AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

SweetSue said:
I see you answered the question. :cheesygrinsmiley: Well done AKgramma. I have yet to reveg anything. I'm thinking of trying with the hempy Carnival, moved into a larger pot, possibly.

When you reveg, what lighting schedule so you use?

I see you have three AK47 x Durbin Poisin. May I ask what about that one makes it appealing enough that you started three at once?
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18/6

You gave me 5 seeds. These were the three that sprouted. You had a lot to say about DP in your journals, so am anxious to see how the family likes the combination, compared to the AK 48 (which is crossed with a female Ice). Also, the name sounds WICKEDLY potent!

I figure, depending on what genders I get, I can propagate via breeding, revegging, cloning.
 
Sue: more on revegging, altho this is just my first successful try: It worked when I simply plucked out the buds at harvest to include JUST the sugar leaves covered with trics.

Leave all the leaves and mini buds (you can harvest them later once revegging starts and they start to grow out).

Put it under 18/6, water it well once (no nutes yet) and let her do her thing. Once growth starts, you can feed her with lower-strength nutes, till she is going strong.

Mine started to reveg in a few days, even with the mini-buds left on.
 
Welcome, Radogast! It's faster to check my gallery to see the entire journal. Most recent is first.

There are some DIY ideas, cause I grow cheap. Mostly used in the beginning, and abandoned as I upgraded a bit. Lots of experiments, some successful, some failures, but gradually leading to better harvests.

This batch I'm striving for fewer strains, no mini-buds, and larger, smokable buds. So I'm going to mainline until I run out of room.

God help me if all the cuttings I took take root! I'll be giving most of them away, for lack of room to grow all of them out!

Those two that revegged will give me a couple months head start on the next switch to 12/12, so I wont have so many in flower at the same time. It's better if one can string them out: seedlings, clones, vegging and flower. But nature has it's own way of sabotaging our best-laid plans.

Seedlings are growing fast, and I figure I will up-pot them in a couple or 3 weeks to their final bins. I have found that for my grow, the most economical, without crowding the roots, is the use of tall 3 gallon trash bins (17" tall). Even my Autos never got rootbound by the time they were ready for harvest.

The bins are ready with rejuvenated soil, and the soil will continue to "cook" for another couple weeks, while the seedlings grow up a bit.
 
Pardon the banter from such old posts... catching up.

AKgramma said:
I had just the opposite experience with soil-less vs soil. My hempy experiment gave me plants 1/3 smaller. But I do have to admit, I couldn't quite get the hang of the watering/feeding schedule.
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Try another with the Osmo+ nutrient regime... no nutes to futz with... just CalMag and PH adjustment.


I think I can mainline in those bins.
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I like the idea of mainlining in a rectangular shape. You might even want to offset the location of the plant to one side so that you have lots of room to bend and tie her down.


I got spoiled growing Autos
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I've been discovering the joys of Autos lately. Never tried them before. LUV them!


Digging your re-veg's. Great job. I try to avoid reveging... it's just messy. Did it with 2 recently tho.... sometimes ya just gotta.
 
AKgramma said:
Welcome, Radogast! It's faster to check my gallery to see the entire journal. Most recent is first.

There are some DIY ideas, cause I grow cheap. Mostly used in the beginning, and abandoned as I upgraded a bit. Lots of experiments, some successful, some failures, but gradually leading to better harvests.

This batch I'm striving for fewer strains, no mini-buds, and larger, smokable buds. So I'm going to mainline until I run out of room.

God help me if all the cuttings I took take root! I'll be giving most of them away, for lack of room to grow all of them out!

Those two that revegged will give me a couple months head start on the next switch to 12/12, so I wont have so many in flower at the same time. It's better if one can string them out: seedlings, clones, vegging and flower. But nature has it's own way of sabotaging our best-laid plans.

Seedlings are growing fast, and I figure I will up-pot them in a couple or 3 weeks to their final bins. I have found that for my grow, the most economical, without crowding the roots, is the use of tall 3 gallon trash bins (17" tall). Even my Autos never got rootbound by the time they were ready for harvest.

