Weasel Forges Ahead

Ok I spent a couple hours quality time with hydro buddy and tweaked another mix to perfection. Gave it to the prisoners.

The beatings will stop when morale improves bitchz !! :surf:
 
A quick peek by green led during lights out before I left home and the victims looked ok - as far as I could tell, under a green light They looked green. :D

On top of whatever other issues I may have -there is definitely something weird about that Promix. Ever since I started using it the plants have been showing those white specks all over in veg. I wasn’t sure if it was the mega crop or the Promix because they both came along at the same time. But now i haven’t used mega crop In over a month and the white spots are still showing. Never had that with sunshine mix in many years of growing, using same nutrients as now.

We shall see if my faux-mix works better.

I’m going to give the hydro salts a good long try because I see no reason why they should not work amazingly, especially once I have a decent number of proper salts on the shelf. Right now I’m not 100% confident that hydro buddy is calculating everything right. The program seems to have a few gremlins. And it will be easier to compare to Skybound’s mixes once I have the same ingredients.

I am researching super soil recipes now though as well. Again.

A basic starting point seems to be 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost, 1/3 perlite or aeration. I have that -though maybe need to get creative with the last one.

Further down the list there are also quite a few options I have. Basically anything fishy, kelpy, or crustaceany -I already have.
 
You might consider starting an earthworm farm in a 55gal drum with a PVC pipe down the middle. There's plenty of YouTube vids on that, but you can decomp your own raw materials and produce your own EWC which I understand is a prime ingredient in LOS. I'm in a city and such options are not practical for me, plus I'm a cash cropper and remember how much I suffered from diminished chops when reverse engineering the brix kit, but if I ever can get me up enough scratch to claim a cheap stretch out in the yonders, I definitely want to go LOS. When looking at Sticky or Dankman's grows, it just seems like a no brainer. Salts gets me close enough though and for the most part, I am happy with them, they're cheap and so is the Faux Mix. Another option is something like what Woody does which I think is something close to LOS, but he also hits them with supplemental nutes every now and again and Urrybody knows Wood cuts down some boss trees.

Hydro Buddy is definitely a bit buggy, and the variances I introduce from rounding off numbers and weights I imagine only makes things buggier, but it is free, and for a cut the corners guy like me, that's right in my price range, lol. Perhaps even a hempy bucket system or a Kratky type grow might be something to consider? The hempy would go through the nutes quicker, but I imagine yields would increase considerably. I also make my own PH down from phosphoric acid (rust remover) and between that and the potassium silicate, I could make the nutes whatever PH I want if it came to that, but my grow in on the 2nd story of a very old building and having 9 in bloom, I could never carry that kind of weight, but your circumstances are different and I think weight might not be as crucial to you.
 
About the only things I can think of that you wouldn’t have readily available around you for a LOS is Epsom Salt (I’ve yet to come across a good organic source of Mg) and DE for silica.

Epson Salt you can likely buy nearby along with DE. If memory serves, I use about 1kg of Epsom Salt and about 0.5L of DE to make ~ 300gal of soil so not a big expense. And I know you have some gypsum headed your way in the near future ;)

As for the macro and micro nutrients, you should be able to source everything else for nature locally. Lots of fish for N & P, shells for Ca and a few other things ( crab shell is great, has a compound in it that attracts beneficial microbes that will also feed on insect larva in your soil). Not sure off the top of my head about K sources naturally available to you but worst case senario, you could use molasses.

Not exactly sure how to calculate the minimum quantity of “raw” sources like fish, but being an LOS, its near impossible to over do it :)
 
kelp and seaweed for K...no shortage of it where he is...cheerz... :high-five: ...h00k...:hookah:
 
So the plants did ok on that last concoction. They really don’t seem to have worsened since their last freakout. Or at least only barely. So that’s good.

Not sure if it exactly counts as ‘forging ahead’ but sometimes it’s success just to hold position.

Carn

Carn


Carn

Carn


They do look a little bit off. Purple leaf stems and maybe sort of blue around the gills. But I’ll keep them on the latest swill for at least another week and keep an eye on their attitude.

For the record that last mix worked out to-

NO3. - 162
NH4. - 9.9
P. - 56
K. - 218
Mg. - 64
Ca. - 138

That is as close as I could get at the time to what I wanted. I thought that the purple stems and dull bluish tinge might relate to low P so I may raise that next, if I can.

I mixed up a 15 gallon batch of fake promix using the peat from by my driveway.

faux mix

faux mix


For the record I used 15 ml per gallon each of dolomite lime, and of oyster shell flour.I don’t think it will win any awards for ‘best aroma’ because of that burnt oyster shell smell.

I got the tote-full of it pretty wet and then I put it behind my woodstove to stew and slowly dry out. Excited to try it.

I located now ( theoretically/online) everything I need for the Coots mix soil recipe that I found Bobrown posted somewhere. Excited about that too.

