Keffka's Stonington Soil, Bag Seed, 2022 Setup Indoor Grow

Gee64 said:
Shes a hungry Gal😍 She is definitely moving nutrients around from her lower leaves. Don't pluck them, let them fall off on their own or she may start to eat the next layer up until the tea is served. She looks stunning! How does she smell?
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Yep that’s what I was thinking about the leaves.. they’re already wasting away may as well let it pull every last bit out that it can.

The smell isn’t too heavy yet.. you can definitely smell her when I move the branches around, but I have a feeling this is going to be a near 12 week flower since it’s such a sativa heavy blend, so I’m thinking within the next week or two the smell should really takeoff. Trichomes are starting to powder the leaves and lots of sugar leaves have begun popping out.
 
Gee64 said:
Shes a hungry Gal😍 She is definitely moving nutrients around from her lower leaves. Don't pluck them, let them fall off on their own or she may start to eat the next layer up until the tea is served. She looks stunning! How does she smell?
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You and I are gonna have to discuss soil building itself as well.. I have 1.5 cu ft of the Stonington soil sitting outside in a Rubbermaid bin.. It has fungus gnats but I figure if I use that soil as a base for a supersoil it should move the gnats out themselves. I know all of the elements and amendments I’m gonna want to add, it’s the physical act of making it I’m cloudy about.

Should I bake the soil in the oven to neutralize the gnats and start over with a sterile soil? Or, should I just go about building the soil as is, and the gnats will be removed in the process?

OR.. should I just say eff it, and buy a new base soil to build up? I’m under the belief that it really doesn’t matter what soil I buy, if it’s coming from the store it’ll probably have gnats.
 
I'm not familiar with Stonington blend at all but as long as it has a good calcium additive along with a full mineral spectrum and good carbon, whether that be coco or spagnum peatmoss, and a good pile of perlite in it then it will work. If it comes dusted with myco thats even better. I started out by buying a soil called Bluesky Organic Supersoil, it worked excellent, then I spent 3 years trying my own blends only to end up back at Bluesky because I couldn't really make it any better, only cheaper, but not that much cheaper, and its a ton of work. All I do now is run the BS supersoil thru my wormfarm to make my own EWC. Then I add 1 gal of coco per 2 gals of ewc and 1.5 gals perlite for 4.5 gals and add another 4.5 gals of BS Supersoil for a total of 9 gals and then I uppot my 2 gal veg pot into that in a 10gal pot. It leaves a bit left over which I usually add to my next tray of EWC. I have grown beautiful plants in straight store bought Bluesky soil many times as well but get better results with the EWC. When you make EWC all the myco in it is destroyed by the worms so you need to add extra myco at each uppotting by dusting the rootball. I would imagine stoningtons blend is very similar to Bluesky. The key is not having really strong soil but having a complete soil and then upping the pot size so the plant has enough food to make it through. 6gal cubed smart pots that fit in milk crates work excellent for clones but plants from seeds need a bigger pot or else you end up flowering the plant too young. I find 10gal pots are easy and bullet proof plus when they are deep into flower they only need water every 3 days. 4 10gal pots hold the RH in my tent perfectly for VPD to be optimal as that extra moisture allows me to control VPD by venting moisture out with an inline fan instead of trying to add moisture. I live in a desert so its dry here. The worms eat alot of the carbon and the added veggy scraps make the mix gooey so thats why I add coco, to replace the carbon, and perlite to cut the coco and offset the gooey.
 
True Living Organics by The Rev has some cool soil,tea,and topdress/spikes recipes. Myself I find my 10gal mix works excellent for sativas but if I grow an Indica Piggy I add 2 of The Revs flower spikes and 1 of his veg spikes to the pot and the little piggies never go hungry. When you make a stronger soil you run the chance of it being too microbial and your myco gets killed off so the uppotting never takes and the plant will still do surprisingly well but never really roots into the hotter soil and when you harvest the old rootball just pops out when you tug on it. If you add the extras in spikes, which are just holes you poke into the soil and pour a dry mix into, the roots will shoot thru the store bought blend and go everywhere very fast, and surround the spikes with huge feather-duster rootball pillars top to bottom about 2 inches thick all the way around the spikes. Indicas love it but sativas dont need it. On 50/50 hybrids I would still use the spikes as they may be heavy Indica on the pheno.
 
