Cottage 420's Organic Perpetual Indoor Garden

bobrown14

bobrown14

Well-Known Member
Grow Journal of the Month
December 2017 Photo of the Month
May 2020
Ok kids this is my 2015 grow #1. This run we started from seeds. We are growing all organic so I thought that it would be time to support our organic seed producers so we went with a pack of 10 regular Krystalica seeds from Mandala and I threw in a few freebies with the Sleestack + Skunk #1. Also when trimming my last grow there were 3 seeds that came off one of the side buds that hermied at the very end of the grow. I found the 3 seeds when I was trimming buds prior to going into jars for curing, they looked very young and not viable so I threw them in one of the pots I transplanted the seedlings into and at least one has popped. So my last unknown strain that turned into some type of purple sweetness is still alive - which I'm very happy about. Anyway on to the grow.

What strain is it?
Kristalica from Mandala - 10 regular beans
SleeSkunk - 2 seeds
Purple SB (purple seedbag) Purple OG (can I call it that??) from last grow hermie seed sot it should be a girl.

Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
Both are 75% Sativa hybrid
Purple ?? Mostly if not all Sativa

Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Seedlings now in VEG

If in Veg... For how long?
2 weeks

If in Flower stage... For how long?
Indoor or outdoor?
Indoor soil LOS - Living organic soil

If soil... what is in your mix?
LOS = Living Organic Soil - I make my own soil, this round I am recycling the soil from my last grow - just take out the old root ball knock most of the soil back into the pot and throw the old plant material back into my compost bin. I have about 150 litres of finished compost outside in a compost bin that we use for soil amendments and we also us it as an ingredient in our compost teas. This soil is completely sustainable and 100% recyclable re-usable, any plant waste goes back in the compost bin and soil retained for next grow.

We do amend soil with the following:
Alfalfa meal
neem seed meal
crab meal
Kelp meal
Great White mycorrhizai
EWC earth worm castings
compost from our garden compost bin
bird guano
coco fiber and pearlite left over from original soil mix
GRO-KASHI Garden Dregs is a specialty fertilizer based on ancient fermentation - new to this grow for me - I added that in the soil I started to grow for this run about a month ago in a large plastic bin closed and watered. It grows a type of fungi/mycelium that is beneficial for plant growth and health. The science behind this is that we create a beneficial organic soil that lives in a symbiotic relationship with the cannabis plant (or whatever veggies you want to grow in the soil medium).

What I do is re-use the old soils from last grow, add in the amendments put all of that in a large bin water and cover for 4-6 weeks and fill my containers for the new grow. Thats it pretty easy and each grow it gets easier and easier and most of all is sustainable, organic and healthy for me and my ladies.



If soil... What size pot?

5 to 7 gal pots

Size of light?
600w HID
700w LED MarsII
900w LED MarsII

Is it aircooled?
yes just a vent fan with a scrubber

Temp of Room/cab?
Grow room pretty steady at 75F

RH of Room/cab?
RH in winter is low ~30% this will increase as the ladies get bigger

PH of media or res?
I dont use meters - no need in LOS soil

Any Pests ?
Fungus gnats - controlling them with H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) spray kills on contact and beneficial nematodes in my compost tea. The gnats most likely come from my compost bin they are mostly just a nuisance. The H2O2 really knocks them out pretty much right away just have to get off my lazy ass and mix 1 part H2O2 with 4 parts RO water and spray. Kills adults and pupae on contact and is a benefit to the plants as well with extra oxygen.

How often are you watering?
When the soil dries out - water with compost teas and RO water no need to test PH!!

Type and strength of ferts used?
No "ferts"; my soil is alive with beneficial bacteria, mycelium and living organisms that live in a symbiotic relationship with the cannabis plants. Man made fertilizers kill off those beneficial biology, cost way too much $$ are not sustainable and quite frankly taste like crap. Once you taste organically grown cannabis you will understand, there's no comparo.

Pics to follow.....
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica / Sleestack x Skunk1

I got 100% germination rate from all the seeds started in the seedling dome. I put a heat mat under the dome. They've all been transplanted into clay pots. I like to use cay early on as I think clay breaths a little better and helps with plants that are very young.

All these plants doubled or tripled in size one day after my first compost tea feeding. Quite amazing actually!

