The Gee Spot - You Finally Found It

[Kaldean]

Not really, I'm pretty sure you answered my silly question good and proper. The world works on electricity I'm learning here at The Mag. Electron and current flow theory got taught to me 50 years ago. I see the same theory here with the soil. you'd think I'd understand it easier! We get nourished, plants get nourished, and the phone in our pocket all exist only because of electricity. It's a little mind blowing.

Gee took the leash off and I got a little silly Kal. It's all true just out of line for here.

It confused me mate @StoneOtter

Here’s me struggling with ph, I. couldn’t ever understand what I was reading

 

[Azimuth]

Azi, how are your plants coming?

9.5 brix with a pretty crisp line the day before next tea.

Kind of surprised as it got dolo water earlier in the week which helped increase brix levels, but calcium dropped noticeably.

It'll get the next round of tea tomorrow and I think I'll increase my castings top dressing. I give it 1 tablespoon per gallon weekly but the crisp line suggests that may not be enough.

It's getting flipped this weekend and I'm going to likely uppot the next round but make an adjustment to the pot design to see if I can drop out the perched water table altogether using a reverse wick of some sort.

This next one is the spreadsheet soil mix.

The next round of soil I'll make will just use the mineral versions of Ca and P and I'll save the plant versions for my top dresses.

 

[Gee64]

Hope your having a good day mate @Gee64
I really need to have a read through this post from the beginning, cos I was gunna ask ya how you train your plants. What’s the plan, you must have it in here thou so yeah, I need to have a read, cos I’m lost with half the stuff yous talk about,
And yes mate, Miss sticky and littlebig look like their gunna be nice plants, do they go outside when you have em where you want em or these ones staying indoors ?

They stay indoors. These ones are ttrained in a style called mainlining or also referred to as manifolding. They were manifolded/mainlined to 8 tops each.

 

[Azimuth]

They stay indoors. These ones are ttrained in a style called mainlining or also referred to as manifolding. They were manifolded/mainlined to 8 tops each.

Not quite the same thing...

Ok. Did a bit of reading and answered my own question.

Seems like Mainlining was first, started by a grower named Nugbuckets. His technique was to top the plant producing two opposite branches. Then he topped those two to produce four, and topped the four to produce eight colas. Each cola is the same distance from the roots in this method.

Then, a grower named Nebula Haze took that idea and eliminated the additional toppings and just let the original two branches grow and used the side branching to make up her eight branches, claiming to have saved a bit of veg time in the process with no loss of yield. This was termed "Manifolding."

Then @Light Addict came up with his more elaborate, and time consuming, training more along the lines of the second version, but focuses more on creating many, many more tops than the eight found in either of the two prior versions, with a bit of weaving of stems along the way. LA calls this technique "Fluxing".

And from there we now have @Asesino85 's quadlining version which tops but leaves four branches to grow instead of two, shortening veg time even further and producing a very symmetrical plant.

I think I have my history right but am happy to be corrected if anything is not accurate or complete.

 

[Gee64]

Not really, I'm pretty sure you answered my silly question good and proper. The world works on electricity I'm learning here at The Mag. Electron and current flow theory got taught to me 50 years ago. I see the same theory here with the soil. you'd think I'd understand it easier! We get nourished, plants get nourished, and the phone in our pocket all exist only because of electricity. It's a little mind blowing.

Gee took the leash off and I got a little silly Kal. It's all true just out of line for here.

Lol I see your point now. Yeah you bet, it's all about positives and negatives.

 

[Gee64]

Not quite the same thing...

Your so picky

 

[Gee64]

9.5 brix with a pretty crisp line the day before next tea.

Kind of surprised as it got dolo water earlier in the week which helped increase brix levels, but calcium dropped noticeably.

It'll get the next round of tea tomorrow and I think I'll increase my castings top dressing. I give it 1 tablespoon per gallon weekly but the crisp line suggests that may not be enough.

It's getting flipped this weekend and I'm going to likely uppot the next round but make an adjustment to the pot design to see if I can drop out the perched water table altogether using a reverse wick of some sort.

This next one is the spreadsheet soil mix.

The next round of soil I'll make will just use the mineral versions of Ca and P and I'll save the plant versions for my top dresses.

I think you need to put more dolomite and gypsum into your mix at cooking. Dolo water isn't really meant to set your buffer and build your tilth, only maintain them.

 

[budnoob3]

So my first question, based on my experience of not seeing crisp line indicating low Ca, without going in depth about all the reasons I believe I don’t run into this, is what are your Ca inputs for your compost and cooking? I suspect we all could avoid lack of calcium with top dressings and feedings using our compost provided we pull from bottom of pile and are keeping all the necessary inputs in balance. Aside from the typical suspects I say don’t be afraid to throw old organic cheese, unsalted nuts, bad organic milk, beans, etc in your compost. Even egg shells etc that take a while to break down and won’t add much until year 2 or 3 and beyond…

 

[budnoob3]

Also looking for feedback on this post if you happen to have more info/input please.
Post in thread 'How not to be a salt farmer or a wasteful grower tips'
How not to be a salt farmer or a wasteful grower tips

 

[Kaldean]

They stay indoors. These ones are ttrained in a style called mainlining or also referred to as manifolding. They were manifolded/mainlined to 8 tops each.

