Jon's First Outdoor Grow: Sugar Breath Photoperiod & Strawberry Banana Autoflower

[cjsbabygirl313]

Funny....I'm learning hydro this spring/summer with another member's guidance. I want big big buds. The kind only hydro can make. I see plant after plant I grew the same strain of, and theirs is in hydro and mine soil and in almost every case the hydro is always bigger with bigger buds. I have come to believe I can't achieve the superstar yields I'm looking for without giving hydro a shot. But I wanna work on my soil game for a few more grows first before I take on an entirely new medium. Coco is new for me this time, but I have Bill, and it's close enough to soil that I already knew the basics are the same. Not so with hydro, I gotta learn everything and it seems a ton more complicated than soil. I'm psyched to learn it and have as much trepidation about learning that new medium as you probably did before you began hydro. And look at you now! You're doing great!!

I had no reservations at all when I first started with the hydro. Questions yes; reservations none … but thats because its kinda hard to forget to water them when their in hydro … nor do you have to worry about them drowning (once they’re established that is). Hydro is easy … start with 0 ppm water, add calmag, nutes, rooting hormone, hydroguard, and some beneficial bacteria … adjust pH to within 5.0 to 5.5. Then all you have to do is adjust the oh up or down each day as needed to stay in that range. Slowly up the ppms as you you. Easy peasy!

 

[Jon]

I had no reservations at all when I first started with the hydro. Questions yes; reservations none … but thats because its kinda hard to forget to water them when their in hydro … nor do you have to worry about them drowning (once they’re established that is). Hydro is easy … start with 0 ppm water, add calmag, nutes, rooting hormone, hydroguard, and some beneficial bacteria … adjust pH to within 5.0 to 5.5. Then all you have to do is adjust the oh up or down each day as needed to stay in that range. Slowly up the ppms as you you. Easy peasy!

I can make soil sound that easy too....not sure I'm buying it.....

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

I can make soil sound that easy too....not sure I'm buying it.....

Oh stop … As evidenced by your smashing and successful grows I have NO DOUBT you’d take to hydro like a duck in water!

 

[Jon]

Oh stop … As evidenced by your smashing and successful grows I have NO DOUBT you’d take to hydro like a duck in water!

Lol, you're too kind, but I will say I have enlisted the help of a good coach and it'll be interesting. We'll have some fun.

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

Lol, you're too kind, but I will say I have enlisted the help of a good coach and it'll be interesting. We'll have some fun.

Having coaches rocks … and we all have each other to lean on and pick each other's brains which is SOOOO helpful! Thank god I’ve got all of y’all or I’d be lost!

 

[Prescription Blend]

So here's my question, and if you PB guys wanna chime in on this that would be awesome should you see it....would layering the pot with bokashi and frass do anything positive for the plant using regular soil and PB nutes? What harm can adding microbes do?

You can add bokashi and frass if you like and adding microbes is never bad for your garden! Our nutrients don't require microbes to make it bioavailable but having microbes in your root zone, especially fungi, can help the plants.

 

[Jon]

You can add bokashi and frass if you like and adding microbes is never bad for your garden! Our nutrients don't require microbes to make it bioavailable but having microbes in your root zone, especially fungi, can help the plants.

Thank you for your response, PB! That's what I was thinking.

 

[Jon]

Who Wants To Start Their Sunday with a Laugh?

Chocolope Flower Day 2

I thought it would be cool to start this day of rest with a laugh or possibly even a guffaw or two. Maybe a chortle too.

So I'm not very good at the actual killing part of a plant. Like, I have a hard time bringing myself to actually pull it out of the ground, do whatever with the dirt, clean the pot, etc. Feels too much like my girlfriend had to have an abortion. And so it was when I removed the Chocolope from this grow a few days ago. I have no problem killing hermies, those I'll destroy with joy, like killing a mosquito. No thought. And I have no problem removing a plant from a grow for whatever reason. But killing/pulling a plant that's just a mutant but otherwise healthy despite being about four inches tall? I couldn't bring myself to do it. And I couldn't bring myself to turn her into an actual house plant, and get treated as such, cuz within a short time she'd simply die.

So instead I put her out with the PUC and sent her to flower. I'm going to waste some bloom nutes on her and bud her out.



Here she is on day two of the stretch. LMAO. Hope this post made someone smile. I'm cracking up. If she makes me one bong hit dried I'll be so psyched I'll do a 3/4 of a gram yield and smoke report on it. So if you only ever saw the first picture, you might think well, she's odd, but that's not so bad....but then you'd see the second picture and be like, oh. Heh.

Happy Sunday!

 

[StoneOtter]

Who Wants To Start Their Sunday with a Laugh?

