First Organic Grow

Fordsie All 4 seedlings are seemingly happy at this time. I have been watering at a pH of 6.5, and have kept volume to about 500 mL or less so there is no runoff. I’m keeping medium moist but not sopping wet, so microbes continue to do there thing in prep for demands of each plant. I turned the light intensity up from 25% to about 35% as the two dark devils were stretching more than the Skywalker OG and Lemon. The latter two are reaching for the sky so I don’t think they mind. I was hesitant to lower the light and will only increase intensity ever so slightly as needed. Really not much going on, per the protocol for this type of feeding I shouldn’t need to top dress until week 4 or 5. I have everything I need to brew a compost tea if any deficiencies pop up. For now all seems status quo. Thanks!

Fordsie The two dark devil ladies have stretched out a bit, the Skywalker and lemon are about the same size, but look like there’s a bit more space between nodes than I am accustomed to at this stage. I increased light intensity to 45% and plan to increase to 50% over the next few days, and will leave it there and only raise or lower as dictated by stage and growth. Despite the verticality of the dark devils, I’ve felt like these four girls were growing a little slow. However, these are new strains to me AND this is my first orgo run...so I’m trying to chill and give things a little time before I jump to any conclusions. Other than the light intensity change I have only been watering at a pH of 6.5. I’ve got so used to being super interactive with my bottle nute grows that I feel like I should be doing more...but nope...it’s about as simple as simple gets. Im certainly not complaining, but the approach of not having to do very much is wreaking havoc on my psyche. I’m looking forward to week 3, that’s the time I start to plan out my LST strategy. Until then, will be on cruise control. ***UPDATE*** 3/8 - I decided to give the girls a compost tea. I did not incorporate a lot of bloom based additives and catered it towards the veg end of things. I used 3 gallons of distilled water and mixed in 2 tbsp unsulphured molasses as my catalyst/base solution. I put 1 cup worm castings, 1 tbsp kelp meal, 1 tbsp alfalfa meal, and 1 tbsp bone meal in a cheesecloth bag, gave it a shake and submerged in molasses solution. I added two air stones to aerate mix, covered the container and left it in the dark for 24 hours. I gave each girl a liter or so each...and now I wait. Next time I won’t make so much when they are this little.

Fordsie These girls responded really great to the compost tea from several days ago. Things were kind of just piddling along, I gave the tea, and freaking boom...insta-growth! I’m not sure how often I should be providing compost teas, I already planned on one right at flower, which at this point is about 2 or so weeks out, total educated guess, but who knows really. I am seeing pistils on all 4 ladies at this point. The two dark devils showed them first, and then the lemon and Skywalker showed them a couple days after that. Good to know, not that I had any doubts. I started LST today and Have continued to slowly increase light intensity and have worked my way up to 55%, which I feel is really skirting on the edge at this time of their growth, but I think they can handle it, again I’ve seen some good growth in a short period so I feel all are healthy and strong enough for a few added stressors. For now it’s keep at the LST, water when dry, and watch for any changes indicating they are getting hungry. Case and point the lemon has some very slightly chlorotic tips...keeping a watchful eye on that one.

