Cottage 420's Organic Perpetual Indoor Garden

[bobrown14]

Ha ha what timing BB, I did this exact thing today! I went out in the woods scouting for downed rotting logs and trees for hugel veggie garden expansions. I was also searching for more worms to throw in my pots, and figured I'd gather castings as well. I also went looking for mushrooms to observe where they are growing and what conditions, but kept getting sidetracked following the deer tracks. I love what you are doing BB.

Hey there 36 thanks for the reps, I was over at your journal and saw those frosty nugz you have going there. VERY nice.

I loved that organic article too - I've already been in contact with the fine folks at OCA in CO. Good to see educated consumers asking the right questions. That's exactly why I started growing my own organically, cause there's no way to tell what's actually in/on canna even in the legal states. My friend grows for Cali shops and I won't smoke his weed, sorry for being a canna snob but it's all about keeping healthy AND green.

That "someday Canna will be free" is getting closer and closer.... I can almost taste it! Oh wait I'm at work... gonna have to wait till I get home!

To find worms:
Try rolling a log over or moving it - the night crawlers are hiding under the logs, lots of them. Pretty cool you can get the best soil for your garden free in the woods, eh? When I get home with a fresh batch I make an ACT and water my ladies and also the outdoor gardens as well. All the plants go wild with new growth.

 

[brightlight]

Hey bobrown....is neem cake effective against fungus gnats?

 

[bobrown14]

Hey bobrown....is neem cake effective against fungus gnats?

Yes they HATE neem. I get fungus gnats from over watering mainly. Let the soil dry out more and they will go away. I usually spray the soil with a very mild solution of H2o2 (peroxide)/water if they get too irritating. They are mainly a nuisance and a sign I'm over watering.

Peroxide mixed with water explodes the exoskeleton of the gnat on contact. I love to take them out with this spray, they just sort of disappear! hahahaha The larvae live at the top of the soil line so if its wet they will thrive, if soil is left to dry out they die. Easy to let the top of the soil dry out. If you water with a dripper like I do then do the peroxide/water and sprinkle neen meal on surface... also crab/crustacean meal kills them too.

 

[uhewekguilw]

Hey Bo, was at Llama Land and saw your post so I figured I'd check out what you had going on. It's going to be a while before I get caught up, but since I'm "kinda" organic, I figured I'd hang around for a bit. Great info from what I've read so far!
GB80

 

[bobrown14]

Hey Bo, was at Llama Land and saw your post so I figured I'd check out what you had going on. It's going to be a while before I get caught up, but since I'm "kinda" organic, I figured I'd hang around for a bit. Great info from what I've read so far!
GB80

Welcome GB80 - if you want to browse start around 7-1-15 thats around the beginning of this last run in flower. I'm perpetual no-til organic soil harvesting about every 2 weeks pretty regular like! I pretty much show how we do organics and I'm lazy so I grow the absolute easiest way ... we have a lot of gardens outdoors so pretty busy doing the outdoor stuff for 6 months every year so I like to keep my indoor gardens as easy and carefree as I can. I'm using blumat watering so I don't really need to do much cept take bud porn pics!!

 

[uhewekguilw]

I'm about to set up my Blumat in the next couple days.
What is no till? Still new to the organic terms of growing.
Thanks

 

[bobrown14]

I'm about to set up my Blumat in the next couple days.
What is no till? Still new to the organic terms of growing.
Thanks

No-til is using the same soil over and over again without changing the tilth - meaning NOT tilling the soil. In container gardening tilling would be the same as dumping the soil out and either remixing or starting over again with new. The way we do no-til is start out with an exceptionally GREAT soil mix use it round after round with minimal amendments and not disturbing the soil food web.

The goal is to grow micro-organisms in the soil that deliver the nutrients in the soil to the plants roots in a symbiotic relationship. Tilling kills those micro-organisms.

Think about a forest and how all those huge trees grow and all the other plants and animals live together in a symbiotic relationship. We can do that same exact thing on a micro scale in a container with cannabis and/or other plants. What happens is each round of plants that are gown in no-til actually improve in quality and yield over time. It's doable and provable but there's a specific way to do it.

