That’s really cool!
3 Likes
Thank you for posting all the Perlite info. Very helpful all the resources you collected.
4 Likes
@BudWhisperer you are welcome! I found it very educational myself in thinking about some new approaches in my tents.
I’m out of town at the moment but got some photo updates from my partner this evening as she watered things for me in veg:
Everyone looks great, the big girls took their topping and fan tucking nicely and are forming good structure, and I gave them a top watering to 20% runoff to make sure there’s not too much salt buildup from the bottom watering, looking healthy!
Thanks to @US3RNAM3 for these Malana Himchal Pradesh, they are shaping up to be some of the most vigorous and happy plants yet for me! High hopes to put these three outside together regardless of sex and let them pollinate for some seeds and then hash the shucked buds into some sativa temple balls.
15 Likes
Hope they stay happy, n’ get nice n’ frosty! I highly recommend you consider making some bhang as well 
3 Likes
Hmmm who did this:
FYI, $11.50 in store at Walmart right now, I gotta go get a couple, $6/cubic foot for Organic ProMix is pretty good
13 Likes
@LedZeppelin Boooo it was out with the other dirt (and soilless mixes, @Foreigner !) at Home Depot, but I had to ask someone to go break open the pallet of EWC because it wasn’t on the shelf yet
4 Likes
I put together a balcony garden yesterday and today for my partner in Brooklyn, she loves plants but is sort of overwhelmed and I wanted to surprise her with a balcony she would have fun taking care of and seeing every morning. She has a perfect south-facing concrete balcony that she gets to use about 5’x7’ of for whatever she wants, the door is right into her room.
This is a budget project $75 or less because I’m poor at the moment. Most of that went to potting mix and seeds. I spent $40 at HD for 2 cubic feet of ProMix Organic Garden Mix and 6# of EWC along with some seeds, brought it home, and mixed it with my special sauce of grow room goodies- a quarter cup of Osmocote Plus Indoor-Outdoor 15-9-12 with micros, some BioAg VAM from a sampler I had around, and moistened up with Mr Fulvic and a little Grade B maple syrup. I also bought a 50-pack of Jiffy starter pots, and I found some 3” and 5” nursery pot carriers in the garbage at the HD so I grabbed 24 oz party cups at the dollar store for the 3” ones, she’s gonna order half-gallon tan fabric from 247Garden for the 24x 5” tray slots. Also found 3/$1 packs of seeds at the dollar store so why not?
I found a few yellow 2-5 gallon buckets around the neighborhood to be cheerful and light colored planters, and I think she might get a bunch of 2G tree pot planters to put in boot trays like I suggested to make watering easy.
Half-sheet tinfoil baking pans fit two Jiffy pot strips perfectly at 3/$1, and clear storage bins from the recycling became propagation domes with some Saran Wrap or another (preferably) clear lid on the top. The yellow top lid from a 30 gallon HDX bin is going to get used for bottom watering the fabric pots, and I showed her how to seal up those nice slatted wooden crates people use for organizing their shelves with that are in the trash all the time, using some spar polyurethane she already had around, then lining them with the breathable grocery bags and a staple gun, folded over the top edge. Lots of fun making plant pots from garbage, my favorite activity is making things from found materials. And a Brooklyn dollar store has some great stuff, like Sterilite white 16 QT dish bins for $3 that would be great drilled with some drain holes and lined with gravel. Or not drilled, and lined with a few inches of gravel as a self-watering setup. I actuated found myself in the kitchen section looking at giant strainer baskets and washbasins and seeing all sorts of sub-irrigated ideas percolating. Hmmm……
This morning I fluffed, blended, and hydrated the potting mix then we packed out the Jiffies and 20 party cups to plant the following;
-Spearmint
-Dill
-Lemon Balm
-Chamomile
-Alaska Nasturtiums
-Dark Opal Purple Basil
-English pickling cucumbers
-Rutgers determinate tomatoes
-shelling peas
-medium-hot heirloom chilis
-flat parsley
The idea was all edible things, things that keep away pests but attract pollinators. I am gonna send her some lavender and sage seeds when I mail some Recharge, kelp, and Stonington Mix to her to water and topdress with. Looking forward to visiting and enjoying it myself, and generally playing Mr Gardenseed this spring!
14 Likes
If you’re on a budget Sweet Alysum seeds are low cost and a very popular attractant & food source for beneficial insects. Also the flowers are edible and non toxic to pets.
5 Likes
That’s really neat! I know when I started I found the cost of stuff pretty imposing. Bagged potting soil is expensive too. Things add up really quick, nice to read of someone going the inexpensive route and I’m sure that is going to be a fantastic little patio garden. Fantastic!
Hell, I just blew a bunch of my fun money on a really nice garden hose 
I love the idea of using baking pans rather than starting trays/greenhouses, very clever
4 Likes
I could definitely have gotten the plastic covers for the tinfoil trays if I had thought about it, next time! This time she’ll just use clear packing plastic or Saran Wrap for some and invert the Sterilite bin over the others. I’ve definitely had luck using tinfoil takeout containers for garden seed germination in the past, like the ones you get rice in from the Chinese delivery. But yeah disposable half or full sheet aluminum cake totes with the clear lid are basically the same as a greenhouse propagation tray and dome!