Fordsie Good day all! Happy belated St. Patty’s Day! The girls have really beefed up, I’m feeling less stressed about how slow things were moving along. Those feelings have been nipped in the bud...pun intended. All are in transition, a few slightly further along due to shorter grow times, and all are doing outstanding. The Skywalker by far is the healthiest. The fan leaves are monstrous and she’s super squat which I prefer due to my low ceiling tents. I did a little selective pruning and another round of LST. She’s looking fabulous. The lemon is growing like crazy, but has some light burn. She’s the second tallest and both her and the tallest have a little light stress. She also got a little pruning and more LST. Other than looking sad with the chlorosis on tips, she’s growing as if nothing was wrong. The red devil #1 is also relatively squat and bushing out nicely. This girl, and #2, are a little further along and have the most pistils and pre-flower development. She got a selective trimming to expose blocked buds sites and LST was continued. Red devil #2 is the tallest in the group. Despite what I thought was moderate LST in the beginning was clearly not enough and this not so little lady is definitely playing center guard! She doesn’t have an over abundance of foliage so I only removed a leaf or two, and I applied a bit more stress to try and bring her height a little more under control. All in all, I got to say that going orgo has been pretty easy up to this point. I continue to water at a pH of 6.5, I did raise lights due too light stress on 2 of the 4. All are in transition, and I expect to apply another compost tea that’s 50/50 for veg/flower...then I’ll brew a predominantly flower catered tea there on in. 3/21 update: Both dark devils were very looking very slightly hungry, and given it’ll take several days for slow release to kick in, I applied first top dress for all. 2 tbsp all purpose 2 tbsp power bloom 2 tbsp worm castings I lightly mixed into top of medium and watered with 1.5 L of 6.5 pH’d water. I plan on making first bloom based compost tea sometime in week 5, and will do a little math working backwards bared on breeder grow times to calculate last top feed to be about 3-4 weeks out from harvest so it’s all used up...no flushing with orgo.

Fordsie What a difference a week makes eh? I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they likes that recent top dress. All are in early flower...noticing a stark difference between 2 dark devils; color, height, structure, and development. But...I am LOVING the purple/red hues coming through...really BA! Lemon and Skywalker are coming along just fine, lots of bud sites, quite bushy, responding very well to very light pruning, con’t LST and feeding. These girls need to be moved over to the flower tent as soon as zkittlez is done in about a week or so. I think it’s time for a third tent like real soon! I’ll be brewing a bloom based compost tea mid-week given how fast these ladies transitioned. Their P-K needs are going to be ramping up pretty soon. Tentative plan moving forward: 6.5 pH’d water when dry, feed with a bloom tea in next 3-5 days, then 30/70 veg to bloom top dress in about 2-3 weeks. I may change based on plants development, this is just a rough look ahead...I’m bearing in mind that I should stop all feeding at least 3 weeks from their finish line.

Fordsie I moved the girls over to the flower tent...little behind in getting them over there. Current flower set up occupants were taking longer than anticipated. I ended up swapping them out. They have responded incredibly to the last compost tea and all have absolutely exploded with growth and bud development. I have zero complaints, and knock on wood, no major issues to note. From what I understand you can repeat compost teas fairly frequently, but I don’t want to push my luck. Thus far I have been pleasantly surprised with how well things have gone with my first organic run. If yields are similar to my bottle nute runs (fingers crossed it’s better) then I anticipate a significant change in my tactics moving forward. As I stated before I’ll likely give all another compost tea in the next week or so. I’ll possibly top dress the lemon and Skywalker OG one more time...but I’m playing by ear. These ladies are looking pretty dang sweet right now, I can’t believe this is working as good as it is. I’m beyond stoked. Thanks for checking things out!

Fordsie Ladies are doing great. Minor leaf drop here and there, overall doing pretty well. I ended up given each just one tsp of Gaia green bloom. I’ll be cutting it close with the dark devils, meaning hopefully they use up reserves of time release by harvest time. The Skywalker and lemon go a bit longer and I’m not as concerned. I also gave the ladies another bloom catered compost tea, they really love that brew! One thing I did after making the tea was to spread out the contents of the brew bag on the top of each pot. I will not be doing this again as it has formed a crust at the top that I’m worried about. One it could be locking up nutes in the mass of mud that’s adhered to medium. Secondly, I’ve have to gently break it up for every subsequent watering...I really don’t like messing with the uppermost root structure. I don’t think it’s doing much harm, but, it is a form of stress that the plants need to divert resources towards...that’s less for bud development! All in all, things are going great. The dark devils will be getting water here on in, possibly one last compost tea, but they are going to be wrapping up in just a few weeks...they are some beautiful flowers right now! Can’t wait to see all that dark red and black coloration! The Skywalker and lemon and shuttling along nicely, they will likely get another tea before all is set and done. Getting closer and closer!!!

