SoilGirl's Indoor Organic Soil Medical Grow Journal - Mars II 1600 & Other LEDs

[brightlight]

Hello SG. Great updates! Good to hear that your date was fun for you. Not much can beat the joy & happiness of meeting & getting to know someone new.

 

[Gfcollective]

Here's Red Cherry Berry - after some serious defol and side-training to get some even nodes started. This particular mix of early defol and side training is new for me but I think it will have great results, I counted 11 good nodes I think I can get to grow mostly evenly, 1 or 2 for cloning... the rest were removed. I'll train and supercrop the ones left in the future to make it a beautiful RCB bush.

This stout plant is so strong, I love it.

Also just starting a little side training (by hand, not wire) on Corleone Kush #2... whose nodes really need to start going, big happy fans are great... but that's not where the buds come from. :S

if no one has mentioned it yet, its fine to have straw on the outside..

i dont see a reason to use straw as a topper indoors, it leaves a lot of room for pests to set up shop.

the other thing you definitely dont want to do, is leave those dead leafs ontop of the straw. thats asking for pests..

sorry for the late response.

I&i

 

[SoilGirl]

Excellent update SG! I wish I had the space you do! Hope your holiday was pleasant and ful-"filling"...teehee

Hahahaha, Hi Khraevyn! Loved the lame humor, reminds me of... me, lol. It was a very nice holiday, I hope yours was too.

Hello SG. Great updates! Good to hear that your date was fun for you. Not much can beat the joy & happiness of meeting & getting to know someone new.

Agreed bright.. it really is nice to get to know someone new. Just gotta get back into social mode lol, after nearly 2 years of no socializing. >.<

I hope everything is well for you bright It's always great to hear from you.

if no one has mentioned it yet, its fine to have straw on the outside..

i dont see a reason to use straw as a topper indoors, it leaves a lot of room for pests to set up shop.

the other thing you definitely dont want to do, is leave those dead leafs ontop of the straw. thats asking for pests..

sorry for the late response.

I&i

Hi Gfc, I use it as a topper indoors mixed with assorted dead leaves, snapped cannabis stems, and other organic matter for many reasons actually, it keeps the soil underneath moist for longer, lets roots utilize soil and grow all the way up to the mulch (which I'm using it as), it breaks down and provides more organic matter to your living soil over time, and regarding bugs It's odd to hear you say that, because I've had zero bug problems with any of those plants in the veg room. Hardly a gnat or housefly.

But in the flowering room, there was a recent mite infestation, in the process of being eradicated. maybe it was from the straw, could very well be :S ... but I'm leaning towards the mites were brought inside with the plants, or brought inside by myself or my dogs.

I know its all very different from the way you grow, but in the LOS/no-till style of organic growing that I'm trying to make my way towards, there's always without fail going to be abundant spots for bugs to set up shop; the trick is having your soil SO healthy and alive, (and thence your plants so healthy and alive) that they can build up resilience to pests or other mistreatment naturally on their own. It's all very fascinating to me - but probably very frightening to more commercial, experienced growers like yourself haha. Thank you so much for your concern though, I hope that clears it up for you! Thanks for coming by Gfc.

 

[Gfcollective]

i read a article recently that stated that mites are everywhere, including in the perfect clean environment. but as long as the plants are healthy they will repel the mites.

to that person, all i have to say is.. if i didnt hate spiders id find a way to harvest those lil buggers and ask that person if they can place them on their "healthy plant" and ill bet half a harvest that the mites set up shop. if they dont, ill get on every forum and preach this concept. its a good thought but even Healthy people such as my self get diagnosed with cancer, allergies, and the common flu.

i know that letting leaves cook in your soil is good for the soil, ive been following Curso (420mag member) and he from what i understand is the one that started this here. but i dont see how it benefits from being on the top, i am still learning about cooking soil so this could be my problem.. but from what i understand is that you want to mix the leaves and stems into your soil and let it cook for a good month or more, to break down those nutrients and compounds.

great to see it works! seen you actually snuck a picture of your fingernail polish into one of the pics

I&i

 

[SoilGirl]

i read a article recently that stated that mites are everywhere, including in the perfect clean environment. but as long as the plants are healthy they will repel the mites.

to that person, all i have to say is.. if i didnt hate spiders id find a way to harvest those lil buggers and ask that person if they can place them on their "healthy plant" and ill bet half a harvest that the mites set up shop. if they dont, ill get on every forum and preach this concept. its a good thought but even Healthy people such as my self get diagnosed with cancer, allergies, and the common flu.

