Urban Achievers Inner City Seeds of Promise

[Tony Urban]

No photos this morning as I was running a bit late. Forgot to grab some RO water last night so I got creative.

Filled a bucket with about 3 gallons of tap water, added some of my brewed ACT, and 1 of my 2 bubble stones.

So while my tea finished bubbling I was bubbling some tap water. I thought I recalled that the ACT organisms will work on the chloramines while the bubbling will deal with the chlorine. We shall see.

My tea was dark this time. Humic acid I think was the biggest addition. I may have added too much. So I only added about 1 litre of the concentrated tea to the 5ish gallons of water.

All plants got about 2 litres of the diluted ACT. Even the houseplants got some.

Hopefully I didn't mess up the tea...seriously it was dark lol, but we are on the home stretch. I noticed the other plants starting to fade.


I will get snap happy with the photos late tonight.

Have a good one folks.

 

[Tony Urban]

Quick peek ar the plants to make sure I didnt poison them with my last tea lol. Looking good in there.

 

[Planter420]

Gorgeous plants my dude, I love the colors! Looking Dank trees bro!

 

[Tony Urban]

Gorgeous plants my dude, I love the colors! Looking Dank trees bro!

Thank you Growchy, I have been waiting months for this period of growth so I am taking advantage of it, in fact I have another photo update.
A day off today so I took some whole plant shots as well as some finer detail on the tops.

The Green Crack has been making me nervous. Its wispy lead top looks like its stretching still. With the fade starting on the leaves I am starting to wonder if its my light or its the strain/pheno/genetics. Sure as hell hope it fattens up before the pistils stop shooting or the trichomes start changing. This is where it helps to have some grows under your belt.

The Green Crack #3 is not much better. My topping technique has made 4 larger colas but it wont yield like the GC4. The buds arent as thin or wispy but not much better. What I difference in color too. I may have mistakenly labeled my photo of the month a Blue Dream when it looks like this Green Crack. I will say the smell of these GC is intoxicating.

The Blue Dream is really a pleasure to look at and to grow. This plant, as well as the Amnesia, have me thinking its not lights causing weird bud development on the Green Crack. The BD is starting to thicken up.

The Amnesia is putting in work now. Getting thicker and looking stronger every day, reaching for the light and the foliage is crisp. A happy plant and its making me happy.

The white widow. Doing her thing, ignored and abused, should make for a few fat nuggets.

I should mention that this is a shot of buds that must be 3 ft from the light or more

Here is a shot of the Fusion Pro 400W COB at work, with some of the intensity dialed down in camera. I dont want to have to buy a new flower light but I want a white light in flowering. Normally I go with the flow but its bugging me lol.

Alright folks, I know that was a big update lol, thanks for looking.

Next up for today, checking on the seeds, and setting up the light back in the veg tent. If you havent subscribed to the new journal, you can find the link in my signature. Cheers folks, have a great day, I am off to struggle trying to navigate this forum in the hopes of catching up to the journals lol

 

[TheMadDabber]

Great update urb! Plants are colorful and frosty. Just beautiful

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Awesome photos Urban! Those plants are looking really great, I love the purple coming out. Not too far off a tasty harvest now! Great work ..

 

[Tony Urban]

Great update urb! Plants are colorful and frosty. Just beautiful

thanks man, they sure are looking good. Its like christmas again, but like a kid, not this BS adult job bills christmas lol. Cant wait for harvest and hang and slow and low, with all the fixins, I am anxious.

Awesome photos Urban! Those plants are looking really great, I love the purple coming out. Not too far off a tasty harvest now! Great work ..

Thanks GM, been putting some work into the photo side, and its paying off with a neat grow history of these ladies.

 

[Tony Urban]

A few thoughts. 1. I smoke a lot of weed. I have been going through a fair amount the last few months. The Green Crack is fairly airy and is quickly being smoked. The Bruce Banner is mediocre, I suspect the grower is to blame lol, so I had to order some more. This order I got 1/4 ounce of Voodoo, and 1/4 ounce of Super Kush. Looking forward to that. 2. The purple airyness of the dispensary bud is similar to the airyness mine is shaping up to be.

The Blue Bud seeds cracked and had tails so they have been planted. I will update the new journal once all seeds have popped and are planted.

Of course I wont drag you back to the thread without some visual stimuli.

IPhone pics

I am tempted to try this on the green crack to see if it will put some girth on her. Damn hydro sales staff, giving out little packages for free trying to get me hooked...I am on to you.

 

[Tony Urban]

I wanted to show what I was saying about the similarities between my plant and my dispensary bud.
Here is my HSO Green crack.

