Radogast's Hi-Brix Basement Grow - New Location - New Soil - New Experiences

[Radogast]

Hi there ! Welcome

Some Background:

After 3 years growing in a New England basement, then moving, I am setting up again in a basement along the Mississippi river. Moving to a new state, I had to make choices about what to leave behind. Large grow related sacrifices include: My 4x8' plastic flood tray that was my flowering room floor, all my organic Coots based soil, most of my soil supplies, my potting bench, and unused 'nutes'.


Lights and environmentals:

Grow supplies that were moved include: Lights (2) 600W HPS 600, (2) 216W (4 tube) CFL, (2) 300W LED, fabric and plastic pots, hanging hooks, foliar sprayer, oil heater, humidifier, de-humidifier, and a 6" exhaust fan. The only things I must purchase are air ducting, electrical outlets, and some light barriers/walls. I'll post pictures as I unpack and install them.


Hi-Brix Soil:

One of the lowest cost, highest quality, best documented, and best supported grow methods on 420 is Doc Bud's Hi-Brix method.
10 days ago, I mixed a bale of Pro-MIx BX Mycorrhizae, 30 lbs of Wiggle Worm worm castings, water, and Doc Bud's soil amendment bag from "The Kit" in a 7.5 cu ft Rubbermaid farm cart. The cart is full to the brim with soil (I used a tote to help with mixing) and sitting in my garage under a blue tarp. It should be ready for planting in early October.

I moved my worm trays and worms, so I'll be doing a little soil freshening with home-grown worm castings.


Water:

The Mississippi has lots of water, but even after treatment it is not the best water for drinking and growing plants. After refilling a Brita water pitcher 4-5 times a day for drinking water, I ordered a Home Master Reverse Osmosis (RO) system from Advanced Water Filters. I went with the Home Master because of long-lasting filters, high flow rate, high efficiency and the ease of replacing parts. I went with Advanced Water Filters because they allow for semi-custom orders and spare parts. I'll post more on my RO system very soon.


Attitude:

I spend a lot of time being happy

I'm very busy with house cleaning, fixing, painting, and upgrading. I am moderately busy with planting, designing, and transforming the yards into gardens. I have a family and a job. I am spending more time going out with my wife doing music, fairs, auctions, and visitting brew pubs. as a consequence, I am spending less time on 420 than the last few years.

I love

I love my life more

 

[Tomula]

Hi man, I'm subbed I love organic gardening. Worm castings are great. I grow in compost and I've added few worms to my pot. I do recommend using compost tea- it can be made in a bucket using airpump and some thriving weeds growing around. Chop the weeds up and put into basket in a stocking. Let it brew for a week with the pump and then add to your water or spray it onto leaves. I do not have the pump so instead I mix it manually at least once a day. You can then feed the stockings content to your worms. Happy growing man!

 

[JimmieJ]

Glad to see you're back Rad, sounds like you have struck a great balance. :icon_cool

 

[Gaffle]

I hear you Rad. I have been subscribed to so many journals lately, I have found that there isn't enough time in my day to follow all these threads, play in my own garden, and do the family thing. I shall hang around for a fresh show.

 

[Radogast]

My new Reverse Osmosis system


As I said in my intro, I ordered a Home Master Reverse Osmosis (RO) system from Advanced Water Filters. I went with the Home Master because of long-lasting filters, high flow rate, high efficiency and the ease of replacing parts. I went with Advanced Water Filters because they allow for semi-custom orders and spare parts (I added 2 tees.) I just got all the lines intalled and leak free this afternoon. Bypassing the clogged filter and fixing the leaky line underneath the refrigerator were extra work, but it all worked out.


From the sink, the only thing new is a 1/2" hole and the nozzle for the RO water

Underneath the sink is an apparent tangle of canisters and tubing. The biggest hassle was finding a solid place to attach the RO cannisters.

