How not to be a salt farmer or a wasteful grower tips

Perfect timing to add a note about flowering. In this case it’s outdoor mama but the same generally applies for indoor. So we’re in week 10 going into week 11 so it’s tea/garden gravy weekend for her in my case. Two points of observation are that she slowed down growing in height and she has the beginnings of pistils seen in the attached photo. To me this is a critical moment before blast off. Therefore, this weeks feeding will consist of the same gravy ratios I’ve mentioned before, but also 4tbsp of molasses diluted in 5ga buckets as well. I will saturate her this evening with about 2 ga of the diluted molasses and tomorrow I will blast her with 2 more ga of the gravy. Then for next top dressing she will get 1 ga of the diluted molasses and go back to her regular schedule. I don’t know exactly why this works so well but hopefully she doesn’t make a fool of me. Fasten your seat belts :)

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And for tracking purposes, momma is around 39” tall at this stage.

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More about my tea/garden gravy. I never actually measure anything and I never use bubblers or aeration stones and so on. Not because I have anything against those methods but rather because grandpa never did and I prefer simplest methods possible. How I really make it is based on a combination of grandpas methods coupled with more modern understanding. For every 5ga bucket of gravy I just throw in about 3 heaping handfuls of EWC (an acronym never uttered by gramps because worm poop sufficed) and one regular hand full of compost (no more than a b cup) and jiggle it up good at least 4 times a day until feeding time. I use collected rain water or stream water for most part for all watering and tea making. When I feed, residue goes back to compost pile and next brewing begins.
 
At the end of all this my hope is that everyone following along can say holy worm copulation Batman, this guy can grow great meds! By the same token, I hope anyone following along also chimes in with oh, that’s good but if you tried doing x here and y there I bet you’d see even better results! Hence why fish ferts and dolo water are in the queue for next round.
 
So now that I’ve gotten really mad and told all the worms to go eff themselves, fortunately the ones that are into that sort of thing said why not, sounds like fun, we have the room for it. And, I’ve covered the first big milestone for a super feed. Let’s talk about the next two major milestones I’m looking for and what I typically do assuming there’s no calamities or signs of deficiency to be addressed. The next milestone is easy because it’s very apparent and I do the same exact thing I did and am doing this weekend with the 2ga of diluted molasses and 2ga of tea/garden gravy. Note, my regular schedule continues to remain in place after this milestone. As soon as pistils start to change color whether it be red, brown or just a different shade of white, the key for me is the change. I hit it with the same method as this week. The final milestone I look for is when they have stopped changing color and at least 60% of the leaves are dead or at least dying off. At that point they get no more tea/gravy but still get a low dose of diluted molasses till the end. I can get away with this because of my 30-50% amber preference, you may want to start sooner or later based on your harvesting preferences. I’m telling everyone this now because that’s what I do regularly and plan to keep it this way for this cycle.
 
JiggiLotus said:
So it's a good thing for the leaves to díe off before harvest? Or you mean just enough of so many leaves?
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More precisely, I don’t panic about leaves dying off because it’s all part of the growth/recovery/death cycle of any plant. And by the way, that cycle is constant and always happening in various stages hence why I say never to panic about leaves dying at the lower portion of plant or older growth. It’s time to worry when all new growth starts displaying problems for sure, but if it’s just smaller portions definitely keep an eye on things but don’t panic. And for the love of God if you do make an adjustment please give it 2 weeks - you are not for the most part going to see any difference right away based on those adjustments, especially in terms of feeding. Also, if you share my preference for 30-50% amber your plant should and will have no fan leaves left and the remainder will be half brown at a min. Those buds are going to eat up every bit of energy they can from the remaining leaves before harvest.
 
A little more about worms. I didn’t learn until much later that worms were the masters of agenda 21 or whatever it’s called. I only knew that worms and worm poop were a good thing because grandpa said so. It was he that taught me to harvest them and put them in the compost and garden liberally. Our favorite and most fruitful harvesting sessions were just after a good rain going out the following morning and kicking aside some leaves or other detritus and scooping them up by the hundreds if not thousands. At least half went to compost piles and rest to garden, he didn’t grow in pots or have worm bins at all. Later I learned that some species self reproduce (the ones that eff themselves) and others do it like we do on the discovery channel. Back now to the population control aspect of agenda 21 or whatever they call it. Worms have had that down to a science long before the rockefellers and the gates foundation came along with the other 1%ers lol. No need to ever worry about putting too many or too few in any given area, they manage that perfectly on their own. Your biggest concern should only be to ensure adequate oxygen based on new knowledge so it’s a happy accident on my part that perlite gets added to my compost piles and worm bins as well!
 
All this talk about worms is bringing out one of the 7 deadly sins for me, namely envy. I’ve never been able to reproduce myself or even a part of myself without the help of a partner; trust me that’s not from a lack of trying. I’m not ashamed to admit no partner had the same level of commitment to trying and therefore my efforts continue unabated. But still, those bastages have me beaten every step of the way!
 
