Emmie's Berry D'licious 2019 True Living Organic: No AACT, SCROG, COB, SuperSoil Production Grow & Seed Run

Hi @Emilya ...

It's question of the day time ... :)

I decided to save my FF Ocean Forest soil from my recent harvests ... and I put it in a big heavy duty storage bin ...
  • Capacity: 170 L (45 US gal)
  • Dimensions: 20" x 32.3" x 21.4" (50.8 x 82 x 54.4 cm)
I pulled out the roots ... chopped them up and then put them back into the soil and mixed them up.

I had some fresh FF Ocean Forest soil that I added in too.

I read about replenishing the soil ... so I added in 6 litres (1.5 gallons) of some Advanced Nutrients stuff I had ...

*** Voodoo Juice (beneficial bacteria)
*** Piranha (beneficial fungi)
*** Tarantula (beneficial microbes)
*** B-52 (B vitamins)
*** Rhino Skin (Silica)
*** Ancient Earth (Humic Acids)
*** Sensizyme (breakdown dead root material)
*** Gaia Green Earth Worm Castings (2 litres)

I figured I better get some more advice just in case I'm missing something ...

Right now everything is sitting in the bin ... is this called cooking?

Will the micro-life grow?

I just a 500 gram trial of Mega Crop ... could that help out with replenishing this soil too?
 
yes, that definitely will help rejuvenate the used soil and as long as there is food for them, the microlife will thrive. Putting the roots in there to decompose is a good thing, but consider putting all the rest of your throw away trimmings in there too and send all that plant goodness back into the soil. After a few grows, some of the components in the soil will start to be depleted, and you will want to remineralize the soil too. The things you have already added are good, but consider also adding a good amount of earthworm castings, some compost, and maybe a little extra perlite to replace any that has broken down. I also add in a bit of Azomite for the trace minerals and some oyster shell flour for the calcium, a spoonful of epsom salt for the magnesium and as long as you are cooking it a bit, a little bit of any of these would not hurt either: High P Bat guano, Cottonseed meal, Feather meal, Bone meal, Blood meal, Rock phosphate, Greensand, Gypsum, Humate... all of this is good to cook down into the soil. It isn't necessary to go to all these extremes at first, and you should be able to get 2 or 3 good grows out of FFOF with just the basics being added back in.
 
Emilya said:
yes, that definitely will help rejuvenate the used soil and as long as there is food for them, the microlife will thrive. Putting the roots in there to decompose is a good thing, but consider putting all the rest of your throw away trimmings in there too and send all that plant goodness back into the soil. After a few grows, some of the components in the soil will start to be depleted, and you will want to remineralize the soil too. The things you have already added are good, but consider also adding a good amount of earthworm castings, some compost, and maybe a little extra perlite to replace any that has broken down. I also add in a bit of Azomite for the trace minerals and some oyster shell flour for the calcium, a spoonful of epsom salt for the magnesium and as long as you are cooking it a bit, a little bit of any of these would not hurt either: High P Bat guano, Cottonseed meal, Feather meal, Bone meal, Blood meal, Rock phosphate, Greensand, Gypsum, Humate... all of this is good to cook down into the soil. It isn't necessary to go to all these extremes at first, and you should be able to get 2 or 3 good grows out of FFOF with just the basics being added back in.
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You had me at "yes" :)

Okay ...

1) Food for the microlife ... I forgot to add some AN CarboLoad
2) Trimmings ... I will chop them up and add them in ... dry them first?
3) Remineralize ... help!
4) Earth Worm Castings ... done.
5) Compost ... general purpose from a bag maybe?
6) Perlite ... added in more with the fresh FF Ocean Forest ... but another 5 litre bag won't hurt any.
7) Azomite ... I will look for this at the garden center.
8) I will add some Cal+Mag 2-0-0
9) Bat guano, Cottonseed meal, Feather meal, Bone meal, Blood meal, Rock phosphate, Greensand, Gypsum, Humate ... I know where to get this ... from the local hydroponics store ...

