Cerdito's Soil Autocheese Closet Grow

[Cerdito]

Really?! I had looked at other peopleš pictures of Phosphorous def, and wondered that to start with, but had dismissed that. That more likely than the Mg lockout?

Phosphorous? I guess the best source of that would be some ash? Oh dear, scary ph messing time without a test kit!

Thanks very much for that, I will see what I can do - itš a pity I only watered them last night.

 

[Cerdito]

Oh - and i haven't atually used any of that fertliser - so there is no added phos at all! I got scared of burning them and decided to stick to compost water/

It is a pity we dont use animal products, so we can't just pick up some bone meal.

Would it be possible to mash some bananas and mix them with water to water the plants - or is this asking for mould and fungus? Or call a friend and ask for some old chicken poop maybe? Although that is nitrogen high too.

Oh dear, its not as easy as throwing a plant in the ground and hoping for the best.


x

 

[Cerdito]

So.....I'm running around the house looking for ways I can boost the potassium in the soil - I've put a tiny tiny bit of ash water in (don't want to cause a ph problem.

Baring in mind I live miles from anywhere and there are about 2 feet of snow now - so buying something is not an option.

I have a banana, could I soak this in water and give them a foliar feed to stop the rot briefly before I can get a better solution? Over the last hour or so, the process has moved up to the top level of leaves/

Sorry for the repeated posting, I am panicking because we have invested so much in this grow and it all seems to be going up in smoke before we have a chance to smoke it.

xx

 

[Cerdito]

Well....fourth post in a row - hey everybody, check out the crazy woman.

Well....again...I may have just opened myself up for problems further along the line, but in the absence of any better ideas and plants that get sadder looking by the hour, I have just made myself some tea.

It has in it;

4 Banana skins and a banana, mashed up - good source of k
A handful of potato peelings - ditto
An avacado peel - ditto
4 Egg shells, crushed - just because I thoght while I was making, may as well get some Calcium and Manganese.
A teaspoon of honey - for some energy and bacteria fighting.
A handul of ash for k

This was all boiled together and mashed continually then let to sit and steep for a bit.
I $understand that I am both inviting mould at a later date (but I have a low humidity and there are only thirty something days to go.)
and I am risking playing with the ph - but I have a clear and present problem now - so I need to deal with that and then worry about the others later.

What do you think?

It will be a miracle if I get anything off these little ladies at this rate - they've only had 3 hours of light today, and now I've fed them this cocktail.

xx

 

[danklover79]

I hope you can correct the problem with that concoction you made, there are others who use nothing but organic materials to feed. It definitely looks to be a P deficiency but not as bad as I've seen, you can still fix it, just don't panic.

 

[Cerdito]

Hehe, thanks, panicking is over, stopped running around in circles now. Hopefuly over lights out they will perk up a bit - fingers crossed anyway.

Looking on the net there are far worse deficiecies - obviously being an Auto it is going to hit them hard because they don't have the time, but toes crossed too.

Bud formation is going ok though

Thank x

 

[Dresney]

Heya, just wanted to point out that Rico suggested a Phosphorous (P) issue - not a potassium (K) issue.

I'm not saying that it is either one or none or all, but I think you guys are thinking two different things?

 

[Cerdito]

Oh dear, well, they have their banana water now, I'm sure it hasn't done any harm. lol

Time to open cupboard soon, hopefully theyll be ok.

I'm a depressed gardener.

xx

 

[Dresney]

Aww, I would give you a hug if I could.

Actually I'm reading that banana peels are a good source of phosphorous, so maybe you did the right thing anyway. (Gosh, I need to study this stuff more. 42% K, 3.25% P in dried banana peels)

This article also says soy husks, many grains and nuts (especially Brazil nuts), pumpkin and squash seeds and many different beans can be a good source too. All that aside, I don't know that these won't have other things in them that you don't want in your plant.

But I'm also reading that compost is usually very high in phosphorous, enough so that it can be an over-abundance. I need to stop reading.

