Cottage 420's Organic Perpetual Indoor Garden

[Blazinjones]

We will see on the PMB.... her sister is fantastic.. looking and smelling like the description from the breeder... this one not so much. Maybe a seed mix up I'm thinking. No smell, auto traits... meh. I have little patience. I'm no nurse maid. Her sister is 8' tall, something is weird.

Kelp Tea:

Depends... I grind up kelp meal with a coffee grinder and re-hydrate it, and into the fridge (can keep for a month like that). If you let it sit out in room temps it will start to decompose. Which is OK for a little while, once it starts to smell like poop - pour it outside beside a tree or a bush - they will thank you later! If you were outside it wouldn't matter - pouring anaerobic bacteria into a container is recipe for disaster. So if it smells like poop - got outside with it!

As long as you keep it refrigerated all the time - it will be good for quite a while, several weeks actually.

There are kelp products that we can use that you can store at room temp is a jar and not worry. The maxi-crop stuff is one. These products are dried under pressure to remove the water and then we re-hydrate them into a kelp tea. The thing that gets lost are the growth hormones. Everything else is still there, which is significant (stuff still there).

OK - working my ass off this round. Been chopping, hanging, drying, trimming, up-potting VEG plants into flower, trimming... and oh did I say trimming. Instead of puffing, I'm getting high off of terpenes... huff huff ... puff puff... whats not to like, eh? No complaint... I love my green tribe!

Had to take a break from trimming to watch the super bowl... GO E A G L E S.. gun fire and bombs are suitable celebration techniques... well in my neighborhood anyways... headed for the basement and move all vehicles off the street. We won.. damn... been waiting for this since 1960. Fvck yeah we did it. I felt for all the fallen vets that were so great and never made it to the super bowl let alone win...

OK some pic update:

New Family Picture - there's 2 more plants to harvest. PMB is in the first one - hanging out above the younger plants up in the canopy. her nugs are going to be nice and tight rocks and smells like grape bubble gum.

Family Pic - left with PMB and Lab #6 and maybe a Chemdawg from clone.. was un-marked or lost the label somehow. We will see soon enough.

Family Pic - right - Dolato #1 in the back left looming overhead. She's only about 7' tall - PMB easily 8' tall. Dolato #2 in the front about the 2nd or 3rd day after she showed flowers.

I've added in a few plants - Labyrinth #4 - not in this pic and Buffalato #2 in the back right just getting going:

Nug Shots:


PMB - close up she's going purple so should get some pretty flower pics up in a few days. I'll open the window and lower night time temps.

Dolato #1 - colas - they are fattening up now

PMB - side bud that went into the lights one morning and burnt the top - she's repairing herself and the burn in almost gone now. 1/2 of the top was burnt white....

PMB - close up of burnt cola:

PMB - side branch - she's got a nice coating of trichomes smells like grape bubble gum...

PMB - another side bud

PMB - same bud closer upper

Dolato #1 - close up trichomes

Dolato #1 - side bud with fox tail starting.. time to keep an eye out for nanners.

Dolato #1 another foxtail bud

Only 2 ladies that are ripe.. won't be too much longer and they get chopped.

All ready for the late winter run - girls are in the wings in VEG, they are WAY ready to go.

Dam brotha those ladies are lookn wonderful and congrats on the harvest or upcoming harvest lol good those are some amazing genetics i got some pretty good strains going now and I'll be setting up my new veg area which will allow for some better light disbursement so hopefully I can start getting taller girls like urs lol i keep trying to get my girls to Bush out wide then get tall but they just start dieing at the bottom after about 2 to 2 ana half months of veg n plus they like stop getting taller they jus hit a certain point n i cant get them any bigger ive even put the lights up higher but maybe with my new light Stand it will be better so we will see but why do my girls keep dieing at the bottom??

 

[NorCaliwood]

WOW that looks tasty as hell...... Nice plants my friend,


Keepem Green

 

[bobrown14]

Hey 4D...Ful-Power made by BIO AG is widely considered the best Fulvic Acid available
Pro-Tekt made by Dyna-Gro is a potassium silicate, silica helps strengthen your stems and helps against pests .