Compost tea ingredients:
RO water
Kashi meal
kelp meal
alfalfa meal
compost
EWC
Great White
no BSM yet (black strap molasses) I wont use that for a few weeks waiting for plants to get larger more established)
nematodes (scanmask brand - for eating up fungus gnat larvae) just dropped a wee bit into the tea brew they will multiply are good for the soil and the plants. The nematodes will aerate soil, eat pests and turn waste (like worms do) into readily available nutrients for plant uptake. The nematodes are an extremely beneficial organism used to control pests, these can be used outside in our garden too - I NEVER use pesticides of any sort.


Some pics of the seedlings:

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Here's the seedling from the seeds off the hermie bud - 3 seeds one popped so far.I just dropped them in the soil at transplant.

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re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

Hey there GD ... cant wait till these girls start to perform. Right out of the gate the seedlings are vigorous and strong and growing FAST.

Update here:

Well I'm lazy so far with this grow but my girls are growing and are requiring more attention. So time to get off my ass quit smoking up all my last grow (not) and get the new girls in some proper containers. This weekend I will be transplanting into final 7 gal containers for most of them. So far all I've been doing this past week was water with compost tea without any molasses added. My next tea I'm going to start tomorrow will include BSM. There are lots of beneficial minerals in molasses that the girls really go to town on but I don't want to over do it so I started out without BSM for the first tea. Sugars can feed the wrong types of bacteria as well as the good ones so I wanted to get the girls off to a healthy happy start before getting serious with the ACT teas.

Tomorrow I will start another ACT tea and document ingredients with pics so if anyone wanting to get into using teas it should be very helpful. Its really very easy just organic ingredients and compost is all we need to grow TOP QUALITY greens of any sort but I will be focusing on my cana ladies here and sharing some of my experiences that I've learned with a lot of love and help from the great folks right here on 420mag!

Pics of HALF of my ladies - the other half of them are already in my grow room. These are in my basement where my wife will be growing our outdoor garden seedlings here in a few weeks.

So here we are WOW they are getting much larger - took off big time after giving them ACT teas.

First up is a pic of one of the hermi seeds that sprouted - I had 3 this looks to be the only viable one and it popped and is catching up - she's from a side bud from the last big girl from my last grow. Let that one go pretty long and she finally said thats it I'm going to seed at which time I chopped her down but I got a few seeds and this in the only one that made it. For a bag seed my last grow is fantastic now after a 30 day cure it's sweet like blueberry and gets me going... got a lot more friends all of a sudden! It's all good!

Lighting here are 2 T5 grow bulbs and a larger warm white CFL - good'nuf for seedlings but we are getting past that now. So time to get serious ... that didn't take long. Probably starting this grow I will be in perpetual mode, I think I will be able to sustain growing more and I love it, it's one of my passions and that is the secret ingredient. LOVE - it makes the world go round and my ladies dance... Yeah u right!

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re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

My ACT recipe for early VEG:

I'm going to document how I do my ACT with recipe and pictures.

First off my ACT consists of EWC (earth work castings) and my home made compost. Our compost has no animal fats or manure. Most folks will use some sort of manure in the compost bin but we had limited space so all we did was layer grass clippings (not much) leaves/paper and kitchen scraps. I've got a 30 gallon container of finished compost that we will use all winter to brew teas while we grow some more in another bin. In the spring our outdoor garden will get the rest of the compost spread thru out the garden.

Here's a picture of my shelf of "nutrients" from early 2014 - these are chemicals in a bottle labeled organic. We can do MUCH better and for a lot less $$ and do it sustainably. Everything we need to grow organic cannabis are in the soil already. All we have to do is take care of the soil, feed it and understand that it's a growing organism same as the plants and our plants live in a symbiotic relationship with the living organisms in the soil. Keep the soil happy and the soil will keep our plants healthy, happy and growing strong - no need for meters either or correcting PH nothing.

YUK - meters chemicals all un-nessesary

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Here's my shelf now - these are ingredients that we use in our compost teas - also called Airated Compost Tea or ACT for short. You can use lots of different ingredients as long as they promote the growth of the micro organisms in the tea and the soil. Chemical fertilizers actually kill off the beneficial organisms. When they do that your plants now depend on YOU to provide the plant with needed food instead of letting the plant live WITH the soil.