Very cool ... I was actually on track with this :)
 
SQl2kGuy said:
You had me at "yes" :)

Okay ...

1) Food for the microlife ... I forgot to add some AN CarboLoad
2) Trimmings ... I will chop them up and add them in ... dry them first?
3) Remineralize ... help!
4) Earth Worm Castings ... done.
5) Compost ... general purpose from a bag maybe?
6) Perlite ... added in more with the fresh FF Ocean Forest ... but another 5 litre bag won't hurt any.
7) Azomite ... I will look for this at the garden center.
8) I will add some Cal+Mag 2-0-0
9) Bat guano, Cottonseed meal, Feather meal, Bone meal, Blood meal, Rock phosphate, Greensand, Gypsum, Humate ... I know where to get this ... from the local hydroponics store ...

Very cool ... I was actually on track with this :)
Click to expand...
no need to dry the trimmings, they will break down fast...
remineralize... look up Earth Dust or similar products
since you are cooking it, any good compost will work
Azomite is worth its weight in gold... its all about trace minerals...
Don't add too much calmag... preloading the soil with magnesium can lock out other vital elements... calmag is meant to be an incremental supplement given a little bit at a time, as needed.
Don't go crazy with the other stuff either. A tablespoon of this stuff in a 40# bag of soil is all you need.
 
SQl2kGuy said:
You had me at "yes" :)

Okay ...

1) Food for the microlife ... I forgot to add some AN CarboLoad
2) Trimmings ... I will chop them up and add them in ... dry them first?
3) Remineralize ... help!
4) Earth Worm Castings ... done.
5) Compost ... general purpose from a bag maybe?
6) Perlite ... added in more with the fresh FF Ocean Forest ... but another 5 litre bag won't hurt any.
7) Azomite ... I will look for this at the garden center.
8) I will add some Cal+Mag 2-0-0
9) Bat guano, Cottonseed meal, Feather meal, Bone meal, Blood meal, Rock phosphate, Greensand, Gypsum, Humate ... I know where to get this ... from the local hydroponics store ...

Very cool ... I was actually on track with this :)
Click to expand...
I had the same question I actually used FFOF in all my soil mixes except for the Doc Buds soil mix I didn't want to add anything that's not recommended to Docs mix so just Promix BX with added perlite and EWC. but my Subcool Super Soil and my Coots Mix soils have 1.5 cu.ft. bags along with other base compost,1.5 cu.ft. Cost Of Main Lobster and another 2 cu.ft. of some highly recommended potting soil that is nice and light and airy. I have two 10 gal. Fabric Pots full of a mix of Fox Farm Happy Frog and FF Ocean Forest so I was wondering the same thing. I have all of the recommended items Emilya recommended from mixing the Subcool soil I have half of it left that I was going to use as amendments. I have a question on Compost tea. I have never used it so how often should I water with compost tea in these soils ? I got the Boggie Brew Compost tea it came with a lot of stuff
 
PCaddict said:
I have a question on Compost tea. I have never used it so how often should I water with compost tea in these soils ?
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while adding these active microbes to a composting bin of soil is beneficial to a point, most of the magic happens with the action of the 3 humic acids and the breakdown of the organics into soil by different set of microbes than are typically used in the feeding cycle of our plants. These nasteir workhorses of the microbe troops typically come from the earth worm castings, compost and manure components of the pile, along with a lot of the kitchen waste decomposition militia, rather than from those inputs that specialize in producing the microbes who feast on specific minerals.

Mainly, just keep the cooking soil moist and turn it over regularly and good things happen, and my strategy has always been to pour my leftover teas in there after watering my active grow and not worry about adding anything other than that. Especially in early veg, making 2 gallons of AACT was more than enough to water as well as take care of this need too.
During the grow, I like to replenish the microbes as often as I can, so I would try to do an AACT about once a week, give or take. Now that I am using Recharge, it is much easier to get a tea instantly, so I am going to settle in on giving it every other time as I transition into bloom, but for a lot of this grow I have been taking advantage of this amazing tool by giving recharge with most every watering, working on the philosophy that you can never have too many beneficial microbes.
 