That ^^^ silica in spades and then I add in some Horsetail Fern tea which is even more silica... can't over do silica and it's an important micro-nutrient to help plants immune system as well as lots of other good things.

Bio-Ag makes a few good products.. and even some not listed on the website.. they are into some organic kelp things I've found in my interweb travels.

But it's spreading like fire in Cali. I can't go a day without spotting a post about Gelato somewhere. But then knowing that legal market is all about strong indicas, it's not that surprising actually. Well to me it has to be special too, I can't smoke a bud that's just flat couchlock. I need a little bit of sativa that lifts your spirit up.

Couldn't have said it any better.... I went all the way to the Sativa Landrace ... ouch... that's strong as well. I'm not a big couch lock type but the landrace Sativa is a little tough for me ... I get sleepless nights with sweats, its a little crazy. Why I really like Chemdawg - best of both worlds.

The Dolato wasn't too bad, I got some munchies for sure and slit eye... felt purdy good. I'm growing this and the Buffalato out to see what all the fuss is about.

I'm SURE my friends are going to be all over these 2. Many of use here like a good 50/50 mix for an uplift with a nice glide down to earth. I like to go with breeders I feel comfortable with. I usually never buy FEM seeds ... but getting a pack or 3 and just not worrying about males for a run is a nice thing.

I had thought the vigor in the FEM seeds would get lost and I'd see it in my grow but both Dolato and Buffalato are hitting the roof and are fast growers.. I bet that has a lot to do with the Cali commercial market. Fast vigorous plants done in 50 days... that turns into $$ and a good motivator. It's cool to see them grown organically and compare what we see on IG... yawn.

Thanks GOP. Whats the Fulvic Acid do?? Is any of these a "Spreader?" Help it spread and stick?

Hey 4D - great question - here's a quote from the guy that started Bio-Ag: "enzymes are the catalysts for life and fulvic acid is the catalyst for catalysts."

Kick starts the living soil and helps create a place where pests are not welcome.... its just part of the picture but It's one I use on a regular basis foiler and water in.

I mix the spinosad with Ful-power and Pro-tekt as my base IPM and add in things as I feel like it but the big one is Horsetail Fern tea and/or Nettle tea... and usually some Kelp tea. Can use 1 or all together. It's like chicken soup for plants and kills just about every insect. The really cool part tho is using pro-tekt and Ful-power really will make your IPM a preventative measure instead of a treatment. I had mites this last round... the foliage was sooo dense no way to treat them properly. They just decided the plants didn't taste that good... very minor outbreak... I thought I'd have had to harvest early and have a big problem but I didn't.

I picked up some kelp meal today. Just wondering how much kelp meal and EWC I should use to brew up a tea?

For a small air pump (aquarium size) 1/2 cup ewc and 1/4 cup of Kelp meal to 2-3 gallons filtered water

For a big pump - 1 cup ewc and 1/2 cup of kelp meal to 4-5 gallons water .. can add in BSM or Malted Barley for some food for the micro-herd.

aerate 24 hrs - if no pump no problem just stir and let it sit, just stir when you feel like it. Just don't let it sit longer than 24 hrs or so. If it smells like shit then its shit.
Good for outside not good in container gardens.

Don't worry too much about PH.. I don't even own a ph meter...actually maybe I do.. I just don't know where it is and don't care. If your PH spikes its likely that the mix is starting to go anaerobic/ferment and generate alcohols... just pour that outside the trees don't care. Good to check tho, I can smell if its an issue. I have a great sense of smell.

EWC/Kelp teas are best used right away... if I don't use them right away in my containers I pour the leftover out in the garden. I always dilute the tea 50/50 with water indoors. Full strength is OK I'm just one of those people that errr on the conservative side.

Kelp meal re-hydrated can be kept in the fridge for several weeks in a mason jar, add water and pour off the water into your watering routine and keep doing that over and over... and start again. I do this and always have a jar of Kelp Meal 1/2 kelp and full of water and just use it up as a foiler and watering in. Mixing that in with your watering routine is very dilute so gonna be hard to hurt the plants with it. When it starts to smell a little "sharp" toss into compost and start a new one.