Chocolope Flower Day 2

I thought it would be cool to start this day of rest with a laugh or possibly even a guffaw or two. Maybe a chortle too.

So I'm not very good at the actual killing part of a plant. Like, I have a hard time bringing myself to actually pull it out of the ground, do whatever with the dirt, clean the pot, etc. Feels too much like my girlfriend had to have an abortion. And so it was when I removed the Chocolope from this grow a few days ago. I have no problem killing hermies, those I'll destroy with joy, like killing a mosquito. No thought. And I have no problem removing a plant from a grow for whatever reason. But killing/pulling a plant that's just a mutant but otherwise healthy despite being about four inches tall? I couldn't bring myself to do it. And I couldn't bring myself to turn her into an actual house plant, and get treated as such, cuz within a short time she'd simply die.

So instead I put her out with the PUC and sent her to flower. I'm going to waste some bloom nutes on her and bud her out.



Here she is on day two of the stretch. LMAO. Hope this post made someone smile. I'm cracking up. If she makes me one bong hit dried I'll be so psyched I'll do a 3/4 of a gram yield and smoke report on it. So if you only ever saw the first picture, you might think well, she's odd, but that's not so bad....but then you'd see the second picture and be like, oh. Heh.

Happy Sunday!

She outgrew her unwillingness to thrive!

 

[Jon]

Morning @Bill284
Coco Phototown Flower Day 16
Bill's Coco Grow that Jon is Managing

I don't know what the Strawberry Lemonade did, but she's obviously banging on the door of the confessional this morning. Her huge fan leaves almost completely obscure the main cola developing. Lol. Blueberry was bad too I guess. The Dos Si Dos must have refrained from coveting another plant this week, cuz she's sitting in the pew all alert and in the front row.

Bill, seems to me your colors are great, your buds are developing just fine, your leaves are blemish free, your coco is kept well moistened and fed at all times, your light is dialed in, your girls are all up on risers and getting watered to runoff each time, and your fear of anything bug or pest related is down to zero.

Your grow is going well I think. I'll try to maintain this for you.

Here's a prayer shot and a bud shot of each plant. The first and last pictures are pretty close to the real colors, the reds on the lights skew the photos a little even on those. The plants are all the exact shade of green they should be and I'm looking for. The last picture shows you what the lower part of the tent looks like today. Defol ought to be fun. That's a jungle waiting to happen, and on it's way. Lol.

1-2: Strawberry Lemonade
3-4: Blueberry
5-6: Dos Si Dos Fast Flowering
7: Lower growth shot

 

[Bill284]

Morning @Bill284
Coco Phototown Flower Day 16
Bill's Coco Grow that Jon is Managing

I don't know what the Strawberry Lemonade did, but she's obviously banging on the door of the confessional this morning. Her huge fan leaves almost completely obscure the main cola developing. Lol. Blueberry was bad too I guess. The Dos Si Dos must have refrained from coveting another plant this week, cuz she's sitting in the pew all alert and in the front row.

Bill, seems to me your colors are great, your buds are developing just fine, your leaves are blemish free, your coco is kept well moistened and fed at all times, your light is dialed in, your girls are all up on risers and getting watered to runoff each time, and your fear of anything bug or pest related is down to zero.

Your grow is going well I think. I'll try to maintain this for you.

Here's a prayer shot and a bud shot of each plant. The first and last pictures are pretty close to the real colors, the reds on the lights skew the photos a little even on those. The plants are all the exact shade of green they should be and I'm looking for. The last picture shows you what the lower part of the tent looks like today. Defol ought to be fun. That's a jungle waiting to happen, and on it's way. Lol.

1-2: Strawberry Lemonade
3-4: Blueberry
5-6: Dos Si Dos Fast Flowering
7: Lower growth shot

Where is that dam envy emoji again.
Perfect Amigo.

Stay safe
Bill

 

[Jon]

Morning @Bill284. I'm really starting to enjoy these early morning Q and A sessions, I must say. So today let's look to the future, in particular to the monster outdoor plant grow this spring/summer. Pretty sure me, you, @StoneOtter, and @Rexer are in so far, gotta confirm with those guys. My question is about soil. I'll probably use coco for my monster, but I want to use soil for other outdoor (not intentional monsters) plants. I have around 70 gallons of used soil in pots just sitting there by the end of this grow. I already am looking at 30 gallons. I didn't dump it in the landscaping like I usually do, because after the sour apple spent soil experiment and how great that plant was, I think I want to keep it and resuse it if possible. I can easily bag it up and take it with me when I move to PA as we'll be driving up. And up there I even have one of those big, round, plastic mulcher things that you keep in the yard and turn with a crank whenever you want to mix it up. I'm thinking I take the soil with me, dump it in that thing, and then amend it and let it mulch and microbe up for however long until it's soil that would be good for weed.