 

[Richard Richardson]

I say phosphorus, you say potassium.

potphorus, phosassium....

 

[SweetLeef]

Sweetleaf likes the awful damage!?!?!?!

And i thought you were a nice, sweet, leaf.

Tut.

xx

I meant it in a supportive way, I don't like that your plant is sick, There are some great growers on here, I am sure we'll get it all sorted out. Keep ya head up Cerdito!

 

[duckydank420]

Kinda comming into this at a late point, but what kind of drainage do you have on those pots??

 

[Cerdito]

Good Morning 420!

Thanks for your input yesterday.

I may be very stupid - (I get potassium and phosphorous mixed - it was my bad translation in my head!) But, whatever I did - there were no more leaf dying in the night, and the flowers started to grow again nicely. The leaves that were worst affected are pretty much falling off like I put a lighter to them - but they are mostly the early leaves, and not much on the later growth.

What with 3 hours of daylight yesterday, all kinds of badness going on, I think they did quite well. I will photo update later.

Hopefuly I can get to town at some point this week and pick up some melasses.

Thanks for the hug Dresney, I needed it yesterday.

As for drainage, there are lots of holes punched in the bottom of the containers, and I water them stood on planks, so it runs through nicely into saucers. I don't think any of my pics show how they are watered, but I will do them later to show. My first posts show the holes though.

thanks all, happy growing today

xxx

 

[Dresney]

You are most certainly NOT very stupid - don't say that about yourself!

I hope your banana concoction did the trick.

Looking forward to the pics today.

I have BSG on in the background!

 

[Cerdito]

Hey hey, Thanks Dresney REally glad your plants are working happily along.

No pics yesterday because no electricity to take them with - this grow is turning into a comedy of errors.

They are still alive, because they are a wonderful weed, but they must be feeling very angry with me.

In another twist in the comedy of errors - the shop that sells melasses rang me this morning, with a quote (the manager wasn't there when I went - she is back now) and I can buy some for the equivalent of 11 Euro - but the catch is - the smallest amount they can sell is 30 litres!! They come in sealed containers and they can't go smaller than that. That would last me quite a while - just got to figure out how I would get that back from town!

Another plot line in the tragedy - I bought a ph metre from online, because I couldn't find anywhere locally - so I had to take the stupid postage costs to my country (this is why I don't have proper nutes or anything - they charge more than the nute price to deliever) It arrived, but it didn't work. It has a built in light metre, and that tells me my grow room is bright and the night is dark but the ph metre doesn't move a milimetre when i put it in my soil - or in a lemon, or in a glass of milk - they are all precisely nuetral ph. So to test it I squeezed the lemon in my eye and it seemed fairly acidic - it was not the lemon - it was the measurer.

The company I bought it off then said I would have to pay for postage to send it back, (13 euro) then pay twenty euros an hour for having it tested (non-refunable) all on something that cost less than 20 euros itself! So I have a stick that tells me my lights are light, and I am stuck with it.

I have ordered another one from a different company coming - until then I am wishing on a star.

The leaves have temporarily stopped their browning I think. Pics on their way. Poor poor plantlets.

xx

 

[Cerdito]

I can't feed any more, because they are watered as much as they can be - the room is full of bowls of water to get the humidity up, their temperature is perfect, the wind is blowing gently around them, the light is lovely hight to give them lots of beautiful energy - all I can do now is cross my fingers and toes and hope they have a will to live and grow me at least a handful of nice buds

You can see how many lower leaves Zānē lost so quickly, she looks a bit naked down below. Which is obviously not good for her photosynthesising. Can't believe how fast it went. Līja made it through a bit less damaged. We are exactly on one month today - now nearly half way with only the one major drama. With the help of the lovely 420 people, maybe I can gently get them through the next month.

Līja

And, I keep forgetting to post this pic - Līja has 6 leaves like this, with only four fingers.

Now Zānē

So all in all, despite set backs, we seem to be doing ok.

thanks all! Hope you like the new pics, despite some level of plant abuse in them.

xx

(PS - some plants were harmed in the making of this journal)

 

[Cerdito]

Off on a random tangent - Christmas is coming, and we are going to have a little more money to play with, so for the next run we are going to do things slightly more properly.