i know that letting leaves cook in your soil is good for the soil, ive been following Curso (420mag member) and he from what i understand is the one that started this here. but i dont see how it benefits from being on the top, i am still learning about cooking soil so this could be my problem.. but from what i understand is that you want to mix the leaves and stems into your soil and let it cook for a good month or more, to break down those nutrients and compounds.

great to see it works! seen you actually snuck a picture of your fingernail polish into one of the pics

I&i

Hi again Gfc the leaves I added into my mulch mix definitely could have cooked more, but they sat in a pile for a month and weren't dry the whole time haha, there were spots with some great little white/blue molds. Seeing those molds establishing themselves so fast was very encouraging to me. In LOS/no-till soils, and all organic soils, you want as much diversity in microbe life as possible, bacteria and fungi out the wazoo. The microbes have a symbiotic relationship; microbes that you may at first not really think you can benefit from, can likely become very beneficial down the line when mixed with a new/changing environment and new/changing microbes. That's why in LOS/no-till organic gardening you really want diversity in your organic matter and in your microbes. You're seeking an ever-changing balance. It's not for everyone haha. But it really gets me excited.

Perhaps in the future I'll do that little test for you. I'd love to actually, because I'm pretty confident I can grow plants so strong that they can fight off the mites themselves; and if they can't I sure can haha. Maybe they wouldn't fight off the multi-resistance mites I've read of on their own, but I don't think those are the ones I have.... after that MGIS, the affected plants look like they were nuked; once thriving mite cities are now ghost towns, I only found one living mite on over a dozen of the worst affected leaves. Tomorrow will be nuke No. 2.

Oh and how it benefits from being up top; right where the mulch comes in contact with the moist soil it should have lots of microbe activity that start the breakdown processes. But the main point of having this mix at the top is as a mulch, keeping the soil moist below. If I just wanted more organic matter, I would have cooked them in the soil. In No-till LOS soils, you don't mix things in, ever. Hence, "No-Till". That's been shown to really really disturb the 'living' (microbes) part of the soil. You plant straight into the final pot, like with autos. (I right now am doing a hybrid of PeeJay style organic growing and what I've learned from COorganics and his LOS no-till teachings. I still do transplants since I'm using PeeJay's 3-stage soil approach. that is, until it comes time to start re-using old soil) You want to do lots of good top dressing with high quality compost, then a good layer of mulch, which will break down over time as you add more layers. It's called Living Organic Soils for a reason any organic thing you add in should be broken down, and relatively quickly. Another exciting concept to me.

Hahaha and oh yeah I did, didn't I? LOL. Thanks for chatting Gfc, I actually wanted to get to some of these things but didn't know where to start.

 

[36Gr0w]

Gfc buddy, with this method the goal is to not recycle and recook the soil, but rather fill in the hole from the last rootball with a new plant. Your soil is always "cooking" the mulch into the soil. Someone else can explain it much better, check out coorganics threads, he goes into great depth on this style.

 

[SoilGirl]

Gfc buddy, with this method the goal is to not recycle and recook the soil, but rather fill in the hole from the last rootball with a new plant. Your soil is always "cooking" the mulch into the soil. Someone else can explain it much better, check out coorganics threads, he goes into great depth on this style.

Thanks 36Gr0w but I think Gfc's concerns were mostly limited to the mites haha, I just wanted to cover the broad spectrum of concerns. and yeah, I highly recommend COorganics' threads too.

I'm not doing a formal no-till just yet, but I'm keeping PeeJay's 3-stage style as close to Corgie's as I can until I do. I'm a very gentle transplanter and will be making sure that pots are well prepared with good soil in a way that I do minimal disturbance with every transplant.

I'm going to throw up a link for Corgie and Sue's journals, TWO JOURNALS I REALLY RECOMMEND >>> MUCH BETTER ORGANIC INFO SHARING THAN MY OWN - THESE JOURNALS ARE WHERE YOU NEED TO GO TO LEARN TRUE ORGANICS >>> Corgie's journal: COorganics - All Natural - No-Till With ACT's - Winter Attic Grow >>> SweetSue's AWESOME NEW JOURNAL: Sweetsue's First Grow - Stealthy Trio of Autos Under CFLs (just about ready to plant her autos in LOS no-till)!!