All my used soil goes outdoors so the gardens get the perlite. As for your gnat problem I never ever bring anything from outdoors inside. It will give you bugs every time. Save it for spring and an outdoor grow. My worm farm stays inside too and only gets kitchen scraps and weed trim. The old rootballs in your used soil are excellent carbon sources for your compost pile.
 
As for the physical act of making the soil you add all your amendments into the tub, water it lightly like it is a plant, but not heavily, mix it all up really well and so it is just damp. Then let it sit for a month to compost, and mix it really well weekly. Keep it dark and indoors at room temp and you will smell it cooking after a few days. The Revs book has alot on the technique in it as well. Just make sure whatever route you go that you have enough carbon. A good soil is about 50% carbon.
A note on perlite: It sounds obvious but it fools alot of people. Perlite is inert. Its only there for aereation so.... When a mix calls for perlite that adds to the volume. If your 10gal pot has 3 gals of perlite in it then you really only have 7 gals of soil so... When you are figuring your ratios, or reading a recipe, ignore the perlite and only concentrate on the ratios of carbon to organic matter and your ammendments. Once you have a mix that feels properly balanced, then cut it with perlite to fluff it, but dont let the perlite sway your math. Just make the soil then add the perlite. You will see what I mean when you read a few recipes and try to wrap your head around the balance of the ingredients. Its just way easier if you take the perlite out of the math.
 
Here is a bit of my philosophy on soil. Healthy plant food (soil) is identical in principal to healthy human food. You need a good carb to protein ratio. In plants thats called a carbon to organic matter ratio. Carbs are your browns and proteins are your greens. When that ratio is correct and you add oxygen (perlite for aereation) you get the perfect diet with the air allowing the process to burn, just like in human cells. Now that the process functions properly all you can do to improve it is add better nutrition to your greens and browns, so thats your minerals( nutritional value) Then just add microbes to predigest it all into a plant friendly food. Water helps a bit too lol. Things like kelp now become hugely important because it is a green, a protein aka nitrogen, and its also loaded with minerals of all kinds. Carbs cant burn without proteins being present so balance becomes essential or you end up with leftovers either carbon or greens, that cant be used because there wasnt enough of the other for it all to compost (burn)
 
Then theres nitrogen. Everyone strives to get it and will spend good money on it but heres the thing.. Air is 78% nitrogen so why would you buy it. If your calcium is balanced to keep magnesiums sticky fingers in check then the nitrogen in the air wont get locked up by the magnesium and every high pressure ridge that rolls thru will push air(78%nitrogen) into the soil and you get to use it and every low pressure system will suck the old air out of your soil. Yes soil breathes. Calcium is as important as an EC setter to keep mag in check, as it is a nutritional requirement. If you want to see this in action just go outside to your lawn, find the worst hardpan area, and spread gypsum on like its fertilizer, water it in really gently and thoroughly, and in 3-4 days it will feel like millions of golf balls were buried in your lawn. Thats each individual gypsum pellet releasing mags grip and the soil fluffs up. Do that every 10 days and by application #5 your whole lawn will be almost spongey when you walk on it. Just dont go too heavy or the soils EC gets to high and you get nute burn on your lawn.
 
I love when I ask just the right question(s) and You (Gee) just take off for 4 or 5 responses, it’s exactly what I was hoping for lol. Gonna take some time and absorb the knowledge then come back with any Qs


Also.. whoops lol.. bubbled fast

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That is a nice tea Keefka!
 
I find the real trick when using your own soil is the myco. There are tons of great recipes that all work but once the composting is finished there is zero myco left in it. Mixing myco in doesnt work very well if your soil is too strong so what I do is this
1. Plant seed in a solo cup of 50/50 coco and OMRI store soil that has myco in it. I add a bit of perlite to cut the coco and 1/2 tsp of myco and mix it really well. No ewc. The myco will link to the sprout and propegate the whole solo cup.

