Organic Grow - Indoor till veg, then out

@Philindicus, shucks. for some reason all these comments weren't showing up when I was checking on my phone! Alas, the transplants are done. For what it's worth, I stuck to 2x 13" pots for the stronger looking plants (one dinamed, one amnesia), and put the rest in 11" pots. I did also pre-moisten the soil. No watering till I see them drinking! I just figured that since they would now be out in the sun - gradually been getting them used to the outdoors - I may need bigger pots than say for indoor growth. Oh well, i'll be keeping a close eye and will be posting updates soon! Added mycorrhizae to the transplant holes in the new pots. Any other beneficial bacteria you'd recommend?

@perilousp, Solo cup to 20 liter pots seems like a big jump. I would go up to maybe a 4-5 liter pot first. But still water her like shes in a solo cup until she grows more. I would suggest pre moistening the soil mix before putting it in the pot rather than putting it in the pot then watering it through. I suggest this to avoid over saturating the entire pot with water until she fills the pot with more roots. Think about adding some beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae to your soil to improve the roots ability to utilize the nutrients. From there go up to the 20 liter grow bag.👍

@Mrs_Larimar, thanks for the great information. I'll definitely be keeping all this in mind going forward. Think i'll begin preparing my soil for spring from now itself. Fine tune it over the coming months and try again! In the meantime, the plantlings seem to be doing well. All of them have grown decently well over the past week and any signs of bug trouble has disappeared :) I'll be putting up some pictures this sunday.

@perilousp,i think the problem is the whole mix.... youve taken organic potting mix. that nice . but do you know the ph and ec of that mix=? and then adding your npk granules.... so you have an unnkown growmedium for your plants........thats the mainfactor in theis grow... the good thing is... hemp is resiliant. So your plants will be old enough to get clear with that medium and grow. and yes its better to give them chlorinefree and phed water....

@Mrs_Larimar, thanks for your explanation. I guess I figured by week 5 the plant would be well into it's veg phase, but I suppose it's about the growth of the plant and not the time elapsed. Should've waited on the hotter soil mix. Anything I should do about this now? I also found i've made a pretty rookie mistake, being a rookie as I am :) I checked the PH of my water, as well as the soil for the first time this week. Turns out my water (tap water btw) is at 7.2, and my runoff is at 7.4 !! Obviously not the best (or anywhere near for that matter). Do you think this is at the root of their troubles? What would you recommend as a result? I'll be using a water filter with a fine mesh and charcoal filters from now on. I figure that should bring down the PH and chlorine content of the water down significantly. Would be glad to have your inputs on this :)

@Philindicus, I had actually seen these spots on one of the Amnesia leaves - at indoor seedling stage. I carefully clipped the leaf and took it away. Since then no spots on the Amnesia. But when I moved them outside, the same spots appeared on one of the Dinameds, and also on the unhealthy leaves of the Critical (lower leaves became sickly in a few of the plants towards the end of their solo-cup life). I'm still unsure what the spots could be. Either way, all that seems in the past now luckily. I hope.

@Philindicus, traps sound like a great plan if the insects return. As of late, the insects seem to have dissipated a bit. Gotcha on the neem being a deterrant for good bacteria and organisms. Should probably keep it away for the fungii in the soil. I think the shift into full sunlight has helped deal with a lot of the bugs. They seem to like the fluorescents though - which come on for daylight extension. Gonna find some good traps!

@perilousp, I have heard of using neem As a soil Dench but if your trying to use a living soil alive with beneficial bacteria and possibly mycorrhizae you may be causing them to die off or inhibit there growth. In other words if the plant is healthy it will grow faster and insects will become less of an issue. If you in a green house you may be able to order some predatory insects to help control the others. Since your growing for CBD content I would try to keep evert hinges as organic as possible. I would avoid dripping your tea on the leaves until the recover.This could be what caused the leaf spots on the one plant. They should sent out some new growth soon. You can also plant some companion plants ,flowers or herbs as dither plants which insects may like better than your weed plants. Depending on the insects they also sell pheromone traps and sticky traps for some flying insects.