The bins are ready with rejuvenated soil, and the soil will continue to "cook" for another couple weeks, while the seedlings grow up a bit.
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I noticed Hempy. I noticed the Rev Tead lurking. I saw the 2 gallon kitty liter didn't work (I grew in 3-gal? kitty litter pots with some success, but they weren't big girls.)


The 3-gal 17" tall trash bin pots is a good size for autos and bottled nutes plants up to 3.5-4' tall. You could probably grow a 6' girl in perlite in one.


I'm not sure 3-gal is enough for soil of the type where you are 'cooking' the soil and trying to get a living soil nutrition thing going. Doc Bud is adamant about a 7-gal minimum pot size for his version. If I remember right BoBrown14 considers 7-10 gallon a minimum size. I'm not sure a soil food web is a sustainable thing in a 3-gal container. Then again, I didn't catch how you are feeding your plants these days.


Anyway, I'm not here to pretend I have pearls of wisdom to spread, just settling in to watch another person grow an say hello. Plus AK47 XTRM is my favorite smoke so far this month so AKGramma had a good sound - I had been reading it as" AK Gamma" - radiation - ick :)
 
Radogast: All my used soil gets dumped into a 30 gallon rubbermaid tote for remixing and "cookiing." Then I use that soil to plant the ladies in the bins.

What is in the 3 gallon bins has already cooked a month or two. But the bins have to wait a few for the babies to get bigger. So that is extra cooking time. That is what I meant.

I havent gotten to the point of actually composting. But I cut up the roots and add more MYKOS to the mix. My live "critters" are just microbes. ;-)
 
Tead: In my previous grows, I offset the plant to allow for staggered placement in the shelves. But This time I want to create a symmetrical scaffold, like the mainlining pics show. So they will be planted centered.

Rodogast: yes, I went to the Tead Church of Hempy for a while, but I backslide terribly and got excommunicated! :laughtwo:
 
AKgramma said:
Radogast: All my used soil gets dumped into a 30 gallon rubbermaid tote for remixing and "cookiing." Then I use that soil to plant the ladies in the bins.

What is in the 3 gallon bins has already cooked a month or two. But the bins have to wait a few for the babies to get bigger. So that is extra cooking time. That is what I meant.

I havent gotten to the point of actually composting. But I cut up the roots and add more MYKOS to the mix. My live "critters" are just microbes. ;-)
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Thanks. That's about what I thought you were doing.

I have never gotten into composting. I've recycled for 50 years, but composting always seemed kind of fussy to me. Outside in the garden, my clover and grasses just lay where they fall and the worms find them. In the basement 420 garden, I keep a big bowl for leaves and stems. When the bowl gets to looking full, I dump them in the worm bin and the worms eat them up. I don't get a lot of worm castings, but I'm not running gallon baggies of leaves down the garbage disposal or dumping them in the trash - less stuff for the curious to see :)
 
I up potted the seedlings. They were darn near root-bound at just 21 days! Here is a look aorund the veg tent.

First the revegging: AK 48 first, then Arjan's haze. They are taking well to the stripping I had to do to form the mainline scaffolding. The tips are growing well in the right directions.

AK48_Reveg.JPG


Arjan_s_Haze_reveg.JPG


Now the babies at 21 days from emerging out of the soil.

The White Castles

White_Castles_21_days.JPG


The AK 47 x Durbin Poisons

AK48_s_21_days_old.JPG


AK_47_x_Durbin_Poison.JPG


This is the entire grow. It looks small now, but at maturity, I'll be using both shelving units.
 
Hey AK, I like those pots, what are those like little trash cans?

Was reading up and noticed you saying you recycle your soil by putting mykos in it? I'd be real interested to know more, I have some mykos and a tote and a budget that doesn't make sense to throw dirt away on lol
 
TF: Thanks for asking!