So....

- Is this do-able?
- Can the soil be amended to bring it back to life?
- Any idea what amendments might be most effective?
- Any idea how long a process this is? Are we talking two summers from now grows? (ugh)
- Is that mulcher piece of equipment thing the best way to do it?
- Got any reference material or good links to member info on this?
- Any other comments, suggestions, etc.?

That ought to keep you busy for a few minutes. Thanks Bill! Btw....we began week 7 of the FF feed chart on the girls yesterday. Flush on Sunday. Here's the thing about that - they are already so rooted in the threes that they already are taking longer to drain each time I fill the top of the pot with water before I can add more. Much slower than in the beginning, of course. They gotta be so incredibly rooted in there - I can't even push their name tags into the medium enough for it to stand anymore. So when I flush them I guess I have no choice but to be patient and wait on the goddamn water to drain each time? It's going to take forever. If I am flushing like you said with just a hose and tap water, would completely spraying the outside of the bags while I wait for the pot to drain the water help and make it quicker? Or does all the water HAVE to flow down and through via gravity, like straight down? They take about a gallon each before any slight runoff, and almost a gallon and a half each to get proper runoff. The Blueberry is the thirstiest by a mile and dries out the quickest every time. The DSD and Straw Lem are about the same on that front. All are praying like demons on meth. All blemish free except where I spilled nutes on a couple leaves, lol. The buds are forming properly on all, I'll post bud pics for you when they wake up. So there's your Coco girls update.

 

[StoneOtter]

My soil is years old and many grows in. It gets amended every time and has to be cooked/composted for about a month at least. You can do this.

 

[StoneOtter]

This is easier to read:

3 - 3.5 cu ft used soil

1 to 2 gallons coco coir

2 cups powdered dolomite lime

1 cup prilled(fast acting) lime. Or 1/3 cup dolomite lime

1 cup blood meal

1/2 cup bat or bird guano npk 9-3-1

1 cup azomite granular. Or 1/3 powdered

3 cups feather meal

3 cups bone meal

1.5 cups greensand

1/3 cup powdered soft rock phosphate. or 1 cup granular rock phosphate

2 cups natural rice

1/2 cup humic acid ore

3/4 cup gypsum

3 heaping cups kelp meal

2 cups alfalfa meal

3 cups crushed oyster shell. Or 1 cup ground oyster shell flour

4 to 8 cups steer or barnyard manure


That's it. Mix well and moisten. Let it be for a month or so. The Rev wants the soil moved around every few days. I don't have the energy for that. Hope this helps.

 

[StoneOtter]

The thing with this recipe is it calls for ro water or very low ppm, less than 40 ppm if memory serves me. So it may not be for everyone. Search for Coots, that's a popular one.

 

[Jon]

The thing with this recipe is it calls for ro water or very low ppm, less than 40 ppm if memory serves me. So it may not be for everyone. Search for Coots, that's a popular one.

@StoneOtter, did you just lay out your entire soil recipe in detail? THANKS man! I gotta check all this out but I'll get back to you. That's awesome, a lot of growers won't give up their soil recipes. I always found that silly, but I kind of get it. Anyway, thanks! Btw - Dos Si Dos buds are 100% total ROCKS. Maybe even more like diamonds. They are so hard it's unbelievable. And both phenos. The strain just creates rocks! Out of the maybe 20 something different strains I have grown, these buds are far and away the rockiest, hardest, densest buds I've grown yet. I'm falling in love with this strain before I have even ever smoked it! You're gonna be SO psyched when you feel the hardness!!!!!

 

[StoneOtter]

@StoneOtter, did you just lay out your entire soil recipe in detail? THANKS man! I gotta check all this out but I'll get back to you. That's awesome, a lot of growers won't give up their soil recipes. I always found that silly, but I kind of get it. Anyway, thanks! Btw - Dos Si Dos buds are 100% total ROCKS. Maybe even more like diamonds. They are so hard it's unbelievable. And both phenos. The strain just creates rocks! Out of the maybe 20 something different strains I have grown, these buds are far and away the rockiest, hardest, densest buds I've grown yet. I'm falling in love with this strain before I have even ever smoked it! You're gonna be SO psyched when you feel the hardness!!!!!

That is the amend list not the soil mix list. It's what you want for the application you mentioned. I'm a fan of dense bud! Looking forward to my two phenos showing some!

If you go with it, get the book, it's a science in itself. Nothing you aren't already onto but the way he puts things needs to be read. That's me anyway.