2. Once the roots are running down the sides of the cup but not rootbound I uppot to 1 or 2 gal smart pots. Indicas go to 1gals and sativas to 2gals. That soil is uncut store blend as entering veg you dont need flower soil yet. Dont add ewc yet. Let the myco have 14 days to set itself up in the pot and then topdress with ewc and/or add a microbial tea but dont go crazy. As the microbes take over the pot you dont want the fungii to get overwhelmed as fungii needs to maintain control. You will know when you hit balance as the plants will get very lush and fuzzy around the stalks where the leaf stems come off the main stalk.

3. Going to 10gal pots is trickier as all the soil is hot so use a buffer of at least an inch of store soil under the plant so there is an area where myco and microbes can meet. Heavily dust the 2gal rootball with myco and sprinkle a good bit on top of your buffer pad of soil where the rootball will sit. Then add a bit of store soil around the bottom of the hole edges, then a layer of ewc about 1.5 inches thick around the edges of the rootball, then fill to the top with store soil. Then if you are going to use spikes put them in immediately and out into that ring of store soil. Never let roots touch spikes, always let the roots decide when to grow into the spikes. Then water gently to full runoff and an hour later water gently to full runoff again. The pot will be heavy and you wont have to water for a week but thats ok as you are sprouting myco. This is where you can least afford a dry spot, and the spikes must get fully saturated too. After that its show time.

note: never leave myco dry on a root. Damp your rootball, dust the myco on, then gently spray to lightly wet.
 
I usually only need 1 veg tea in the 2gal pot and another veg tea during stretch. I only use flower teas as a rescue tool as the 10gal pot has all the food I need in it, but sometimes the Indica piggies eat it all. All other microbes come in thru ewc topdressing which also replenishes the calcium up top in the pot as calcium always moves down.
 
So thats my way. Not nescessarily the best way, just what works for me and my understanding of the synergy. Every reputable recipe and grow technique will work if you are true to it. The best advice is to find a soil recipe and grow system that makes sense to you and be very true to it all the way to finish. If you switch gears mid-run it will likely not work out as good as it could have and your science becomes flawed so moving ahead is hard and confusing. That being said, keep cal-mag and bsm handy. Ewc too, and be ready to rescue. If you have to rescue either the soil wasnt good (rare on a reputable recipe) or more likely the pot was too small.
 
Quick update.. Flower day 28.. I hit her with the tea today.. She’s starting to bulk up, and starting to stink. I can see she’s pulling lots of resources right now. I’ve also noticed as Gee said, she’ll attack the weakest leaves first for their resources. Each fan leaf that’s showing resources being pulled is a leaf that had some sort of damage or mottling to it.

It’s almost time to figure out how I want to hold the weight of the buds coming in.. the lean is taking hold of a few of the colas

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You can see the sativa characteristics are really taking hold in the leaf color.. she’s been given nitrogen with every fertilizer and still is showing a lime coloring.

The next manifold that I do I am gonna wipe out all of the side branch growth sights and leave just the fan leaves. The only spots that will be allowed to flower are the main colas. I’ll be interested to see how much of a difference there is between a light defoliation and total removal.

Also it’s been very beneficial watching how the buds come to exist. Now I know exactly where I should be focusing at.
 
Gee64 said:
Trimming is what teaches you how to best train your plant. You will get sick of trying to trim fluffy popcorn so you will strip it off next grow, then you trim again and go "Huhhhh...shoulda took a little more larf off" lolol. At a point it gets worth it to trim it. You will find that point.
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It’s wild.. I must’ve removed at least 30 or 40 sites and there’s still an obscene amount lol. Every time I look I see another spot I’ve missed. She’s sneaky for sure.

Does trimming the plant/removing the growth sites shock the plant when she’s in flower? I can see it shocking her before and during stretch but once she’s finished growing roots, would it still shock her?

While in veg she seemed to respond much better if I just trimmed here and there instead of waiting and taking a bunch at once. I’ll be taking notes on that in a more controlled manner going forward.

I’m also interested to see the difference between using LST only on the plant to break apical dominance, versus HST, and what sort of quantity/quality effect there is.
 
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