I went with 3 gallon tall kitchen trash bins to give the roots some depth, esp with autos. And they take up very little floorspace. If you have 17" spare headroom, you can use trash bins instead of pots. Bins come in all sizes, so you choose what you have the headroom for.

Once I break up the used soil and roots in my 30 gallon tote, I add MYKOS to generate a fresh bacteria load, worm castings, some kind of kelp (liquid or dry, whatever I can find) and a good dose of all-purpose complete, organic fertilizer. Once mixed in well and covered, the soil will actually warm up as it matures, like true composting does.

My basic soil recipe is this, to which the above amendments are added:
1/3 coarse perlite
1/3 vermiculite
1/3 Black Gold potting soil for houseplants

It doesn't hurt to add sand to it, as well. The point is to make a well-draining organic mix that can be refreshed over and over again. MY soil doesnt have any actual worms in it. The only critters growing in it are microbes.

But the soil never stinks, because I'm not composting kitchen waste. It smells rich and loamy, and when I run my fingers through it, it feels light and doesn't clump.
 
AKgramma said:
TF: Thanks for asking!

I went with 3 gallon tall kitchen trash bins to give the roots some depth, esp with autos. And they take up very little floorspace. If you have 17" spare headroom, you can use trash bins instead of pots. Bins come in all sizes, so you choose what you have the headroom for.

Once I break up the used soil and roots in my 30 gallon tote, I add MYKOS to generate a fresh bacteria load, worm castings, some kind of kelp (liquid or dry, whatever I can find) and a good dose of all-purpose complete, organic fertilizer. Once mixed in well and covered, the soil will actually warm up as it matures, like true composting does.

My basic soil recipe is this, to which the above amendments are added:
1/3 coarse perlite
1/3 vermiculite
1/3 Black Gold potting soil for houseplants

It doesn't hurt to add sand to it, as well. The point is to make a well-draining organic mix that can be refreshed over and over again. MY soil doesnt have any actual worms in it. The only critters growing in it are microbes.

But the soil never stinks, because I'm not composting kitchen waste. It smells rich and loamy, and when I run my fingers through it, it feels light and doesn't clump.
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Thanks. I use to use Black Gold way back when I started. Well, it was their Natural and Organic mix, but close enough. I have just been wanting to look more into recycling soil so I'm not constantly throwing it away and buying more. Not good for the environment either. What is it about that which makes it cook, like the worm castings?

Is ash any good for a soil mix? I've had kind of a wild idea for a while about using some ashes...
 
TheFertilizer said:
Thanks. I use to use Black Gold way back when I started. Well, it was their Natural and Organic mix, but close enough. I have just been wanting to look more into recycling soil so I'm not constantly throwing it away and buying more. Not good for the environment either. What is it about that which makes it cook, like the worm castings?

Is ash any good for a soil mix? I've had kind of a wild idea for a while about using some ashes...
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The problem with ash, and every other soil amendment, is the right amount is good when you need it and can be bad when you don't need it. The only way to really know if you need it is to have your soil tested. Too much compost can even be too much and affect the quality of your grow. I top dressed with too much worm castings last month, it isn't causing nutritional problems but the water takes a long time to soak in.

I am suggesting that if you follow your wild ideas, do them in small doses :)

I encourage you to recycle your soil for 3-4 grows. Not only is it environmentally responsible, but the 2nd and 3rd grow can come out better than the first grow.
 
Good morning AK :-)
Hope your having a pleasant weekend and enjoying family. Your girls are looking awesome as usually the case ;-). Not to much going on here, keeping things easy and avoiding the crowds by staying close to home. Had some snow friday that stuck until mid day ( global warming my ass) and so far this weekends weather hasn't been very nice up this way. Hope you guys are getting the good weather down your way so you can enjoy the holiday weekend.

Blessed Buds our friend and be well :passitleft:
 
Arctic Bowl said:
Good morning AK :-)
Hope your having a pleasant weekend and enjoying family. Your girls are looking awesome as usually the case ;-). Not to much going on here, keeping things easy and avoiding the crowds by staying close to home. Had some snow friday that stuck until mid day ( global warming my ass) and so far this weekends weather hasn't been very nice up this way. Hope you guys are getting the good weather down your way so you can enjoy the holiday weekend.

