvest - first plant after 60 days of flowering, and finished the last plant at 68 days.
It was a pretty decent first grow overall, though - I got about 9 ounces of high quality buds that I'm still enjoying. I also was overwatering quite a bit at first - some kind growers on another forum tipped me off to that. So I'm not entirely sure how much if any of the problem was the Kind soil; I just wanted to move towards the living soil since my wife is really into organic and I want to extend what I learn in the grow tent to our garden.😀
I'm excited to see your Buildasoil progress. I've been thinking of doing that next time as well. I do like the idea of the Kind Soil, but growth seems slow with it. I also may be watering too much, ha, but that wouldn't be the soil's fault. 😋
Cali_Cajun