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Ok from left to right:

Buffalo loam - poop remember I didn't put any in my compost so I want some added to the tea.
Guano - bird or bat just some more poop (beneficial bacteria)
Kashi Meal - this will grow a specific type of mycelium in the soil once the tea is added - they live together with the cannabis plant and the cannabis roots communicate to the mycelium, roots give mycelium food and the mycelium feed the roots.
Great White mycorrhizae - additional fungi complimenting the Kashi Meal
EWC - earth worm castings - I use some bought and also have a lot of EWC in my compost as well - beneficial bacteria here


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2nd shelf:
Alfalfa meal - main ingredient for the tea - growth hormones the plants like to help them grow big and healthy - we all like big beautiful buds don't we? Try alfalfa meal next time - we put it in the soil too and dont be shy with this.
Kelp Meal - works with neem seed cake/neem meal to fight off disease and insects
White container has our compost from the compost bin outside (this is where you get insects from)
Neem seed meal - natural organic soil amendment and bug repellant.
Whats not in the picture - Scanmask beneficial nematodes - I add a little to every tea now since we brought in some fungus gnats with the compost. Easy fix - nematodes eat the gnat larvae and the adult gnats dont hurt the plants. Once the nematodes eat the larvae they poop out waste that is beneficial nutrients that will be available immediately to the plants roots!! Win win.. gnats be gone. If they come back which is doubtful just add some more to the next tea brew.


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Recipe for lack of a better term - its not at all scientific but I use some common sense with quantities here:

Buffalo loam - 2 table spoons or a handful
Guano - a few teaspoons or 3-4 pinches
Kashi Meal - 1 cup or 2 handfuls
Great white - 1 teaspoon
EWC - 1 cup or a big handful
Alfalfa Meal - 2 cups this is the main ingredient I use when plants are in VEG
Kelp Meal - 2 table spoons or a handful
Neem Seed meal - 2 table spoons or a handful
Compost - use as much as you want - a cup is good or 2 handfuls
Crab Meal (not in the pics) add in a cup or 2 handfuls

Organic Black Strap Molasses 1 heaping tablespoon for 3 gallons RO water - this is sugar to feed the organisms in the tea. This is not a requirement but I use it every other tea brew, too much can build up in the soil and grow harmful bacteria so a little goes a long way, your brew can work without the BSM. BSM brings a lot to the table in addition to carbs for plants and organisms there's lots of micro nutrients the plants and animals need to survive, it's good for people too, try it specially if you are drinking RO (reverse osmosis) water like we do.


Here's the pile of ingredients before adding to the tea brewer:

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RO water bubbling away - we need the bubbles to aerate and add oxygen to the tea, without air anaerobic bacteria (smells like shit) will dominate and they are harmful to you and your plants, when the tea is brewing you should smell it every so often and it should smell sweet and a little like the ocean and have a nice soil-ish scent as well nothing that smells like shit or we have a problem and the tea gets tossed in the outdoor garden.

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BSM - check out the label in the last pic - you get all kinds of goodness but be aware too much can be a bad thing.

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Here's a pic of the tea after about 5 hrs of bubbling - nice head of foam going, the foam tells me the beneficial bacteria are growing and the smell is very very nice! I will begin to water plants with this tea first thing in the AM less that 24 hrs after starting, there is a optimum time frame with this but we use it from one day thru to the 3rd day and toss after about 3 days - you will know when to toss as it will start to smell a little funky. We try and use it up in 3 days.

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re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

Here's our finished outdoor compost, we will use this up and start using compost from our new larger bin in the spring. It takes about 6 weeks to get soil from the bottom doors after starting the compost. This is a very good way to dispose of you table scraps (no animal fat tho), and turn it into soil you can grow plants with! I've been composting for 35 years now for our outdoor gardens and I cant believe why in the world I would have bought bottled "nutrients". I think I got brain washed by all the marketing and it took a good hard knock (thank you CO) to bring me back to reality regarding what really is ORGANIC. We have it going now, all my friends really like the smooth flavor of our last run which is 35 days in the jars and pretty much finished and ready for smoking! woohoo



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re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

Subbed. It's refreshing to follow another LOS grow.

So you bubble for 24 hours, use part but leave the rest bubbling for up to three days? Are you adding the myco this tea only? That's one serious tea you have going there bb.
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

Sweetsue said:
Subbed. It's refreshing to follow another LOS grow.

So you bubble for 24 hours, use part but leave the rest bubbling for up to three days? Are you adding the myco this tea only? That's one serious tea you have going there bb.
Click to expand...

Welcome for the journey SS I'm watching and reading your grow as well.

