The Joy Of Growing - SweetSue Goes Perpetual

[SweetSue]

Welcome my favorite Birdman and Chronic. So nice of you to join us. It's going to be very interesting, if nothing else.

HA! I just realized I never posted the Daily Update.

Be right back.

 

[akisunni]

Have no Fear, Aki is Here...

 

[SweetSue]

Perpetual Garden: Day 1
Daily Update: Dark Devil Auto - Day 49

I was thinking it's time to change the way I do the updates. No way can I do daily updates on 10 plants. :surrender: What comes to mind is weekly or biweekly updates on the garden at large, and daily ones on a plant of particular interest. Right now that plant would be the Dark Devil Auto, since she's my test for 11/13 lighting. Let's try that and see how it goes. Change is good.

It was a busy morning. The Tiny Closet got cleaned out and everything moved into the tent. While that was going on the Dark Devil got to sit in direct sunlight. Maybe I should bring her out here every morning.... So not going to happen. That pot is seriously heavy!

I had to include this one again. I mean, just look at her. Feel free to zoom right in there. She's not shy. (Probably got that from her mother. )

The natural light really shows you the depth of her coloration. These are healthy leaves. Look at that shine! Can you see how this whole plant is frosting over? Oooooeeee! Makes my heart go pitter-pat.

While Devil soaks up the rays of Sol, the indoor sun got moved and hung in place. I quickly realized that I needed to zip-tie the racks I installed to suspend CFLs from to the upper frame. When I hung the light initially it pulled both of those racks to the middle. Two zip ties on each side, front and back, gave the entire tent significantly more stability. How fortuitous that I choose to hang those racks, eh? It was an inspiration. I've learned over the years to listen to those little voices in my head.

Now to the Planting of the Seeds

The process is identical in each case;
- Make a seed -sized hole about 1/4" deep in the center of each pot.
- Dust the hole and the immediately surrounding area with the appropriate product.

The HiBrixBlend pots get Roots!
The LOS pots get the Granular Endo Mycorrhizal.​

- Drop the seed into the hole, lightly cover with a small amount of soil and leave it alone. Because these are seated on a SWICK they are moist enough that nothing else is needed. Unless someone chimes in with other advice, I'll water gently as needed, coconut water in the LOS pots and water (?) on the HIBrixBlend pots.

The seeds are all in the dirt. I may do a bit of rearranging tomorrow to set the pairs next to each other, but other than that, these sit to germinate. The clock is ticking.

The Devil is soaking up those rays. This is a good shot for scale. She's so tiny and delicate looking.

The gardener gently and lovingly caresses a larger fan leaf in passing, sending waves of loving energy through the brief touch.

Seriously, I do this stuff. Why do you think they grow like this? Tell me you don't do the same thing.

Everybody's in the tent. The LOS pots got their enzyme tea (Forgot the Agsil - drat! Next time.) All's well with the world.

Now we can pay more attention to the star. Watch her shine! She absolutely floored me.

Up another 1/4" !

One last glance over the flap before I run out the door. Looking mighty good for a start in there. Some decent shelves, another good light panel, some T5s and the ventilation/filtration system installed. Yeah. Coming together. Before I'm done Doc, you'll be so proud of me.

Until I install the ventilation system I have to be creative. I want some air movement but I also want light blockage after lights out. I get home hours after that, but the room is dark until I get home, and I turn on a small, dim light for sighting. Still, I want it closed up when I come home. That interior surface reflects every tiny bit of light.

I went with clothespins, a combination of some metal and some wooden. Carefully spaced they cut off what little light was in the room and still left a small gap at the top under the flap.

I'm awfully late posting this. I hope your day overflows with joy. Mine pretty much did, thank you. With all the frustration Dale and I have in dealing with this challenge we've been in amazingly good spirits. Frequent and hearty laughter is most common, at least when I'm around. But we laugh hard. I just need to find ways to maintain that for another two to three months without meds. HA! Good thing I have this garden to tend. Is tending yours as therapeutic as mine? Don't they give off the most amazing energy?

Ok, I'll stop. See you around the threads.

 

[Sephiroth420]

Lookin good!

 

[SweetSue]

Have no Fear, Aki is Here...

Yahoo!

 

[scrubby]

I can definitely sit and stare at my plants all day...mrs scrubby would kill me tho lol

 

[MysterySeeds]

Would it be possible for someone to write (again) a very short description of, or link to-
High Brix- what it is?
what 'the kit' is?
and how to go about getting it/starting out? - for dummies/me?

