Back to the Future

[AzGrowa]

OK so those of you that know me from other places, know that I haven't had the best of luck in actually producing a decent harvest.
Chalk it to lack of recent experience, new products or just not following the the basic rules of growin' a good garden.
I plan to change that.....

So let's get started with the basics.


I don't have alot of extra cash lyin' around to be spendin' money on FoxFarm products. If I were to actually sit down and put together a list of everything I've purchased over the last year or two, I'd probably surprise myself.
But I've never had the interest to price high-end soils, nutrients, seeds or lights.
Run whatcha brung inthe world of drag racing and we spot ya....that's the same mindset I come here with.
Can't really purchase seed from a bank because all the people I know are people I work with, they can't know about my hobby.

Lowbux in a nutshell.

So I'm starting with low buck products and just going to try and maximize the outcome.

OK so preparations are underway, I've already mixed up a batch of soil I'm going to use for the initial start and 1st transplant.

8 parts SuperSoil 0.14-0.09-0.02 nute ratio
8 parts Scotts African Violet potting soil
4 parts Scotts yellow bag potting soil
4 parts Scotts Sphagum moss
4 parts Vermeculite
4 parts Pearlite
4 oz soil sulpher
2 liters water corrected to 6.0 pH
3 oz Vigoro Root stimulator 2-5-2
what I ended up with is 1-2 cubic feet of soil.
Plenty to get started with.
I would do a soil test for pH and nutes, but I ran out of pH test stuff and going by the last test I did on the SuperSoil only I'm guessing my soil pH is going to be around 5.8 to 6.0 pH with the advertised nutes in the SuperSoil I shouldn't have to add anything for 3-4 weeks.
I'll look around and find some more test chemicals so I can be certain.

That mix is just sitting and "marinating" until I plan to germinate some seed.

So now the seed.... yeah just good old bagseed.
But from some bags of some pretty decent smoke. One bag turned out the be Medusa and @ 120 an OZ a pretty good deal.

another bag turned out to be some seriously skunky Orange bud. Cali Orange is my guess....
so we have the soil and seed

the environment..
combination of tube flororescent and 42-watt compact flororescent bulbs, for cooling and humidity control a swamp cooler designed to cool 250 square feet of space. All of this in less than 7 square feet of floorspace.
I'm going to be limiting the vertical growth factor and try to maximize the cubic volume.
Whenever I can I'll also try to add natural sunsunlight for additional lighting.
So off we go.....

gonna grab the magnifying glass and seed stock.....

[AzGrowa]

K so New Moon and new journal... new start

germed 10 seeds in Jiffy pellets late last night, let's see what pops
BTW 4 Cali, 6 Medusa....

[Mr Burns]

Be an interesting grow using this soil mix? I'm a high end soil convert so it'll be interesting to see the results.
One thing I've only just come to notice, is every grow is diferent? Whether it's just the soil, lights or extraction.........
What happened with the l;ast grows Az?

[Shadows]

Cool Az, Im on board bro. You're packing alot of variables into that soil mix. I hope it works out for ya.

Good luck, dont think I've seen a medusa from seed grow.

[AzGrowa]

well guys,
as far as the soil mix it pretty much the same one I used in the 2nd journal over on HC.com. ;)
Most of the garden variety (no pun intended) potting soil tests out around a neutral pH (7.0) soil I'm just trying to get a good start in getting the seedlings going. That why I'm using a higher percentage of moss and African Violet potting soil both more acidic than everyday potting soil. The biggest difference is that I didn't add any bloodmeal and subsituted a rooting solution in place. The SuperSoil is preferted and tests @ a 6.5 pH so I added nothing but the rooting fertz (the vigoro) and a little soil sulfur to hopefully start around 6.1-6.3 pH 2thumbs
As far as why the other grows tanked...? well I think I just got lazy and quit checking the water, that's why I didn't get anything from the Veggie man grow. Just let the pH drift up and out of range despite the blooming fertz.:mad:

And what happened withe the one I started in lat Oct, just got real lazy and started in neutral soil and no fertz....fuggin stoner...... :(

To top it all off I'm also using the wrong type of method for what I have. I really should be using LST, SOG or SCroG instead of trying to grow treez. Limited growing area, and not the most powerful lighting solution.
Well lessons learned...