I use the myco every time just a tad (pinch or 2) tho it will grow and yes I bubble usually until I use up the tea. Since the girls are pretty small still I may not get to use it all before it starts to go bad. 3 days is usually the max I can let it bubble before it starts to smell which means the anaerobic bacteria are taking over then I just dump it on my garden outside with all the dredges and use the BSM very other tea not every tea. Also I've got a large container of soil "growing" with all of those ingredients mixed in with some soil mix getting ready for transplanting which is almost time for that. 12 5-7 gallon containers will take up a lot of soil!!
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

This is the soil you mixed the Kashi meal into right? I'm interested in watching that soil batch perform it's magic. This LOS grows such amazing plants I'm stunned and humbled. I don't know why people get intimidated by the process of making teas. They can be so simple. Even the more complex ones only take a minute or two to mix and you just let it bubble away. I find it almost effortless. It became part of the routine.

Working with autos means I get to make it even simpler by eliminating the need to transplant. How much easier can this get? Plant, light, water (or should I say refill reservoirs?), brew an occasional tea. Sit back and watch the show. :Love:
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

Hey there SS thanks for stopping by my friend. Yes this is the soil with the Kashi meal and I've added a good bit to my ACT as well to get things going. First tea was no BSM plants doubled in size after first feeding. That was surprising to me how quickly the girls responded. This tea now has a strong smell of Alfalfa now go figure! It's all good. I've been slacking with getting to everyone's grow so please excuse my slackishness, I will be getting back to reading more journals and watching all the beautiful girls grow into ladies and make everyone proud of the good work here on 420mag...

Cheers
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

ACT update - day 3 the tea is finished. I've been bubbling it for 3 days and feeding the girls once a day each day and this am I can smell anaerobic bacteria pretty strong now. So it's time to dump it and inoculate my new compost bin outside. With temps below freezing that will kill those nasty bacteria or most of them. Anaerobic bacteria in not good and can be harmful to me (ecoli bacteria is anaerobic) - so yeah we dont want much of that around the grow room. The beneficial bacteria with dominate with the correct growing condition but we do not want to over populate with the nasty ones, so in the compost bin they go! They will actually help break down the compost too so it's all good just dont want trillions of them in my grow pots.

I'll be adjusting my recipe to include no quanno poop next time. I should be able to get 5 days of bubbling before the anaerobic bacteria begin to dominate so after 3 days means too much quanno and I will not add it or only mix in with the soil for top dress.

Here's a pic of my C-Vault stainless steel bud storage containers - full of buds from the last grow and I cannot smell a thing. My glass jars are not 100% air tight so they leak out moisture and I can smell the cannabis. With these I just put them in the kitchen on the top shelf with the 62% humidi packs in them to keep my greens fresh and no one can tell whats in them and they are out of reach anyways so its all good. Fresh stealthy nugz. Found these out right here on 420Mag - reps and thanks to the DOC and GD! Right on brothers, you nailed it.

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re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

They're on my wish list Bob. Don't worry about not stopping in. Life gets busy and you have this excellent journal to keep up with. If I don't see you around before I harvest I'll let you know.
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

I've been busy here so no updates but my girls have been busy growing!! I've got most of them in larger containers now for the Veg portion of the grow - got some soil cooking for the next transplant which will take place in about a month right before we switch to 12/12 flowering. I'm getting another grow room together!! Wow yeah, cant keep up with my friends smoking habbits they want to smoke all my meds up, so I need to get a perpetual grow going. So more on that next post. At any rate here's a pic or 2 of the new grow room with some girls in there all I need to do it get my exhaust going. So far no need yet just leave the door open but the girls are starting to get that little bitty dank smell so soon the grow room will be closed up and exhaust fans on.

Last pic is my girl yesterday we were cross country skiing in the park around the corner from where we live. Finally we got some snow. She's in her tuck heading down the hill to the finish line... haha going a whopping 10mph, sure is purdy with all that snow.


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re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

Thanks GD - I'm going perpetual here - I've got another BIG 4x8 tent in the mail and another LED that has a VEG switch on the way too. I'm doing LOS (living organic soil) and with LED I'm getting a possible cal/mag issue with a few of the girls which I thought I was done with once going to all organics. First time seeing this in a year.