Soil mix:
1/3 CSPM - Canadian sphagnum peat moss
1/3 Aeration - perlite
1/3 hummus - EWC/vermicompost/composted organic soils (I use vermicompost).

Soil amendments - generally @ 1 cup per cu/ft
Rock dust - granite dust
Crustacean meal/lobster meal/crab meal
Liming agent - AG lime is cheap and will work I use Crab shell meal, dolomite lime and gypsum
Kelp meal
Alfalfa meal
Neem and Karaja meal
what else.. oh yeah worm castings never too much of that ...
whenever I feel there's something missing - I brew up a some kelp meal tea

Do this ^^^ your indoor gardening (and outdoors too) will become a REAL FUN activity! Lots of living organic soil and lots of living organic plants!

HTH

 

[uhewekguilw]

Thanks for the detailed information, truly appreciated! I have some old soil composting now, might try to add those ammendments. Sure would like to be even lazier than I already am

 

[bobrown14]

Ok here's a very mini update of a peek at the veg room right now. I've got the 2 ladies still in the flower room - big girl and frosty both Krystalica C pheno. When they come down,big girl this weekend just need to find a large enough space to hang her we will be doing a tear down and clean and re-set back up. Fall cleaning if you will. I usually do 2 complete cleanups once in the early spring right before going from VEG to flower and I'm doing it again now right before we go full swing into the fall/winter crop.

Ok so here we go with the VEG room. All the big plants in the back are Krystalica clones - the cuttings were taken before we went on vacation the first time this summer - so that would make it July 15th, sat in the cloner until we got back in August 2nd and into soil on 8/3 or there abouts. So make them 6 weeks in soil. They need to be put into flower or I will have a major issue with too tall plants, but hey I'm practiced at LST so bring it on!

The rest of the plants were from seed I think I popped them before we went on vacation the 2nd time so make them 9/4 into soil from seedling so they are about 3 weeks old right now - the autos I'm leaving in the VEG room and will be turning the lighting down from 24/0 to 20/4 here once all the big girls go to flower room.

I'll get way more into detail on the seedlings and the strains I picked in an upcoming post. I'm always on the lookout for a new better bigger buds strain... aren't we all eh? I like Mendala seeds as they grow organically so I feel their options, at least for me, are a very good match and so far I've been very happy. Smoking the same thing for a year now tho so I'm gonna branch out some more with a few other Mendala strains this fall. So more to come...

Sweet Sue likes the Black Autos and so do I and all my smoking buds LOVE them too. I can never get them to cure properly, they get smoked up too fast!! This plant was 4" tall and started getting black right from the get go - experience tells me all the buds on this plant will be dark dark brown to black after drying even the fan leaves. Quite the sight to see:

Sweet Sue's journal is here if ya haven't seen it yet, get your reading glasses and take a gander!

The SS Black buds linky:
Dark Devil Auto: A Community Grow Record

SS perpetual linky - we both grow with LOS no-til - she's been experimenting with the other side to make sure LOS is best... hows that going there Sue?? I'm lazy so no-til for me. Not banging the Brix (I love them Brix buds) - just too much work for me, plus my worms would feel neglected .. I can't have that.

The Joy Of Growing - SweetSue Goes Perpetual



Here's to you SS - This buds for you cheers:

Here's the black buds sister ... Blakberry Kush Auto. I'm filling in with autos and there's a new strain I'm trying called Matero Blue.. lets see how they do!
Blackberry Kush - no colors yet....?

Here's my Krystalica pheno C (back row big girls) for round 6 I think! not too shabby they are healthy and happy. Today all the ladies got treated to some Alfalfa SST - 3 days ago we did a corn SST watering as well. Look back to my post a few days ago and you can really see a tremendous growth spurt. I mix about 1/2 cup of SST to a gallon of water then water in.. thats it. If anyone is wondering why there's bamboo stakes in there they are from my last run - I'm running no-til so nothing changes cept the plant and a bit of top dress... each successive round is better than the previous.