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As you all can see I'm still in catch up mode. Sorry for the late reply's but trimming is what it is .. stop what I'm doing and get it done. So I'm in a slight bit of a reprieve right now. 2 more plants to go and I'll have another 2 months work free! Woohoo.

 

[CareStaker]

Fine looking jungle man. Buds look tasty as hell.

 

[4Dutchess]

thanks Bob. Ive got the H.Tail tea with directions written down and will use.
Is the Fulvic Acid good with the salt based, inorganic Fox farm regiment?
FF has what Im thinking are tea drenches called Boomerrang, Kangaroots, Micro Brew. I wonder if I should add these since I use FF? (My Gut Says Yes) I just reupped on all their powders and liquid so its FF for awhile. Those powders last forever.
Your plants look beautiful!

 

[LaquerHead]

Hello everyone, I'm super late but finally joining in! SweetSue and Radogast sent me this way and I'm only on page 80 so have a bit more catching up to do. Quick question tho if I may! Ill be mixing my final soil later today following almost to a T the mofo no-till recipe. One problem is my oyster shell is only crushed, not powdered. Ive beat the hell out of it and came up with approx. 1 cup of powder and rest is still "chunky". I have 5 cu/ft so I figured I would need 5 cups. I also have garden lime but I can take a hint when given one-I know its not ideal. Will I better off not adding any other kind of calcium/magnesium or maybe throwing in 1/4 cup per cu/ft of garden lime? By the way your plants are BEAUTIFUL and gives me something to work for seeing how your growing in almost the same soil. I also got a timber grow light about a month ago! Muahaha. Thanks for any help!

 

[GodOfPot]

Hey 4D....new to living soil & organic myself but have read a bit on trying to understand this more

An IPM routine like bobs or any other organic gardeners is kind of two fold....the #1 defense against pests is a healthy SFW, the teas and stuff are only the back up or hired help....they aren't there to control and eradicate the problem, that still handled by the SFW for the most part

When you introduce salt based ferts you're completely changing the dynamics of the SFW...you're killing it off and throwing it out of balance making it less and less effective...so I don't know that these types of IPM would work as successfully for you

Pesticides, fungicides, insecticides etc. I imagine were developed because once we started using synthetic ferts we killed off the majority of the SFW and the old methods of IPM were no longer effective

It's not to say they won't be able to help, but they aren't going to be as effective or reliable if the SFW isn't there to do its part .

 

[GodOfPot]

Hello everyone, I'm super late but finally joining in! SweetSue and Radogast sent me this way and I'm only on page 80 so have a bit more catching up to do. Quick question tho if I may! Ill be mixing my final soil later today following almost to a T the mofo no-till recipe. One problem is my oyster shell is only crushed, not powdered. Ive beat the hell out of it and came up with approx. 1 cup of powder and rest is still "chunky". I have 5 cu/ft so I figured I would need 5 cups. I also have garden lime but I can take a hint when given one-I know its not ideal. Will I better off not adding any other kind of calcium/magnesium or maybe throwing in 1/4 cup per cu/ft of garden lime? By the way your plants are BEAUTIFUL and gives me something to work for seeing how your growing in almost the same soil. I also got a timber grow light about a month ago! Muahaha. Thanks for any help!

Hey LH....I think the bigger question in your case would be if you intend to follow the no-till way or just the recipe...so will you be continuously re-using this batch of soil or mixing another batch for your next run?

The problem with lime indoors is that the Ca gets used up within 1 run basically and all you're left with is the Mg, so if you're going to be re-using the soil the extra Mg will start leading to problems

If you only plan on using this batch of soil for 1 run, it won't cause a problem

Also, my understanding is that grinding crushed oyster shells is not making oyster shell flour...here's a little quote from BAS;

This product is not what it would appear from the name, i.e. it's not a product made from crushed oyster shells but rather it's a particular oyster shell mined from the San Francisco Bay from ancient sea deposits made up of very tiny and fragile oyster shells.

If you only use the soil 1 run you should be okay .

 

[LaquerHead]

I will be using this soil what I hope to be indefinitely. I remember that quote. Right below it it also said crushed oyster shell has the same "make-up" just isn't the same thing correct? What would my other options be? Hold off on mixing and buy some flour version? Gonna be tricky since I just dropped a seed but I will take any advice given! Thank you!