Here is the dispensary Green Crack. Despite the look, its fairly airy, comparitively speaking.

 

[TheMadDabber]

Yours looks more genetic. But I notice more leafy fluffage on purple strains too. The tops are always fire but the lower stuff seems to suffer from the apical nature

 

[Tony Urban]

Yours looks more genetic. But I notice more leafy fluffage on purple strains too. The tops are always fire but the lower stuff seems to suffer from the apical nature

Bummer about it regardless. Questioning this light. Feel like I need more of a particular wavelength or something. Gut telling me they could be bigger better flowers at this point. I dunno. I purchased a dwarf star. I am going to grow fat stacks of weed one way or another. If it arrives early enough it will be added to the flower tent.

Fed them all 2 litres of straight RO water.

Also: i tried a small bottom tuft of green crack I cut off last week. Dried it. Put it in a jar at 62 for a few days. Tossed it in a bowl. Nice scent, a bit harsh as expected, but not bad. Faint grass taste but could taste the hint of fruit. Got me pretty buzzed too. Light airy buds or not they are gonna smoke just fine lol.

Some time later I tried the kief from the bottom layer of my ginder. I had to put down what I was doing. I may have had a bit too much lol. Concentrates are not for this dude.

 

[Tony Urban]

Popped into the flower tent to check on the plants. Not much change. I am going to miss having plants in flower. The sights and smells are amazing. On the other hand, I am looking forward to seeing different strains do their thing, speaking of which 2/3 of the Blue Bud are above ground and looking healthy.

I checked the veg tent and what did I find clinging to life on the dome? A small earthworm. I have worms! My clack coot soil mix is sitting in a large garbage bin and another tote. For 6 months now I think. I never added worms but I did add a bunch of leaves and debris from my yard this fall, must have had a few in there. Good sign though!

 

[Tony Urban]

I don't like starting discussions in other people's threads that cause too much debate. I find some folks don't like to be debated lol. However I don't mind doing it here. Saving your thread from getting sidetracked with my opinion Shorti.

The soil vs hydro debate will continue on forever. It's important to base a decision to use whatever system on your needs and what you feel comfortable doing.

The fact is hydro can produce more, not always, and has a shorter veg time. That has been proven. However I would argue Doc Bud has shown you can grow organic soil and crush the yield and growth AND get colourful tasty buds. Props Doc and all his minions.

As for quality I believe soil, a proper living organic soil, will produce better flavours and terpenes. You are letting millions of micro organisms naturally work with the plant as nature intended. Now you can argue otherwise but the fact remains you will have to add special nutrients or solutions in your hydro reservoir to get that. Which is based on the interactions found in soil grows by the way. Ironic that hydro still has to find ways to mimic the critical processes going on in the soil. Science you are badass.

The flavour discussion might be debatable, but to each his own, I operate on common sense. I have eaten organic fruit and vegetables from my grandfathers loving garden. Nothing, NOTHING, even comes close to it in the stores. Not even their so called organic stuff. I wager some of you young folks don't even know what a real strawberry tastes like. It ain't what you find at Walmart.

Now putting yield and taste aside. I went this route for a number of other reasons.

I can leave for weeks and my plants are fine. I can hire a dim witted monkey and pay him with bananas to water my plants while away. Seems like a valuable trait. If I put in an auto feeder of plain RO water I wouldn't even need to go in the tent.

Power outages happen. In northern Canada the weather can be rough. Power gets knocked out. Power goes out in my tent and I just move the plants out of the tent for them get some weak sun in the house. The stress meter wouldnt even flinch.

Being in a small city in Northern Canada I have access to premier local products. I could harvest peat moss if I felt like it. I have clay and granite and earth worm castings easily accessible. This makes it cost effective. This 200+ litres of soil I made for around $300, and it could have been less if I wasn't impatient, will last me years. If not forever. I have one bin composting fruit and vegetables. That bin won't see action for a year or so. On top of that I have enough amendments to mix up another batch or two for a fraction of the cost of the first batch.

Then we get into the real nitty gritty. This is where personal choice and opinion come in. Can you honestly say a DWC or hydro system is a long term solution? So many parts to break and replace. There are 1000 things that could impact the future of growing in nutrient based solutions. If your nutrients got expensive then what? What if there is a shortage or your product is discontinued? Growing in soil and getting a good understanding of the soil food web has wide application to self sustainability. Both inside and outside. A smart grower can go for a walk in the forest and come home with a functional soil mix. It's just plain sustainable. In today's world there is a tendency to skip the work and go right to the rewards. That's all fine and good until it isn't. I am not saying there's anything wrong with that. But that's my thought process. Natural is better. No matter how much we try we won't duplicate the natural power of the sun.