One of the semi-custom bits was the addition of a permeate pump. This is designed to increase the RO storage pressure from 60-70% of home water pressure to near 100% of home water pressure. As a side effect, the amount of waste water from the RO extraction process goes down from 4 or 5:1 to around 1:1.

I spliced a tee into the line to the faucet and ran it into the basement labelled ICEMAKER. I also ran a line labelled TANK.

The other semi-custom bit was a tank increase from 3.2 gallons to 4.0 gallons, about what I pour into a 5 gallon bucket for storage.

I hung a little shelf from the rafters below the sink to hold the tank up out of the way.

As well as the tee to go into the basement, I put in a second tee to the refrigerator door icemaker and icewater dispensers.

The main line continues the length of the basement to a valve in my future grow area. The new valve does not fully shut but I have an RO hose with water pressure in my grow area

 

[Radogast]

Hi man, I'm subbed I love organic gardening. Worm castings are great. I grow in compost and I've added few worms to my pot. I do recommend using compost tea- it can be made in a bucket using airpump and some thriving weeds growing around. Chop the weeds up and put into basket in a stocking. Let it brew for a week with the pump and then add to your water or spray it onto leaves. I do not have the pump so instead I mix it manually at least once a day. You can then feed the stockings content to your worms. Happy growing man!

Welcome Tomula. Thanks for saying hello.

My last 1.5 years were organic soil and water only with worm castings when I added a new plant to reuse the soil. I was soppused to be doing nutrient foliar sprays, but I had a spider mite infestation which I controlled with neem oil foliar spray - I somehow never remembered to brew teas, but I have the air pump, air stones, molasses, and bucket handy. The hi-brix system has some well thought out foliar schedules that I intend to follow, so I won't be going wild with the home-made teas for indoors. For the outdoor vegetables and flowers, I'll be making some teas - but probably not before spring.

My worms have been living off chopped banana peels, chopped water melon rind, rock dust, and cannabis leaves. They love watermelon and chopped watermelon rind . I feed standard compost material to the outdoor worms

Glad to see you're back Rad, sounds like you have struck a great balance. :icon_cool

I hear you Rad. I have been subscribed to so many journals lately, I have found that there isn't enough time in my day to follow all these threads, play in my own garden, and do the family thing. I shall hang around for a fresh show.

Welcome back JimmieJ and Gaffle.

I don't know that I have found the right balance. I'm still much more work than play. At least the repair work on the house is interesting. Next Saturday I'm taking a few hours for a seminar on vintage wooden window repair. I'm hoping they go beyond the basic sash cord and glass replacement. I suppose it depends on he experience of the students. It's part of a multi-track weekend seminar on historic home ownership, so the skill levels might be advanced. I'd love to be the least experienced in the room

 

[Radogast]

The current state of the grow room


Just so you know where I am starting, photos of the future grow room.


Storage shelves, under the porch stone foundation wall and the single light bulb to the west

Exterior stone foundation wall with windows to the north. Beyond the windows are the gas and electric meters, a few feet of shaded grass, a waist high fence and the neighbors side yard.

Basement interior brick wall (and chimney foundation) to the east.

Basement interior brick wall with holes and a door to the south. The large hole will be used for air exhaust. The small hole near the ceiling ductwork was used for the RO water line and will be used for 20 AMP wiring. There is so much wiring going nowhere and duct work lying around that I may be able to scavenge most of what I need.

Most of the room is air and light tight, water spills are not a problem, so covering the windows and bringing in electricity should get me started.

Stage 1 in covering the windows, stapling screens over the windows so the rare outside viewer will see screens and basement darkness,

 

[JimmieJ]

I love old houses. My first home was a 100 year old fixer upper, and one of the first things I did was replace sash cords using clothesline. The internet was still new and we didn't have Google, so I had to figure out how to get to the weights on my own. I only ruined one access panel before I understood how they worked on that house.

Your plumbing is impressive, it looks very professional. Looking forward to seeing the grow room set up.