If you haven't found this yet, here is Doc's most up-to-date instructions for "The Kit". They can be found at: In The Lab

Also, the kit comes with what is pictured below. It sells for a little over $90, and you get it by sending Doc Bud a PM. You must buy the ProMix HP Myco and the earthworm castings separately. Personally, I didn't need 60-gallons of soil, so I mixed a half-batch of Promix, EWC, and Doc's Soil Amendment with the intention of using the rest later. The great thing is that the soil you make with The Kit can be reused 2 or 3 times with better results the older the soil gets, thus saving you the money and hassle of cooking a new batch of soil each time. I'm putting together a few blog posts with basic directions for The Kit because it can be confusing for a first timer wading through the thousands of pages of Q & A to uncover the basics.

Stay tuned here as I'm sure there will be lots of good information shared about The Kit and High Brix growing. Stay happy and stay high!

Updated Instructions: October 2014

The Kit:

The End User will need the following:

3.8 cu ft bale of ProMix HP myco, or Sunshine #4 or Promix BX myco. Perlite can be added to the BX in order increase porosity for indoor growing.

20-40 pounds of organic worm castings that show an NPK of zero K. (1-1-0)

A proper growing environment, basic gardening skills, 7 gallon pots and a sprayer capable of putting out a fine spray.

The Products:

Drenches

Growth Energy: This product increases soil energy and provides vegetative growth energy and bulking of fruit and flowers once formed.

Transplant: This product, being organic, slightly favors reproductive growth of seeds, flowers and fruit. It is used to feed the microbial colony in the soil mostly, but it also boosts reproductive growth.

Cat Drench: This product increases soil energy, highly favors reproductive growth and provides cations and the ammonia form of nitrogen, which strongly stimulate fruiting and flowering, as well as seed production.

All drenches are mixed at 1/2 ounce per 6 plants(30 sq. feet of garden space for those in raised beds) Applications up to 1.5 oz can be applied without harm, but very few plants require this much. Heavy feeders might try .75 oz before mixing stronger.

Another practice some container growers are finding helpful is to include 1/4 strength Transplant with every watering.


Foliar Sprays:

Brix: Sprayed every week to 10 days, this product encourages reproductive growth and essential oil and resin production. Brix foliar should not be skipped, even if the plants look perfect.

De-Stress: This product helps plants heal, deal with stress and provides a broad spectrum of trace minerals. This can be sprayed 1-2 times per week when there are signs of plant stress. If the plants look "perfect" there is no reason to spray with De-Stress. Also, mixed at 50% strength it helps high brix clones root much faster.

Both foliar sprays are mixed at 1oz per quart of RO. Use Brix immediately after mixing. De-stress can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Soil Amendments

Amendment: this product is mixed into the bale of Promix, watered, and allowed to "cook" in a barrel for a minimum of 30 days in order to get the soil ready for planting. Please note that the most recent version of amendment has the old "conditioner" added to it already!

Re-Charge: This product is similar to Amendment, but has a few additions and ommisions. It is designed to be top dressed during the 3rd week of the bloom cycle. Outdoors, apply re-charge when buds have set. It's best to scratch it into the top layer of soil and gently water it in to avoid soil compaction.

Roots!: This is a microbial inoculate. A light dusting on rootballs during transplanting and a small amount at the bottom of the hole where seeds are planted is the proper use for this product. 1 Tablespoon per transplanted cutting sprinkled in and around the hole is perfect. More can be used when transplanting from the Veg area to the Bloom containers. Water with 1/4 Transplant for the first application of Roots!.

Tea: This is a liquid humate product loaded with beneficials. It is mixed with each feeding at the rate of 2.5 mil per 6 plants (30 square feet)


So, how does all this work together?

Upon acquiring the Promix HP myco, the worm castings and enough plastic barrels to contain 60 gallons of soil:

Carefully and thoroughly mix the following:

Amendment
Promix
Worm castings.

Place the above dry mix into barrels and water with 3-5 gallons of water. Stir it, mix it, turn it over....and let it sit covered for one month. Temps must be no lower than 62 degrees and no higher than 85 degrees. Lower temps can take another week to "cook" while higher temps might be ready sooner. 1 month is usually spot on.

Once the soil has cooked, it's now time to plant!