 

[GodOfPot]

I'd wait for clarification from someone who knows better than I about the crushed oyster shells, but i definitely wouldn't use the lime since you plan on re-using the mix

Their may be other options as suitable replacements but I'd wait for bob or someone else to chime in on that .

 

[Van Stank]

I will be using this soil what I hope to be indefinitely. I remember that quote. Right below it it also said crushed oyster shell has the same "make-up" just isn't the same thing correct? What would my other options be? Hold off on mixing and buy some flour version? Gonna be tricky since I just dropped a seed but I will take any advice given! Thank you!

Gypsum is also another good source of Calcium aside from the Oyster Shell.

 

[Van Stank]

Also the bigger shells in your oyster shell amendment will break down over time (nothing immediate for the seed you just dropped) so that will help for future runs. You can also save your egg shells and crush them up finely and add them to your soil for additional calcium as well. EWC are also a decent source of Calcium. There are lots of additional ways to increase your calcium levels....but keep in mind you generally want your calcium to magnesium ratios to remain in the 7:1 or 8:1 ratio for best utilization.

 

[LaquerHead]

Perfect! Thanks everyone. I will be utilize,g gypsum as well as egg shells. So I suppose ill be good probably. Once a person has read so much, things sometimes conflict. Maybe I need to take a break lol

 

[Van Stank]

Perfect! Thanks everyone. I will be utilize,g gypsum as well as egg shells. So I suppose ill be good probably. Once a person has read so much, things sometimes conflict. Maybe I need to take a break lol

Ask 10 different growers and you will likely get at least 9 different answers. You gotta find what works for you. And if you are truly in doubt about your soil, do what BobBrown and others recommend, get your soil analyzed to see exactly what you have, what you need more of and what you might not need as much of.

 

[Tomula]

Perfect! Thanks everyone. I will be utilize,g gypsum as well as egg shells. So I suppose ill be good probably. Once a person has read so much, things sometimes conflict. Maybe I need to take a break lol

I know Bob was talking about not measuring PH at all. I did not measure water from water tank, it was 7,4+ and it showed on the plant. I suggest you at least know PH of the water you water with. That's my 2 cents to the argument. Good luck.

 

[4Dutchess]

Hey 4D....new to living soil & organic myself but have read a bit on trying to understand this more

An IPM routine like bobs or any other organic gardeners is kind of two fold....the #1 defense against pests is a healthy SFW, the teas and stuff are only the back up or hired help....they aren’t there to control and eradicate the problem, that still handled by the SFW for the most part

When you introduce salt based ferts you’re completely changing the dynamics of the SFW...you’re killing it off and throwing it out of balance making it less and less effective...so I don’t know that these types of IPM would work as successfully for you

Pesticides, fungicides, insecticides etc. I imagine were developed because once we started using synthetic ferts we killed off the majority of the SFW and the old methods of IPM were no longer effective

It’s not to say they won’t be able to help, but they aren’t going to be as effective or reliable if the SFW isn’t there to do its part .

Thanks GOP. The Nuke Em works great and I have a 40% man. coupon. Im thinking use that to kill em and the Spinosad as a weekly along with Hot Pepper. If the Gov is dumping these Russets on the freeway to mess with the growers and control the bushes (yea right) I hope they stop. We shall see.
I scoped all I have going and no Russets!
I appreciate all this considering Im an inorganic newbie.
Last but most important..... Brother Bob, big congrats on the Eagles!! Ive known a few Eagle fans in my life and they all went crazy last Sunday. John in Maui from South Jersey cant contain himself. Probably one of the most important days in his life so far. He's waited a while. Go Packers!!

 

[bobrown14]

Hello everyone, I'm super late but finally joining in! SweetSue and Radogast sent me this way and I'm only on page 80 so have a bit more catching up to do. Quick question tho if I may! Ill be mixing my final soil later today following almost to a T the mofo no-till recipe. One problem is my oyster shell is only crushed, not powdered. Ive beat the hell out of it and came up with approx. 1 cup of powder and rest is still "chunky". I have 5 cu/ft so I figured I would need 5 cups. I also have garden lime but I can take a hint when given one-I know its not ideal. Will I better off not adding any other kind of calcium/magnesium or maybe throwing in 1/4 cup per cu/ft of garden lime? By the way your plants are BEAUTIFUL and gives me something to work for seeing how your growing in almost the same soil. I also got a timber grow light about a month ago! Muahaha. Thanks for any help!