Cool @Gee64
And yeah I know the mainlining thing, I do the same with the 8 colas

When I first started growing, I use to just top my plants and let them grow out,
once I tried the mainlining, There was no looking back, it takes a bit longer in veg but you get much better quality buds, I take every branch off right up to the colas just before the flip, so I only have the 8 on each plant and no side branches

 

[Azimuth]

I think you need to put more dolomite and gypsum into your mix at cooking. Dolo water isn't really meant to set your buffer and build your tilth, only maintain them.

Yeah, I don't know. I looked back at the recipe I used for this round and have way more dolomite lime and Gypsum in this soil than I do in the next one based on the spreadsheet. I also have powdered Oyster shell and crustacean meal in there. If anything, there's probably too much Ca.

Maybe it didn't get cooked at the beginning due to small batch and not heating up? But I would have thought the multiple teas I've applied would have been sufficient to at least get things moving.

 

[Azimuth]

So my first question, based on my experience of not seeing crisp line indicating low Ca, without going in depth about all the reasons I believe I don’t run into this, is what are your Ca inputs for your compost and cooking? I suspect we all could avoid lack of calcium with top dressings and feedings using our compost provided we pull from bottom of pile and are keeping all the necessary inputs in balance. Aside from the typical suspects I say don’t be afraid to throw old organic cheese, unsalted nuts, bad organic milk, beans, etc in your compost. Even egg shells etc that take a while to break down and won’t add much until year 2 or 3 and beyond…

My compost that I've been using was from last year before I really dug much into the process so it's not all that great. But my castings should be pretty good and that's what I've counted on for most of the various inputs.

 

[StoneOtter]

It confused me mate @StoneOtter

Here’s me struggling with ph, I. couldn’t ever understand what I was reading

Sorry friend, I didn't mean to make this harder than it is. I forget and get goofy sometimes.

 

[Gee64]

Cool @Gee64
And yeah I know the mainlining thing, I do the same with the 8 colas

When I first started growing, I use to just top my plants and let them grow out,
once I tried the mainlining, There was no looking back, it takes a bit longer in veg but you get much better quality buds, I take every branch off right up to the colas just before the flip, so I only have the 8 on each plant and no side branches

Thats pretty much exactly how I do it too. You get nice big buds that way.

 

[Gee64]

So my first question, based on my experience of not seeing crisp line indicating low Ca, without going in depth about all the reasons I believe I don’t run into this, is what are your Ca inputs for your compost and cooking? I suspect we all could avoid lack of calcium with top dressings and feedings using our compost provided we pull from bottom of pile and are keeping all the necessary inputs in balance. Aside from the typical suspects I say don’t be afraid to throw old organic cheese, unsalted nuts, bad organic milk, beans, etc in your compost. Even egg shells etc that take a while to break down and won’t add much until year 2 or 3 and beyond…

I use rotating tumblers and everything goes in. We don't eat animal products, so no milks or cheeses or egg shells, just veggie scraps and yard waste goes in.

 

[Gee64]

Yeah, I don't know. I looked back at the recipe I used for this round and have way more dolomite lime and Gypsum in this soil than I do in the next one based on the spreadsheet. I also have powdered Oyster shell and crustacean meal in there. If anything, there's probably too much Ca.

Maybe it didn't get cooked at the beginning due to small batch and not heating up? But I would have thought the multiple teas I've applied would have been sufficient to at least get things moving.

Is this with prilled gypsum and dolomite or powdered or raw?

How moist is your soil during cooking? It needs to be a bit wetter than for growing. You need to be able to squeeze a few drops of water out with your hand on the squeeze test. Not soggy, just quite damp.

If you probe it with a water stick it should be on the wet section past the grow zone but not right off the scale. About a 9 if your meter goes to 10. It needs moisture to help create heat.

If you are using prilled then I would up both dolomite and gypsum by 50% on 1 batch or even add it at potting time and see what happens, and if it's not prilled then I would add the same amounts of prilled at potting time as you added of unprilled at cooking time.

Mix it in really well, fill your containers, and fully water them a week before planting in them. Keep them warm if you can.

Then when you plant in them give them a full pot dunk after planting, drain the res, and let them settle in and dry down.

For what you are trying to accomplish, a soil test every now and then may be money well spent.

Also, it's important to test brix 9 or 10 hours after lights on as plants will dump close to half their brix into the roots and soil at lights out and brix will be low until the next afternoon.

 

[Gee64]

All the outdoor gang got topdressed with Gaia Power Bloom and compost yesterday, today the indoor gang and the outdoor gang will get EWC. The outdoor gang will get dolowater next watering.

Sunflower and my stairway-still-in-progress thru the weed plants.

Big RV in the 27gal. She's finally forming budlets.

Barely, but they are there. I don't have 8 more weeks left unless Mother Nature becomes very generous, but with 2 worm farms now they are still worth the effort.

She looks to be about 2 weeks in from flip.

Pretty colas tho.

The BK is farther ahead, but still way late this year too.

Frost is starting tho.

7gal RV and her funky top.

The other 7gal.

And one of the last 2 RV clones that I put out in the 1.66gal pots. She's 4 feet tall now.

 

[Gee64]

I can't wait to pull the 2 big rootballs to see how they are.

 

[Ramblinrose1965]

The Ladies are looking fantastic Gee.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Beautiful photos! Stunning plants.