Blessed Buds our friend and be well :passitleft:
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Good morning Arctic. :hugs: I had to interject. People erroneously equate global warming to mean we'll heat up to unbearable temps. Not the concern. What is the concern is that with those rising temperatures the Gulf Stream slows down. Once it hits a certain level the Stream stops and an ice age ensues. That can switch in as little as two years.

It's a vibrant, living planet, and we've only been here for a blink of the cosmic eye. We know nothing, and the ride is looking to get dynamic. :cheesygrinsmiley:


...... Sorry, I keep walking off with it.

:passitleft:
 
AKgramma said:
But the soil never stinks, because I'm not composting kitchen waste. It smells rich and loamy, and when I run my fingers through it, it feels light and doesn't clump.
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I love that feeling too. I'm always thinking about the next beauty that'll grow in the new soil. Continuity. :battingeyelashes:
 
TF: Cannabis prefers its soil on the acidic side, 6.0 - 6.5. Ashes are not recommended for indoor grows, because the minerals build up in the pot and reduce yields, or outright kill tender houseplants. Your tap water, if it leaves visible mineral deposits on your fixtures, is alkaline enough on its own.

If your outdoor soil is acidic, like you live near standing water where there is lots of rotting vegetation, an application of ash will help bring the PH closer to 7.0, which is neutral.

AB: Our weekend is going to be overcast with periods of light rain. The temps are a bout 10 degrees below normal.

Sue: I agree with you about global warming. We humans are led to think it is our fault the earth's temps are rising, when the fact is that we are traveling through a warmer part of our galaxy. It takes our solar system 230 million years to complete one orbit around the galaxy. We cannot help but pass through warmer and cooler parts of the galaxy. Then the sun itself has a warm/cool cycle of 11 years, as regular as a living being breathing. Both factors affect the dynamics of our planet. Draw your own conclusions.

Yes, we can reduce our carbon footprint, but cores from ancient tree rings show periodic changes in temperature long before we started polluting the air we breathe. The geological record shows periods of temperature change, some of which led to the extinction of hundreds of species, long before humans were a factor in earth's ecosystem. Draw your own conclusions.

So, since we can't DO anything about galactic forces, we turn to nurturing our favorite plant, which has been with us mere humans for thousands of years. That, at least, we have some control of. :Namaste:
 
Radogast said:
The problem with ash, and every other soil amendment, is the right amount is good when you need it and can be bad when you don't need it. The only way to really know if you need it is to have your soil tested. Too much compost can even be too much and affect the quality of your grow. I top dressed with too much worm castings last month, it isn't causing nutritional problems but the water takes a long time to soak in.

I am suggesting that if you follow your wild ideas, do them in small doses :)

I encourage you to recycle your soil for 3-4 grows. Not only is it environmentally responsible, but the 2nd and 3rd grow can come out better than the first grow.
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Yeah I tried recycling my Happy Frog through 3 cycles and on the 3rd cycle something went really wrong and screwed up my whole crop, so now I'm kind of nervous about reusing it and wanna figure out how to recondition it.

I was pretty sure the ashes wouldn't be a great idea.
 
TheFertilizer said:
Yeah I tried recycling my Happy Frog through 3 cycles and on the 3rd cycle something went really wrong and screwed up my whole crop, so now I'm kind of nervous about reusing it and wanna figure out how to recondition it.

I was pretty sure the ashes wouldn't be a great idea.
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Maybe too heavy on the nutes? Usually a good flush will wash out the built-up salts in the potted plants. Then, when you plant don't add any nutes till your ladies start showing that they need something.

If the soil got heavy and stayed soggy, add coarse perlite, vermiculite, or sand to lighten it up. At least 1/3. I am pretty sure after 3 uses, the Happy Frog is no longer Happy Frog, but something entirely different. So you can't lose anything by trying to remix it.
 
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