Seeds:

Using a gallon sized container of newly cooked High Brix soil, make sure the soil is still slightly moist from the barrel. Not soaking wet....but moist.

Using a pencil, or chopstick or a non-functioning vape pen, make a divet in the soil about 1/4 inch deep. Add a small amount of ROOTS! in and around this hole, in which you deposit the seed and lightly cover with surrounding dirt. Gently water with 1/4 strength Transplant if needed to keep the soil moist, but not wet.

Clones:

Pretty much the same as seeds, but use enough ROOTS! to completely dust the roots and put a small amount at the bottom of the hole. Water with 1 pint of water, or 1/4 strength Transplant drench.

Upcanning of larger plants:

Vertically score the roots, dust all roots with ROOTS!, place some in the bottom of the hole, gently position rootball and soak the medium with water and 1/4 strength Transplant.

Water All seeds, all newly transplanted clones and newly tranplanted vegging plants with 1/4 strength Tranpslant

Use of Foliar Sprays:

Spray Brix and De-Stress 1 time weekly, not on the same day! De-Stress can be sprayed twice a week if the plants continue to exhibit signs of stress.

Mix each spray at 1 oz per quart of RO, using a fine mist try to get the underside of the leaves.

Using Drenches:

Tea: All drenches are "served" with 2.5 mils of Tea. No execptions.

In High Brix growing, drenches do far more than feed the plant. They signal the plant to grow or re-produce, and they keep the biology in the soil happy and productive. This is where the magic happens! Water with straight water plus 1/4 strength Transplant between drenches with one exception.*

Growth Energy: used nearly exclusively in veg. This is where strong stems and healthy leaves come from. It is also used during the latter half of the bloom cycle to bulk up fruit and flowers. Mix at 1/2 oz per 6 plants. Stronger doses can be used if needed, but generally you'll just waste product. Finishing the growing cycle on Growth Energy results in a sweeter produce.

Transplant Should be used during the bloom phase alternating with Growth Energy. It is used at 1/2 oz per 6 plants (30 square feet.) Some growers have found that essential oil and resin production can be increased by using 1/4 oz of Transplant evenly distributed to every plant with each and every watering....whether with a drench or with just plain water. Please note, this does not mean 1/4 TO EVERY PLANT, but 1/4 oz divided equally to all plants.

**Cat Drench: This is used right when buds set. It is strongly reproductive in effect and if used at the wrong time will result in stunted growth and lower yields. Used at the proper time, unprecedented resin formation takes place. It is used twice in a row (no water in between applications). Using Cat Drench late in bloom may increase certain flavors and smells, but it also results in a more "gamey" flavor in produce.

These are the basic instructions for using the kit! A few pointers:

When in doubt about which drench to use, use Growth Energy.

If the plants seem weak and need a boost---almost never happens unless you made a mistake or there has been some environmental issue or circumstances beyond your control---try this:

1 oz. Transplant per gallon of water with 6 mils of Tea. Feed a solution with this composition to all the plants. It will re-colonize the roots and get things back on track. Do not do this if you aren't having any problems.

 

[MysterySeeds]

Whoops! Forgot a picture of The Kit. Here it is:

 

[SweetSue]

MysterySeeds, I could hug you for that.

 

[SweetSue]

Let's add this.

I'd still like to know what's in that High Brix kit.

All you have to do is ask!

First of all, I'm not in any way, nor are my products in any way affiliated with "HiBrix" from Australia. I use no chelating agents of any kind, all of my products are GMO free, all the way down the food chain.

So, here's what in the kit:

Amendment: Carbonized Limestone, Soft Rock Phosphate, Organic fertilizer ( yeast based), bio-char, mycorhyzae, ammonium phosphate, copper sulfate, iron sulfate, kelp meal, some salt of molybdenum, zinc and 20 mule team borax.

Recharge: very similar to the Amendment but with a tad of magnesium added.

Tea: Liquid Humic acid with beneficials

Roots!: various rock powders, mainly limestone, gypsum and soft rock phosphate, with biochar, trace minerals a mycorhyzae that have been born and bred on the rock powders.

Growth Energy: Liquid calcium nitrate derived from naturally occuring chilean nitrate. Trace minerals.
Transplant: Cold water fish hydrolysate, chilean nitrate.
Cat Drench: fish hydrolysate from cold water fish, ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulfate
Brix foliar: fish hydrolysate, calcium phosphate, phosphoric acid, dextrose, kelp based natural plant growth regulators (PGR's...auxins, kinens, etc.)
DeStress Foliar: Kelp, phosphoric acid, PGR's, dextrose.