It looks like your hardwood floors are install right on top of the joists. I've never seen that before.

 

[Radogast]

I love old houses. My first home was a 100 year old fixer upper, and one of the first things I did was replace sash cords using clothesline. The internet was still new and we didn't have Google, so I had to figure out how to get to the weights on my own. I only ruined one access panel before I understood how they worked on that house.

Your plumbing is impressive, it looks very professional. Looking forward to seeing the grow room set up.

It looks like your hardwood floors are install right on top of the joists. I've never seen that before.

I grew up in a 1920s bungalow. My dad taught me to replace sash chords sometime before high school
The only sash cords I have replaced so far are in the downstairs half-bath. From the looks of the sash weight doors and how tight the screws fit, I believe I am the first one to ever replace them. They must have been broken for decades.


My first home was a 1906 (after the San Francisco quake) in good shape except for the modern modifications. It had two layers of redwood 2x8s on the joists as a subfloor and hardwood floors on top of that. I assume this house has a board subfloor below the hardwood floors. The only part of the grow room ceiling I have really looked at is a spot with a missing joist and a sort of barrel vault with curved supports running perpendicular to the joists. This is under the living room floor about 3 feet in front of the fireplace opening, yet adjacent to the chimneybase in the basement. The first owner of the house was a master mason who must have had a purpose for building a chimney base 8'x6', but I have no idea what the reason was.

Gow room 'barrel vault'

Today after work I scrubbed 1/3 of the office floor (it has been decades since most of the downstairs has been cleaned,) researched paint stripping off woodwork, assembled some mini scaffolding on the front porch, hung 4 plant hooks, and helped my wife get comfortable on the scaffolding as she used my electric toothbrush to clean the leaded window grime while I scraped old paint drips and sloppy putty overpainting from the window below. I also love old houses.

A 20 something neighbor was recently divorced and looking for a cheap place to rent for her and her two lttle kids. She ended up buying the restored 2400 sq ft 2 bedroom, 4 parlor Queen Anne a couple of months before we found our house. With 2 story corinthian columns on the front porch and a similarly columned covered side entry for the car, it's one of the grandest houses in the neighborhood. The neighbor is a cute little thing who was wearing mostly shorty shorts and minimal tops this summer. My wife was slighty jealous of her house and wary of her dress until I reported the neighbor's A/C is as undersized as she is. I went over to borrow a corkscrew and the house was over 85 degrees inside I hope she finds a cute pool boy because I don't think my wife wants me over there brushing her pool bottom and adjusting her PH

 

[Greensmurf420]

Hey Radogast been like 2 yrs since I've been on here nice to see your name still up here, I remember your 1st post. I took a little vacation from growing but just starting up again and posting again. Hope all is well in your new location. I bet your not going to miss the New England winters. Don't worry if you start to miss the snow I could send ya some

 

[Radogast]

Hey Radogast been like 2 yrs since I've been on here nice to see your name still up here, I remember your 1st post. I took a little vacation from growing but just starting up again and posting again. Hope all is well in your new location. I bet your not going to miss the New England winters. Don't worry if you start to miss the snow I could send ya some

Hey there !


There is a little less snow here, and a little more cold but the winters are shorter and plants like to grow here. I have a 3 month old volunteer tomato plant that is 6' tall and 4' wide. I trim the lawn about once a week instead of once every 6 to 8 weeks in New England.

The big winter difference here is that I will be either working from home or unemployed this winter - so I don't need to leave the house on bad days

 

[weenmeoff]

Hey Rad! Glad that your moved into your new house and getting up and running with Doc's Kit. Looking forward to seeing progress with your grow. Looks like a great space.

 

[Radogast]

Hey Rad! Glad that your moved into your new house and getting up and running with Doc's Kit. Looking forward to seeing progress with your grow. Looks like a great space.

Welcome weenmeoff !

I just started cooking the soil around 9/2 so I have just about enough time to set up a veg space.


Graytail asked a question about seeds that prompted me to look at what I have available.

