Yankeetoker's 2nd Grow Attempt - 2016 - All Advice Welcome!

yankeetoker said:
Funny you should say this, I actually use eggshells in my garden outdoors.....

I think I'm so much more comfortable with outdoor gardening because the plants seem so much more forgiving. Growing indoors, I feel like everything needs to be "measured".
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That "everythig needs to be bottled and measured" feeling was definitely how I felt when I first read books on growing and arrived at this website. My first grow, I followed those rules with fairly good results - mostly because I really needed to grow medical marijuana in amounts we can't afford to buy.

Now I have gone the other way, so minimalist (soil, water, and worm castings) that I don't get very good yields. The quality of bud, however, is much superior to the quality of my first 'bottled nutes' buds. I am slowly finding my way to a balance point that works for my garden.


My inputs to the worm trays the last several months has been limitted to:

1. Cannabis leaves and stems
2. Organic bannana peels
3. rock dust (basalt)
4. water
5. crushed egg shells (recently)

I'm sure there is a healthier balance of worm food, but I don't know what that balance should be. Everyone seems to suggest one can put in almost everything except meat and spicy chilis, but no one seems to have a recipe for worm food that will provide optimal worm castings for gardening.
 
yankeetoker said:
Just veggies outdoors...tomato, kale, cucumbers, corn, cantaloupe, onions, etc
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Oh! What I wouldn't give to be able to grow tomatoes and Cantaloupe outdoors, with a harvest before the critters got them.

:circle-of-love:
 
Depends on your water. If it doesn't have much/any Ca/Mg like mine, you will need to add some to prevent deficiencies under LED. , There are lots of other ways to supplement, as already mentioned. Botanicare has a cheap but good CalMag if you want something pre-made. You can even measure it before you add. :) Week 2-3 of flower is where you usually see the deficiency arise.
 
Cannafan said:
Oh! What I wouldn't give to be able to grow tomatoes and Cantaloupe outdoors, with a harvest before the critters got them.

:circle-of-love:
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I love gardening! We have done real well with tomatoes (I even had a couple of plants just "pop up" last year)...and had cherry tomatoes way into the Fall. I planted my cantaloupe from seed last year and managed to get 5 or 6 good ones. I have some additional space this year, so I'm super excited!:circle-of-love:
 
CareStaker said:
Depends on your water. If it doesn't have much/any Ca/Mg like mine, you will need to add some to prevent deficiencies under LED. , There are lots of other ways to supplement, as already mentioned. Botanicare has a cheap but good CalMag if you want something pre-made. You can even measure it before you add. :) Week 2-3 of flower is where you usually see the deficiency arise.
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Was looking at the Botanicare, but I swear I have an overabundance of supplements/amendments! Well since I wouldn't need it until flowering, I'll just wait....:thumb:
 
Radogast said:
That "everythig needs to be bottled and measured" feeling was definitely how I felt when I first read books on growing and arrived at this website. My first grow, I followed those rules with fairly good results - mostly because I really needed to grow medical marijuana in amounts we can't afford to buy.

Now I have gone the other way, so minimalist (soil, water, and worm castings) that I don't get very good yields. The quality of bud, however, is much superior to the quality of my first 'bottled nutes' buds. I am slowly finding my way to a balance point that works for my garden.


My inputs to the worm trays the last several months has been limitted to:

1. Cannabis leaves and stems
2. Organic bannana peels
3. rock dust (basalt)
4. water
5. crushed egg shells (recently)

I'm sure there is a healthier balance of worm food, but I don't know what that balance should be. Everyone seems to suggest one can put in almost everything except meat and spicy chilis, but no one seems to have a recipe for worm food that will provide optimal worm castings for gardening.
Click to expand...

So do you compost or just maintain a worm bin? I am trying to stay away from bottled nutes, since I garden and use very few supplements. I think all you guys advice and tips have helped me immensely.....looking forward to my first harvest (at some point).
:circle-of-love:
 
Even better, you might not even need it at all. :thumb: I've got city water. It's filtered/treated and buffered and arrives at around 90-125pmm from the tap, almost as clean as RO filtered water. Your water may have enough Ca/Mg in it, or your soil might have enough. If not, you'll see the signs of deficiency. I usually see small brown spots (Ca defic) first, but some will show Mg defic first.
 
yankeetoker said:
So do you compost or just maintain a worm bin? I am trying to stay away from bottled nutes, since I garden and use very few supplements. I think all you guys advice and tips have helped me immensely.....looking forward to my first harvest (at some point).
:circle-of-love:
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I live in a maple forest. According to a solar panel salesman, the roof only gets 5.5 hrs/day of summer sunlight, so nothing in my yard really grows well enough for me to need a compost bin. I do a worm bin indoors for the marijuana and house plants. I also scatter certain kitchen scraps outside (alongside purchased seeds) that I know will be appreciated by the birds and rodents.
 
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Good morning from these good looking ladies!:circle-of-love:
 
What a lovely picture to see with my morning Cuppa. :)

Even the smaller one looks greener to me. They are definitely showing you that they love ya.

:goodjob:
 
So awesome that the light comes today. And I love your use of the green storm drains, getting that oxygen to the root zone!
 
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