Here's Matero Blue from seed - trying a new strain the companion crop is Fenugreek

Info bomb alert: here's some info for Fenugreek and nitrogen fixing in soil. Probably not all that important in container growing but this companion crop will die off and release the nitrogen once the host plant gets big and blocks the light.

Linky: The Regional Institute - Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) compared to five temperate legume species in Wimmera farming systems. 1

Info bomb 2 - boom Fenugreek my old friend.. this stuff is the real deal for companion crops and can be used medicinally which for me and my digestive issue is PERFECT. Waste not want not.

Mankind?s Old Friend Fenugreek :: Hella Delicious

My other test run - Purple Pine Berry - the name was enough for me to snatch it up. She's looking pretty good getting a little purple already with cool nights this will get even better as will all the purps ladies and I've got a room full ...

Pediatric nursery pic from a few days ago - they are all ready to go into soil now. I've already up-potted one the others are all ready to go. For some reason those peat pellets have fungus gnats in them .. little fuckers.. I've hung up a yellow trap to see what I can catch. They were supposed to be blue traps for thirps but got the wrong stuff so I hung one here for those pesky gnats.

 

[SweetSue]

Outstanding BB! I timed this visit well. I don't know how you stay on top of it BB. I can't wait to cut back.

I've made my decision about the soils. Although I appreciate the magic and mystery that is the Kit and there's obviously something going on there I don't fully understand, I'm an LOS no-till girl and always will be. Too much goings on with the Kit. Give me the occasional drench or tea, if I think of it. I prefer a soil that will supply the needs of the plant without additives.

But I'm doing my damnedest to grow Carnival into a POTM while I have use of the Kit. I'm sending what I'll have left to B A R to play with. That should be fun.

Will you be adding any info or photos to the Dark Devil Auto thread? Yours is so beautiful. I have three growing at once now - one at 30 days, one at 16 days and one just a day old. Can't grow enough.

I went foraging for EWC today and wanted to stop and thank you for the inspiration. Llama's planning his own trip tomorrow into that wilds of Montana. You did a good thing BB.

Gotta run. Magic brownies in the oven.

 

[UncleCannabis]

Looking good BB!!


I'm pleased to see that you've got a Purple Pineberry going. I've got a 15 pack that I purchased a while back with the intention of using them for a breeding project but I have yet to germ any.
PPB is supposed to be a very hardy and pest resistant plant that's been grown in the outdoors of Canada for quite sometime now essentially making it a IBL. It will be good to see how yours turn out being done indoors.

By the way, have you grown either Satori or Ganesh from Mandela Seeds?

 

[bobrown14]

Looking good BB!!


I'm pleased to see that you've got a Purple Pineberry going. I've got a 15 pack that I purchased a while back with the intention of using them for a breeding project but I have yet to germ any.
PPB is supposed to be a very hardy and pest resistant plant that's been grown in the outdoors of Canada for quite sometime now essentially making it a IBL. It will be good to see how yours turn out being done indoors.

By the way, have you grown either Satori or Ganesh from Mandela Seeds?

Wow I didn't know that about Pineberry!! It is pest resistant thats for sure. I had thrips last week and they avoided that plant the most out of all the little ones I have going in VEG. She does look strong, fit and pretty.

I have Satori seeds - this will be a fall/winter project. Since they are regular seeds I try and isolate them since I'm gong to get males. Those sneaky bastards won't show sex nothing nothing then over night there's balls and they are ready to blow open the next day. I have to be on my toes to stay a head of that so I will wait until the VEG room is empty or almost empty.

I have Mandala #1 and Satori - both regs and running Krystalica for over a year now... I also have California Dream and Far Out both are fems. I haven't put any into soil yet tho - likely its not going to happen until next round.

Outdoors in Canada, man I'd love to grow there. My avatar is my cottage up there - peat bogs EVERYWHERE, and the water is filled with goodies - the fish are healthy and the loons so the water is CLEAN and full of nourishment from tree leaves and bogs.