Other than ‘Karanga cake’ that is. In the long run I will have to find some substitute for whatever that is, because it does not seem to exist in Canada.


Thanks for all the help folks. Kinda makes for a boring-ass journal I know but it’s all part of the scrap book. Who knows -maybe next week a rabid muskox will trash the cabin and liven things up. We can only hope, but in the meantime I’m just happy with my new dirt.
 
Is that Carn very sativa or just part sativa? If very, perhaps a regimen closer with very low N? His garden is amazing IMO. Also, I think the Karanja is to deter bugs. It's one of the ingredients in the brix kit leaf wash, so maybe it keeps them from even thinking about making the soil their new home. I'm excited to see how the Bob's Coots Mix pans out for you. I wonder if you can super charge it like Woody does in his soil mix with a treat of some P or K every now and again?
 
It’s more sativa than not I guess, but not by a huge amount. Pretty well all the plants look a bit queasy. But yes in general I would like to drop the N as they seem quite dark.

I was just reading around more about karanga and it sounds like in some ways neem and karanja are somewhat interchangeable. Also I don’t really have bugs here to speak of so I’m not worried about that.

I’m excited about it too. I still haven’t ordered those ingredients but I have to work for a few days and make a bit more money, before spending it.

Oh yeah about your worm bin comment before- I actually do have a small worm bin but it would be fun to have a larger one. As long as I could produce enough mushy gooey leftovers for them to eat. Seems like whatever I throw in there gets shrunk down really fast.
 
IDK what his medium is though, it might be LOS or something inert, I'm not really sure, but I know it's 3.5 grams of MC, and maybe calmag added which leads me to believe the media is inert.
 
Karanga does exist in Canada... Black Swallow Living Soils, Brantford ON ...although shipping is likely cost prohibitive for you...I'm much closer to this source, and will be ordering that and some other goodies for spring...cheerz... :high-five: ...h00k...:hookah:...
 
Wow thanks a lot Dr. Hook. Great site. I’ll email them and ask nicely. I’m sure I can get what I need.

In reality shipping costs aren’t so extreme here. I mean - I can go to the post office today and send a smallish/medium sized box across the country for thirty or forty dollars.

Canada Post just gave us that ‘remote’ label at one point and ever since then its played havoc with the system when ordering online- sets off bells and spits out super high imaginary prices- no idea where the money actually goes if I pay it.



Skybound said:
Edit - I should point out IDK what his medium is though, it might be LOS or something inert, I'm not really sure, but I know it's 3.5 grams of MC, and maybe calmag added which leads me to believe the media is inert.
Click to expand...

I saw someone else posting numbers for mega crop recently. I just went back to look at it. Again- pretty different from what you and I are using. And I gather from reading the post better now that the Mega Crop website has a nutrient calculator. Missed that somehow.
Mr. Sauga said:
The fist image shows how much your plants are getting. The second image shows my target values of what I almost get compared to yours.
The last image is from the GLN calculator. All numbers are based on 4.5g/gal.

1608484064415.png
-----------------
1608484406556.png


1608484269950.png
Click to expand...
 
My numbers only began as MC, but I've changed a bunch of things to my own liking since then and I aim to please the Indica leaning hybrids. It seems that the Sativas don't like to be pushed that hard. Also, my high P regimen might be too excessive for Bloom and I might soon walk my numbers back a tad here and there, and only keep things jacked during veg, but still more research and deliberation before I make up my mind.
 
The plants seem to be acting reasonably happy so that’s encouraging. I made a new mix, lowering the N a little.

I made a slurry to test the PH of my DIY peat mix, and it’s about neutral.
Faux mix

Faux mix


This seems wrong as I was told it should usually be closer to 6 or less.
It’s early days yet though and maybe will change as it ‘cooks’.

To be honest I don’t really understand how the process works. The acidic peat and the neutral-ish lime is supposed to kind of meet in the middle and reach some sort of PH equilibrium? Seems odd but I don't see how else it could work. If so I just have to add more peat if I need it to get more acidic.

Carnival. (I think). This is the pheno I might have mislabelled.

:lot-o-toke:
Carnival

Carnival


Carnival

Carnival


Carnival

Carnival

 
That's enough time for the buffer to .... buffer. Assuming your meter is calibrated, I would add more peat to try and acidifiy it down some.
 
Weaselcracker said:
I used up some more of my trimmings and made a little hash. This is the method I’ve been using.

Put the dried trim/bud in the freezer overnight. Once it’s frozen I crumble it up more. Sometimes I toss the bubble bags in the freezer too for what it’s worth. Freezing everything makes it dryer and the frozen trichomes don’t smear or stick to stuff- if I crumble the material up they will stay intact.
I think... Actually that’s just my theory.
:lot-o-toke:

I do know that once things warm up everything starts to get sticky - which makes it messier.

In this case I put the the trim into a 120 micron bubble bag and shook it into a large bucket for a few minutes until not much dust was emerging. I collected the kief into a jar then repeated through a 190m bag. I find that clean paint brushes of various sizes work great to collect and move kief around.