I think I got every ingredient. Essentially, it's just rocks, naturally occuring salts, fish juice, microbes, small amount of carbon and organic matter.

The soil is very much alive....which is the entire point of High Brix growing.

My system is designed with a post-prohibition mentality and all of these products are good to go right out of the bag/bottle with sprayers, broadcast spreaders, fertigation and all manner of greenhouse Dosatrons and related products.

But they can also be adapted to small hobby grows, just as easily.

So, you LOS/TLO folks are like our favorite cousins. We're about the same things, we just have a different style and understanding. I'd like to grow by the Hectare....but I'd also like quality to be BETTER than what I now grow AND I can't spend all day brewing AACT in a swimming pool to food everything!

So, products designed for farming and market gardens appeal to me. No bugs, high quality every time, flexibility, consistency.

But please don't say I'm using chemicals or chelation! That's not me, that's someone else from Australia!

 

[scrubby]

Whats so confusing about the kit directions MysterySeeds?

 

[SweetSue]

And maybe this:

I'd recommend discussing this in docs high brix q and a thread. Lots of knowledge there

Yeah, but it's spread over hundreds of pages.

I'm a bit dismayed listening to the discussion. "Marketing"? Ouch. Heheh, seriously, no one is marketing. Doc Bud is just a guy who went looking for something really simple and universal. His early find was a slow-release chemical fertilizer called Osmocote. It comes in "prills" - tiny balls - which release in water and heat. They had a version called Osmocote Plus that had especially high amounts of calcium which our plants like. I used that method on my first grow and it was great. All I had to do was water, and I turned out some beautiful plants - easy peasy, can't go wrong. Research on the benefits of calcium led Doc to mineralization. And mineralization led to a company of organic horticulturists who did the research to determine exactly what mineral balance was best for the soil biota, and therefore the plant. That's the key - the exact mineral balance for optimum biota populations. For instance, Potassium is bad for the biota even though traditionally, tree leaf mulch has been used in organic gardens. This mineral balance has been proven to be the best. The company tests a soil sample you send them, and then formulates an amendment, if possible, to bring it into balance. Most commercial soils and soilless mediums can't be balanced. Pro-Mix and Sunshine #4 can be.

And then, once you have proper mineral ratios, you've created a "perfect" environment for the biota - happy happy - and you can easily influence them with foliars and drenches. The foliars cause the root exudates to signal the biota. We tell the plant to ask the biota for certain nutrients, either to promote growth or fruiting/rooting. We add a concentrated microbial tea to nurture and restore the biota, and fishy ferts to support nitrogen levels in the plant. There's also a formulated drench - Cationic drench - to release fruiting nutrients locked up in soil ions.

So ... the kit is simply a formulated mineral amendment to tune the soil, with foliars and drenches to supplement and time development. And! it's cheap and foolproof, so I don't need to know anything in order to get great results. I will eventually learn more about what's happening and which factors are causing it, but Doc Bud's whole search was for something that a novice could use to get stellar results.

I've we HBers have made the whole thing sound exclusive and mysterious, that's bad - it's anything BUT that. It's just that it defies so much of what people believe, so we've kinda been off on our own. I doesn't matter a whit to any of us how you get high Brix plants - we just love ours! Sweetsue, your Buddha in particular looks like it reads very high Brix. The leaf vigor and the gorgeous waxy cuticle tell me it's probably at the high end of the range. I'm about the only HBer who takes many Brix readings. That's merely a way of measuring results - doesn't matter how you got there. Brix is just a measurement of plant health. In almost all cases, high Brix correlates with high health, and high health correlates with lotsa juicy trichs. Brix has been used in the winegrape industry for decades to measure sugars. There are probably more complex methods of measuring plant health, but this one is very simple - a refractometer costs $30-40. It takes a couple minutes to measure. No extractions, no expensive equipment.

The kit simply produces high Brix without knowing what you're doing. Oh, and it's really hard to mess it up. Really, it's not special or mysterious - just ... odd.

But I'm envious of what you're doing Sweetsue. Someday, I'll dive into the whole subject and find out what's really happening in the soil. The chemistry gets pretty complicated.

 

[SweetSue]

This will come in really handy.