 

[bobrown14]

Back from the wild world of working for a living, yay I guess.... I should feel lucky I'm working but I'd rather be gardening for a living 110% on that. Maybe some day but probably not in PA. Time to start thinking about moving to a legal state. It's time for us.

So onto the next round. We just put 3 plants into flower. They are Krystalica Clones - Pheno Type C as usual. I've completely switched to the Pheno C - the one with the HUGE main cola. It's the easiest to cram into my flower room. It doesn't spread out too much and gives me a good yield. Last one was 5 zips. I'm usually harvesting 1 plant every 2 weeks or so it seems. Not usually 5 zips tho. Most of the 5gal no-tils yield 2+ zips and the 10gal pots are the winners.

This round I took a small break before starting a bunch of clones so I could tear down and clean and set back up. Of course my lazy ass is still thinking I'm going to do that but my flower room is well... filling up again!

Right now 3 Krystalica C plants in flower. One has been in there 2 weeks and is already white!! Yay me! I've only got her in a 5 gal no-til so she wont get to big. The next round I bring into the flower room are in 10gal no-tils and they will get big. I tend to regulate size by using a particular size pot. The ladies won't out grow a 5 gal pot but stay manageable in size so I don't have to tie them down but will be staking and supporting once the buds get going. With the pheno C there are lots of shorter side branches and one main cola - about 18" of solid buddage.

Here's some pics of the progression:

Here's the first to flower and a pic of one of the side branches getting nice and frosty. I'm leaving windows open right now as temps dip to low 50s at night, maybe we will get some purple.

Here's what I'm talking about - the main cola (2 weeks in flower not to shabby) with side branches, Sorry for crappy pics but I got into flower room right after lights out.

another pic of the Pheno C - lots of sides and one big main that I have the light about 3" from the top.

Frosty girl from last run - she's about to get a trim and put into jars. Been hanging for 4 days now, VERY sticky and still not quite ready but I'm hoping she can wait till Friday my day off so I can trim her up. Trimming is not my favorite part but its part of the whole so it must be done and done with attention to detail, too bad I can't see after about 1/2 hour into it. I feel really really good afterwards tho, just cant focus my eyes.

She's even pretty now chopped and hanging. There's still a few more white pistols popping out she was way done tho. There's definitely purple in these buds. They will present a very nice bag appeal. I let her grow all the way out till I felt sorry for her and she was getting ready to hermi so chop chop. The buds will be extremely dense and packed tight.

The next round going strong and getting bigger.

 

[SweetSue]

Oooo..... BB, such pretty plants. I'd almost kill to visit. I'm considering a move to a legal state too. PA's never going to get it done.

I was shocked at how frosty that was after only two weeks in bloom. You do amazing work in those no-tills BB. You give me hope for the future.

 

[UncleCannabis]

Looking good & green!!

 

[kelticBlue]

For what it is worth, even where it is legal there can be frustration. But that is another story, not for now.

I love Philly, My wife's family is from fox chase in the NE. we still visit alot.
So one place people often overlook is dc. It is legal but complicated.

So............ I went out looking for worm poop today, it was random fun. I was only looking and think i might just gather some up tomorrow. I think I can really see it. Such a thrill, I never knew what I was looking at before.

I cannot thank you enough.

 

[bobrown14]

Oooo..... BB, such pretty plants. I'd almost kill to visit. I'm considering a move to a legal state too. PA's never going to get it done.

I was shocked at how frosty that was after only two weeks in bloom. You do amazing work in those no-tills BB. You give me hope for the future.

Hey SS you're welcome to visit anytime.. one small slight issue is our spare bedroom.... ummm well you should feel right at home you've been looking at it for a while now. You will have lady friends to hang with!! you could smoke me out, I'm a light weight!

 

[bobrown14]

For what it is worth, even where it is legal there can be frustration. But that is another story, not for now.

I love Philly, My wife's family is from fox chase in the NE. we still visit alot.
So one place people often overlook is dc. It is legal but complicated.

So............ I went out looking for worm poop today, it was random fun. I was only looking and think i might just gather some up tomorrow. I think I can really see it. Such a thrill, I never knew what I was looking at before.

