Okay, since this is my first grow log here at overgrow, I’ll be a little more specific than I usually am in my grow logs at The Farm.
Soil: Coot’s Mix (1/3 peat, Agrowinn EWC and pumice, amended with crustacean, kelp, gypsum, neem etc etc). When I first mixed up my soil, about five years ago, I used Agrowinn earthworm castings and they were great. Never had an issue with fungus gnats or anything like that. I recycle my soil and after five or six runs, I sent in a sample for a soil analysis. Everything was still good except there were pretty high salt levels and it was recommended that I flush the soil, which would have required something like 175 gallons of water. In an effort to save water (and because I get bored kind of easily), I just decided to mix up an entire new batch of soil. Unfortunately, in the three years or so since I initially mixed up my soil, it became more difficult to source Agrowinn EWC so I used Bu’s Blend for the humus portion of my soil.
Now, I know most organic growers swear by Bu’s, but that shit was a serious fungus gnat magnet. Never had infestations like I did when I switched to the Bu’s. So after three runs with that mix and constantly battling fungus gnats (my last grow’s infestation was particularly bad) I tossed that soil mix and made up a new batch with the Agrowinn EWC again.
Unfortunately, I was in there watering this morning and saw three fungus gnats. I was able to kill all three, but I’m gonna be pissed if they come back again. The only other thing I can think of is that it’s because I have to leave my tent door open while the light’s on. I didn’t used to have to do that in our old house. I dunno…
Anyway, light: Apache AT600. It is absolutely the best LED on the market. Really expensive, yes, but so worth it.
I also saw that a grow store in AZ was having a sale on the Apache AT200, $200 cheaper than they usually sell for, so I ordered one about a month ago and just hooked it up this morning. Pretty stoked about it.
Uhhhhh, let’s see, what else…? Tent is a 5 x 5 Green Qube, which I only ordered because it has a weight capacity of 200 pounds. The AT600 weighs 65 pounds, so I figured I ought to get a tent where if I hang something else besides what’s already hanging in there (like my second light, for example) I never have to worry about, like,“Oh shit, I wonder if what I’m about to hang will make the entire tent collapse…”
6" exhaust fan
6" x 24" carbon filter
Passive intake (although I’m not sure how “passive” an open tent door is haha)
7 gallon air pots
I was planning on switching to no-till starting with this grow, ordered thirty gallon air pots and a 4x4 hydro tray thing to put them in, loaded up on all of the extra amendments I’d need and bought extra bags of pumice and was all set to do it and then I chickened out. I dunno why. Well, one of the reasons is that I start from seed every time, I don’t keep mother plants or anything like that, and it just seemed like a pain in the ass to do no-till with seeds. The way I usually grow is I start the seeds in those little 3 inch containers. Takes about a month before they’re ready to transplant, at which point I put them in half-gallon containers, which take about two or three weeks before the roots fill those and the plants are ready to go into their final flowering container. But in my mind, it felt like it kind of defeats the purpose of no-till, digging a big ol’ hole in the dirt to plant a half-gallon container into. I dunno. Maybe I’m wrong.
I do have a 3x3 tent that I use for hanging my plants in after chop that I’m going to convert into a veg/mother tent here pretty soon. I have everything I need, the light, the carbon filter and fan. It’s just a matter of me getting up off of my lazy ass and doing it haha. I may actually do it today, since I’m feeling so motivated and all. Once I get that up and running, I’ll probably switch to no-till.
Anyway… Okay, the grow. I’ve been in a bean-buying frenzy the past couple months so I decided I ought to grow at least some of my old stock before the new beans got here, hence the reason I’m growing Goji. I’ve grown it before, four or five years ago. Bought two packs at the same time and popped one whole pack the first time I grew it, but I only got two females that round. I know a lot of people went crazy for Goji when it first came out, but I wasn’t crazy about mine. It was good weed for sure, but it wasn’t how a lot of people were making it out to be. At least, IMO. The good news is that the Gojis I have growing now are VERY different from the ones I grew the first time, so hopefully they’ll smoke differently, too.
Here they are at day 59 of veg, which was five days ago:
Goji #3
Goji#5
Goji #9
See how they all have that crinkly-leaf thing going on? The Gojis I ran before didn’t have that. They also didn’t have those big ol’ fat fan leaves. One of them had kind of fat leaves, but not quite like that. And the other had these really thin Sativa-esque leaves but it didn’t stretch at all in flower. Really weird. Anyway, I’m pretty stoked about these
I actually wasn’t planning on running any Time Bandits this time around when I started this grow. I initially was just gonna do the Gojis and the last six seeds of some Tangerine Kush freebies I got years ago (ran it once before and it turned out really, really good). But three of the Tangerine Kushes didn’t germinate and two of the Gojis didn’t either, so I started seven Time Bandits 7-10 days after everything else (all three Tangerine Kushes that made it turned out male, which is why they’re not being included in this report).
Just a note about the Time Bandits if you’re planning on growing any: they vegged reeeealllyyyyy slowly for the first month or so. Slowest vegging plants I’ve ever grown, actually. I was really considering tossing them around week five, just because they looked so scrawny. But I watered them with a compost tea and then some BioAg TM7 and aloe a week after the ACT and they took off. Glad I kept them around for sure.
Time Bandit #2
Time Bandit #3 (not sure why this pics looks like I took it underwater)
Time Bandit #4 (my favorite)
Time Bandit #6
Time Bandit #7
#1 and #5 turned out male, which is why they’re not in this grow log haha. I should also note that #2, #3 and #4 were planted a week after the Gojis. The #6 was planted nine days after the Gojis and the #7 was planted a day later.
Sooooo… Yeah. I’m on day 64 of veg today. I haven’t decided when exactly I’m gonna flip, but it’ll be soon. No later than a week from today and probably sooner than that. I only transplanted them into those seven gallon containers one week ago today and I typically wait two weeks after transplant to initiate flower. But I’m pretty eager to get these going and finished up while it’s still summer time haha. Plus, like I said, I just received a shitload of new beans, pretty eager to get into those as well.
I’ll update on day one of flower, whenever that is…