Hey @Philindicus, so i’ve been running my tap water through an 18 litre gravity based filter for the last week to ten days. It filters out a lot of the toxins, minerals and has carbon cores for the chlorine and chloride. Once filtered, I PH it down to about 5.8. Seems to be helping a lot! The plants are liking it :)

@perilousp, I've been using a soil and coco mixture for my plants. Since you are using water with a slightly high ph a peat based soil will help lower your soil ph. You will have to experiment a bit to find what mixtures work well with your nutrients. I'm in Florida and can't use my tap water it's way too hard with a ph of over 8.0. Even if I try to lower the ph of the water when I recheck the ph of the water after several hours it bounces back up too high. I use a small portable reverse osmosis filter to get usable water for my plants.

@Philindicus, i think you could be right regarding the seaweed ph. Going to test it tonight. PH’d water seems the way to go. I’m going to start preparing a much more balanced coco based, no till mix for the next grow (coco is mighty plentiful here in india). Seedlings of course, will be in a very “poor” and well aerated mix. But I digress, all focus on these plants for now!

@Philindicus, hahah I know right? It's actually a wild urban peacock, hangs on on some oak trees around, then comes and struts around on our roof sometimes. We have bird feeders all around the house, so figured that would keep the birds busy, didn't account for peacocks having expensive taste! I really like that layered soil tip! Wish i'd thought of that before :D I ordered a really simple, LARGE, gravity based water filter with carbon filters. The kind they keep in mountain cabins. Came pretty cheap actually, and filters chlorine and chloramine, among other things. I assume the filtration of calcium and minerals should reduce the PH of the tap water considerably now. Easier than carrying RO water to the roof ! It just arrived, so ill set it up and PH test the water. Would using PH down in the water be a bad move (if needed)?

@perilousp, This stuff about a peacock eating your plants is the best excuse ever!😂 You keep it as a pet or is it your neighbors peacock? People would be surprised even having a few chickens around can do quite a bit of damage to your plants. I think when your plants develop a better/larger root system in a few weeks they will respond well to your soil nutrients. Mrs_Larimar is right about giving young seedling/plants too rich of a soil mix. Some growers will layer their pots with a stronger mix at the bottom then a leaner mix in the middle and a very light nutrient mix at the top. This way as the plants roots grow more complex they work their way through the different soils. It's more like you have to decide if you want a super soil type set up then all you need to do is water them in or a light nutrient soil then use organic fertilizers to add to the soil. It's good to try both and see what you like better. I find it easier to use cannabis specific commercial premixed soils then add in some extra perlite. You can find some great organic ones for sale. As soon as you use anything that was composted and exposed to the outdoor insects will cause future insect issues. You will tweak your soil mixes next time. For your ph issues you should check your seaweed extract ph sometimes different brands can cause/contribute to a high ph that is very difficult to lower. You can also try to use distilled water and mix it half an half with your tap water. Distilled water has a ph of 5.8 so it should bring you down to about 6.5 ph then add your seaweed extract and humic acids then recheck your ph. 5.8- 6.5 works well for nutrient absorption. Using different amounts of the two may allow you to get obtain a better ph. I would suggest asking Mrs_Larimar as to how much humic acid/ fulvic acid to use for seedlings/young plants it would depend on the % of the acid. As for chlorine in your water you can fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and let it stand overnight uncovered or use a aquarium air pump with an air stone to aerate the water and the chlorine will evaporate.

@Philindicus, this is very relieving to hear!! Especially since they had all JUST started to grow fairly vigorously before ye olde diva bird ate them. I’ve put net around the plants now. Almost like a netted (instead of insulating plastic) greenhouse. That should keep the peacock away! Only one im worried about now is that critical. It looks pretty bad.

@perilousp,Growing brings the "real us" to the surface.... Pls be so kind and explain us how you "cooked" your living soil ( in the diary) iam always excited to learn

@Mrs_Larimar, hehe SO much learning! But also much intrigue with nature. So much so that i’ve been studying composting, soils, water systems and some permaculture practices since. My next grow is already underway, with a living soil thats been cooking for 2 months. Exciting times :)

@DinafemSeeds, Hey mark! Harvested the plants right after my last posted flower week. Lots of time has passed as the bud was drying for 12 days, and curing ever since. I've written a detailed writeup, but to sum it all up - I LOVE THIS STRAIN!! The high is everything i've been looking for for a very long time!! Read my harvest notes for more details.

@perilousp, How are things going since your last update mate? I hope all is well 🤗 All the best ✌️ Mark..

