Slammy Pajammy's Indoor Organic Supersoil Ladies, 2019! 2nd Ever!

[Fudo Myoo]

Lil ladies are looking better every day! Can't wait to get them up-potted!! I've got a little humidifier running to give them a nice moist breeze. Once I get the big ladies outside in the greenhouse (tomorrows project), I'll get these girls all in the cab and see where I can get the humidity to settle!

The plan is to get them progressively up-potted until they're big enough to let maybe 2 go to flower at a time. The race is on, ladies!!

Rocky

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky

I’m confused on the organic being “hot” thing. Can you make it too hot? I was careful not to put to much in mine for fear of that and because I don’t know. I’ve heard “can’t be too hot, breaks down over time kinda like time release” and I’ve heard “be careful, to much will burn the plants”. Which is it? Not knowing any better, I would think yours is too hot...

 

[Silverfox125]

Looking great!!

 

[Slammy Pajama]

I’m confused on the organic being “hot” thing. Can you make it too hot? I was careful not to put to much in mine for fear of that and because I don’t know. I’ve heard “can’t be too hot, breaks down over time kinda like time release” and I’ve heard “be careful, to much will burn the plants”. Which is it? Not knowing any better, I would think yours is too hot...

So I think there is some truth to both. A lot of plant material, especially something like alfalfa meal, will break down quicker than most of the minerals and rock dusts in the soil. So this means the available nitrogen can often spike at weird times, which for a seedling or small plant can be too much. And is probably the reason why trying to grow directly in something like that supersoil compost mix would not work at all, and would be too hot. However, a lot of immediately available nitrogen will re-bind into other compounds, or off-gas over the time that the soil is cooking/sitting.

The reason for loading up the soil mix with the compost mix AND all the amendments i added, is to have a wide range of different sources for different nutrients, at different stages of decomposition and availability for the plant.

The supersoil compost mix is made up mostly of slightly different amendments than what I have, that are already partially broken down. This mix was made to be diluted 1:3 to make 75L of final mix. So 125L of final mix leaves me some wiggle room to load up with some more

I did do a little bit of research into what are good amounts of each individual amendment for roughly 125L of soil mix, so I probably wouldn't put any more of the plant material amendments into this much final volume, even without the compost mix in there. But the rock dusts and mineral amendments, I think would be hard to overdo it

One thing to keep in mind though, the pH of the mix will spike and become rather acidic during some of the initial cooking/breakdown process, before settling back around that beautiful 6.8 we are looking for. So you do want to be careful with a sudden high amendment load, as it can turn the soil too "raw" resulting in a fluctuating pH that will of course cause all sorts of issues

That being said, I am by no means an expert or super experienced working with this type of soil (or even with growing cannabis!). So this is a learning experiment. We'll find out in the coming weeks whether or not my assumptions and opinions about this are correct!

 

[Fudo Myoo]

So I think there is some truth to both. A lot of plant material, especially something like alfalfa meal, will break down quicker than most of the minerals and rock dusts in the soil. So this means the available nitrogen can often spike at weird times, which for a seedling or small plant can be too much. And is probably the reason why trying to grow directly in something like that supersoil compost mix would not work at all, and would be too hot. However, a lot of immediately available nitrogen will re-bind into other compounds, or off-gas over the time that the soil is cooking/sitting.

The reason for loading up the soil mix with the compost mix AND all the amendments i added, is to have a wide range of different sources for different nutrients, at different stages of decomposition and availability for the plant.

The supersoil compost mix is made up mostly of slightly different amendments than what I have, that are already partially broken down. This mix was made to be diluted 1:3 to make 75L of final mix. So 125L of final mix leaves me some wiggle room to load up with some more

I did do a little bit of research into what are good amounts of each individual amendment for roughly 125L of soil mix, so I probably wouldn't put any more of the plant material amendments into this much final volume, even without the compost mix in there. But the rock dusts and mineral amendments, I think would be hard to overdo it

One thing to keep in mind though, the pH of the mix will spike and become rather acidic during some of the initial cooking/breakdown process, before settling back around that beautiful 6.8 we are looking for. So you do want to be careful with a sudden high amendment load, as it can turn the soil too "raw" resulting in a fluctuating pH that will of course cause all sorts of issues

That being said, I am by no means an expert or super experienced working with this type of soil (or even with growing cannabis!). So this is a learning experiment. We'll find out in the coming weeks whether or not my assumptions and opinions about this are correct!