Sorry I didn’t take any pics of the first steps because I wasn’t planning to type all this out- you’ll have to use your imagination.

The 120m kief at bottom and 190m at top. The 190m is coarser and a tiny bit greener.
Kief

Kief


The 120m clumps together a little if I warm it up, but it’s still not doing what I want it to. Which is- turn into hash. :).
120m kief

120m kief



Then I mix the 190m kief with a bit of 99% isopropyl alcohol (I’d rather use strong ethanol but can’t get it here) swirl for a minute or two, strain into a bowl, then repeat for a second wash.

I put the bowl of iso/weed solution in a warm place in front of a fan. It takes less than an hour to render it down to thick syrup and then I heat it briefly in a double boiler or on the wood stove to remove any last traces of iso. You can tell by the smell when the iso is gone.
Hash making

Hash making



I warm the extract and the 120m kief and then mix them together.
Hash making

Hash making


The result is very gooey and sticky, almost juicy. The smell is eye-watering strong. I’ll stick it away somewhere to cure (?).
Hash

Hash


Hash

Hash


Hash

Hash

Click to expand...

To make hash from keif all is required is a piece of parchment paper.

Fold to make a packet with one open end.

Fill packet - can be any size you want.

Fill then fold to seal.

Get a clothes iron and turn it to medium when its hot iron the packet
back and forth several times you will feel the parchment paper getting hot

flip packet over repeat.

Do that several times the let the packet cool.

Open packet and you will have your Lebanese Blonde hash.

Can iron more for a darker color and harder more firm brick.

If it falls apart easily, its not finished with the iron so repeat more times.

You'll get the hang of it. Easier than the bubble bags deal and I'm lazy so I go with the least amount of work required.

I'm about to make some hash oil here and maybe some gummies to go with. I'll do a write up on it if I get ambitious.

Been slacking here... running some South American landrace sativa at 20 some days not even close to preflowers yet. And I think I have a male too...He prolly gonna take a full 4 weeks to show sex.
 
I think I did try the ironing method before but I don’t remember the results. I will try again. The nuclear option of heating it to 300° in the oven usually melts the stuff pretty nicely, with the minor side effect of hotboxing the whole house with vapours

:lot-o-toke:

A random dumb question. So my faux mix ph turned out around 7 when I was aiming for about 5.5 - 6. I will adjust it lower when I get time and things thaw out around here.
But 7ish is a normal soil ph, no? Why do they normally buffer Promix and Sunshine mix to a lower level? What’s wrong with keeping it at 7?


Been away quite a bit. The plants on the newest mix are still pretty queasy looking. I was analyzing and comparing some different nutrient mixes tonight to get some idea what direction to proceed next.

This is how the N,P,K, Mg, and Ca levels look for a few different nutrient regimens, going by their recommended levels for mid-bloom.
Nutrient mixes

Nutrient mixes


A fair amount of difference in some of the levels.

I haven’t tried growing using the Remo Nutrient line but I do have a box full of their bottles I got as a prize here once. I have grown with Botanicare and Mega Crop and they both worked, though not at all perfectly.
 
A couple harvests.
The Silver Widow had signs of hermies developing pretty extensively, and a few seeds in her, so I chopped a little early at less than ten weeks. I love this plant. It smells like a Xmas tree hung with a few dozen ripe mangoes. But since I have a couple more of the original seeds, on top of the ones I got from her last night, I’m going to stop growing this one and sprout a fresh seed.
Silver widow

Silver widow


Silver Widow

Silver Widow


Silver Widow

Silver Widow


Silver Widow

Silver Widow


Silver Widow

Silver Widow


Silver Widow

Silver Widow


Silver Widow

Silver Widow



Silver Widow

Silver Widow



Durple Pream.
I think I’ll discontinue this plant as well. Not because it’s not very good, but just to be able to try another seed of it sometime and see what I get. It would be nice to see a bit more colour.

Durple Pream

Durple Pream


Durple Pream

Durple Pream


Durple Pream

Durple Pream


Durple Pream

Durple Pream

 
I continue to tweak the mix. To me the colour looks off and I don’t like to see them quite this shade of green. Latest tangent was to drop the N a bit and raise the P.
Choc mint issues

Choc mint issues


Choc Mint

Choc Mint




I should also mention that looking around the grow room the last couple times I was in there, even though the plants are showing leaf problems and won’t win any beauty contest awards, the buds are actually looking way nicer than they were with mega crop. Which is what matters most, right?

My mega crop buds always seemed seemed to lack frost and were too leafy and dry. Now I’m seeing a lot of frost on the more advanced ones. So I’m happy about that. Something’s working right at least :D

Carnival

Carnival


Carnival

Carnival


Carnival

Carnival


Carnival

Carnival



Been busy working to pay some bills and hopefully scratch up money for more grow supplies. :laughtwo:
 
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