Also check out Conradino's awesome organic italian outdoor grow. It's all done but it was really cool. one of the best for info Italian Outdoor Adventures - From Pure Indicas to Pure Sativas

 

[Antics]

Hey Soily, the girls are looking good!

Does this Mitch guy know the actual facts about Cannabis? You do know we have to approve who you date, being your family and all!

Good luck on the new dating and such, I hope it works out for ya!

 

[OlderStoner]

Cool thread. I read with particular interest about spider mites. I would be extremely interested in hearing more about how others control them, especially as SoilGirl describes her plants fighting them off themselves. I live in a rather sub-tropical part of the US and spider mites are here in abundance. Seriously, they grow so big, the other night one of them jumped into my bed and threw a leg over me. Bada-bing!

 

[Gfcollective]

i definetly believe in microbes, im a strong believer and constant user of compost teas. (but thats all i do is use the teas) and youve seen my comparison of my root growth from two clones same strains taken at same time. one regular water one had compost tea and went insane, so i do truly believe in microbes. i just never in my life of watching and drooling or growing myself seen someone want dead leaf matter on top of their soil. its always been a known "fact", that it causes pests to be drawn to that material and infest your plant. but like i always say, to my science major fiance, "science is always changing so everything is fact until you can prove it otherwise, apparently pluto isnt a planet now, i was taught it is so F that nonsense its a cold planet "

my main concern yes does go to the mite comment, and i will buy you a pack of seeds of your choice (up to 60$ no bubba kush 89$ 5 seed, i would hate to buy someone else a pack of seeds i really wanted ) from herbies seeds if you can prove to me that your plant looked some mites that were freshly dropped onto its leaves in the eyes, and tells them to kick rocks.

its not that i dont believe its possible, but i havent seen it. i know at our collective grow we have no pest strips hanging and we have never had a mite or pest issue at all since ive been there caregiving to it. these are toxic and the say not to be in the room for more then 4 hrs, which none of us 3 are in that room for more then 3 hrs at any time. maybe harvest and cleanup..

so i do know there are full proof remedy's out there, and im a strong believer in herbs and plants magic properties, i just dont know exactly what the code is to this and dont believe anyone does. or else they would be writing a book and their name would be the next jorge cervantes which is a terrible comparison since this guy in my opinion is a hack but is the most well known publisher from where im from.

i am a strong believer of microbes and compost teas though. i use them every week.

sorry i questioned it but i seen the pictures and my eyes went O.O (eek)

so glad to see its not a issue or causing u a issue. the fact you are ok with white fluffy mold shows your on a whole nother level then I

i have read about this in docs thread so im aware of it, but like i mentioned in my journal the other day, i seen my clones form that on the home made soil cubes and i took them outside tossed them and bleached the container.

im young and i still have lots to learn, some day ill attempt to play with this

I&i

 

[SweetSue]

Thanks for the vote of confidence SoilGirl. I'm a stark beginner just feeling my way along with my first real attempt, but I'm also an educator by nature and training. This LOS thing caught me by surprise. I've become a bit excited about it myself and CO (love the way you call him Corgie) has been kind enough to encourage me and steer me in the right direction. It was really PeeJay and CO that got me intrigued.

I'm in awe of the knowledge you've gained and the passion you have for the art of gardening cannabis. I'm learning from reading along. And your zest for life is infectious. That kind of keeps us coming back too.

 

[SoilGirl]

i definetly believe in microbes, im a strong believer and constant user of compost teas. (but thats all i do is use the teas) and youve seen my comparison of my root growth from two clones same strains taken at same time. one regular water one had compost tea and went insane, so i do truly believe in microbes. i just never in my life of watching and drooling or growing myself seen someone want dead leaf matter on top of their soil. its always been a known "fact", that it causes pests to be drawn to that material and infest your plant. but like i always say, to my science major fiance, "science is always changing so everything is fact until you can prove it otherwise, apparently pluto isnt a planet now, i was taught it is so F that nonsense its a cold planet "

my main concern yes does go to the mite comment, and i will buy you a pack of seeds of your choice (up to 60$ no bubba kush 89$ 5 seed, i would hate to buy someone else a pack of seeds i really wanted ) from herbies seeds if you can prove to me that your plant looked some mites that were freshly dropped onto its leaves in the eyes, and tells them to kick rocks.

its not that i dont believe its possible, but i havent seen it. i know at our collective grow we have no pest strips hanging and we have never had a mite or pest issue at all since ive been there caregiving to it. these are toxic and the say not to be in the room for more then 4 hrs, which none of us 3 are in that room for more then 3 hrs at any time. maybe harvest and cleanup..