What I'm doing as a proactive measure is add in some stone dust (granite and limestone/marble) as a top dress - very fine powder I get it from work were we filter the water from the stone saws. I've tried that on my in door Coleus house plants, and I mean I spread a layer on top of the soil on the Coleus plants to see if I could kill them, they are rocking (no pun intended) so I'm adding it to my soil as a top dress - there's going to be plenty of cal/mag now. In a few days I'll top dress that with some Kashi - you can watch the Kashi mycelium eat up dead leaves/mulch when I do that, its amazing. The Kashi is doing some crazy stuff as a top dress - mycelium right on top of the soil but it eats seedlings (dont ask me how I figured that out), we have to wait until the plants are established before using as a top dress. Weird thing is - fungus gnats be gone! Mycelium is a fungus so I'd have thought it would be beneficial to the gnats but they are totally gone. I just swept the floor and dumped the dead adults back into the soil on one of the plants.

So no pics yet I'm not serious about this grow yet but getting close - this Friday I'll be doing a reorganization of the grow room along with installing ventilation and then full blown serious greenage coming my way. The new strain has been trained I can tell by all the branches starting out low down on the stalks so I'm going to be seriously looking into some type of training for these girls and I think its the way to go. I will need some help with that. I have a 6.6' ceiling (lights are lower) and a 5'x7' foot print with 1500w of LEDs with another one on the way. My new tent I'm going to need some more lights and I'm not sure which way to go - HID is a sure thing but summer time is coming and LEDs are getting there... Waiting for me next electric bill to see the savings. Hopefully I will see the same bill but with 2x the amount of light. Right now with 600w and a 900w LED I'm drawing about 750w at the wall which is similar to the 600w HID but my space is about 2x what I was doing with the 600w HID. I'm seeing tighter nodes with the LED lighting this grow but I'm using different genetics so hard to tell if I'm heading in the right direction.

Cheers
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

So excited for you Bob, and impressed that you'd expand your grow to benefit your friends.

I'm going to have to incorporate Kashi into my own grow at some point, and thank you for figuring out that it's necessary to wait until the plants get past seedling stage before applying it. Sorry you had to suffer some loss to discover that (it was implied in your post). I'm also super excited that you found a solution to the LED caused deficiency before I'm in a position to buy one. I could hug you for that! :circle-of-love:
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

All hugs welcome here 100% - everyone should get a hug every day, right? Thats the way I start my day!

Yeah I messed up with the seedlings - not too bad but it was my only viable seed from my last grow which kinda sucks but my wife told me yesterday that she has a few seeds from the original ... yay for me!!

With the Kashi IF I had read all the label I'd have found the warning about seedlings!! Just gives me another reason to start some some more seeds! The Kashi meal is crazy I've got mycelium growing right on top of the soil. I'll get some pics with it on the Coleus and the girls too. It works great as a top dress and I've also mixed in with the soil a head of time and "cook" it in with all the other goodies... now I'm at the point where I'm just going to water mainly and let the girls and the soil do their thing and grow some bushes. I have time to install my ventilation and get some more seedlings going.

I've been doing more reading on the Kashi - its a pro-biotic for plants. Fairly new to cannabis but everyone that has tried it has improved taste and yields so that is a very positive thing, hopefully we can get it to work.

We've got a bunch of trays of seeds going for the outdoor gardens now too so soon it will be spring..

I'm experimenting with going ALL LED this grow - seems that the plants are actually filling out and getting more and shorter node spacing which is creating bushy plants with less stretching. I even feel like trimming and training this run. We will see about that, I'm not a big fusser with the plants, I tend to just hang with the girls for a bit talk to them when watering and be sure they are healthy, happy and get plenty of air circulation and thats it.

For the possible cal/mag issue I top dressed with some rock dust that should take care of any mineral deficiencies and the Kashi will make the minerals available to the plants right away, thats my plan and I'm sticking to it .... by the weekend the slight discoloration on a few of the girls should be history. If not I will transplant them into larger containers with some left over soil from the last grow I've had stashed for the final transplant going into flower for this run.
 
re: Cottage 420's 2015 Organic Grow With LOS & Kristalica - Sleestack x Skunk1

Just wanted to impart some research I've done.

I'm not super knowledgeable about the hypha/fungus colonies and have just begun really digging into it. For now I am sort of just reiterating what other more experienced persons have found...but the Great White Product may not be what you want to be using. The most beneficial fungus in our line of work is Glomus Intraradices. Great White is packed full of many many other fungi - many of which aren't all that useful to us and some known as trichoderma which are thought to harmfully affect glomus colonies.

To keep it short because I am not a great source of knowledge on this...products like Great White have alot of "filler" in them to make them seem good to the unknowing grower so they can charge more for less...but really its a bit of nonsense. Look at the included spores in Great White. There are products which contain a higher percentage of useful fungi and none of what you don't need.

Just food for thought.
 
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