Going to be transplanting the 5 bonsai into larger pots and veg for another month using the soil mix I whipped up. I've already repotted one of the bonsai into the mix and it's takin off so I know I'm on the right track.
As far as the 4 leaf minitures while I have a group of little ones they a going nowhere. Might just trash those and use the larger pots to transplant into, if they don't show any major improvement in the next week or so.

[AzGrowa]

K so I have 2 new sprouts form the 10 I started germin early this week and the transplants are showing signs of life.
Just needed to get these babies in the right mix of nutes and such.

Off the the garden shop to find a new hygrometer/therometer. Bounce-tested the last one.... :o

[Shadows]

LOL, I think the bounce-test is a something we all do, with everything we touch, including the plants. Atleast the plants normally Bounce Back

[AzGrowa]

LOL, I think the bounce-test is a something we all do, with everything we touch, including the plants. Atleast the plants normally Bounce Back

And speaking of bouncing back...these were little more than miniture 4 leaf minitures a week ago.
Just a transplant into some pH adjusted and lightly fertilized soil and natrual sunlight when ever I can get 'em under south-facing windows....
I'm interested in what they will look like 2-4-6 week down the road.
Looking better buzz ?

[CB]

them sprouts are look'n real good and strong indeed 2thumbs

there gonna be want'n to streach there legs real soon i think:D

seems it's time to get it on my desert dwelling friend 2thumbs

best tune up the swamp cooler;)

[midwestbluntman]

Rite on AZ,glad to see you givin it another go.Looks like nice strong start,It will be interesting to watch a low wattage light grow.So are ya planning to sog or scrog?either way this will provide a good read, im in for the long haul .I also havent got to watch a madusa grow yet,so this will be an added bonus for me,best of luck to ya my freind.

[AzGrowa]

'sup CB, Midwest, step ahead of ya on the swamper, been runnin that since day 1, and all but one of this bunch are vegging in larger pots.
I knew it had to be somethin' simple, and just being a lazy-@$$ fuggin stoner, I wanted to experiment with some of the commercially available soils on an individual basis.
One was way too ferted for seedlings and the other just didn't have diddly for nutes, mix together according to documented recipe, and off we go. The extra omph was the rooting fert this time.
looking forward to mid January....2thumbs

[AzGrowa]

well here it is a week later. Those little ones are growing up quick. Take a look the seriously Indica-dom youngster. http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=934&stc=1&d=1135220358 It is just a little over 2 weeks old and twice as wide as she is tall and less than 1/2 inch between nodes. The one with her leaves laying over the pot, was just completely limp from the transplant 2 days ago.

http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=932&stc=1&d=1135221460


The youngest one in the small off-white pot is all Medusa, and is just really just getting a foothold. She wandered all over the peat pellet trying to root herself. With a little assistance with a pair of tweezers she finally took.

http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=933&stc=1&d=1135220358
She was transplanted into the soil mix I started the rest of the garden in, just 2 days ago and had little more than coty's to show for all her struggling.
She took 6 days to germinate, while the others took 36 hours. I'm damn glad to see that one finally root.

[Profound]

....the days will number even higher as you go Az....glad to see them please you by rooting......

Glad to see you continue to work on the garden and not give up.
Count me in Bro

[AzGrowa]

'sup Profound
been a few days since I stuck my head in the GJ.
so the latest...
Everything rooted and comparing what I have with the pics posted, I'm pretty happy with the result. I just gotta post some pics.
I was home for most of the holidays so the garden benefitted from some additional natural sunlight to supplement the 300+ watts of floro.
The flower room has 2 confirmed females that are on day 7 of flower, just now seeing the 1st noticable clusters of pistils.
I removed two Indica male that showed quite early. They are part of a water cure experiment, and results are due a week from Friday, or later depending on the final dry.