My modest collection of seeds multiplied last grow when pollen found the 7 girls in the flower room.

7 cannisters in the back are from my final grow before moving.

I only have a few feminized seeds, and those are probably my best quality strains.



My previous grow was two rooms and perpetual. I'm tempted to do perpetual again. I'm also wondering if I should do a single batch together while I learn about growing with the kit.

I have 4 1-gallon pots, and several 7-gallon fabric pots, so I guess I will start with 4 seeds and see where it leads me

I have a couple of weeks to decide.

 

[Doc Bud]

Checked in, waiting for liftoff.

 

[Radogast]

Checked in, waiting for liftoff.

Thanks

Not much to report. I am mulling over electrical wiring and air ducting options for the grow room as I do other odd jobs.

Today's jobs:
Run a ground wire to an outlet in the teenage boy's bedroom so he can have true surge suppression for his future gaming computer.
Finish scrubbing the wood floors in the office.
Try out my new sander attachments on the paint dripped on and near the baseboards (decades ago, not by me .) - It will be slow work.

The neighbor hired gardeners to put in vinca and a few specimen plants. I picked up two discarded 1.5 gallon plastic pots.

I will start out small on the electrical - 3 outlets on a single 20 AMP circuit. At this point, I am thinking of flowering up to 6 plants at a time. I have been growing perpetual, but I think I will try growing a batch of mixed strains on (roughly) the same schedule. Until I get used to this new method of feeding and soil, it will probably help to have plants of the same age.


I need to buy a carbon filter from the internet. I haven't found any local indoor gardening stores.


Liftoff in October.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Radogast. I'll read through in a bit.

Glad to see a new journal!

 

[Tead]

I don't think my wife wants me over there brushing her pool bottom and adjusting her PH

Oh my!!!!
Words for you sweetheart from Tead....
"Never trust the silver tongued tricksters no matter what that twinkle in their eyes tells you!"

 

[Radogast]

Radogast. I'll read through in a bit.

Glad to see a new journal!

Welcome Cannafan.

Not much happening yet, I'll try to get some construction in today after I finish sanding the office baseboards (off the walls )

Oh my!!!!
Words for you sweetheart from Tead....
"Never trust the silver tongued tricksters no matter what that twinkle in their eyes tells you!"

The Mrs. is a literature major. She has twinkled and been twinkled many a time.



Yesterday, they reported arresting an Iowa man for growing 6 6-ft plants in a screened front porch equipped with grow lights. The 46 year old man said he had a California license for 6 plants.

Today, at the annual Police Evidence Auction, they had 5 HPS hoods with bulbs and an MH in a cool tube. Not a filter in sight. We didn't stay for the bidding. It was 50% police surplus (chairs, filing cabinets, and flashlights,) 35% bicycles, and 15% miscellaneous evidence. No cars, boats, jewelry, or high end stuff.

Stay safe out there!

 

[Radogast]

I'm planning on buying my air first filter. A large one. I'm concerned about shipping costs, but haven't yet looked at the vendor offering. So I should do my homework and stop procrastinting - right?


I'm planning on growing lavender and 'forcing' year round blooms. I have been reading about a hardy strain that can be germinated without cold stratification. The plan is to veg lavender under the flower light cycle and flower lavender under the veg light cycle. That sounds perfect for a grow room companion.

I'm considering growing marigolds if they will bloom in the basement. I enjoy their flowers and they are bug deterrents. I imagine they will veg and bloom alongside the cannabis. Am I likely to have unpleasant aroma wars with the lavender?

 

[Dennise]

High Rad... I grow lavender outside and I use it as cut flowers to kinda off set the MJ smell... I rarely run my filters... don't really have a reason why... just don't... but the lavender is very pleasant to me and when it does mix with the MJ again I think it is nice but I like the smell of ganja... I find it most relaxing when I am in my garden room and my lavender is smelling all nice and sweet...
Glad to see you running another journal........