We are going to get some weed specific soil and nutrients.

It is just proving a little bit difficult because of our location - there is nothing in between here and Holland it seems for grow shops. And I am definitely not using hydroponics.eu (they busted our light diffuser, and said we couldn't send it back without paying for it, forgot to put in the pots we had paid for, then sent a broken ph metre.)

Does anyone know of a European shop that they could recommend? Growell do not ship to continental Europe, which is a pity, because I trust them.

And what would peoples choices be if they were to pick a soil and nutrient package to see some autos through a full life with the minimum fuss and maximum ease? I was thinking Biobizz full mix soil, and their grow nutrient, bloom nutrient, and algae supplement would be one of the cheaper better ways to get enough to ensure our next run is happier than this run.

It seems crazy to spend even more on this - but because we have invested the light and fan and stuff money already, we are half way across the river - to stop now would make no sense! This can be a learning experience, so the next run (which is Northern lights auto) is easier and better. (Found our homemade approach causes problems!)

Thanks, what do you think

xx?

 

[dutch dragon]

Hi Credito,
I use "de sjop" for my online grow equipment, discrete packaging and good prices. They are based in Eindhoven and do European delivery. Service is excellent as it is a small family business. Eeeeeebay is also good, but it's always a bit of a gamble as to the quality of what your getting, the pictures always look better than the actual products.
It sounds like a super plan to go with cannabis specific soil and nutrients. I personally don't have much experience with nutrients as I'm fully organic, but I would love to try POWDER FEEDING. It is extremely simple to use and is great value. Powder Feeding - Keep it Simple!. It is the nutrients used by Greenhouse Seeds in their breeding grows.
Be aware that cannabis specific soils come in many flavours, when using nutrients your gonna want to get a light mix. Pro mix has already got a lot of nutrients added.
I personally use plagron batmix and fertilize with pure bat guano and raw sugar. Very cheap. Got a 5kg bucket of bat guano for 20euro and it will probably last me 10 years.
Plagron also do a royal mix which has everything needed for the whole grow cycle, so no nutrients needed.
As for the ph meter, the only accurate ones cost more than 75 euro, so if it was a cheap one, don't worry too much. I got one I never use. Ph is more important for hydroponic growers as the soil buffers the ph nicely. Its still useful to see if your light is giving off any light, just incase your eyes don't work or something I'm sure.
You mentioned the biobizz full mix soil. That sounds like you won't need nutes. Check out the full product details, it could save you a packet.
Glad you've calmed down and the girls are happier. Lets hope there's no more drama. See yuh.

 

[Cerdito]

Thanks Dutch for that really useful info - it is strange you should say that then - because I was just looking online for a shop that will send Plagron Batmix here!

I know it can be grown in anything - but I have seen my regular home soil gives problems which I don't want, so I am looking to spend a bit more on the second round of growing - still hoping for results from Līja and Zānē, but I will be planting round two at the end of this month - and I hope I am learning from round one!

I was thinking, Plagron Batmix, some worm castings, and bat guano to fertilise with molasses (as I will have 30 litres of the stuff soon!)

The Royal mix sounds interesting, but many people on the internet are saying it is too hot and they had burning problems, so I was preferring the sound of batmix, and it looks like it gives you good results.

I want minimum trouble, maximum results - (and next run is seeds I paid for - not free ones - so I want all problems as much ironed out as possible! I am confident that my environment is nicely sorted now, which is good. Just need growing mediam sorted.

I will check out that page thanks, and hope they post over to the East.

Thank xxx

 

[Cerdito]

Looks like a good site, bbut unfortunately no English button, so limited to ones that speak English I am afraid.

Would you say the batmix with bat guano is about as foolproof as it gets? - because something needs to be foolproof if it is going to beat this fool! Surely anyone can nurture a bunch of autos to adulthood in it?

lol (at myself.)

xx