so i do know there are full proof remedy's out there, and im a strong believer in herbs and plants magic properties, i just dont know exactly what the code is to this and dont believe anyone does. or else they would be writing a book and their name would be the next jorge cervantes which is a terrible comparison since this guy in my opinion is a hack but is the most well known publisher from where im from.

i am a strong believer of microbes and compost teas though. i use them every week.

sorry i questioned it but i seen the pictures and my eyes went O.O (eek)

so glad to see its not a issue or causing u a issue. the fact you are ok with white fluffy mold shows your on a whole nother level then I

i have read about this in docs thread so im aware of it, but like i mentioned in my journal the other day, i seen my clones form that on the home made soil cubes and i took them outside tossed them and bleached the container.

im young and i still have lots to learn, some day ill attempt to play with this

I&i

Hahaha you always make a fun person to talk with Gfc. Much love, hope you've had a great day today.

I was just in the veg room tightening up the bondage and hahaha, I found a fly rooting around in my little mulch layer, so hey, maybe I am encouraging bug activity lol. I sure hope they don't lay eggs in that stuff. I swatted him and almost took off a node on Ghost OG, but got him lol. I also saw one gnat just floating around in front of my eyes. I guess we'll see how it goes hahaha, I'm not gonna touch the mulch layer unless I'm facing an infestation because of it, or want to throw some compost under it eventually. Hopefully science is about to change!

Hmmm.... Lol I'm actually really interested in taking up that offer. I'm seriously considering it; just wondering how the heck I'm going to get any pictures of the mites. Maybe... but my camera really isn't the best at close-ups. I'm also wondering where I'll get the mites haha, since I'm not planning on keeping the ones I have around... maybe I'll just make a random plant really sickly and hope it catches some, then take a section of leaf that has like a dozen mites on it and put it on my plant's leaf if it does. But then lmao, if my camera isn't good enough to take the pics I've only infected my plant for no reason with spider mites lol... and if I actually beat them off with just a healthy plant and nothing else then that's even worse because I'd have no proof lmao. ... but at least I'd know something very useful others didn't. ....

And about your clones, no that's not mold I'm ok with hahaha! Glad you got rid of that stuff! Mold on the plant isn't something I want at ALL. lol. Mold in the soil/mulch though, that's like gold to me.

May the meds be with you always Brother Gfc.

Thanks for the vote of confidence SoilGirl. I'm a stark beginner just feeling my way along with my first real attempt, but I'm also an educator by nature and training. This LOS thing caught me by surprise. I've become a bit excited about it myself and CO (love the way you call him Corgie) has been kind enough to encourage me and steer me in the right direction. It was really PeeJay and CO that got me intrigued.

I'm in awe of the knowledge you've gained and the passion you have for the art of gardening cannabis. I'm learning from reading along. And your zest for life is infectious. That kind of keeps us coming back too.

Aw you're very welcome Sue! And thank you so much for the kind words. Your journal is so cool I just had to - I am equally awed, and I think we share the same high level of passion.

...and hahaha yeah - maybe not his choice for a name but he puts up with me. LOL

Hope you and the hubby are doing great tonight!

 

[akisunni]

A question to the ladies,

as both of you seem to do lots of bud research before taking actions. Do either of you know of any research on changing up the flower stage with extending the light growth cycles between the 12 hour dark events? Everyone seems to starve their plants of light later in the growth, and take them into a death cycle intentionally.

I have one of my grow spaces in a 36 light/12 dark cycle. I would swear the plants in there are not only happier with the growth in the buds over a given time period, but it appears the plant will want to survive after the budding, its thickening up as it grows a top of mini cola's. If the plant is as healthy at harvest as it is now, I am going to buy different types of clones and graft them into this one, for a second crop, so I get one plant that grows multi flavors at once.

At least that is the plan, i would love to know what you have found in looking into the flower stage.

 

[SoilGirl]

A question to the ladies,

as both of you seem to do lots of bud research before taking actions. Do either of you know of any research on changing up the flower stage with extending the light growth cycles between the 12 hour dark events? Everyone seems to starve their plants of light later in the growth, and take them into a death cycle intentionally.