This is how I laid it out. I don't know if it is EXACTLY how Doc has laid out the kit, but this is what I am going to stick too and I know it doesnt deviate too much from what the guidelines are. This is on the first page of my High Brix Journal... I spent a good couple days figuring out this feeding schedule. It is for 3 plants in the full ~55 gallons of kit soil. Two plants will be in 25 gal containers and one plant will be in a 3 gal container, I am going to feed with a hose end sprayer and water each pot evenly until they are saturated and all my nutrients have been washed out of the sprayer.

:: FEEDING REGIMENT ::​

Seedlings & Clone:
Dust Clone Rootball and Seed holes with Roots! before planting in 1 gallon pots.

Water > Water > Water > Water > Water > Water

Veg (after five sets of leaves):
Up-pot to final 25 gallon & 3 gallon containers. Vertically score Rootballs and dust with Roots!.

Water (+1/4 oz Transplant) > 1/2 oz Growth Energy (+2.5 mils Tea) > Water (+1/4 oz Transplant) > 1/2 oz Growth Energy (+2.5 mils Tea)

-De-Stress Foliar: Mondays
-Brix Foliar: Thursdays​

Stretch:
Water (+1/4 oz Transplant) > 1/2 oz Growth Energy (+2.5 mils Tea) > Water (+1/4 oz Transplant) > 1/2 oz Growth Energy (+2.5 mils Tea)

-De-Stress Foliar: Mondays
-Brix Foliar: Thursdays​

Once Buds Set:
Amend soil with ReCharge.

Cat Drench (+2.5 mils Tea) > Cat Drench (+2.5 mils Tea) > Water (+1/4 oz Transplant) > 1/2 oz Growth Energy (+2.5 mils Tea)

-De-Stress Foliar: Mondays
-Brix Foliar: Thursdays​

Flower:
Water (+1/4 oz Transplant) > 1/2 oz Growth Energy (+2.5 mils Tea) > Water (+1/4 oz Transplant) > 1/2 oz Growth Energy (+2.5 mils Tea)

-De-Stress Foliar: Mondays
-Brix Foliar: Thursdays​

Hope this helps some people out!

 

[SweetSue]

Major PITA, I thought I'd blogged yours too, but evidentially I forgot. Could I call upon you to share your schedule?

 

[Snoop429]

Hi Sue, Glad to be here. Im sure there will be lots of great cannabis grown here.

 

[scrubby]

Its 2.5 mils per 7 gallon container for drenches (per directions). Thats .36 mils per gallon of container space. Multiply the amount of gallons your container is by .36 and thats how much drench your SOIL should get...no matter the container size

 

[SweetSue]

'What greater stupidity can be imagined than that of calling jewels, silver and gold "precious", and earth and soil "base"? People who do this ought to remember that if there were as great a scarcity of soil as of jewels or precious metals, there would not be a prince who would not spend a bushel of diamonds and rubies and a cartload of gold just to have enough earth to plant a jasmine in a little pot, or to sow an orange seed and watch it sprout, grow, and produce its handsome leaves, its fragrant flowers and fine fruit.'

Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican, Galileo



The things you stumble upon when you go searching for knowledge. This little gem was at the beginning of a PDF I came across entitled

Plant Roots
Growth, Activity and Interaction with Soils

Peter J. Gregory
Director, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee Visiting Professor of Soil Science, University of Reading

Looks like good reading. Splendid!

 

[SweetSue]

Its 2.5 mils per 7 gallon container for drenches (per directions). Thats .36 mils per gallon of container space. Multiply the amount of gallons your container is by .36 and thats how much drench your SOIL should get...no matter the container size

How does this work with soaks?

 

[SweetSue]

"When I started my work, the emphasis was on how various soil properties affect the plant and its ability to take up water and nutrients, but recently the emphasis has changed, as it has come to be appreciated that plant roots also change the properties of soils and are not merely passive respondents."

- Peter J. Gregory

Yep! Good read. Glad I went looking. I'm interested in the science behind the wet/dry cycle. This find is so much more.

 

[OMeWanCannabi]

It was a busy morning. The Tiny Closet got cleaned out and everything moved into the tent. While that was going on the Dark Devil got to sit in direct sunlight. Maybe I should bring her out here every morning.... So not going to happen. That pot is seriously heavy!

Put some castor wheels on a board @ floor level, put the pot on that permanently and she can be wheeled out easily to get all the sun she can possibly want without breaking your back