Emilya said:
while adding these active microbes to a composting bin of soil is beneficial to a point, most of the magic happens with the action of the 3 humic acids and the breakdown of the organics into soil by different set of microbes than are typically used in the feeding cycle of our plants. These nasteir workhorses of the microbe troops typically come from the earth worm castings, compost and manure components of the pile, along with a lot of the kitchen waste decomposition militia, rather than from those inputs that specialize in producing the microbes who feast on specific minerals.

Mainly, just keep the cooking soil moist and turn it over regularly and good things happen, and my strategy has always been to pour my leftover teas in there after watering my active grow and not worry about adding anything other than that. Especially in early veg, making 2 gallons of AACT was more than enough to water as well as take care of this need too.
During the grow, I like to replenish the microbes as often as I can, so I would try to do an AACT about once a week, give or take. Now that I am using Recharge, it is much easier to get a tea instantly, so I am going to settle in on giving it every other time as I transition into bloom, but for a lot of this grow I have been taking advantage of this amazing tool by giving recharge with most every watering, working on the philosophy that you can never have too many beneficial microbes.
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What recharge are you using ? I know Doc Buds has a recharge is that the one you mean ? I will give compost tea once a week with the LOS soils. Do you ever amend with rock dust maybe between grows as an amendment or maybe a top dress ?
 
Emilya said:
91WFYQLqdrL._SL1500_ (1).jpg

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microbial super pack

I do not amend with any raw elements... I don't believe in the practice of topdressing, you might as well be feeding from a bottle. Put it in the soil beforehand and cook it in between grows definitely.
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So you just add Recharge to the water and that's all it needs ?
 
Emilya said:
yep... it's a beautiful thing!
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I need to buy some of this then. This is all organic and will not harm LOS is that right, I assume it is
 
PCaddict said:
I need to buy some of this then. This is all organic and will not harm LOS is that right, I assume it is
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Nothing but freeze dried microbes and their food in there... and it would bring your LOS to a level of life only before dreamed about. If there is a downside to this stuff, I have not found it.
 
Bloom, Day 5 Pollination Day
Greetings Everyone! Today finds us with a bit more stretch and a bit more bud development. It is hard to tell who is doing best at this stage, because all the plants seem to be growing very rapidly. I can't even imagine how much yield there is going to be here at this point, because I am out of my known element with these big grow bags and these new state of the art lights... I just know it is going to be a lot. Here is what we are looking like at the moment, with the canopy 16-18 inches away from the lights.
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Today is pollination day and I have chosen to seed 3 branches, and have chosen Tara as the mother since she was by far the fastest and strongest grower. I prepared the 3 sites by clearly marking them with a twisty tie

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Then I prepared the pollen that has been sitting in the refrigerator by mixing it 50:50 with some white flour:

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All of the fans in the house have been turned off. The air conditioner is off. Window fans are off. Floor fans are off. The exhaust fan in the tent is off. Oscillating fans in the corners of the tent are off.

Next, I carefully "painted" the pollen/flour mix onto the bud sites that were chosen. I will let this sit here the rest of the day and will reapply tonight before lights out if I don't see an immediate reaction. Within a day, the pistils painted with pollen should pull back and change color. When I see that this has worked, I will spray down the entire area with water to kill any pollen that might be left over. This is not a totally flawless process and there will no doubt be a few random seeds elsewhere in the tent, but it should be minimal because of the pollen/flour mix... just normal humidity tends to lock this down on the bud and it doesn't fly all over the room like pure pollen would do.

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Highya Emmie,

Kudos to you! A great tutorial on pollinating! Very nice looking organic ladies. I like your growing style. Cheers
 
I want to keep up with this thread and see what happens next. I am a Newbie so I don't know. I have never done this or seen this before What do you do with a plant that you pollenated what are the next steps I am sure Emilya will school us with her words of wisdom :thumb:
 
PCaddict said:
I want to keep up with this thread and see what happens next. I am a Newbie so I don't know. I have never done this or seen this before What do you do with a plant that you pollenated what are the next steps I am sure Emilya will school us with her words of wisdom :thumb:
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At Pollination​
24 Hours After​

​

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These are pictures that I took 5 minutes ago. The top set shows the difference that can be seen as the pistils react to the pollen. It is my belief that pollination took and that we are going to have bunches of little baby seeds.