I have one of my grow spaces in a 36 light/12 dark cycle. I would swear the plants in there are not only happier with the growth in the buds over a given time period, but it appears the plant will want to survive after the budding, its thickening up as it grows a top of mini cola's. If the plant is as healthy at harvest as it is now, I am going to buy different types of clones and graft them into this one, for a second crop, so I get one plant that grows multi flavors at once.

At least that is the plan, i would love to know what you have found in looking into the flower stage.

Hey there Akisunni, nice to see you by! My knowledge about this topic is limited, I've never personally changed up the lighting cycle between the 12 hr dark period for flowering. But, SmokerJoe is doing a journal with that exact focus, if you haven't already been by there you should check it out. He's very generous with information and can probably answer your questions a lot better than I.
Smokerjoes 2nd Journal

I also have read that the extra long dark period at the end of flowering just before harvest increasing trichome production is a myth and has been debunked several times. But personally, I've never tried that either.

Hope this helps!

P.S. that grafting idea sounds awesome! Best of luck to you! And that sounds so badass that you think the buds are growing more in less time. I may have to try that eventually... geesh... lots of stuff to try hahaha.

 

[akisunni]

Many thanks, off to read the Smokerjoes Journal... This appears to be exactly what I am looking for.

 

[Gfcollective]

Haha I've been told I'm many things when it comes to trying to talk w but never fun hah. I'm working on that..

I look to deep into things is my main problem. the reason I took it outside is I am under the impression that when it forms those pores will float through the air when disturbed. So I figured in your soil it'll just grow onto your plant.

So are you doing something different then Curso and how he cooks his leaves for awhile blended into the soil and reuses his soil?

To see dead leaves on top of soil is still hard to get over. I imagine this is how hps growers feel about Leds hahah

I&I

 

[SoilGirl]

Haha I've been told I'm many things when it comes to trying to talk w but never fun hah. I'm working on that..

I look to deep into things is my main problem. the reason I took it outside is I am under the impression that when it forms those pores will float through the air when disturbed. So I figured in your soil it'll just grow onto your plant.

So are you doing something different then Curso and how he cooks his leaves for awhile blended into the soil and reuses his soil?

To see dead leaves on top of soil is still hard to get over. I imagine this is how hps growers feel about Leds hahah

I&I

If looking too deep into things is your problem then its a shared problem between us lol - so no wonder I enjoy talking with you

As far as Curso, though I've heard good things I haven't taken the time to follow his grows here yet. I'm sure I'd love them...heck I love to see anybody growing weed lol. But yeah it sounds like we aren't doing the same things at the moment. I'm sure I'll blend up some old reused soils that didn't stay alive eventually and mix in all new amendments and other organic matter, (leaves from my leaf mold pile, compost from the composter, castings from the worm can, etc.) but right now I have a big pile of leaves outside breaking down for a leaf mold pile, something Corgie (COorganics - our newest MOTM! Yay!) turned me on to. I also moved a lot of leaves into our compost bin from there, which is actually where I pulled the moldy leaves out from.

From there I just mixed those in a bucket with some sunbleached straw, some more leaves from the leaf pile but that didn't get put in the compost bin, (I didn't share this previously when I shared what I was mixing into my mulch - I should have) and assorted bits of cannabis waste, including stems, leaves, and even what was left of the Lucy (the hermie) buds that I rubbed into charas in Denver lol. I brought them all the way back to become part of the coming harvests hahaha, it just seemed right to me. And in the leaves I use there's grass and twigs and all sorts of random yard-waste. lol. After that I just arrange it on top of the soil in an even layer as a mulch... maybe its scary and revolting looking to others..... but I love to see it lol.

Here's some mulch porn lmao.

It's not the best mulch out there, probably not even close lol. But its my mulch and its main function is just to sit there like a moisturizing blanket for the soil anyways. its just an added bonus if it breaks down a bit since its organic matter after all.

 

[akisunni]

Mulch Porn, a combo of words turned into a term I never expected to read in this life time.

 

[36Gr0w]

Well now, a combo of akis tech and a nice size no till soil pot has been floating around in my head since I first saw akis journal. Real time monitoring at different depths of the living soil!

 

[SoilGirl]

Mulch Porn, a combo of words turned into a term I never expected to read in this life time.

Well now, a combo of akis tech and a nice size no till soil pot has been floating around in my head since I first saw akis journal. Real time monitoring at different depths of the living soil!

Wouldn't that be a trip lol! To watch chains of fungi and bacteria establish themselves in the soil and attach to roots, all that good stuff.. what a cool thought.

Oh you probably meant just moisture levels. Derp.