My last controversial note before bed. The parlor tricks and snake oil salesman tricks I know of that I personally haven’t used but can attest to their effectiveness are as follows. Let’s say we’re at the beginning of budding where I have nothing bigger than a piece of popcorn for a bud. This is the point where I’ve seen some start to introduce flavorings and color modifications outside of what you’d typically see induced by temperature, lighting and other environmental factors. Those in the know are probably already laughing at where I’m going with this. I’ve seen many cases where adding food coloring and mashed fruits/berries are added to the feeding schedule at this stage to enhance color and flavor profiles. One of the earliest I ever saw was the simple addition of vanilla extract to the diluted molasses. But the most prevalent I saw and tasted was for any breed with blueberry or strawberry in the name getting mashed blueberries and blue dye added to the feeding or mashed strawberries and red dye added to the feeding. While I prefer just to have the natural flavors I will say I could taste and see the difference and as far as I’m aware it did no harm so I wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying to have a little fun with it.
 
Happy day for the girls and the babies

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Momma is 41” tall and about 29” wide today :)
 
Recap, summary and status:
I started with seed in a solo cup for momma, and began feeding at week 4 from sprout. Solo cup had my soil mix with a starter pod with seed integrated.
My soil again is 50% bx organic, 30% perlite, 10% worm castings, and 10% compost free of manure with a handful of worms added about half the depth of the soil mix.
Week 4 she got a top dressing of worm castings, a light dusting of flour, and about a quart of diluted molasses water that was diluted at 3tbsp of molasses to 5ga rain water.
Then week 6 she got about a quart of tea/garden gravy mixed at about 3cups of worm castings to about 1 cup of compost per 5ga rain water.
Week 8 she got top dressed again.
Week 9-10 she got Neem oil treatment for whiteflies.
Week 10 she started showing pre-flower and a slight lull in growth which is typical and when I do first super feed which is basically same ratios as all the others but she gets 2ga of ea instead of a quart.
Week 12 she will get top dressed normally but still get the 2ga of diluted molasses.
Week 12 for her will also be week 4 for clones so they will get first top dressing feed that week with the exception of the one im testing with no additional feeding to see how long she can go just based on the soil, worms and rain water.
Next super feed will be when pistils start to change color, and final super feed will be when pistils have just about finished changing color after which she’ll only get rain water and small doses of diluted molasses as needed.
 
As for my keep it simple attitude, I follow the same schedule for both indoor and outdoor no matter what breed but with different timing for super feeds based on observations of pre-flower and pistils. Otherwise it’s simply the same feedings for everything.
 
Haha, meant to post here but accidentally added to Gee’s thread.
Rain and stream water:
During the regular outdoor season I have these in abundance but dryer season and winter months not so much hence why I collect them so I can have good water for the indoor growing season as well. For me that’s a couple 55ga plastic drums I use to store collected rain and stream water. When there’s going to be freezing temps I will fill up about 10 5ga buckets to keep indoors so that I don’t run out before the next thaw…
 
So now if you’ve been following along you might be wondering what’s going to happen, when might I start to observe any signs of deficiency or overfeeding if at all, and how much is she going to produce. Given that this is first time grow of this seed for me I can’t predict anything with certainty, but I can say we probably won’t see any major problems based on experience. I will say that if there are going to be signs of over feeding it will be a couple weeks after this first super feeding. As for deficiency, I wouldn’t expect any of that until within around 2 - 3 weeks before the final 2 super feedings. Again, I don’t expect to see either case, but those are milestones where I watch even more closely.
Finally, my last prediction for momma is that she will give me at least 7oz of cured bud and not more than 10oz of cured bud; these estimates are nearly a complete shot in the dark since I’ve never grown her before so mainly based on similar breeds of a similar size at this stage.
 
I do also have one more process that I apply during flower stage that I’ve not mentioned yet, that I will cover at about week 2-3 of flower.
 
budnoob3 said:
So now if you’ve been following along you might be wondering what’s going to happen
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oh hell no not at all. it all seems under control from here. :cheesygrinsmiley:

keep it up.
 
Breakfast P0rn

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First, thank you to everyone contributing and showing some love as you follow along! I’ve been learning a lot about the how and why my methods work scientifically thanks to many of you. One of the things I learned more recently about my worms is that they also improve drainage and oxygen intake for the roots so worms and perlite are both great things. Another thing I learned about the worms in my region (mainly earthworms and night crawlers) is that they don’t breed well in captivity but I’m not concerned because the vast majority are in garden, and compost and the ones in the bins I have no shortage of and can always add more. If you want best worms like red worms etc just look up vermiculture or Vermicompost for info, You can buy on Amazon if not available in your region. I also recently learned about coffee grounds and bone meal being great sources of P, have always added them to compost anyhow but now have a better understanding how they help. I’m sure there’s more but that’s what I have for right now. Thanks again everybody!
 
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