It makes sense. Sounds like you’re understanding it well enough. Thanks for taking the time. Now I have a better idea what information I need to be looking for. So basically you’re trying to match the decomposition rate of individual amendments with the nute requirements of the plant in each stage of growth.

 

[Slammy Pajama]

It makes sense. Sounds like you’re understanding it well enough. Thanks for taking the time. Now I have a better idea what information I need to be looking for. So basically you’re trying to match the decomposition rate of individual amendments with the nute requirements of the plant in each stage of growth.

All good my friend, I'd love to share anything I can to help another grower! And the more I run my mouth, the more likely I'll be corrected by a more knowledgeable grower if I say something incorrect!

And you're mostly correct about matching decomposition rates. It's less of an exact science, and more about just having a nice range so that not too much is all suddenly broken down at once, but so we have nice new sources of nutrients made available all throughout the grow. This is why supersoil ideally gets more fertile the longer we use the same batch, as more and more raw amendments are broken down. These are often still bound up in simpler compounds though that the plant still has to work with the microbes to unlock and gain access to, in exchange for the hormones and simple carbohydrates that the plant manufactures, hence the need to continue to cultivate and maintain a healthy microbe population to keep our plants thriving and happy throughout their life, regardless of how long the soil has cooked for

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Big project today! Moved the flower girls outside (even though it's technically a little hot for them outside. Some days will spike to 35 degrees Celsius, but the cab would reach that on a hot day under the lights anyway!) Now I can cut my energy consumption down to 1 light again for a little while, and move the little ladies into the cab!

They're still looking pretty good. Some odd leaf coloration, but I'm not going to even try to match it to deficiency symptoms, as I'm more convinced at this point that they've just suffered irreparable root damage and will have subsequent problems because of it (they sure seemed to halt their growing after the big starve, despite the fact that the new ladies are in exactly the same batch of soil that these girls are)

So here they are! I'll have to keep them covered until about 9 every morning, so we'll see if I can get in a consistent enough habit of covering/uncovering each day , as we definitely are not naturally at 12 hours of darkness at the moment haha

 

[Slammy Pajama]

I spy with my little eye... a reason to brew up a phosphorus geared compost tea!!

Little Rocky looks to me like she is experiencing some phosphorus deficiency. Interesting that it's only her... I was almost concerned it was maybe some root stress from the air-pot she is currently in, as nobody else is in that style of pot... but I'll give her some tea and we'll probably up-pot her and some of these ladies anyway. They are getting huge!!

So I've put together some malted barley, kelp meal, and high phos guano for this tea

All ground up, before adding some earthworm castings

And then into my molasses water to brew for 24 hours

Got them all switched over in to the cab with the big light down about 50%. I'll try to be conservative about getting them moved up into much bigger pots for another couple weeks till the big batch of soil cooks, but I've got some I can use for an intermediary up-pot, so I think i will do that very soon cuz I think they will appreciate that.

But I'm loving that green colour and explosive growth!!

Rocky (see that phos def? Pretty sure that's the cause of my leaf discoloration)

Chubby!

Speedy

Cookie (looks like I've guessed correctly; the girl scout cookie has a more sativa pheno, despite being a more indica-dominant hybrid than the white widow; thin little leaf lobes on this girl!)

Wonky (little wonky! You've overcome your cotyledon damage and are looking amazing!!)

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Outdoor ladies are looking pretty good! Seems they actually have appreciated the move outside, awesome!!!

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Temp: 26-30 degrees Celsius
RH: 32-38%

Tea is looking nice and foamy!

Lil ladies looking good! Definitely seeing a worsening in Rocky today, but it's looking more like a phos deficiency with the yellowing of the older leaves, so luckily I think i hit the nail on the head with today's tea!

Loaded up all 5 girls with around 2 litres (divided between them all) of today's phos tea, with a focus on Rocky and getting her really nice and saturated. Then back under the lights! Still at 50% intensity

Rocky

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Yesterday's pics (16/12):

Outside ladies definitely starting to look like flowers! Cute little ones, but still something, nonetheless!

Rocky is looking a little rougher today. Hoping to see some improvement in the next couple days as that tea gets to work. Not sure if it'd be a good or a bad idea to up-pot her now in to some ready soil, or if I'm better off letting her recover a little before kinda shocking her like that... we'll see, I haven't looked in the cab yet for today's pics!

But these little ladies are looking huge and beautiful!!

Rocky

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Outdoor ladies got a little extra darkness today, as i left too early to give them 12 hours of darkness if I brought them outside, so figured would be best to leave them till a little later and have a short day today. They seem to be growing more flowery each day!