A big one for me is the environmental impact we are going to have as this hobby explodes. Do you know how your nutrients are made? Where are they sourced? How much toxic waste or energy is required to produce them? How many plastic jugs are being made? What about the run off that you flush down the drain? Did you know that the soap and phosphates being flushed from our normal household use is quite damaging? I'm not on a soap box, you do you, but these are questions that I asked myself.

Now. This also gets my goat. How much money are we feeding these royal Pieces of Sh** who run these nutrient companies? These small companies will be bought by the big companies. The same ones owned by the families who profited from the prohibition and who probably helped keep it prohibited. Follow the money. Keeping money out of the hands of these POS is a dream of mine. One of the reasons I quit cigarettes years ago. By growing in soil and sourcing local products I help keep the local economy just that, local.

So before you go saying that "hydro is the best", think about these things, it is a subjective thing to say any one method is best.

Let's be honest. Nobody is going to get upset if they were handed a joint of hydro bud or a fat bowl of organic soil grown bud. Each growing method has its positives and negatives. Each person has different needs. Each grow room has its own challenges. Use what you want, what you think will work best for you, and for the right reasons.

Now that said I am not opposed to trying dwc or hydro. I have an open mind.

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

Great read urb.

 

[Derbybud]

Nice write up Urb

 

[bobrown14]

Go UA go.... what you said.... I'm backing you up 110% and my worms are backing you too! Fvckin eh buddy!

I think I got the question to the yield in organic soil debate back open... I'm not convinced organic soil yields are lower.

On the debate over grow with salts and bottles vs organic... Like you said, you can go to the store and purchase chem grown veggies you can go to the dispensary and buy chem grown weed. All you gotta do is taste the organic soil versions of the same thing and you and I know we are doing the right thing... There's no comparison really for taste and effect. Hard to argue that.

Cheers - pics looking stellar and happy new year buddy!

 

[Tony Urban]

Great read urb.

Nice write up Urb

thanks guys, almost a bit of a rant, but had to get it out lol. Like a bloody exorcism

Go UA go.... what you said.... I'm backing you up 110% and my worms are backing you too! Fvckin eh buddy!

I think I got the question to the yield in organic soil debate back open... I'm not convinced organic soil yields are lower.

On the debate over grow with salts and bottles vs organic... Like you said, you can go to the store and purchase chem grown veggies you can go to the dispensary and buy chem grown weed. All you gotta do is taste the organic soil versions of the same thing and you and I know we are doing the right thing... There's no comparison really for taste and effect. Hard to argue that.

Cheers - pics looking stellar and happy new year buddy!

Thanks Bob, hoping this year starts improving soon, this one is not going as well as the last one lol.

I may have caused a bit of toxicity in the plants with my last ACT or there is a deficiency in a few. Hard to tell but I fed them straight up water last night so time will tell. Easy fix either way. Stay the course. I will give them another few days to tell me what their "deal" is like some brooding teenager before taking action. I think I got a bit short changed, or unlucky, with the green crack genetics. The Amnesia OG is loving life though.

I am starting to feel like a first grow lol. In a critical stage of operations and I dont see what I expect to see. Is it the light, maybe my low temperatures, is it my soil that I worked so hard on, or maybe a combination. I expected to see some bigger growth on the colas and bud sites. At this stage of the grow. I flipped on halloween I believe. Thats almost 9 weeks. Am I wrong here?

Oh well. I expectd this. I have a dwarf star on its way and 5 new plants that will be happy to see if the light is the issue.

Here are some unlabeled iPhone pics.

Green Crack

Blue Dream

Amnesia OG

 

[Tony Urban]

Salutations 420 folks. I hope you came here looking to see some photos.

Take care out there.

 

[Ditchweed242]

Your plant look great Urban. And your photos are fantastic.

Cheers.

 

[Tony Urban]

Your plant look great Urban. And your photos are fantastic.

Cheers.

Thanks DW, really digging the Amnesia, its going strong, no leaf fade at this point and its filling out beautifully. Appreciate the comments about the photos, putting in the effort and glad folks like are digging them. I hope they arent seeming repetetive as I dont notice. I am in awe of this wonderful plant.

There is a reason I am taking so many. Firstly and most importantly the smoke report and review is going to have a photo segment showing the life of the plant. Then I also wanted to enter the creme de la creme contest...still do...and was needing a bunch of decent photos. Then I have a bit of a financial reason, I might be able to make some cash (or barter for stuff) with the right photo.