4 Likes
Expensive and a real pain in the ass to backpack a mile and a half home compared to the compressed bale! I also like to know what’s going in my mixes and most brands are pretty nonspecific about the blend you’re getting out of all the potential ingredients. ProMix is just ProMix, I know what it is and what it’ll be like when I get it home and mixed up, just also happens to be the cheapest answer which is nice when turning away from weed for a second to help show other people. I told her that with ProMix, EWC, mycos, Osmocote, and a little top dressing with some kelp and Espoma, she can grow anything there and it’ll be so much healthier than any of her friends gardens, even before we add some Recharge or Hygrozyme or whatever icing on the cake. She doesn’t even know how booming that balcony is gonna be! She’s gonna have her own pickles and hot sauce and dried chamomile and herbs for the winter, I might try some baby melons out there too for fun, hang them off the balcony railing in onion mesh bags. I told her we’re gonna mount a strong pole to the corner post and hang the tomatoes in baskets to let them drape down and it’ll be easy to care for and get her some extra space having them over the edge of the railing.
5 Likes
I could use a nice hose, I have a short one with a fitting on the end and a long one that’s just chopped but they both suuuuuckk. I want one of those commercial grade natural rubber joints
3 Likes
Back in the saddle at the Magic Wand Factory for the end of Day 54 in veg, all good here other than my mediocre germ rate on seeds lately! Big Don the strongest of three that made it, you can see it in the first photo peeking through:
Now flower is where it’s at right now, Day 64 and looking good as heck, wondering about yields but I’m putting my faith in rock hard heavy tops:
Sowah Grapefruit:
Icy Grape (yes it actually turned black/purple):
26 Likes
Hi there.
You re a wizard without doubts.
Look that magic you do.
What the name of this superpower?
Ice storm?
Lol
Great work
Love it
3 Likes
@HollySun91 thanks for your kind words! I do my best to bring the ice storm in the winter and summer both, my tents don’t care what season it is outside!
I spent last night and this morning over coffee thinking about finishing times (expected) for these ladies ending flower now, I think I’m probably taking them:
Sowah Grapefruit: 77 days maybe more
Blue Tara: 70-77 days
Icy Grape (Purple Skittles pheno): 70-77 days
LDSC tall: 77 days maybe more
LDSC short: 70-77 days
A lot of thin leaves in the tent this time around, about the same as my last grow of sativa-doms and I’ve heard people say the best sour is taken at least 11 weeks, I’m ready for the foxtailing to kick in! Gonna try and scope some trichomes today and post photos for peoples opinions.
18 Likes
Back at home and with the mail opened, time for some mail day thanks to OGs who have been making seeds for the community and generously offered me some:
Thanks to @Tejas for this fat flip of Malawi Gold from his Freakers Repro:
And @Budderton for some Odisha Valley landrace:
Most of all though, thanks to @FieldEffect for donating a big pile of money to the Edmonton Food Bank in the recent auction @TopicalWave ran, the bidding got pleasantly heated and we had a bunch of folks throw money in just for the hungry and because they liked the hustle. FieldEffect was kind enough to refuse a trade and send me the Koffee x Deadlights pack that was the last extra we threw into the prize pot as bids increased up through $150 and well past, These are both two really neat strains I’ve been interested in but have never been able to find to smoke or grow yet, the Koffee sounds delicious on its own, but the Deadlights is of particular interest as a sort of super-Pennywise which I have had, and enjoyed immensely years ago. I had some really good experiences with Cannatonic and Pennywise when I was in Colorado and occasionally in NYC we’d get some of the 1:1 stuff through delivery usually something Pennywise or AC/DC. So excited to get to these once I finish the Hoku CBG and mixed ratio CBD/THCV/THC plants I’ve got in veg and am prepping more seedlings of for my friends dad. Super cool cross and I will definitely need to keep a male for pollen and some chucking from it and to share back!
16 Likes
Dirt Wizard’s Monday Morning Walmart Sale and Deal Post:
Don’t live near a grow store? Need discretion or just the mail guy to show up to your rural address instead of driving hours to go pay just as much? I don’t fuck with Amazon, so I use the lesser of two evils and order from Walmart with their stupid free shipping, here’s some highlights from recent browsing:
50# of organic 4-3-3 delivered:
30# of EWC delivered:
ProMix Organic 2 cubic foot mini-bald, in store only:
Gallon of Alaska fish fertilizer 5-1-1 delivered:
Alaska Fish Emulsion Plant Food, 5-1-1 Fertilizer, 1 gal - Walmart.com
18# of organic 3-4-6 fertilizer delivered:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Espoma-Organic-Tomato-Tone-3-4-6-18-Lb/38444955?from=searchResults
Not on sale, just awesome:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Down-To-Earth-Fish-Bone-Meal-5LB/769023634?from=searchResults
9 Likes
My friend who gave me the seeds does extensive lab testing for his work. Here is a terp chart for 1 season of his. As you can see the Deadlights is no slouch in terp levels.
I really think there are some mixed ratio gems in that pack. Im hoping for a chocolate kushy 1:1 for you!
10 Likes
Don’t have it at my local either, I got three of the red moisture control ones for $13.50 ea
3 Likes
Impressive! 3% terps is pretty hot stuff
4 Likes