[AzGrowa]

Just stayin with the group here.
Remember that slew of 6 plant in one pot? I posted a pic back on 12-12.

same 6 plants.... transplanted once.
http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1300&stc=1&d=1136853360

[CB]

them [lants sure are look'n good :D

what are you feed'n them? probly said once but hey I'm a stoner :eek:

grow on brother :cool:

[TENSIXFI]

hey az :hello:

been a while bro, looking good there fella.:cool:
jf69 ;)

[AzGrowa]

hey glad to se ea few familiar faces around the grow room even if it has been a couple of weeks since I've been around.

OK so forthe update.

All the plants have gone into flower around the last time I visited here. I whittled the garden down to just 10 females (out of 25 I started).

OK, so less than optimal grow conditions resulted in a higer than usual male count, but the kif bucket didn't suffer. Maybe 45-50 grams of dry stuff to be turned into 5-10 grams of green "hash" (more like compressed trichome-enriched leaf material that has at least been properly cured.)
The rest of the girlz are lookin' yummy except for the butch that started showin Nards.
The first to come down > all 35 wet grams of it. So there will be at least an addition to the outcome of the green "hash".
Not too worried about the overall weight of the little thing, since she shared a small pot with a sister. More in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

[AzGrowa]

Well just an update on this one. whacked everything.(St Patty's Day!) after I figured it would take too long to reveg/bloom before I moved in early July
The 10 females yeilded a whole 5 ozzies of dry plant material. Out of that about 60 grams were decently smokable budz....:rolleyes:

Better than last time but still nowhere I think I should be.
I know I can do better.:cool:

As I have been hinting on another bord I'm going to be making some improvements to the garden before the next grow.
Between planning to move and makin plans and doin research on improvements, just had plenty of time for a chat or two.
Future plans? stealthier, quieter, more productive.:D

[AzGrowa]

windage, new conditions and the what-not, I should plan on a Halloween (?) harvest... no wait the end of September. That means I should have some fairly decent cured smoke for Halloween....cool

OK to the new grow is begining it's germination process as we speak.
This time around I'll be growing some seeds of the Cali-O X Medusa that I got from the last two harvests.
Gonna start with only 8 beans this time because of the high viabilty of the seed. That and I'm going to be initially starting with a couple of twin-tube
4-ft floro. And limited growing space. 4.5 square feet to be exact.

I was planning on starting off with a single 100-watt mogul base CFL from LoA, then add a second a couple of weeks later. They are very similar in size to the 125-watt Envirolites that Cranky uses.
Problem is I can only find the 6500K/100-watt flavors from LoA. The fixture/bulb will set me back 65 clams, not a real big deal but then I've been doin the no-pay vacay for the last 3 weeks so funds were stretched pretty tight. I'll just have to postpone the purchase of the 100-watter for a month or so and may have to do some research for some 2700K 100-watt bulbs for flower.

In the mean time doing the old 3rd grade experiment with the paper towel on the side of the glass and allowing it to wick up the water.

Maybe some piccys...... naaaw gonna make you guys suffer a little, beside they is just germin' right now anyways.

[CB]

seems the move is over with :D

allways nice to get some beans in germ indeed

will be watching to see what goes on in your 4.5 sq ft ;)

grow on

[AzGrowa]

Well CB the 4.5 square feet are still unprepared and dark, gonna try a small outdors adventure!!
got 4 that germed and went into 10 CM pots and are occupying a sunny private spot.
I can keep an eye on 'em and not be obvious at the same time. They get about 6-7 hour of direct sunlight and the rest of thetime it's indirect unshaded sunlight.
I figure they go immediately into flower when they are mature enough because we are already loosing summer sunlight.
They should be 7-8 weeks old by the time we get to the Atumnal Eqiunox (12/12) on Sept 21st.
So maybe a Halloween harvest?