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Today's Update:
-Temp: 27-32 degrees Celsius
-RH: 32-49%

So I decided the ladies were too ready for an up-pot to wait any longer. I found a decent truly organic potting mix that has a reasonably decent texture to it at a local garden store, so I used a small amount to pot them up in to slightly larger pots; just enough to let them stretch their roots a little more for the next few weeks as the real soil finishes cooking.
Here they are in their new pots! Raised the lights a little higher to accommodate 24" (610mm) above their new height in these pots

Look at these roots!!

Chubby roots

Speedy roots

Cookie roots!! Crazy!

I sprinkled some myco powder onto the root surface that was exposed, and put some more into the soil hole for good measure; then managed to share about 4 litres of water with a bit of worm leachate diluted in there to help the soil if she's died from being on the shelf (kind of kicking myself for not having a tea ready; not very much effective planning happening this grow! Whoops!)

Rocky

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky!

 

[Silverfox125]

Looking great!

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Looking great!

Thanks mate!! Hoping for a more successful flowering with these new ladies, and it's looking promising so far!!

Can't wait to get them into some air pots to help those roots not do so much swirling at the bottom; I also must not be letting that soil dry out as much as I could be between waterings, so we'll really try to let them beg for it from here on out!

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Yesterday's pics:

Big ladies looking... funky, but pretty good still I guess

Little ladies looking great!! Can't wait for them to get nice and big! :')

Rocky (starting to recover!)

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Yesterday's pics:

I've managed to get humidity a little higher, so it's been sitting around the 40-50% mark

However temperatures are soaring at the moment, so the cab has been sitting around 33-35 degrees during the day. Got the evaporative cooler set up in the plant room, so hopefully i can pull that down more around 28 degrees or so today, as it will probably be about 40 or 45 degrees today x'O

But ladies are still looking good! A little tacoing of the newest leaves going on with most of them at the moment, I suspect the heat is a factor there

Rocky

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky

 

[Silverfox125]

Taco is usually heat or light intensity. You might try bumping your light up slightly to see what happens

looking good my friend

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Today's pics (now yesterday's pics (Friday)... I keep falling asleep midway through posting hahaha)

Temp has still been cooking at 28-35 degrees
RH has been around 35% today

Thanks @Silverfox125 , I decided to raise up and turn the lights down a little in the cab, as i think i did notice the tacoing becoming more of an issue after switchng them into the cab; even though I left the light intensity the same when I did that, the Mylar lining the walls makes it far more reflective and bright in there! So it's down around 30% intensity now, at least until I can get temps back down and they can open up those stomata and breathe again. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! that hopefully might not raise the temp in the cab quite as much with the light turned down, too

Ladies are still looking great and exploding with growth!

Rocky

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky

I decided to kind of super-crop the tops of the three big ladies and bend them down a little to hopefully share that apical dominance a little and get them to bush out. I also readjusted the positioning of some leaves to let some of the lower shoots breathe, so the training has begun!! Can't quite tie them down to anything yet until they're in more final pots... but soil has only been cooking for a week, so I've got to wait a little while yet. I'm hoping I can hold them off for a month to let the soil get a good headstart

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Today's Update:

Temps are still 28-33 degrees Celsius... so much for the AC... haha but they're not flowering so fuck it. They're alright

RH around 40-45%! Nice! Dinky little humidifier is working! God I Can't wait to move to a smaller and easier to control environment...

Good call @Silverfox125, taco-ing has definitely gotten better since raising the lights and lessening the intensity

Girls are looking good! Waiting for them to really wilt and ask for water before I water them again. Although it's starting to smell BEAUTIFUL in the cab, so I suspect they will be asking pretty soon. (And you best believe I'll be taking care to not let these ladies starve/dry out as bad as the last ladies did while I was gone!!)

Rocky

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

Wonky

Right back to the way they were before the super-cropping! Going to have to try harder to keep these ladies tied down! I must not be playing my cards right.... haha so another pinching and bending, we'll just keep reinforcing till we're into the next pots, or they get snipped!

Chubby

Speedy

Cookie

 

[Slammy Pajama]

Egg shell ferments are looking pretty good! I like that separation that is occurring as the calcium and phosphorus settle out. Has been just over 3 weeks since I charred and crushed them to start the ferment, so I might strain and add the molasses soon so I can start using it as a CalMag+ to make sure these ladies aren't asking for calcium or magnesium