@DinafemSeeds, hey mark. Yes, it’s been a journey! But i have to say, im impressed by the Early Amnesia CBDs resilience, given everything these plants have been through! And you’re right, that greenhouse smells delectable 😁

@perilousp, That's good. I'm starting to see a lot of organic CBD growers sharing their diaries on GD. Your off to a good start.

@Philindicus, Also the granules are slow release ☺️

@Philindicus, yes I used a soil mix recipe I found online. On second thought maybe I should have looked for a recipe on this site! But as of now, would you suggest I just stick with Seaweed extract and a bit of fish emuls. at half the recommended dosage? And neem oil for foliar anti-buggyness? I was thinking once a week with that recipe, but perhaps ill just water it with just seaweed for a couple of weeks? Again, thanks a lot for the inputs, much appreciated by a highly enthusiastic newbie :)

@Philindicus, sounds about right. So far (3 days into transplant), they're all looking pretty healthy. The neem oil was specifically for one of the Dinameds actually. I noticed lines running through a couple of leaves, that looked like leaf miner tunnels. Wanted to stop them in their tracks before too much damage was done. Definitely skipping the blood and bone meal for now. Will look into it when the plants are bigger and more demanding. I'm just gonna water them sparsely and wait till they start showing strong growth before looking back at nutrients. Thanks for the advice!

@perilousp, It's better to try to keep things simple to start with I would stick to the seaweed and fish nutrients. You want to keep stress to a minimum. Blood meal is high nitrogen you risk burning them if you use too much, bone meal is high in phosphorus which can also cause burn. I would be very careful using them. As for using your seaweed/fish nutes as a foliage spray you can do this using a very light dosage but once again if it's too strong you risk burning them. I would add to your basic routine gradually so if you have an issue you will know what caused it. I would not suggest using neem oil unless you have a specific issue with bugs or mildew issues. I tend to be on the cautious side when it comes to nutrients. You need to go by what the plant is telling you. So since you just re-potted a few of them it may take them a few days to recuperate from being re-potted. If they send out some significant new growth this is telling you they are ready to be fed again. If they are not growing or yellow looking something is going on you need to figure out what the issue is.

@Philindicus, yes! that's exactly what im going with - seaweed + fish. I also have some blood+bone meal digested fertilizer. Don't think I can make teas with it, but maybe i'll put it to use during flowering. As for not spraying, is that to encourage further root development? Cheers for the reference, will check her grows out! Posted an update for week 4. Transplants complete! Except one, need a couple of days on the Critical.

@DinafemSeeds, cheers guys, will be posting the week 5 update today!

@Philindicus, thanks for the reply :) So i havent used any Epsom Salt yet in the mix. Just the vermi and some organic NPK (manure based) granules. Will keep the Epsom salts specifically for if I see signs of Mag deficiency then. Any way to balance the salts out with an organic form of Calcium should I ever need to? Referencing the NPK granules, unfortunately in my part of the world, the organic nutes guys aren’t in the habit of specifying specific NPK ratios, but it is compared to a balanced 19-19-19 substitute. I figured slow release, balanced nutrients present in the soil should last me through the veg phase of my grow? The quantity of the granules I added to the soil was a little more than half the recommended amount.

@@Myrcella, Hallo, Ich spreche kein Deutsch, aber Google Translate zur Rettung! Ich verstehe, was Sie sagen, und ja, vielleicht bin ich ein bisschen zu angetan von meinen Pflanzen ☺️, aber ich verstehe auch das Bedürfnis nach Geduld. Hoffentlich wird all die Liebe und Fürsorge zu einem besseren Verständnis von ihnen führen und ihnen helfen, ihr Bestes zu geben! Danke fürs Einchecken :)

@@@Athos, thanks for the tips. I have lots of huge neem trees around. Do you think making neem tea from fresh, ground up neem leaves would be more effective than store bought oil? Regarding the nutes, well i haven’t been giving the plants anything really. There is some well composted vermi and slow release organic npk replacement granules in the soil already - which i assumed wouldnt even be absorbed by the plants for a while still, given it’s been only 5-6 days since transplant :( Will watch them over the week, with the neem tea (using foliar, and a little over the soil as my plants are attracting lots of bugs!) and see how it goes.