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

This is easier to read:

3 - 3.5 cu ft used soil

1 to 2 gallons coco coir

2 cups powdered dolomite lime

1 cup prilled(fast acting) lime. Or 1/3 cup dolomite lime

1 cup blood meal

1/2 cup bat or bird guano npk 9-3-1

1 cup azomite granular. Or 1/3 powdered

3 cups feather meal

3 cups bone meal

1.5 cups greensand

1/3 cup powdered soft rock phosphate. or 1 cup granular rock phosphate

2 cups natural rice

1/2 cup humic acid ore

3/4 cup gypsum

3 heaping cups kelp meal

2 cups alfalfa meal

3 cups crushed oyster shell. Or 1 cup ground oyster shell flour

4 to 8 cups steer or barnyard manure


That's it. Mix well and moisten. Let it be for a month or so. The Rev wants the soil moved around every few days. I don't have the energy for that. Hope this helps.

Wow - This is cool! I may run soil one day and was wondering what to add to soil once its “spent” so I bookmarked this awesome post!

 

[Jon]

Monday Morning Anti-Bud Porn
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

It's times like this I thank my lucky stars I've developed the habit of checking my buds religiously first thing every morning when the plants wake up. Cuz today, in checking the PUC, I got a little surprise. Fortunately (sort of a little bit not at all...lol) I have dealt with this a few times during this grow. I know what I'm hoping to not see and I know when I see it. So I'm feeling pretty good about the catch, and now I have to worry every day until she harvests and hope it doesn't show up on any other buds. At this point there's not a thing I can do to prevent it or not. Anyway, let's go right to the pics.

1. Bud rot. This was the only bud on the plant to have this. It did not exist yesterday, this happened literally overnight, as I check all the buds before she goes to her dark spot too. I saw it and immediately decided to just take the entire bud, no messing around with cutting out the rotted part to keep the rest on the vine to ripen. Too risky with such a beautiful plant who is only a few days from getting chopped. Especially since I am 100% certain it did not exist yesterday, which means I caught it really early, as early as possible actually. It's a lot for one night in my opinion. How quickly that crap turns the leaves brown. I fricking HATE it. It's my one bitch about outdoor so far. But very pleased to make the catch, and doubly pleased that it was just one bud, and triply pleased that it was a small bud and not a huge cola or other top. Plus, I caught it early enough that even this bud has some saved material.
2. Untrimmed bud closer view of overall moldiness.
3. Trimmed rotted part - in the end, other than taking it early, this isn't bad at all. One lost bud. So what if it's a decent bud, it is only one, and there's an equal amount of saved weight (see next pic).
4. Trimmed saved buds from below the rot - this is equal to or more than the mass of the rotting top.
5. Closeup of the mold
6. Other side of bud even closer closeup of mold.
7. If only this were frost....

So there you go. Another save. Not sure this one competes with saving the main broken cola on the DSD, but if it saves this amazing plant I'll be super happy.

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

Monday Morning Anti-Bud Porn
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

It's times like this I thank my lucky stars I've developed the habit of checking my buds religiously first thing every morning when the plants wake up. Cuz today, in checking the PUC, I got a little surprise. Fortunately (sort of a little bit not at all...lol) I have dealt with this a few times during this grow. I know what I'm hoping to not see and I know when I see it. So I'm feeling pretty good about the catch, and now I have to worry every day until she harvests and hope it doesn't show up on any other buds. At this point there's not a thing I can do to prevent it or not. Anyway, let's go right to the pics.

1. Bud rot. This was the only bud on the plant to have this. It did not exist yesterday, this happened literally overnight, as I check all the buds before she goes to her dark spot too. I saw it and immediately decided to just take the entire bud, no messing around with cutting out the rotted part to keep the rest on the vine to ripen. Too risky with such a beautiful plant who is only a few days from getting chopped. Especially since I am 100% certain it did not exist yesterday, which means I caught it really early, as early as possible actually. It's a lot for one night in my opinion. How quickly that crap turns the leaves brown. I fricking HATE it. It's my one bitch about outdoor so far. But very pleased to make the catch, and doubly pleased that it was just one bud, and triply pleased that it was a small bud and not a huge cola or other top. Plus, I caught it early enough that even this bud has some saved material.
2. Untrimmed bud closer view of overall moldiness.
3. Trimmed rotted part - in the end, other than taking it early, this isn't bad at all. One lost bud. So what if it's a decent bud, it is only one, and there's an equal amount of saved weight (see next pic).
4. Trimmed saved buds from below the rot - this is equal to or more than the mass of the rotting top.
5. Closeup of the mold
6. Other side of bud even closer closeup of mold.
7. If only this were frost....

So there you go. Another save. Not sure this one competes with saving the main broken cola on the DSD, but if it saves this amazing plant I'll be super happy.

Glad you caught that so fast! And good pics of it too; I can see exactly what you mean by the brown leaves and the mold. I doubt I’ll have to worry about this, BUT its good reference for “just in case”! Bookmarked!