At this point the oscillating fans are still off, but they need to go back on soon... definitely before I water again. I am going to let them hang out as they are for another 6 hours or so, and then I will spray this whole area down with plain water and turn the fans back on. Tomorrow I will do another check just like this one to see if indeed, the now wet down and dried pistils still look like they are reacting to the fertilization. If they do, I am done with this part of the process and we simply wait, and document the development of the seeds so you can see what that looks like. If the pistils look like the rest of the buds again, all splayed out in infinite directions, I will repeat the painting process. I doubt we are going to need to do that though... pollen is mighty powerful, even diluted 100%.

So these 3 growth tips will have been pollinated while leaving the rest of the plant to produce sensimillia (non pollinated) buds. There will be some pollen that got away and there will be a few seeds that show up in that area of the plant, but with any luck that will not be happening all over the room. At harvest I will set these carefully marked branches aside and they will go through a separate drying/curing process so that the seeds and the slightly less potent pot can be collected.
 

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Emilya said:
DSCF7280.JPG​
DSCF7290.JPG​
At Pollination​
24 Hours After​
​

DSCF7290.JPG
DSCF7289.JPG
DSCF7290.JPG


These are pictures that I took 5 minutes ago. The top set shows the difference that can be seen as the pistils react to the pollen. It is my belief that pollination took and that we are going to have bunches of little baby seeds.

At this point the oscillating fans are still off, but they need to go back on soon... definitely before I water again. I am going to let them hang out as they are for another 6 hours or so, and then I will spray this whole area down with plain water and turn the fans back on. Tomorrow I will do another check just like this one to see if indeed, the now wet down and dried pistils still look like they are reacting to the fertilization. If they do, I am done with this part of the process and we simply wait, and document the development of the seeds so you can see what that looks like. If the pistils look like the rest of the buds again, all splayed out in infinite directions, I will repeat the painting process. I doubt we are going to need to do that though... pollen is mighty powerful, even diluted 100%.

So these 3 growth tips will have been pollinated while leaving the rest of the plant to produce sensimillia (non pollinated) buds. There will be some pollen that got away and there will be a few seeds that show up in that area of the plant, but with any luck that will not be happening all over the room. At harvest I will set these carefully marked branches aside and they will go through a separate drying/curing process so that the seeds and the slightly less potent pot can be collected.
Click to expand...
Thank You I do not know anything about breeding plants so this is interesting and informative Something to try down the road a good bit after I get a good amount of grows under my belt
 
It is now about 7 hours after the last check, and being convinced that I see signs of pollination, I sprayed down the area very well with some tap water.
I have also attempted to bunch up each of the plants into a more manageable mess by wrapping a bit of twine around the outside at about mid plant level. This should help out a bunch, especially when these multiple buds become too heavy for the branches to hold up. I may yet have to get out bamboo to help hold it all up, but so far except for a couple of side branches, everything is still standing up well.

Now that the pollinated buds have been cleaned up, let me show you the difference, and how I know already that the branches have been pollinated.
Here is an unpollinated bud:

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Here are two of our recently fertilized buds. Note the color already on the pistils and how they have now pulled back to reveal more green bud. Seeds will quickly begin to form, and if past results hold to be the norm, I should get around 200 seeds per branch by doing it this early.

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Bloom, Day 6
Also, it is watering day... and all the girls got another healthy dose of Terpinator for its heavy K load, and full strength RealGrower's Recharge. Things are looking very good for being 1/8 of the way in so far. All of the yellowing at the bottom that had been happening has stopped. It has to be lack of K that causes this and now I know... At some point I want to challenge myself to not lose even one leaf through an entire grow.
 
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