Thanks for the kind words and welcome..

If you are following or using a recipe - stick to whats in that recipe. Subbing in stuff... think of it like baking a cake. You probably don't want to substitute ingredients, then when you do, it's not a cake, it turns into something else, right? Same deal here.

Now with your question on the Oyster Shell ... we want to use the "flour" version. The other versions are made specifically for use on fields outdoors for farmers. You can use it but it's going to take a long time break down. So the chunky or coarse ground is considered slow release. In the soil recipe I use, oyster shell flour is for the short to medium release Ca and Crab/Crustacean/shrimp meal is for the medium to slow release. So "in this case" you can sub but it's not ideal. Making your own out of the coarse grind... wow probably a lot of work. I'd just get some Oyster shell flour and use the coarse grind stuff outdoors... its good for grass you can spread it on your lawn with a seed spreader and do the whole shebang. Of course you will probably have to cut the grass more often.... but your neighbors will love you.

The coarse grind is actually used in farming to change the soil PH. The flour will do that too but it would only be temporary and not a solution the farmers want to use it for.... we now know that PH isn't the whole picture and Ca has a lot of other benefits, likely more than the PH influence that its been used for in the AG industry.


Garden lime not sure whats in it but it likely has Mg added in. In the soil recipe I use, there's plenty of Mg from other sources so this one points to the baking a cake analogy.

Gypsum is also another good source of Calcium aside from the Oyster Shell.

Yup sure is.. I use both gypsum and oyster shell flour. The gypsum brings a very important micro nutrient to the table - Sulfur that oyster shell flour does not have. The soil recipe I use will be high to very high Ca.. and have several sources. In my soil tests I'm always above the max in Ca but my soil PH is a little low... kinda counter intuitive but it works. You'd think since I'm very high in Ca that my PH would be higher.. Gypsum wont affect Ph but adds a good bit of Ca.

It's OK to have a slightly acidic (5.7 - 6.0) soil Ph and in fact along with a lot of rock dusts a slightly acidic soil Ph works with helping improve the CEC (cation exchange capacity) of the soil. Acids break stuff down like granite ... that then create clay... that then help create soil CEC. This is why we add in so much rock dust in our soil mix.

FYI:
I don't test my soil PH - I send my soil out to a lab and they test the soil PH.

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On the IPM discussion, yes the IPM routine I use is just part of the picture. I try and grow the healthiest plants I can and boost up their immune systems with organic amendments that also promote the good micro-herd. That tends to crowd out the baddies and plants can fend off pests and disease better.

As GOP mentioned, salts are basically there to feed the plant.. they don't do much for immune system and don't promote bio-diversity in the micro-organisms.

 

[bobrown14]

WOW that looks tasty as hell...... Nice plants my friend,


Keepem Green

Thanks Woody... I took a page out of your grow journal and opened up the window for a few nights of cold.. got down to 55F a few nights and the PMB .. woah.. its got a lot of colors in just 1 or 2 nights. Gonna make some good pics here in a day or 2!


PMB flowers are turning into rock hard dense nugs ... now I see where the name comes from. (Purple Monkey Balls).

 

[TheFertilizer]

Hey Bob I started cooking up some kelp meal and EWC but I forgot I just watered, so plants won't need any for a few days, how can I keep this stuff good until then? Will it keep in the fridge?

 

[Van Stank]

Hey Bob I started cooking up some kelp meal and EWC but I forgot I just watered, so plants won't need any for a few days, how can I keep this stuff good until then? Will it keep in the fridge?

I don't know about Bob, but I usually brew mine for 24 to 48 hours before using. So you might be able to bubble it for 48 hours before using and everything will be peachy. If you want to help dry your pots out a little faster, have your fan pointed at the soil levels. Doing that generally helps me take about a day off between watering cycles. Of course you could also let the temps get a little higher to speed it up as well.....just not too high!