Fordsie Late to update for week 8...life sometimes has alternate plans that it forgets to clue you in on until, well...it happens! Going off my notes and memory, week seven was pretty uneventful. No major issues or changes made. I did increase lights to 95% because I felt that the ladies could handle it. I have yet to put my lights on max...a question I will propose with week 9 update is regarding light intensity. Dark devils are the largest this far, and I assume that will not change. Skywalker smells amazing...I’m am definitely running this again soon. Lemon seems to have stopped fattening up. Pistils are browning, trichs are getting cloudy, but the buds are really small. The Skywalker is small too. More on week 9 shortly.

Fordsie Week 9 has been uneventful. I gave one last compost tea and have been watering only in anticipation of the approaching harvest(s). I will say that other than the sparseness in buds on dark devils, they still continue to look the best in my opinion. It’s getting close to max end of breeder harvest date, but those trichs are not amber and still a bunch of clear ones. The foliage and pistils are saying a different story...so I’m watching them trichs intently! The Skywalker has the greatest smell I have had to date. The buds are a bit piddly, but they look beautiful and I just can’t get over that smell...wow wow wow, I freaking love it! That being said can anyone chime in on why the buds are so small? Is it because this is an organic run? Maybe I didn’t feed and supplement enough? The lemon continues to ripen, but man are those some teeny buds, there is zero smell, and the trichs are on the very low end. I must be doing something wrong... again it’s my first orgo run...I think I have some major tweaking to do for sure. Thanks all. 4/27 update: The Skywalker was moved into darkness for 24 hr starting today. I have been checking trichs everyday, more so for the dark devils, but all got a once over, and there are ambers popping up on the Skywalker. Real bummer, I was hoping she’d fatten up but no dice. I can’t push her any longer, it’s time. Oddly, the dark devils still have no ambers...🤔

Fordsie The lemon auto finally showed amber trichs, so into the darkness she goes. Pretty small buds, not many trichs, small is almost non-existent. I was so excited to do an organic run, and I am by no means scathed, BUT, the small buds are a manifestation of a critical flaw in my method. Next run will be like night and day. See y’all next update.

Fordsie She grew really fast and had tons of bud sites. Once a few weeks into flower the buds just stopped growing. Everything was miniaturized. The smell and look of this strain is straight tens across the board. I will absolutely grow again, and soon. After doing a little digging and getting the community to Opine on the matter, I think I gave too much N and not enough P and K. Next time I will correct this snafu. I’m really bummed at the small harvest, but what I did get is absolutely exquisite! I highly recommend Skywalker OG from Barney’s Farm. Simply amazing.

Fordsie Typically I look at an assortment of trichs across the canopy of a plant as part of my harvest check. The trichs were only partially cloudy with a few still clear in week 9. Bear in mind that this is a super fast auto at 8-8 1/2 weeks from seed! I finally looked at trichs in lower buds and there was a fare amount of ambers so down the girls came. There was a pretty strong smell of coffee when wet trimming these girls, it was pretty wild, and I really dig that about this strain. It have off so many different smells from coffee to chocolate to even hints of fuel. Really cool. It was a super fun strain to grow, and I can only imagine how awesome it could have been had I not run into some development issues surrounding N content. Lessons learned to be applied in next round. In short, absolutely gorgeous plant...crazy dar colors, pitch black stems and leaves. this one is going on my personal top 3 favorites.

Fordsie Sad little lady...she tried hard. I’ll take 95% of the blame...but the genetics of this one just isn’t quite there. I have had other plants that I did not do so great with that still were amazing producers, this is the little engine that couldn’t. It is what it is. I’ll def give another do, more for redemption, but my first attempt at this one was a bit of a let down.