I cannot thank you enough.

You're welcome 100% - go local its sustainable and the best you can get for the garden. Just look how big the trees are right there over your head. When we hike in the woods which is several times a week thats all I do is check out where all the worm castings are and they are EVERYWHERE. Now is the time to get some while the leaves are still on the trees, but they are changing color so makes the walk even better.

Please notice there are LOTS of plants in the forest with powdery mildew (natural progression) on them this time of year. So change clothes and wash before going into your grow area so you dont carry some baddies into the room with you from the woods. It's pretty hard to avoid that but growing healthy plants helps A LOT and the worm castings you find in the woods will help with healthy plants and bigger buds.

If you are unsure if they are castings, one way is to find an old log decomposing on the forest floor, you should see there are no leaves and no green growth either right under where the log is on either side of the log. That's because the worms eat all that litter up and poop out the goodness. After a little bit you will start to see where the worms are most active. Don't be afraid to roll the log over and see whats going on...woah buddy IT'S ALIVE... for a dead old log there sure are a lot of living organisms happening and they are all good for the soil. Living soil right there in front of you. I'm still amazed after 40 years of organic gardening it still blows me away.

 

[bobrown14]

Mini update.. been WAY too busy at work getting home late and that 5 minutes a day in the indoor gardens has been cutting into my happy hours! It's all good tho.

So harvested all the summer crop and opps forgot I need to take the last buds out of the paper bags and jar them. That will be a tomorrow project. Anywho.... now that the flower room is officially into the next round of Krystalica - this will be round 6 - 7 - 8. I've got ladies in early flower right now about 3 weeks for one plant and 1.5 weeks for another. There are large clones (18"-24") in VEG right now along with some clones just into soil and round 8 clones in the ghetto cloner right now. Should be about 2 weeks before they see any soil. So yeah the fall/winter grow is in full swing here and no more crazy temps and humidity or insects knock knock ...

We've been collecting worm castings in the woods the last few weeks and bought some more rabbit berries (manure) have some soil ready to go and some new 10gal pots ready to fill. I'm looking to get the new 10gal pots going and retire some of our smaller pots. I think 10gal pots are a good size for growing plants that fit our flower room. We have a 7' ceiling so somewhat of a limit. Most of the ladies we grow are Sativa or mainly Sativa so they tend to want to stretch going into flower and the size of the pot really dictates the size of the plant for the most part.

This round starting out with a new lamp in the VEG room over all the auto girls. The new lamp is a Smart Grow PAR-FORCE 240 LED. It's white light LED so easier on the eyes and the plants seem to be loving it. I'm in contact with the manufacturer and trying to get a few more. They advertise here from time to time and I read somewhere about them so I tried the 240 on the autos and they perked up nicely so I'm thinking about trying a few more of these.

Purple Pineberry in flower room for 3 days now just starting to get pre-flowers and not stretching much at all

Purple Pineberry closer look

first Krystalica into flower this round - 21 days.... I try and harvest 1 plant at a time, makes trimming a little less shall we say "work"!! Trimming is growing on me.. hahahaha - she's a little scrawny compared to her sisters (for now).

Krystalica sisters @ 10 days in flower room just about to start blooming... they were real close today. We should see flowers tomorrow evening!! The fun begins once again! Yeah buddy.

New lamp over the autos I have running Smart Grow PAR-FORCE 240 LED - daisy chained to a 450w reflector

and again........................................................................................................450 reflector vvvvv

Sue this buckets for you! Worm castings from the woods - look at the amber round things, they are worm cocoons for next spring but they will make their way into a 10gal pot and hatch in the near future. You could actually collect just the cocoons and grow worms... no shit.

Round 8 Krystalica clones 3 days into ghetto cloner - they are perky wont be long they will have roots.

round 6 krystalica in flower room day 10

round 6 krystalica in flower room day 10

round 6 krystalica in flower room day 10

 

[UncleCannabis]

Looking good as always BB.

I'll be keeping a close eye on your Purple Pineberry. I'm now regretting that I didn't include at least 1 with my current round.